Member postings for Brian H

I bought this recently via ebay and wondered is anyone recognizes the type.

There is no makers name on it but it is clearly another version of a Clarkson Autolock though a bit more complicated.

One of the threaded oval plates is missing but as it's for the largest size of cutter I'll be unlikely to need a replacement although It wouldn't take much effort to make one.

Many thanks for the link Michael which seems to be about a different journey, but along the same roads, as the one I am familiar with and involved a team of horses and the use of Burrells 1861 exhibition engine. My webpage is down at the moment but I'll send you the details.

Regards, Brian

I'm grateful to all who replied and for the suggestions offered.

There were too many to answer individually so I have written a reply that incorporates the points brought up;

Maple was chosen on the advice of a cabinet maker and restorer named David Hazel who has a workshop in Derbyshire and made a case for a an English Regulator clock to the design of John Wilding and made an excellent job of it.

David found a piece of well seasoned maple and cut the 12 feet to thickness, length and width for me to finish the stepped profile. As I already have the feet cut to shape, I won't be changing to a different wood although the idea of using creosoted offcuts was appealing due to the smell.

I have decided to use a stain to tone down the very light colour of the maple and to hint at preserved wood.

Wear of the wood was dealt with on the real engine by plates of steel or iron bolted on. These can be seen on a picture of the 1861 Exhibition engine outside Burrells' works.

The model will not be used on rally fields due to its small size and will probably be used for a few demonstration runs.

I'm building a 1 1/2 scale Burrell-Boydell (which is in an album on the Model Engineer website) that has wooden parts in contact with the road/grass/field and I wonder how they would have been finished.
I have assumed that they would have been made from oak so have chosen a fine grained maple. I'm sure that the wood would have been covered in pitch or tar as a preservative but I thought that a black stain would be acceptable for modelling purposes but would be interested in others opinions.

I have also posted this on the Traction Talk site.

Edited By Brian Hutchings on 15/02/2016 15:34:50

How about producing the bore first and then using centres or making a mandrell to locate it for turning the ODs.

This is an optical protractor and has an engraved glass plate inside which can be viewed through the small built in microscope.

This had been used in a machine shop and had filled up with cutting fluid making it impossible to read. It was going to be thrown away but the foreman gave it to me when I expressed an interest. It took a lot of cleaning up and is not easy to use but, it's different.

Another odd tool is this one recently bought on ebay. It is a hand die stock but with retractable cutting parts so that the whole thing does not have to be wound back to remove it. It is an American tool but cuts Whitworth threads. The taps were missing so I have just used some old taps to fill the spaces.

All the parts have a matching serial No and the depth of cut can be locked if producing a number of threads of exactly the same size.

Found out how to add a picture. There are 3 tool steel tools inside the body, each being a third of a circle and each with a different profile on one end. The washer like objects fit inside the body (I think) and I assume support bars whilst the ends are profiled. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

Very interesting thread this; a company I used to work for bought a second hand milling machine and were going to throw away a small box set of tools that they didn't need.

Sorry about this, I was going to add a picture but it seems quite difficult to do.

Crinkle paint should also be available from MG restorers as it was used on MG dashboards.

Thanks Rod, I also didn't know that the real Tubal Cain was Tom Walshaw; I really must get out more!

I dare say that copper is ok from a materials compatability point of view but it does not take a thread easily and the threads tend to be weak, especially after brazing the bushes in and annealing the copper.

Much better to use PB, but not one with lead in it as mentioned by someone else.

I never realised that Tubal Cain was American! The video was very interesting but confused me a little by talking about FOUR adjusting screws when my Grip-Tru has only 3.

Many thanks Roy, I half wondered that, hence the question.

I finished all the pivot holes using pivot burnishers and made a flat pivot burnisher from a small file withe the teeth linished off so that the grain of the linishing did the polishing.

I'll try removing some weight.

Edited By Brian Hutchings on 31/01/2016 12:56:06

I made this clock some time ago and generally speaking it works well and keeps time to about 10 seconds over a week.

I do, however have a problem with it stopping and being reluctant to keep going when it stops but then it will keep going for the following 2 months or so.

I made the weight as a long piece of brass tube with discs of Woods metal so that the total weight can be adjusted.

At the moment it has stopped and it's tempting to add extra weights but I did wonder if additional weight would increase friction in the pivots and the pulley.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I find it depends on the material being cut; With fc brass and steel and CI I wouldn't bother as they chip by themselves but aluminium, and ordinary mild steel I prefer a chipbreaker to prevent the swarf from wrapping around everything in sight, especially fingers!

I've always found that cutting oil or fluid or paste, even if applied with a brush or stick eased parting off no end.

I have a Boxford AUD at present and one day I'll get around to fitting the new coolant tank and pump! At the moment I use Rocol RTD, simply because I have some.

I also hacksaw the last bit because I have the parting tool slightly below centre for big stuff and it doesn't pay to try and go too deep.

Problem solved, I'm selling the Roland Plotter and have returned the A3 Canon BJC800 printer to the supplier as faulty.

A couple of days ago I took my newish PC into PC World for a (free) checkup and had a look at printers to try and identify one that I might be able to pick up on ebay.

I was surprised to find a new Brother A3 & A4 printer for £62!! The A3 printing means feeding in a single sheet of paper at a time but that's fine as I don't need to do lots of printing in A3.

I printed out one of my drawings made with DesignCad  and checked a dimension. It was spot on using a steel rule.

I'm grateful to all who answered my questions, they may help someone else but for now, all is well (apart from the cost of new cartridges for the Brother that is.)

Edited By Brian Hutchings on 29/01/2016 10:55:00

My trusty but ancient Roland 8 pen plotter finally gave up the ghost the other day so I bought an A3 Canon BJC800 printer but it prints my drawings in either A4 on half of the paper or a larger drawing but in a much reduced area.

I'm using a program called DesignCad and have 2D and 3D versions but have only tried the 3D one so far.

The plotter used DFX files and produced drawings in the actual size of the drawing.

I have a few ideas to try but can anyone help with suggestions?

Neils advice is definitely the best for the first step. I'm assuming that the boiler is an all copper one using the correct thicknesses of copper. If so then it should be possible to drill the tubes from both ends to remove them and replace with new ones, silver soldered into position.

The boiler and tubes will have to be VERY clean, possibly pickled in a fresh acid bath as should the silver solder (Easiflo No 2).

Drilling out the old tubes needs to be done very carefully with a drill that is not too sharp or it will grab in the copper. I'd be tempted to make up a counterbore with a pilot to fit the inside of the tube.

Please let us know how you get on with the repair.