What Did You Do Today (2017)

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Hi Murray,

I thought I was the only one who did that sort of thing. It is so easy to make a mistake like that with CNC machining, especially when you are using an ATC and haven't checked that the tool numbers in the program match those in the tool carousel, or you forgot to change drill lengths when using a different size drill.

It's amazing how far a 6mm carbide end mill can penetrate steel on fast down feed and with the spindle doing 5000 RPM. I caught one crash on video and I was truly impressed by the red heat generated when the end mill sank into the work piece.

Trouble with most crashes are that you never reach the stop button in time.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Haha yes, it seemed to be proceeding at a sedate pace…..and then suddenly made a bolt for it. The servo drives registered an overload and tripped out the controller and drive through the estop circuit, so it came to a halt while my jaw was still dropping.

I'm going to remake the part (it's the cover plate for the housing in the pics) even though it wasn't damaged, as I stupidly picked up off a different feature and I got enough of an offset to create a visible mismatch. Practice makes better if not actually perfect.

Murray

[Anonymous]

Posted by Muzzer on 24/09/2017 17:46:45:

Looks pretty darn good to me, 'mistake' or otherwise. Ship it, the customer will never know!

It's surprising how far a HSS drill will bend if you rapid to the next hole without quite clearing the previous hole first.

Andrew

[Dean da SilvaParticipant @deandasilva59410]

My lathe (Craftsman model 101.07403- I jokingly call her a Lyford or a Fauxford since the covers make it look a bit like a Myford) gave birth.

The jubilant mother.

Me with the offspring.

Fascinating what machines can do these days.

Edited By Dean da Silva on 25/09/2017 06:12:19

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

After that he encased it in concrete

Now there's a plan. Open up a moderate hole and fill it up… that would give me the 4 stud points

It's ridiculously heavy as it is, will mull it over, welding on a top plate probably better

(One for the future. sigh.)

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Last night I created the baseplate and mount for the cheap grinder to go with my HH Advanced Grinder rest. 30mm plywood base 600×300 with a 3mm steel plate for the mag mounts.

Swivel plate and minor accessories including single point dresser and 4-facet drill grinding set-up bottom left. I need to make the bushings for the grinding wheels next and then onto the end-mill accessory.

Jon

Edited By Jon Gibbs on 25/09/2017 10:23:17

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

I am spending today, all week in fact, in my favourite place on earth (Fettling shed being the second favourite) This was Stickledown Range at 900 yards this morning. What's that to do with engineering you ask, come and look at the rifles and equipment in use this week. The European 'F' Class Championships. It won't be on the news because its GUNS!

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Thanks for the picture, John: one of my favourite places, too, although visits are now impossible due to distance from the north of Scotland and advancing age. Used to go there regularly when I was editor of Target Gun magazine in the early 1980s.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Safe. I think that design is a wall safe as it has square edges. A proper free standing model would have rounded edges and a more obvious thicker sidewall.
My father used to have a 'one ton' safe in his office in Africa. He kept the bread in it as that was highly tempting if he left the office for a minute, whereas money was close to worthless. They used to send tin trunks up country maybe 100 miles with the equivalent of half a million pounds in a taxi with no escort.

[RobinParticipant @robin]

Posted by John Gardener on 25/09/2017 12:47:58:

Stickledown Range at 900 yards this morning.

Huh, call that a gun

**LINK**

Did that work?

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Robin on 25/09/2017 15:39:47:

Posted by John Gardener on 25/09/2017 12:47:58:

Stickledown Range at 900 yards this morning.

Huh, call that a gun

**LINK**

Did that work?

That is serious fun! I have a flintlock, not as big as that, but it is fun. As is shooting at a target 1000 yards away trying to hit a central bull the size of a CD. No other sporting implement rhymes with fun, but gun does

Take a look here **LINK**

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Mike on 25/09/2017 13:02:59:

Thanks for the picture, John: one of my favourite places, too, although visits are now impossible due to distance from the north of Scotland and advancing age. Used to go there regularly when I was editor of Target Gun magazine in the early 1980s.

Target Gun Magazine, memories. I still have one, when we moved house, from Plymouth to Bisley about twelve years ago, sadly, about ten years worth of TG and Guns Review went into a skip. Interestingly enough, on the ground this morning, I found a nickel .38 super case. Must have been there since the last time Stickledown was used by the UKPSA for a match. Thank you Mike, for all the excellent magazines.

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Napoleonic era engineering. A genuine Ezekiel Baker .610 calibre, flintlock rifle, not mine, I was allowed to shoot it a few years ago. At three hundred yards I was asking too much of it but to fire eight thousand quid's worth (ten years ago price) of history brought a huge smile to my face. I am now building one in my fettling shed.

[RobinParticipant @robin]

There is something deliciously pointable about a Baker. Did you see there is a signed copy of his book Remarks on Rifle Guns up for sale? I am trying very hard not to buy it but I am not strong…

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Robin on 25/09/2017 17:45:09:

There is something deliciously pointable about a Baker. Did you see there is a signed copy of his book Remarks on Rifle Guns up for sale? I am trying very hard not to buy it but I am not strong…

Robin, I have a reproduction which is interesting reading. I am so enamoured of the Baker that, not only have I a kit from Ye Olde Rifle Shoppe that, impatient with myself for taking so long building it I bought an Indian Made smoothbore version which does really point well as you say. Long before Sharpe I wanted a Baker. My wife says I can have one if Sean Bean comes with it!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by John Gardener on 25/09/2017 16:05:19:

when we moved house, from Plymouth to Bisley about twelve years ago,

You are serious about your shooting

Neil

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Neil,

I was offered a job by The National Rifle Association, with modest accommodation and a job for SWIMBO too; I had the chance of a lifetime to make my hobby my career.

If it has a trigger – I'm your man. I now live in Plymouth in the winter, fettling; and on the back of the ranges in a mobile home in the summer, shooting and officiating. However did I find the time to work?

F Class, Classic Rifle, Black powder pistol, musket, shotgun. Life has been, and continues to be, good

[RobinParticipant @robin]

John, you will have to come and shoot some ML sporting clays with me, first Sunday every month just outside Guildford

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Robin on 25/09/2017 20:41:01:

John, you will have to come and shoot some ML sporting clays with me, first Sunday every month just outside Guildford

Robin,

Thank you I have shot a few times with Gary Evans both at his ground (Now gone of course) and in Pirbright Barracks. To shoot BP would be fun I know. Sadly my last 'first Sunday' at Bisley for 2017 is this week and I shall be on the 900/1000x firing points most of the day. I have already committed your offer to the plot for next year

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I tried doing some lost PLA casting today. Only about 1.5cc of pattern

Unlike some of the farcical attempts on line I spent a good four hours gradually heating the mould in the stove, to stop water from cracking it. About 2/3 of the PLA poured out and the rest burnt out.

I melted some scrap brass gears but they solidified before I could get in a position to pour properly and missed the mould so it stuck to the aluminium foil I was using to stop PLA sticking to the hearth. The half melted aluminium tube used to contain the plaster also got involved.

Random metallurgy! I stuck everything back in the 'crucible' and remelted. When I took the lid off my crude hearth the aluminium when whoof and partially burned! It then appeared to combine with the brass which started to glow white, rather than orange and went more fluid (which is odd as aluminium bronze melts at a higher temperature than brass. I assume this was surface aluminium burning or was it zinc? Perhaps the reaction was exothermic enough to keep it all molten?

Anyway, it poured more easily but I thought I only got a little bit in the mould.

I put the gas torch out and left it alone, dispirited.

When I came back later i thought I might as well break open the mould… and:

Blow me down… not perfect, but fine for what I need, that's only 32mm high, by the way.

It is a bit brittle, but next time I'll keep the aluminium well away…

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 26/09/2017 15:18:04

[jaCK HobsonParticipant @jackhobson50760]

Proof of concept:

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Mike and John:

I am off to the STANTA battle area at Thetford tomorrow to shoot on Great Carr range, which is equipped with SARTS reactive targets. Great fun!

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

SWMBO indicated, as she sometimes does, that she wanted to be driven to Axminster today by enquiring if I needed anything from Axminster Tools. As it happens I did need one item so off we went. She went off shopping and I went for a browse around Axminster Tools, something I used to really enjoy. But not today; I think they have lost their way.

It had been a while since I had been and they have changed everything around, so nothing was where it was previously or so it seemed; change isn't always a good thing. Lots of big bits of kit, not a lot of what you need to use on or with the kit itself it seemed to me.

So I don't think I shall be going again in a hurry unless they have something I particularly need.

The engineering machinery side was so disappointing, they seem to have tried to go 'upmarket', or at least, more expensive, not necessarily the same thing, at the cost of availability of readily available and affordable lathe and milling tools in particular. The range, of tools for machines not machines themselves, seemed greatly reduced and of very limited selection – where were milling cutters for example – and what there was seemed awfully pricey. Maybe there is a strong market for expensive stuff for folks that can afford it, but it just made me want to look elsewhere for what I need. Sad. Or perhaps it was just me today.

Ho humm, I used to enjoy a browse around their store, but this time I came away quite depressed. I went home and cheered myself up by looking at stuff and prices on the Warco and Arc website, both companies that have served me well in the past, for stuff on the "I want/need list", and then doing a bit in my shed!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I've joined the war against rodents. I've been invaded by a mouse, though it's golden red fur as it flashed into hiding has me wondering if it's an escaped gerbil.

Anyway I'm taking this seriously. I've recruited 007, also known as Psyco-cat, ' Santa Claws', 'Feline Fatale', 'The Jackal', Candycat, 'Tango Uniform', 'Katana', and 'The Bride'. She specialises in 'wet jobs', 'termination with extreme prejudice', 'collateral damage', 'hits' and 'whackings' in return for food and destroying the furniture. Comes highly recommended: if you look carefully she's on the grassy knoll.

So far I'm impressed. She's spent 18 hours pretending to be asleep.

Meanwhile, I've developed and built a better mouse trap.

The mouse climbs inside to eat the peanut butter. Once inside, it can't get out because the bottle tilts and blocks the exit. It would be brilliant if it worked.

As soon as I have a bottled mouse, I shall close the door and set this off:

Got it from ebay. No guarantee of course but I expect it will work…

Dave

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Chris

If you had not mentioned Administer, I would have been convinced I saw your wife with a friend strolling through my local (country town) department store.

One commented that 'Chris has so many tools he does not know what to do with some of them.' The friend replied 'Sure he makes some wonderful things.' 'He does that. Yes, that he does,' came the reply.

That man has a real supporter. Sadly it is not the wife!

[Author]

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