What Did You Do Today 2020

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 01/06/2020 14:12:29:

I've just sent a message to Renault UK, asking two simple questions:

– Does my edition of the Kangoo have this Cabin Filter?

– If so, where, please, and is it something I can replace myself?

This might help *** Kangoo Cabin Filter ***

John

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Anthony I would format the SD card in camera rather than on computer

Roy

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Had a couple of hours long lesson on using my new Tig welder. Went straight onto welding 1.5mm aluminium sheet. Gradually got the hang of doing runs along the sheet. Then tried to join two pieces with overlap and butt welds. Not very pretty at all at the present. Going to need lots and lots of practice.

Colin

[garyParticipant @gary44937]

assembled some parts I made for a single cylinder marine engine. I have been restoring the original one and decided to copy it using whatever I have in the shed, the crank disk is made from a cheap rotary table.

Edited By JasonB on 03/06/2020 20:04:52

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Posted by John Pace on 03/06/2020 12:11:06:

Continued
The internal grinding spindle assembly mounts to the surface grinding
spindle housing with 4 bolts and a clamp and is driven from the spindle.
The 3rd photo here shows the workhead at the far end of the table here
also having the 2 morse taper being ground in situ………

John

That is really a splendid achievement John. Very nice indeed.

Thanks for the run-down. Looks very commercial!

Joe

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Posted by roy entwistle on 03/06/2020 14:51:14:

Anthony I would format the SD card in camera rather than on computer

Roy

Hi Roy. that's what I did.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Journeyman –

Thank you. In fact I had found that video – wrong edition of the car though, with a lot of detail differences, so not applicable to mine.

Anyway I took it in for its annual service and MoT today – went through no problems, and they changed that pesky filter (though I didn't think to ask where it is!)

===

Steam Vehicles:

Still making and fitting the boiler mounting for the wagon. It's a right so-and-so of a job, but I'm beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Unless it's more problems coming the other way!

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Posted by John Haine on 13/05/2020 13:23:54:

Nearly finished the mechanics of the power feed for my VMB. Couple of pics:

After a bit of experience i've upgraded the motor to a 1.9 Nm from Zapp, much beefier than the Minibea. I lose a bit of travel but not significant. Now I can run the table at full speed at the end where the friction was too high for it even to work at minimum speed with the smaller motor. It seems to take less current too! Just shows how stepper motors have come on.

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Lexar cards used to come with free retrieval software either on the card or could be downloaded with a code, so obviously a common occurrence. My camera cards are always formatted in camera, the other thing to watch for is maximum size of card, the older the camera the less likely to support larger capacities.

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Well done Anthony, you have made a nice job and given yourself a very useful tool that is much easier to use than the plunge type knurler.

i don't know anything about computer card formatting however.

Regards

Brian

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Decades ago I made a circle cutter/ router for B&D Minicraft rotary tool. I now needed to adapt this for my Dremel. The Minicraft had a very fine nose thread, something like .75mm pitch which gave a fine height adjustment for routing. As we have discussed elsewhere, the Dremel has a coarse pitch nose thread so I made an intermediate adapter with a 3/4" BSF thread for the Dremel and a 26tpi thread for height adjustment (which gives approximately 1mm height adjustment per revolution which is good enough for woodwork! )

For the record the Dremel thread was bored through to 17mm before screw cutting and finishing with a tap. The 26tpi threads were just screw cut on the lathe.

Stay well,

Rod

[Jan BParticipant @janb]

Lots of rain in the morning but clear sky and sun in the afternoon. So, I thought it was a good idea to bring out my little TICH and run her on my own private track. My youngest son joined me an we had lots of fun running around my small track. My locomotive is 42 years old but still performs very well. We kept her in steam for more then an hour without any problems. There are no clubs for 3.5” and 5” gauge here in Sweden and the hobby is almost unknown. The only club is one in 7.5” gauge where I run my BR Class2 locomotive, but there will be no public running this year so I`m happy to have my own track.

Keep safe.

Jan

[Anonymous]

I've got as far as I can with the piston and valve rod glands for my traction engines:

The piston rod glands (top) are finished. But the valve rod glands (bottom) are still rough on the inner faces. I haven't machined the cylinder yet so I don't know exactly what diameter the mating recesses will be. So finishing will have to wait a while. Here are the piston rod glands in situ, with a small clearance on the slidebars as per full size and exactly as the CAD model shows:

Andrew

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I ordered the metals for Brian Rupnows latest engine design from M-Machine metals and the bearings from bearing boys.The plans were bought from Brian for $25 and were sent to my computer as files his plans are well detailed and descriptive .I built his Rockerblock engine which runs a treat and thought I would have a go at this one.The cost of the metal for a small engine is suprising as I spent 200 pounds including the bearings and I had the brass ,bronze mild steel and silver steel in stock.The cost of building bigger is for me getting prohibitive since retirement .40 years ago I was able to buy brass from a firms scrap box to build clocks for a few quid,how times have changed.

Frank

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Just to round off my earlier posts re. balancing grinding wheels, I found some steel strip from machine delivery lurking in an old box of bits and used a couple of lengths of that, clamped to the original jig with offcuts of aluminium as shown. There is sufficient wriggle room to level the "blades" on the mill table to give an acceptable result:

If I find it necessary, I will fit a larger base with three levelling screws, but the mill table appears to be satisfactorily level as it is, so far.

Once again, thanks to the many respondents who pitched in with ideas and suggestions.

John

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Finally got round to using the World of Ward Division Controller I recently finished. Found one minor issue in that if the worm gear in rotary table is pulled right over tight into the gear the stepper throws a wobbly. This was a bit odd at first as the division controller appeared to hang up and would not let any settings be altered or go back to menu and also would not drive the rotary table. I took division controller off stepper motor and it all worked okay and all menus and settings could be changed as required. I reconnected it all and put ink mark on back of stepper motor spindle and then could see it was not turning. Backed off worm completely and all worked okay. Re-engaged the worm gear just a gnats whisker off previous position and all okay.

I want to graduate the dial on the base of the spindle pillar on Stent Tool and Cutter Grinder. I am giving it the refurb it should have had when first obtained it. I have a Hemingway graduating tool and not having means of dividing on the lathe (at present) decided to set it up on the mill table and utilise the Division Controller. Spent some time trying to work out how to hold the graduating tool in such a way that could alter its height and horizontal position. Remembered I had a Myford Milling attachment that came with my lathe and had never used it. Had a quick think and machined up a 90 degree bracket to hold the graduating tool. Came to set it up and realised I had not thought the exercise through properly. Found I could mount the graduating tool but it would be 90 degrees out. Drilled few more holes in right angle bracket, tapped couple of extra 4BA holes in the rear of the graduating tool and eventually managed to get a solid set up. It may look a bit Heath Robinson but it worked.

Put 2 and 10 degree markings for 90 degrees either side of centre position.

I now need to make a carrier for the graduating tool to hold it stationary in the mill spindle and parallel to the X-axis so as to be able to graduate the table clamps on the Stent.

Started to paint the base and pillar of the Stent so can begin re-assembly.

Colin

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Good work Colin!

On my rotary table I found the worm engagement critical to prevent the stepper stalling but once set it's fine.

Did you 3D print the stepper motor termination boxes or is someone selling them?

Could use a couple if so.

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

A bit low tech after the previous posts! Ever since I have had the GH1322 the exposed cross slide nut has been niggling me, it attracts swarf like nobodies business so I decided to knock a cover up to fit over it. As can be seen I threaded two M5 holes in the end of the slide to mount it and was going to weld the corners but its strong enough without.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Peter (Spink),

With apologies for jumping in on this thread, but I've been researching stepper motors for a new project and happened upon such covers on a UK site. Only problem is I didn't save the site and can't for the life of me remember where I saw it! That doesn't help you, I know, but an internet search came up with this site, among others, though it's in the USA, so postage would cost a couple of limbs. The search also produced a diy design on thingiverse.

Nema 23 end cover

John

 

Edited By John Hinkley on 06/06/2020 20:05:32

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Thanks John,

Been umming and ahhing about buying a 3D printer – maybe the time has come!

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Peter,

Yes I did 3D print them. Found lots on Thingiverse and other odd sites but nothing that would suit my requirements. I then found a file someone had created with OpenSCAD which is parameter driven. I was able to alter length and all the sizes of the electrical connection box and lid. Worked brilliantly.
Colin

[Anonymous]

This afternoon I did the final fettling on my cylinder castings before starting rough machining to clean up the main faces and get them square. This morning I created a first pass design of the starting (singling) valve for my traction engines:

And a sectional view:

The design will need some fine tuning and I might simplify it based on pictures of full size engines. Either the engines have been modified over the years or the original builders ignored the drawings coming out of the design office. Nothing new there then.

Andrew

[LimpetParticipant @limpet]

Well finished today the Hemmingway crank handle, gradually improving but very slow, but it's usable so that's a good start, and a couple of chuck keys for the four jaw which were missing

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Posted by Colin Heseltine on 06/06/2020 20:36:57:

Peter,

Yes I did 3D print them. Found lots on Thingiverse and other odd sites but nothing that would suit my requirements. I then found a file someone had created with OpenSCAD which is parameter driven. I was able to alter length and all the sizes of the electrical connection box and lid. Worked brilliantly.
Colin

Excellent, ta

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I thought I'd have a go at using the sheet-metal jenny I bought a while ago….

Anyone here able to spot my not-so-deliberate mistakes in the saga? I'd certainly appreciate advice!

'

First thing was to find somewhere I could mount its a hefty column with integral clamp for the edge of a bench, but it would not clamp on my bench due to the latter's construction. A bit of ingenuity with some 50mm sq. steel tube clamped to the bench solved that, creating a sort of extension "bench".

'

Next, work out how to assemble the tool – I don't recall it coming with instructions but since it is a hand-tool made and sold by a company whose primary customers are in the trade, I don't suppose it would!

Anyway it all went together easily enough and it was pretty obvious how to mount the different profile-rollers. Now to practice, or more accurately, find out how much I don't know about these tools.

I chose to try to a real project part so that if it succeeded I would have gained both component and experience if it succeeded, whereas if I simply chopped metal blanks to practice on, I would have wasted that metal. So I thought I'd try making the cylindrical ash-pan for my steam-wagon, and duly cut a large disc from thin sheet-steel, actually a scrapped central-heating boiler panel, given to me by a friend who is a plumber.

By the time I was two-thirds of the way round I was getting quite good at steering a manual rotary shear round an 11-inch diameter circle. I cleaned the edge with a file, deburred it, flatted the odd raised bits.

'

Now, which rollers?

The machine was packed with two hefty, heavily-serrated cylindrical rollers already mounted, plus pairs of what are evidently grooving and beading profiles, and two chamfered rollers I realised are for rolling rims. If you know how…

I mounted both. May be that was my first mistake. Anyway I persevered until eventually I had something like a tin-ware dinner-plate that had had a brief encounter with a traction-engine, and come off worse.

Clearly there is more to using one of these tools than meets the eye – and gloved hand.

I could have been expecting it do what it's not designed to do – I thought it will roll a pan but I may be wrong.

I could have been expecting too much from 1mm thick steel (within the machine's limits), especially once it started to buckle randomly; or perhaps I was trying to raise a flange too deep for the process.

I could have been using the wrong rollers, or one correct roller with incorrect companion – what are those serrated ones for, for example? (I do know they are not for making imitation chequer-plate!)

'

World of its own, really, is sheet-metal work, and the field seems largely ignored in "ours" beyond relatively simple flat-plate and box work, and boiler cladding; and I have seen very little if anything on its deeper subtleties and rolled-work in the model-engineering literature. Nor have I seem much sheet-metal and profile tooling on the exhibition trade-stands, apart from small roller / folder combination machines and whatever turns up on the second-hand stalls. The latter dealers do stock sheet-metal equipment but this is generally far too bulky and heavy for exhibitions – or indeed most of our workshops.

Perhaps it reflects the more common model themes not having very much sheet-metal on them, and what there is, mainly replicates structures of flat plates and angles. Yet the Victorian and Edwardian engineers of our prototypes did use pressed, folded and rolled sheet work; and there are plenty of places for it in replicas of more modern machines, as well as non-models like workshop equipment and passenger-trucks.

'

Anyway, I packed the tool in its gleaming red paint back in its box, and concentrated on setting the smoke-box brackets so the chimney has a sporting chance of standing perpendicularly to the chassis, especially laterally. More head-scratching until I realised the tools needed:

– Milling-machine.

– Spirit-level (builders but accurate enough), Spanner, 17mm – for setting the milling-machine level.*

– Clamp, stud and appropriate nuts for holding the smoke-box to the machine table via the blast-pipe hole.

– Spirit-level, Spanner, 17mm – for adjusting the box until the chimney stood vertically from the level table.

– Vee-block + adjustable parallel (forming a 4.3 inch "slip gauge&quot, 1/4-inch BSF Spanner – for setting the bracket heights from the table so the smoke-box centre-line height is correct.

* I found one of the four levelling-screws was not actually touching the floor.

[Author]

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