Member postings for Martin King 2

Hi All,

Bought a big box of engineering tooling at Sunday's car boot and was about to chuck out the rusty rubbish at the bottom when I saw these two items stuck together in a large glob of black grease covered paper.

One appears to be quite old by the patent date:

The other is by Parker Hale Model:PH16 and is well marked:

What sort of weapons would these be for? Air guns or something more potent perhaps? After some careful cleaning up they both work very well on the fine adjustments.

Cheers, Martin

Boiler Bri, sorry, now listed.

Martin

Nigel, The worm gears turn smoothly when operated with a small mole grip on the spindle to use as a handle and feel good with no binding or rough spots so the engineering is not too far out. There are no bearing in the supports which I found a bit odd.

I should add that I have no interest in using this item, I have just cleaned it up to move it on.I may make a coiuple of hand wheels though?

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Today (& yesterday!) I got stuck into the old rusty telescope mount that i got last week:

Managed to get it apart with no damage and now it looks like this:

Ther is one sheared off screw and it looks to me like it is missing a couple of hand wheels for adjusting the worm gears. Anyone got an idea of how big a diameter these should be as there is quite a bit of friction in the gears?

Quite a fun little project to do while sitting under a brolly in the sun!

As you may tell from the colour it is for a MYFORD telescope!

Cheers, Martin

Eva, You are quite correct, the original screws were cheese headed. Two of them were so seized that I had to saw them off from under the retaining plate. Then had to redrill into the old screws and tapped M8 to fit cap screws I already had. Did not want to spend more time on this as it is designed to make a profit!

currently on you know where

regards, Martin

Hi All,

Finally got the arch section bored out OK, had to turn it over for the last 5mm or so which was a bit nail biting!

Finished the leadscrew section and pinned both ends and loctited so all good there.

Gave all the castings a good going over with soft flap wheels which was a pretty filthy job, then used a phosphate coating and wax polish.

Looks a bit better now!

My thanks to everyone for all the help and advice, much appreciated.

Must be my week for presses, just got a much bigger one with column extensions but no normal length bolts so will have to make a couple.

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

I did not feel happy with the first setup so have taken Tim Steven's advice and used the actual bottom section of the press to hold the arch section and clamped the whole lot to the table as shown.

This is a lot more stable and managed to tke a skim cut off rough surface at the top odf the arch with a face cutter. It all felt very secure.

The only problem now is that there is not enough daylight to put my axis centring gauge in the drill chuck to get the centre point. Even with the shortest ext diameter pointer it hits the top of the arch.

Cheers, Martin

Wow! Loads of help, many thanks to all.

Cheers Martin

Michael, just checked out your very kindly supplied link, all is now clear! Many thanks.

Martin

Hi Michael,

I thought forgings NOT castings just as I hit the "post" button, , castings would of course break easily.

Does the X Patent mark mean it is USA in origin? If so, probably quite old?

I had not thought of a telescope mount! Sounds about right, perhaps Neil will bne along with some input?

3 Love the emoji! Dividing head now gone!

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Here are todays 2 car boot mystery item finds! The first is very strange and I have no idea what it is for, only 6 1/2" long overall, beautifully made from castings as shown:

Not sure if there is a square shaft part missing? The lever locks into position and closes the clamp section as it locks?

The second item is , I think, some sort of dividing head or indexing unit but no idea what for or from?

Should clean up OK by the looks of it. The really odd thing was that 1/2 an hour later at a different stall a clearance guy unloaded a really nice boxed MYFORD dividing head with plates just as I was walking by;

When asked how much he said "a tenner if I don't have to lift it back on the van"! Xmas is early!

Cheers, Martin

Hi Tim, I thought about that and was going to make some large hardwood blocks recessed for the nuts that would clamp to the table but it would be way too high then to allow machining.

Cheers, Martin

ega, I did try vee blocks but the ones I have are way too small sadly. Will try and find some U bolts.

Martin

Hi All,

Here is my first attempt at setting up the arch section for boring out whenb the nut and new screw arrives.

I have made an ally plug to allow the centre to be found.

I am concerned how rigid and safe this will be, also It is not sitting quite vertical and is difficult to tap into the correct place without it becoming loose. Should I try some alloy or lead sheet between the bottom and the small parallels perhaps?

I have had to raise it up a little to allow the boring bar to clear at the bottom.

Any advice is most welcome.

Cheers, Martin

Neil, If there is ever one thing that is virtually 'saleproof' it is a Rolls Razor Set, for some reason impossible to sell!

The upside however is that they contain an extremly thin hard honing stone which if undamaged (few are ) which on its own is quite desirable.

Not too sure what the paper strip is that you mention, can I see a pic please?

Funny stone story from last year: a chap from Belgium came over to the David Stanley auction and bought loads of stones paying serious money for the good ones. At lunch time he went oiut with his missus to a garden centre nearby where they were selling largish 'garden rocks' for rockeries etc. Sat on the top of the heap was an enormous Belgian Blue stone 'in the rough'. He reckoned by the time he had cut it up it was worth about 300 Euros easily!

Cheers, Martin

Hi, we do no end of old oilstones and we 'soak' them in a hot ultrasonic bath containing water and Fairy liquid for about an hour, sometimes taking them out and giving them a quick scrub before popping them back in.

Take out and blow off with compressed air then scrub them with acetone while still warm.

Amazing how clean this gets them.

I should add that generally we only do this for the higher quality natural stones, Washita, Arkansas, Dalmore Blue etc as the normal synthetics are not worth the time taken when sold but I do them for pals sometimes.

They nearly all end up in Russia for the straight razor fanatics!

Record price of £160 for a perfect 6" Dalmore!

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Quick update.

I have sourced a 500mm length of steel Metric ACME leadscrew in 20 x 8 with matching steel nut delivered for £30 which seems very reasonable. Comes from Moore International and arrives tomorrow.

I will then start to try and set up the arch section of the press on the mill for boring out to fit the nut.

I thought I would make an alloy stub that just fits in the existing thread and sticks up a bit to allow me to centre the arch under the spindle with a Dti.

I think the SAFE setting up of this will be tricky on my WM18 so slowly, slowly will be the game here I think as the arch is such an awkward and large lump to hold securely.

Will let you know how I get on.....Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Good clear photos are ESSENTIAL for happy EBay selling. We take a lot of care over ours and I usually cut & paste a larger insert of the makers name or any pertinent point on the item.

Always take several views and sometime put dimensions in the photo also.

This saves answering reams of questions!

Mind you we still get endless questions which could all be answered if people actually read the listing descriptions!

The worst thing is being asked for shipping costs because they cannot use the pull down rates menu, Grrrr!

We also take pics of cartons etc before shipping to any slightly dodgy countries.

NEVER ship to Chile or Brazil if you can possibly help it!

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Did I once read somewhere that metallic mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis? Blue Pill?

I hasten to add that I have no personal experience of this....!!

Cheers, Martin

.Ah well! The acme threaded rod and phosphor bronze nut work out far too expensive for this item with shipping. £90 for a 3 foot length and nut.

So will now have a go at cutting an Acme single start thread AFTER I have seen whether I can mount the arch section of the press safely on the mill and accurately enough to bore it out to take a sleeved internal thread.

I suspect that this will all be a bit above my skill level but willing to have a go.

Is it possible to get the correct tool forms in the smaller shank size for my Myford? Looking to cut 8 tpi x .750”?

Cheers, Martin