What Did You Do Today 2020

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Lucky the fish were Koi and not Piranha !!

 

Edited By Speedy Builder5 on 18/09/2020 15:56:33

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Dave,

Gald to hear that only your pride has been hurt, the only problem with being banned to ground level is it costs to get somebody in to do what you used to do, I've had Neuropathy in both my feet for the last seven years and its been getting progressively worse and I've found I can no longer use ladders as I cant feel the rungs and its affecting my balance, so hedge cutting, wall paper hanging etc has to be paid for.

Martin P

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by martin perman on 18/09/2020 16:16:33:

Dave,

Gald to hear that only your pride has been hurt, the only problem with being banned to ground level is it costs to get somebody in to do what you used to do, I've had Neuropathy in both my feet for the last seven years and its been getting progressively worse and I've found I can no longer use ladders as I cant feel the rungs and its affecting my balance, so hedge cutting, wall paper hanging etc has to be paid for.

Martin P

OK it costs, but do you now mean you have a medical note excusing you from gardening and decorating?

Can't help seeing that as a result!

Take care,

Nick

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 18/09/2020 17:22:04:

Posted by martin perman on 18/09/2020 16:16:33:

OK it costs, but do you now mean you have a medical note excusing you from gardening and decorating?

Can't help seeing that as a result!

Take care,

Nick

Nick,

Its the understanding that you have to watch somebody do something that you were capable of and as we all know, nobody does it better than you.

Martin P

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Hmmm.

Makes those of without an In-house Domestic Consultant as safety-cover and potential rescuer, think of the things we have, use or do alone.

Heavy, bulky objects. Powerful machine- and portable- tools. Ladders. Sharp knives, wood-chisels, milling-cutters. Chemicals you would not want on your cornflakes….

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Thanks to you all for your comments, Martin I also suffer from Neuropathy which is gradually affecting my right side and I have noticed of late I am aware of balance issues so perhaps I should regard this latest occurrence as a wake up call, we all think we can do things that we did in our youth but it ain’t so.
Dave W

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

To quote (and paraphrase) "The Fast Show" — "Today, I have been mostly fitting a new motor to my lathe"

As part of a program of improvements to the workshop, I#'ve been working my way round it, gradually replacing all the machine single-phase motors with 3-phase ones, each one fed from a separate VFD. First to receive the treatment was the mill, then a couple of weeks ago, the shaper. Yesterday the new motor for the lathe arrived and I've now mounted it on the lathe. The new motor is slightly uprated from the original, from 0.75HP to one HP, so consequently has correspondingly greater dimensions. Luckily I was able to use the majority of the original mountings with just a little bit of jiggery-pokery and re-drilling of a few holes. Annoyingly, I ordered the wrong size taper lock fitting for the gearbox input spindle, so I'll have to wait a little longer to get it running. But, no matter, the VFD doesn't arrive until tomorrow and anyway, I have the plumber in to replace a leak damaged set of units as well, so no workshop time for me tomorrow.

No pictures – to be honest, I'm a bit ashamed of the bodge nature of the mounting. Ideally, I'd have welded up a new one, but as I don't possess a welding kit, that will have to wait. Fortunately, my back burner is looking pretty bare at the moment. One for another day.

John

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Quick follow-up to the above post. Now that the VFD wiring has been sorted, I've finished the re-motoring of the workshop so that the mill, shaper and lathe are all now powered by 3-phase motors and VFDs. I have to say, I'm very pleased with the results on all the machines. A worthwhile modification and one I would wholeheartedly recommend. Short album with description here, if anyone's interested.

John

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Added the tender to the little brass Brio train in time for the twin grandkids' 2nd birthday later this month:-

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Lovely job Mick, the kids will love it – but is the coal in the tender potted into one piece with acrylic resin or something, so they won't eat it or throw it on Mom's white carpet? (I learned some hard lessons about toys when my son and various nieces and nephews were little) Again, you made a beautiful toy, I like it!

[HOWARDTParticipant @howardt]

Replaced my second NVR in a month. First the switch on the bench drill just suddenly stopped latching, then this week the one on the mill started playing up. I think the drill was probably about thirty years old and the mill three.

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Jeff Dayman on 02/10/2020 18:17:52:

Lovely job Mick, the kids will love it – but is the coal in the tender potted into one piece with acrylic resin or something, so they won't eat it or throw it on Mom's white carpet? (I learned some hard lessons about toys when my son and various nieces and nephews were little) Again, you made a beautiful toy, I like it!

Yes, more or less. A thick layer of epoxy adhesive in a milled cutout in the tender top, then tip in half a teaspoon of artificial model coal, allow to set, repeat and then lacquer over all.

I'm more worried about the bigger twin throwing the engine than the coal – it'd be a substantial projectile!

Thanks for your comments.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Had finished re-laying a paved area outside the workshop, including filling in the trenched path leading to it, so it's all level with the workshop floor – there is a small gap for drainage in front of the door. That will greatly ease handling the steam-wagon.

Now constructing a small bench, using a lot of salvaged pallet wood (free!), sized to span the wagon when that's in the shed but whose specific purpose is holding a vice (luxury!) and when required, a small fly-press or the Drummond manual shaper. The latter is presently screwed to another bench, and might stay there.

I have also to consider it being able to hold the WNS-supplied sheet-metal jenny, but I might have to do some further considering there. It is made for clamping to a bench or to a piece of timber held in a vice.

The bench surface is a 10mm steel plate nearly two feet square, with appropriate tapped and clearance holes for the tooling holding-down screws, plus a 2-inch hole to go below that in the press, and a smaller one for the shaper's knee-screw. The first operation on the plate was making 4 M10 tapped holes for lifting-eyes, for handling it.

The aim is that with the workshop becoming pretty well full up I need to be able to shuffle things around from storage to bench and back, especially things I don't use very often. Building a travelling-hoist was part of this programme, as well having other uses such as supporting big items overhanging the bench-drill tables, and assembling the steam-lorry.

###

Just remembered: the plate needs 4 more tapped holes, for the rotary shear!

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

[Neil AParticipant @neila]

Spent the morning cleaning up the aluminium swarf that had accumulated in and around the milling machine. It had got deep enough to make positioning parts in the vice difficult. I don't mind machining aluminium, but it seems to go everywhere and stick to everything.

I'm now ready to start making another heap of swarf, perhaps not quite so big this time.

Neil

[DollyDiggerParticipant @dollydigger]

Started in earnest to use the valuable resource called model engineer .co.uk

[garyParticipant @gary44937]

finished a copy of a steam engine built by david king steam enthusiast and inventor. the original was built from castings. my one was built from stock i already had, will add pipework to the feed pumps once i decide on a tank.

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 06/10/2020 14:34:33

[garyParticipant @gary44937]

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 06/10/2020 14:34:57

[Toni NazarParticipant @toninazar22142]

Mine's a white one, with a picture of Superman printed on it.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Ever since I bought my second hand WARCO BH600G I have cringed every time I look at the busted monkey metal catches on the sheet metal stand cupboards. So this afternoon I removed them…………

…………and replaced them with something a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Just bling I know but two heavy chrome plated knobs and a couple of bits of sheet ally have tarted up the doors so that I no longer have to wince when I look at them. For me a job well worth doing.

Rik

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

But will you wince when your knee bumps into them

[MichaelRParticipant @michaelr]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 07/10/2020 18:28:12:

But will you wince when your knee bumps into them

Exactly that's what I was thinking

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Posted by MichaelR on 07/10/2020 18:55:50:

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 07/10/2020 18:28:12:

But will you wince when your knee bumps into them

Exactly that's what I was thinking

+3 Ha ha

Steve.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Looks more like a temporary repair to me. Painting the plates would make a big difference.

Although I agree with the other replies, you'll be replacing them with flush ones pretty soon

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

As documented elsewhere on the forum, I've recently re-motored my lathe and shaper with 3-phase motors and VFDs. At a bit of a loose end yesterday, I thought I'd try out the shaper on some aluminium I had lying around, using two different speeds. I took a video of the results and published them here.

The finish was as good as I had hoped for and better than it looks on the video!

John

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