Member postings for Jon Lawes

According to this slightly clunky website (but obviously run by someone with infectious enthusiasm) it was the same family but not the same Person. John Bennie.

**LINK**

I'm building an MJ Engineering Burrell gold medal at the moment and the castings/drawings are really first class. The build book is excellent too. I think MJ Engineering will be at the open day at Fareham MES on the 30th, so I hope to get down there to see some completed ones. Would be worth seeing for yourself.

I went for 2" as I'm an amputee and can't heft big items about. A 2" engine should be just about manageable, especially a Burrell which was a relatively small engine anyway.

I have a 3.5" gauge william with automatic drain cocks and find them largely trouble free. They work best if given a quick squirt of a light solvent after use to help clean the oil emulsion out. I've been running them for two years.

Mine were from Kennions, no issues.Mine were 3/16 x 40 but obviously yours are whatever size you choose.

Depending on the car sometimes it's not a case of refilling the tank but replacing it whole; it's not intended to be replenished on some models.

It's called Wander; for longer holes there are techniques that can minimise it. Gundrills for example have a coolant channel up the centre to help combat work-hardening and remove swarf which can both contribute to wander, as well as being more rigid than normal drills. These are for specialist workshops of course.

At the level I'm working at (a very small amateur workshop with a tiny budget) I have to use techniques like "pecking" the drill to reduce the wander rather than using long sustained cuts, stopping to clear swarf on a regular basis, and where possible finding ways to avoid doing it (such as making a component out of two smaller pieces or going from both ends and meeting in the middle, with the issues that entails). Obviously none of these are ideal solutions, but they minimise the issues. By using a spot/centre drill first you are giving yourself a fighting chance of getting it right at the start at least.

Other things that can make it worse are excess pressure and a poor grind on the drill bit (sharpening the drill bit and not getting it quite even on each flute).

At the size you are drilling boring the hole isn't really an option, however in larger sizes thats the idea way of avoiding wander. But the best bet at my level is to drill undersized and then ream it with a parallel reamer.

I know thats a lot of info but hopefully some of it will be of some use.

No problems, as you say the google search is more efficient than the search box on the side of the site.

I did find this in a Warco manual if its any help.

"Lubricate all slideways lightly before every use.

Lubricate the change gears and the leadscrew slightly with a lithium-based grease.

1. Carriage Lubricate Four oil ports with 20W machine oil once daily.

2. Cross Slide Lubricate two oil ports with 20W machine oil once daily.

3. Leadscrew Lubricate the left oil port and right oil port with 20W machine oil once daily."

What I've tried to say very clumsily is that our hobbies are just that; pastimes being done for fun. In your case, highest quality with maximum efficiency. But it's still just a leisure activity.

It's a question that gets asked a lot, and as a result we end up duplicating our responses ad infinitum! Try the search function and it should give you all the information you need. I reckon on average the question gets asked about once a week.

The very best of luck and enjoy. I don't know if it would cover your lathe but the lathes.co.uk website is a mine of info for most models.

Our entire hobbies are "p**sing around". I sometimes do stuff just for my own education, especially if its with something I have lots of spares of.

I don't begrudge anyone trying something new even if the gains are tiny (or non-existent). Who gets hurt?

I do enjoy the diversity of projects on this forum. Fantastic stuff.

And I think BMW may hold one of the answers to the original question. My old 5 Series (E39) had a small explosive device on the battery terminal that in the event of a serious accident would sever the battery connection to try to reduce the risk of fire. There were many dire warnings about jump starting and charging in the manual, I think it suggested all these things would be done via the dedicated terminals under the bonnet. The battery was in the rear wing.

In which case sod being a real engineer. I'll just be the kind that does this for fun.

Would strongly disagree with you there. It's made life a lot easier in a variety of ways. But if you don't like them, you keep going whichever way you prefer. I wish I'd got one years ago.

I agree, maybe specific clubs have a funny culture but I've been very lucky with both of the ones I've attended. Very supportive and keen to help a novice. I've also seen first hand how cultures can be changed for the better (in my case a very aggressive workplace that became much friendlier through the effort of a few people).

I'm only an amateur, but I don't see a problem with distance or even the condensation as long as you use a moisture trap and non-corroding pipework. In my opinion the advice of a small local receiver is a good idea, however I would probably have an additional moisture trap between it and the external pipe.

The regulator on my compressor tank is set almost to maximum, with smaller regulators at each spur. As a result the long length of large bore pipework between my tank and outlets is a bit of extra capacity too.... :D

I made another daft mistake in the workshop yesterday, and this time I decided to walk out the door for the evening...

I'm not a fast worker, so I was on the second evening of making some blowdown valves. Just finished one, wanted to just knock a little sharp edge off of one part using the linisher. My clumsy handling made the linisher spit the bronze part across the workshop; I didn't see where it landed. It still hasn't turned up.

Sometimes going inside for the evening is the best thing for the sanity...

I also live in Dorset but go North to the West Wilts Model Engineering Society; as with the others I strongly advise a Model Engineering society. I plodded along for years trying to learn on my own. Just having a friendly ear to informally chat about how to do things, see their work or get some steaming experience (if thats your thing) is a real boon. I'm also an aircraft engineer, probably at one of the same sites you were!

Welcome.

I don't think free gifts are often much of a carrot to dangle; model engineering is such a broad church a gift is likely to appeal to a very small demographic at any one time, and most model engineers tend to seek quality items rather than the sort of thing likely to be economically viable to attach to a magazine. No offence intended, merely airing my personal opinion.

I come here for a respite from the serious issues in the world!

If it is sat next to a copy of Model Engineer I think I would want to know exactly what to expect from each magazine. My normal interest in these magazines is "what is in here that I could make at home?" so my personal preference would be a picture of whatever is the project of the week. A picture of a person doesn't engage me (not matter how visually appealing) because that person could be on the cover of a magazine on Knitting, Model Railways, PC Maintenance, it doesn't tell me anything.

So for me a nice big picture of the project and clear writing showing what the magazine contains would be my preference, and anything else just clouds the impact.