What Did You Do Today 2020

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Quite right, Colin. 250mm-ish it should be. I'll have a better idea when the design has progressed a bit further.

John

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Today I went to change the bit on my almost antique Weller 60watt soldering iron and managed to destroy the bit retaining collar. Looked on line and they have changed the model, so chances are a new collar/nut won't fit my old iron. After measuring the thread (3/8ths x 20tpi) I made a new collar.

The iron is at least 25 years old and is a bit like Triggers broom. Over the years it's had new mains cable, new handle, new element and numerous new tips. Having seen the price of a new iron, I will try and keep this one going as long as possible.

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Hi John, Do you have access to an outdoor space where you could do your own casting in aluminum? If so you can achieve good castings at home, yourself. It can be done with a charcoal fire contained in a firebrick box strapped together with hose clamps, blown with a hair dryer or hand bellows. ( Lump charcoal, not briquets, briquets do not burn as hot, they are fine for BBQ but not casting! ) An ordinary steel soup can can be used as a crucible for aluminum, handled with long handled water pump pliers. For small work, a couple of cigar boxes or similar wood boxes could be used to hold the sand moulds. Play sand with some crushed kitty litter bentonite clay mixed in works fine for basic small castings. I have done many small castings exactly this way. Just food for thought. If you don't have access to a space to do this, there are lots in ME forum who do, so if you posted a thread asking for assistance you may find someone nearby. If you were near me here in Canada you would be welcome to have a go here. By the way, for the aluminum, I find that scrapped aluminum car wheels (from being in collisions or just bad curb impact damage) are readily available cheaply at garages and yield LOTS of high quality aluminum alloy that was designed for casting.

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

Jeff,

I do have a reasonably-sized garden and there's a concreted area behind the garage, but I'm still reluctant to follow the home casting route – I fear it would just take up too much time. That's a commodity in increasingly short supply. I'll see how the land lies when the design is much further on. Thanks for the ideas, though. Much appreciated.

John

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Cheers John, good luck with your model. Do keep us posted on the progress!

[Ian HewsonParticipant @ianhewson99641]

Hi Anthony

your antique soldering iron is but a youngster, I am still using my Henley Solon iron that I bought 63 years ago at Valances in Leeds. It is still going strong and is totally original apart from a thinner bit that I made just after I bought it.

Would never have guessed that I would still be using it after all these years, but it is surprising how many tools bought when young are still in use today.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Very true Ian. I still have Whit/BSF spanners from when I had a motor bike, although they don't get much use these days. I still have a tap wrench I made when I was about 18 years old and coincidently, used it yesterday.

[Peter SpinkParticipant @peterspink21088]

Completed the restoration of my UPT, particularly the sensitive drill attachment, which I made many years ago.

Original motor was far too slow so fitted new motor, a re-purposed Makita trimmer driven by a Velleman speed controlller. Can run it at over 15000rpm now but not sure whether the Oilite bearings will take that punishment for long! Time will tell.

I always thought the position of the handle, sticking straight out, to be inconvenient so I made a heavy bracket and rotated the handle 90 degrees. A vast improvement IMO – I can get much closer to see what I'm doing and also means I can park the drill on a bracket on the wall when not in use.

More pics in my album if anyone interested.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Just made this rectangular bobbin for the drive winding of the next clock. Size is about 20 x 30mm, milled out of 12mm Corian. Pocketed out the centre aperture, milled grooves round the outside for the winding. Aldo made a fitted block that goes in the aperture with a centre hole for an arbor that fits in my dividing head. Plan is to use this with the Ward controller to rotate the bobbin to wind the wire, about 1000 turns of 0.15mm.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Prepared the material for the next part of my Hemingway 'Worden' T&C grinder.

Yesterday I drilled, bored and reamed what is termed the "Primary Tool Holder" – a piece nearly 3 inches long of 1 in-sq. BMS with the hole right though the length. It has to end up concentric with a smaller piece with a 3/8 " hole reamed through it. Not entirely trusting accuracy in an rather old 4-jaw chuck on the Harrison lathe, though it did an excellent job of another part of the work, I drilled it on the mill.

Typically, despite all the care I took the hole is about 0.01 " off-centre!

My thought is to turn a bar to fit it closely, with a spigot for the mating component, mount both pieces on this with the bar clamped down in matched V-blocks and gently skim to 25mm square, referenced from that alignment bar.

This afternoon, I skimmed the cast-iron Guide Block, even longer with a 3/4 " reamed hole right through. The iron, continuously-cast, did not look too promising but in the event it shaped-up nicely – literally, on the Drummond manual shaper with an old brazed-shank carbide tool followed by an button-insert tool for a finish. (Temporarily as it will have to be machined down to the finished size – this was just to remove the skin and give flat mounting-faces.)

'

Also attended to the GMT boring & facing head. I'd tried using it in the end face of the Tool Holder but with little success.

It is labelled "GMT, "Made in France for Gamet".

Having no information on using let alone servicing it, I cautiously discovered how to remove the cross-slide and that revealed possibly how the R8 taper is fitted (screwed in, I think) hence possibly how to reach the feed-cam mechanism. I did not disturb them.

However, it also revealed the ratchet-wheel and sprung pawl that notches the feed-screw round. Or is meant to. The screw would turn but spring back to its original position.

I have hardly used the thing, and its works, even the beautifully-made little oil-ways, were all dry. I cleaned, lubricated, re-assembled it, and tightened the central gib-screw a touch. Testing by hand suggests that bit of TLC was all it wanted. The action seems to rely on freeness of the pawl plus slight tightness in the slide, to stop the pawl having advanced the feed then dragging it back, on each rotation.

I am still puzzled by a discreet "control". It does not seem to do anything, but is set into the knurled cap ring whose capturing sets the feed working as the main part of the head revolves below it.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Put the washing on to exploit a lovely sunny day, given the bad forecast for tomorrow.

Then two or three hours in the workshop, completing machining the two critical sides of what Hemingway calls the 'Guide Block' on the 'Worden' T&C Grinder. It is a cast-iron block bored and reamed through, as both mounting and traverse linear-bearing for the table.

I accomplished this on a Drummond manual shaper. The chilled margins proved very thin, happily; and removing them with a brazed-carbide tool allowed a round-nosed carbon-steel tool to do all the depth-cutting with just a bit of honing on an oil-stone. And a lot of arm-work.

I set myself tolerances of +/- 0.010 " on given dimensions, all fractional, and after some re-setting with shims in the vice, succeeded in about 0.005 " parallelism over the 3 " length. (Of the critical dimensions, one is notated " Closely parallel ".)

Then a clean-up and Christmas Dinner: chicken-breast fillet with real sprouts-on-the-stalk, spuds and tinned mixed veg; and a portion of own-make Christmas Pud from my local, independent whole-food shop.

Leisurely afternoon with a beer and presents in front of the radio.

First time I've ever had Christmas Day alone – only thanks to the plague though.

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