Member postings for Old School

Our experience of Warco service leaves a lot to be desired my son tried to buy a WM250 at the Midlands ME but they didn't want to talk to a young lad he walked away and bought it on the Internet. Delivery was something else he got close to cancelling it due to broken promises on delivery they just didn't seem to know what was going on. Anyway he was assured it wouldn't arrive before Christmas. His mum got s phone call a week before Christmas saying it was on its way.

It's not my sort of model engineering but it's nice to see so many well built models running, also some different engines like the multi cylinder radial oscillating engine.

JasonB Have you got a website address for GHW I can't find them on Internet. Thanks

I have just finished a Sun engine machined from castings it makes a nice engine and it ran first time on air.

Bazyle well that pretty much wipes out what we do, driving down to the local track in our polluting car, then get out our smelly coal fired or diesel loco. The whistle and horns on them really are the icing on the cake for noise pollution.

I have over the last few days built this digital timing measuring device for my tether car engines the basis for the unit is a digital angle rule.

As a retired sextant user, plastic ones were rubish aluminium one were better but the brass ones were the favourite. Why because they are heavier easier to hold steady on a moving ship. Not tried on on a yacht it's all electronic now days.

Thats really interesting and it shows some promise for a first time out. A bet that's inspired you Paul.

I am no clockmaker but my father was he built orrery clocks they had worm wheel in them as did the Mudges moon clocks.

It's to take the slack out of stretched brake cables etc

Arceurotrade do a range of digital calipers I have used the most of the range from 4" to the biggest which went into a UKAS test lab after being calibrated and was used on a regular basis. I have no links to them other than as a satisfied customer. They don't eat batteries even with the cheap ones in them.

i came by 3 boxes of model engineer magazines which I had a browse through, I tried to give them away no joy. So destined for recycling. As a last resort I put them on a Facebook local community advertising page. I couldn't believe one of the people wanting them was a 9 year old lad he arrived today with his mum to collect them. Maybe thier is hope for the younger generation.

I had a Raglan Little John lathe it gave me years of good service ex school lathe. Before I retired I decided I would need another lathe. I looked at the Chinese offerings but they didn't appeal. So on the recommendation of a friend I ended up with a Myford 254s I have been very pleased with this lathe and have done a lot of work on it. Recently my son decided to get a bigger lathe he has just bought a Warco similar size to the 254 it's a nice machine if it had been available when I was looking for a machine I would have been very tempted.

I used to work in the plastic pipe industry most of our production was from recycled HDPE plastic bottles we bought as much granulated material in as we could plus we bought in a processed bales of bottles post consumer waste. Most of our pipes used 100% recycled material but you need the controls and knowledge in place to get a good quality product. The only downside is that most of it is black. Recycling has moved a long way but a lot of companies have not invested the time and money to make a success of it. When I left the industry we typically shipped 40 artic lorry loads a day of fully certified pipe a day.

I work a lot in aluminium and I suffer from a build up of material on the tips lots of lubricant helps. For my Arc grooving tool I have found some tips specially for aluminium a lot better than the general purpose ones, from Apt only downside is they come in boxes of 10

Clive, It certainly needs more oil than you are using I would follow whst E Westbury suggests. Castor oil is a good lubricant and is still the required lubricant along with methanol for some model classes where speed is the goal.

You will need injection moulding grades of the materials suggested they are a lot more runny than the extrusion grades. We had a small commercial injection moulder on the same principle as the one in the picture it was pretty useless. The success rate for getting a good moulding was low and it was a simple test piece. It ended up in the metal skip, if it was any use I would have brought it home.

Just checked the size I use its 3mm diameter and used in a 3.6mm diameter hole.

Try this company they do a range of carbide boring tools called Tiny Tools I use the 4mm diameter internal grooving tools and it's very good http://www.protool-ltd.co.uk.

Alan where do you live, i am sure someone local will give you some help with the project. I live near Leicester.