Member postings for john halfpenny

Mig and file. Once it is a tight fit your problem is solved.

Martin has it. Engines do not become addicted to Easy Start, they are simply worn to a state where starting is difficult in adverse (typically cold) conditions, and will not start without it because their mechanical condition does not improve over time.

They knock in easily with a stepped drift if properly dimensioned, and using a fridge to cool the guides and an oven to warm the head

Traditional millboard, as formerly made by eg Jacksons of Bourne End, was a paper based dense material and quite difficult to cut. It was typically used until the 1970s for parcel shelves and untrimmed door cards for cars and trucks. Usually plain grey on one side and slightly embossed on the other with a hard wearable finish. Woolies sell the best alternative that I have found, but the term now encompasses a variety of substances.

My vintage car has a simple lucas switch to earth the lucas mag points, and thereby stop the engine. OE fitment on the low tension 12v side - works perfectly.

Hacksaw Danni. JH

The voiceover is very poorly researched - there are several glaring errors in each episide, along with inappropriate film clips. Surely the family that donated the sergeants uniform would be appalled that it is now treated as a 'discovery'. Competent administrators would sureky have made a record at the time. But then....it's just tv. And another thing........

Very nice work Stu. I should appreciate a copy of the drawing. JH

I don't know why I still have it; calculators were permitted at college from 1975. However when needing a pair of gears to achieve a certain ratio, I realised that by setting that ratio with the slide I could read along and very quickly see if any whole numbers coincided - whole numbers being the equivalent of the number of teeth on each gear. A quick visual method of selecting available gears from my set, and I was able to settle on 32/49 with 0.02% error, which is fine for my requirement. There are also online calculators, but they were not suitable for my purpose this time.

My Kennedy 60 cuts nice and square with a standard hacksaw blade, so I have never bothered with a deep blade. However mine has very little wear on the hex guide.

Danni, you will need about 20mm starting width from which to machine a 4mm recess and a 4mm boss, whilst leaving enough meat in the middle for the chuck attachment screws ( because the recess coincides with the attachment screw threaded holes). Full chuck dimensions are on some ebay listings.

Chronos sell a suitable 160mm cast iron blank. Easier to machine, but messy.

Chronos sell a suitable 160mm cast iron blank. Easier to machine, but messy.

DROs are Arc Euro standard type with remote display.

Hello Martin. Clarke use M12 for their stuff, but of course it depends on what you fit in the Morse taper. I also have 7/16 unf and 1/2 bsw drawbars to suit my various ancient chucks.

Chuck spindle is 4MT; tailstock is 3MT. My drawbar is M12.

The chuck spindle is 4mt. I have a 3mt ER32 with M12 thread, and converter sleeve. The Machine Mart chuck/collets are a non standard form, so to be avoided. I bought a metric ER32 set with additional 1/8 and 1/4 collets.

My DRO was from Arc Euro, on X and Y axes, and cut down to suit. Works well, with a simple aluminium shield.

Edited By john halfpenny on 14/05/2021 19:22:51

Danni, my qctp is a chinese model 100, available from ArcEuro and others. It works well, though the supplied clamping screws are crappy.

These machines are generally not well adjusted on delivery, so you will want to spend half a day checking alignments, but there is plenty of scope for adjustment. The main nuisances are lack of reach of the tailstock over the saddle, high minimum speed, and fixed leadscrew - but there are solutilons for all of these. It's quite easy to adapt for lh screw cutting. My album has more pictures. JH

Danni, the raising block and steady can be bought from Machine Mart (and others). Being a combination machine, the mill lacks rigidity and needs care, but I used mine succesfully until I was able to buy a separate mill. I made my own chuck and splash guards. Card templates, sheet material and a few pop rivets will do a neat job. You can see the hinged chuck guard hanging down in the picture, and the lift-off splash shield which folds partially around the motor