Ah, now we're getting somewhere! The TT5 Thermotool looks like the sort of thing. Thanks, Roger.

As for some of the other suggestions, in my schoolteacher days I would have scrawled RTQ!! across them in red ink. Read The Question!! We've had induction heaters, gas torch tips, crimp lugs... I do like Michael G.'s picture, though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't (didn't) know what a lug sweater is.

George B.

I've been reading Will Doggett's article Bandsaw Blade Silver Soldering Station in the latest issue of MEW, and it has left me with a puzzle.

He refers to using a "lug sweater" instead of a gas torch for the silver soldering, speaks as though it is a common enough plumbing item, and refers to its being available in DIY shops.

It's a term I have never come across, so I got on the interwebs to find out more and found: precisely nothing. Even combinations of words which I thought might be related brought up nothing.

From the picture in the article I deduce that it is a resistance heater with carbon electrodes, but can get no further.

Can anybody enlighten me?

George B.

Nothing wrong with that. Scrooge was all right until they brainwashed him.

George B.

Pgk,

I have two different types of grease gun. One has the nozzle and main body in line, and the grease is expelled by pressing on the end of the body. The other has the nozzle offset at an angle, and a trigger to expel the grease. There may be other styles of grease gun as well.

Could you make clear which type you are asking about, possibly with a picture?

George B.

That looks like good value for £250. I've just sold my father's old ML4 for just under £200, and that didn't have a stand or changewheel guard, or a tumbler reverse which 'your' one has.

I suspect it is a ML4, which differs in detail from the ML2. There are numerous posts on this forum which give information to help identify which model you have - search for ML4 to start with.

There are some non-standard features on 'your' lathe, but they all look like improvements . In particular, the tailstock looks altogether more sturdy, as does the tool clamp. If it's a ML2 or ML4 the centre height is 3½". If you go for an ML7 you will gain some improved features, but part with a lot more cash.

George B.

Exactly this. I had the same on my ML4.

George B.

I used to find that trouser turnups were very useful for catching dropped items. I no longer have turnups on my trousers so I recently put down some cheap laminate flooring in my workshop. It's much easier to keep clean but things dropped on it tend to bounce and skitter. The solution has turned out to be surprisingly simple - when I drop something I make a mental note of where it fell and look somewhere else.

If it's something heavy or with sharp corners it's easier to see where it fell - I just look for the scar in the flooring.

George B.

Brasso is finer than T-cut and would give a better finish, but all these seem a bit harsh for something which requires an optical finish. My optician warned me against using something as apparently harmless as paper tissues for wiping glass lenses because the fibres in them can scratch the surface.

On the other hand, since it appears the glasses are currently not serviceable, there's not much to lose in trying.

George B.

Probably worth asking on the UK engine forum,

https://ukengineforum.forumotion.com/forum

As to whether it's scrap, the saying is that if it casts a shadow it can be restored. It all depends how much you enjoy the suffering.

George B.

Edited By Georgineer on 18/04/2021 16:33:16

Adrian,

A lot of what you need to know was covered recently in this thread:

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=171047

George B.

Gerry,

At the last school where I worked we had a floor-standing bandsaw which could take either wood- or metal-cutting blades. In the pedestal was a series of v-belts and pulleys to select the appropriate cutting speed, which was much slower for metal and required a different blade. Unfortunately I can't remember the make or model.

I did once witness a colleague cutting metal with the woodworking blade. The sparks were quite impressive, and the technician had to replace the blade afterwards...

George B.

Howard, if I may add some information:

• CEI threads became British Standard Cycle threads when BS811:1950 was published. It is still available from the BSI if you have £186 to burn.
• Although many BSCy threads are 26 tpi, there are others including 24, 32, 40 and more. And left-hand of course.
• Although the thread flank angle is 60°, the actual root and crest profiles are different from Unified and Metric threads.

George B.

Absolutely. I also have solar water heating and I would have done better to leave the money in the bank.

• It only produces measurable amounts of hot water in the summer, when the need for it is least.
• Although it has a bigger storage tank than the original, it cannot store all the heat available on a sunny summer day and shuts down.
• It delivers water at 80°C which would be a serious safety concern if there were children or frail adults in the house.
• It still relies on mains electricity to operate, so when the sub-station opposite our house burned out we had no source of hot water until it was restored (the gas boiler and immersion heater also need electricity).
• Modern washing machines have only a cold water inlet so no saving there.
• Maintenance costs more than the saving in gas bills.

I'm sure there are other drawbacks I could think of if pressed.

George B.

Another satisfied user of Rapid Electronics here. At their best, I ordered at 5 o'clock one evening and the parcel was on my doorstep at before 9 o'clock the following morning.

In my designing days I was also pleased with Farnell Electronic Components. RS are good but pricey. For other, and sometimes obscure, components I used Digikey and Mouser.

George B.

Welcome Jim, and greetings from Deepest Portsmuff.

George B.

Great! I must seek them out.

I loved his "Secret Life" series, and used to show them to my GCSE Science classes when they fitted the topic we were studying.

I took my then-teenage daughter to his "Under the Pier Arcade" on Southwold Pier some years ago and she had a whale of a time, as did I (and fish and chips in the café ). [blasted smiley crept in.] Well worth a visit when it's open again.

George B.

Edited By Georgineer on 23/03/2021 21:54:10

Edited By Georgineer on 23/03/2021 21:55:22

Edited By Georgineer on 23/03/2021 21:56:20

To get the deposits from my stainless teapot (which I only do when they get thick enough to start flaking off) I put washing soda in water and boil it on the hot plate. (boiling washing soda is also good for removing paint from metal items, but I haven't dared do it in the teapot.)

The blue-black staining on our 'stainless' cutlery didn't respond to chemical treatment, so I did like David George and used a buffing wheel. They polished up beautifully and two years later are still bright. The only problem I encountered was that the wheel was too big to get into the teaspoon bowls, so I did them by hand with Autosol polish.

George B.

I'm a bit surprised that this thread hasn't wandered off into abstruse explanations of the forces involved when a pedal unscrews itself, but I'm sure that our ancestors, being in the main classical thinkers, simply observed which bits dropped off and reversed the threads accordingly.

I've read Zen and the ... several times over the last forty-odd years, and always get something new and worthwhile out of it. It must be time to read it again. A friend who had studied philosophy at university dismissed it as lightweight, homespun philosophy, but I find it a lot more accessible than the classic philosophers. A bit like finding my way into jazz through listening to Chris Barber, when my serious (and scornful) jazz friend was into Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk.

My 'hack' bike has a fixed wheel (not literally - it's the opposite of a freewheel) and the sprocket is screwed to the hub with a RH thread. There is then a lock ring on a slightly smaller LH thread which prevents the sprocket from unscrewing when I press back against the pedals to slow down. No abstruse physics there, but I do have a mangled hub from when I forgot that the lock ring comes off in the opposite dirtection.

George B.

Wrong chap. You're thinking of Earache von Heineken, inventor of the Bermondsey Triangle.

George B.

Howard, if I can follow up on some of your points:

The photo shows this lathe as having a cast-in headstock, so it is presumably 1937 or earlier. Lathes at that time were supplied without guards either for changewheels or backgear and I don't believe any provision was made for fitting them. We had to drill holes to fit a backgear guard to my lathe, and it still doesn't have a changewheel guard. I've never had a problem with the changewheels flinging oil out, and I've managed over the years to avoid falling into the works. Naturally, I would fit a guard if anybody else used the workshop.

Early lathes had no serial number, so David is unlikely to find one.

Incidentally David, your carriage handwheel is not original. As made, the carriage moves the opposite way to every other lathe I've ever used, which can take a bit of getting used to. There have been conversion kits made, and if you are lucky you've got one to go with the replacement handle.

That said, it's a nice lathe and I've done a lot of useful work on mine.

George B.