What did you do Today 2018

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Not the end of the day yet, but it has been a busy weekend so I suspect not much more is going to get done.

Friday down to the Bristol exhibition for the day.

Saturday some time in the club workshop followed by public running on the track.

Today Rugby radio rally where an old but new in box boring bar and this interesting book (pub 1951) for £3 the pair!

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

The only 'fault' I can see is that the nuts are to a'modern' standard and should be thicker and be the same as the bolt diameter.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I've spent the weekend loading up my trailer and car to take my stationary engine and pump display to the Great Dorset Steam Fair on Tuesday, the rally starts on thursday this week and finishes Bank holiday Monday , my mate fetched our 1980's Rapido fold away caravan around to prepare that as well, my mate tows that as his Ford Fusion would have a hernia trying to pull away from the kerb . I've also made up a towing hitch for my mobility scooter to pull a garden trailer as our caravan will be a good ten minute walk from the engine display, carrying our fuel and tools will be a lot easier.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 19/08/2018 16:09:56

[Richard S2Participant @richards2]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2018 09:10:28:

Yesterday I fitted the perch brackets to the smokebox on my traction engines: Can anyone spot the "deliberate" mistake? Andrew

To me, it looks like the inner stud of the lower grouping is not equidistant to the 2 outer studs. It appears to be closer to the upper of the 2. If so, I have no idea why it is deliberate.

Is the arrangement the same on the other side?.

Edited By Richard S2 on 19/08/2018 16:26:47

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Richard S2,

That is a REALLY nice and very desirable oiler, well done sir, a great find. I have only ever had 2 of these and they did VERY well, both went to Australia. There are several other nice designs of 'tea pot ' oil cans, but very hard to find.

I have periodic bouts of 'end and cap' making sessions for the many oilers we get. Ther are a surprising number of different theads to deal with. I keep meaning to make notes as I do them but always in a hurry!

Cheers, Martin

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Just as well you have not put the rivits in yet Andrew and as for those custom made nuts

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Today … Went over to Chesterfield, for their [first?] Classic Vehicle Show, in the marketplace.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, despite having left my camera battery at home in the charger

Spent a little more on the stalls than I expected, but much less than I could have done !

Excellent afternoon out … and the Lord Mayor seemed impressed with it all, so there may be more.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 19/08/2018 17:28:29

[Anonymous]

Posted by Richard S2 on 19/08/2018 16:26:10:

To me, it looks like the inner stud of the lower grouping is not equidistant to the 2 outer studs. It appears to be closer to the upper of the 2. If so, I have no idea why it is deliberate.

Give that man a beer!

Yep, the inner stud is not symmetric to the other two. It's a foul up. The stooopid CAD system decided to measure to the side of the hole, not the centre. For threaded holes I normally pick this up since the CAD uses core diameter for the hole and the dimension is usually a weird value. But since these holes were 1/4" diameter the dimension remained a whole number of eighths and I didn't spot it until too late. The other side is correct. Still at least it's on the bottom and at the back so it won't be too obvious.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2018 17:53:06

[Anonymous]

Posted by BDH on 19/08/2018 15:15:16:

The only 'fault' I can see is that the nuts are to a'modern' standard and should be thicker and be the same as the bolt diameter.

Actually the nuts were sort of made to the old standard as they are 1/4" thick. Like this:

Mind you at 11mm AF it is undersize. That's for two reasons. One, some of the areas I need to fit them simply don't have enough room for a full size old standard hexagon. Second, it's determined by what hex collets I have for the repetition lathe. I've got 11mm but not 0.525".

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Posted by JasonB on 19/08/2018 17:25:02:

Just as well you have not put the rivits in yet Andrew and as for those custom made nuts

Well we can't all be perfect.

Annoyingly I've just been sent some pictures of the front end of a SCC, from someone on TT, to resolve the issue of the smokebox inner nameplate. The perch bracket is fitted with bolts, which would have been a darn sight easier. I took my design from the SCC in the Burrell museum which uses studs and nuts. Obviously the original workers made it up as they went along. I've also noted the perch bracket has a couple of U-shaped brackets on either side, presumably for lights. So I'll have to add those.

Oh, and for the inner nameplate I'm going to bin the original casting and make a proper one based on cast iron with an inset brass ring with the lettering.

No wonder progress is painfully slow.

Andrew

Edited By Andrew Johnston on 19/08/2018 18:01:54

[David TaylorParticipant @davidtaylor63402]

I made some nameplates for my 0-4-0. They are my first parts on a newly installed Tormach 1100.

David.

[Anonymous]

Posted by David Taylor on 20/08/2018 10:15:43:

I made some nameplates for my 0-4-0. They are my first parts on a newly installed Tormach 1100.

Wow, that's neat. What's the size and what size cutter did you use? I'm in the process of designing the inner nameplate ring for my traction engine; I'm not sure yet whether I'll use a 1/32" or 1mm endmill. One issue is how to ensure the plate is flat to start; with a 0.1mm or 0.2mm DOC flat is good! How did you deal with it? I'll be doing the machining on my Tormach.

Andrew

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Dinosaurs for the grandkids.

I used the mini-jigsaw I got from Lidl a few weeks back.

Edited By Mick B1 on 20/08/2018 11:15:04

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mick B1 on 20/08/2018 11:00:46:

Dinosaurs for the grandkids.

I used the mini-jigsaw I got from Lidl a few weeks back.

And where is the palaeontological evidence that dinosaurs had wheels?

I'm sure the grandkids will love those!

Neil

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 20/08/2018 14:20:44:

Posted by Mick B1 on 20/08/2018 11:00:46:

Dinosaurs for the grandkids.

I used the mini-jigsaw I got from Lidl a few weeks back.

And where is the palaeontological evidence that dinosaurs had wheels?

I'm sure the grandkids will love those!

Neil

Ah well, my theory is that brass just didn't fossilise that well…

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

A couple of weeks back I got some new tyres for my old bandsaw and gave it a bit of a service. It had been stashed away in the back of a shed for the best part of 10 years and the tyres had perished and fallen apart.

Today I was cutting some parts for the 0-4-0 when it started to slow down and it eventually stopped. I thought the motor had given up, but it was the drive belt which had gone the way of the tyres and ended in bits. Luckily when I bought the tyres I also bought a spare belt which is unusual for me as I normally dont think that far ahead.

Anyway new belt fitted and I have been making sawdust most of the afternoon, I had forgotten how versatile a bandsaw can be. Its amazing how small a radius you can cut, especially if you cut a small length of radius then cut that piece away and do it in steps working your way around.

[DalboyParticipant @dalboy]

Nothing to do with model engineering as I am still reading about it for future times when I get some machines.

But i did do some turning for a small favour for my sister who wants a footstool with a storage box so managed to get the legs turned ready to start on the box part of the storage

Posted by Ron Laden on 20/08/2018 15:22:08:

 

I had forgotten how versatile a bandsaw can be. Its amazing how small a radius you can cut, especially if you cut a small length of radius then cut that piece away and do it in steps working your way around.

Have to agree a very useful tool indeed.

Edited By Derek Lane 2 on 20/08/2018 16:20:41

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 20/08/2018 14:20:44:

And where is the palaeontological evidence that dinosaurs had wheels?

 

Well the latest scientific research suggests Tyrannosaurus had Feathers, and 'screeched' rather than 'roared" so maybe the discovery of a set of brass wheels could be just around the corner

 

Edited By Alan Waddington 2 on 20/08/2018 17:38:56

[Anonymous]

I've wasted all day sitting at the computer. Someone from the TT forum has kindly sent me some pictures of the smokebox door nameplates on a fullsize Burrell SCC engine. That resulted in me binned all the CAD and CAM done so far as it was plain wrong. After a lot of faffing about, including individually selectively scaling fonts to get everything in, I had a design for the inner nameplate. And then promptly lost it all when the CAD system overwrote all the files. In the end I rang the UK agent for my CAD system for help. Many thanks to David Jupp (who I think is a member of this forum) for putting me straight on Boolean operations so I could merge an assembly into a single part, and from there to an IGS file into my CAM program. Here's the CAD model of the inner boss, all properly done with a cast iron boss and a brass inset ring with the lettering:

And the CAM toolpaths:

The lettering needs tweaking a few thou so that the 1mm cutter can pass through all the gaps, but that should be straightforward. The task tomorrow is get the material on order.

Andrew

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 20/08/2018 21:12:45:

I've wasted all day sitting at the computer. Someone from the TT forum has kindly sent me some pictures of the smokebox door nameplates on a fullsize Burrell SCC engine. That resulted in me binned all the CAD and CAM done so far as it was plain wrong. After a lot of faffing about, including individually selectively scaling fonts to get everything in, I had a design for the inner nameplate. And then promptly lost it all when the CAD system overwrote all the files. In the end I rang the UK agent for my CAD system for help. Many thanks to David Jupp (who I think is a member of this forum) for putting me straight on Boolean operations so I could merge an assembly into a single part, and from there to an IGS file into my CAM program. Here's the CAD model of the inner boss, all properly done with a cast iron boss and a brass inset ring with the lettering:

May I be cheeky?

Could you let me have an STL of that, it would be fun to do a 3D print

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

I just made some new blocks for my expansion link on the brittania. I was a bit worried about having to force the fork open to get the old ones out and the new ones in. I all sprang back to where it should be so that was a bonus.

Old ones were well worn and in need of change.

B

[Anonymous]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 20/08/2018 21:22:14:

May I be cheeky?

Could you let me have an STL of that, it would be fun to do a 3D print

The complete assembly or just the nameplate ring? The whole assembly is fine, but what you can't see is that there is 3/4" boss underneath that locates in the smokebox door. For 3D printing I'd hide that otherwise most of the boss will be unsupported. Confirm what you'd like and I'll ping the STL file by email.

Andrew

[David TaylorParticipant @davidtaylor63402]

Wow, that's neat. What's the size and what size cutter did you use? I'm in the process of designing the inner nameplate ring for my traction engine; I'm not sure yet whether I'll use a 1/32" or 1mm endmill. One issue is how to ensure the plate is flat to start; with a 0.1mm or 0.2mm DOC flat is good! How did you deal with it? I'll be doing the machining on my Tormach.

Thanks Andrew!

The plates are 40x150mm, the engraving is 0.75mm deep. I used a pocket operations with first 4mm then 2mm end mills with 0.25mm DOC, then finished off with a profile operation using a 1.5mm endmill at full DOC. I'm happy with the result with the paint hiding most of the machining marks. I cut the brass to size first so could hold it in the vise.

As for holding stock flat, I'm stumped so far. The next job was to cut some brackets out for my new loco and I couldn't hold the 1.6mm steel flat. I just clamped it down and hoped for the best in that case. Of course that played havoc with the final profile passes, cut-through, and tabbing but I got away with it.

I've been thinking about it for a few days any can only think good quality double sided tape or the superglue trick might do it, but I haven't found any locally. A vacuum table or magnetic chuck isn't on my horizon.

I'm leery of superglue because I tried it recently in the lathe for a copper disc, and had tailstock clamping too, and it still flung out and put a hole in my new workshop wall

David.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Hooray for holidays! I got to work in only an hour 'cos all the numpties who like to jam up the M25 and crash while lane weaving have gone away. Only one a-hole who had queue jumped by going down the wrong lane trying to crash into me today.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by David Taylor on 20/08/2018 23:14:12:

…

…

I'm leery of superglue because I tried it recently in the lathe for a copper disc, and had tailstock clamping too, and it still flung out and put a hole in my new workshop wall

…

My experience of superglue used to hold work is that it works well about 80% of the time and I'm not sure what causes the failures. I wonder if the bond gets too hot? Superglue is also weaker in sheer than in tension, so perhaps the combination of tool pressure and temperature become too much. Bit of a mystery.

Dave

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