Member postings for Bob Stevenson

The big thing about machining, and indeed making stuff in general is that it's 'the indian not the arrow' that counts....... So, to answer yoour question; ...yes you can knurl ok and safely on such a lathe, providing you do so intelligently and take into account all the variables including material type and diameter etc....and go to the 'trouble' of working things out in advance using a scrap workpiece as a test.

That said, there is no doubt that use of the old type of side action knurler is fraught with many pitfalls and some considerable dangers for the clumsy 'indian'....... At Epping Forest Horology Club we have actively discouraged the use of such devices and, as of recent weeks, their ban has been written into our H&S schedule. Certainly they have major potential penalties in both amateur and commercial workshops.

.....If your clamp type knurling tool is "wobbly" then you could do worse than to start there and work up good process and procedure so that you get good results with it..... analysing and defeating the wobble would be an excellent start!

Before you use acetone on metalic paint do a test somewhere out of sight,.....under the wing of under a scuttle etc., to be certain that the acetone does NOT go for either the paint sirface or any laqueur that has be put over the top.

Firstly, you need to differentiate between 'patination' and 'surface finish'...ie, the former is about colour or oxidation and the later is about mechanical texture or smoothness of surface.....you seem a little confused!

Most 'out of the bottle' antiquing compounds are not usually subtle in action and tend to look like what they are.

Ron Rose, fantastic pro clockmaker, author and supremo of S. London BHI told me that when he w s a young clock maker it was his job to make replacement parts for antique clocks that were brought in for repair and restoration.......He would make the part and then suspend it from the window hinge of his third story workshop so that the fumes from the traffic in the high street below would tarnish and patinate the brass. Each week he would bring in the part and compare with the rest of the clock...if not the right depth of colour he would simply hang it out for another week or so.

Take a sheet of paper and wrap it around the two 'flaps'...mark outline and holes with fine pen being sure to prevent any slipage........mark in the broken base parts as one outline (obviously) Transfer the 'drawing' to guage plate and mark out carefully using carbon paper or similar...or transfer to thin card and cut out an accurate template then draw around onto guage plate. Cut pieces or scrap sheet for 'sandwich' exactly 12mm thick and set aside. Drill and clean all holes THEN cut out part from guage plate. Heat with blow torch/bricks until bright red.....place against scrap sandwich, fit in vice and fold ONE of the flaps up only. Take second heat and place scrap against bottom of part,...fit into vice and fold other flap down.....

.........Check of fit and accuracy on jigsaw.

Heat to red heat and drop into one pint engine oil (preferably non synthetic)........remove part and clean with wire wool,.........place on piece of sheet steel and heat from underneath the sheet with blow torch (or over forge) ....keep the part moving with pliers until it is uniformly 'straw' colour.........drop back in oil.......clean and fit.

The best guide to early lathes is the 'pole lathe' which is till alive and well an can be seen frequently at country fairs and the like. Essentially, the pole lathe is two thick planks arranged vertically with headstock and tail stock clamped or screwed between these planks at the required positions. The pole lathe was used commercially until very recently for making chair legs and similar items and bears a great resemblance to early prints and drawings of metal working equivalents.

Early metal turning lathes were almost certainly made of wrought iron by the local blacksmiths who made such an important (but often disregarded) contribution to our technical heritage. These lathes (which are in several museums) were also in use until surprisingly recently powered by treadle and flywheel, and followed the 'two plank' outline of the wooden pole lathe. Surprisingly accurate work could be achieved on these early lathes and several 'offshoots' are still in use in various industrial applications such as the use of 'turns' in the bespoke Swiss watch trade.

The concrete lathes mentioned above are very interesting but my understanding is that these were invented for war use and for very large turning operations, and not something that has great provenance or age. Although the Romans had concrete it's really creative uses came into their own during WWII when all kindsof stuff got made including machine tool structure, artillery cradles and boat hulls etc

At Epping Forest Horology Club we tend to either be 'Autosol Men' or 'T-Cut People'...both have their adherents who prefer one or the other for various reason. Personally, i'm a T-Cut fancier, but not by much!

Most members of the club who are serious about polishing brass (and there are some who are VERY serious!) stop with the abrasive papers at around 3000 and graduate to 'microfinishing film' which are made both by 3M and also by some Swiss makers notably Graessner. These films are described in microns unlike abrasive paper.

We mostly aquire our films from the large horological supply houses, Walsh or Cousins...see here for Cousins finishing films........

https://www.cousinsuk.com/search?SearchTerm=finishing+film

A word of caution if you are going to get involved with finishing film,........it's not as easy as it looks and there are several pitfalls for the unwary. Contamination quickly becomes an issue...it's highly irritating to get a superb finish on a piece and suddenly find that the surface has efects due to microscopic contaminants. For this reason its quite easy to become an obbsessive before you realise it and you are suddenly looking at a forensic white overalls and turning the shower room into a laboratory.........You have been warned! Then there is the issue of keeping the films stored in utter cleanliness.......

Unless you are aiming at the very finest work it might be a plan to polish to 3000 or so using a sheet of plate glass to hold the paper to, and then use Liberon 0000 wire wool (which is super nice and fine to use) and then a CLEAN polishing mop in the lathe with just a touch of T-cut.....

I like the biggest, ie., thickest tools that can be fitted because I'm a self confessed 'flexfreak'......ALL lathes flex to some degree which spoils the quality of finish and ease of cutting etc. The thicker the tool with minimal overhang the better the turned quality of the surface.....

I've made my own cutting tools from HSS blanks since I was a youngster at school (so I have had some practice now!) and never really got on with indexable, or removable insert type but they do have their adherents who get reasonable results........

.......Might be a plan to get some of each and see how you go!

If you are using an ordinary domesic camcorder with fixed lens then close up lenses are pretty much your only option. However, decently made close-up 'supplementary' lenses work quite well for still photography so should be quite alright on a camcorder even when using HD. You don't have much to lose and even a simple, one element uncoated lens can give quite good reslts so try it and see....if you can find someone wih a close-up lens then attach it temporarily with tape or blu-tak and try some video to see for yourself what it looks like.....I doubt you will be disapointed.........   Once you have 'proof of concept' you can buy a cloe-up lens with 58mm thread to fit your camcorder.

............There may well be someone here who will send you a close-up lens that they no longer use as a kindly gesture. Not many stills photographers use them now because many modern cameras either have interchangeable lenses allowing 'macro' lenses, extention rings or bellows to be fitted....or have fixed zoom lenses with a special close-up facility.

Also, remember that most digital pocket cameras, although small, usually have video facilities of varying cleverness, and also commonly have a close up feature too..........if you can borrow a friends camera for a try you may well find that this offers a better video for close-up than your camcorder.

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 29/07/2016 06:31:50

Well done Neil!.....

When I was a youngster I used to read 'Biggles' books about WWI aerial warfare and was introduced to the phrase; 'Bowden cable'...a wire that was pulled by a (British) pilot to release a bomb...... I have had close relationships with various types of 'Bowden Cable' since then, although not to release any bombs......

...........From this it seems that the Colonel probably had a hand in early aeoronautic design and development while in the early RAF. Did he have a career in the earlier RFC, or even in the Royal Engineers, which begat the RFC??

Maurice....interesting reference to your grandfather because the one and only time I have ever seen that tool, (and the reason I know what it is) was in the hands of my own grandfather when he was cutting veneer disks in his workshop during the early/mid 1950's. as near as I can remeber across 60 years the tool was virtually identical to that in your pics. I don't remeber seeing it before or after so assume that he borrowed it for the job. The crossbar and various cutters and pivots were kept in a canvas tool roll. I can clearly remember him showing me how it worked and that he used a flat, leather covered pivot pad held in the square taper to cut out the veneer disks.

.......i forgot about this tool for nearly 60 years but about two years back when I was 'delving' into the methods of 17th C clock makers I suddenly remembered it and came to the conclusion that they must has used a very similar tool to cut out chapter rings and clock faces from sheet brass,...possibly also the actual wheel blanks too. Actually, a tool like this would be quite useful to me now for that purpose.

it's a brace for cutting out 'rings' of veneer.....the old veneers that were an eigth of an inch thick or more. Note that the cross bar is fitted upside down as the socket taper should be the other way. The cutters were usually stepped so that they could be reversed and then used to cut the housing edges for the veneer ring to fit into.

Wow Neil!...What a clever man you are!........Very well done!

....Couple of times I have searched online over the years and never turned up anything!

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 07/07/2016 21:20:39

Back in the late 60's to mid 70's there was a serious move to use American threads such as UNF and AF in the UK motor industry........some classic Jags for instance are 'blighted' by parts with UNF threads. at the time it was thiought better to standardize with the US industry rather than Europe/metric.......Come to think of it, it might still happen!!......Oh no it won't we don't own any of our car factories now do we?

To return to 'lock-making'.....there are some opportunities for making parts for antique locks and restoration of lock mechanisms genreally. it's quite interesting work being about all the things that 'making type people' (like us!) tend to cherish. i have tackled several over the years and while they can be totally absorbing and very satisfying to achieve they are'nt for the faint hearted or 'dabbler' type of worker.

Antique locks quite often come up for auction and are either in need of some TLC or have bits missing etc. often they have outwitted a previous person and there is a great sense of achievment when the thing works sweetly. I once repaired a Bramah lock where only one side of the lock worked and the local locksmith assured me that "nobody" would "ever be able to repair" the other side thus making entry in both directions possible. After some thought i replaced the missing 'blades' by copying those on the other side using pieces of stainless knife blade and the lock has been extrememely reliable for the last 37 years as it's fitted to my back door! I also changed all 5 locks on my VW slit screen van to one key by removing all the plates, measuring with micrometer and then reconfiguring the locks!.....an interesting and useful little job!

Does anyone remember seeing the Peter Phillips Collection of locks and keys circa 1975? Peter was not only a brilliant restorer but a clever engineer and a talented collector. Does anyone know what became of his fantastic collection including his Roman padlocks,, medieval turret locks, Victorian presentation keys and excellent Bramah items including tiny Bramah key inside gold heart shaped locket...?

Jenny,.......When you were burgled 30 years back it could not have been the usual speculative intrusion of a few moments to find valuable items to exchange in the pub for a few drinks/pounds/ fixes........ Burglars do not break into houses, happen upon model steam engines and pop them in a pocket! Whoever took the engine KNEW that it was there, went prepared to remove suchh an article and probably had a buyer lined up (who may have bought the engine quite honestly believing it a genuine sale).........

.......If then, the burglar knew about the engine in advance, he/she/them must have had access to info from a local source.....so, you need to go back to your Dad's aquaintances, club, neighbours,...wrack your brains about who knew the engine was there in your house. There WILL be a link and someone locally knows more about this, yes, even after 30 years. Ask at the nearest model engineering club for any info about other thefts of model engines or about anyone selling engines. For example; if there was more than one theft in the area and one of the several small companies who buy and sell engines remembers a 'source' of models in your area then, after 30 years, they may be willing to divulge more info now, especially in the circumstances. For the same reasons an article in the local papers may also 'jog some memories' if not concsciences.....I appreciate your Dad's reticence and privacy, but the more coverage, the more likely some results after 30 years!

Good Luck and good cheer!

If you have a fly press or similar you can knock up a simple plywood 'mould' and compress the swarf into rough little blocks....it takes up much less space and is then in an ideal form to melt down for casting etc.....

The only thing is that you need to beware contamination with even the tiniest fragment of steel swarf........runnng a magnet over the swarf is useless as the swarf becomes entwined and is only extracted with great difficulty and completely spoils any casting. For this reason I never bother with brass swarf now and only collect dust and offcuts........The brass swarf has no weight or substance and is a pain in the proverbial to salvage (and i will usually have a go at salvaging almost anythng!)

No! Ken does'nt mess with stuff he knows nothing about...lathes and mills is for very old out of date people....

Ken will be in a quandry about what type of software to use in the digital printer

Returning to the 'bookcase'....could this not have been made better, quicker and more realistic by simple cutting the ply against a couple of simple templates?   Why reinvent the boockcase? ...or fix what aint broke?

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 23/06/2016 12:49:03

...Back when I was a very poor young man I made a couple of blades for some old adjustable reeamers....still got them somewhere... I used some 'ground steel stock' , what they now call 'gauge plate' in the right thickness and after careful hardening in the forge on a shovel and tempering in the ash they worked fine........If I recall, I made the head stock for a amall lathe with them.

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 11/06/2016 21:57:00

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 11/06/2016 21:57:19

I can never forget my utter amazment at looking up at the milky way when down in Cornwall........like a ragged net cutain of light with holes and tears...wonderful and astonishing but not seen it for about 40 years.........

.............Along with standing in my mum's garden and watchng the lilac blossom covered in giant red admiral butterflys. The trouble is it's only us old geezers who have lost these things.....if you never saw it it never existed!

I bet you want these for the folding roof surround on your Jag.........you can also get these from 'Group Components' at Waltham Abbey Essex who frequently supply them to classic Jag people.