What Did You Do Today 2019

[Roy GardenParticipant @roygarden83469]

cursed, mostly.
And after a long, some would say eventful, "Career" in the oilfield, I have many cusswords, in quite a few languages . .
Decided, (usually a mistake) in order to make "Sprag pins" Bronze load carrying pins.
it would be best to make the threaded ends, then hold the pins by the thread to make the taper on the pins.
(having tried to do the taper then tap the threaded end and had limited success )
So, drill and tap some aluminium bar as a holder.
cue "New and shiny" centre drills (from our favourite far east supplier, the one with a "bang&quot
jeezo, both ends broke. the one in the work and t'other end in the chuck (it slipped)
Finest "chineesium" not a great thing to make bits from . .

Anyhoo, swap ends, drill and tap as planned, insert shiny (but too long) sprag pin and spin it to size
All went well, for seconds and seconds . .
Followed by loud bang leading to a "What the fark was that?!?" look on my face.
oh, ffs . .
nice shiny, if too long, sprag pin now in two pieces . . definitely short enough now, sadly, not fitting anything.
Have tidied up, washed hands and retired to sulk on the 'puter.
And write to complain to another supplier from East of Norfolk about the awful state of the dies they sent me.
(This from a vendor based in a forest . . . a big forest)
Tho it's 3rd party "drop" shipped.
Unused M10 x 1.5 die, absolute poop.
Have written to complain.
As my workmates used to say.
"It may be sh1te"
"But it's cheap sh1te" . . .
or more accurately as my granny used to say . .
"Roy, yer an ejit"
"Buy cheap, buy twice"

Now, where did the wife hide my emergency reserve bottle of whisky? . .

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Roy Garden on 28/05/2019 15:13:05:

cursed, mostly.

Decided, (usually a mistake) in order to make "Sprag pins" Bronze load carrying pins.
it would be best to make the threaded ends, then hold the pins by the thread to make the taper on the pins.
(having tried to do the taper then tap the threaded end and had limited success )

… Followed by loud bang l

Ah, sounds like one of my days! Bronze is on my hate list and some varieties are far worse than others. Tough, hard, prone to grab and not straightforward to machine at the best of times. I wish I knew an easy way to grip a taper. Swearing at them doesn't work

Dave

[Steve King 5Participant @steveking5]

Finished and blued up some tee nuts.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I got a text an hour ago to say that after extensive tests my brother has not got prostate cancer 🙂 he's one of the few people in the world who is glad to have prostatitis.

I texted him back "I bet you're glad the doctor put his finger on it" with a suitable medical diagram…

But seriously – forum members over fifty (there must be one or two) don't be shy – grit your teeth and ask your doctor to give you a check, it could save your life.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Roy Garden on 28/05/2019 15:13:05:

Unused M10 x 1.5 die,

Unused? Seriously?

Are you sure it's not a spare window for an OO gauge church?

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

After 2.5 hours of running and bending over the tender of my locomotive to reach the floor mounted water valves that feed the injectors i decided i had to change the arrangement so that i can sit upright whilst driving.

So i made these which will be fitted inside the tender tank towards the rear of the tender. I have also increased the pipe size in doing so to get a good flow of water to the injectors. On the original pipe set up the injectors would starve of water and start to blow steam out of the exhaust. This always left me panicking that i might not get enough water into the boiler.

Hope fully they will improve the set up.

There 90 degree turn as well so i can now tell how open they are rather than the screw down type.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Ah— just read your post on Prostrate Neil. I agree, don't delay – go today. I was diagnosed at 52 with the advise that my three sons should start and have tests when they turn 40 – my dad had it too. I am no 61 after having it removed and i am clear. I would have been dead three years ago by rough calculation as mine was very aggressive so i am happy .

GET A PSA TEST DONE – simple blood test, before you have to bend over!!

Brian

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Same here Brian / Neil; Having had a cystoscopy last month ( blood in urine ) had bladder check & at the same time asked consultant to check prostrate while he was 'down there' seems all is ok went & had PSA blood the following week… results came back normal so a happy bunny. Still have to get large kidney stone removed though as this caused bloody pee!, scheduled for 11th June … … so another 'been there got the T shirt' episode.

George.

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Recently had a bout of Prostatitis which took 8 weeks of antibiotics to clear, have been prone to bladder and prostate issues ever since service doctors messed up my urinary tract when I was in an RAF Hospital back in the 80’s. After the recent problem cleared had a PSA blood test and it was ok, I can’t stress how important it is to check out any prostate problems, my brother in law had to have his prostate removed because of advanced cancer, not an experience I would wish on anyone.

To digress, this morning I decided to put up the shade sail that I have been nagged about now that summer appears to be hear, well at least it is here in the South East. Part of the installation required drilling the side wall of the house to fix a bracket to take one end of the sail, easy I thought get the step stool and stand on that be able to reach no problem, should have moved a large planted container immediately below but I can reach over that, wrong I was leaning in to the wall and the inevitable happened the step stool decided to migrate from under me and I realised that this is not looking good. Gravity took over and I fell onto the patio, on landing I thought well I am still conscious so I haven’t knocked myself out but I had taken a chunk out of one elbow and landed on my back. I suffer from problems with my spine and when I got up this morning I put on my back support because I knew I would be working in the garden, don’t always put it on just when I know that I am going to need support. Having the support on seams to have given a degree of protection to my back, although it is now beginning to get very sore and my shoulders and hips are becoming painful, didn’t let on to the wife how much it hurts, she was busy baking in the kitchen so didn’t see the full extent of the incident. She is threatening that if I am sore in the morning then she will veto my Sunday morning shooting, have to make sure that she doesn’t realise how sore I really am. Moral of the story don’t cut corners it can end up with unwanted consequences.

Dave W

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 28/05/2019 22:58:41:

I got a text an hour ago to say that after extensive tests my brother has not got prostate cancer 🙂 he's one of the few people in the world who is glad to have prostatitis.

I texted him back "I bet you're glad the doctor put his finger on it" with a suitable medical diagram…

But seriously – forum members over fifty (there must be one or two) don't be shy – grit your teeth and ask your doctor to give you a check, it could save your life.Told

Neil

Had a PSA test about a year ago (I am several years into your target group Neil!).

Told us it could be atypically raised if we had been, how should I put it?, lets say – recently active socially in that department!

Mine was 1.25. The story of my life really!!

Glad I had the test done though.

[Steve King 5Participant @steveking5]

Dragged the wife and kids around a car boot this morning and picked up a bench grinder £18, bottle Jack £4 and some g-clamps £4 for the 3.

[Former MemberParticipant @formermember53456]

[This posting has been removed]

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Finished making 14 'T' nuts to fit Gate PBM-2000 (Bridgeport clone).

7 with M12 threads so as to use the clamp kit from previous mill.

4 with M8 and 3 with M6 threads for holding any other bits.

Colin

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Before this thread turns into a CAD thread can I ask that no more posts be made on the subject and I will move all the posts in the last day to a new thread where the discussion can continue.

J

Edited By JasonB on 04/06/2019 16:15:55

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, it's been this week really, put a couple of top coats of paint on my milling machine stand and fitted the adjustable machine mounts, then fitted the milling machine into position. The green paint isn't a exact match, but it is very close enough for me and although it's no showroom paint job, it will stop the stand turning to rust.

After giving it a bit of oil here and there, I raised the head up to it's maximum to make sure that I had positioned the stand the correct distance away from the wall behind it so there was clearance between the belt guard and the sloping ceiling.

This proved to be OK, not that it is likely to be used at full height often. Just need to fit the DRO's and it will be ready for use.

Regards Nick.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

A bad start to the day: I read this … **LINK**

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48551452?xtor=ES-208-%5B23310_NEWS_NLB_ACT_Wk23_Friday_7_June%5D-20190607-%5BDr+John+has+died+aged+77%5D

MichaelG.

.

P.S. … Before the whingers start:

Yes, I know it's got nowt to do with 'Model Engineering' [sic] … that's why I posted it on this 'Tea Room' thread.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 07/06/2019 07:24:48

[Pete BerryParticipant @peteberry]

Needed to replace the variable speed drive belt on my raglan little john lathe. Found a replacement on the web at a cost of £70-00. I don't like to be ripped off so started contacting various suppliers to no avail, either they did not come back with answers or were unhelpful. I finally contacted George Lodge & sons ltd and talked to Dave Fuller who was most helpfully and obviously new his stuff! And was able to supply the correct belt (VSB 22 x 8 x 725) @ £33-00

Belt now fitted and running well. It's nice when someone takes the trouble to help.

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

I made a start on the hydrostatic lubrication today.

New tanks made from 316stst.

Whilst i was at it i decided to draw up the parts to check they all fit.

I should have more control over the oil flow rate with this system. The original mechanical ones chuck out too much oil and the tanks on them are small.

Bri

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

TIG welded tanks and nipples?

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

Hi Mark

Yep all tig welded.

I am sure my boiler inspector will have something to say!

Bri

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Posted by Boiler Bri on 08/06/2019 05:21:44:

I made a start on the hydrostatic lubrication today.

New tanks made from 316stst.

Forgive my ignorance…What are those tanks used for?

You said :

Yep all tig welded.

I am sure my boiler inspector will have something to say!

Are the tanks boilers? If not boilers, are you saying they have have hot water in them somehow?

Interested to know how you tigged them. Did you fill/purge with Argon when welding?

Maybe you are coded in SS welding, but if not , there are many pitfalls in welding stainless that is exposed to hot water. The tanks must be back-filled with gas, and weld temps must be very well controlled to prevent carbon precipitation. Else those become rust focus points, and the tank turns becomes a sieve..Ask how I know..

Joe

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Nick, regarding the belt cover and proximity to the slope of the ceiling, I have an older model of this mill/drill and cut the back end of the belt guard off, just behind the rear clips to allow the guard to be removed when the head is at max height.

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Today I commenced to manufacture some scoring gauges for measuring holes in targets for a friend at the local club. The gauges are made with a collar of precisely the projectile diameter to assist with determining the final score for competitors.

The rules state that the gauge should be ± 0.001" but as my friend had donated 5 offcuts of 15mm x 1m and 2 of 25mm x 1m brass rod towards the M2Z workshop I decided to make them as accurately as possible with my C3 mini-lathe.

First was to decide the machining sequence so decided to offset the topslide by 10° and cut the taper. Next step was to machine the measuring collar accurately to size so with a freshly sharpened and honed HSS tool the rimfire gauge was turned to 0.2243" diameter.

Next step was to remove the 0.0003" by using wet&dry paper wrapped around a small file and remembering an old trick I planned to annoint the wet&dry with a few drops of metal polish.

So picked up the ancient bottle of 'Silvo', gave it one shake and the bottle disintegrated. The plastic failed right where the surface of the contents reached the sides. Most unusual.

Anyway, the first gauge was finished to size using a bit of kero on the wet&dry and now mikes at 0.2240" across the important bit (the collar) with a Moore & Wright micrometer.

* Danny M *

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Danny M2Z on 10/06/2019 06:14:38:

… So picked up the ancient bottle of 'Silvo', gave it one shake and the bottle disintegrated. The plastic failed right where the surface of the contents reached the sides. Most unusual.

.

Great result, Danny

But; from this side of the planet, that looks remarkably like a steel can

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just received an eMail from Screwfix, which made me chuckle

… it's promoting the Milwaukee range of ONE-KEY tools !!

MichaelG.

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