Member postings for Bill Davies 2

'Whitesmith' also referred (confusingly) to craftsmen who finishes (e.g. polished) ferrous metals.

It's a bit like the confusion caused by the recent naming of silver solder, which seems to be the term for lead free soft solders (containing silver, not just the tin and copper variety), as against our familiar hard silver solder.

I always liked the design that Sperry shows. I think it was an NPL (National Physical Laboratory) design. Much easier on the eyes. I had a boxwood rule with that design, but it has disappeared somewhere over the years.

Phil,

You may be able to anneal HSS, but can you re-harden and temper it? I think I would struggle to do that in the home workshop. - Oop, apologies, misread your comment.

Bill

Edited By Bill Davies 2 on 23/09/2019 21:53:04

My wife and I visited the Internal Fire museum today, which we also recommend for a visit. The weather forecast was rain, but it was pretty dry and we had some sun throughout the afternoon and evening. I have been several times before, each separated by several years, and each time they have more engines on display. Many of the large oil/diesel engines were running.

The museum now has a building for steam engines (perhaps they should now change the name of the museum), which was running on steam today. Worth checking what will be running if you plan a visit. I have previosly found the volunteers very keen to start an engine when not much is running.

Other items of interest include a shed with working telephone exchanges (Strowger, I think; uniselector switches), plus marine and amateur radio equipment.

Now, what to do in West Wales with the dire weather forecast for the rest of the week?

Bill

I don't know about home mechanics, my son, an apprentice-trained mechanic for a main dealership, got sick to death with working on electrics in tiny spaces, and the manufacturing shaving a fraction of a penny off the price of a washer. He's now a tree feller, working out in the open air, perhaps less financially rewarded but far happier.

Coggy,

If it's the same firm, the Companies House website show it as wound up:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06041293

One of the directors has an address in Wickford, although (potentially) different from the one above:

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06041293/officers

Bill

Thanks, Michael, you're right. I understood that but expressed myself poorly. And I think Ian is right (and Neil's earlier comment) about IR. That and solarisation was popular at the time.

Bill

I had a camera bought in the 70s with an index line for UV. Outdoor UV photography was popular around that time, for the interesting effects it gave, so perhaps for that purpose. However, I don't recall the two index lines being very far apart, but that would depend on the fineness of the eyepiece's thread. In any case, this adjustment isn't for focussing purposes (that's the rack and pinion's job), so I've nothing to the discussion.

I've used Dormer in my engineering days, and they were always very good. However, I'm surprised by the price of these:

https://www.cromwell.co.uk/shop/cutting-tools/metric-iso529-hss-gt-threading-sets/39350204#

I bought a Volkel set and they have been fine. One difference is that the dies were not split, but finish to size.

Bill

Hi, Bill.

I recently bought the same torch kit with identical regulator, which gets a bit 'tighter' around the 5 and the 9, but reaches 10 OK. Mine is not like Brian's, it is not 'very' stiff. Perhaps a bit of use will bed it in.

Bill

Regarding the angled lathe tools, if Hacksaw saw old brazed carbide tools, the carbide was very brittle and zero or positive rake angles would crumble. Years ago, I worked on a cutter grinding section, and had to re-sharpen batches of these on a double-ended diamond wheel.

Chris, I don't know the weight of a 5 inch gauge loco (plus coal and water), plus track and support structure, but I expect that the 1000 lb. capacity is for a nicely balanced load. It looks like sheet metal, and might distort under a bending load. The circular ring you suggest would be a good idea, or a lower concrete ring with castor wheels might be easier to achieve.

Or perhaps an oversize lazy susan? I think it would require some peripheral bearings to take the weight of track and locomotive.

Hi, Mark.

with reference to: https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q743.htm

Essentially, your son is the keeper (the user), and would be fined for, say, speeding.

You are the owner, but not the keeper, so you would be advised to have your son as named keeper, to avoid paying for such offences.

Ownership is a separate issue, and would be proven in a different way. For example, if you had the seller sign something to say ownership is transferred to you, or alternatively, there would be evidence of a bank payment to the seller.

Back when I was in industry, we made large HSS tools. It was considered very bad to have any grinding burns. On the other hand, other sites have reported brazing HSS onto shanks.

If off-hand grinding, it's considered good practice to avoid heating too much, with frequent dipping into a can of coolant, or alternatively to grind dry. The issue is more about thermal shock causing small cracks, rather than causing a tempering or annealing of the material.

Bill

Neil, I have found Dulux acrylic paint to be tougher than other water-based types, although I haven't tried it on floors.

My one experience with Valspar was when B&Q first introduced it, I had a batch made up to match wallpaper colour, but when it dried, it felt slightly textured, like a fine version of sandtex. The colour was fine, and it was used on radiators (not specified for that) but hasn't discoloured.

Bill

I also find the green kitchen ones are abrasive, leading to find scratches on tea spoons leading to more rapid accumulation of tea stains. On a separate tack, I have found that Cif is abrasive, in spite of claims to the opposite, a soft abrasive that breaks down easily (chalk?) and I think it contains an alkali. It is an effective cleaner for greasy things, though, only needs a spot or two.

I have found that I used pretty much everything I learned at school; I can't say whether that was the planned outcome. My wife studied Latin (and French and German) and I have found her useful to have a first stab at explaining the meaning of some arbitrary word. In this regard, she is replaced by Google translate.

I worked for a multinational firm for some years, learned some Italian post-school, which proved useful to break some ice and get a little credibility, although four years of school French provided less benefit. However, I feel that was my fault. On occasions I have used most of the Maths learned at school and college.

My generation (at least in Surrey, or was it all of England) didn't learn Biology (if you were a boy, otherwise it was Physics that was unavailable to you). A loss now, I wish I understood more, it seems quite useful.

A Computer Science degree in my thirties provided knowledge not taught at school, would it have been available when I was at school? So it seems from earlier comments that we might have benefited from whatever we were taught, but we value more that which we learned later. Perhaps we were becoming more responsible in our learning?

Bill

oops:

Link to gear calculations

Adam, if you have some dowels or pins of a suitable and identical size to sit about halfway down in the tooth space, you can measure over the pins, over a distance of several teeth. Subtract the diameter of one pin, and divide by the number of teeth, less one (i.e., counting from zero).

By converting into appropriate units you can look up the pitch on a table of metric Module sizes, or diametral pitch (DP) for inch sizes.

Hopefully, this should get you started:

https://khkgears.net/new/gear_knowledge/abcs_of_gears-b/basic_gear_terminology_calculation.html

Bill