Member postings for the artfull-codger

Really unfair, the americans have all the tool suppliers, you can buy ANYTHING over there,the lucky devils, not knocking our own country's tools & suppliers & makers of course, I have a number of american tools all well made quality tools like our james neil or starrett & others. Of course I expect most stuff over there is made in china now like in our country.

Silver steel can also be in26" & 39" lengths, just cut a small piece of the end & heat it to red & quench it,do the "file test" if it slides over it then it's silver steel[or a high carbon steel] if it cuts then it's not,there are various grades of stainless some magnetic some not.

Thanks for the"heads up" on them George I was wondering about them myself,we keep getting automated phone calls about them [a damn nuicance]

Graham.

Grinding Disks!= I use mine as I got a "scoop job lot" at an autojumble a few yrs ago & they're now "out of date" but still work ok , & I'll keep using them, LeadPipes= our cottage is 350 yrs old so somwhere along the supply line there's lead pipes & the house belonged to my wifes grandad & he lasted till in his 90s Loctite= I got given a large container of studlock over 25 yrs ago & I still use it,the only thing is that it sets faster than normal[but I can live with that] Honey=I'm using my own honey from my bees that's over 25 yrs old & it's yummy[ after a little microwaving to soften it]

Hi Nathan,

I used a recomended hydraulic oil for our harrison obtained from a local oil merchant [smith & allen] darlington but any good oil merchant should be able to advise you of an evailable equivalent.

Graham.

It's over 25 yrs since I kept bees with annual trips to the heather on the north yorks moors local to us,we made polish from the beeswax with turpentine & last year I was clearing out one of our sheds & came across a couple of dozen jars of honey,some of the lids were a littly rusty but the honey is good & we're eating it now, it keeps for years & it's an antiseptic too.

It's like using emery cloth on the lathe to finish off to a nice smooth finish, lots of us do it but no-one will admit to it [don't know why, it's good for chasing that odd 1/10th of a thou .]

When I was younger I used to smile [well smirk] at older blokes with headband magnifiers, well I'm the "old bloke" now & I have an american donegan optivisor & I wouldn't [well couldn't]be without it, it has glass lenses real quality.

There's some right TO**ERS on you tube, re- melting[or as they think they're doing,calling it"smelting"] some alloy wearing shorts & sandles & pouring it into tart tins, then the comments like"wow wish I was as skilled as you mate" & stuff like that, when all the time they've not got a clue,but of course everyone's an "expert" now after looking on the 'net, having said that you can learn a lot on the 'net, it's a great resourse,I built my first foundry 47 yrs ago when b.terry aspin's book was the only thing available, but i've learned a few good ideas since & two of my favourites have got to be "myfordboy"[David] he really knows his stuff & is really helpfull too,no padded out waffle just good sound advice & "doubleboost"[ John] as well {& he doesn't live too far from me]. both sound.

Graham.

I use a flamefast at work[local high school] connected to the gas supply, I also have one at home that I run on propane,I contacted flamefast & they said to change the jets on my torches for propane[3 torches] so at the price I didn't bother, they burn as good as the schools but setting the regulator is sensitive otherwise I find them o-k.

Graham.

Well, this year I kept getting mice in the greenhouse & the BEST & most reliable way is the simple ''little nipper'' but the important thing is to smear peanut butter onto not only the platform BUT onto the trip rod & the eye mechanism, it NEVER fails,I've caught about 2 dozen this yr.& as for releasing them from a ''humane'' trap well you might as well invite them back, A few yrs ago I kept getting rats in the workshop [it's an old cow byre] my father in law a farmer kept hens in stables behind our house & when I started using ''fenn traps'' I fixed a lump of chocolate to the platform with insulation tape wrapped round tightly & I caught 30 in 1 yr, Fenn traps[or spring traps] are the only legal spring trap if used either in a pipe or so no other animal can get to them, he gave me some poison once & it worked but what a stink!! till I could locate the dead rat. No hens any more so I'm rat free now.

I find that they don't like the cold,they work better when warm, my mitutoyo fares much better & doesn't seem to mind the cold, as martin says above it's a digital caliper , digital verniers don't exist ,even some of the sellers[box movers] call them digital verniers, I also regularly use a mitutoyo vernier with a scale reading 0-50 & is really easy to read [just to keep my hand in!!]

Graham.

Hi George, looks like you don't live too far from me, I have a flamefast brazing hearth with the firebricks built in, but I always use easily obtainable thermalite blocks, if there's a building site nearby you can scrounge broken ones for nowt, or go to wickes at portrack,they do burn away after a while but they really reflect the heat back to the work,these are the lightweight ones not the heavy blocks,as it happens I've just come in from the workshop having silver soldered a little vertical boiler up for a small oscillating engine, it's in the acid pickle now .

Graham

OK Neil what's a Wimberly holder??, I have both lh & rh diamond tools and they'r great as above I use them for 90 percent of my work I bought 1 in ozz & the other by post & the customs stiffed me £20 !! that was before you could purchase them in this country.

Graham.

As jason says,do you need a pump?,some people spend £££s on pumps,i've used a gravity feed with a tank for over 40 yrs above the lathe [as clive says] & it does all I need,the downside to "white water" soluble oil is when it gets old it stinks!! so with gravity feed you don't need to have too much mixed & it's easily monitored.

Graham

Bob, point taken, especially about ''the numpty'' doing a bit of diy [I hate that phrase] electrical work, & doesn't have a clue, but I'll stick with my own wiring as I know it's up to standard [especially when you get good guidance from your electrician mate. It reminds me of a couple of yrs ago when gas fitters came round to work to fit valves to the gas supply pipes to our boilers for regular testing purposes, both qualified &''gas safe'' or corgi registered as it was then, armed with said valves tap,tap wrench & drillbit well after struggling it was obvious they hadn't a clue, so I had a look & the drill was the wrong size for the tap so after loaning them the right size I showed them how to use a tap wrench & tap & all went well after that. [corgi registered?? hmmnn]

Graham.

I suspect a large number of [us] have wired our own workshops to a safe standard, so If I wire my workshop up to the 17th edition perfectly & test it out with no faults, who is going to prosecute me for doing it right because I'm not ''part p approved''?? Insurance?? well if it's done correctly it won't be the cause any problem, selling your house?? just get a periodic test from the national inspection council,[or now get a part p electrician to do a test [about £150 for a certificate] It doesn't matter how large your electrical firm is you only need 1 employee to be part p, the rest don't need to be as long as he signs it off.

I watched a lancaster fly near our house today, it was canadian & took off from teesside airport & did a couple of circuits & landed again,it's departing tomorrow, some roads were closed near the airport there were thousands of people to see it.

Ive used a ''sievert'' torch & all its nozzles for 40 odd yrs with complete satisfaction & larger jobs I pack with thermalite blocks or carbowool [yes I know it's carcinagenic alledgedly] but since obtaining a ''flamefast'' air / gas brazing hearth I only use the sievert occasionally, they sometimes crop up on fleabay & are well worth having. I have the large gun & also a small one for fine work. Flamefast wanted £30 a gun to convert natural gas to propane,needless to say I didn't bother I just use it as it is it burns o-k but is just a little sensitive to control but I'll live with that for£60.