What did you do today? (2014)

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

Since there hasn't been much happening here I suppose I should try and keep the ball rolling.

I have spent the morning tidying.

From what I have seen on this and other forums "tidying" falls in to two categories

1) Wandering round with a duster

2) wandering round with a bulldozer

Unfortunately I am in the second group.

If some kind soul could repost this once a day for the next two weeks then you will be up to date with my activities.

David

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

David,

Any chance I can borrow the bulldozer when you are done ?

 

Two weeks will be fine, give me chance to relocate the yard to off load it.

 

Muzzer, I made a cover a while ago out of sheets of 6mm mdf to get cast into an alloy cover but couldn't be bothered so just used the MDF sections glued up.

 

 

 

 

 

[EDIT]  Sorry ply, not MDF.

Edited By John Stevenson on 27/06/2014 14:27:05

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Roasted more coffee beans.

Did 100g of three different types of bean.

One lot was a bit smokey, but I had a fan on at the kitchen door, to act as an extractor.

Since the last time I roasted, I've turned the ControlBox upside down in order to get the heater and fan controls facing me. Brain fade when I made it!

The two temperature meters are now fixed via Velcro equivalent, and the power cable to the Prima heater has been shortened.

Geoff – I still haven't a clue what I'm doing, so no change there then

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Gentlemen,

What did I do today, for the last two weeks and for the next two weeks I have sat a read everything of interest on this forum, the reason, just over two weeks ago I got an infection, celulitus, in my right foot which apart from visits to the doctors and hospital has left me house bound and for the first week unable to walk because my foot grew to be half again larger than the left foot so all I have been able to do is lots of reading and learning from you gentlemen.

Martin P

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

JS – you are lucky enough to have a CNC mill / router so making those parts up was presumably not too much of a nightmare. I have to keep telling myself that once I have made these up by hand it will then be able to make them itself and I can go back to my former lazy self again! It seems to me that this is a classic case of "physician heal thyself".

You are probably OK with your dividing head in ply but in my experience it soon goes soft when exposed to oil, as it would in my application, certainly on the X-axis.

It's getting there slowly but has to compete with other activities like family and house repairs. I'm hoping to get it completed by the end of the summer – but I don't know which year yet!

Merry

[Michael Cox 1Participant @michaelcox1]

A bit of a frustrating day. I bought some M20 bolts at a car boot sale because they were cheap metal. I decided to try to make one of them into a flycutter. Nice simple project and all went well to start with. The last operation was to bore out the Morse 2 taper and tap it M10 for the draw bar. I had previously drilled the taper 4.5 mm so I quickly drilled the hole out to 8.5 mm without any problems. I then started to tap the hole M10. At first this was straightforward but quite suddenly it became hard to turn the tap. I withdrew the tap cleaned out the swarf lubricated the tap again and tried again but it would not advance past the hard spot..

I decided to redrill the hole 8.8 mm and then try again with the tapping. Again it became very hard to turn the tap so I tried a new tap but still the same problem. I drilled it out again to 9mm and tried a new tap still impossible to advance. I have now given up for today. Tomorrow I will heat the flycutter to bright red heat (weather permitting) and let it soak for a while and then allow it to cool and try again with the tap.

The bolt was marked 8 8 which means that it is medium carbon steel that has been hardened and tempered so I guess there is a hard spot.

Mike

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Today I managed to develop a toothache. It started slowly and over the afternoon it has developed to the point I could positively chew the threads into your flycutter

graham.

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

I fitted a Transwave inverter drive to my Myford Super 7. A birthday present from my wife! I had to make a new pulley for the motor as I got the much cheaper Metric one. (Boring out the original Myford one for a 19mm shaft would have been a bit dodgy). I upped the size of the pulleys by about 3mm or so. I finished that earlier in the week, and I hacked it out of a 6" x 6" x 1.1/2" chunk of aluminium. Lots of swarf!

It all went very smoothly; just had to chew a lump out of some nearby shelving to accommodate the motor terminal box.

"Terminal Box", said my wife. "Isn't that a coffin?" Which I thought was a pretty clever remark!

So now I have to get used to the new control arrangements and make something on it.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Good luck Graham

You may recall my post of a couple of weeks ago when I had a root canal filling. I do sympathise – the trouble with toothache is that you just can't get away from it! I took to sleeping in my reclining chair – which was a bit more bearable than lying down – but the quality of the sleep was poor so I ended up spending my days in pain and kn**kered! Hope yours doesn't last as long.

Norman

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I finished pimping my Wyvern:

She''ll be flaunting herself on the Modelenginemakers stand at the Guildford show next weekend, being outshone by some really good stuff from JasonB, Jo and Ramon amongst others.

Cheers,

Rod

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

She''ll be flaunting herself on the Modelenginemakers stand at the Guildford show next weekend, being outshone by some really good stuff from JasonB, Jo and Ramon amongst others.

Thats only if I finish pimping the Monitor this weekend Looks very nice now its painted, look forward to seeing it in the flesh.

J

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Mike,

Why don't you just screw a threaded extension piece into the end, provided there are enough threads.

An application of locking fluid would secure it, or silver solder/braze it in place.

Rod,

I like it.

Well done!

Geoff – A near cloud burst late yesterday has saved me having to water

Edited By OuBallie on 28/06/2014 10:56:37

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Looks very nice, Rod. Polished brass and 'Oxford blue' al;ways go well together.

Where on earth did you source that corrugated tube for the coolant tank

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

?? a tin can from the Super Market/ kitchen ie., Baked beans or something would be my guess. Ian S C

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Perhaps a rectangular tin would have bean (see what I did there?) less obvious (red kidney actually – the chilli was delicious)

Rod

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Finished refurbishing the 5C Indexing unit.

It's now working as designed.

Geoff – Cuppa and biltong for lunch today

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Rod,

It's no use just specifying the vegetable and a servibng suggestion. Supermarkets really need the brand and product portion size to reliably supply the correct size coolant tin.

Without this information, an unsuspecting model engineer could be supplied with a huge catering pack at great cost, when an everyday value product would have met their needs.

Neil

(With apologies to Ketan).

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 28/06/2014 14:08:56:

Hi Rod,

It's no use just specifying the vegetable and a servibng suggestion. Supermarkets really need the brand and product portion size to reliably supply the correct size coolant tin.

Without this information, an unsuspecting model engineer could be supplied with a huge catering pack at great cost, when an everyday value product would have met their needs.

Neil

(With apologies to Ketan).

Exactly

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I've finished bait, coffee and a bit of cake. Intrigued to find on the cake wrapper full instructions on how to cut the cake " take a serrated knife…. "etc. etc. Things are getting worse than I thought.

[lancelotParticipant @lancelot]

Hi all,just managed to lose my post …getting old…I am now back in the shed having for the moment won the mental battle with Parkinsons…this past week i refurbished my stuart 504 boiler…tested it and piped it up to my 10v stuart after some fiddling around off she went a good 30 mins run in worked wonders …now running great… Piped up the Stuart Score to run her but found i had no fitting for the main steam valve on top of the boiler…does any one know what size fitting this is…and who is the best supplier you would use in u/k…

all the best for now

John.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not wishing to let the MEM crowd down on their display at Guildford show I put the finishing touches to the Baker " Ball Hopper" monitor, now its ready to join my Galloway, Firefly and Easton & Anderson next week.

If anyone is visiting the show come and say Hi, I'll be there Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. As well as My engines on the MEM tables, Rod has a few on display, Jo will have some completed engines and also be making swarf on her Cowells, Ramon will have his aero engines and maybe some steam ones as well and there will also be some nice steam engines from one of Ramons friends including the interesting design Fieldhouse Winding Engine from the Hemmingway kit. Plus of course all teh other Guildford displays

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Good grief Jason

You and Rod do know to make a chap feel inferior don't you!

I would love to come an see the real things ( and meet the stars that made them) but I'm afraid that around 350 miles rather rules that out. I hope you have a great day and meet lots of like minded and interested people.

Best Regards

Norman

Edited By NJH on 28/06/2014 18:46:13

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Just sorting thru some of the pics from the China trip and though I'd share these two with the forum.

All two often there are posts on Chinese bashing on various forums with collective thought about their lack of Elf and Safety but let me tell you they are now taking this very, very seriously.

Firstly a warning in two languages.

Then a more pointed command.

Incidentally these were taken in the Forbidden City in Beijing where all the temples are from 6' to 10' off the ground and you walk round the outside on narrow ledges, no hand rails or supports but despite over 10,000 visitors per day you don't see anyone falling off these.

Quite refreshing to see common sense used.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Yesterday finished off this pen I made an Executive Clicker with QLD Mango

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Only managed one boot today before rain stopped play but got this lot just before the heavens opened.

All black mild steel:

1.7 metres of 6 x 30

5.78 metres of 10 x 40

He wanted £15 but I managed to persuade him that £10 was more acceptable – to me you understand?

A new 5 litre container of Millmax 10 hydraulic oil for a couple of quid finished of my shopping nicely.

Rik

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