Member postings for robjon44

Gentlefolk may I put in a word for the Full Stop tap washer kit, available from B&Q & of course all the usual suspects on the internet, take top off tap, remove the upper piece that the old style washers are fitted to, place plastic shouldered bush in outlet hole & press down with special tool (thumb), place plastic upper stem & washer in head of tap, replace, then gently screw down capstan of tap to press all in place. When you have tried one you will not imagine why you didn't invent it yourself, personally I have never had one let me down & at £1.78 got to be worth a try. Three quarter inch ones seem more difficult to acquire but after you have seen one I'm sure it wouldn't be rocket science to make ones own.

Cheers Bob.

Hi all, in the 60s I worked for a firm that made the entire range of Spencer Franklin workholding equipment of which the pictured item was a part, a powerful locking mechanism indeed! Base was a steel or alloy casting or gunmetal (crikey) for the ones made as aerial clamps for the Royal Navy. Could easily be made in any shed dwellers workshop, would obviously need access to a ball turning device but lash up using boring head or any of the other methods previously described in these forii (is that a word). Naturally made a couple for myself at the time but at some later date when times became hard I sold them for an obscene price, thank the Lord for people who can't knock a nail into a snowdrift.

Bob

Hi all, have posted before about cleaning aluminium motorcycle castings by boiling them with rhubarb leaves, Oxalic acid, not always available in current weather conditions, however regarding cleaning motorcycle exhaust systems a friend bought a very expensive moped for a knockdown drag out price, upon starting it & setting off down the street it created a smoke screen worthy of a destroyer, I drew the conclusion that it's former owner thought that the mixing ratio for the 2 stroke fuel meant 20 of oil to 1 of petrol! Never having tried my suggestion ( Saint Albert of Einstein "I would not call it research if I knew what I was doing" ) I settled on biological washing powder, set up silencer & downpipe vertically, remove baffles to do them seperately, covered end of downpipe with tape, stick plastic funnel in end of silencer, which was uppermost of course, fill to overflowing with boiling strong solution of the wash powder, in a short time effervescing like a witches cauldron left it in till it went cold, end result clean as the proverbial whistle. We naturally flushed the fuel tank then refilled with correct mix & a test run showed virtually no visible smoke, result.

Bob

Hi all, spotting drills are indeed used comprehensively in industry especially in CNC machining, a centre drill is for centring a component that is to be held between centres or to be supported by a revolving lathe centre, it is not however the preferred weapon for starting a twist drill. On a CNC mill or machining centre when all hell is being unleashed particularly when drilling large matrixes of holes it is the easiest thing in the world to blink & miss the centre drill breaking on the 2nd hole, unusually it would be your backside that the bootprint of blame ends up on, in these circumstances a spotting drill solves the problem with the added bonus of allowing the chamfering of said holes before they are drilled, bargain!

Now I realise we ain't all got CNC machines in our private caves (apart from the lucky few) however the same logic applies, whether you use manual, what used to be called "automatic", or full blown computer controlled lathes the same logic applies, for many years I campaigned two 2" capacity bar machines producing 960 various components the large majority of which had holes drilled with HSS twist drills, once I had settled in I invariably spot drilled to chamfer size then drilled to size, in 14 years I never had a spot drill break, I rest my case.

Bob H

Hi all, glad to see that some of our learned colleagues can enlighten us on the values of some of the metric measurements that have crept into our daily lives, perhaps one of them can tell us the exact value of the term "load" in the collective noun "a load of testicles".

Bob.

Hi all, if I may here is my fourpennorth on cracked ribs, it is my unsubstantiated opinion that muscles surrounding the injury need something to push against so they push against the very last place that needs any more gyp, a tried & tested (by me) remedy is to wrap a broad scarf around your rib cage & tie it off, this in an emergency, later a snug fitting crepe or elastic bandage is the order of the day, accidents, barrack room horseplay or a playful nudge in the ribs from a ball ended motorcycle handlebar end lever have all responded favourably to this quick fix.

Bob.

Hi all, have posted before on this subject, including 'resurrecting' silted up 3 way fridges, however after my experiences with our previous campervan (nobody has mentioned having to rip it out of the van to turn it upside down), when we acquired our most recent van about 18 months ago I settled for a worktop compressor fridge which cost the princely sum of £60, yes I know you have to have electric hook up, but let me ask you this, when you see a Transit size van conversion, pushing say £45 to £50,000 in price why do they not have any vent grilles in the outside? because they all have compressor fridges, thus obviating umpteen extra cutouts in the bodywork. There is a man who builds van conversions who rents a unit at the farm where my other half stables her horse & he has embarked on his latest effort this very day. So believe me when I say save yourself a lot of grief, mine hits operating temperature in around 8 minutes.

cheers, Bob H.

Hi all, the days of cutting threads with Coventry Die heads are far from over, for example the Simba Plough Company of Sleaford Lincolnshire had a requirement for some rather large "studs" threaded 2" Whitworth, the longest of which was 12 feet long with 2 feet of said thread at one end, we had to cut a hole in the wall of the wooden shed that was our workplace, feed the bar through, and the turret of the Herbert No 7B, headstock & finally a well greased wooden plummer block! Then one may take 1 rough & 1 finish pass, job done, proven technology etc etc. Compare this with Cnc, right hand end of machine often blocked with swarf conveyer, left hand end of spindle blocked by obscenely expensive magazine bar feed for delivering bars little over 3 feet long, oops run out of space. Rolled thread? I don't fink so, Thread milling? your having a larff, have you any idea how much such technologies cost? for a thread to be fitted with 2 (very large) nuts & washers, go with the tried & tested.

Bob H

Hi all, before H&S took over the world I taught my daughter basic electrical stuff at around the age of 12, wiring 2 & 3 pin plugs, using socket tester etc, imagine my astonishment when she was regularly asked by male teachers in an all girl school to wire a plug for them!

However, during an office relocation at the firm where I worked, the foreman of the electrical department came upon an office worker fitting a 3 pin plug to a paper shredder, the logic being that the cable had to pass through a hole in the desk top too small to accomodate the plug, said foreman then gently took it from him & cut the first 8 inches off the cable, man says he needs to use the shredder & will report this matter to his office manager, foreman retorts "knock yourself out, we will see what he has to say when i show him that you wired the earth wire to the live pin of the plug,making the machine live at mains voltage" Boom Boom.

Bob

Hi all, having added the Radio Telescope to my list of things to 'see & do' when I stumbled upon it with the sun shining into the dish on a mission to somewhere else in mid 1960s ( Norton Dommi 88 ) , I finally made it there for the guided tour in summer 2017, nothing prepares you for the sheer size, however for me it was the 2 house size white boxes which elevate the dish & are actually the (only one owner from new guv) gun turret traversing gearboxes off a WW2 battleship, absolutely bang on & with all the indoor displays of rocket science, never seen so many digital readouts in one place, highly recommended.

Bob H.

Welcome David & thanks for the link to the videos, despite spending the majority of my career as a machinist at the leading edge of modern technology I am completely hung up on the industrial heritage of the 18th, 19th & early 20th centuries, in retirement I am now free to indulge big time! Already ploughed through your offerings of yesterday & thanks again.

Bob H (in UK)

Hi chaps, have used the drill technique many times, in his youth my dad worked for a firm who made standard drill bushes to make up production if things were slow, in adult life I found myself in precisely the same position so he downloaded all his wizard wheezes to me, first drilling to size, stone outer corners to a visible radius, remember you are trying to turn the drill into a reamer, drill initial hole having centred the stock, peck drilling if needed, as you approach final size its permissible to bore a short distance to ensure a true start with your reamer/drill even if you have to face that bit off if finish is not up to scratch, remember you are reaming, slow speed coarse feed, got good results down to three sixteenths inch diameter this way, all specials for Catapillar Tractor Belgium. Had similar fun with larger headed sleeve type component that been peck drilled through, my second op. was to render the hole to size with a finish slightly better than one resembling a little dogs bottom, tool 3 flute core drill again with stoned corner rad. position tools, start 0.040" feed, chamfer bore after drill has started to cut, broadface flange, chamfer o/d, job done with mirror finish.

Finally, sizing machined bores with a large ball is called ball burnishing, used to get accurate size & fine finish when ie brass bushes have been pressed into bosses & flanges, end result precise size, fine finish, blink of an eye.

Cheers Bob.

Hi guys, such devices are generically called use-em-up sockets, the commonest of which is a forged morse taper with a flat on 1 side of the bore ie it is D shaped, take damaged drill, tidy up broken tang, grind dirty great flat on taper till it will fit in the new socket along its full length, knock it in up to your usual standard of agricultural violence, this is NOT precision engineering, regrind drill point, carry on, quick, cost effective, blah blah.

Bob H.

Hi Bob, very first lathe I started my apprenticeship on in 1960, I've always thought that it is possible to die of nostalgia! and I really hate to see classic old iron maltreated as that one clearly has been. We also only had ballchucks, collets & barfeeds at that time, although later I used many 2DS & 3DS models with manual & air powered chucks as well, although I felt that these beefier jobs never quite delivered the dextrous lightning fast forward/reverse & fast/slow speed changes of the 2A, probably why the expression " a quick flick" was created. Towards the end of my working life 54 years later I acquired for my then employer a Ward 3DB which was fitted with a Hepworth copying attachment would you believe, who knew? got that going & used it to to prove to him that CNC machining is not the answer to every problem, even though I had become a Programmer/Setter/Operater some 43 years earlier. Anyway, enough of this frippery, congratulations on the fine refurbishment, I trust you have the slimline open ended spanner suitably ground away round the outside of the jaws to tighten/undo the length stop screws on the capstan slide?

The elderly gentleman will now go for a lie down as he had a Full Knee Joint Replacement on Monday of this week & it is proving to be little harder to recover from than I had anticipated.

Another Bob

Hi chaps, it might be appropriate to point out that all coated grades of throw away tips have a radius over the edges, otherwise when the coatings were applied a sharp edge would push through, to see the difference one only has to fondle the exaggerated angles & ground all round with razor sharp edges displayed by tips for fine finishing on Aluminium, no coatings there then.

Where parting tools are concerned & I speak here from personal experience, when confronted with a component that calls for a flat parting off face after parting through hexagonal EN24T, to obtain an uncoated tip we would merely get a used tip out of our private collection, put it in a holder made from a short piece of part off blade attached to a small block of metal then show it to a diamond wheel, both sides, front & a tichy little chamfer on both corners no more than say 0.015", the work of one minute, problem solved. We used this technique for many years & sad as it may seem even kept records of their performance due to the mild form of OCD we suffered from, note that I can't speak for other brands but Mr. Sandviks part off blades would accept 2 adjacent sizes ie 3 & 4mm would fit the same blade, this came in useful if called upon to cut an O- ring groove in a face where a draughtsman had dreamt that it would it would be a suitable embellishment, look that one up in a dictionary as I just did, its description is bang on!

I will now shuffle off & post the last few christmas cards & let you chaps get on with some workshop time.

cheers Bob H

May I add a reference to the file known as " The Farmers Friend", this is a one piece flat file with handle incorporated, 2 safe edges, no teeth on half inch of forward end to allow 2 handed grip without getting splinters, it is fine toothed & more importantly single cut, made for sharpening unhardened garden tools etc. However in the engineering world very useful for drawfiling, deburring & so forth. Single cut means you don't get what looks like the coarse knurling produced by cross cut teeth, used on the lathe also good results, removing fine slivers when trimming bolts & screws massacred by hacksaw. Mandatory health & safety note, I make no apologies for being left handed, when using on the lathe therefore, left hand on handle, right hand on front end, entire body positioned to right of job, not in front of it with left arm arched over danger area as I have seen some folk do. This technology is available at a car boot sale near you for about 20 pence a time, cheers.

Bob

May I suggest for ripping into soft materials like thick aluminium sheet & chequerplate the Aven File or a clone, modern form of the dreadnought, if you use the adjuster to curve the blade, reducing the number of teeth in the cut results are spectacular, then return to flat for finishing straight lines, had good results making new larger rear step for campervan this way ( 12 inches to the foot scale )

Bob

Signed up to open a seller account several days ago, for my pending workshop downsize, no response for activation code by email, wotts up doc?

Hi all, dropped in local Aldi yesterday (Friday), stumbled on a stack of Canon Pixma MG2550S 3 way printers, I am not a fan of inkjets myself having had bad experiences in the past but I think you will agree that an A4 printer, copier, scanner of good pedigree for £23 has to be a bargain. Scurried off home, all set up in 15 minutes, knocked out a couple of black & single colour notices as a test, also a 6 x 4 photo on plain paper, will try gloss photo paper when I find it in this madhouse, so goes like a train. To illustrate how tight I am I do my black & white printing on a Brother mono laser that was an end of line at PC World for the princely sum of £25, these do not seize up if unused for long periods like inkjets, later

Robjon 44

Hi all, if you wish to perform intermittent cutting with TC tips on shaper or lathe the grade you require is S6, a plain ie uncoated tip, I have machined many sets of soft jaws on manual & CNC lathes up to 22 inches in diameter & it doesnt get much more interrupted than that! To reinforce the wisdom of being able to use the same tooling on lathe & shaper I have a V point 55 degree rhombic lathe tool taking positive rake tips, I shaped the width of the shank down to fit through the toolholder on the shaper many years ago followed by making a dedicated toolblock to fit it on the lathe, using the shaper naturally, the time taken to switch it between machines is measured in seconds & by swivelling it left or right its area clearance (technical term) capabilities are astonishing, yes it really can shift some stuff.

Cheers Bob.