Member postings for James Alford

Nick,

It was semi-tongue in cheek. The delivery was appalling, but the communication was good. I would not use them again, mind you.

James.

Back in April, I ordered a small adjustable magnetic DTI stand from an e-bay supplier in China.

It never arrived, so a replacement was sent. That never came either, so a refund was given. Excellent communications throughout, with prompt responses and refund.

Today, three months later, the stand arrived........... rather good, it is, too.

James.

Thank you for all of the replies and suggestions. I have been waiting for Aldi or Lidl to offer their version again, but so far, no luck. I shall pick up one of the Silverline tools and give it a try. It is cheap enough to play around with and try it out as a bench-mounted tool.

Regards,

James.

Does anyone have any experience with these cheap power files? I am thinking of mounting one under the bench with the sanding bar sticking upwards through the bench. I plan to use it as a lightweight linisher to clean up the edges of some thin copper shapes (dragon scales) that I am making. I was wondering whether the belts will stay on with the sideways movement.

I have a large linisher with four inch (or so) belt, but this is far too large for almost everything that I do and is mostly redundant.

Regards,

James.

Edited By James Alford on 24/07/2017 07:27:22

Edited By James Alford on 20/07/2017 19:36:07

Edited By James Alford on 20/07/2017 19:36:41

Does anyone happen to know whether 0 Morse taper used in the Pultra Watchmakers lathe is a full-length or shortened taper? I was wondering whether a centre for one of these lathes would fit the Flexispeed which has a shortened centre.

Regards,

James.

It is not just BT: I am using Virgin cable and am unable to access the site. I get blocked by Virgin's security, before it even reaches my anti-virus.

James.

Whatever topics or style is chosen for these articles, please avoid such phrases as "this is a simple job and will only take a few minutes". I have read a number of articles and guides like this in the past and find it incredibly frustrating when I am still struggling to do the "simple" tasks several hours later.

To be honest, it was one of the things that contributed to me giving up model engineering when I first started some years ago. I simply concluded that I was not any good. These days, with sites such as this one, it is easier to realise that my frustrations were, or are, not unique.

James.

I confess that my propane bottle was a large one, about 3/4 full, that had been dumped outside my friend's factory. It was no use to them as they only used LPG and it was in the way.

James.

I had this same problem some time ago. I do a lot of work in copper and started out with a small hand-held bottled gas torch. To be honest, the gases all seemed pretty much of a muchness. However, none really coped with brazing; I use the fluxless copper to copper rods.

I was then given a basic Clarke blowtorch which had three different nozzles and secured a large bottle of propane. This was more than enough to braze quite large items, both copper and steel, using flux. It is only recently, when working on particularly structure, that I have needed to look into anything more powerful.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 01/07/2017 10:41:18

Invariably I used to find that whatever I had been keeping "because it might be useful" was too small, thin, fat, far too big, the wrong thread or whatever else could prevent it from actually having been worth hanging on to in the first place. These days, I tend to throw out far more and keep far less; it saves wasting time searching for something that proves to be useless.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 29/06/2017 21:03:37

Bob,

Ouch; and only in two years. Mine was a "best offer" price, but the full figure was only about £25.00 or so.

I am not sure about depth of cut: I tend to rough out at whatever the machine can manage and finish with quite shallow cuts. I think, though, that it can take about 15 thou. The trouble is, as I mentioned, that the belt slips rather than the motor struggling. I do have a better belt to try, but the machine is out of use at the moment as I can barely get into the garage/workshop due to my son's heap of car stuff.

Regards,

James.

Bob,

I fitted a MY631-4 CAP RUN SINGLE PHASE 240V 0.12KW 0.16HP motor that I bought new from e-bay for £20.00 plus delivery. It is quiet, smooth and powerful enough. The belt slips long before the motor stalls.

Regards,

James.

From memory of previous experience, PaintshopPro is much nicer to use than Serif's equivalent.

James.

Serif offer, or did until recently, genuinely free legitimate copies of their software which includes a good photo editor and a basic graphics programme. The free offer is for a copy of their last version, not the most recent version, of the programme and some features are disabled. However, all of the key functions operate fully.

Do a search for free Serif software: it comes from the Serif website.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 02/06/2017 17:40:46

Edited By James Alford on 02/06/2017 17:41:15

This is the gauge that I bought. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262905527010?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

No doubt there are better makes for more money. However, as I am not likely to be using it greatly, I suspect that it will last for a bit. At this price, I would not be even considering repairing it if it were to break. I imagine any spares, were they available, would be too dear to make it worthwhile. I have yet to use it as I am waiting for the stand that I ordered from a different supplier to arrive.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 26/05/2017 07:12:52