Member postings for martin ranson 2

To Peter Russell ... the bogie wheels come from a variety of suppliers ... IP ENGINEERING ... BRANDBRIGHT (now reopened ) ...SWIFT SIXTEEN ... ANYTHING NARROW GAUGE ( I think ) ... ROUNDHOUSE and several more who all advertise in GARDEN RAIL magazine ... figure 42 does contain an error ... the front ring for the smokebox is shown as having a flange ... it is not there on my original drawing ... another drawing office gremlin I am afraid.

Do you mean photo 34 has an inner ring ?? if so, fig 42 just above photo 34 shows the piece of metal involved ... it is just to the right of the smokebox front ... what it looks like is shown in photo 34 inside the smoke box at the right ... photo 35 shows the smokebox door, it can be as fancy as you like, or just a piece of 3mm brass cut to a circle with the edge trimmed down in thickness.

Fig 43 is immediately to the left of photo 36 ... the figure at the bottom marked 0.4 matches up with the photo at its left ... over to the right on the next page is figure 45 and photo 37 ... this is the exhaust pipe adaptor which fits into the smokebox front support ... figure 43 does show the 2 holes required for mounting the exhaust pipe adaptor ... one of these is given as 0.312 facing rear.

Hope this helps ... if not, let me know

martin

TO PETER RUSSEL 4 ... I am now looking at my copy of M.E, part 5 of the loco series ... a good job I waited till I had the magazine to look at ... 7 of the figures have been re-numbered in the drawing office ... 2 of the figures which show the axles and wheels for the front bogie are missing ...with these I made the wheels loose on their axles ... presumably they will show up in part 6 in a months time ... on figure 33, page 13, the width of the suspension bracket is missing ... it should be 0.75 inches as we said the other day ... the drawing office people have put figures 32 and 33 next to each other ... an error has crept in ... one of the measurements marked as "outside edge of bend" started out as 1.40 and not 1.338 as drawn ... hope it is all sorted( for the moment )

martin

TO PETER RUSSELL 4 ... I asked GOD to check the frames drawing ( fig 26 ) with me ... SHE said it looks OK ... she did say maybe it should have been marked REAR at the left and FRONT at the right to save any confusion ... as regards fig 34 showing the suspension bracket, side view, it would appear from what JASON B has typed above that the numbers of the figures have changed slightly ... I will know how it appears in a few days when I get my copy of the magazine ... perhaps it is best if I do not comment on something I have not yet read yet ... I used to get the magazine by subscription about 8 years ago, about the time when easy-flo 2 disappeared from the shops ... at that time the magazine arrived on Wednesday or Thursday ... I did not realise that there was such a difference in delivery times ... hope this is some use.

martin

TO PETER RUSSELL 4 ... the brass tab on top of the frames is 0.50 wide and 0.25 high ... the height is correctly shown as 0.25 but the width has been omitted from the very top of the drawing ... maybe I have made it worse ? I think I will have to study ALL the measurements shown to check it is all in its right place ... as yet I am not sure it is your brain or mine that is having a senior moment ! will let you know, but it could be me ! ... as regards the suspension bracket the thickness is 1/16 or 0. 0625 and width is 0.75 ... it is ( or should be ) shown in figure 34 which is a side view ... I am assuming this part of the drawing is not yet published ... I have not yet seen the newest copy of ME, it should arrive in a couple of days ... It is just unfortunate how the magazine has been published ... you need all 3 drawings for it to make sense ... one question ... you typed Malcom part five ... should it be Falcor ?

martin

TO BALDRIC ... why not try placing the loose nut onto a suitable Allen key ... the short end of the key can be placed onto the end of the stud thread ... if it is not too early in the morning it is possible to hold the Allen key with one hand and hold a scriber with the other hand ... the scriber can be used to flick the nut round ( usually ! ) ... it does assume that no-one forced you to consume too much alcohol or hot curry last night !

martin

Great ... I am not alone with all the mistakes I make ... I once made a planked boat hull about 3 feet long without checking the frame for being true ... I got on a roll with all the planks and just kept going ... when finished it was a sideways banana shape ... it was also a vertical banana shape on one side !! AAGH !! that was a definite sledge-hammer job.

How about building a small boiler and using 2 grades of silver solder ... only thing was, I managed to use the lower temperature grade first ( easy flo 2 ) ... when I used the second, higher temperature grade, all the first fixings and fire tubes neatly fell off and ended in a solid heap inside the boiler ... AAGH !! I did try to salvage the boiler shell but managed to squash it in the vise ... that was another sledgehammer job.

I have made dozens, if not hundreds, of superb co** u* s over the years.

martin

TO PETER RUSSELL 4 ... sorry for the delay in replying ... we have just had a week boiling ourselves in the lake district ... not usual weather for summer ... far too hot to climb Helvellyn ... most times we get rain ... fig 8 in part 2 of Falcor quotes 16 swg for the boiler, this includes the 2 end plates, just as JASON B says ... I use hard wood for the 2 formers needed ... add 2 lots of plate thickness together, in this case .064+.064 = 0. 128 (check your sheet metal) ... subtract this from the ID of the boiler tube ... this gives you the diameter of the formers ... if you try for a flange length of about 7/32 then add twice this to the size needed for the copper sheet ... anneal it and keep on annealing it as the flange is slowly formed ... to not harden the copper means that it will need to be re-annealed 4 or 5 times ... when you have made the two hard wood formers the copper sheet can be sandwiched centrally between them and clamped in the vise ... remember to make a small bevel on the corner of one piece of wood ... bend the copper round this.

When finished the flange should have a reasonable length all the way round ... if it is a bit off-centre then one part of the flange will probably have a kink or a fold in it ... this part can be trimmed down in length ... this should allow it to flatten ... all my flanged plates are now filed instead of machined ... quite deliberate as it allows the silver solder (sf 55) to flow through the joint and make a decent fillet on the inside edge.

I have always used PH. bronze with no problems ... again JASON B has answered this question ... thank you Jason ... most of the square material I use has been filed down by hand from hex. or round stock ... a file and a hacksaw is generally my version of a milling machine ... I just keep an eye on the corners by using a small square ... hope this is useful.

martin

TO JOHN ... not totally certain ... I leave that to the editor depending on space available in the magazine ... possibly 3 or 4 ?? it depends on how many pages he allocates to my article and how much to others in the pile.

martin

Part 4 of FALCOR is now published ... the drawing gremlins have added a few more incorrect details ... on P761, fig 26 there are 3 errors ... there is a piece of metal sticking up above the top edge of the frames, this should be 0. 5 wide ... just left of this protrusion its height should be 0. 25, not 0. 50 which is shown being a width ... this measurement has snuck in from somewhere.

On P 762 is fig 27 ... at the right side of this component, relating to a hole in the bottom right corner, the distance up from the lower edge is given as 0. 020 ... it should be 0. 20 ... this one is my fault ... I got the decimal point wrong ... sorry.

martin

Edited By JasonB on 25/05/2018 15:46:09

TO NEIL ... nicely put ... it is a hobby ... what will happen in 20 years I have no idea ... but I wonder if hand methods or newest technology will win out ?? surely for most beginners to get a feel for the hobby they should be able to start at a low cost ?? ... to say to people it is 90% essential to fill the workshop with lots of expensive gadgets before they can do anything might be counter-productive ... I think this might scare some potential newcomers away ... our hobby may be struggling inside the 20 years ... they might go straight back to their smart phone, I pad, tablet or whatever ... mind you that could put them firmly in the "comfy chair" ... maybe not good for their future or fitness either.

TO SPEEDY BUILDER5 ... if you want some more low technology "thingys" I have been building weird contraptions for decades ... if people are not sick of my contributions to M. E. as being too primitive, I can rustle up plenty more.

martin

A reply to the question at the top of the "smoke rings" page in the newest M. E. magazine, issue 4587 ... YES, I am a Luddite, also known as a dinosaur by many ... apparently I started chopping up lumps of metal and wood when I was less than 5 years old, so I have been told ... I did everything by hand and am quite happy to continue doing so ... howeve, if somone delivered( all pre-paid ) some CNC equipment, plus posh lathe, plus CNC mill, plus brand-new laptop, and stayed around for 6 months or a year to give me instructions, then I would be very happy to use it all ... somehow that is not likely to happen ! The problem for me would be trying to get everything to work on command without vast amounts of button-pushing ... I am now 70, but I think I would soon be picking up my sledgehammer and going back to hand-building.

Nearly forgot, "the shed" needs extending as well ... there is one benefit to doing everything by hand ... using a file, hacksaw and sometimes a hand-drill does keep me out of the "comfy chair" ... it is useful exercise and tends to keep the blood-flow from clogging up ... I know "the chair" will eventually get me ... I am trying to delay that day as much as possible ... things like personal health do not figure very much in this magazine ... I know lots of people of similar age who are now getting trapped in the "chair"

martin

TO MARTIN H ... so far no real problems ... this bearing wear is the first major problem ... the lathe has been used and used and ... etc. for a long time ... I did swop the motor for a 3 phase variable speed drive ... that was the best thing I have ever done ... the original motor was advertised as continous run ... mine was not ... after 30 or 40 minutes it got hot and noisy !! ... very long story ... but I eventually bought the CL 400 unit from Newton Tesla ... the new motor fits neatly behind the lathe at the left side.

The carriage adjustment screws are underneath ... 2 pieces of heavy timber 6 x 3 inches are useful to prop the lathe up ... the tailstock clamp was a short Allen key ... I have swopped this for a long Allen key with a tee handle.

The lever to clamp the carriage to the leadscrew was very tempting to move when screw cutting ... I drilled a hole in the front of the casting to put a lock on it.

There was a misprint in the chart for screwcutting ... given the change-wheels supplied it was not possible to cut a 16 TPI thread ... no doubt this misprint has been corrected by now.

I would buy a parting-off tool about 2mm wide .... the one supplied is 3 mm ... for small bits of brass it is very heavy to use and wastes lots of material ... a smaller tool might also save some of the sideways wear.

This lathe has spent its life cutting brass, bronze and gunmetal ... it has also been used for small pieces of mild steel and stainless steel ... if it was cutting lots of steel 2 inch diameter I think it would have died a lot quicker.

Would I buy another ? ... definitely ... for the smaller sizes of material I use it is perfect ... if I just ate beans on toast for the next year I would buy one now and leave it set as milling machine.

I did buy the faceplate and 3 chucks ... 4 jaw self-centering is superb.

TO HOPPER ... I like the phrase "spit-sizzlin hot" ... your workshop sounds just the same as mine ... I am not an expert in anything ... my wife says I know nothing !!

TO ADY 1 and ROBIN please ... for the preload I ended up with a very light preload ... I did try lots of pressure as well but the cut was just as good lightly loaded ... I clamped the circular nut as hard as possible by hand, then used a small hammer and a flat ended punch to move it about 1/16 of a turn ... this was suggested by one the replies above, I believe ... if I had to guess at the reading on a torque wrench it would be 20 or 30 foot pounds ... not much ... the bearing came from Arc Euro Trade, cost £16. 99 and has a code number 30207 ... when I get the other bearing off I will be able to see if it has the same code number ... that I.D. mark is facing the chuck backplate, but it does look the same.

I look forward to seeing how long this bearing lasts ... I shall try to remember to keep checking diameters on a test bar over the years ... just to make sure about the taper.

Thank you all, martin

To all the kind-hearted gentlemen above ... yet again I say thank you ... reading how you each would tackle the problem has very much sorted it out for me ... I did not know whether to aim at the bed, the bearings or the headstock casting itself ... getting a new rear bearing was by far the cheapest and easiest option ... taking a concensus of what you all said I have now fitted a new rear roller bearing ... magic !! ... the amount of taper was 3 thou per inch ... it is now less than half a thou ( 0. 0004 ) ... when I can wangle the front bearing off the spindle I am very optimistic the lathe will be properly parallet again ... as MICHAEL has put above, we live in hope.

I am extremely grateful for all the different bits of advice from people who know much more about lathe maintenance than I do.

martin

Again, I thank you all for your suggestions ... it seems there are lots of people way ahead of me as regards long-term lathe maintenance

MICHAEL ... the note on page 20 about the bearings ... I think my total running time is way over 6,000 hours ... over 14 years even at only 1 hour per day it would be about 5,000 hours ... some days the lathe has actually been run for 10 hours ... so the actual total could be 15,000 hours or more ?? ... even if the roller bearings still look smooth they could easily be worn away ... A long time back I swopped the Proxxon motor for a 3 phase unit from Newton Tesla ... this is wonderful but I suppose it meant the lathe was running for longer periods with no pauses for belt changing or any other needs for stopping.

HOPPER ... the lathe is in constant use for all sorts of short items, but I have not needed to make any cylinders with a matching piston for 2 or 3 years ... I assume the wear has happened in that period ... cutting any test bar, the end nearest the tailstock is the largest diameter ... I would reckon the spindle is now pointing at the wall behind the lathe when it is cutting.

ADY ... I do not understand what Proxxon would mean by "adjusted by a specialist" ... I have tried the rollers with lots of pre-load and also very little pre-load ... changing the one at the rear with a new one is easy ... I shall buy one and try it.

If the headstock casting is distorted I wonder if I have helped to cause this with too much pressure over the years by using the parting-off tool supplied by Proxxon ... it is 3mm wide and needs quite a shove to make it cut ... a lot of the work could have easily been done by using something half that width.

If I get to feeling masochistic I may ring Proxxon for either advice or the cost of a new headstock assembly and also the bed.

Does anyone want to guess at the price ??

martin

JEFF ... I have found the reference I was talking about ... Model Engineer magazine dated 6 November 2009, on page 568 the letters page ... basically it says I cannot draw for the "proverbial toffee" ... I just enjoy building things ... there is my letter and a comment from another reader ... all the points in my letter still apply ... the only difference is that the lights in my workshop are, of necessity, getting brighter.

martin

TO JEFF ... my apologies for your confusion ... there are a few parts of the boiler and fittings which have arrived in the magazine looking slightly different from my original drawings ... my original copies do look a lot clearer than the magazine pages ... I admit I am not the worlds best draughtsman ... I put this in M. E. magazine many years back ... I will try to find the reference ... it does clarify the difference between amateur and professional draughtsmen ...I cannot always produce what a professional person expects.

The boiler is on page 499 ... Fig 17 on page 501 shows the water gauge block as intended ... my original boiler drawing does not have an arrow indicating the fire tube.

The boiler is on page 499 ... the "notch" or "scallop" is shown in photos 7 and 9 on page 501 ... hopefully they show what it should be.

Fig 16 on page 501 is again not quite the same as I drew.

Possibly the modern world has changed and become not what many of us expect ... possibly the present magazine draughtsman does not build many boilers ... Jason B has hit the nail squarely on the head ... the magazine no longer has a full-time of draughtsmen and builder ... I try to accept many things, but have to expect I do not always get what I would like ... you sound as if you are well-versed in drawing techniques ... please read the message in an old copy of M. E. when I find it.

martin

Wow ... I am always amazed at the depth of knowledge of the Model Engineer readership ... 6 replies and all aiming straight at possible causes ... thank you all.

MICHAEL ... I have the original handbook for the lathe ... the headstock assembly is not shown ... everything else is !

BRIAN ... the long Allen key is a very good idea, but I have already tried this ... I have a 3/4 inch socket set as well as the usual 1/2inch set ... the hexagon head in the bolts is 6 mm ... I have tried using 3/4 drive right down to 6 mm with 2 small adaptors ... I am worried about something shearing !! the bolts are steel, tightened into an aluminium casting ... did someone spit on the bolts before assembly ? or use Loctite ? they certainly will not budge. Maybe this is a clue from PROXXON that they do not expect it to be moved ?

HOPPER ... the error is 0. 003 ( or 3 thou. ) diameter for about 1 inch length ... not very easy to get a piston to fit a cylinder bore !!

MGNBUK ... I have NOW used a test bar and it is pointed nicely at a centre held in the tailstock ... the error only shows up when cutting ...hmm ... hmm ... that might point the finger at the roller bearings... I have found the exact bearings in the Arc Euro Trade catalogue ... they are £ 16. 99 each.

JOSEPH ... maybe the error is mine ... maybe I have not put enough preload onto the bearings ? ... difficult, as I have no idea what it should be ... some of my old cars, like an Austin 1800, needed 300 ft/ pounds as a preload on the steering swivel nuts ... surely it will not need that much ??

Can I ask a general question please ... if the bearings look o.k. but do need replacing, can anyone suggest a non-destructive method of removing the bearing nearest the rear of the chuck backplate ... the opposite one is a light interference fit, but this is very tight ... so far it has not moved ... which is the safest method, oxy-acetylene for a bit of local heating or a grizzly disc please ? Obviously I want to avoid damage to the headstock spindle.

martin

My proxxon lathe is 14 years old ... it has been very extensively used for a lot of work ... now it needs the headstock lining back up with the bed and tailstock ... the headstock assembly is clamped to the bed with 4 off long 8mm bolts ... so far I have been unable to extract any of them ... they are buried in the middle of the headstock casting ... the only way to reach them is via an Allen key ... please has anyone come across this before ... I would like to find a non-destructive way to remove them ... another thing that could be causing the taper problem are the 2 taper roller bearings ... they look clean, shiny and smooth ... can they wear on one side of the outer cup so the spindle is effectively pushed over sideways ?

Anybody any offers of help please ?

martin

Stephen ... my apologies about New Zealand ... I was curious about where you lived and clicked on your profile ... at least that is what I thought I did ... I wonder what key I actually pressed ?? the country of origin was clearly shown as New Zealand ... very sorry.

I am very jealous about your proximity to Doncaster Racecourse ... that is very useful ... as regards size of a vertical boiler I would start with something about 4 inches diameter, possibly 9 or 10 inches high and with lots of 3/8 o.d. fire tubes ... plus a bit for a smokebox on top and a firebox at the base ... unless someone reading this has actually got a design they would share ?

I know that POLLY model engineering do ( or did ) a kit for a vertical boiler, also GLR KENNIONS, also possibly BLACKGATES, possibly REEVES.

martin.