Member postings for Mike Woods 1

Ballistol is quite unique in its function. Originally formulated for use by the German military and to meet the following requirements.

Cleaning and lubricating weapons, including removal copper and powder fouling in the barrel. It dissolves copper, so keep it away from your brass gibs

Dressing and preserving leather equipment, rifle slings, ammunition pouches and the like

Preserving wood on rifle stocks

And believe it or not, treating minor wounds and cuts. It is antiseptic, but it stings when applied to a cut. No need to ask how I know. Combined with blue paper towel and gaffer tape, it makes a good emergency dressing for those workshop ouch moments.

The name is a contraction ballistic and oil, albeit in German

As mentioned in previous posts, it is not a water displacement oil like WD40. However it does emulsify nicely with water and makes a good wash down mix for all sorts of applications. I have used the emulsion to revive old faded paintwork on my garage door, it seems to plasticise tired paint coatings.

I have used this on my rifles for years before locking away in the gun cabinet and can attest to its ability lift copper fouling.

Out of interest I looked on ebay to see if die filing machines were appearing for sale. The very first advert that popped up was a home built one, based on a Singer sewing machine. An interesting idea particularly as used sewing machines are often available for quite modest prices. I am resisting temptation to creep off to the hobby room to investigate as the inevitable questioning may be hostile.

I suppose you could sum this up with a question - how often do you lubricate the wheel bearings on your everyday car? They are packed with grease on assembly, the car is driven until play/noise is detected then the bearings are replaced. The only problem here is the variable quality control we sometimes see evidence of in these Chinese manufactured hobby lathes which may affect the service life of the bearings. Correct pre-load, correct quantity or quality of grease etc. Maybe some parallels here with some of the cars from a certain era.

I have a Chester 920. Like others here, there is no provision for lubrication of the spindle bearings. It runs fine, makes no untoward noises and no discernible bearing play. If it does start to show adverse signs, the bearings are cheap, readily available and fitting is not too difficult for most.

A pal of mine has Chinese manufactured1326 size lathe on which the spindle bearings are splash fed with gearbox oil and now he has fixed the numerous oil leaks from poorly designed/manufactured sealing arrangements on the gearbox controls, no longer requires routine topping up. Almost a maintenace free system now and no longer regarded as a Torrey Canyon.

Some interesting points points raised in this thread. I have one of those Swedish "Trangia" camping stoves which is designed to run on methylated spirit. The user instructions say to add 10 to15% water to the fuel to avoid sooting. It still boils water very quickly for that outdoor cuppa and other culinary adventures, so thats fine by me. Unfortunately it still soots (more like a hard varnish really) the underside of the pans.

Zenstoves is a nice and simple US based website that looks at "backpacking" stoves and discusses, amongst other things, meths and other fuels. I found it quite informative and full of interesting rabbit holes to dive into. Some nice reading to occupy the mind until, blinking in the sunlight, we start to emege from the darkness of lockdowns and restrictions.

http://zenstoves.net/

Calling it a Pheon sounds too posh for me. Like Brian G and my dear old dad, I have always known it to be a crows foot.

Calling it a Pheon is a bit too top drawer for my liking, broad arrow is a more appropriate (militaristic) description. In my circles it was always known as a crows foot.

HI Damon,

There was a discussion on broken drive belts on this class of lathe nor that long ago, The problem with the belt being tight on one of the speed ranges is quite common, my Chester 920 is the same. Just get the next size belt and use on the affected speed ranges. The post is here

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=117687

Regarding layers. This one puzzled me when I first started exploring TurboCAD. To enable this once you have set up your layers table, all you have to do is select your drawing tool (line, arc, circle....whatever), then change its properties (colour, line style, thickness etc) using the drop downs in the tool ribbon just above the drawing space. For example, the default setting is black, using the dropdown opens a menu showing a grid with lots of pretty colours. Towards the end of that grid, you will see some hieroglyphs. There is one that looks like a stack of paper. That is the layers button. Press that and your line will automatically pick up the colour of the layer you are drawing in. Similarly for the line style and thickness drop downs.

You will need to do this for each drawing tool on first use, but once set they will use the layer properties.

If you subsequently change the properties in the layer table, all lines previously drawn with that tool will change accordingly.

Hopefully I haven't mangled the English language too much in trying to explain this simple, but apparently undocumented feature. I've been using TurboCAD V20 Pro, sporadically, or several years and am still finding undiscovered features and different ways of doing things. Good luck in your endeavours.

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 16/10/2020 21:57:00

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 16/10/2020 21:57:55

Sadly, in some countries many dogs are regarded as tools to be thrown away once they cease to be useful, or worse, simply killed. A bit like tossing a drill bit into the bin or to rust away outside because it is blunt or chipped. Fortunately there are people in these countries who care enough to set up no kill shelters to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome these dog, relying on donations to do so. A broken blunt drill can be sharpened again, it might be a bit shorter, but perfectly serviceable. It is the same with rescued dogs, but a little more than a few minutes on the grinder, more like weeks, months or even years of patience, love, care and commitment

Covid lockdown has seen a sharp rise in dog ownership for all sorts of reasons and has become quite a lucrative opportunity for puppy farmers and breeders. Just look at the prices being asked for puppies since lockdown first started, particularly for pure breeds and designer dogs. I am somewhat nervous that some these Covid dogs may find themselves neglected or homeless once people start returning to work, or as famity finances become stretched as government support is phased out, or until unemployment can be reduced.

On thing I will say, I am glad that there are organisations like the RSPCA, battersea, Blue Cross, Dogs Trust together with many small local, or breed specific charities all working to save dogs from us bloomin' humans.

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 05/10/2020 22:46:57

Ostin 'ere in 'ampshire. An antipodean friend pronounces his home country as 'stralia, so maybe to him it would be 'stin. I guess it depends on local accents really.

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 01/10/2020 07:49:24

+1 for Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3, followed by Zinsser AllCoat white satin exterior paint. I did my garage door 18 months ago using a small brush for the seams and fiddly bits and a small gloss roller for the rest. I was impressed by the the finish, ease of application and no messy clean up afterwards.

I was dubious about using water based paint at first so did a trial on some of old and new galvanised sheet scraps. Even just 24 hours after application it was very difficult to remove by scraping, but after curing for a week or so it was nigh on impossible to remove. I guess time will tell, but so far, so good.

Since then, I have started using water based paints on interior woodwork.

I have no links to Zinsser, just another DIYer with a paintbrush in hand.

Yes, most probably a fuel tank/bunker sounding weight of some sort. IIRC there was a green paste to smear up the side of the weight which turned red in the presence of water.

I wonder if any of the Warco, Chester, Sieg, Amadeal or Axminster lathes or milling machines use this T16 x 3mm format. If so, the perhaps you could buy a spare part from one of the suppliers and modify to suit? Both my lathe and mill are in storage at the moment, otherwise I would measure them, but I am sure that the lathe is T16 x 3mm x 500mm. Mine is a Chester 920, so has a keyway over its entire length for a feed worm gear, other lathes which use half nuts for both feed and threading would not have that. Also, what is used on the remanufactured Myfords? Maybe others with ready access to their machines could offer some advice. Just a thought.

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 08/07/2020 09:30:22

Just realised I have committed an engineering cardinal sin in my opening post. I wrongly spelled a great mans name, Barnes Wallis, not Wallace. Oh! the shame of it all. Now where did I put that hair shirt?

Like most, I found that Covid-19 lockdown freed up a lot of time, which I sometimes struggled to fill. I started to read more and found new subjects, both in fiction and non-fiction to occupy my mind. I remember books I read when I was in my teens and decided to revisit them.

One author that I remember being fond of was Nevil Shute, not because of who he was (I didnt give it much thought at the time), but that his novels were well written and the plots rather engaging. In lockdown, I have started to work my way through his titles again and am glad I have rediscovered this man. 50+ years on with a career in engineering behind me, his books take on a different dimension. I now realise that he was a very capable aeronautical engineer in his own right, working under the likes of Barnes Wallace, before he pursued a writing career.

I made the mistake of starting with "On The Beach", a bit gloomy for current times. The next was "Trustee From The Toolroom", which resonated with the inner engineer from the start. It wasn't that many pages in before names like Myford, Boxford, Herbert and Boley jumped out of the page. The main character could be one of many regular contributors to ME and MEW. The writing style is of a more gentle age, no crash, bang wallop, bed hopping excitement, but very gripping nonetheless. To all of you model engineers out there who have not read his works, if nothing else, try this one as a bit of bedtime reading.

Edited By Mike Woods 1 on 05/07/2020 15:49:48

If these are white metal bearings, I would avoid use of any abrasive. It is all too easy for grit to become unintentionally embedded leading to premature shaft wear.

When I was young and didn't know any better I received a real tongue lashing from the fitting shop foreman for working with abrasive paper at a bench where a fitter was working on freshly made white metal journals for a marine diesel engine. I got a few black looks from the fitter as well. As penance I was given the job of overhauling the cylinder heads for the same engine. The foreman, with great ceremony, handed me a big tub of grinding paste, since I was so keen on abrasives, and sent me to the furthest bench away from the bearings. SIxteen cylinders worth and four on-board spares, each with four 100mm diameter valves to be ground in or replaced gave me time to reflect on the subject of abrasives. I had a couple more ships worth of this activity before the mantle (of shame) was passed to another unfortunate who had earned the dubious honour though engineering misdeed. I was cured of any passion for abrasives

I was eventually allowed to assist in making and fitting plain bearings, under the tutelage of the fitter who had given me black looks several weeks before. I was eventually ured of any passion for engineers blue as well.

Once again, thanks for the follow up Ron.

Thanks for the photo Ron. Crikey, with my night owl question and your up with the larks response, you must be a very early riser, or located several beneficial time zones away.

The modification looks to be very well done indeed. Your description of the nut answers the question on backlash adjustment for wear. My original thought was that the brass insert might have been two pieces, one fixed in place the other threaded into the nut body and locked after adjustment. It was difficult to see from your original picture.

Yes, having nine gib adjusting screws does seem to be a bit of overkill and patience tester when setting up, but if it works, that's what counts.

I did come across a post on another forum on the subject of power feed conversion, but it was more a discussion of motor types. However, a video at the very end show how a 10x22 size lathe was modified to add a drive shaft below the lead screw and combined with a redesigned apron to make a geared system. Ingenious, but complicated. Your approach seems much simpler to make and with suitable electrical fail safes, probably more flexible in use. Looking forward to your updates (one of which has already appeared).

For general interest, here is a link to the discussion thread.

https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/power-crossfeed-help.22091/

Mike

That is a nice leadscrew nut, much better looking than the original design on my Chester 920. I think this must be one of the many improvements made by the previous owner. I asume that you will be removing the leadscrew to make modifications for the motor drive. If you do, would you be willing to post a picture showing the nut? I would be interested to see how backlash adjustment is done.

Timken and NSK also have on-line resources on bearing wear patterns. Warning, some of the images are pretty graphic and liable to distress engineers of a sensitive disposition. Interesting reading though.