Member postings for John Ockleshaw 1

Hello Peter, This is a good job for a spark eroder even if it is a blind cavity

Hello Iain, If matt black is acceptable for your dials then the American company Armco developed a process during WW2 suitable for chromium nickel and chromium stainless steels, American patent 2,394,899. A coating of wax will give it some lustre.

You immerse the job in molten sodium dichromate at 388 to 398 deg. C. for 30 minutes, take out the work, allow it to cool, wash the salt off with tap water.

The work pieces were components for mine laying equipment and Garand rifles. I have used the process at home with very good results..

Hello Simon, Many clock and watch dials were and are pad printed

Hello Chris,

I find Duncan Webster's hot solution of Sodium Nitrite and Caustic Soda gives a very durable BLACK finish rather than blue, you often see it on pliers and other tooling. It is not like blue lagging sheet.

Regards, John

Hello Tifa,

Try to get some inhibited phosphoric acid, may be rust remover from automotive paint suppliers.

It converts the rust to iron phosphate, which can be scrubbed off with a nail brush.

It does not attack the parent steel. It offers no rust protection so keep your gauges oiled or vaseline coated.

John

Hello Tony,

Rod Renshaw, in the other thread on this subject, tells us a 4mm Starrett radius gauge sells for about 8 pounds add to this 50p for 25 mm of 3mm dia copper bar leaving 6 pounds fifty times 5 gauges to buy some beer for the owner of the spark,eroder !!!!

Hello John,

With regard to your original request for a source of small radius gauges.

Get access to a sink type spark eroder with DRO on the X and Y axes and a lock on the Z axis.

Cut yourself five pieces of 3 mm diameter copper rod; about 25 mm long and turn down 1 .5 mm of the ends to 1.0 mm dia. 0.8 mm dia, 0.6mm dia, 0.4 mm dia and 0.2 mm dia .

Buy, or make, five "L" shaped small radius gauges.

Remachine the inside corner radii by "draw filing" with the spark eroder using the five electrodes .

Hello Mike In the Model Engineer 2785 ,of the 7th October 1954, Len Brown described a "Small Drill Sharpening Device". depending how big you make it it will accommodate Number 80 drills, For these small drills you wiill probably need a magnifier to help you position the drill.

They are simple to make and I have three to cover the range 5/332" to less than No.80 diameter.. They work very well.

If you send me a PM with your email address I will send you a copy of his article.;

Regards John

Hello Bob,

I would suggest the baize has been fixed in place with PVA adhesive ( Polyvinyl acetate).

Regards, John

Hello Michael I first purchased some Tyler SPIRAL blades in the early 1950's. They came in a white spirally wound cardboard tube 7/16 inch diameter with tin plate end caps. and blue printing. There were no end fixings just straight lengths of blade which I use in fret saw frames.

Regards, John

Hello All,

Centre drills with small pilots will not tolerate any miss alignment between the lathe spindle centreline and the drill centreline Miss match may be due to ,wear on the bedways, wear on the underside of the tailstock body, inaccuricies in the drill chuck or its mounting or the tailstock being twisted sideways.

It is worth the trouble of making a holder for that size centre drill body.

Onto the end of a piece of free cutting mild steel bar machine a taper to match the tailstock barrel. Where it will be clear of the barrel machine a flat, say 8mm square, so you can put the taper back in the barrel in the same orientation every time. If you intend to lock the centre drill in place with a grub screw, rather than Loctite, drill and tap the hole for it now. Cut the taper off the bar leaving say 8mm clear of the tailstock barrel.

Mount the taper in the tailstock, retract the barrel as far as it will go, without ejecting the taper and clamp it. Using a boring head in the lathe spindle, or a slot drill or D bit machine a tight sliding fit hole for the centre drill body into the end of your holder. Fasten the centre drill in place.

Regards, John

Hello Brian,

Drill Service (Horley) Limited supply centre drills with a pilot diameter down to 0.3mm diameter, the same as a number 80 drill. I am a very satisfied customer.

Regards, John

Hello Rod,

In your original post you say a higher surface plate would reduce the amount of bending to read surface gauges and the like.

Just pick the instrument up in your hands to reach a convenient height.

Regards, John

Thanks Peter for your post.

You can read more about this 14000 ton capacity crane by Googleing

Saipem 7000 and at the bottom of the screen click on Brochure

John

Hello Mick, Tin the inside of your boiler with soft solder. Plug all the openings except the largest one. Pour in about three tablespoons of Bakers Fluid, Heat the boiler to about 90 deg. C., plug the hole ,lift the boiler and swish the flux around vigorously then pour it out. Melt in the equivalent of a whole stick of plumbers solder, do not use resin cored solder. Heat the boiler until the solder is molten. replug the opening. Again pick up the boiler and shake it vigorously, pour out the excess solder, Wash the inside well.

Regards, John

Hello JA, I agree with Andrew, furnace silver soldering works well at home. In my case I put a heat resistant stainless steel muuffle in the kiln, this has a sand seal to retain the gas which has a continuous very small flow.

If you use a mixture of 10 % hydrogen in nitrogen the hydrogen replaces any flux and gives a superb job. There is no fear of an explosion with this mixture.

This same set up allows you to copper braze at 1080 degrees centigrade with 2 different grades of silver solder as well for sub assemblies.

My kiln is built inside part a part of a 44 gallon drum ,the muffle is 9 inches diameter by 9 inches high .

If you let me have your email address, as a PM, I could send you some photos of the setup.

Regards, John

Hello Colin, For my "Twin Sister", a side tank loco, - The dome cladding was machined and freehand filed from a piece of steel bar. It is located by the dome and it's own saddle. It is secured by a countersunk bolt tapped into the domes plug. There is a boiler band hard up against each side of the flange.

For the firebox cladding - I flanged a piece of 0.025" thick copper sheet just like the firebox throat plate. It only reaches down to the boilers horizontal centreline, with a 0.06" corner radius and a 0.3" long flange. This wa soft soldered into tthe firebox lagging with 0.07" projection, The assembly can be sprung and slid down over th firebox from above. Here again there is a boiler band hard up against the firebox cladding.

For the twin saftey valves cladding - I machined and hand filed the flanged cladding from a piece of flat bar, it is located by the saftey valves and held in place by another countersunk bolt.

If you care to send me a PM with your email address I can send you some phottographs.

Regards, John

Hello Mike You might care to look at www.moerkwater.com.au they make village size , reverse osmosis, solar powered desalinatioin plants .

If there is a source of second class water adjacent to the hospital you would get 100 litres per hour of drinkable water. Using 3500 watts of solar panels.

Failing this the high pressure pump in the systen is capable of 56bar and maybe man enough to raise water from the river. Without the desalination reverse osmosis cartridges.

If it is not then put in a second unit halfway up the slope.

I have no financial interest in Moerk.

Regars, Johhn

Hello Ramon, When I wanted to diamond plate some 0.125" diameter nickel bronze I was given half a cup full of nickel plating solution by one of the local electoplaters, whom I did not know. I am in Western Australia and your health regulations may rule this out.

As suggested by Cannings, of Birmingham, I plated directly onto the nickel bronze. Used as needle files the nickel and diamond grit has clung on like the proverbial to a blanlet and given excellent service.

Regards, John

Hello Geoff, Mill a copper electrode and spark erode a piece of steel sheet to produce elegant chequer plate.

Regards, John