What Did You Do Today 2019

[Pete WhiteParticipant @petewhite15172]

Well apart from rebuilding my Ajax donkey saw, I sawed off three wheel blanks, with my Manchester saw, from a 4 inch billet. It has not had such a workout for quite a while.

Why only three blanks? ……………..going to try out the Ajax tomorrow. One must go, a man does not need two donkey saws. lol

[Pete WhiteParticipant @petewhite15172]

P. S. 45 minutes a blank, EN8, turned it once when about a third way through.

Bet a fancy band saw would have whipped that by a mile, but both my saws came F.O.C……………….and I have owned them for thirty years.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Spent a couple of hrs modifying the gear change handles on my WM250V-F, have had the idea from seeing the handles on the 280 / 290V-F handles some time back & put it on my 2duit list… today was the day 2duit. Carefully removed the roll pins from each handle as there were a double ball set up for the detents ( I quickly found out ) whereas the manual shows only 1 ball bearing in ea. knob so be careful if you decide to do this mod. Had to remove the drive / change wheel guard from the headstock to allow better access to the forward/reverse knob roll pin. Once the feed rate knob was removed it was drilled / tapped 5mm for a depth of 8mm at an appropriate distance from the edge, in my case 6 mm ( this is arbitrary ) a 6mm silver steel rod was machined & threaded 5mm to fit, then Loctited in & the knob replaced. The same procedure applies to the feed rate knob, ending up with a much easier manipulation of either knob with this mod.

George.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

Posted by mechman48 on 22/01/2019 19:48:20:

George.

Rather glad you followed the instructions on the panel – and stopped, or at least only removed the knobs while the machine was running slowly!

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

… difficulty in translating… Google doesn't have Chinglish in its repertoire.

G.

[J BENNETT 1Participant @jbennett1]

That's a very interesting mod. I have an old WM250 (Circa 2005) with the same gearbox and find the knobs quite hard to use at times. Also the pointed arrows on the ABC knob on mine dosn't line up very well.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to change the gearbox oil after looking at a thread by Journeyman. Since the drain plug is no where near the bottom of the gearbox you have to take the front cover of the gearbox off. Fortunately you dont have to remove the knobs which remain fitted to the front cover with the detent mechanism. I was thinking of taking the knobs off, but as you said, they have roll pins and I could not see any easy of moving them round just a bit.

The oil was like thick brown treacle! Managed to clean up the oil sight glass, which is a push fit with an o-ring, which had become so dis-coloured that you couldn't see the oil level. The gearbox had also been leaking for a long time making a horrid sticky mess in the splash tray. After a good clean up it went back together quite easily with some silicone gasket and ptfe tape on the drain and filler plugs. I have still got a small leak from the sight glass however. Would have liked to replace the O-ring but didn't have one the right size to hand. You know how it is, you have a great big box full of O-rings but never one in the size you want!! In hind sight I should have put a smear of silicone around it.

To get at the gearbox front cover screws you remove the four small hex headed screws and the alloy front cover lifts off over the knobs. The four deep holes allow access to the screws that fix the gearbox to the headstock, so don't touch those!!.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I've got to do some woodspoiling to make a 'built in' ornament cupboard and as part of that, I need to rip some 2 1/2"x4 1/2" mahogany down to 1 1/2"x2" (the wood shop had bits that were a bit too small or this bit, that I can make two pieces from). I realized that my bandsaw blade stocks had all been used up, so got a couple delivered. Rather than just fit one of them to the wood bandsaw I decided it needed a clean up…

Three hours of polishing 'light surface corrosion' table, waxing the table, hoovering a lot of sawdust out of it and finally fitting and adjusting the new blade. The bandsaw now seems to run far more sweetly than it has done for a year.

I might get around to sawing the bit of wood on Monday.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Trying to concentrate on editing an article about a computerised shaper. Trouble is the lab and the cat both think they should be fed early and the cat is getting bad tempered and has attacked the poor dog five times…

Neil

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Carol's got a 1/4 size violin to teach the grandkids, and wanted a hook for the boxroom/cello room wall, so I made this outa Delrin, brass and alli offcuts I had lying about, all done on the WM250V.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Storage heater in the bedroom was cool yesterday, so I had it apart and assumed the internal trip had gone, but like all these things I wan't 100% sure.

This morning – ice cold!

Turned out the wall switch (which gets used twice a year, only when the E7 is off and is only about 10 years old) had gone intermittent.

One contact was over heating (dark blue) and the little peg on the switch that operates it had eroded by over a millimetre.

It would be the one switch that is in a gap about 8" wide between heater and chimney breast, still I managed to get it replaced.

That reminds me! Must go downstairs and switch on the E7 fuse box NOW!

Neil

[Phil Francis 1Participant @philfrancis1]

I drove from Southampton to Helston in Cornwall and back to sliver a lathe.

Phil

[Andy CarruthersParticipant @andycarruthers33275]

Today I mostly froze in the workshop whilst I faced a small block of steel in preparation for butchering tomorrow

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Out in the workshop last night, needed more light, switch on portable LED flood light, nothing happened. This morning Opened the lamp unit, and found the 36V LED driver was dead, hunted out a 32V power supply ex HP lap top, took out the dead power supply, wired in the new one and we have light once more.

Ian S C

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Had a premolar out which had lost its cap and wasn't amenable to a root canal and pegging another cap on. Quite an exercise as it had two roots like a crab's claw so wouldn't come out without some bone damage.

Neil

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

I've been assembling my Burrell-Boydell boiler after the boiler inspectors gave their approval for work that will shortly be hidden.

I'll post some pictures when I've cleaned things up a bit.

Brian

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

My Boxer oscillating twin has been on the back burner for some time, lost interest in the project 'as one does at times' , decided to make a new flywheel as the original was too big on the OD & not correct width either, it was from another project I had made previously that I thought I could substitute… not!. I machined that up over a couple of sessions this week plus am looking at changing the crank / eccentric arrangement as not overly happy with the original assembly as per dwg, ho hum ….

George.

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Neil, you have my sympathy re your dental work, I had a similar experience with a large molar with problem roots, the tooth would not budge no matter what the dentist did to it. He ended up using his drill to saw it into three pieces that he was then able to extract, I was in the chair for more than an hour, glad to escape but the misery wasn’t over the crater left in my jaw then became infected, plenty of high dose antibiotics but all was well eventually. I am always apprehensive of dental visits because you never know what horrors can await you down the line.

Dave W

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Samsaranda on 02/02/2019 12:19:11:

Neil, you have my sympathy re your dental work, I had a similar experience with a large molar with problem roots, the tooth would not budge no matter what the dentist did to it. He ended up using his drill to saw it into three pieces that he was then able to extract, I was in the chair for more than an hour, glad to escape but the misery wasn’t over the crater left in my jaw then became infected, plenty of high dose antibiotics but all was well eventually. I am always apprehensive of dental visits because you never know what horrors can await you down the line.

Dave W

This one took nearly half an hour, probably one of the worst because the root was pretty much healthy. Other extractions have been where over-enthusiastic filling in the 1970s lead to gradual tooth crumbling. Ironically my four wisdom teeth (that emerged when I was old enough to decide for myself not to go to the dentist) are all fine. Fortunately the dentists I have seen in my adult life have been far better.

Neil

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Neil, why didn't you just print another one ?

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I have changed the linear scale on my mill/drill table this morning, my old one died two years ago but I didnt find the same type and make until my recent visit to the London model engineering exhibition, I had to cut 26mm off of the dead end to make it fit my mounts which having looked at the old scale I had done the same to that. After a lunch/warm up break I decided to clean, service and adjust backlash on my lathe. The cross slide had backlash so I drove the slideway off the leadscrew then removed and cleaned the nut, I then gave the the adjusting screw a half turn on the split nut then replaced it and pulled the slide onto the leadscrew and checked the play to find my first attempt had been enough. I then got the garage vacuum up and running and deswarfed the lathe particularly between the coolant tray and the bed underside, I found drills, taps, centre drills, spanners, pieces of bar stock, allen keys all of which I have replaced as I thought I'd lost them all no micrometer spanners though.

My leadscrews run in bushes at the handle ends and the bushes are held in place with grub screws, which have a habit of undoing, this also includes the tailstock I want to use thread lock but need to clean the oil from the threads can anybody suggest a cleaner, preferably an aerosol with a tube to get into the threads.

I finished with a good oil up of all the leadscrews and slideways, indoors now watching the England six nations game.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 02/02/2019 17:52:07

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

As promised (or threatened! earlier) here are some pictures of the boiler for my Burrell-Boydell engine being assembled.

Edited By Brian H on 02/02/2019 19:51:30

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

Used the slotter for the first time this year. Put a keyway in to a part for a milling machine.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Finished my guitar rebuild. Actually In reversed the two pickups after the photo below – eagle eyed forum members will see the neck pickup has narrower pole pieces than the bridge one. This also put the pickup capable of being switched to single coil mode at the neck, its output was far to weedy in bridge position.

Deathburger II has risen from the ashes! I can be sure this #guitar is totally unique 😎 Still needs a few tweaks – swapping the pickups and fine tuning the volume/tone controls. RT if you think I should try #crowdfunding this design!#TuesdayThoughts #shred #ico pic.twitter.com/t45lwh4Gwp

— StubMandrel (@StubMandrel) February 5, 2019

[ken king, King DesignParticipant @kenkingkingdesign]

Just posted off a brazed aluminium switchbox for a client who wants an additional NINE lightswitches mounted on the dash of his Landrover !! It was my first time using this brazing process, and I must say I was mightily pleased with the ease of use and the results. The box is 205mm long, 65mm on the switch face, and approx. 50mm deep. Material is 2mm L.A. sheet. As you can see, one bend is acute, and one slightly obtuse …

The switch holes were punched with a home-made screw type punch and die set before folding ( the above photo is of a trial piece ). Endplates were cut to fit neatly inside, and were then brazed internally …

and externally too. External beads were dressed down and showed good penetration ….

Here are a couple of views of the finished box, complete with sample switch, safety cover up ……

Result !! I'll certainly be using this brazing process again.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Hi ken, can you give us a bit more info on Aluminium brazing, the filler, the torch and what thickness was the metal, did you use any bricks etc.
BobH

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