Member postings for Stuart Bridger

I have used Entex Stock Springs in the past and had very good service from them. They have nothing anywhere near the spec required though. May be a useful source for others.

I echo Lofty's point on laser printer toner. Horrible stuff, gets everywhere. It will also wreck standard domestic vacuum cleaners as the particles are too small to be caught the filter. The main constituent is carbon black which is of course conductive... That then gets in the motor and bang. Years ago when i worked in IT service we had specialist vacuums for laser printer maintenance.

Dave, Very interesting post, I see a lot of the 26 1/3 TPI which is still used on most gun cleaning rods

Stuart

Anyone remember Messengers in Guildford? That was a "real" tool shop, I remember as a lad drooling over all the tools in there. They also helped kit out my first toolkit post apprenticehip, many of which are still in toolbox.

Bob,

My 10V conrod was my first serious use of a slitting saw.

I may have been over cautious, but I took it VERY gently. Multiple shallow cuts with slow feed worked fine for me.

It did take time,but there were no tears.

Very interesting photo. I did an apprenticeship there starting in 1980. There were about 80 in the intake that year. I was one of 20 technician apprentices. There were from memory about 10 on a graduate scheme and the rest were craft level. Us technicians did about 6 months in the training workshop, covering everything from basic fitting, sheet metal work, welding, hand forging, turning and milling. I don't recognise the building although the mills look familiar. The apprentices there have wooden toolboxes where ours were aluminium alloy. I don't recall any surface grinders in the shop and all the lathes were modern Colchester (2000?). We were the first year to be exposed to CNC, writing G code on a Commodore Pet. It was a fantastic training experience. Shame most of these facilities are long gone now. Mine was a 4 year apprenticeship, with day release and evening college.

I'm trying to remember and relearn everything I was taught back then and am working on my first project, a Stuart 10V. Some of it is like riding a bike and some skills are long gone, if they were ever there in the first place