Member postings for Nick Clarke 3

These are far less common than the Cl250M lathes they fit on and may sell quite well - I suspect parting with it and putting the money towards a small mill (I have a SX1L from Arc Euro £387 at present)  will work out far easier and cheaper than converting this accessory with a compound table, motor controller, case etc

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 18/08/2019 13:45:40

As he is into electronics what about spending the time in making and assembling something he might use for that?

here are a couple of PCB holders that could give you some inspiration. (images from google, all rights acknowledged)

You may need to simplify things, but he might use something that fits in with his other interests perhaps?

I hear and share your pain!

+1 for one off boards, but the drilling, if your components are not surface mount, can be a pain

As an alternative if you can get hold of a scrap of copper pcb is to cut out the section with the spiral contact on and let an etched replacement for just that area into a cutout in your board with any track joins well outside the spiral contact area.

Yes Three strokes underneath a draft text tell the compositor or printer to capitalise on the final printed page - but why put a mark including three strokes over, not under, a letter that is painted, not printed and then enamel them onto the dial alongside the final text? - You don't see proofreader's markups in a published book so why on a clock that presumably was sold to a customer.

Just because the marks are the same shape as something else used in a completely different context does not imply they have the same meaning on a clock face, although as I have said before I am as much in the dark as anyone else and would be just as happy to be proved wrong if a definitive answer could be found.

I am intrigued!!!!

Or might that be an effect of the dial face being domed and not flat, or painted that way because the dial is in fact domed?

I am still unconvinced by many of the suggestions here - not because they don't offer a reasonable meaning to the symbols, but rather to their logic and the practical side of putting them on there in the first place.

While I agree the G (not Fr), the P, the W and the Co in the top lines are all contractions for the full name of the company, Gustav Paul Wehlen and Company the marks appear from the close up on the first page of this post to have been painted onto the dial, along with the rest of the text and the markings. if it was to tell someone what to paint this would appear to be a very silly way of going about it as you would still need to tell the painter what to write.

Suggesting the maker said "I want you to put Captal G, full stop, Capital P, full stop, Wehlen with a capital W and the rest of the word in small caps then an ampersand the same height as the small caps then Co abbreviation for company with the o superscript and underlined. I have already painted some marks on the dial to show you the size and placing of the capital letters and abbreviations to help you" It is just not believable. The marks have not helped the painter much as regards letter width anyway!

Wouldn't it be easier to have just given the information on a piece of paper??

The company was based in Cullum Street in the City of London and in Paris where the same latin script was in use, with the possible exception of the W in France - so putting the dial out to a local outworker would suggest that he or she was familiar with the letter shapes required.

Were I wanting to tell someone how to paint this text I would want to tell them what script size and style to use, which is not easily identified from this - I think telling someone that the G was a capital and an abbreviation for a longer word is of no value if you are just being asked to paint G - and if you don't know how to do that you would need a drawing or a copy of the required text to follow not marks.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 13/08/2019 17:48:00

In a different context, bit have a look at this hand lining. **LINK**

I have had small orders of PCBs made in the past, however they were produced from Gerber plots of the tracks and Excellon drilling data generated by a PCB design program. A scan would not be acceptable to the company I used.

If you are looking for ex GPO what about the Rugby Radio Rally this Sunday at Princethorpe College?

Many years ago I went to as demonstration of lost wax casting at the Nottingham SMEE's old workshop on Alexandra street.

Basic principle involved was take the lid of a small tin (pipe tobacco in those days) and put a couple of pieces of lint in it, soaking wet.

Melt your metal and put it in the mould, or in the case of lost wax make a plaster mould round your wax model and melt the metal into a puddle on top of a riser. Then clap the lint in tin lid on top and the steam forces the molten metal into the mould.

Like most people the concept of water and molten metal sounds appalling, but it was demonstrated here in perfect safety by a dental technician to make small fittings for model boats and as a sign of the times a set of cuff links in the form of the BR double arrow symbol.

I have seen it done, but at your own risk!!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 12/08/2019 09:34:43

I am sorry but I cannot give you a correct answer.

For more that the last thirty years I have been involved in teaching, lecturing and studying typography, and I have never seen anything that matches these exactly. Firstly the proofreader's mark for capitals is marked underneath the text not above it. (I used to work for a guy who was a craft proofreader and Eric would mark up any memo sent to him to be corrected!!) There are several reasons why I can't concur with the suggestions already given.

Firstly the marks are not over all capitals, and if they indicate capitalisation why are the first two different? Also the third one is over the abbreviation for company and, while there are dots above the second row they are not only above the capitals and finally why paint on these symbols when you could paint on the words themselves! I would suggest that giving typographical instructions which are intended for printers would mean little or nothing to a guy with a brush.

I still don't know what they are, but I cannot see that they would be typographical. I just don't see it.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 11/08/2019 20:14:40

Mine doesn't get used much (just look at the state of my car for confirmation!) but if it does not spray splitting the Lance in two and using the pricker on the jet itself will usually bring it back to life.

Just a suggestion before you get too far into the entrails if your machine.

As a varifocal wearer I find it easier and also cheaper to wear a full face shield when necessary. While safety glasses will protect your eyes, in my experience their lenses (or a face shield) can still be marked by a flying object - but the face shield is far cheaper to replace.

I look like Dan Dare from the Eagle in my face shield - so that may be either a disadvantage or selling point, depending upon your age.

Thanks Dave - I wasn't wanting to draw from Paint £D, but wondering if it could act as a slicer/printer controller.

Being so new to the subject of 3D printing, I wondered if there was any experience here on the forum I could pick on - I am still only struggling up the foothills of the FreeCAD learning curve and did not wish to be distracted from learning that if Paint 3D was no use.

Interestingly the same thought crossed my mind. As a film camera collector, at one time I concentrated on Former Soviet Union cameras. Many of these were copies of German cameras and the build quality was shocking, many can never have worked well from new - and some never!

Comparing a Zorki or a Fed with the Leica - the Leica silky smooth and engineered to perfection, while the Russian equivalent would be crude, mass produced and frequently smelled of gun oil when it arrived. Comparing various Kiev models with Pentacon, Hasselblad or Contax originals was the same.

But the quality of the photographs produced was very difficult, often impossible to tell apart.

While I agree that the particular lathe one uses is irrelevant, the advent of cheaper new lathes to add to the pool of existing, possibly very old or very well used machines, means that our hobby has become far more accessible.

The trade in tools, materials, castings and even magazines and websites depends upon numbers - and without this new equipment and the extra participants that it enables to join us , these might all become uneconomic and disappear.

And I always thought a lathe carrier was something used for turning between centres!

I know that Windows 10 has included a free 3D drawing program called Paint 3D for a while, but I have to confess I have never even looked at it until today.

With the latest (April/May 2019) update to W10 I thought I would have a look through the changes - and discovered it will connect to a 3D printer.

Has anyone had chance to look at this? Is it worth experimenting with?

As a newcomer to 3D printing (2 weeks with a Creality Ender 3) it certainly seems to be a far simpler system than Cura - and in any case my 3D CAD of choice is FreeCAD and Cura is broken in my version.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 05/08/2019 18:33:00

+1 for angle grinder