What did you do today? (2014)

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, not model engineering, but today I've had to do a bit of wood work but thankfully not a precision job. I say wood work, because it involed wood in its raw state and it was hard work, and it started to rain, you know the sort that drizzels and makes you wet before you know it.

It all started around midday when a big twig decided to have a lie down in my driveway and put a bit of a green arrangement right across my way in and out. I was in my kitchin when I heard what I thought was a car drawing into my drive pulling a trailer, but when I looked out the window I saw this.

Luckelly the trunk snaped about 10/15 ft from ground level, otherwise I may have had a few 'orrible scraches on my Astra, as it was its the closest my Astra has been to be electrifying as the tree pulled down the overhead electric supply cables to my house.

Luckely no noticeable marks on my Astra by the cables. The electric people were not to long comming out to reconnect the electric using a cherry picker mounted on a Land Rover.

No way in or out for vehicals, hence the start of the wood working session. Mananged to get quite a lot of the canopy removed with my super doper 14" chain saw and cut a few of the smaller braches off untill it got to dark to safely see what I was doing. Tommorow hope to get a few more smaller branches off, if the landscaping people don't turn up, as the trunk itself is a bit too much for my saw. Need to get enough room to get one car out at least.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 24/10/2014 20:48:44

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

On June 16, 2014, I posted, amongst others, a photo of this J.Whitworth and Co. screw cutting tool. I received no responses to my request for info. I have searched online several times over the intervening months for info with no luck. Tonight I tried again using different words in the Gurgle search engine and was finally successful in finding it here **LINK** I discovered that the tool was originally called a "Patent Guide Screw Stock". The part that is missing is part D in the original diagram below. I will have a go at making it. Very much interesting reading on the metal industry on the above website, also very eye opening descriptions of industrial accidents during the period. It was interesting to note that the cause of most of those accidents was the worker failing to properly use safe work practices and devices. This is still a leading cause today.

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

In reading further on the Grace website, I discovered that this tool is older than I thought. It was listed in the "1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VI.: Whitworth and Co".

Bill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Nice find, Bill

Bit of a hero, Sir Joseph … Sorry, I seem to have missed seeing your post in June.

MichaelG.

[Four stroke FredParticipant @fourstrokefred]

Not so much "what have I been doing today" but what I have been doing over the last ten days. Having stripped, cleaned and painted all the bits of the tractor I have now assembled it. There are still a few small jobs to do such as making the plug caps, fuel taps, the external oil tank (fits in part of the box) and I still have to time the cam shafts and ignition. After three years the end is now in sight.I hope there are not too many problems in getting the engine to run and when it does I will have the video camera at hand to record the historic event!

George.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Nice job Fred. Bet you can't wait to get it running.

Bri

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Not very much for the last three days, I've been knocked out by the dreaded norovirus. As my wife had it for three days before that, I've got about two weeks work to do in the next six days, so my apologies to anyone waiting for me to respond to queries etc.

Neil

P.S. the tornado was a photoshop hoax the local paper fell for.

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Went to the Lowestoft Model Exhibition. – Brilliant effort! I hadn't realised that this was their first such Modex. On this showing they are on to a winner. Excellent parking (and helpful parking attendants) Easy access, no crowding, well laid out, some excellent models, some real oddities, full size steam transport, good rest areas and reasonable priced food. Can highly recommend it if they do a repeat in the future – congratulations and thanks to all involved!

Rgds

Bill

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Up early this morn and to the boot. Glad I did as I managed to bag a really nice 10" stroke powered ALBA 1A shaper on its pedestal for not a lot – delivered. Its a single phase job so plug'n'play as they say. She will need a paint job but by the time I have tarted her up a bit she will look the business.

The poor old Double Tangye will have to go on the back burner for the time being while I attend to my shapely new girl friend – she may have been born six years earlier than me in 1940 but I fancy her no end.

Rik

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

George, I would be proud to just own your Tractor, never mind having built it too. Lovely.

Anyway, been busy today and one of the jobs was to cut half a dozen short lengths of aluminium bar. I often read on here threads with titles like: "should I use cutting fluid" or "is cutting oil needed on xxxxmetal?" Usually the answers for Aluminium are "spray a bit of WD40 on it". Well I almost always use cutting fluid on the hacksaw (I bought several litres of rotabroach at a terrific price) and today was no exception. But the photographs below show what happens when you concentrate on one thing and forget another.

With cutting fluid applied during the cut:

Without cutting fluid:

Don't you just hate it when you do that?

graham.

[John BromleyParticipant @johnbromley78794]

I've had a great time today at my local ME society steam up.

Had my very first go driving a large gauge loco, a 5" Thompson B1.

Exciting and nerve racking all at the same time. Sadly it was our last running day of the year. So I shall have to wait a while before my next lesson.

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

Cleaned down the lathe and mill of oil for arrival next week of castings.

So hopefully I will just end up with a grey-black mess everywhere and not a sludgey gooey grey-black mess everywhere.!

Nick

[Kevin FParticipant @kevinf]

 

 

Repaired my tailstock handle and clamping part ( Myford ML4 ) 

Edited By Kevin F on 26/10/2014 22:34:58

Edited By Kevin F on 26/10/2014 22:35:47

Edited By Kevin F on 26/10/2014 22:36:14

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

Hi, same as oomph lumpa

had a similar problem with a 12" metal cutting bandsaw…… was as new when I bought it…..it always cut at a slight angle….well a not so cheap Taiwan machine… change the blade a few times (came in the same box)…..still the same…..

was not so bothered on the cheap materials, mind u whats cheap now ???????

when cutting I drown it in sud's…… then had to cut a lot 4" bar – 316 ST/ST…..blxxdy hopeless…..

as a last resort I bought a couple of new high quality blades….bingo now cuts straight……the old one's were still sharp but I guess the set of the teeth was out on one side……!!

I was actually thinking of getting rid of the beast and buy a proper machine and sod the money….

feeling better now, I'll spend some of the money on a few more toy's….a DRO etc….

Frank in France

Frank in France…..

[Roger HartParticipant @rogerhart88496]

Travelled to rural South Asia recently and visited a blacksmith's shop. I found this tool interesting, a sort of spokeshave for steel, the smith used it after filing the cutting edge to even up the blade and to take off metal such that the cutting edge became more acute. Surprisingly effective. Never seen anything like it, maybe swordsmiths would be familiar with the technique.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

A remedy to get a bandsaw to cut straight was given to me in the '70s, and that was to touch a grind stone against the teeth on the side of the blade, whilst in motion, that was causing the cut to veer away from the line.

Blunting that side evened out the cutting forces.

Had to do that with my first bandsaw and it worked a treat.

Geoff – How I wish I had kept that machine, what with its blade welder!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

While everyone else has been busy measuring their oil film thicknesses I got another couple of bits finished on the latest project.

Started off with this pile of bits a couple of weeks ago

Added a few more bits of plate & bar and subtracted a large pile of swarf to get these

Put them all together and added a few epoxy fillets to get a nice 5kg paper weight, ideal for holding gauge blocks together

J

Edited By JasonB on 01/11/2014 20:23:10

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 01/11/2014 20:22:19:

While everyone else has been busy measuring their oil film thicknesses I got another couple of bits finished on the latest project.

.

Somewhat more productive, Jason

    [couldn't find the ArmChair icon]

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/11/2014 20:28:36

[Anonymous]

Posted by JasonB on 01/11/2014 20:22:19:

While everyone else has been busy measuring their oil film thicknesses…………

Not me; I've been flying this afternoon (duty tug pilot) and in the workshop this evening making the steering chain shafts for my traction engines.

Andrew

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Well you knew how thick or should I say thin it should be anyway.

Will you be making the chains next or making that pump to your new design?

[Oompa LumpaParticipant @oompalumpa34302]

Posted by JasonB on 01/11/2014 20:22:19:

While everyone else has been busy measuring their oil film thicknesses I got another couple of bits finished on the latest project

Did I miss something, did I miss something? Eh? Eh?

I must say, the thread was a terrific solution to a bit of insomnia. So it did have some value.

graham.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Had a great day at our museum open day at Homebush, one of the members of this forum ( Mark Smith 3), who has been absent since the big earthquake in Christchurch feb 2011 turned up, he lost his house and workshop at the time, his house (the remains) have been demolished, and he is hoping the new house will be built soon.

Ian S C

[Anonymous]

Posted by JasonB on 02/11/2014 07:32:03:

Will you be making the chains next or making that pump to your new design?

Probably neither; as part of assembling the steering gear I will be riveting the steering plates to the hornplates. So at the same time I might as well fit all the dummy rivets to the hornplates. Once I'm in riveting mode I plan to get my finger out and make the wheels. All the bits for the front wheels are done. They just need some welding, some bending and loadsa riveting.

For those that do not read the 'TractionTalk' forum, and will therefore have no idea what JasonB is referring to when he mentions my new pump design, I have completely res-designed the water pump for my Burrell SCC traction engines. The pump is now sized properly for the water that the engine needs, I have minimised dead space to reduce priming issues, and re-designed the valves to use proper winged valves, as per full size, rather than balls. I have also altered passage sizes, and selected pipe sizes, to minimise flow restrictions. With a bit of luck the pump won't cavitate either, or so the theory says. Of course I don't claim this is all my own work; I have had considerable help from others on TT. Here's a section through the new pump design:

Regards,

Andrew

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Posted by JasonB on 01/11/2014 20:22:19:

While everyone else has been busy measuring their oil film thicknesses I got another couple of bits finished on the latest project.

Started off with this pile of bits a couple of weeks ago

J

A masterly piece of fabrication there Jason which having studied has raised a couple of questions. It would appear that some of the component parts are held together with screws that will be subsequently hidden but how have you fixed the parts that presumably can't be held with screws? Have you silver soldered some or all of the pieces or are some bits just located with the epoxy filler? Final question,(hope I'm not going to appear daft here!) what the hell is it?!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Martin, the majority is held with screws, 41 M3 cap heads to be precise and one threaded connection. The two small webs on the flanged pipe comming out the bottom of one of the columns only locate in slots so the only piece that is actually loose is the short diagonal steel tube.

The whole thing was put together with JB Weld high temperature epoxy to seal all the joints and add some structural strength.There is an additional sleeve that is loctited inside the diagonal pipe as belt and braces due to the lack of mechanical fixing.

I did toy with how to put it all together, I ruled out silver solder as there are some hefty lumps of metal and it would have been hard to get things hot enough. I did weld the base that it sits on but as my welding is not so good on internal corners and they would have been tricky to get at to clean up I did not use that method.

The light coloured epoxy that you can see is just cosmetic car body filler to blend things in and make it look like a casting. The longer pipe with a flange on each end is all silver soldered

I will do a write up of the whole build so you will have to wait until then for the full construction details. As to what it is have a look here

[Author]

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