What did you do today? (2014)

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Has anyone been following the ESA Rosetta Probe?

This probe has been in space now for 10 years and is now withing 2500 miles of its target, a Comet to land another probe onto the Comet. the lander is called Philae and will sample the Comet surface and hopefully answer many questions. It is within 10 days of going into orbit around the Comet.

You can get upto date by logging onto ESA's website, ESA, Rosetta.

Clive

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

A late start to the boots today following a delightfully "wet" BBQ with friends yesterday eve.

Did a deal on a very nice Sony e-reader and a tiny Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W320 (fits in the shirt pocket a treat) for £25 (crikey Rik that's a lot for you! – yes I know but its pay day next week so buzz of!)

Next buy was a job lot of milling cutters, slitting saws etc. etc. some of which were stained but eminently serviceable. Some used and some new. In amongst this lot were seven lengths of 6mm dia. M42 tool steel – new one on me but "googled" it sounds pukkah. £7 for this lot.

Couldn't pass on 1.5kgms of copper tubing for one quid.

For me though the star of the show was a very sexy brand new 16mm Iscar S16Q SCLCR-09 indexable boring bar – I was moderately ashamed at handing him the twenty pence asking price as I expect you would have been to.

Rik

PS. TV program "Bargain Hunt"? – pah! Send 'em this way and I'll show them how it SHOULD be done.

PPS Boasting? Of course, its allowed isn't it?

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 27/07/2014 18:53:27:

For me though the star of the show was a very sexy brand new 16mm Iscar S16Q SCLCR-09 indexable boring bar – I was moderately ashamed at handing him the twenty pence asking price as I expect you would have been to.

Rik

PS. TV program "Bargain Hunt"? – pah! Send 'em this way and I'll show them how it SHOULD be done.

PPS Boasting? Of course, its allowed isn't it?

You are going to get yourself arrested doing things like that, or at least you should be. Bloody Nora!

Anyhow, bit more on the drill press today, pinion out (finally):

Then I spent a little while in front of my big rotary wire brush:

As good as new.

Then I removed all of the rather horrid paint from this hammer shaft, it feels much better now so I am going to try to start using it from tomorrow:

graham.

Edited By Oompa Lumpa on 27/07/2014 20:15:09

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Bit of planishing to do then Graham?

[GaryMParticipant @garym]

Spent an interesting few hours at the Manchester Mini Maker Faire **LINK** which was at the Museum of Science and Industry.

An event that combines technology, art, computing and model making as a workshop of ideas. Lots of stuff that I'm sure would interest some people on here. 3D printing, laser cutters, Raspberry Pi, Meccano and even a railway layout. Kids seem to love this sort of event and if it encourages them into science and engineering all the better.

Also, had a good look at the stationary engines in the power hall.

Gary

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Had lunch with Elvis today………………………….

LOML had an invite to a luncheon which had an Elvis act who was brilliant.

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Posted by V8Eng on 27/07/2014 20:25:32:

Bit of planishing to do then Graham?

You know what they say, the right tool for the job!

Needed to make a small part from a piece of silver steel so just for a change I decided to go Old School and use a file:

Twenty minutes later nearly done. Very therapeutic. Just saw the small part off the rod and harden and temper – all done. Polished the column for my Drill Press first thing – no, I won't let it rest until it's done!

graham.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

A question for our learned electricians on board. I have aquired from my Bro. a length of what i know to be a Busbar. this is about 600mm long and about 3/4 of an inch diam. and has tinned ends.

Can anyone tell me if it is Brass or Copper or some combination of metals.

Clive

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Clive, it is almost certainly copper.

graham.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Clive,
I agree with Graham's assessment.

Les.

[HowiParticipant @howi]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 28/07/2014 22:17:16:

A question for our learned electricians on board. I have aquired from my Bro. a length of what i know to be a Busbar. this is about 600mm long and about 3/4 of an inch diam. and has tinned ends.

Can anyone tell me if it is Brass or Copper or some combination of metals.

Clive

If it is bus bar it will be either aluminium or copper, easy to check via weight.

Due to cost and weight copper was substituted with aluminium when I worked for BT and we had some hefty bus bars, only 50 volts but a lot of current when BT was mainly electromechanical. The bus bars were often multi stacked near the supply input. Trying to cast my mind back a few years, it was not uncommon to have 6 to 8 bus bars 9 inches wide by 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick clamped together. All joints had to be tested with a sophometer.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Thanks lads, now I have to find a use for it! Copper soldering bit?

Clive

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Clive,
It would make the arms for a DIY spot welder.

Les.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

If it counts as 'heavy copper scrap' it should weigh about 1.5kg and be worth about a fiver! But that would be boring…

Neil

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Posted by Oompa Lumpa on 28/07/2014 21:32:26:

Polished the column for my Drill Press first thing – no, I won't let it rest until it's done!

Graham

1. Are my eyes deceiving me or is the column for that drill press solid rather than tubular steel? Judging by the photos, it is a rugged and well constructed piece of kit. My drill press has a tube column that has noticeable flex. I had to build a jack that sits under the outer edge of the table to eliminate the flex.

2. Just a suggestion: A piece of heat shrink on the handle of the planishing hammer would make it feel even better in your hand. That's a piece of inner tube protecting the file.

Bill

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Posted by "Bill Hancox" on 29/07/2014 20:04:00:

Posted by Oompa Lumpa on 28/07/2014 21:32:26:

Polished the column for my Drill Press first thing – no, I won't let it rest until it's done!

Graham

1. Are my eyes deceiving me or is the column for that drill press solid rather than tubular steel? Judging by the photos, it is a rugged and well constructed piece of kit. My drill press has a tube column that has noticeable flex. I had to build a jack that sits under the outer edge of the table to eliminate the flex.

Bill, your eyes do not deceive, it is solid. And very bloody heavy.That is just the column, everything else is just as massively built. I am fabricating a steel framework to sit under the bench to support the Drill as they weigh around 125 kilos when assembled. It is very definitely a two man lift.

I will look into the innertube thing as it looks interesting. I am going to get some 45mm ID poly pipe (if they make such a thing) as I have had an idea with regard to a Hammer Storage rack.

graham.

Edited By Oompa Lumpa on 29/07/2014 21:23:46

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Not done a lot I can post, finished up tonight doing 10 bungs for some hydraulic gear they can't buy.

 

 

On the carriage here, just need the hex and thread [ 30 x 1.5 ] on tomorrow.

But then spent 10 minutes contemplating if this would fit.

 

 

The big one that is, according to my ruler should have 5mm to spare but it looks too big to me.

Oh well, find out tomorrow.

 

BTW the small armature is a lesson why you should not run motors with low batteries. This is off a fork truck, main drive motor. It's been run with low batteries which drops the volts but still leaves a high amperage and no cooling.

Result is it's let go on some of the hight temp soldered joints and thrown the windings. So a full rewind job and it's on strip, not wire so these have to be formed specially. It's also down on both bearing diameters, my job.

But that quick I'll just load two pallets before it goes on charge will cost them the best end of £1200 by the time the rewinders have finished with the motor.

 

 

 

Edited By John Stevenson on 29/07/2014 22:39:53

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

All joints had to be tested with a sophometer.

Interesting. Psophometers are used in telecoms to detect audible noise on the supply rails because if there was noise, you'd hear it on your handset.

I've tested telecoms "rectifiers" (PSUs that generate the 24V / 48V bulk power) with psophometers but never realised they were also used for testing high current connections. That way you would be able to "hear" a dodgy connection.

You live and you learn…

Murray

[lancelotParticipant @lancelot]

Hi all, spent a few hours in shed yesterday and today…made the sliding bearing bits for cross bar and some glands…I had to make a 5/16'' stub drill to fit the collet on the Cowells (any spare collets Jo )

Cheers,

John.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Never heard of a psophometer before. I've got some dodgy PSUs on their way to me as it happens so can see if I can flummox the test manager. Probably end up using a spectrum analyser though.

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

I am taking a short break from today's task. Circumventing the "Anti-Tamper" plugs on something. I always enjoy these jobs, they are a challenge.

graham.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Well it looked heavy to start with.

Then it looked a bit close.

But in the end, loads of room although it didn't like 1,000 rpm and had to back it off to 750.

Shaft now turned undersize, just got to splat some weld on in the morning and turn back to 3 1/4" diameter. This one is an old motor and still on imperial double roller bearings. £180 a pop at trade prices. No wonder metric is so common.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

"for my lady friends' new parrot. He loved it"

'Eyoop Jon – do you mean the "lady" friend OR the parrot???

Rik

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Just to annoy you all, had an afternoon on the bees and took 3 boxes of honey, all uncapped and spun out now and in tubs. In total about 70lb. I was a bit disappointed with 2 of the hives that had not filled or sealed a lot of their honey. We are now in a period of poor foraging for the bees with no flowering shrubs or the like for them to concentrate on. Originally it was called the, 'June drop' but I feel the seasons have slipped a bit and now its later. The next big crop will be Ivy and already i see the crowns forming, this Ivy is the bees last chance to fill their combs for the winter. Ivy honey is not to everyone's taste as it is quite sweet and dark, most customers like clear honey and not crystallized.

I will be down there shortly to replace the empty combs back on the hives, its cooler this morning and that's better to work in.

Clive

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Finally, I got my toolpost-mounted spindle finished! A few hiccups and errors on the way, but nothing a good soak in the bath with my thinking cap on couldn't solve. Here's a picture of the parts all neatly laid out for checking, prior to a trial assmbly. The motor is a generic sewing machine 180W job from the far east. Came complete with leads and speed control, too. According to the label, it revs to 10,000rpm! The two smaller pulleys are interchangeable to give a range of speed and/or torque, as required for a particular application. The jockey bearing is used to tension the belt and give extra "wrap-around" to the driver and idler pulleys. I have bearings of two different sizes for this, as seen below, to accommodate a slightly smaller belt (110XL) as well as that shown (120XL)

 

And another of the completed unit.

From the rear ……….

 

One of it mounted on the lathe.

Pictures not brilliant, due to having to use iPad without flash. My camera has given up the ghost, I'm afraid.  Not quite on the scale of Mr. Stevenson's efforts, but in my world "small is beautiful"

More pictures in an album, should you be interested.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 31/07/2014 12:41:14

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