Member postings for Bob Stevenson

Phil, potentially yes!.......tho' it would depend on the particular frames used. The loupes fix to nose bridge area using two small screws which I replaced with 2mm stainless nuts and bolts. Personally I prefer my complete eye sockets to be covered by teh safety glass lenses since small chips from turning/milling sometimes hit ones face when close to the work, although since using these loupes I have not had this problem (thus far!) It should be quite possible to mount the loupes on quality saftey glasses (as i have) and fit prescription lenses inside.

The Uvex 'Futura' glasses are ideal for use with the loupes because, unlike conventioanl glasses, they are adaptable to ones physiog. by means of extendable arms and hinged front frame, so you literally adapt for perfect fit. Additionally the front frame is nice and thick and provides good achorage for fixing the loupes securely.  The loupes themselves are adjustable for interpupillary distance and convergence angle, and can be flipped up out of ones vision.

......I can try and post some pix tommorrow...?

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 25/01/2016 18:29:47

I now use a set of inexpensive 'dental loupes' made in China and bought from Ebay for £25........I watched the prices come down (from about £120 a couple of years ago) and bought in when I discovered an aquaintance hd a pair and asked to try them. They are essentially two small telescopes mounted on safety glasses. They are 3.5X and work at about 40 centimetres,..so ideal for turning small items in the lathe without bending over. They were supplied fitted to cheap safety glasses but I tranfered them to a pair of Uvex 'Futura' safety glasses which are my favourites as they cover the complete eye socket and are top quality. I hope to never have to go back to conventional magnifiers

....Once more, thank you to all contributors,....your info is much appreciated.

Unfortunately I have not been able to persuade the non-return valve to part company from the pump tube and think that I'm not the first person to try! the end of the tube (with valve) is now soaking overnight in WD40

Since the efficiency of parafin has been slightly questioned by an earlier poster I feel a comment on blowlamps for people like us is worth mentioning. I have smaller gas/spirit torches and two forges/welding etc. For heating and working on brass components of medium size the parafin blowlamp is quite a nice addition to a workshop as it offers plenty of heat for not much money...a gallon of parafin costs a LOT less than a couple of tins of gas for my Rothenburger torch and, once I get the thing working, vastly better heat efficiency/run time.....

If I can't resucitate this blowlamp then I shall certainly look around for another specimen and have for some time considered it a very useful addition to my 'stuff'.......

As mentioned above Epping Forest Horology Club had a working treadle lathe on display at LMEE (Ally pally) last week. The lathe belongs technically to one of our members and is usually on display in the foyer of our workshops. It is a Drummond lathe with full thread cutting via change wheels and has a back gear. We think this lathe to be made approx 1910 to 1920. Similar machine can be seen illustrated on the 'lathes UK' website.

If the OP would like to come and have a look at the lathe we would be delighted to show him and he can have a cup of tea with us and take a look at our interesting workshops (clock & separate watch facility).

Alternatively, I can photograph the lathe tomorrow afternoon and send the pix to him.

Hope this is of help!

Thanks so much for all this excellent info!

The end of the pump tube (that goes in the parafin) is the part that presumably has a non-return valve........It bears the marks of a pair of pliers being used on it sometime in the dim and distant by members of my family now long gone......don't know if that's significant or not (the plier marks I mean!).

Tomorrow I will try to strip down the pump tube assembly and see if that improves things. I need much better heating equipement as my gas torches are woefully lacking for what I'm trying to do!

If anyone knows anything else useful I would be most grateful but thanks again so far!

Needing to anneal some larg(ish) bits of brass I dug out an old 'Monitor No. 25' blowlamp from the back of the shed.......Not surprisingly it failed to light after 30+ years! I made new leather washers for the pump unit, cleaned jet with 'pricker', followed lighting gig with meths etc and generally examinied everything but still fails to light......

I'm not sure that the pump is actually pressurizing the tank (despite nice new leather wahsers)...and, looking the thing over, several questions have begun to from;

1) How does the pump pressure the air in the top of the tank when the end of the pump is below the parafin...(tank filled the required "three parts full"...?

2) how does the pump pressurize the air in tank if the fill cap has an air vent(which it appears to have)?

3) Anyone know if service kit is available anywhere for Monitor No.25?

Someone on this great site knows all about blowlamps and I don't like to admit I'm struggling a bit here......

Here at the Epping Forest Horology club we have a line of S&B 'L' lathes that are used by members to make clock parts in steel and brass....you can see some of them on our website; http://www.efhc.org.uk/ ...along with our larger S&B 'A' model screwcutting lathe which takes the same collets and chucks.

The 'L' model was essentially developed from a German lathe, possibly a Boley, at the start of WWII by government directive along with some other key German machine tools. Some of the 'improvements' included the massive headstock bearings which are designed to defeat the friction of the drive belt. This, combined with the integral bed and stand casting, offers a lathe that is in effect beyond the normal wear and tear of machine tools, and which spins with ultimate precision to allow the tiniest 'skim' cuts with perfect ease. The downsides include the inability to disassemble the lathe which is essentially one single large casting, the lathe bed being permanently attached to the stand piece.....so these lathes have to be moved as a single 'lump', although 5 men can 'walk' them to a slightly different position.

The 'L' model was first intended for wartime production and could be supplied with just about any adaptation for the particular task intended. As such, fast collet release, lever feeds and much more were available,...these sometimes turn up on auction sites and can usually be fitted to an existing 'L'...although you need to be mindful that there were/are two spindle bore sizes used.

S&B's can still be refurbished, should that be important and, I understand are still available new at around the £15k mark for basic item. Spare parts and bits etc are also available, or should be, if my info is correct!

As regard comparison to Myford;...these are very different animals and the myford is essentially best viewed as a small lathe system for light engineering. The 'L:' will certainly surpass the myford for quality of cut (using the same cutting tool) but cannot compare in versatility.

Hope some of this helps!

The best way to learn a good practical method of ally casting is to view theYouTube vids of 'myfordboy'. He makes excellent vids (and equally nice castings). He uses very simple kit and produces good definition etc. His channel has 45 separate vids with no background chat or irritating music, just the birds singing and traffic passing. Most of his vids show his pattern making, sand prep, moulding technique, casting & machining......Interesting just to watch and invaluable if you need to produce your own parts by casting ally.

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 09/10/2014 22:53:54

I think you will find that collets for the Smart & Brown lathes,...the models L and A, will also fit the 'big' Pultra as both are 20mm and made by the same company(Pultra now defunct)

I'm also a 'clock mant'ler' and member of Epping Forest Horology Club. An aquaintance at the club recently completed the JW 'Large wheel skeleton clock' which suggests that the pendulum be suspended on silk thread. My friend originally used fine man-made embroidary thread but was slightly disappointed when the clock only ran for about 5 days before stopping. Later he disassembled the clock for final finishing and upon re-assembly used fine Chinese silk threads (4) as specified.......We were very surprised when the clock ran for 12 days per winding and have come to see that the silk is less prone to friction than otehr materials and thus allows the clock greater endurance.

Congratulations on your nice skeleton clock which particularly interested me as I am currently designing my own clock based on this design.........

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 08/03/2014 16:52:42

There is a yahoo group entitled 'Horology for Mini-Lathes' which is well supported with lots of posts. Despite the name it has little or no connection to 'mini-lathe' use in the accepted sense of the phrase concerning the ubiquitous Chinese mini-lathe..........

It would be easier to find out info if the general dates could be tied down more. The 'lathes uk' site mentions circa 1910 for the RSB lathe and I would have said it dates from the late 20's to early to mid 30's...and it looks like late 30's for the drilling machine.........

What we want is someone with an interest (and knowledge) in the modeling magazines for 1910 to 1940 era who might remember an advertisement for RSB machines as they more or less HAD to place adverts to sell anything.

Alternatively,......What about museum services for Birmingham City Council as they probably have a register of old businesses and it's highly likely that RSB were there or nearby.

Lastly,...were there model engineering exhibitions in the early 20th century.............someone with archived programmes or guides might be able to turn up an address for RSB as they would probably have tried to exhibit their machines.

Dale,

The cone pulley is for flat 1 inch belting. The three pulleys are 5.5, 4.0, & 2.5 inches OSD The cone is fixed to spindle with a single screw.   The cone castign is approx 0.25 inch thick.

My lathe has been stored for some years and it's about 25 years since I last 'saw' the bearings...can't remember what material or type Tailstock is by keyway internally...there is no bolt as in the 'lathes uk' specimen. My lathe has a different arrangment for bearing adjustment to that in the 'Lathes uk' site and does NOT have the cap pieces (as mentioned on the site).......the casting is simply split at the back and tightened by screws.

Recently I have considered overhaul, remotoring and adaptation for horological work as the lathe turns nicely and (as I remember) is capable of accurate work.

The original lathe was (presumably) treadle powered. I have the original cast iron stand with massive fly wheel but the actual treadle is long gone and I don't remember it. The fly wheel is approx. 2 ft OSD and has two flat belt locations...one near outside edge and another at about 5 inch diameter. In addition there is a fine belt 'groove' also near outside edge. For many years the lathe was driven by means of a 'Met-Vickers' electric motor driving the fly wheel and mounted on a home made tray bolted to stand.

Edited By Bob Stevenson on 04/03/2014 18:25:53

I have a 'RSB' lathe which I have always assumed was made in the 1920's. For many years I have never been able to find any reference to RSB or ever heard of another machine than my own, or ever met anyone who has heard of RSB Sometime last year the 'Lathes UK' site suddenly published photos of a virtual facsimile to my machine and states that it is the only one known (although my own is in much better condition) Here is the link (for what it's worth) to the site page;

http://www.lathes.co.uk/rsb/

Just saw this,....magnesium was used by the Germans for their infamous firebombs during the 'Blitz'. The magnesium casing simply held the fins and initiator...the fiercely burning casing did the damage! The only way (difficult) to extinguish is to smother with a substantial helping of sand, the problem being the surface that the magnesium is burning upon often defeats the sand application. In the years just after WWII firebomb casings were often turned down in the lathe to make magnesium dust for homemade fireworks. I used ot have a neighbour who was asked to do this by his headmaster to provide fireworks for the VE celebration in 1945!!

....I'm not a model engineer, don't read modelling mags, don't want a subscription and don'e like steam engines.....

............I just want to look at back numbers for 2008 when they published a clock design that 'might' be interesting

If you can't access the archive then the website needs somne attention because it clearly claims that you CAN acccess with a FREE website subscription...........

Thanks for posts,.......but, presumably the website is WRONG then?..!!

To access the archive it says I only need a 'free' register with the website,....NOT a magazine subscription

...Here is a paste of the archive page;

To access the Online Archive please follow these steps:

1. Register for a free member account at www.model-engineer.co.uk/join or log in to your existing account using the Register / Log-in link in the top left hand corner of the page.

No, I don't have any number....I registered with this website (which is a 'free' register) ...Have received the email from site owner and 'clicked' it ...whgich brought me back here, but the archive page still 'offers' me a free sign up..

.........Anyone got any clues?

I registered on the site and my new login appears to work,...however, I still get the page on HOW to register when I try to look at back numbers of ME.......

Any clues?.........the 'mytimemedia' email add does not work, so I can't ask them!