What did you do today? (2014)

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

I must be mad, 'drystone' walling in the rain all day, everything coated in mud and a truly foul day to work in.

It is only a hobby too but this build was a sponsorship event for so much a metre built. We did well under the circumstances. Just glad now to be home in the dry again and out of all that sodden gear.

Brian

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm an Agricultural Training Board certified Dry Stone Waller, sadly I haven't used the skill for nearly 30 years :-/

Neil

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Started sorting through 89 (eighty nine) rifles. Arse of a job and filthy too. About halfway through by teatime, means I get to continue tomorrow

graham.

(found a decent Lothar Walther bull barrel though. I could start something with that, been looking for one in the caliber for a while, just didn't want to part with the £150+ ! )

Edited By Oompa Lumpa on 07/06/2014 21:27:03

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I've run up the white flag on my disc braked axle – It's only just occurred to me that the reason for my duff welds was (partly) that printer sourced bar for the axles is probably stainless steel.

Chewed a new one out of 3/4" medium carbon steel, which let me leave a flange to support the (new) disk. I might settle for brazing it on as that guarantees a decent job. A good opportunity to compare offhand ground HSS and carbide tip on something more demanding than EN1A. HSS wins for finish, carbide for removal rate, as you might guess. Best thing about carbide is the built in chip breaker which means it produces 'granules', the HSS made spirals up to a foot long.

Almost forgot, made my buffer beam as well. Two stubs of 16mm square tube welded on the back of a 5mm plate that slide neatly into the ends of the 20mm chassis tubes. Screwed the coupling block in the middle and glued two slabs of 10mm rubber on each end as buffers.

Neil

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Posted by Oompa Lumpa on 07/06/2014 21:24:24found a decent Lothar Walther bull barrel though. I could start something with that, been looking for one in the caliber for a while, just didn't want to part with the £150+ ! )

Graham

150 BGP for a Lothar Walthar barrel? Was it shot out? I would have to pay almost double that for a good LW barrel on this side of the pond.

Cheers

Bill

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

That's a shame Neil, I find it very therapeutic and a rewarding occupation, one I had to learn after moving to the Dales from Derby.

I've been walling for about 25 years now.

Brian

Edited By Brian Wood on 08/06/2014 10:41:47

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Not much to be had bootwise this morn but this bag of swag came in at £6. Now I can get those Double Tangye castings oxided.

Rik

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Rik,

Where DO you go to get these 'finds' ? Are you based in the South West?

Chris

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Hello Chris – Based in a small village just far enough away from Milton Keynes for it not to bother me. Up until last year we had a static caravan in beautiful Dorset and the big boot at Yeovil showground on Sunday was a must visit – as was Farmer Palmers. We still often make our way back down to "Gods county" and I never miss a chance of a boot whilst there or for that matter chucking a line in from Chesil beach. Bliss!

Looking forward to The Great Dorset Steam Fair later on this year – tickets and hotel already paid for.

Rik

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Rik-

If you keep posting these pictures of boot sale booty, you will be banned from the forum for making me jealous.

Neil

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Rik
.if that’s the chickerell one then will also be there one of the days…..maybe..too maybe to plan meeting ..but …

Edited By jason udall on 08/06/2014 20:11:37

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Definitely sorted my buffers now – the problem with most arrangements is that the 3 1/2" gauge buffer nearest the centre of the trolley is very close to the coupling for when the 3 1/2" gauge rail is on the opposite side. My solution is two fold – the rubber 'buffer' comes to within 1/4" of the coupling and I interposed 5/8" this wooden blocks so the buffer line is well forward of the coupling so there's no chance of a foul between buffer and coupling block. I'll post a pic but off for a quick bottle of beer.

Neil

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Just finished dismantling a 12 1/2" thicknesser which had been sitting in a mates trailer for 3+ years waiting to go to the tip all sorts of weather has been and gone.
I was after some scrap metals and the old High speed steel blades initially.
I got to thinking as I took it to bits it may have become a total salvage resto job instead until undoing the height adjustment screws the Aliminium cast casing cracked on both sides.

Motor still fired up …….twice anyway might just be the switch will check that out good tourque and RPM in them. Ideal for Ornamental turning cutter head motors or even a dedicated pen lathe set up.

Still i salvaged all four guide posts which have surface rust, two roller feed shafts, chain gear and cogs, springs, Hex bolts n screws to add to my collection. Two height adjustment screws ideal for cross slide or a height adjustment jig. The two High speed steel blades and the shaft for those. This will add to my slowly growing stock of machineable steel.

Just wish I had facility to melt down the Ali casting for further use ……..oh well

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Posted by "Bill Hancox" on 08/06/2014 00:28:45:

Posted by Oompa Lumpa on 07/06/2014 21:24:24found a decent Lothar Walther bull barrel though. I could start something with that, been looking for one in the caliber for a while, just didn't want to part with the £150+ ! )

Graham

150 BGP for a Lothar Walthar barrel? Was it shot out? I would have to pay almost double that for a good LW barrel on this side of the pond.

Cheers

Bill

You can buy direct Bill from Lothar Walther. A good many people think Lothar Walther are somehow connected to the Walther firearms company in Germany which is not true at all and in fact Lothar Walther have a massive facility in Georgia.

A barrel blank in .308 caliber is only 226 dollars on your side of the world. Bloody things are expensive over here – about the same, 226 – but pounds sterling. These are blanks though, they need fitting and that can be quite time consuming = expensive.

I wouldn't waste my time with a shot out barrel. If I told you how much ammunition was it would make you wince. Even handloading, a .308 round is still only 100 shots on a Saturday once a month/six weeks before it becomes un-affordable. Some of the not even really exotic stuff is £2 a shot If i couldn't put it down to "testing" it would be a non starter.

graham.

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

And before anyone else says it, yes, it is a bit of a bugger when you miss!

graham.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Just been to National Bee Supplies. This is the beekeeper's forum isn't it? They got a whole lot bigger and moved to bigger premises since I last went. Lots of stainless steel stuff but couldn't think of a ME use for any of it or afford it either. There's munny in hunney ( yeah I do know how to spell.) Wish I had a local shop that supports my own hobby rather than my sister's ex hobby.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Slow down a bit there, no money in honey alone! If I offer honey, that is pure honey and not processed I am lucky if I break £2.00 per lb. Above that i get sales resistance and it does not move and I cannot eat it all! The money is in Bee Nucs. 6 frame Nucs. are now going for £155 per. Rendered beeswax is returned and gets less that £1.30 a lb. The labelling regs. just changed and now the cost of putting a label on a jar is about 17p. A honey jar is 40p. There is a lot of hard work in beekeeping, try working in a bee suit when its 25/28C. you sweat, your clothes stick to you! Then you spend hours spinning out the honey and bottling it up. Bluntly as a Philanthropic hobby I break even, but I have high quality hunny to eat! Whereas i would not buy shop honey as it is processed, that is, heated up to melt it out of the combs and all mixed up with the rubbish on the frames etc. Then highly filtered until there is no trace of pollen in it. They do this to make it totally clear as it looks attractive on the supermarket shelf. After 40 years I know a bit about. It has not got better at all as we spend a lot of money on prophylactic medicine for the bees to control the Varroa bug.

Further to this, over the last 2 years the number of hives lost was 45% and lots of tyro beekeepers dropped out being disillusioned, sales of bee hardware dropped and the main bee hardware people laid off workers. One, made a minimum order vale of £1500 for a small bee shop outlet. They almost went down too. That is not delivered but collected! My purchase values have gone up some 20/25% over the last 2 to 3 years. but I cannot raise prices.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 09/06/2014 14:29:06

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Still over in China.

So far had 15 ceremonial dinners and two full bottles of rice wine. Bastard of a job but someone has to do it and I hope you guys are grateful for the amount of effort I'm putting in on your behalf.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Did not manage to stop the flood from flowing through workshop and partially filling the pit. Spent three hours vacuuming and drying out the floor. For a change there was not too much kit on floor, so no actual damage.

Colin

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Sorry Clive, just a lighthearted quip in reaction to the prices I saw for equipment. Perhaps you could turn your wax into a protective coating product and sell it to model engineers.

[Peter TuckerParticipant @petertucker86088]

Raymond Sanderson said

Just wish I had facility to melt down the Ali casting for further use …..

Hi Raymond,

You don't require too meany facilities to melt Ali. A wood fire will do.

Peter.

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Posted by John Stevenson on 09/06/2014 15:43:41:

Still over in China.

So far had 15 ceremonial dinners and two full bottles of rice wine. Bastard of a job but someone has to do it and I hope you guys are grateful for the amount of effort I'm putting in on your behalf.

Hi there, John,

Well done and keep up the good work. I hope you remembered to pack the Alka Seltzer!

Assuming you're not being ferried around in a limo with dark windows, I'd be interested in how many wind turbines you see.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

I've done it out in the garden, wood fire and an old cast iron pot or at least I thought it was an old pot, others had a different view.

At least I got to keep the pot and it and was handy for making fishing weights out of lead

Wind turbines! I hate them, as you still have to have the ability to generate power when there is no wind, to much wind or wrong type of wind. Tidal now that's a better idea

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ to se how much of the tax payers money is actually generating

Edited By Bob Brown 1 on 09/06/2014 21:26:29

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

Well, after physio for the recovering ankle and then driving round several garden centres looking for a plant for someone else I finally managed to get in the workshop at about 4pm. Decided to have a go at making a 5BA spot facing tool for the mounting holes on the S50. Didn't really know what I was doing as I hadn't been able to find any suggested designs but so far I have this below. Might be completely wrong. Finish is a bit rough but for some reason I decided to use an inserted tip tool instead of HSS. Tomorrow, hopefully harden and temper and finish the cutting edge then have a try with it. Comments welcome

Gary

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Posted by Oompa Lumpa on 09/06/2014 07:20:57

You can buy direct Bill from Lothar Walther. A good many people think Lothar Walther are somehow connected to the Walther firearms company in Germany which is not true at all and in fact Lothar Walther have a massive facility in Georgia.

A barrel blank in .308 caliber is only 226 dollars on your side of the world. Bloody things are expensive over here – about the same, 226 – but pounds sterling. These are blanks though, they need fitting and that can be quite time consuming = expensive.

I wouldn't waste my time with a shot out barrel. If I told you how much ammunition was it would make you wince. Even handloading, a .308 round is still only 100 shots on a Saturday once a month/six weeks before it becomes un-affordable. Some of the not even really exotic stuff is £2 a shot If i couldn't put it down to "testing" it would be a non starter.

graham.

Graham

All imported firearms and parts must be imported through an authorized broker here in Canada. The going rate for the brokerage service is $200 – $250 CAD. Add to that the discount on the US $ plus shipping and that $226 US barrel balloons to over $500 CAD. Before 9/11 I could drive over to the states (a 2 hour drive from my home) and buy ammo, gun parts etc and bring them back. Not so any more. I have been waiting for a new 32 barrel for my Sako 22/32 kit for almost a year and it will cost me $375 CAD when it arrives.

Cheers

Bill

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