Member postings for Stuart Bridger

I was seconded to a team working on implementing DNC at BAe Weybridge. My resposbility was the comms link from the design office computer room to the shop floor. Thie team was established just a few months before the site closure was announced. The project was canned.

I recently dug out my apprentice training log book. Amazing what detail is in there. Pertinent to this thread was was example CNC code sheet that confirms that it was a Bridgeport that we were using back in 1981.

Edited By Stuart Bridger on 10/02/2019 09:57:20

Paul,

You would have been in the intake a year after me. If I remember correctly the instructor looking after CNC was Mr Speakman. A rather large sweaty man, who was learning at the same speed as us. No blue foam in sight, that must have been a later addition. You are right about Mr Kell running the milling section, a very unpleasant person. I got a dressing down for running a face mill in reverse. Being a complete newbie, I hadn't been told to check the direction, just assumed that all cut in the same direction. Us technican apprentices were aked if we had any feedback as to why not one of the craft apprentice intake that year wanted to take up milling. I am sure it was Mr Kell who put them off.

In my experience, a choke is the least likely component to fail. Its a passive component, basically a coil of copper wire. Not saying it can't fail, but I don't think I ever replaced one during my time in electronic repair. Much more likley to be the the Triac or the bridge rectifier.

I also use the 6mm Glanze tooling. Made a great job on a barstock flywheel. Needs a very rigid setup to a avoid chatter. Big advantage is being able to cut in both directions.

Great timing, I'm looking to pull the trigger on a Femi bandsaw, just waiting in financial approval . I am am sold on the NG 120, based on capacity. This is on the same reasoning as buying a lathe, getting the biggest one I can afford. Feature creep is coming in though, is it worth the extra for auto downfeed? Also has one got the stand. No room on my bench, so the stand looks interesting.

I use the Glanze clamp type mostly. Parts like butter on my chipmaster, with a mirror finish.
Only managed to damage one insert when doing something silly.
**LINK**

The going rate for a Kingston USB stick is £700 for 1 TB and £1400 for 2TB, so for £13.95 what do you expect...
Also I do question the need for that much space on a stick??

If my memory is working correctly. British Aerospace, Weybridge had a D&R copy mill. Its most "famous" task was milling the curved track for the nose drooping mechanism on Concorde. That said it was on its last legs then the operatros said it needed continual maintenance to keep it going

Take care, a lot of scams regarding fake 2TB USB sticks

My first job was testing and repairing such devices.
The 4 wire "bridge meggers" were locally known as "bongo testers" and used for testing electrical bonding of aircraft structures.

Good Information here **LINK**

I did use RS Components 178-614 (now discontinued) but recently I have switched to using nitrile gloves over barrier cream.

The reasurring thing about this post is that I am not the only one with multiple hobbies and not enough time to do all of them justice .

Excellent, I for one will follow with interest

In no particular order

Beer
Food, both cooking and eating out
Photography
Walking
Hedgelaying (winter sport)
Music (rock and blues mostly), listening live and at home
20c military defence architecture (pillboxes)
Used to do a lot of clay shooting, but not so much recently

In summary far too many for someone who is working full time. No wonder my ME projects take so long to complete.

My local town Witney, comes under West Oxfordshire District Council. They have a policy of not charging for car parking. So is it a big surprise that it is a thriving market town, with plenty of independent shops??? Yes there are some shop vacancies, but not many. That said we have had some recent closures citing high rates, so we can't be complacent about the future,

Reading up on the cold blacking processes described here. They seem very similar to industrial phosphating that most of my apprentice pieces were subjected to in the '80s. Although I suspect the chemicals were stronger then. Everything is rust free despite being stored in damp garage for 30+ years .

Local clay pigeon club, kit secured in what we thought was the best we could do . Semi rural area. Scumbags cut their way Into the container and made off with £10k worth of traps. Local police, crime number issued and no more . Zero chance of solving crime so not worth attending.

I would agree with others here, the release mechanism and paint job "looks" military or aerospace spec in design.
The greasing points clearly indicate that it is designed to rotate freely, but other than that I have no idea.