Member postings for Steve Crow

Sorry for this, yet another gauge plate question.

Thanks for all your previous advice, I've got my gauge plate and yes, it saws and files beautifully.

It's 5mm x 30mm and I cut of a piece 13" long to make the base of a jig.

When I put it on my surface plate, there was a noticeable bend to it. Concave side down, I could stick a 0.20 mm slip gauge under it.

It doesn't sound much, but it's enough to feel a rocking motion when concave side up.

Is this normal?

I presume that when gauge plate is ground, its held on a magnetic table but it must spring to its natural state when released?

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Steve

I know a few clockmakers use this forum and I'm sure other members use this technique.

On various blogs and online videos I've seen people printing off plans and sticking them to the material to use as a template for drilling and filing etc.

My question is, is bog standard print/photocopy paper ok? Also, are there any common household glues suitable?

I'm making a jig out of 1/16 brass plate about 1 inch x 3 inch so I don't want to buy a can of spray adhesive or similar as this is a one off job.

Cheers

Steve

Looks very similar to a Moseley (USA) headstock I have complete with bakelite pulley and index ring. I don't have the rest of the lathe but I'm going to use it for a small vertical mill I'm building.

The Victorian Society tried for years to get Hornsey listed to no avail.

I think the one in Bethnal Green has been listed and there is one in Carlisle.

It is "inspired" by the recently demolished Hornsey No1 gasometer, next to the East Coast Mainline between Hornsey and Ally Pally. Until it was criminally torn down last year to make way for unaffordable housing, it was considered the oldest geodesic structure in the world. It is even said to have inspired Barnes-Wallis's airship designs.

I wanted to build a gasometer suitable for 2mm scale model rail (2mm to the foot) but even at that scale it would be huge so I've had to compromise.

The one I'm building is 140mm diameter and 125mm high and has 12 columns (Hornsey No1 has 20)

I dry assembled it and it looked so good in its bare metal state that I decided to polish and lacquer all the brass parts, build it on a display base and put it in the living room to gather dust.

It's all ready to assemble now, I just need to clean up the 72 diagonal braces.

I will post pictures soon.

Steve

I don't know if this is really a model engineering question but I'm sure someone here can help me.

I have made 72 struts from 1mm silver steel for a project nearing completion (A model gasometer frame).

I made them from steel I had in stock which was not rusty but had a dark tarnish. Originally, this was not a problem but now they need to be, if not shiny, at least clean and silver like.

I could make them all again out of new stock or clean them on the lathe but there are 72 of them. At 10 minutes each that's 12 hours I'll never get back.

Does anyone know of a magic solution, preferably using domestic products, that I could just pop them in overnight or something? Or an other way of cleaning them all at once?

Cheers

Steve

Thank you for all your advice - It's been very encouraging.

To clarify, the stock piece is 5mm x 30mm x 500mm and I'm going to use just over half of it to make a jig for model making. The remainder will be used to make the top and bottom plates of a 4-way toolpost for my watchmakers lathe.

I only use top quality sawbades and files so no problem there but I do need some new 1mm drill bits. Has anybody any suggestions on drill type, TIN or cobalt coated for example. I normally work with brass and just use HSS Dormer and the like.

Another thing - gauge plate or ground flat stock? Is one an English description and the other American? Like silver steel and drill rod.

Steve

Hello everybody, this is my first post on this forum.

I have never worked with gauge plate before and I need to cut a piece of 5mm x 30mm to length. Is this easily done with a hacksaw?

In addition, I need to drill a number of holes in it, including a few at 1mm diameter all the way through (5mm). Should this cause me any problems? I've got an ancient belt driven "Champion No1" pillar drill.

I've worked with silver steel but isn't gauge plate a different beast?

Cheers

Steve