Member postings for Simon0362

This page (https://softsolder.com/2013/04/01/broom-handle-screw-thread-replacement-plug/) from "The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning" has some details on plastic broom handle threads - potentially biased towards the US but nonetheless, enough to be going on. Ed's daily blog is well worth going through as well as an aside.

That sounds horribilis...

Some years ago I was given a tin of Freeway 8-46 by a friend who worked at BA - I still have some left in the tin and it has been my 'go to' for all reluctant fixings. Usually a dribble plus a couple of minutes was sufficient but on occassions, an overnight soak did the trick. I see it is now available on the open market - recommended (even if that wasn't the thrust of Michael's message).
Simon

Clive,

I have 5 'grey' versions of Office and at least 3 of Win10. All purchased as described through eBay or our local version over here. All bar one have been without a problem. Occassionally I have been obliged to jump through a couple of additional hoops by calling a MS call centre (making a change from "MS" calling me )and confirming the package number or similar. When I buy, I go for the people who have shipped hundreds of similar ones which are not the rock bottom price.

All still work, get updates, are seen as legit by MS and are on both Windows PCs as well as on a selection of Macs. They can't be moved from machine to machine....but how frequently do you actually do that?

if you PM me, I will share the sources of the last couple I bought.

Simon

+1.....

Tony, your article back in 2004 (??) was the trigger for me looking into converting my mill....!

Simon

For me, the differences between CNC on a mill and on a lathe are based around practical issues.

For background, I ‘converted’ the predecessor of a Cowells 90 some 40 years ago using discrete components and driven by a Sinclair ZX81 whilst working at a high tech electronics company. I swiftly learnt that that was only half the battle and that programming the CNC conversion was the significant other half (actually the remaining 95%). The lathe was converted back, used briefly and moved on to a more deserving owner. I subsequently converted my mill to CNC 15 years ago and I have used it very frequently ever since using the range of CAM solutions that have grown up in the last 20 years. My ‘go-to’ is CamBam but I think others have overtaken it by now – however, having paid for the licence and being familiar with it, I guess I won’t change for a while.

Once the mill conversion was functional (I would never say ‘complete’!), I looked at doing a lathe and eventually bought an Emco Compact5 PC, updated it to work with Mach 3 and then proceeded to do….nothing. As I discovered with my original conversion, CAM for lathes is far less available and IMO, more clunky and less user friendly. Most of the lower end ones seem to be a spin-off from a mill – CamBam being a good example.

Moreover, I found that the number of times that I wanted to turn something by CNC was limited – I don’t do that many operations that require ball ends, tapers or things that can only easily be done by CNC. So the Emco gathers dust and my trusty Chinese lathe carves up chunks of metal turning them into ever smaller pieces. It gains some upgrades to make life easier – speed control, DRO and ELS, but I don’t plan to do more in the near future – spoken as a strong CNC advocate…

Simon

Thanks John, I followed your link to the issues tab and found the thread to shoulder page on Github.

And yes, after reading it through a couple of times, I agree, sounds complicated but I strongly suspect it will be easy in practice.

I will ponder extracting my TI board from the under bench location - or maybe a long USB lead and a spare laptop - one for when the weekends finally cool down here.

Simon

Duncan, is this a Clough42 derivative or another?
If its from Mr. Clough, can you share some links please?

Simon

I went down the same route using a closed loop stepper and I have had no issues at all since installing it for either cutting threads or autofeed.
IMO, a really well-worth modification especially since I didn't have a gearbox and had to juggle change wheels every time I wanted to do anything - and it deals seamlessly with metric/imperial as well.

Simon

Hi All,

I need to put some form of protective structure over my classic car before it becomes an integral part of the local scenary.

I looked at Carcoons and other similar controlled environments but a) I wanted to be able to easily work on the car and b) our location in the South of France means high ambient temperatures (high 30s) in summer and sub zero in the winter and I didn't feel that this type of cover would be suitable.

Looking further I came across a series of dedicated tents designed as garages with >60 cms all around access.
The price appears to be dictated by the weight of the structure (ranging from round 34/38mm tube to oval 32x45 mm) and the weight of the PVC covering.
These range from 450 through to 2300 but I have not really got a good feel for the effective differences in each grade in terms of longevity and ability to deal with the weather.
The site is moderatly exposed, we do get 70-80kph winds, very heavy rain and the aformentioned strong sun and heat....

BTW, price range is 500-1000€, my budget doesn't run to anything more expensive, however suitable it may be deemed to be...

So, after the long intro, does anyone have any experience that they can share?

Simon

Sheer curiosity, but how on earth do they do that?

Coincidentally, I spent a merry hour on Sunday morning replacing a nut on my reading glasses that had totally disappeared with no obvious trace.

This is what it should look like

This is what I made as a replacement:

Tube nut OD was 2.4mm, thickness was 1.4mm and tapped M1.4 which is definately the smallest I have ever done.

However it fades into insignificance to some of the work shown here, deeply impressed!

Simon

Total tangent but I am fascinated by Malcolm having exactly the same thoughts as I did regarding Rawlbolts but he typed quicker than I did. I only saw his response this morning reviewing last night's messages! How do you spell 'coincidence....?

Not sure of the bore sizes but I used to remove the thrust bearing in blind holes in the back of a flywheel using:

• a Rawlbolt expanding masonry bolt screwed into the hole and tightened
• a slide hammer with a crude adapter to attach it to the Rawlbolt.

I wonder if you could create a similar arrangement to a) grip the bearing and b) slide hammer it out?

Hopefully some food for thought.

Simon

I was brought up with the mantra that if something broke, first you took it apart to find out why, second you tried to repair the part that was broken, third you purchased a replacement part if stage 2 didn’t work or the ubiquitous Araldite wasn’t sufficient and then step four in extremis was to dismantle the object removing all ‘useful’ fixtures, flat sheet and anything else before consigning to the bin and purchasing a new one.

I appreciate that modern systems don’t lend themselves to this methodology but equally there is far more information available to explain what might be wrong and how to fix it and a larger pool of potential spares.

I personally take pride in keeping household technology running – our 15 year old dishwasher started to leak and it took the best part of a morning to totally dismantle to access and clean the main seal, coat with plumbing grade silicone and reassemble it. However, a) it doesn’t head for landfill, b) I don’t have to replace it with something no better, potentially built further down to a price and c) It gives me great satisfaction.

I admire others like Peter Cook6 for following the same route and encourage those who call the repair man to do a basic analysis themselves, saving callout and potential scams.

Simon

Dave (and others) - very true - and if I simply wanted another cast iron bell, I am sure I could find a brand new one though.

However the challenge of returning it to one piece and the pleasure of discovering that it has retained it's tone is, for me, part of the fun.

Equally, there are any number of people on the web describing how to apply verdigris-like paint finishes which would be the simple solution. I enjoy the challenge of trying to reproduce the original finish - even if the initial challenge is to discover what it may have been.

To mis-quote JFK: " I choose to go to fix the bell, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of my energies and skills..."

Hi Robin,

I'm 80kms from Roland so equally unlikely to help you, but that won't stop me welcoming you here - bienvenu!

Simon

Yes, agree with Michael on both counts....

Thanks Michael, good to know that you are on the case!

I did wonder about copper plating, just wasn't sure that this is how it would have been done originally.

Hopefully your penance will reveal all!

Simon