Member postings for Peter Cook 6

Another. vote. for Irfanview. It will do batch processing if you want to do the same thing to a set of images.

I find an increasing number of (particularly small) business only communicate on Facebook. As I refuse to have an account, they don't get my business - but I don't suppose they care.

Probably the same basic (Latin/Greek) derivation as the metric prefix milli meaning 1/thousandth. They also use the word cent (derived presumably in the same way) and meaning one hundredth as the smallest unit of the dollar.

One $327M risk.

Mars Climate Orbiter - Wikipedia

Jelly, thank you for that incredibly generous offer, but I will also say no thank you. I am in West Berks, so Sheffield would be a bit of a stretch.

The attraction of making the clock is not the possession of the clock per-se, I have more than enough (40+) of those already, but the challenge of learning to do new and different things to keep my brain active in retirement. There is also, as Jason remarked, the "I made it myself" factor.

Having taken heed of al the advice so generously given here, I will probably splash out on a decent propane torch, the CuP alloys book and some silver solder and take a swing at learning to silver solder. I might also get some SiF bronze rods and flux to see how that works out.

There are quite a lot of other bits of the clock that are cast, and which I will need to fabricate in some way. Silver soldering may be the answer to those as well. I will probably be back with more questions over the next few years.

Thank you again for the incredibly generous offer, and thanks to all the others who give of their time and experience to answer my questions.

Thanks again, I will have a rethink. I have never tried to fabricate parts on this scale before. The thing I am trying to make looks like this (ignore the vertical lines on the faces the are artifacts of the way it was constructed in the modelling tool - three separate trains). It's about 350mm long and 140mm wide. The sides are 30mm deep, and I plan to cut one side of the 30 x 30 x 5 angle down to 12 mm for the top faces.

The real thing is one single lump of cast iron about 5ft by 2ft and 3/4" thick but creating a pattern and getting it cast is a big step too far in my learning. I visualised shaping the four main sides and silver soldering the corners, the feet can be made out of the same angle and attached in the same way.

The discussion of welding in the thread has helped. Any weld fillets could (would?) be inside the frame and hence invisible.

So, thanks again the help around here is terrific. I will investigate the possibility of getting it welded.

Typo

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 22/10/2022 11:55:41

Bernard, Nicholas,

Thanks for the idea. I will walk down the village to the local agricultural engineers and see what they say. Even a paid for job would probably be a lot cheaper than a full sievert torch kit, gas and materials to practice with.

But then I will have lost a new skill learning opportunity! To be thought about.

Thanks,

Looks like the wallet moths are going to have to be prised out and a "proper" torch and accessories acquired.

I suspect I will use a lot more silver solder and flux practicing than the job will need. Thanks again.

I am going to need to silver solder some pieces of 30mm x 30mm x 5mm mild steel angle to create a frame for my clock project but have (as yet) no silver soldering equipment or experience.

Can anyone with experience suggest what size (Kw) nozzle or torch output I am likely to need to be successful. Is the (probably 900w) MAP type torch from Toolstation going to be sufficient. I suspect I don't need a big (7Kw) Sievert, but what sort of size in between would experienced users recommend?

Common arbour is the best. But if not possible, then could you not mount the blank in the dividing head. Swivel the head so that the blank is horizontal and mill the outer diameter (and drill the entre). Then swivel back to vertical and cut the teeth.

PS. Don't forget that for a big wheel, you will need to mount the blank on some sort of backing to support it during cutting.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 17/10/2022 20:07:23

The project has made its first swarf. Having decided on Mod 0.5 for the wheels of the time train, before ordering lots of material, I thought I should experiment and see if I could make a Mod 0.5 8 tooth lantern pinion. 6mm diameter, 4mm width (for a 3mm wheel) and using 0.51mm piano wire (nearest to Mod * 1.05 as per Wilding I could get). Included a cap to cover the end. Currently loose on a dummy arbour.

Worked well. Finish needs work, and the wire for the real ones will need polishing. But a win. Now I need to find out if it will run against a Mod 0.5 wheel.

I would suggest buying an antique clock from a decent dealer. It should come freshly serviced and you will be getting a far higher quality clock that will last a long time and hold its value better than a modern one. It's useful to know how the friend feels about chimes before choosing, some people like them, others can't stand the noise!

Depending on the budget an Atmos makes a very nice mantel clock. Never needs winding.

You can get diamond coated wire saws used for cutting gemstones and glass in various diameters including 1.5mm.

They are used in a fretsaw or coping saw frame. Could that be what is being referred to?

I suspect it is. I have had a few of these recently. I suspect it is caused by the seller entering an ex-VAT special price, which is what they will be asking for and receiving, and Ebay's special offer system doesn't have the smarts to add VAT to the asking price.

Thanks - but overall, it's still a lot smaller footprint than it was with the original 1/4hp induction motor mounted behind the lathe - and far nicer to use.

Bernard - one big benefit of hanging the motor off the headstock is that on the rare occasions I need to use riser blocks, there is no problem. Motor & Headstock just sit on the riser block.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 29/09/2022 12:10:42

I have fitted a 220W brushless motor to my Taig. There are some pictures of the installation in my Album Model Engineer (model-engineer.co.uk).

I used an 86BLS71 3000rpm motor and a WS55-220 controller. I built an Arduino based control system to drive the controller because I wanted some additional features, but the controller came with a simple potentiometer that I used in initial testing and allowed speed control of the motor just fine.

Using the standard six step pulleys that came with the Taig, and the BLDC motor I can get sufficient torque from about 100 rpm up to 10,000rpm on the spindle. I like it a lot.

My experience of the cheap USB ones has been poor. As Brian says getting enough light to see anything useful is difficult. In addition, the ones I used had fairly long focal lengths* and narrow fields of view, so anything close is difficult if not impossible to see with precision. It is also difficult to control the direction the camera is looking when it's on the end of a flexible USB cable.

I hope you only want it for inspection. Using one with the lathe running is likely to be an accident in progress.

Have you considered a dental mirror type device.

* Just looked at a couple of the better £40(?) ones online and they quote best viewing distances of 5-10cm.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 26/09/2022 18:43:25

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 26/09/2022 18:50:58

If you are simply shortening the bolt by 40mm, I would saw off most of it, and clean up the end to length on the belt sander.

The proper way of course is to use a lantern chuck.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 23/09/2022 00:05:55

From a source quoted in Wikipedia " In 1860, the British National Rifle Association held its first annual meeting at Wimbledon. Queen Victoria fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle on a machine rest at 400 yards (370 m), and struck the bull's-eye 1 to 1+1⁄4 inches (25–32 mm) from its center."

Albeit on a carefully aligned machine rest, that seems to support the claim.

A quick read around does seem to imply that it was a very impressive piece of engineering. There is an interesting video at Shooting the .451 Whitworth civil war sniper rifle - YouTube which has details of the tests in 1856 ( at about 1:30) and shows the muzzle and hexagonal bullets. However it also makes the point that a when a remington pistol could be had for US$17 the price of a  (albeit smuggled) whitworth rifle was US$1000

I found it fascinating.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 20/09/2022 18:04:49

I order bits and pieces intermittently and they are quick, reasonable and helpful. I suspect the trade to trade position (they ask you to confirm that the goods are for your trade or something similar at checkout) is simply a mechanism for avoiding the distance selling regulations - 14 day no quibble return window etc. - as I don't think they apply to business to business transactions.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 20/09/2022 12:31:50