Member postings for Mark Simpson 1

Something very similar is still on sale from Ajax Scientific and others, it's a ruler, compass and protractor all in one... Aimed at middle school children apparently...

search for TRIMAN OPAQUE RULER/COMPASS in your search engine of choice...

I guess it's American

Edited By Mark Simpson 1 on 15/08/2023 15:36:21

Worcester isn't too far from you and findurstuff has tons of machine parts and lumps of "stuff" When visiting family in evesham I've found a lot of "treasure" there on the way past

Large soldering electric irons still available from Express Electric Soldering Irons (roofing-tools.com) and Industrial Soldering Irons (somersetsolders.com) up to 550W
for my last 2 bits of tinplate work I used a hefty manual one heated with a propane blowlamp... Must be donkeys years old, came from a jumble sale

How about this? we did something similar with a bunch of scouts and hand tools. They were 11/12 ish and maybe took longer than you have...
Air engine 2 (woodgears.ca)

I've been really intrigued by this and have looked for relationships between 18, 9 and 30, following on from the analytical observations of Farmboy... and peoples wondering whether it's for adding or dividing things...

"Inner disc indentations numbered 1 to 30
Outer "telephone dial" ring numbered 0 to 9 : 0 to 9
Fixed scale numbered 0 to 18 "

No idea if there is any relevance in this but maybe it will give someone smarter a hint?

There are 18 inches in a cubit, 9 inches in a span, also 3 palms in a span, 3 inches in a palm)

does this help perhaps?

Hi Colin

I've had a crusader deluxe for 5 years and turned most of my 6" traction engine bits on it. You get a lot of stuff for your money. The basic lathe is better made than I thought and the bed is still very true and does not twist easily; lots of 25-30kg bits turned in it... You can get more centre distance by overhanging the tailstock a fair bit. I've managed 970mm between centres (with a short headstock centre turned insitu)

The acccesories are more variable, check them all when you receive it.
Chucks are good, and the 12" faceplate is fine, the fixed steady is rubbish; twisted and about 1" off centre and 3/8' low... I fixed it but still annoys me that it was so crap! The bed stop was another poor quality item; so I remade it.

I killed the single phase motor, after a good amount of use, and replaced it with a VFD and 3phase combo... Infinitely better.

I'm happy with it, not the quality of my previous colchester student, but the bed turns parallel over 900+mm without having to adjust the gibs as it travels along at 5 years old...

Dealing with Chester was not the simplest thing, buy all you need at one go and make sure it fits together as you get it....

RDG tools stock some bantam gears, no idea if they are what you need go to their website and look for colchester bantam gears.
RDG do stuff a bit to a price, but I've been happy with all of the stuff i've bought for the price paid.... They will definitely talk to you if you ring them

Russel: I am not trying to knock Linux, I use it and like it for many things, including some commercial work.

All I am recounting is my experience from several years of offering free and commercial versions of software on Linux; alongside a Windoze offering. You get lots of interest on Linux, lots more support calls about install issues and little commercial interest... This could be because our software is crap, but the same lack of linux support from the biggest cad vendors suggests that it's not commercially exciting. PTC offered Creo(Pro/Engineer) on linux for a while but dropped support after a few years.

I bow under the weight of opinion, but respectfully suggest that the lack of big applications on desktop/laptop Linux must have something to do with it's commercial viability as a platform; it's nothing to do with capability or performance.

Cheers, Mark

Dave S.O.D. the original poster was asking about windows 11... so I was replying about desktops and laptops...
at least we can agree that in that domain Windows (with all of its faults) has the biggest raft of applications. Embedded in things, and as Virtual Servers, there is lots of linux it's just not commercially replacing windows on desktops and laptops...

Using Android to expand the Linux User base is kind of sneaky... The same compiled code does not run directly on both because Android has a (significantly) modified kernel, Google release some of it under their AOSP (Android Open Source Project) but great chunks of phone related stuff is missing.... It's "kind of Open Source" but not really; google want their slice of the action (and get it) it's certainly some kind of Unix.

Trying to release stuff on IoS (apple) is as far from open source as you can get... If apple don't approve it then it doesn't get out there...

Bazyle, I accept your TV Set Top Boxes on linux as an application, but IMO it's acting as a server perhaps? its certainly a very specific application, nothing like the Linux v Windows on desktop or laptop (which is where this started..)

Clivel: I did not intend to totally discount Linux as an "desktop/laptop" environment, I have a desktop with it on as well as a Windows laptop (works)... I was trying to say that we, and most of the bigger CAD vendors with any history in Unix, have offered our products commercially on Linux and found few or no takers; annoying when you've spent the money to build, test and deliver it...(but that's the software business)
There is a ton of linux embedded in things and web servers are surely one of the biggest applications - the lack of a software license cost is a significant factor in these things.

My best guess as to why it's unpopular commercially, except for very specific applications, is the fragmented nature of Linux. The distro's come and go really quickly and what runs on one particular installation will nearly run on another, then you spend some time on forums deciding to add this or that package. The differences are smaller than the differences between say the Solaris and Irix of 20 years ago, but companies hate uncertainty and want to reduce risk...

Whatever I don't think that Bill Gates et al need to worry about their superyacht mooring fees just yet!

Dave (S.O.D.)

Following up on your comment...

"Proprietary software is unusual on Linux"

As a long time (1985) mech engineer working for CAD software vendors I can tell you that there are really good reasons for this.... And our software is (and has been) built on most flavours of Unix inc Linux (nor forgetting Primos, Dec VMS, OSF, Sunos, Irix ) as well as lot's of versions of Windows.

1. The expectation of Linux is it's free (everyone needs some return on investment)
2. The variations in the many Distros of linux (and their piecemeal installation) means that it's a nightmare to support (and you need to do this for free)... Expect O/S based support calls to be 300-500% higher than for a proprietary O/S
3. There are no (nearly) no commercial users of Linux for User applications (Loads of servers)
4. We have commercial unix users, none of them plan to move to Linux despite it being functionally identical.
5. Opensource is fine (In theory), but how many people really have the skills to build large applications when there are platform and compiler evolutions? We have a few computer science (double tefal head) folk who do this stuff

We use linux internally a lot, but it's got few commercial possibilities outside of the server world (at the moment)

Linux, great for servers and personal use (if you've got the time) commercial applications non starter (at least today)

Mark

"I think I read that with Win11, Microsoft threw away the kernel and now base the OS on either Linux or Unix, a very sensible decision"

John I can clarify this some... Win11 can run some (maybe many?) android apps,, it has a post compiler using "IBT" which converts the machine level instructions from an Android compiled software to an intel x86 based instruction set... It's a lot smarter than an emulator, a lot easier than having a dual boot machine but it's still (all) windows underneath (not unix)

We wondered about why they spent so much effort on this, till you realise how much more attractive it would make a windows tablet device... For the guys with a desktop and no touch screen? possibly less useful but then you are possibly less interested in native android apps anyway...

Other than that, and a new more Mac/Tablet look user interface most Win10 (and win7) compiled software will run on it (we write a lot of cad software and it all ran out of the box). We (actually the computer science geeks we employ) think it's pretty much win10.1

Martin C "The pipe isometrics sound like a major backward step.."

I agree with you when it's a bit of bent pipe, especially when you make it multiple times, but the customer is creating industrial piping and each iso can contain low hundreds of pieces of tube and fittings. The isos are made automatically from the model and split into several sheets if there are too many bits. It shows you how to orient flanges, valves and tees etc. not just the tubes, so a complete fabrication and erection drawing.

We do export coordinates for NC bending machines but not everyone wants it. There is a preference these days to use elbows rather than pulled tubes where possible; depends on what's available in the material... Bending big pieces of 300NB+ tube can also be a challenge; we have one customer whose bending machine is over a 4M deep pit to accommodate the flailing ends of the bent pipe.... They use lots of special materials and there are few fittings readily available.

Possibly the biggest difference between Industrial/Plant piping and adding pipes to a mechanical design is that they are one-off things... The drawings are created automatically, pipes are fabricated to them, installed to them and the design company move on to the next job.

It's especially interesting to me that their end customer builds a metric "product" but its supporting installation is totally built in Feet and Fractional Inches...

Fascinating (and probably endless) discussion...

Interesting discussion,

To earn cash (so I can buy more materials to make more swarf ) I've worked for a CAD System developer for the last 30 odd years.... Our customer world is largely metric, quite a lot of US companies do some metric work but still loads of inch stuff there that's not going away...
(There is a growing tendency to speak about "Feet and Inches" or "Foot/Inch" rather than "Imperial" even the American government calls it "customary units" these days)

BUT.....
We've just finished a large project, for a US customer, to implement fractional inches for Pipe Isometrics. They want different denominators for Tube Lengths, coordinates and bend radii and have pages of specification about how to show dimensions of Whole inches, whole + fractional inches, Feet and no inches, feet and a fractional inch...
We've done more work on Inch dimension code this year than in 30odd years, and we didn't expect to extend it ever again... Strange World.

All bridgeports and clones motors have to run in reverse when in low gear... You would have thought than an idler somewhere would have been cheaper than the switch gear; but that's how they are...

When I was apprentice, late 1970's, Ozalid was the name of one of the two drawing print processes we used (pre CAD)

Ozalids used chemical impregnated paper, UV light and developed with ammonia. Smelt like Cat Pee, so most preferred semi dry prints which used a chemical to print and then dried (or burnt) the print at the end of the printing process.... sat next to the office print machine for a while, got some practice with the fire extinguisher when people were not paying attention

typical (american) ozalid machine pics here...

It's likely that they also made drawing and chart plotting equipment, your items look like a good way to meausre and bearing and distances on maps and charts.

After considerable faffing about I got the other part of the toggle out using a 4mm dia magnet... The depth stop rod fell out and I was able to remove the eye that bolts into the quill. Photo and Sketch below... dims are approximate it's fairly mangled (not all by me!)



48 hours later I've got the spindle out; using Plus gas inserted through the hole in the quill and a M12 threaded rod with a tube on the bottom of the quill as a puller... It was stupidly tight, but I got it out without damaging anything... The video says " a gentle tap with a brass drift"

New bearings ordered and need new thread on the nose piece, more pratical now I can properly measure the thread inside the quill.

Mark

Edited By Mark Simpson 1 on 25/08/2021 11:15:50

Thank you Michael and Gray...

Now I know what it's called,I've worked out what it does... It trips the feed if you drive it to the top...
The short pin is pushed up by the eye attached to the quill, and the toggle pushes the screwed rod down to trip the feed... (it's a toggle to reverse the direction...)

I've got about 1/2 of it out, after a lot of faffing with some ground down mosquito forceps...
I still can't get the rod out because the last bit of the toggle still jams it, got a 4mm Neodium magnet rod coming on Monday which hopefully will get it...

Michael, the nose piece has been butchered, prior to my ownership, and it seems was held in with araldite and the grub screw. I've built up the thread (looks like M74x1.25) with silicon bronze and will attempt to cut a new thread.

The spindle assembly (sadly) shows no sign of movement, but will keep trying...

I need to get the spindle bearing assembly out of my quill to nip up (or replace) the bearings... It's similar to a Bridgeport but always some slight differences..

I need to remove the depth stop rod, because the socapex securing the depth stop eye into the quill also secures the top of the spindle assembly.

I have the lever of the bottom of the depth rod easily, but can't work out what the widget is at the top? (and then how to extract it)

Anyone ever dismantled one?

Hi Robin

I'm sure you will try all of the above things (first) and hopefully find the culprit.

I recently had a similar problem, which eventually was the motor having lost a winding or two (but still running).
1.5Kw Single phase cap start / cap run chinese motor.
Once Cap was blown, but replacing it and the motor bearings didn't fix the problem

New motor (I went 3 phase and VFD) and it's much quieter, more grunt at low sped and silky smooth

The motor was loud/grumbly since new, but gradually got a lot worse....

Good Luck
Mark