Member postings for Hopper

I think you are probably right. It could take many hours, even 12 or more, to gently warm up those big old boilers from cold. Not worth paying the boilermen the extra time to fire it up for one working shift. Also, every time you shut the boiler down and leave it to cool off, all that heat is wasted. And heat is coal. And coal cost money. Not something Yorkshire mill owners were keen on spending unnecessarily!

Scam. Laser cleaners listed on eBay are many thousands of Pounds. If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

I get the same thing on FaceBook. Working model Harley Davidson engines advertised for $30. Phenomenal. But on eBay the same model engines are listed at $800.

Caveat emptor.

Edited By Hopper on 16/06/2023 11:40:39

Is your boring bar small enough for the 14mm hole? If you use too big a boring bar the heel of the bar can rub on the inside of the hole and cause the kind of serrated finish you mention. For 14mm hole you might need a small insert boring bar with 6mm or 8mm shank or so, not a big fat 12mm shank.

Also, slowing down the rpm for boring can help reduce chatter.

13G usually means 13 threads per inch.

It is the metric way of describing TPI without referring to the verboten inch. As MG says, it stands for the German word for thread pitch. Older imperial thread gauges just have the number, indicating TPI.

Industrial boilers have a vent cock on the top of the drum.When raising steam from cold it is left open until all the air is expelled and steam is coming out. When shutting the boiler down for the weekend etc, a check valve is screwed into the vent cock and the cock opened so that as the boiler cools, air can be sucked in so the boiler does not end up under a partial vacuum, which could strain the tubes etc.

Fitting of the strips seems related to the choice of material. Bit of brass should work for you. I vaguely remember on one "microlathe" I fixed up for a bloke a few years ago it did perform better when we set up the lift plate strips (steel from memory) so they were a neat sliding fit on the underside of the way where they run. Blued them up to just contact and that is all. Had to rub a few high spots down on the ways with a fine flat file and rubbing stone. In theory the lift plate should not affect cutting but in practice it did seem to help on these rigidity-challenged tiddlers.

Edited By Hopper on 15/06/2023 08:40:53

Free ad-blocker software solves that problem on all websites. I use Ad Blocker Plus as an add-on to my Mozilla Firefox browser. Not an ad to be seen anwhere. ( I leave it switched off on the ME site to support the forum and its sponsors.)

My 2010 Toyota Corolla 1.8 litre has a cam chain with spring-loaded tensioner. Toyota does not schedule any maintenance on either. They are rated to last the lifetime of the engine -- an expected 200,000 miles. Many seem to go longer than that to 250,000 miles. Not many people do more than that in a car before all the plastic and rubber bits fall apart, regardless of how good the engine and gearbox may still be. Which is good because to replace the chain (or fix an oil leak in its cover) you have to pull the engine out. Mucho moneys.

Just about every Japanese motorcycle made since the 1960s has chain driven cams and they seem to run for phenomenal mileages without problems. Only BMW has managed to fit cam chain tensioners that wear or break early -- and you have to split the engine crankcases to replace the tensioner blades. Doh!

I think the appeal of wet timing belts includes quieter running to help get past noise laws, and less friction to help get past fuel economy laws. Every little bit counts. Can't see any other reason they would go away from the dead simple external belt method which yes it needed changed every 60,000 miles but in most cases it was not a huge job, albeit a bit awkward between the end of the engine and the wheel well on smaller bodied cars.

But if you Google Ford Ecoboost Timing Belt Problem, the tales of woe are legion. Would make me think twice about keeping it after repair.

Just needs the ball 'andles.

Your best way of testing it might be put it all together and try using it, taking a few cuts etc. Nothing like real world conditions to really see how things are.

I didn't notice the Ainjest attachment on the carriage before. Totally awesome!

Wow, that is some pipe bender! Quite a project in itself.

You want to be careful not to take too much off that steep angle thrust face. If you let that spindle move very much at all axially, the long shallow tapered surfaces could come in contact and form a nice driving fit like a Morse taper.

Half to one thou is a good oil gap to start with on the main shallow taper.

There is a removable gap piece visible in one of the pics, held down by two cap head screws. Looks like it would extend the permanent gap by 3 or 4 inches, enough for most model jobs. My advice would be to not remove that gap piece unless you absolutely have to. They can be a bear to get to sit back in place properly.

DRO? Forget about it. Not needed on a lathe. Don't make the beginner mistake of imagining that a nice digital read out will let you dial in exactly the number to magically cut the job to the exact size you want first time every time. All the same procedures and cautions are needed as when using the cross slide dial. So you might as well use the cross slide dial.

She looks pretty tidy in the pics. Nice machine.

Which issue of MEW? My index shows no tube bender article for MEW 94 or 95. Do you have the author's name?

PS EDIT: Looks like it is in issues MEW 94 and 95, listed as a pipe bending machine. Author name is Hunt. Published 2003. Anyone got a copy they can share with Stephen?

Edited By Hopper on 13/06/2023 05:07:39

Only $10,000 for a battery to back up your solar system! Tesla has the software to use your EV car battery to power your house overnight and recharge from solar during the day, all the time keeping enough power in the battery to get you to work in the morning. But it has not been implemented yet. And of course is shortens the battery life in your Tesla.

Edited By Hopper on 13/06/2023 02:18:41

What you have done is essentially the same as the infamous Rollies Dads Method, ie taking a bar that may or may not be dead straight and dead true and taking readings with the bar rotated through 360 degrees and taking an average. Job's good.

The acid test will be doing a turning test, where cutting forces acting on the machine can give a different result from static measurements. Recommended turning test bar is steel 1" diameter sticking out of the chuck by 4".

Welcome to the forum.

Have a look at this current thread here LINK about making a Stuart models engine. It is a twin cylinder but basically two of their standard singles coupled together. So you will be able to see what is involved and what tools and machines he has used.

For a fairly simple bar stock engine, google Potty Mill Engine. Free plans available and plenty of build threads on this forum and others.

Edited By Hopper on 12/06/2023 13:09:24

It's a lovely job he has made of it, and definitely easier to lift than the big rotary table. I have the two pieces of steel to make own version, a la Harold Hall, but they have been sitting on the bench for six years now. Ended up buying a little 75mm rotary table with worm and wheel and all for less than $100 so lost motivation to spend $1000 worth of time on making one.

Very similar in principle to the ungeared small rotary table designs of G H Thomas and Harold Hall, published in ME and MEW respectively.

But he missed the very simplest way of machining a radius on a corner or end of a rod that has a hole in it. You can hold a pin upright in the mill vice and slip the hole in the rod over the pin then hold the end of the rod to pivot it around while milling the radius with an end mill cutter.

Bit of a dodgy trick but sometimes used in jobbing shops where time is of the essence. And homeshops (like mine) where laziness rules. This video shows the principle: Actual machining starts about 00:40.