What Did You Do Today (2016)

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

My dad showed me how to cook bacon in the microwave, you cover the rashers with kitchen paper and it soaks up the gunge, leaving nicely cooked bacon for a sanny

Aint technology wonderful (most of the time)

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2016 12:09:39:

Today … I spent longer than usual cleaning the Microwave Oven.

Yesterday … I thought it might be a good [save the planet] idea to melt some Wax in the Microwave, instead of using the regular domestic oven.

Don't try this at home, Kids

MichaelG.

.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2016 12:15:23

It's a bit early for Halloween!

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 16/10/2016 21:50:33:

I have had company in the workshop this weekend; mostly Mr. Fudgeit and Mr. Bodgeit, but also on occasion Mr. S*dit. However, at the end of the weekend a helical gear has appeared:

I

Well done Andrew!

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Best way to clean wax, and dripping etc. , is to let go cold and scrape with a stanley knife blade. Even put in the freezer. How do I know ?

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Well done Neil, you are now aware that things in microwaves heat from the inside out, it's very important to understand this, saves a lot of time cleaning microwaves. If you ever heat a tinned pudding, make a small hole in the lid first, EVEN IF THE INSTRUCTIONS DON'T MENTION IT. This is how I discovered explosive forming of aluminium (was previously a saucepan), this also involved a lot of cleaning which had to be dove quickly, before my wife got home.

Dave

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by daveb on 18/10/2016 16:06:27:

Well done Neil, you are now aware that things in microwaves heat from the inside out, it's very important to understand this, saves a lot of time cleaning microwaves.

.

Dave,

Might one assume that should read 'Well done Michael …' ?

I was the perpetrator, and yes; I know how Microwaves heat [which makes it all the more embarrassing]

Further research led me to this useful page: **LINK**

http://www.cheesemaking.com/learn/how-to/waxing-cheese.html

MichaelG.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Since it's confession time. My wife has been troubled recently by the strange "bacon" smell that our microwave seems to emit at the moment. It's been cleaned with various oven cleaning products but the smell persists.

It's all a great mystery really – and probably absolutely nothing to do with the small box that was (experimentally) treated for woodworm in it a month or so ago. I'm fairly sure the woodworm all perished but unfortunately so did the box (which was very badly charred inside) a bit 'over-cooked' so to speak…

Fortunately, Herself doesn't look at ME Forums and I felt the kindest thing to do (under the circumstances) was not to mention it to her.

Regards,

IanT

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I have my share of cleaning problems…

I fed the dogs 'cured hambones' on Sunday – a bit concerned to discover they ate them aside from a few crumbs, then drank vast amounts of water. The cow bones last weeks…

Several kitchen & garden cleaning sessions followed. Finally coughing noise followed by the white lab, who was stood at the top of the stairs doing a projectile vomit of a can of dogfood and a large bone-chip down the stairs and wall.

The carpet cleaner was locked in a garden store and I couldn't find teh key so I ended up using a brush followed by the poor workshop wet'n'dry vac.

I would have swapped all that for a microwave full of wax… actually, no I'm not sure I would!

Neil

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by Gordon W on 18/10/2016 15:57:20:

Best way to clean wax, and dripping etc. , is to let go cold and scrape with a stanley knife blade. Even put in the freezer. How do I know ?

Apparently another way is a good hard kick in the nether regions — works for the ears. Dunno about microwaves though

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 18/10/2016 16:51:14

[Anonymous]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 18/10/2016 14:07:01:

That helical gear looks very smart. Could you please show how the dividing head is connected to the table leadscrew. I'm idly wondering how I might connect my Timmins type dividing head to my Sharp mill (in horizontal mode).

Rod: Here's the basic setup:

The table drive shaft is already keyed at this end, ready for the appropriate gear. The banjo, with two slots, fits over the drive shaft on the dividing head. That shaft is also keyed for a gear, the large 100 tooth gear in this case. There are spigots that bolt in the slot(s) on the banjo. The spigots carry a keyed sleeve, which allows pairs of gears to be locked together, while still free to rotate. The banjo, and spigots can be moved as required to get the gears into mesh.

For the opposite hand gear, where I need to reverse the direction of the dividing head, I have had to be rather more 'creative' to get an idler gear fitted on a second spigot. I got it working last night, but it feels very tight, so this evenings task is to file a few thou out of the end of the slot on the banjo so that everything runs more freely.

I've been looking at how to fit the dividing head to the Bridgeport, for short lead gears. The table leadscrew has a Woodruff key for the handle, so I would have to arrange some sort of sleeve with an internal keyway for the Woodruff key, and an external key for the gear. Note that I only have one handle on the Bridgeport table, on the right. I removed the left hand handle as I never use it, and since space is tight it's one less thing to get jammed. And it's at the right height to catch one where it hurts.

Andrew

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

It would have been the late 70's when mum ordered her first microwave, it was the six week holiday, and yours truly took the delivery….always an inquisitive type i eagerly unpacked this shiny piece of space age technology, tossed the unread instruction book to one side and looked around the kitchen for something to cook……

My eyes fell on the egg rack……as you can probably predict, this didn't end well at all

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Andrew – presumably this is a true universal milling machine ie you can set the table at an angle to the saddle – other than 90 degrees – so that you can cut helical teeth. The power feed to the table on a universal machine will have to allow for this angle of swing and presumably also has backlash control for horizontal use. If you do manage to set up the Bridgeport, presumably it will only be able to cut straight cut gears.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Is red cheese wax actually wax these days, or perhaps 'improved' in some way? I fid when chucked on the fire it is very reluctant to burn.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Found a HUGE mushroom, in a spot where I have seen several big, but slug-blown ones this year. Nearly 10" across and completely untouched. Well it's gone now, although i confess that I wasn't up to eating all of it, must have weighed nearly two pounds.

It might have been a horse mushroom, as there was faint yellow on the stem (it wasn't a yellow stainer – they go bright yellow at the base and this didn't).

Neil

<thud>

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Andrew,

Thanks for the pic. I could contrive something similar but I would have to drive the dividing head spindle directly, not through the worm, which would be a shame for long leads, losing the 60:1 ratio.

Muzzer, does the Bridgeport power feed not hang off the end of the table like on mine, thereby allowing the table to be swung to the helix angle?

Cheers,

Rod

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

That's a very nice helical gear! …quick, get some protective wax on it!
———

Started repairing a camera motor drive (Nikon MD-11) which may require a couple of gears to be manufactured. One is a sector gear. More pictures in my camera parts album. The second photo here shows the sector gear with a broken tooth (click to enlarge). There is also a break in the gear that it meshes with. There are some other tiny parts to remake due to them disintegrating during disassembly.

Ed.

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

There is no problem cutting helical gears on a bridgeport or similar turret mill ,set the head over to the angle required and either cut at the back or front of the work not on top as per universal mill. The one advantage of a true universal mill is that the cutter can be easily be set central to the gear and then the table swung to the required angle.its a bit mor tricky setting the centre height on a turret mill. Also the smaller spindle on most turret mills is not really rigid enough for cutting gears with large deep teeth,the horizontal mill has a far more rigid set up with the overarm and support bearing. a plain horizontal mill with a swivelling vertical head attachment can also be used,to cut helical gears with a shorter lead i.e. those 2 to 1 ratio gears for the side shaft of gas and oil engines the angle is approx 27 degrees and the head must rotate until it close to horizontal, on some mills the heads only swing round to 45 or 60 degrees.I have cut a lot of helical gears for stationary engines on a elliot millmor turret mill and an Acock and Shipley universal mill,though the A/S is preferred as it has an int 40 spindle.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Looks like an Adcock and Shipley 2ES with universal table. No electric power feed obvious but I assume a beast like this has feeds on the X and Y. I seem to recall some comment about the lack of power feed on the Z.

Perhaps Andrew or another owner will enlighten us…..

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

I spent the last few days sorting out my Colchester Master, last week I lost the soluble oil from the tank ,of course the lathes against the wall and the only access is at the back of the lathe ,so a lot off effort with a crowbar I got the lathe away from the wall and got the tank out, the bottom had corroded out,no doubt due to the way modern soluble oil degrades so quickly to a corrosive liquid.so made a new bottom and got a friend to mig weld it together, I have only got a stick welder an am not very good with thin sheet steel, he wants a couple of big end bolts for his National gas engine in return. I also had a problem with the main drive motor making high pitched noises when it had been running some time and the noise was really irritating,so now was the time to look at it ,real struggle to get the heavy motor out from the headstock base casting ,and harder to get it back,it was a lot easier when motors used to be hung at the back of the lathe with easy access. Took off the fan cover from the motor,the fan was loose (sliding fit )on the shaft,and just retained with a roll pin,after having a similar problem with a myford motor last year in that case a loose fan made a clicking noise. so secured fan with quick set Araldite and a screw and nyloc nut and at the moment it appeared to have solved the problem. strange how two motors driving two lathes both made around 1973 have had loose fans within the last few months. A really filthy job as the Colchester motor has probably never been removed and there was an awful lot of muck around it, completed the job with a new v belt for the headstock oil pump drive, good service from Simply Bearings ,ordered monday morning arrived in post today and postage was free,living out in the sticks it would have cost at least a gallon of fuel to go out and buy one locally.So touch wood all is well and back to making gears for an Amanco stationary engine

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Decided not to put this on bodgers lodge as not of sufficient interest but more an exercise in making swarf.

 

 

Started off at dinner time today with these two pieces. The ring is 14" diameter and 1 1/4" thick. I trepanned the centre out yesterday to save time and material.

The other lump is 10" diameter by 7" long slug of alloy or rather Billet as it sounds so much more expensive.

 

The 10" lump wants boring out into a top hat shape with 15mm walls and a 12mm end, then it wants fastening to the ring to make a very heavy duty bell housing for a hydraulic pump to connect to a 20 HP motor.

 

The off the shelf units are die cast out of monkey metal and they keep ripping the pumps off the motors.

 

Pretty well there by 3 o'clock and all roughed out but had to break off to repair the fan shaft on the floor in the first pic, it's now got important.

 

 

 

Two bits bolted together by 6 cap head bolts ad a skim on the outside to clean up.

As it's too big at 10" to pass over the cross slide I have had to use an upside down boring bar and run the lathe in reverse to get the reach.

 

Note the three M16 nuts welded to the soft jaws so I can hold this 14" diameter ring without the jaws hitting the bed. Turned after welding so I know they run true.

Has to do it this way as no one stocks 5849C collets

 

 

Knock off tonight at 6 o'clock and this is as far as I can go.

Waiting for the pump in the morning as I think they are going to supply a larger pump than they have been using seeing as this mounting won't bend and explode like the die cast ones and then just needs four M20 tapped holes for the motor.

 

 

Pump is easy it's only a register hole and four M10 or M12 tapped holes.

Edited By John Stevenson on 18/10/2016 20:51:15

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Another use for the microwave is sterilizing compost for growing seeds. I put the compost in the plant pot and initially give it 30 secs. just to see how warm it gets and adjust time from that. Most compost is fairly dry but sometimes it can be quite damp. This, particularly important if you grow your own cucumbers as the seeds can rot off if the soil is not sterile.

Clive

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Many years ago there was trend for people who did crafts with kids using toilet roll tubes to 'sterilise' them first by microwaving them.

Apparently it's completely ineffective (they are too dry to heat up evenly) but sometimes they can catch fire

Yes, I have been party to some strange risk assessments in my career…

Neil

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

The Adcock and Shipley 2E universal mill had separate electric motor feed and gearbox mounted low down under the lhs of the knee, there was only power feed on the x table axis,no power to y and z axis, these mills were generally used on production milling the work held by fixtures and the cutter/cutters mounted on a long horizontal mandrel .the y and z axes were locked up ,the operator merely loaded the fixture ,shuts the guards and set the x axis in motion. Mills with power on all axes were not very common and were expensive usually made by Cincinatti,Brown and Sharp ,and the continental mills i.e. Deckel etc and used for milling on one off work or small batch runs used by higher skilled operators, a very high proportion of industrial production only required machines with x axis feed ,even with a true universal mill with swivelling table there is virtually no need for y and z axis feed when spiral milling.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Bazyle on 18/10/2016 18:36:53:

Is red cheese wax actually wax these days, or perhaps 'improved' in some way? I fid when chucked on the fire it is very reluctant to burn.

.

The stuff on the Truckle Brothers mini-truckles appears to be.

**LINK**

http://bradburyscheese.co.uk/awards/truckle-bros-smoky-cheddar/

… Not so sure about Grandma Singleton's or Baby-Bel though.

MichaelG.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 18/10/2016 21:19:59:

Many years ago there was trend for people who did crafts with kids using toilet roll tubes to 'sterilise' them first by microwaving them.

Apparently it's completely ineffective (they are too dry to heat up evenly) but sometimes they can catch fire

Yes, I have been party to some strange risk assessments in my career…

Neil

And in the process, they filled their microwave oven with toilet germs. Doh!

[Author]

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