Member postings for Martin King 2

Hi All,

Just got some gauge plate from Coventry Grinders, 500mm long by the 90mm width I need for £23 delivered.

Went to see two or three local engineering firms who showed, as expected, showed zero interest.

Finally found a sheet metal company close by who have bought some bits and pieces from me over the years and he tried the material on his shear which made the wanted part curl so that was no go.

Then he used a cooled slowish running precision chop saw to cut me a set of 3 of the easier non grooved blades at 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" which were perfect and accurate to about .1mm

Currently doing me 9 more sets of these which I will put the bevels on by hand and heat treat the ends only, quite easy in these smaller sizes.

He saw work holding as a problem for bigger runs and suggested that I buy the plate in 1 meter lengths which makes sense.

He does not see a problem doing the pre grooved sets which will need a little hand finishing so I am going to mill an 8" length of slots and bevel on the longer material and have a trial run to see.

I am lucky enough to have a pretty good supply of new small slot mills so will measure the grooves to see what will do and have a go.

His price for 10 sets of 3 irons and 10 sets of 8 irons is £40, so for 110 cuts pretty damn good I think!

Jason, naturally I will NOT be flooding the market with these, just trickling them on now and then! I take your point about them being an 'obsolete' tool what with routers and so on but there are a lot of people out there who like the peace and quiet of good hand tools.

Jason, the Stanley 50 blades have that unusual small curve at the end of each slot so I think that you are right about the horizontal milling, that said it would not matter if they were straight through. Totally differenet spacing to the Record ones also!

Then there are the side slotted irons, again different sides on Record and Stanley models; thats before we get into the No:45 & No:55 multiplanes with LOTS of cutters, I shall NOT be going there!

Cutters for those do make good money by the 'EACH' so when I have sorted the sets for the 45's and 55's that I have the extras will sell easily.

Cheers, all, Martin

Cannot remember the figures but concrete as a mooring weight medium is less than ideal, weighs so much less in water, you may need to take that into your calculations?

Mooring systems these days tend towards hydraulically driven galvanised screws, driven in vertically with extra sections bolted on until they ground out. Ones I ihelped install in the BVI years ago have just withstood Hurricane Maria with sustained 150 knots for 14 hours. 60 foot boats all survived except 2 where the cleats ripped out of the hulls!

Martin

Hi All,

Having done many underwater lifts using lift bags between 100kg and 4 x 5 tonne bags (16 tonne propeller.) I would advise extreme caution with the method you are proposing.

Are you contemplating using fixed bouyancy bags or standard 'parachute' lift bags with dump valves?

Take the scenario where you are in the middle of the river about to position your mooring; at the correct moment you hit your quick release mechanism. What will happen then is that the lift bag, strops and most of all the heavy shackles will explode out of the water flailing in all directions The potential for serious injury is enormous.

What you are in fact proposing is what happens when a lift goes wrong for whatever reason, strop failiure for instance. You really do not want to be anyhere near it trust me.

IMHO the correct way to do this is to use a qualified diver to actuate the dump valve under careful control; this also allows for easy repositionong if needed by adding a little air from a SEPARATE cylinder tied to the bag.

For all things to do with underwater lifts go look at JW AUTOMARINE in Holt Norfolk, they make the finest bags in the world.

Just my 10 peenorth..

Cheers, Martin

John, check your inbox

Martin

Getting ready to go up to Windlesham after Xmas for a 2 day course on hedgehog management at a shelter supported by Brian May. Have to take photos of our garden (attached to a 1 acre paddock) with great access and hedges etc. Hope that we get the go ahead to foster some hoglets etc.

I rescued one off the road recently and took it to the vets, it fought bravely but sadly died, my missus and I were both gutted!

Cheers Martin

John Paton, PM sent!

Martin

Hi Jason,

Point taken but I have no idea of what the costs would be to do this amortized over 20 sets, hence the original question.

£40 for a set would be totally out of the ball park. Thats £800 for 20 sets!

I would be happy milling the slots all at one go after milling the sheet to size to allow for the saw cuts. but using a slitting saw took forever on the set I did.

Could they be cut on a guillotine to an accurate size perhaps, doing loads of one size then moving on to the next?

I managed to harden them at the business end very quickly then quench in oil to temper, did not take long. These cutters generally get very little use by the buyer as one nearly always finds that only the 3 smallest sizes ever seem to get honed and used. The rest always appear unused.

I can only go for this if it can be done quickly and easily as otherwise I wait for cutters to turn up as and when but full sets make the planes much more attractive.

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

I have quite a few old plough planes by STANLEY & RECORD UK which all require sets of cutting irons. Although the two makers planes are essentially similar there is a difference in the way the adjustable irons work, also the numbers of irons in each set.

In order to sell well they really need a full set of cutters, not just the one or two they usually arrive with.

I have made a set in the past by hand on the milling machine and filing but as I need approx 20 sets made in at least 3 different patterns, that is 20 sets of EACH pattern CNC seems to perhaps be the way to go if economic.

The original material is 'Tungsten Steel' but any suitable grade that can have the cutting edged hardened & tempered will be fine.

Here is a photo of the ones that I need most urgently they fit a RECORD UK model:044.

I can supply a drawing in Fusion 3D with the material laid out as a sheet with all the grooves running across the top and would need to know the way that the irons would be separated to width.

Milled, slitting saw, brake press??????

I would not trust my drawing to be useable for CAM though as I have never done this before. May need to be redone by the operator.

Hopefully someone on here may take up the challenge at a price I can afford !?

The other set I need urgently is only 3 blades per set with no grooves in 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" widths; 3 1/2" long. 15 sets required.

OR am i really in dream land?

Cheers., Martin

Can't really see from the pic but if the handle is octagonal, then could be a good 'un!. Perhaps look carefully for a makers make under all the grime, might be a nice surprise?

If French the wood will be cormier, quite distinctive when cleaned.

Martin

This is a wagon wrench, we find lots of them in France but there are several early American makers also which crop up over here.

Used for general agricultural work and handle the larger old style square nuts quite well.

Ususally heavily abused but nice condition ones with a good makers name can do quite well especially USA ones

I normally have to replace the wooden handle because of worm or damage, only do it on the really nice ones.

Cheers, Martin

French Tyre advertising, saw one in an antique shop some years ago in Northern France, IIRC it had a motorcycle tyre?

Cheers, Martin

Hi, suggest that you contact https://burlen.co.uk/. they are the agents for SU and offer all sorts of specialist spares

Cheers, Martin

James, PM sent

Martin

pgk, Any chance of a link please?

Is installation straightforward?

Martin

Hi All,

Here is a weird one for the electrical gurus!

I have an opportunity to buy outright a new unused latest type TESLA PowerWall unit and installation kit.

14kw rating. This is from someone who bought it and is now not able to have it installed.

What are my options for installation? I already have a 4kw Solar PV array which works great and is a great little earner!

Can this be installed by any competent electrician or must I go to the 'official' installers who want an arm and both legs to sign it off? Mainly because they have not supplied the unit.

What are the potential pitfalls and problems her please?

Regards, Martin

Many Thanks George, will give it a look see.

Martin

Hi All,

As far as I am aware Verdict no longer support repairs to their older products. Happy to be proved wrong though!

I did try once and was turned away. I am also pretty sure that the cost would be prohibitive.

I have used MITUTOYO a couple of times to repair various instruments and they always provide a written quote before proceeding which one must approve. The quality of their work is excellent as to be expected but again not cheap. They also stock a fairly large range of smaller spare parts if you fancy a bit of DIY!

There is an amazing US guy who makes dial gauges and DTi's etc come back like new but the postage and sometimes customs charge usually make it prohibitive again though I am looking nto getting 20 or so done at once.

Cheers, Martin

Ah! did not see that, many thanks NDIY!

Martin

Hi all, in this weeks haul of engineering stuff from my local clearance guy was this zip cased set of unusual instruments by RONEO VICKERS.

Have found some images etc on the web but have no idea what they were used for? Industrial or just for fun?

Cheers, Martin

Thanks very much guys, will check those out.

Martin