Member postings for Rob McSweeney

It might be worth contacting the model engineering societies nearest to Chepstow (possibly Newport) as your father may have been a member and could well have had his boiler examination carried out by the club inspector. People there may remember him, and things he may have said about his work in progress.

Possibly worth investing in a few spare nuts, so that if you are drilling several sizes in sequence the drills can stay in their collets and save time and fiddling about?

For possibly the first time ever, I manged some workshop time on New Year's Day, finished machining the backplate for the new 3-jaw my wife gave me for Christmas.

Rather than fitting a dial, have you considered a digital readout? Not too expensive these days, or you can modify a digital vernier for a low-cost version. You can then swap between metric and imperial as you wish.

And, if you do find yourself bitten by the bug and upgrade in a while you can transfer it to another machine.

Thanks for posting this Martin, I must get round to making a few myself.

Does anyone feel like posting another of these competitions for New Year?

One low tech, but time consuming, method would be to use 'Letraset' (which I have just checked on ebay and is still obtainable) 40 ish years ago I etched the registration number onto my car windows with a little kit which used Letraset for the characters and a little oval mask to contain the etch, this worked well and I would imagine would work just as well on brass, probably better as you will have the work lying flat.

Ooops! have just realised that you will need reverse image to make a stamp, probably not available in rub-down, but I am leaving my post up as the idea may help someone in another application.

Edited By Rob McSweeney on 18/12/2020 09:10:59

I would question Mr Duffer's advice to 'run the lathe in reverse' - this is generally advised against as it can cause the chuck to unscrew from the mandrel under load. Normal practice with a back toolpost is to mount the tool upside down and cut with the normal direction of rotation.

The finescale railway modelers, EM & P4, will have a lot of useful info online which will scale up - in terms of the mechanics of the thing, what all the parts are called , what part is cut at what angle, what is joggled etc.

Some of the older textbooks describe grinding a drill bit with a flat end as a "bottoming drill".

Could be worth trying with a long series drill, unless you need carbide for the metal you are working with.

Imho, this is the best of the forums I visit.

Clear and straightforward to navigate, doesn't take an age to load like some do, and not plastered with adverts.

I fail to see what Mr Jones is objecting to.

Please don't change it.

Rob

I had one (which was excellent for the first few years - I once filled it on a Friday evening, forgot to take it with me, and the water was a nice temp to wash up with when I got home on Sunday) which developed a pinhole in the inner wall through corrosion/erosion cycle.

If you don't mind me asking - how do you go about ordering from M Metals? Looking at the website I don't see any online ordering facility (or indeed any way of making an online payment) - is it back to the old way of requesting a pro-forma invoice?

Edited By Rob McSweeney on 02/11/2020 17:51:52

Kennions are listing drgs and castings for two LBSC designs, duplex and single cylinder Wiers pump.

Possibly an early form of combined drill/countersink? The absence of a screw to lock the drillbit rather speaks against that, unless the toolbit in the slot can bear down on the drill and lock it. Or, is the bottom of the hole threaded to hold a threaded drill shank?

Hi Sam,

If you are not familiar with matalworking lathes, can I recommend that you get hold of a copy of - "The Amateur's Lathe," by L.H.Sparey, readily available on Ebay and elsewhere, first published probably 75 years ago now but still an excellent primer in small lathes and their use.

As regards the slot cutting (and I know what the job is btw) you will not need a power feed, racking the carriage to and fro with the carriage handwheel will suffice. For shorter slots (up to perhaps 2" long) you may well be able to rig a lever across the face of the handwheel which will make things very comfortable. I can't remember where, but there is at least one video on Youtube showing this operation.

Happy lathe hunting!

Workshop thermometer?

Have you seen this? :- usedflypress.com/balls-new.html

Shot Putt balls seem to sell for a bit less than cannon balls, and appear to have been machined to final weight , which is encouraging.