Member postings for Blue Heeler

Absolutely brilliant Bill and thank you very much!

Apologies, as someone said above I could see them so I thought everyone could

Hopefully they are visible now to all (and I'll try to edit my original post) -

I was at a garage sale late today and they were packing up, this was in the bin to be thrown out as no one had bought it.

Its fairly hefty, even with a 10x loupe I can't make out the makers name. I don't have the slightest idea what industry would have used pliers like these???

This is the first time I have seen a James Maiwald Flame Licker / Flame Gulper doing some work. I made an aluminum drive pulley and mounted it on the flywheel and the engine quite happily drove a Fleischmann wood saw steam accessory.

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 11/05/2019 04:13:08

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 11/05/2019 04:13:20

LOL

LOL

Yes

Nick, I've made them before by using plumbers copper pipe (sometimes with copper end caps silver brazed on other without) and melting lead inside the copper pipe.

That made me smile

My wife is inoculated as well, though she does nurse and support me through my illness

Lathes that produce baby lathes....now that's a thought

Its Retaining Compound, used in a press fit those heads aren't going anywhere.

How many members are also model & toy steam 'nuts'

They take up a HUGE part of my day (so I should say my life) and they breed like rabbits!

Here's a link to my YouTube channel with lots of videos of the model and toy steam engines and accessories that I own.

So, who else has steamitis?

https://www.youtube.com/user/Blue123Heeler/videos?flow=list&view=0&sort=dd&live_view=500&disable_polymer=true

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 09/05/2019 08:49:12

Cheers Perko.

One thing I don't understand with the Chinese lathes is that on most of the belt drive (not sure on the electric drive ones) is that the slowest speed for threading is around 150 rpm. Now I use dies for all of my threading needs for model and toy steam engines so its not an issue for me, but why don't these have a slower possible rpm by adding another two different sized pulleys?

Copper Hammers from re-purposed old socket wrenches
Made a couple of different sized copper hammers from some solid copper off cuts that I had laying around the shed and from some junk find old socket head wrenches.

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 09/05/2019 05:11:11

Easy way of finding centre to drill a hole in round stock. I know that a lot of blokes (and gals) know this trick, but I'm sure that there's a lot that don't and it's always good to refresh an idea now and again. I know that true machinists have better and more accurate ways to find centre, but for your average backyard metal basher this is a quick and easy method.

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 09/05/2019 04:19:12

Very true Neil, just think of the level of work that was turned out using treadle lathes in dim lighting conditions. Those blokes would have been delighted with the cheapest of Chinese lathes and a bright light!

G'day Ian,

I've lived at LC for the last 35 years, Thanks for subscribing, appreciated.

My first lathe was an AL50 from H&F that a friend begged off me when he moved out West and I bought the Sieg C6 from H&F.

After around 4 months the motor stopped working in forwards, they overnighted capacitators to me, but it didn't fix the problem. Two day later someone from H&F made the 6+ hour return drive down to LC with a new motor and spent 4+ hours installing it and going completely over the lathe. That's just incredible service.

What lathe and mill do you own now Ian?

Chinese lathes, let me say up front that I am a self taught backyard metal basher.

I've had my Chinese lathe now for six years (Sieg C6 10x22) and most days I do at least a couple of hours of work on it.

I looked for ages here in Australia for a Myford, Boxford, Southbend and every one that I came across was clapped out and had parts missing and the owners were still asking big $$$ for them.

I spent some time doing some things to the lathe to make it nicer to use. Its accurate, dependable and a joy to use. I know a lot of people are wary of Chinese machinery, but for the price its hard to go past them. Unless you can find an elderly gent getting out of the hobby and are able to purchase a nice used Australian, US or British made lathe, what real choice do we have otherwise if we want to start turning?

I would give my C6 a 5 out of 5 star rating and my Sieg Mini Mill a 4 out of 5 stars.

Here's a link to my Youtube channel showing some mods I did 4 years ago -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5glxMpnOq_E&t=11s

Edited By Jim Dobson 1 on 08/05/2019 01:27:18

I was very happy with how well the magnet in the plastic bag trick worked at the beginning of the clean up.

Hi All,

Much appreciate the replies. I am going to have to do something as its taken me quite a time to clean up and I don't want to go through this again.

I can still taste it!