What Did You Do Today (2016)

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Ian,

I think you're confusing John Stevenson with Neil Wyatt. Neil is the one who is interested in telescopes!

John

[ianjParticipant @ians]

John H.

John S has a wanted ad for telescopic bore gauges on the Homework shop site.

Edited By ian j on 21/08/2016 08:04:05

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Must admit I didn't spend much, but one chap had a big box of £1 gewgaws which I should have dug out far more from – nice 1/2" shank HSS boring bars, I only grabbed one but should have got a fistful as they were ideal for regrinding as things like internal threading & grooving tools.

Neil

[Anonymous]

Another non-flying weekend has passed. Saturday was windy, and a bit wet. Looking at the webcam I don't think the gliding club flew, so I didn't bother going out. Serves me right for swapping days in the Nimbus. No doubt next Saturday, which I swapped from, will be a stonker.

On the plus side it meant I could spend time in the workshop. I finished off profiling and milling the valve rod couplers during the day. In the evening I updated my traction engine build diaries on other forums.

On Sunday I was up early as I was morning tug pilot. It was still quite windy, with low cloud. The club got a couple of two seaters out, and the winch. No call for aerotows, as you could reach cloud base on the winch. So I DI'd a tug, just in case, and did the daily and weekly fuel checks. The afternoon tug pilot turned up mid-morning so I decided to cut my losses and hand over early. Back in the workshop I finished off drilling some holes in a load of plastic boxes for a client. They're not urgent as the project manager is on hols this week, but it's good to get it done and dusted. Then I picked a couple of bowls of blackberries for the freezer, plus dessert. In the evening I swivelled the ram on the vertical mill and cut 3/16" keyways in the traction engine governor pulleys. The keyway tool was hand ground from 1/4" square HSS. It's one of the great ME myths that hand grinding is a black art only mastered by the cognoscenti, with the aid of complicated jigs. Here is a pulley with gauge blocks hanging snuggly in the keyway:

The blocks add up to 0.187"; a 0.188" stack doesn't fit. That leaves enough to tickle out with a file when fitting the key.

After cutting the keyways, I dismantled the adjustable angle plate and lifted it on to the mill table, and then re-assembled. It's too heavy to lift when assembled. Sometime this week I'll get it set up and cut the tapered keyways in the traction engine flywheels.

Andrew

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

Got made redundant…again!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nice job with the slotting head Andrew and I also enjoyed the description of machining the pullies.

Have you made any progress with those large nuts?

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by fizzy on 22/08/2016 13:29:29:

Got made redundant…again!

I'm really sorry to hear that. Hope you can find something soon.

Rod

[Anonymous]

Posted by JasonB on 22/08/2016 15:28:58:

Nice job with the slotting head Andrew and I also enjoyed the description of machining the pullies.

Have you made any progress with those large nuts?

If nothing else I now know one hell of a lot more about hydraulic copy units, patterns and the pitfalls!

The 2" UNC nuts are currently sitting on my dining room table. We're waiting for the client to confirm that these are size actually used. It's not leaving much time to design, build and ship the mechanical stuff.

Andrew

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by fizzy on 22/08/2016 13:29:29:

Got made redundant…again!

Sorry to hear that Fizzy.

I hope something turns up soon.

Neil

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Sorry to hear that Fizzy. Happened to me four times in my working life. The last time I was 54 and decided to go it alone. Did some odd jobs for a couple of years then offered contract work and that was it. Enjoyed myself for the rest of working life.

Good luck.

Howard

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by fizzy on 22/08/2016 13:29:29:

Got made redundant…again!

Really sorry to hear that, hope you get re-employed quickly.

Edited By V8Eng on 22/08/2016 18:23:52

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Not today but over the weekend I did some much needed maintenance on my CNC mill.

The ATC was misbehaving so I took it out of service a couple of months ago after it dropped one too many carbide tools on the mill table, breaking their tips in the process. There was too much free play in the carousel that holds the tools, as a result due to inertia effects and the different weights of the tools in it some tools would end up out of alignment with the spindle. When the spindle descends to pick up the tool it misses the holder altogether and pushes the tool down resulting in the snapping of some nylon bolts and the holder/tool and fork assembly falling to the table.

It is a common fault with the Tormach CNC machine and the re is an easy cure which entails drilling a couple of detents in the keyway on the stepper gearbox shaft keyway for two grub screws to seat in and screwing them back in with a drop of thread lock on them to stop them backing off. Prior to the fix there was about 5 degrees of backlash which translates to about 1" of radial movement. This is now back to its usual 1/8" backlash.

I also got round to installing a new Rapid Turn lathe attachment on the mill and tried out some of the conversational programming which seems to work well.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Went to Exeter today to get a towbar fitted to my car via the A30. Shortly before Honiton, at the bottom of the hill before the couple of villages before Honiton, we passed a layby selling Otter Valley Ice Cream. My Dragon said if I was a good boy she would buy me one on the way back.

Well, it was touch and go if we would make it in time but we got to the layby (near Monkton?) shortly before closing time and Dragon kept her promise. I had the best chocolate ice cream I can recall having, worth having to put up with gridlocked Exeter and stuck in traffic in a non A/C cooled bus with no air flow just for that ice cream The vanilla was also excellent. Later learned both had won gold in the Taste of the West wotsit.

Now trying to think of more excuses to go past the seller again.

Anyone passing, you'd be nuts not to try some. Needless to say, no connection with Otter Valley Ice Cream etc etc!

Chris

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Oh no Chris !

That's not too far from The Tool Box at Colyton – I never call there but I find something that I desperately need …. and then Axminster Power Tools are not too far either… but…..that ice cream does sound very tempting……..🤔

Could be an expensive ice cream

Norman

 

Edited By NJH on 23/08/2016 19:54:09

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

this came up on a site with no known connection to the subject – but given here in case you ever want to ‘screw’ with the US Customs – https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2016-Apr/icp013_3.pdf

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Heheh, they have to work hard to discern the difference between a bolt and a screw in some cases. We are more relaxed about it here.

A biscuit is something that goes soft after being left out. A cake goes hard. That's actually the technical definition in the UK – and at least that is somewhat easier to assess.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It's easy. Put a Bolt in a race with half a dozen Screws and Bolt will finish before the Screws can find the right key…

Neil

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Norman, not been to the Tool Box at Colyton – I guess because I would find too many things I desperately needed but didn't know I did……….., but Senior Management can always get a trip into Axminster by suggesting I need something from Axminster Tools, I fall for it every time……. Still drooling about that so, so chocolate-ly ice cream. Good job they didn't have clotted cream on top as an option……….

Chris

[Roger HeadParticipant @rogerhead16992]

Posted by Frances IoM on 23/08/2016 20:35:28:
this came up on a site with no known connection to the subject – but given here in case you ever want to 'screw' with the US Customs – https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2016-Apr/icp013_3.pdf

God save us from bureaucrats! 21 pages for that! I was already wilting by page 8, which only got me past the preface and introduction, when I see:

"FINALLY, keep in mind that all of these rules are subordinate to Customs rulings and court decisions."

So everything printed in this document may not be worth a toss anyway….

What a mind-numbing job some people have.

Roger

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

No more ice-cream talk please, I'm on a diet

Went cycling this evening, it felt like I was really going for it but I took nearly twice as long to cover 12 miles as when I was a teenager. It makes you feel alive though!

Neil

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Half hour traffic jam on M25 tonight, one hour yesterday. At least cricket to listen to but no time to finish part painted lathe stand. Left it mostly out of the rain. You get so you think things can stay outside.

[John RuddParticipant @johnrudd16576]

Well it is 5-45 am here in Changi airport in Singapore.

I have a sore ass from sitting down……

A 2 hour flight from Cairns to Brisbane, a 3 hour spell waiting for the next flight, then 8 hours flying again to get where I am now….sat in my ass again waiting for the Heathrow flight, another 13 hours……I'd say more endurance than the Duracell bunny?

Will be glad to get home though, no shop time at all since 25th July….that saig I've had plenty of thinking time on what I'm going to be doing when I finally get there….

Edited By John Rudd on 24/08/2016 22:58:37

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Posted by Muzzer on 23/08/2016 21:21:40:

A biscuit is something that goes soft after being left out. A cake goes hard. That's actually the technical definition in the UK – and at least that is somewhat easier to assess.

Murray – when you lived "over here" – you obviously never had any birthday cake while sitting outside in the Vancouver "sunshine". Even much further east, cake left out generally either gets swiped by racoons, or gets washed away by a passing thunderstorm.

Now, a biscuit, on the other hand, is used for joining wood from what I see from the woodworking section of the retail stores. Never seen a soft biscuit there.

Cookies, on the other hand, either exist somewhere in a web page, or get swiped by passing children, especially if they contain chocolate chips …

John.

[Mick HenshallParticipant @mickhenshall99321]

Are there some tabets you should be taking John ?

Mick

[Mick HenshallParticipant @mickhenshall99321]

Or tablets even

Mick

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