Member postings for ega

I assume the holes are blind and a rotabroach is unsuitable.

What about a pilot followed by a 20 mm core drill?

The blacksmith's drill is perhaps not as high quality as desirable here.

Neil Lickfold:

I have just checked my Griptru, bought new in late 80s, and there is no washer under the heads of the three 6mm capscrews securing the backplate to the body, nor is there any mention of washers in the instructions.

There is an informative passage about the use of the Griptru in GHT's ME's Workshop Manual.

The blotter also provides a space for the wheel designation and MOS - often covered by the flange, however.

I find that the porous cardboard promotes rusting of the flange and have lately made these of stainless material.

LHS opined that a wheel assembled without blotters would inevitable burst in time.

It might help the OP to track down Tubal Cain's detailed description of his wooden bench building method - my best guess is it appeared in ME.

Large DIY stores ["sheds"] occasionally have worktop offcuts, etc at low prices and it is also worth looking in the bargain section at IKEA.

PS There are photos of the TC shop at the end of his book Simple Workshop Devices [WPS 28]

Edited By ega on 07/05/2017 09:54:00

Edited By ega on 07/05/2017 10:12:41

John Purdy:

Thanks for the correction - DHC not GHT. On reflection, GHT, having a Griptru, would not have needed to follow that "outrageous advice".

It was indeed GHT that passed on the tip given to him by Commander Barker about the poor man's Griptru; that didn't stop GHT making great use of the Griptru in his own creations.

Interestingly, GHT corresponded with Burnerd at some length before they admitted the need to slacken the backplate screws before adjusting.

Thanks to those who responded with further tips about welding helmets.

Safety is, of course, paramount but I am (at least prospectively) with richardandtracy on the merit of a cheap and cheerful automatic helmet for the occasional welder. Any helmet should be checked for function before use.

I have owned several helmets ranging from the very basic to the seemingly expensive ESAB Eye Tech variety. I have had two of the latter and both have died over time. The advice elsewhere is to try replacing the batteries and I have spent part of the day setting up my small router table to cut round and open up the sealed cartridge case only to find that the electronics are encapsulated and beyond my ability to do anything with them.

Looking around it seems that helmets at the price Richard mentions are not automatic and perhaps he would give some more information.

Best of all, has anyone a recommendation for an automatic helmet that will see me out?

Martin Connelly:

Thanks. I see that according to winterson.co.uk:

"The famous Baroda Pearl Carpet, sold at auction by Sotheby's in 2009 for $5.5m, was covered with around 1.4 million seed pearls, all drilled by hand and sewn decoratively onto the fabric."

Pearls,etc it is!

Thanks to those who identified my gauge; interesting that beads, pearls and stones (diamonds) are apparently measured in the same way and difficult to see what use or ornament a no 1 pearl would be.

John Flack: I was aware of the French word which, on checking, I see also means bead and howler.

The absence of a maker's name suggests that it may be shop-made.

Does anyone recognize this?

It was given me by a (now deceased) friend with an interest in clocks. As an indication of size beyond the rule, the no 3 hole is about 0.040".

I don't think it is a gauge for measuring pearls!

Barry Taylor 3:

Thanks for your comments.

I'm a complete novice in this area, having done no more than take a few trial cuts before starting to overhaul the machine. However, the tee slots on the Perfecto are at right angles to the ram travel which seemed to make your suggestion difficult (although it may yet be possible for the machine to true up its own table).

My understanding is that "proper" shapers like the Alba are in a different category but I will certainly bear in mind your point about walking. Like most amateurs I have a restricted work space and I had hoped to make the shaper semi-portable. The Perfecto is essentially a bench machine although I know some users have contrived stands.

Benny Avelin:

The lathe is the small Willson slant bed; see lathes.co.uk for details of the large one!

You seem to be doing great things on your own equipment.

My experience of overhauling my shaper may be of interest to the select band of users; I see from MEW 246 pp 14 and 15 that Mike Haughton is also one.

I was not surprised to find my machine needed attention in a number of areas - not quite Perfecto!

I noticed straightaway that the tee slots in the table needed re-machining but could not immediately see how to mount the table on my small mill. The photos show how I eventually solved this problem:

This necessitated first milling the front and bottom edges of the table parallel and tapping two holes in the front edge, alterations which I thought were acceptable.

The other major problem was that the saddle became progressively stiffer as it was moved by the handwheel from right to left; dismantling and measuring revealed that the leadscrew bearings were badly out of alignment. This was cured by installing an eccentric bush at the left end as shown:

Here is how the bed was set up on the cross slide of the lathe for opening out the hole for the bush and machining the necessary facing:

The machine's own table came in handy for this job.

I now plan to build a stand and would be interested in some further details of Mike Haughton's version which as shown in his article has a rather elegant curve to match the radius of the base.

As you probably know, the Sparey design envisaged the use of standard Myford gears oil-lubricated, most if not all only 5/16" wide. I am no expert but if using plastics feel that a wider gear would be both stronger and wear better. I have successfully cut and used gears in Nylatron.

Presumably, the case casting is no longer available and it would have to be fabricated.

Ady1:

Would T6 gears run well together? I assume your ali gear is working with a CI gear.

Ady1:

Thank you for this encouraging information; I had in mind the "urban myth" that few, if any, Quorn tool and cutter grinders were ever actually constructed!

Interesting that many modern hobby lathes are marketed without gearboxes (I realize that affordable CNC makes this unnecessary).

Paul Gander:

I will scan the two articles and email them to you. It looks from Ady 1's post and yours that at least two of these were made.

I had forgotten that LHS edited The Model Mechanic and wonder what, if any, was the relationship with other like publications of the 1950s.

Robbo:

I have just turned up the two issues of The Model Mechanic in which Sparey described his gearbox.

Paul is welcome to contact me if he is interested in seeing these.

I suppose they didn't want the chads hanging around?