What Did You Do Today 2020

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Posted by Jim Young 2 on 18/03/2020 19:44:47:

Steve

Would you be willing to expand on your methods for the rings and perhaps indicate a source for the ring blanks.

Your results are spectacular and encourage experimentation!

Hi Jim. Rather than bung up this thread with a long posting I will do it on a thread I started some time ago. If you do a search for a thread called making rings you will see quite a few projects I have doen & I will continue this post there.

Steve.

[Norman RogersParticipant @normanrogers37749]

After much procrastination I managed to cut the bevel gears for my Durham & North Yorks TE. I'm sure they could be better but as they work I'm feeling pleased with them.

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

If I had managed to produce something of that quality, not only would I be feeling pleased, I would have them mounted on a display frame and hang it in a prominent place in the house!!! Super work, congratulations!

rgds

Bill

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Looks like excellent work to me Norman! well done.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I wanted some beryllium copper for making a pendulum suspension spring. I managed to find a supplier and said that really I only needed a small sample. They sent me, free, well over a metre of 50mm x 0.1 mm BeCu tape. Probably enough for a couple of hundred clocks! So far I've made about 5 springs for myself (to get one which worked!), a couple for a friend and supplied a few inches to another friend in Italy. Plenty left!

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

supplied a few inches to another friend in Italy.

Untouched by human hand? Wouldn’t want coronavirus introduced to Italy – of all places!🙂

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Made a new X-Axis left end plate, ready to accept the Mondeo wiper motor. Ongoing project. Oh & tried to program the DRO to do a array drilling 3 holes around a circle for a bearing holding job. Cannot believe it worked. Trial in some wood. Also ordered power supply, speed controller, enclosure,Tacho & all the switchgear required for the tacho & x-axis mod.

Steve.

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Posted by Norman Rogers on 19/03/2020 20:31:42:

After much procrastination I managed to cut the bevel gears for my Durham & North Yorks TE. I'm sure they could be better but as they work I'm feeling pleased with them.

Those are brilliant Norman, I don't care how long you procrastinated

David

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Yes they are. Very talented.

Steve.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

The first "round tuit" project I've completed in the coronavirus lockdown. Fitted a box carrying terminal posts, fuse holders and indicating LEDS, to a spare PC power supply. I now have a bench power supply with 12, 5 and 3.3 volt outputs. Handy for electrolytic rust removal an electroplating.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Norman Rogers on 19/03/2020 20:31:42:

After much procrastination I managed to cut the bevel gears for my Durham & North Yorks TE.

They look excellent. What method did you use; parallel depth?

Andrew

[Norman RogersParticipant @normanrogers37749]

Hi Andrew, yes they are parallel depth. Found and read a couple of interesting articles by D R Machin (ME 17/8/1973 & 7/9/1973) but in the end opted for what for me was probably the simpler approach.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Completed the insulating/ cushioning pads for the boiler mounts on my wagon. Started to work out the next stage – building without drawings is rather like chess: you need consider all manner of arcane possibilities well ahead, even down to the accessibility of fasteners. I never was much good at chess….

Had a bit of engineer's block, so took advantage of the fine weather (albeit chilly breeze) to attend to the Nature Reserve, a.k.a. garden, by digging out some weeds and mowing the lawn for the first time – and first time possible – in 2020.

Even then I had to do some " engineering ". My manual mower was made by a leading firm in a European country renowned for high-quality in making things… but not necessarily in designing them. The rattle in one wheel resolved itself by the wheel disgorging a steel dowel, followed by nearly coming off as its retaining polythene "press-stud" crept out of the tube that serves as rigid axle. This led me to discover the dowel was actually a driving-pin, allowed to escape from its fits-where-it-touches hole as the wheel moved sideways.

And as for the grass-box… Useless! It hangs off two crude, pressed-steel hooks so it drags along the ground, throws the clippings back into the blades when you stop, and empties itself "on site" when you lift it to remove for emptying onto the compost heap.

Still, I now have something more lawn than silage-meadow, the nettle patch is back under control and I have started cutting the flowering-cherry logs for seasoning as making wood, not fuel wood. (I had not felled the tree but trimmed it quite drastically as it was over-shadowing next door's garden too much.)

'

Perhaps I'll look at another area of the steam-wagon tomorrow, on the principle that a break from a problem may help me solve it when I return to it.

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

Not so much what I did today as what I finished today, it actually took over week as I'm rather out of practice… A 4-Facet Drill Grinding Jig for my Worden Tool & Cutter Grinder.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Today I finished the drill chuck removal gadget. The wing nuts work but look a bit naff, so I'll probably make some knurled finger nuts when I get around to it.

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

Another "round tuit" job. Made a new tool height gauge for my mini lathe.

          Now off into the garden to clean the fish pond out.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 27/03/2020 11:42:37

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Not an ME job, but spent some time transcribing Met Office rainfall data from handwritten records to digital form. All this is in support of a Reading University programme to enable all available rainfall data to be in digital form.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

I have what I call a manual fork lift capable of lifting 300lbs, it was in need of three new castors, it has five wheels, two load bearing wheels and two casters on a frame that can be retracted to get the lifting pallet under the load and once lifted the casters can be pushed forward to help manouver the load around and when not lifting there is a swivel castor at the rear to help move it. I bought the new castors some time last year and yesterday finally managed to change them, the rear caster didnt have a threaded shaft to bolt in place, it was a plain shaft a good fit in a tube so I had to weld the nut for the new one in place on the tube, now its done the lifter gets around easily.

Martin P

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'm typing a typescript by my Grandfather – it's about 8 pages all hand typed but rather faint on yellowed paper so it doesn't scan. To be honest, typing it is good because I read it properly.

He tried to get it published back in the day, but it was rejected because of his transliteration of broad Oxfordshire dialect, so my Dad says. It's essentially the true (but possibly a little ornamented) tale of how my Great Grandfather planned and installed a proper outside lavatory on his farm, and suspect that it was a little too scatalogical for the publisher…

He died when I was about 11, but he was a lovely, kind man and the writing shows how much he felt for his own brother, mother and father. It's great to discover his sense of humour was a lot like mine. It might be a bit difficult to follow this isolated bit of dialogue, but a bit of thought will explain what yer Cox's orange is… 🙂

“Ah, and I hope your missus gives you a good ole helpin o’prunes you’ll enjoy the Jim and some o’ that ole rubup up under yer Cox’s orange, I well remember the last lot yer gi’ me”.

Well, it will need a bit of editing, although I'll keep most of his spellings and odd punctuation, and then I'll publish it on Amazon for hime so his wish comes true and my Dad gets a proper bound paper copy!

Neil

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

I thought about changing the workshop fluorescent tubes to LED ones and then I discovered that you could get complete new fittings for not much extra so I bought just one as an experiment and put it on a flexible lead with a 3 pin plug to try it in different parts of the workshop.

Well, talk about impressed! instant light with no flickering so I bought a pack of 10 fittings for £43 on ebay (my wife wanted 2 in the kitchen after seeing the difference) and am busy fitting them at each side of the machines and workbench.

Another advantage is that they are only an inch deep so no more problems with broken glass when walking through with the stepladder.

Well, you have to find plenty to occupy in these times.

Brian

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

I have been renovating my small horizontal it's aT&LM and is featured on Tony Griffiths Lathe site It is in the lathe section under T&LM If you want to view it.When it was bought it from a car boot sale it had no spindle so the chap I bought it off converted it to a verticle mill and I bought it for 200 pounds.When I finished my engine I bought another mill and I decided to convert it back to a horizontal mill.I have been finishing off the last bits today.As they cut off the bearing housing I had to make new ones but to be able to attach them I had to make them oval inastead of circular.I made poly v pullys to lolook like flat belt pullys New geat to drive the lever feed ,new lever and new nut,also a new spindle.Also a counter shaft.I am pleased to say it is finished and Tony thinks it might be the only one made between 1914-20.

Frank

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

Any pictures Frank (Bricky)?

Brian

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Finished the workshop partition wall. Fitted a new security door to it with 5 lever mortice lock, The door actually fit the opening I made for it. Well nearly, I had made it a bit tight. But all good now.

Disconnected the new sockets I fit yesterday as forgot to add an extra on the garage side for an Oxford battery optimiser for the car. I now have a total of 7 twin sockets in the workshop & 5 in the garage. Never too many. Bonus was I did not have to buy them. Old stock I had. Taxed the car for March. Sorn'd it today as it seems it is going nowhere soon. Fit another workbench. Just the mill to jemmy back into the space now. Backache now.

Steve.

Edited By Steviegtr on 28/03/2020 19:56:00

[Phil H1Participant @philh196021]

I cleaned the workshop and did a little bit of research on wheel quartering (locomotive wheels). I am not so happy with the usual descriptions in the books by Martin Evans, LBSC et al but I found a really neat method using the lathe and a couple of machined parts. So I'll give that a go next week.

PhilH

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

Brian the mill is featured on the Tony Griffiths lathe site.Look not in the mill section but the lathe section under T&LM Thanks for the interest and stay well.

Frank

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