Member postings for Nick Wheeler

Is there a difference in how the actual tools perform? If not, why worry about it.

The Dickson clone on my WM250 sits on an aluminium disc that's only there to allow the toolholders to drop enough; it's of no particular size, the centre hole is much bigger than the mounting stud, and it's only retained by the toolpost clamping it down

The steam engine's atrocious efficiency make it a much worse prospect than even the dirtiest diesel. They're yesterday's technology for lots of good reasons.

IC engines aren't far behind them either

You need to match to the actual paint, a photo won't do. Anyone who mixes custom paint should do that, but they'll need to see a sample to do it. Can your customer remove a small painted piece and organise that local to him? You will need to tell him what type of paint you want - the paints used on cars will be easy to sort, but other types might be a lot more difficult.

Fitted the clapper I repaired in WDYDT 2019. The new bolt needed some fettling for it to slide into the slot in the headstock, which I did with a large file and the bolt clamped to the bell frame. We will probably have to adjust the twiddle pins for the bell to strike evenly, but that will have to wait until the Loctite has gone off.

While I was doing that, the second man did the annual basic safety inspection and changed a couple of tired ropes.

I think a beer with lunch is justified, the clapper is small but heavy!

Bells don't turn particularly quickly, and this is a small one. The clapper made a racket as it hit the frame and then the floor. What's slightly disappointing is that it's only twenty years old; the oldest was cast in 1588 and still going strong.

Not the most exciting part, a length of 25 steel bar threaded M20 on each end:

it took ages to drill, mill, file and heat the Loctite(30minutes on the stove while I had lunch) to unwind the broken off thread

and the whole assembly stopping the freezer floating away:

It was quite exciting when that fell out of the bell on Monday.......

Surely a few minutes with a hacksaw and file will produce a usable part?

Because then you'll have a rack full of identical tapers sticking up with no way of knowing what tool attached to. Socket sets are stored with the sized end facing up for the same reason.

"There is never the right one" is why you make them as you need them. Especially for things like clocks which have lots of one-off parts made to fit each other.

That's common on cable linkages. But the cotter pin is doing the retaining, not the nut which is more of an adjustable spacer.

ALL bolts are in tension and stretch; that's how they work! Really critical bolts - con rod bolts for example - are tightened by measuring how much they have stretched

You're thinking of torque-to-yield bolts, that are deliberately tightened to near their failure point which means they shouldn't be reused.

I just use ordinary M8 nuts on my WM250 chucks. Each one has three kept with it, so I just spin off the ones on the fitted chuck, and pick them up later. I tighten a length of stuck in the chuck, and use that to wiggle it off which means I have both hands on it.

2 minute chuck changes are easily possible if you take your time......

As ER collets can be used for both tool and workholding, not buying a set is a false economy.

I bought an ER32 chuck to use on the mill, and intending to get a bolt on chuck for the lathe, bought a full set of collets. The collet chuck was such an improvement that I quickly gave the Clarkson clone away, and bought the lathe chuck. 12 years later, only one of the collets is still in its plastic wrapping. Some of the rest haven't been used much, but it beats having to stop work for a few days to get a £5 part that should have been bought as part of a set.

I use the collet chuck for drills when doing jobs that combine milling and drilling. I'm tempted to buy extras of the common ones I use to keep with particular tools, like the edge finder, to speed up changes. I find the idea that hobbyests don't need to work quickly and efficiently very strange.

Arc's Stevensons collet blocks really simplify milling/drilling operations on round parts.

The ball-bearing nuts are such an improvement that I bought another pair so that each chuck has its own and the blocks share the third.

I have a set of ER11 collets to use with my toolpost spindle lashup; I'm very tempted to convert one of my MT blanks into a holder to use small drills in the tailstock.

Unsightly not hideous, but certainly clever.

I wonder how long it has been like that?

I know of one local ringer who makes their new stays out of ash trees he cut down some years ago.

We're currently paying about £20 per blank, but they're Hastings stays on big bells.

What utter drivel! No one's eyes and brain are naturally calibrated in inches/feet/whatever, they're just trained to do so. 2400mm is as visualisable as 8 feet, it just takes the same amount of practice. And bumping it up to the next used measurement(there's a good reason to go straight to metres from mm) doesn't need any calculation either.

I hope that's high on Neil's list for the bag of nuts.

I hope that's high on Neil's list for the bag of nuts.

Metric fuel consumption is measured in litres per 100km not per km, because it gives a sensible, rational number. Just like miles per gallon, rather than gallons per mile.

It's just making an internal sharp bit!

Seriously, that would be a good reason to make one(two, three -however may it takes to get a satisfactory part), and you'll use it most times you turn on the lathe. First thing I made for and on mine.