What did you do today? (2014)

[John BaguleyParticipant @johnbaguley78655]

EDPM is used for pond liners as well so must be pretty safe around water. I bought one recently for a wild llife pond.

John

[Anonymous]

I have spent a few late evenings over the last week modelling the gear change mechanism for my traction engines, as some important dimensions were missing from the drawings and other dimensions seem to be in the realms of fantasy. As drawn, in neutral, one pinion gear had 0.01" clearance from its associated ring gear, while the other had 0.3" clearance.

Having re-designed the gear change mechanism in CAD I thought I'd assemble a model of same to sanity check reality. So I 3D printed a set of parts and assembled them on the real engine:

Basically it all seems to work as I think it should, the picture shows low gear engaged. I was going to continue and start cutting metal, but why bother? Since I'm going to be modelling the rest of the engine anyway I might as well miss out the tedium of handle twiddling in the workshop and 3D print the parts.

Regards,

Andrew

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, today (Sunday afternoon) I went into King's Lynn to look round the classic cars at the towns open Heritage Day **LINK** and http://www.kingslynnonline.com/2014/09/over-200-vehicles-expected-for-classic-car-day

As well as all the usual suspects from the 50's-70's there were a few vintage cars, but in particular the one remaining car of six built by Cooper, the split roller bearing company based in South Lynn.

This car was built in 1909 and is rarely on public desplay.

A few more views of it can be seen here **LINK**

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 15/09/2014 00:36:09

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Today, the washing M/c engineer arrived (Wash M/c under guarantee). It had jetted about 30 litres of water over the kitchen floor before anyone realised it had gone wrong. On inspection, he found an old 'RAC' yale key had been 'shot' through the plastic casing after being picked up by the spinning drum. Unfortunately not covered by the guarantee or his time for the callout. Estimated repair cost in excess of 440 euros plus 65 for the callout.

Now, which grandson of mine lost an RAC key, and who didn't check his pockets before washing??? Cos its strange that a key like that should turn up in SW France – It certainly wasn't me !!

Anyway, check out E-bay if you want secondhand components as we had to buy a new machine – no more new tools for me before Christmas I suppose.

BobH

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Finished painting the 'frame' for my driving truck. The anti-rust primer underneath was dead cheap from Lidl – CAR by Baufix, and was dream to use and covered really well and evenly. Topped off with black Hammerite 'garage paint' goes on like glue and takes days to dry.At least it makes it hard for people to tell which lumps are paint ruins and which are bad welds.

Quite pleased with the simple design, especially for dual height footrests.

Just the brake to finish now.

In bits at the moment, so photos when it's all done.

Neil

[LathejackParticipant @lathejack]

I can't think why, but i recently rescued this old 1956 vintage Atco mower, i must have just felt sorry for it. The broken cylinder top fin was repaired using a piece of 3mm mild steel I shaped and Tig welded in place.

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

G'day. Benefits of living in the bush.

Looked out of the workshop window saw these two lovely natives.

* Danny M *

[LathejackParticipant @lathejack]

Danny.

What a view to have while in the workshop, I just wish I hade some windows.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Very nice Danny,

Parts of they UK have some of your ring-necked parakeets – would you swap?

Last night, just as the sun was going down and three cattle egrets flew over, like three Japanese fans in formation. Not something I ever expected to see from my garden, mind you the water to the West nearby means the birds I see are as varied as aircraft looking for the missing power station cooling towers to the East!

Neil

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Had a hectic time sorting the steamer problems I did an hydraulic test on the generator at about 2000lbs there was a pop.

Normaly it's safe at 4000lbs pressure test.

It was at the feed water pipe end at the last regatta after a high speed disaster then runs after that the so called cool end feed pipe had swollen with the excessive heat.

Must have been weeping after that disaster as pump was iffy when tubing hot have found in the past some defects in tubing only come to light when it is hot or at 2000lbs test pressure.

Lost 18inches but it will not be too critical as it is small diameter and not the larger main pipe coil.

Then fitted new inlet valve and had to make another set of tappet shims to set timing etc.

New Dykes piston ring on the piston then run on lathe at 2000rpm to bed it in.

Sorting the fuel and water pump valves now.

Tomorrow will assemble the various units in the hydro hull then reset all the various aerodynamic angles.

Then Sunday my last speed attempts of 2014 at Kingsbury Water Park.

Bob Kirtley will be there hopefully he will have his steamer on form after problems with pistons.

Paul

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Been on west shore at Llandudno helping with the laying of rubble on stage three of the track build. No public running today unfortunately, the battery driven loco had a main board fault.

Next Wednesday we have a concrete delivery coming to fill up the steaming bay base. Then if the concrete is ok by the following Saturday we will put the turntable in the centre and concrete that in.

Bri

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Yesterday made good progress with the FeedRodMotor mounting plate for the BH600G.

Ready to start threading the spacer rods, only to find the Tailstock locking lever just spinning merrily, with not a hint of 'lock'.

'Oh bother!' said I. Remove a shelf and 'junk' (her indoor's not my description) that was preventing the Tailstock from being removed, and the offending lump of CI was on the bench for inspection.

IF I had been bothered to spend a minute checking the Manual, I would have seen that the nut holding the Clamping Block had probably unwound, and it had.

Tailstock back in position and then hands squeezed in to turn the nut till the locking lever did as designed.

Brain in gear for once, and 'That nut is going to unwind again at some inopportune moment'.

Tailstock off again. An M12 Clambing Bolt, a stud, holds the Clamping Plate in position, with only a couple of threads showing past the nut so no hope of a lock nut, but I don't have a beast that size in any case.

Out came a punch and one of the bolt threads deformed such that I couldn't unscrew the nut by hand.

I could have used a suitable grade of Loctite, but the bolt and nut where oily and I just wasn't @rsed to take them apart to clean, being that I'd spent nearly all day in the Garage/Workshop, and this after recovering from that flipping head cold.

Back onto the Carriage went the Tailstock and it locked up as before so I could finish threading those rods.

Job done for the day.

Geoff – Ready for Workshop duty

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Took a photo of the beginning of a trench!!

Anorak-ish?? Maybe, but it was the FIRST remedial work on the remains of the house destroyed in last December's 'surge' and quite important 'cos it's the sea-wall! If the '100 year' theory is correct, I won't be around for its next test but fingers crossed … neighbour's similar wall had to be knocked down and rebuilt 'cos it was crap building!! Great joy!!

Rgds

Bill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Cornish Jack on 21/09/2014 11:29:55:

Took a photo of the beginning of a trench!!

.

Hope it all goes well for you, Bill.

…. This should be an interesting "build" to follow.

MichaelG.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

Today I finished making the magneto for the Saunderson & Mills tractor. It is actually a dummy as the the innards work a Hall effect transistor but it does have an advance and retard worked by a lever. The body is cast in aluminium and the horizontal shaft runs in two small ball races and carries the slotted disc to "drive" the transistor.The lever is connected to the governor control via cone clutches. This allows both the lever to the governor and the ignition to be moved together and independently. The drive to the magneto is taken by bevel gears from the vertical shaft and now runs at engine speed.

George.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Found a nice end mill box in a skip in my road that had previously been used for crayons with a moulded plastic tray. Frustrated by solid oak bookcase in there that is firmly wedged by a ton of junk on its shelves. How annoying.

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Well not today but Saturday had a full day drooling at Sydney Antique Machinery's event. I have video which has yet to be edited when that done will let you know.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I was disappointed that two of my Ebay GU10 LED lamps failed early admittedly running about 15 hours a day, (which is why I wanted LEDs).

The failure mode was interesting, one LED fails. On the first few starts the lamp flashes, then runs rather dim. After a few time, it just runs dim.

I assume that the 'dead' LED gets a full 240V AC across it and slowly arcs and vapourises until it chars internally and becomes a resistor, allowing the rest of the LEDs to work at reduced current.

With two this way i had a go at prising off the front lens, glued in two places. Slightly chipped the first but the second came off easily using a Stanley blade.

The LEDs are fairly large (3mm) SMT devices with clear polarity markings, so I swapped a good one from one for a "bad 'un" in the other and reattached the lens with a couple of drops of superglue. 100% success. I'll probably choose slightly more expensive ones in future, but even so, I now know that they can be resurrected and I have a healthy supply of LEDs for any with the same number of units.

Still struck by how much brighter these are than the original 35W halogen spots, especially as now running one of these on a temporary basis as I'm one lamp down.

Neil

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have not posted about the bees for a while, but at dinnertime today i almost walked into a small swarm of bees in an apple tree along side the Apiary.It was small and I have decided to do nothing about them as they cannot survive, a Virgin Queen needs a Drone or several actually and there are none! If it is cold tonight they will likely dissipate and go home. I have never yet got a late swarm through the winter and be any good as after 12 days or so the Queen will be a Drone layer and no use at all.

Other wise the bees are feeding heavily on the Ivy crowns plus a lot more insects like hover flies and even wasps. Its their last chance to top up for winter. I may be able to take some more honey but the ivy honey is not universally liked.

Clive

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Have been making some swarf on my new WM-180 lathe. Also looking at some CNC kits on Ebay and wondering what I might need for the WM-16 with regard to motor size.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Clive, as you elude to:-

A swarm in May is worth a heap of Hay

A swarm in june is worth a silver spoon

A swarm in July is only worth a fly,

So In September its anyones guess. Our bees are on the ivy as well. Last year I posed a question on a bee forum as I had put the anti varoa treatment in the hive before the ivy crop had finished and asked if this honey would be OK to eat. Anyway, we did eat it the next season and it was very good (a bit strong in taste).

BobH

Ps this season's crop has not been very good and have lost a couple of hives.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

It was 'swarm' in Criccieth today, so I knocked through a wall nearly 2 foot thick made from random granite stone. I am tired doing this so how the chaps felt after making it in the first place god only knows.

bri

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

For a short break, I made up a Dapol/Airfix kit – the Booth of Rodley 15T diesel crane. It's abeautifully planned and produced kit.

Apparently this is the prototype and the BR versions didn't have bogies.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 23/09/2014 16:20:18

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Changing the subject, and not so much what I did today as what I did four days ago, because I'm only just home in the far north of Scotland. Went to Falkirk, west of Edinburgh, to see the famous Falkirk Wheel canal boat lift, then further along the canal to see the Kelpies – the huge horses' head statues. Both are fine works of art as well as feats of engineering. Do go if you can – you won't be disappointed – and if it's too far to travel, Google the details. Well, I was hugely impressed…..

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I went back today to pick some more cooking apples and found the swarm still hanging in the apple tree. I took pity on them and took them by cutting the branch they were hanging on and i put them in an empty Nuc. box. Thurs. I will go back and put a frame of wax in with them. No hope of survival at all but I cannot see them dwindle in front of me! Otherwise all the hives were flying well and still working the Ivy where there were crowned berries.

Clive

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