Member postings for derek hall 1

Wow, a lot of clever people on here, Grammer school?!....wow

I failed the 11 plus, went to a bog standard secondary modern skool, Latin, Greek?.....no. I took 7 CSE's and failed the lot. I loved metalwork and woodwork generally due to the good teachers (thanks you Mr Salmon and Mr Waters).

Hated school, could not wait to leave, did an apprenticeship in a shipyard as a marine engineer this led on to other jobs and ironically a further total of 12 years at technical colleges doing further engineering study in first mechanical stuff and then electronic things.....I much enjoyed technical college, better learning environment for me I suppose - I guess I was a late developer...

Regards to all

Derek

I was 11, and was one of those who stayed up till the early hours (was it around 4am UK time?) to watch, on an ancient black and white TV, Armstrong step out on the the moon surface.....It did seem ages to wait after the landing until they decided to get out though.

What I don't recall is watching the launch, although I followed all the space stuff during the early 70's. Including rushing home from school to catch up on the latest news!

One other thing can you imagine the frustration of this event being behind a pay wall/pay for view i.e. sky, and not being able to witness live this massive event in human history?

Regards

Derek

Hi Bill

I have used between centres boring bars from boring out 30 inch diameter holes on the stern frames of ships, to holes less than an inch diameter on my little Myford lathe.

Between centres boring is easy, and accurate, but it does take a while and the hardest part is to set the job up to the lathe centre height and also clamp the job securely without distorting the cross slide or the job.

Regards

Derek

Hi,

This weekend I have been boring.......boring the two castings LH and RH for the Quorn I am making.

BTW in another thread regarding boring holes, I had no problems at all in managing to bore 4 off 1 inch dia holes within a thou of nominal diameter and two pairs of these holes at 3.5 inches +/- 0.000 apart on my old circa 1962/3 Myford.

It took a couple of days though and I had to put up with "jokes" from my other half about me boring.....sigh...

I used a between centres boring bar made from a kit from Hemingway Tools.

Regards

Derek

Hi, I am using the GHT cotter method. It worked fine on the dividing head, and UPT.

For the front bar of the Quorn, the fit between front bar and bore has to be a little more.....shall we say "slidey" without shake but not "tightey"

Hi, perfect timing for this question. I was going to post the exact same thing!

I am currently building a Quorn and having bored out the LH and RH casting, the front bar calls for a "sliding fit" between these cast iron holes and the front steel bars. I did some research and it does seem that "Timesaver" seemed to be the right stuff.

I need to take off the last thou (ish) to get this desired fit.

It looks expensive though but I am told little goes a long way. It does seem that the compound does break down completely. Do not under any circumstances use emery or grinding paste as this will embed into the cast iron and the cast iron bore now becomes an external lap!

I also considered one of those 3 legged brake cylinder hone.

Going to try and use medium and fine as suggested. My local stockist has it in kits - comes in 4 grade, coarse medium, fine and extra fine.

Regards

Derek

Hi Dave, I like those arbours you made.

Are you relying on the clamping action to hold the saw in place or do you use a key way to engage in the saw?

I always feel that if the keyway is used than it will be goodbye saw if it gets stuck in a slot.. Instead if the two clamps are used to retain the saw as in your arbour, in the event of the saw gutting stuck then it "may" not be the end of the saw.

A bought a small slitting saw arbour, and it was rubbish, I will copy yours....if you don't mind !

Regards

Derek

Don't forget the subtle scent of cutting oil..

A colleague at work showed me a picture of a EV charging station at a motorway service station, behind the charging stations and connected to them, was a very large silent running diesel generator separated by a discrete hedge.....

Regards

Derek

It is sad to see this abuse on any lathe bed....a simple wooden "chuck" board laid across the bed to protect it during chuck changes - or hack sawing whilst job is still in the lathe would have saved all the "dings" and dents to the bed...

Regards

Del

Wow thanks for the replies....10 mins after my post!

This is why this website and forum is so good.

Thanks guys...

Derek

Hi all,

Rather than go to the hassle of setting up my top slide to a known MT2 to make an external MT2 using nice free cutting mild steel, I have obtained a supposedly soft blank MT2 arbor, because it might be quicker, easier and certainly more accurate.

The problem is I need to machine down the "tail" of the external blank MT arbor and internal screw cut (1/2 inch x 32tpi) for a different draw bar thread. - well this is not really the problem, the problem is that the steel at this end of the arbor is tough - really tough....it is not easy to machine - actually almost impossible....HSS tools and drills struggle

There are lots of suppliers who advertise MT blank arbors. So are there any genuine "soft" MT2 arbors that are soft throughout or are they only "soft" enough to machine at the large business end of the arbor?

Regards to all

Derek

Hugh,

I asked a guy (a well respected model engineer and I cannot recall his name) who was demonstrating the Quorn at this years Midlands Model Engineering exhibition, that I cannot seem to find anyone in the UK that supplies Quorn castings.

He responded that Ivan Law's son was involved now in the supply of Quorn castings and that I should contact him. Unfortunately I do not have his address or email. I am assuming this person is the same that is helping in the upcoming Model Engineering exhibition at Harrogate this year....

I also asked how long did it take him to build the Quorn.....?....his reply 4 months!

If you do find a UK supplier of Quorn castings then please let us know...

Best regards

Derek

Well I have recently obtained a set of Quorn castings and I am about to start building it, as its the building of "things" that I enjoy. I know I can free hand grind HSS lathe tools or just buy a new milling cutter but its the challenge that interests me.

Over the years the designers and builders of engines and kit that I grew up reading who now are no longer with us and I want to build a few things that they described in the ME.

For example, I have built many of GHT's workshop equipment and its very worthwhile and useful kit, I have made some engines and of tools described by the late great Tubal Cain, and I always wanted to build the Quorn to the design of prof Chaddock.

I did my apprenticeship in 1974 to 1978 and in the stores in the first year they had some ME magazines, and in one or two issues was the description of the Quorn...one day I thought, I want to make one of them! 45 years later I got the castings!.....as a 16 year old in 1974 perhaps that was the spark for me stay with Model Engineering for the rest of my life...

Regards to all

Wow, so many opinions on a smart meter!

This is why this forum is so good.....!

I have to say reading all of your comments I have come to the conclusion to convert the super 7 to 3 phase via an invertor but to call EON and cancel the smart meter!!!.....what was I thinking ?

Best regards to all of you

Del

Hi,

I am thinking of converting my myford with a transwave or newton tesla package, but also just about to get my electricity supplier to fit a fancy smart meter soon.

Has anyone had any issues with this combination or shall i just cancel the smart meter install?

Regards

Derek

"Jeep Bottom"....... the things you learn about on a Model Engineering Forum

Thanks all of you for your responses.

What a great forum this is. Someone somewhere has the answer!

General consus seems to suggest that the conversion is a "no brainer" anyway...

Regards to all

Derek

Hi guys,

Just a quick couple of questions, I am currently looking at converting my Myford S7, which has the original resiliant "imperial" single phase motor, to the popular 3 phase invertor route via Newton Tesla or Transwave for example.

The main issue is deciding on the type of motor. I can get in one package a resiliant "imperial" motor that dimensionally is the same as the old one, or I can choose a slightly different motor this being a "metric" foot mounted (non resiliant?) motor which is slightly cheaper. Chosing the metric motor option will mean some"iron fighting" as the existing pulley will need machining to suit the new metric motor shaft and also some packing (effectively large shims) will need to be made as the centre line of the motor is different to the imperial motor.

So imperial straight swap or metric option?....by the way the metric motor has a fan whereas my current old single phase motor has no fan....is this an issue following the conversion as the motor may not always be running at its "normal" speed so the fan may become less effective?

What are your experiences on this?

Regards to all

Derek

Another thing to consider is that modern housing is getting more densely packed, no spare room and rarely garage for a workshop...

Derek