Member postings for Gerald Howarth

Accoding to ISO 691, the tolerance on the jaw opening is from 19.06mm to 19.36mm. So all the spanners are actually correct but as said earlier I wouldn't be happy with the 19.36 for a brand new spanner.

Gerry

Could try Seals Direct, https://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/, they seem to have most shapes in their catalogue.

For interest, the only information I could find on the original engine for the 1914 ME Beam Engine.

Copy of a letter appearing in Vol30, Page 334, 2 April 1914:

The History of the "M.E." Model Beam Engine.
To THE EDITOR OF The Model Engineer.
DEAR SIR, -It may interest Mr. Gentry and yourself that I can fill up the lacuna in the history of the model beam engine. In 1858, Mr. W. Farey, manager to Messrs. Bryan Donkin Bros. (since and Co.), of Bermondsey, engineers and millwrights, designed a beam engine to drive the works, replacing two old sun and planet engines of old type. Mr. Oakley then was in the erecting shop, and fitted up the engine in the engine room, and, of course, had access to the drawings. In the early sixties I was apprenticed to Messrs. Bryan Donkin & Co. as engineer and millwright and served my seven years there. During this time Mr. Oakley set up on his own account, mostly in repair work, and the model appeared in his shop window. We lads used to look at it with admiration, and model making became the vogue amongst us. That engine in THE MODEL ENGINEER carried one back to happy days fifty years ago, when the limbs were lissom and ambition loomed as high as Sirius. Messrs. Bryan Donkin & Co. made and sold only three of these engines - one at Basted, one New Hampton, and one at Roughway Paper Mills, these being noncondensing because of utilising the exhaust for heating, but the engine fitted in the works had a jet condenser, the air pump being operated by a large eccentric on the main shaft. Afterwards Bryan Donkin & Co.'s compound back to back horizontals became the engine, and the old patterns were chopped up.
The picture presented by the old beam engine (which was really efficient) brought back my youth vividly.
Bryan Donkin & Co.'s boilers were vertical, and the vacuum and steam gauges were mercurial, with tall staffs on the floats reading off a 10-ft. board scaled. Millwrights then used to go to work in tall hats and frock coats, shifting into overalls and caps in the shop, and were by training equally fit at drawing-board, pattern shop, fitting, turning, or erecting shop. The "one branch" rankers used to deride us, saying that dead donkeys and dead millwrights were never seen, because they were translated with Enoch and Balaam's colleague to Elysian fields of grass and Whatman's hot press.
I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully.
FREDK. WALKER
Cheltenham.

The local Rotary Club use it for committee meetings and my wife just started using it for her book group meetings, both groups are very happy with it.

gerry

Does this do what you want:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/micmute/

gerry

There was a conversation on Practical Machinist I saw about this subject - may be of interest. Google 'home made taps' and a the Practical Machinist reference is right there, the method seems strange but may be of interest to you.

Gerry