What did you do Today 2018

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Robin on 02/05/2018 16:50:10:

You get a classier selection of people on this web site, I bet Sol 7 never crossed your mind

 

Not that one!😉

I can see the 🌞 and will resist making any further comment.

 

Edited By V8Eng on 02/05/2018 20:01:15

Edited By V8Eng on 02/05/2018 20:03:12

[David Standing 1Participant @davidstanding1]

Spoiler alert

Line the Uranus jokes up now

**LINK**

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Over the last few days I coulped a rotary table to my lathe spindle to cut some splines.

Les.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

That's a neat solution, avoiding all that ballache with the dividing plates, gear trains etc. Functional and effective.

Looks as if you have the weight supported by the spindle (no problem), with the white bracket keeping the table base from rotating. And 3 spacers tying the large pulley to the slotted table. Presumably some form of drawbar / expanding mandrel inside the spindle?

Murray

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Impressive Les, I'd never have thought of that, let alone made it work!

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Murray,
The weight is supported on the spindle. There is no expanding mandrel. It is aligned by a bar that is a sliding fit into the pully end of the spindle. The other end of the bar is machined down to 12.0mm and fits into a 12mm MT2 collet that fits the rotary table. the drive is supplied by the aluminium plate that is screwed to the pulley and fixed to the slots in the table at the points where you can see the spacers. The rotational force is taken by the relativly thin standoff which is at righy angles to a line between the centre of the table and the single bolt fastening it to the anti rotation bar. It was done this way as the bore in the end of the spindle was very poorly machined so may not be truely concentric. The thin bracket can flex in the direction of a radius but not at right angles to it. This view shows the coupling better.

Les.

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 03/05/2018 20:12:39

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

An intriguing solution Les; I would never have thought of that!

Brian

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Since it was a lovely day, once the morning chill had dissipated, I spent most of the day in my little greenhouse. Planted out a collection of tomato and cucumber plants for us and Mother-in-law.

Model engineering contribution was that I spent an hour fitting a temperature controlled opener for the louvre vent at the end of the greenhouse. That might make it less likeley that all the plants will get fried if we get another hot spell while I'm still happliy tucked up in bed thinking it's still winter.

[Trevor Crossman 1Participant @trevorcrossman1]

Posted by Les Jones 1 on 03/05/2018 18:05:04:

Over the last few days I coulped a rotary table to my lathe spindle to cut some splines.

Les.

Neat solution!

Trevor

[DrDaveParticipant @drdave]

I have had my milling machine for some years now and it has given good service. Whilst it is a CNC machine (Emco F1), it gets most use as a manual machine using the jog controls to drive the axes. Until today. The rapid traverse button has stuck down, giving me a choice of top speed or nothing on all three axes. I have been putting off an upgrade for as long as possible, but it looks like I will have no choice now.

On the up-side, I now have room in the workshop for my drilling machine (the old Emco control box is LARGE!). It will require some work to make it useable. I don’t even know if it works. The table has been abused more than most. But at least it was cheap: when I collected a surface plate “won” on ebay some years ago, the vendor threw the drill in for free. Perhaps he knew something that I am about to find out…

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Today we say the first baby bird of this season in our garden, a young Blackbird being fed jointly by the adult male and female bird (presumably their one and only).

Nothing to do with Model Engineering I know but this the Tea Room.

Edited By V8Eng on 06/05/2018 20:57:35

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Whilst searching for something unrelated … I happened acoss this patent by Benjamin F. Bee, describing a novel method of making screw-threading taps: **LINK**

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/originalDocument?CC=US&NR=54096A&KC=A&FT=D&ND=3&date=18660424&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP

Worth a look on a wet bright and sunny Bank Holiday Monday : It's only three pages.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: p60 of this book illustrates the 'Tap & Die Factory' but I can find little more:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=u0W0PFvBAPcC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=%22benjamin+f+bee%22&source=bl&ots=0nDVrBfZtW&sig=qhy5syM72yflHsEQ_f3BoZwP4Cc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL8dz5mfPaAhXlB8AKHZGUAYsQ6AEwBHoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22benjamin%20f%20bee%22&f=false

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 07/05/2018 10:01:58

[Anonymous]

Drilled the mounting holes for the chimney base castings. No precision is needed, hence the marking out with Snowpak. The casting is located on a cylindrical boss, so once set up by eye the remaining holes can be drilled by simply rotating the casting:

Not my idea to use two angles plates; that comes from something JasonB posted here recently.

Andrew

[Jon GibbsParticipant @jongibbs59756]

Nothing to do with ME but yesterday afternoon the wife and I and our two dogs drove round to Wasdale Head and walked the Mosedale Horseshoe (Door Head, Red Pike, Scoat, Steeple and Pillar). Our older lab Orla completed her second round of all of the Wainwright fells on Pillar.

We parked at 2:45, just as the weekenders were heading for home, and were back at the van around 9:15 as dusk was closing in. Only saw 3 other people on the fells. Hard work in the heat up to Door Head but blissful to have the fells pretty much to ourselves in the evening sunshine.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Yesterday afternoon, actually, milled two rows of 12mm diameter hemispheres (37 each side) into a large (by my standards) plastic disc, for the rotor of a model Pelton Wheel, that I am hoping to complete for The WaterWorks Museum in Hereford. It needs to be finished and operative before September when Pelton Wheels will be the feature one week end.

While there on Monday, I repainted the rotor, and sealed leaks, on a small one that originally drove a fan, at a country house. At least that made more sense than using a hot air engine to drive a fan to keep the room cool!

This one was fixed onto a wall, so sadly was rather hidden away from public view.

If you haven't been, its well worth a visit. On summer weekends, they have as many as possible of the engines, steam, petrol and oil, running.

The latest start up is a 9 inch bore Wilson Heavy Oil Engine. Probably the only one left in the world, and took five years to get into running order.

On Monday, the Museum unveiled a plaque awarded by I Mech E for the oldest working Triple Expansion steam engine in Britain. It used to pump water from the River Wye, to supply the city of Hereford, and so is on its original site.

Howard

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I agree with Howard, I've been to the museum on my way back from Internal Fire Museum, this is complemented by the journey over the mountains between the two museums where the scenery is also good.

I spent most of yesterday sat on the roof of my leaking garage roof cleaning the corrugated asbestos sheeting because the troughs had been filled with composted material from an old tree I recently had taken down, it kept my pressure washer busy blasting the moss and compost off but it doesn't leak anymore so worth the five hours of work.

Martin P

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 10/05/2018 11:48:50:

Yesterday afternoon, actually, milled two rows of 12mm diameter hemispheres (37 each side) into a large (by my standards) plastic disc, for the rotor of a model Pelton Wheel, that I am hoping to complete for The WaterWorks Museum in Hereford. It needs to be finished and operative before September when Pelton Wheels will be the feature one week end.

While there on Monday, I repainted the rotor, and sealed leaks, on a small one that originally drove a fan, at a country house. At least that made more sense than using a hot air engine to drive a fan to keep the room cool!

SNIP

Howard

Hi there, Howard,

Your post reminded me of something concerning Pelton Wheels that I was told many years ago. Even longer ago than that, domestic wireless broadcast receivers were usually battery powered, domestic mains electricity was rare and differed in characteristics (e.g. voltage, frequency, AC or DC etc) from district to district. The high tension ('H.T.' ) battery was a block of small zinc alkali based cells while the low tension ('L.T.' ) source was a single lead-acid rechargeable. It was, strictly speaking, a 'cell' but was colloquially referred to as 'the L.T. battery'. The wireless receivers of that era used thermionic valves with 2 Volt filaments. It was intended that when the 'L.T. battery' was flat it would be taken to a local shop and exchanged for a charged one. Some people found this to be a nuisance. For the reasons given above, mains re-charging was not feasible. So many wireless listeners used a charging set comprising a small dynamo driven by a Pelton Wheel attached to the kitchen cold water tap. Domestic water supply wasn't metered in those days but was charged according to the rateable value of the house. So the 'L.T. battery' was recharged apparently for free but actually at a cost to the Water Company's pump prime mover.

However, the Water Companies were alert to any sort of waste water (the official jargon for the overflow pipe from the domestic cistern in your roof is 'indicator pipe' ). It seems that the pulsating back pressure from the Pelton Wheel buckets and nozzle propagated quite well back up the water main and was very audible to the Water Company's inspectors using their simple sounding rod.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/05/2018 15:53:37

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/05/2018 15:54:00

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Swarf, Mostly – our first radios('wireless sets' ) were of that type but the LT was by fortnightly exchanged accumulators (glass bodied) by a local chap who delivered and collected. The HT was a rectangular block approx. 8" x 6" x 2" giving 120 volts via corner pin sockets. From memory, the recharged exchange accumulators were 6d a time!! The set was a 'Murphy' and the aerial stretched from the back door to the end of the garden! Patience required on switch-on to allow the valves to 'warm up'.

rgds

Bill

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

Along with lots of other exhibitors and traders, took my Burrell-Boydell to the Doncaster Exhibition.

Brian

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Cornish Jack on 10/05/2018 18:33:43:

Swarf, Mostly – our first radios('wireless sets' ) were of that type but the LT was by fortnightly exchanged accumulators (glass bodied) by a local chap who delivered and collected. The HT was a rectangular block approx. 8" x 6" x 2" giving 120 volts via corner pin sockets. From memory, the recharged exchange accumulators were 6d a time!! The set was a 'Murphy' and the aerial stretched from the back door to the end of the garden! Patience required on switch-on to allow the valves to 'warm up'.

rgds

Bill

Mum tells of clothes ruined whilst moving accumulators. They were taken by tram or bus to a Radio Shop for recharging and tended to leak acid. If your own battery didn't get you, someone else's would!

The thing I miss most about electronic valves is the wonderful smell as they warm up. Truly a Madeleine moment!

Dave

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Well I still use a valve radio in my workshop. It's an ex-WD R1155, modified by yours truly with external power supply and internal output stage. I haven't got around to stringing up the long-wire aerial yet, following the house move, but it's on the list, albeit quite a long way down!

Off to the Doncaster show in a couple of hours. It's only 3 miles away and this will be the first model exhibition that I've been to for about sixty years! Quite looking forward to it.

John

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Jon Gibbs on 08/05/2018 10:26:35:

Nothing to do with ME but yesterday afternoon the wife and I and our two dogs drove round to Wasdale Head and walked the Mosedale Horseshoe (Door Head, Red Pike, Scoat, Steeple and Pillar). Our older lab Orla completed her second round of all of the Wainwright fells on Pillar.

We parked at 2:45, just as the weekenders were heading for home, and were back at the van around 9:15 as dusk was closing in. Only saw 3 other people on the fells. Hard work in the heat up to Door Head but blissful to have the fells pretty much to ourselves in the evening sunshine.

I would have enjoyed that walk!

[Ian ParkinParticipant @ianparkin39383]

A neighbour knocked on my door this morning with an interesting project for me to do!!

So just got to put it all together get it running and then decide which way he wants to proceed…hes thinking oily rag rather than concours

Edited By Ian Parkin on 12/05/2018 14:04:03

Edited By Ian Parkin on 12/05/2018 14:04:20

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

John H – Aaaah the 1155!! Much the better half of the 54/55 combination. Spent many hours flogging round the Middle East, straining ears through the static to try to pick up Cairo … or anyone recognisable!! The 'Magic Eye' tuning indicator impressed onlookers more than operators! Back-tuning the 54 to a scratchy warbling signal on the 55 was always a bit of a trial of patience.

rgds

Bill

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I took some rubbish to the tip and spotted a lump of steel 9"*6"*6" I no that one can't buy from our tip,so I approached a worker and asked if a 10 pound note would see it to my boot.He said to keep my eye on his boss and open my boot.I'm glad he lifted it in as when taking it out I found out how heavy it was.I bought some 3/4' plate yesterday 12' *6" and this from a mate ,a 10 pound note and no receipt so I think todays buy is a gift.Now to see if I can cut it on my bandsaw ? .

Frank

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