Member postings for OuBallie

Finished refurbishing the 5C Indexing unit.

It's now working as designed.

Geoff - Cuppa and biltong for lunch today

Bazyle,

'Fringe' by any chance?

Great series. They oh so nearly made a balls of both universes.

Nice one John!

Geoff - One other passion is SciFi. The 'Lensman' series of books being one of the very best.

My first thought was "It's a flipping ball point pen for goodness sakes!"

Then brain caught up with the two calipers that the eyeballs where also seeing

Geoff - Look forward to replies

Mike,

Why don't you just screw a threaded extension piece into the end, provided there are enough threads.

An application of locking fluid would secure it, or silver solder/braze it in place.

Rod,

I like it.

Well done!

Geoff - A near cloud burst late yesterday has saved me having to water

Edited By OuBallie on 28/06/2014 10:56:37

Roasted more coffee beans.

Did 100g of three different types of bean.

One lot was a bit smokey, but I had a fan on at the kitchen door, to act as an extractor.

Since the last time I roasted, I've turned the ControlBox upside down in order to get the heater and fan controls facing me. Brain fade when I made it!

The two temperature meters are now fixed via Velcro equivalent, and the power cable to the Prima heater has been shortened.

Geoff - I still haven't a clue what I'm doing, so no change there then

MichaelG,

Thanks for the compliment.

I am normally willing to undertake anything, but I must regretfully decline your request, unless you can supply a sample of course

Both you and Les are correct to be concerned about those bare pins. My career was dealing in/with electricity, 380v to 11Kv industrial usage and a short time with 132Kv overhead transmission, so I know to be careful.

I do, however, take your point that others may not be as careful, so will change that plug Les pointed me in the direction of.

Les,

Thanks for the link. I somehow missed those when I searched eBay for the kettle plugs and sockets.

I won't describe the stupid thing I did when building the ControlBox, is just too embarrassing.

John,

I roasted two 100g batches of the Giraffe (Yirgachaffe) variety on Thursday.

The very first batch I roasted, I brewed up with hours as I was gasping, and the coffee was fruity, not having gassed out then.

It's amazing how it/they improve over a couple of days.

I'm now on a steep learning curve to find the optimum time/temp setting for each bean, to try and achieve that 'just right' flavour. Interesting times ahead.

Geoff - eBay here I come.

Just stripped a gear on the crosscut shredder.

Split the cutter section to see what was what and found that the steel motor worm gear has stripped the plastic one it spins.

Don't know if it's worth looking for a suitable replacement.

I bought it at PC World on a special for £15 about ten years ago.

So can I complain? YES because I tried to shred some paper I know will jam it if I try more than two.

I tried three of course, just showing how stupid one can be.

Geoff - I've never known such humidity before.

Yes yes yes, I know it's not something typically undertaken by forum members, but some of us do like a cup/mug of decent coffee, so there

This was one of the projects that I was side-tracked into doing, after the qualify of the roasted beans from my normal supplier went South, and then they wouldn't tell me when the beans where roasted. Beans have a finite shelf life once roasted, hence the ones off the shelf leave a lot to be desired. Even worse for ground.

The search was then on for a roaster, but the price of commercial home roasters soon had me soon looking for DIY ways of doing so.

Google and YouTube came to the rescue as usual, with numerous ways, from using a frying pan on a gas burner to modifying various popcorn makers.

A search on modifying a popper brought up a site that used one that was available locally via eBay, and that was the Prima Popcorn maker.

A Prima was bid on and won, and the modification done.

At first I used a 1amp xformer (transformer) to feed the fan, but this went belly up after only a few test sessions, so a more robust one was needed, and took time to source a reasonably priced one, again from eBay.

That fan cannot be all that powerful, but on testing at high output a couple of times, it hiccupped a few times, then the xformer died.

New computer PSU fitted and all appears well as I've done six roasts to date, and the result has been well worth the effort.

No idea how long the plastic deflector will last before melting, as others have replaced it using a tin can et al, to act as a chimney.

The only slight downside of DIY is the chaff and slight smoke.

I did try the frying pan method when I got desperate for a mug, having run out of beans and the popper not yet finished.

Well I needed my WWII gas mask, there was so much smoke.

Still the coffee beat all of the off the shelf variety anyway, so I was happy.

The ones from the Prima are even better as I have full control of heat.

I use the Roastmaster App on my iPad, as this gives me the means to log temperatures at any point during the roast, together with First and Second Crack.

Very easy to control length of roast now.

Photo Album added, but will happily help anyone wanting to do the same.

Geoff - Back on track project wise with any luck

Thanks Tony.

Should be interesting if enough people join. Let's hope so.

I have just about given up on this valuably resource since Yahoo 'updated' to the NEO interface, nearly a year ago now, and broke Groups.

Checked My Groups yesterday, and the number of posts has collapsed to single figures, with only two into double.

Previous to NEO, Classic, it was a pleasure logging in and reading them all, but now virtually a desert.

There is an ongoing campaign, www.http://modsandmembersblog.wordpress.com to get the old 'Classic' interface back.

Yahoo CEO, Marissa Meyer, appears hell bent on destroying Yahoo, where all precious have failed. Talk about someone reaching a position beyond their competence!

Geoff - Bad day today due to treatment.

Ah, 'gentle' prodding has had the desired result!

Thanks for all the help.

That tab popped out easily enough, and would have fallen out had I tipped the unit.

Wasn't feeling too bright when I started to take parts off so failed to recognise it for what it was.

Those grub screws will make it easy to index, IF I remember/bother to set them

Will post more photos as I progress.

Geoff - %^*# gardening and Probate yesterday, ditto today.

Once again JS doesn't disappoint.

The word . .

'SMART@RSE' . .

springs quickly to mind

I had such hopes on seeing that you posted a response, ah well.

Geoff - Office filing instead of roasting coffee beans Bah.

Come on guys/gals!

Cannot believe I've stumped the collective wisdom.

Geoff - Well there is always a first.

Thanks for that MichaelG.

That's a biggie and makes the twin Dellorto setup on my 105E look puny.

We never think of SU producing such monsters.

Talking of SU, I intend fitting an H1 to my Austin Seven engine. Pity the 'Old Man' at 'The Austin' didn't beat his rival in purchasing the company.

Never found an SU equipped engine not start first time.

Amazing carb.

Geoff - Off to roast more coffee beans.

Locusts on the braai, glass of wine, what better!

How's your tummy feeling now Neil?

Geoff - I'm a wine man, beer sends me to sleep PDQ

Oh, just noticed that I haven't replaced the silicone 'seal' for the Apron alignment peg.

The one on the other side is covered by one of Ketan's excellent concertina swarf shields.

Geoff - Swept the detritus from the Patio, and now need sunglasses. Blow me but it was dirty!

Neil,

I remember one of my previous bosses calling me a smart@rse for telling him what the German equivalent was for 'urgent' when he needed to get help from the Parent Company.

The whole office packed up laughing, me included of course as you just cannot take such a comment seriously, when said in jest.

Geoff - Not implying anything, but . . .

Finished modifying the Saddle locking feature on the BH600G.

New thread and Album posted with details.

Heaven in being able to lock Saddle with no more them a 1/4 turn of handle.

Geoff - The spanner can now go back into general usage.

Thank you Frank!

I've been having trouble getting the Blue, 230/240v, industrial plugs on my 3in1 machine to make contact.

A spray into socket and onto plug, and contact straight away!

Had visions of having to replace all of the sockets and plugs for others not made you know where.

Geoff - Lathe Saddle lock done with thread and photos added.

Just finished the Saddle lock.

I followed what Anthony Mount did on his similar lathe with the exception that I welded a handle onto the bolt, thus no longer needing to go for a spanner.

As received, and as I've been using it, the locking method left a lot to be desired in that I had to turn that bolt a number of full revolutions to get it to do what it was designed for, and feeling very 'soft' as it tightened up. Anthony found the same with his, all due to bad implimentation/design/machining of the pad that straddles Saddle and Bed.

I had at first thought of doing a locking mechanism similar to the two I made for the drill vice, but realised that that was not practical as I only needed to get the bolt to got from 'Unlocked' to 'Locked' in a 1/4 turn if possible, and in any case the lever would foul the Top-Slide.

A lever welded onto the bolt head, and handle affixed would suffice.

First thing was to scribe lines, on the locking pad/nut, where that 1mm gap is between the Saddle and Bed and where a 1mm tongue needs to be provided to prevent said pad from rotating when the bolt is tightened up.

Scribing done and onto the Shaper to remove metal. What marvellous machines they are in producing flat surfaces with nary a machine mark in sight.

It took a few trips to and fro to get the pad to provide the 1/4 turn I was after.

Then a case of trying it out a few times to settle thing in, then mark the position for welding the rod on.

Said rod had one end turned and threaded M6 for the plastic handle.

As an aside, when making parts for the duplicate SkyHooks, the Greenwood parting tool was squealing like a piglet, obviously blunted by parting off those large pieces of Allthread. Who knows what material they are made of!

Time to rescue the insert tip as I have no idea where the spare is, as usual

Got one of my Yellow plastic diamond honing sticks out, and a few light rubs on the vertical face had the tip as sharp as new.

It then sailed through that 9mm rod.

Back to the shaper to put an angled flat into the end where it's to be welded onto the bolt head.

Stick welder out, and my usual multiple attempts to do a passable job ensued.

My years of O/A useage has not stood me in good stead for this type of welding as I ALWAYS forget to FEED that flipping rod IN.

I still haven't tried the TIG facility on my 3in1 machine, but I should be fine with it, knowing to keep the TIG nozzle at a fixed distance and FEEDING the rod in with LH.

Eventually I ended up with a passable weld when I remembered to feed in, followed with judicious use of the grinder and job done.

Assembled on/in the lathe and it is what I wanted, a 1/4 turn and no spanner needed.

Album added, with photo of finished item in use.

Geoff - Chuffed to say the least.

I need to dismantle my unit, after 'finding' it in the shed yesterday whilst searching for something else., as is the norm.

The centre indexing section appears to have siezed up, as I cannot rotate it.

Ive removed all the easy to do bits naturally, and now come to a halt as I have not a clue how to continue.

Help anyone please?

The indexing wheel has Allen socket grub screws in the holes, with four level with the disk at 90°. Any idea what they are all for?

Album added, but photo below of the indexing wheel.

Geoff - It's good to 'find' something you know you have, but not where