Member postings for Sam Longley 1

When i had my joinery business I had air screwdrivers, for speed, that were rather like the dremel to handle. My joiners moaned ( well actually they moaned at just about everything) if they had to use them all day screwing the risers into the backs of treads using the screwdrivers as they were such an awkward angle to hold. They much preferred the standard battery drill type screwdrivers.

I do recall, however, earlier Black & Decker drills where the handle was in the end of the drill at right angles to the shaft. If they snagged they gave ones wrist a right old twist. Especially as the early B & D were really powerful drills & could be sent for relatively cheap service & came back with a gold paint to indicate refurbished

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 27/10/2016 16:06:57

With all due respects - that looks like a lathe just dying to fall over

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 27/10/2016 08:06:39

Do the group that own Fiat also own Ferrari ??

Having bought ME as a digital copy earlier this year i will certainly never buy a digital copy of any magazine again.I bought it like that to read when i was away on my boat. Never managed to down load it onto my Ipad in foreign ports..Not that i would bother with ME again anyway

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 25/10/2016 18:30:12

What???

Surely you did not keep a Fiat

Interesting about the air ambulance. For 10 years I was the Clerk to the local committee looking after moorings in our river. At the end of each year we used to donate monies received for launching & recovering boats to the RNLI . However, our village is often referred to as " god's waiting room" & one year it was questioned as to whom we should make the donations. It was observed that RNLI came to our part of the river once every 2 months, whereas the the air ambulance came to our village once every couple of weeks. Guess who gets the money now!!!

Apparently another way is a good hard kick in the nether regions -- works for the ears. Dunno about microwaves though

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 18/10/2016 16:51:14

Are you sure appreticeships are that long these days? ( I am talking craft level)

I thought the introduction of modules also reduced the length of training required

It also meant that training could be restricted to the work that companies needed, rather than parts that they did not. That meant that trainees , whilst having a narrower range of skills, would still be able to undertake the skills a particular firm required. The modules could always be added to later.

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/10/2016 13:37:13

Interesting that only 1.8% go into construction yet one can easily make a reasonable wage as a (ie)quantity surveyor - if one took that path-as one can with most of the other jobs. I know students who have done sports studies who are now doing something totally different having sussed how useless it has been & realised that they now have no training for anything useful. Yet we still run these courses

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/10/2016 08:33:52

Went Thursday & did not regret the total 7 hours of driving. After Brooklands shambles I was worried I might be wasting my time but I thought it was as good as Doncaster & Ally Pally. It was good that there were more trade stands to tempt me to get my wallet out.

The outside showing was interesting & as usual the people on the club stands were very willing to chat as were those outside so it came over as a very good exhibition & well attended. I went to see a finished PYRTE traction engine on the Rugby Model Club stand ( I started one last week) & met another builder of one so we had a good chat about the build

To be controversial with my observation-- If one had to decide which exhibition this year would win the award for the top few models I would have to give the prize to Doncaster because some of the models there were really exceptional, as were a few at Brooklands.( if you could find them!!) But not so noticeable at the other 2 shows

And if you ask them why they went bust it will often be "cash flow due to late payment from the client"

A definition of a "day" is important

Start about 09-00 with a cup of tea & an hour for lunch plus p..s of at 15-00 is not a days work

You need to define how many hours "work" for the day

I will always go to J & B if only because of the time they spent explaining the types I needed to fit my holders & for what materials etc; plus they even wrote down a list of codes with little sketches of what to order next time. Extremely helpful to a beginner like me

The tips they sold me work OK & price seems Ok as well.

Personally i would use a witch

According to sir Bedovere they are heavier than a duck

deleted

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 07/10/2016 08:26:48

If you have compressed air then there are cheaper angled die grinders available

Well I met the engineer ( all 80 years of him) for the first time & he walked me round his shop which was full of old machines from bridgeports to myford grinders & colchester lathes. He showed me his plastics moulding machines - he machines moulds for others & himself & then produces plastic parts. I also saw the spark eroder for cutting patterns

It was interesting to see a coventry mill which he obtained 4 years old from a school that had never been used. they did not know that it needed a magnetic plate so as it had no t slots nobody could use it so it was wasted until he took it off their hands- so much for education !!

Anyway- re the milling cutter , I gave him my lump of steel & my cutter- which he proceeded to sharpen by hand ( & gave me a lesson on how to do that) . He put the cutter in a bridgeport & ran it at 188 RPM & cut the steel like butter & the feed speed was high. He felt that I was trying to run far too fast. He also felt that i did not need exotic cutters for most work & showed me drawers full of cutters which were all HSS.

So I tried what he had demonstrated at home. Sharpened a cutter. Ran at 200RPM. milled my steel & had no problems. Job done

you could get a length of 12 or 15mm mm rod from builders merchant . drill a hole through the bottom of the end  2 feet , say 25mm up & pass it through. fit 2no 150mm diam  wheels from internet.( do not have to be a perfect fit) screw  2 pieces of 3*2 handles on the other end to wheel the stand like a wheelbarrow- let them stick out a bit for leverage & then remove the lot when in place. You can easily move 300 KG like that as the wheels will take half the load . If you have more than 4 legs put the wheels in the inner legs so the weight is balanced more evenly. Push into place as near as possible. Then you cut the 3*2 handles up for blocks & using a nail bar lift the stand to remove the wheels once in place

Cheap & easy

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 02/10/2016 08:29:58

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 02/10/2016 08:30:50

Did not realise that feeding too slow would cause problems -- thanks

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 02/10/2016 07:46:50

Story so far is that I am now back from sailing & have received a cutter as suggested by Jason on the video above.

Trouble is that I forgot that my chuck needs threaded cutters & ARC's ones are plain. I tried the cutter in the chuck & it just drops out as the collet does not clamp down on it at all even though both are supposedly 12mm

I do have a couple of draw bar collets but unfortunately they are imperial not metric so I still could not use the cutter.I did try another milling cutter that I already had & being brand new it did cut Ok but not brilliantly. I also had the problem that during use it decided to screw itself into the chuck a bit more so I got a tapered rebate even though I thought I had done it up to its limit of thread hand tight.

I had bought a set of small fly cutters that fit the drawbar cutters so I tried one. It cut fairly well except that the cutter moves back in the holder & as it is only held by a single small grub screw I could not get it tight enough . So that is only good enough for something soft & very light. Something to look out for if I buy again in the future. Another waste of money !!!

Oh the joys of learning !!!!