What Did You Do Today (2017)

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

Another surprisingly productive weekend. This has to stop!

The project was to make an engraving chisel.

The first challenge was that the metal part needed some knurling. I'd bought a knurler at Alexandra Palace, but I struggled with it. The first problem was that the knurled part was small and the knurler seemed too big. After a cup of tea, I realised that the inner holes were there for a reason! Gah!

Next it stuck out too far, so I put on my thinking cap and bolted a piece on the side to fit in the tool holder.

Then my first Knurling since my O level metalwork exam …

Looking at it now, I expect it could be better, but frankly, I'm well chuffed.

I turned the lathe into a wood lathe and the new wood lathe rest worked really very well – once I'd turn the revs up to maximum – trying to run too slow jarred the wood out of the chuck.

Even more surprising, I finished when I expected (hoped) to and went out for a rather nice walk with the missus in Gods country…

Tomorrow just has to be a total mess!

Iain

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Turns out the play in my steplad's steering was an almost sheared bolt on the column UJ – when he tried to tighten it it just fell apart.

Getting it off was a chance to use a dremel + cutoff wheel which removed the bit in the middle that was keeping it on the shaft, then put two flats on the end of the bolt so the remaining stub (held very soldily with studlock) could be unscrewed and a new bolt fitted.

Neil

[Anonymous]

Not so much today as this morning, before coffee, I milled out this slot in a lump of brass:

The slot is 1" wide and 2" deep. I roughed out with the 7/8" diameter cutter on the milling machine table, as deep as it would go. Finish to depth and cleaning up the sides were done with the 3/4" cutter in the collet chuck. The sides were cleaned up by climb milling full depth and a WOC of 10 thou at 1000rpm and 750mm/min. Overall time taken was about an hour. Next job is cut the block into six 2" lengths.

Andrew

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Over the weekend I finished off the timberwork for my new lathe stand. It uses 4.5"x3.5" legs, 1.5 metres of M10 studding, 6"x2" supports under the top and is double planked on top. Top is 1200 x 595mm and easily takes the Clarke 430 that is destined for it. Masses of diagonal bracing. Total weight approx. 45kg. Cost: £7.98, for the studding and about £3 for the screws. All timber rescued from pallets of various sizes. Now I need to make a tray from a piece of 18swg galvanized iron sheet I found in a skip some while back.

While I was at it, used the left over timber from the pallets I broke up to make a block of flats for 8 Sparrow pairs and attached it to the front eves of our house with 2 bits of 50x50x3mm angle. Been feeling guilty about the Sparrow nests after I blocked off their access to our eves because a rat got in through there over winter.

My 'dead' car battery powered electric screwdriver walked through putting in all the screws. As many of the screws in the stand were 4" long, the standard batteries would have died by screw 10 even when in perfect nick. The car battery was showing not the faintest sign of being used by at screw 100.

Regards,

Richard.

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Shaun, those yolks make me think of a lot of wasted hours, I have now made three sets for a mates Triton. He keeps changing the forks, latest and last is to use forks with a twin disc set up.

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

Posted by Involute Curve on 12/03/2017 15:27:48:

Got up early this morning and machined these fork yokes for a mates Triumph, I should get them finished in the morning with a bit of luck………

Shaun

.

Hi Shaun, They look fantastic.

What grade of aluminium is used for yokes.? – I ask this as I may have to make some for somebody.

Nick

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

6082-T6 would be plenty strong enough.

Regards,

Richard.

[russellParticipant @russell]

this weekend i proved that $3000 worth of machinery and $0.05 of scrap can salvage a $2.00 plastic tap handle…

It was stuck firmly on the tap spindle, so i made a simple puller and removed it with no (perceptible) damage. actually, i saved $12 as i would have needed to replace 5 other matching handles…

(actually, just looked up replacement price – i actually saved over $20.00! – not to mention an excuse to spend an hour in the shed…)

-russ

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

Posted by richardandtracy on 13/03/2017 16:01:55:

6082-T6 would be plenty strong enough.

Regards,

Richard.

This is very true for most yokes the ones I pictured before are Certal 7075, why because I literally bought a ton of the stuff as bankrupt stock, they are way over the top from and engineering point of view but the guy wanted them to look chunky, and although 6082 T6 is good enough for a meaty yoke like these, I have made yokes for race bikes which are much lighter in section etc in this case 7075 would be the better choice, horses for courses I guess.

Shaun

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The other week I dropped my Wilkinson Sword secateurs, and one of the plastic handles snapped off leaving a one inch steel stub, so today I made up a steel handle and welded it on, and if I use them enough they won't go rusty, and if they do, what the heck, they are about 40 years old.

Ian S C

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Beat you there Ian, when my Father came back from Germany after the war he brought a pair of Secatures home. I still use them now and they are fine, so,I think that makes them 72 years old at least.

Clive

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Today I managed to finish my BP revolver loading rig, I could have bough one for half the cost of the materials but I think that piece of English Oak with the brass looks quite good.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

John, If you want to shoot him dead, ram your powder, not the lead. I have had experience of BP shooting. I owned a Beretta O/U shotgun (Black powder) and it was a delight to shoot.

I used Pyrodex and pre measured all the loads and just broke the package into the barrels and used the paper to act as a wad. Very satisfying bringing down a fat Pheasant.

On the clay shoot everyone wanted a go and it pulverised the clays. Stupidly I sold it and have regretted it ever since.

Clive

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Clive, I wasn't considering the secateurs as old, I was thinking that they should have lasted longer, and I expected the steel to go the full length of the handles, I would prefer that the other handle would last a few more years. They dropped vertically on to the tip of the blades, those being closed at the time, and the lower one was the one that broke. Oh well it will be time to prune shortly.

Ian S C

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 15/03/2017 08:49:34:

John, If you want to shoot him dead, ram your powder, not the lead. I have had experience of BP shooting. I owned a Beretta O/U shotgun (Black powder) and it was a delight to shoot.

I used Pyrodex and pre measured all the loads and just broke the package into the barrels and used the paper to act as a wad. Very satisfying bringing down a fat Pheasant.

On the clay shoot everyone wanted a go and it pulverised the clays. Stupidly I sold it and have regretted it ever since.

Clive

Clive, I have two Rugers, one of them made in the last batch Ruger made. I use 'real' black and Pyro although the Pyro is more expensive than black and more hydroscopic. I use plastic phials with pre-measured loads for speed mainly. Someone asked me last week what amount of powder I was using, I said calculated by using the biggest spout I have on the flask which just about coincides with how much I can cram in the cylinder. He wasn't impressed by my technique or my scores but you should have seen his face when he saw the muzzle flash!

Here is my latest and about 95% correct, base pin.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

John, to get the basic powder charge for a Black Powder gun, put the projectile on a flat surface( I assume a ball) and gently trickle BP over it until a pyramid is formed. You can then weigh that amount or measure it to get the setting for the charge.

I had a Joseph Harcombe BP rifle, dated 1888, 5 groove Ogive rifling and bore of .567". I made a bullet mould akin to a Minie type bullet and was able to hit a dustbin lid at 200 yards.

Clive

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 15/03/2017 13:44:16:

and was able to hit a dustbin lid at 200 yards.

Clive

.

I have hit many with a 500 Velo………………….

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 15/03/2017 13:44:16:

John, to get the basic powder charge for a Black Powder gun, put the projectile on a flat surface( I assume a ball) and gently trickle BP over it until a pyramid is formed. You can then weigh that amount or measure it to get the setting for the charge.

I had a Joseph Harcombe BP rifle, dated 1888, 5 groove Ogive rifling and bore of .567". I made a bullet mould akin to a Minie type bullet and was able to hit a dustbin lid at 200 yards.

Clive

Clive, I am jealous of your rifle, do you still have it? I have all the books, and I had heard of the pyramid measuring method. My BP is for fun, even 'though I am a new member of the MLAGB (they would I know, frown on my cavalier attitude to BP firearms) they are my fun guns. I shoot F class 7mm and .6.6/284 for 'serious' shooting. I am building a repro Baker and have an Indian 'Baker' smoothbore which I have yet to fire.

I was once privileged to fire a real Baker about eight years ago what enormous fun that was, singed me beard, missed the target (it was 200 yards) with all but three of my twenty shots.

I'm not having a go or sniping here (pun intended) you just need to know what a happy-go-lucky and daft old bugger I am

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

John, I no longer have the Harcombe, I was in the army and was posted abroad and could not take it with me so i sold it and saved the money for a later purchase but thats another story.

Clive

[Allan BParticipant @allanb]

so what have I done today?…

well I might have just broken a lathe

so the story goes like this, I am doing a Level 3 diploma in engineering at the local college, the main point of doing it was to play with CNC, in the interest of more chance of a job, but there was also a couple of other bits I wanted to learn such as screw cutting, and gear cutting.

it all started off quite well, single start screw threads I got down very quickly (see my other tread about trying to get my head round change gears lol) so next was to try twin start threads, I am on the Colchester student, doing quite well on the first thread of the twin start, nice slow speed of 40rpm, foot brake to stop at the end recess, used the tread gauge to set up for the second thread, and this is where it all went wrong…

did the first pass on the second thread, pulled out, put the lathe into reverse, went back to the start, did my second pass, pulled out to go back to the start, only this time I put it back into forward big crash later and the tool post has crashed right into the chuck bending two of the cam-lock pins and snapping the third off, after a bit of a hunt we managed to replace the pins, then got myself all set up again with another piece of bar to start again, starts the lathe up, only issue is the lead screw no longer turns the only conclusion that we could come up with is I have broken the gearbox, as all the input gears to the gearbox are fine.

so the moral of the story is to not get too cocky and try and do two things at once. but on the bright side, at least it wasn't my Myford that I made the mistake on

[John BaguleyParticipant @johnbaguley78655]

Hopefully there will be a shear pin somewhere in the drive train to the leadscrew. If so, that will probably have gone.

John

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Yes there is a shear pin to save the day!

[Allan BParticipant @allanb]

hope so, but now got to strip the whole thing to find it, and with college funding the way it is I cant see them paying anyone to do it

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

There was a day when the trainers were expected to know how to do running repairs on the machine tools and to educate the apprentices in the process.

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

I believe you only need to remove the gear on the leadscrew end to change the shear pin. The shear pin is brass as I recall, between gear and leadscrew, and the gear is retained by a nut. It was more than 30 years ago that I changed my last one on a Student, and I have worked on many lathes of different makes since, so forgive me if I recall anything incorrectly. JD

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