Member postings for Peter G. Shaw

Re: John Olsen's comment:

 

For those of you who remember them, the Austin Maxi was an excellent example of this problem. In this case the rubber seal after about 3 years or so wore a groove in the primary drive gear which eventually leaked oil onto the clutch. Replacing oilseal, & clutch plate cured the problem for 12 to 18 months. Replacing the primary drive gear (at about £100 a time plus VAT) would effect a permanent cure for 3 to 4 years! I could replace oilseal & clutch plate for £15 plus my labour. Needless to say, I never changed the gear. And I had two Maxis - both were the same.

 

Peter G. Shaw 

Terry,

If I don't put it in the diary, I will have no means of checking when it's due other than:

a) Remembering, and all that that entails!!!; or

b) Looking back to the previous issue. Which still means remembering to check back!!!

 

By putting it in the diary as to when I expect it, I cover both of the above points. Furthermore, I can start looking, say on the Wednesday before publication date (as per David Clark above), and then allow, say a week from that point for delivery, and then start chasing.

 

I don't want to kick up a fuss unnecessarily hence the questions and the long explanation.  On the other hand, I don't want to leave it too late if it does go missing.

 

Regards,

 

Peter

Hi David,

 

Wednesday am and the replacement mag has arrived. My thanks to you, and to all the other people involved in it. Can I take it that questions are being asked about non-delivery, or would that be uneconomic?

 

This, though, does introduce other problems.

 

I notice that some people mention seeing it in the shops, as indeed I was able to do many years ago. Unfortunately, the nearest shop where I can be certain of seeing it is Carlisle, 27 miles away. There is nowhere in Cockermouth, and I do not know of a good, ie WHSmith's type shop in Workington (7 miles away). There is a WHS in Keswick (14miles away) but don't remember ever seeing it there. Same with Whitehaven (10 miles away). Don't know about Maryport (9 miles away). On top of that I do not go shopping regularly in any of these places which means that the only way that I knew my copy was missing was because of the original posting on this thread.

 

So, in future, I will be diaryising (what a horrible word!) the issue date to remind me to check in future. But what I would like to know, David, if it is possible to say, appproximately how soon before the shop issue date should I expect to receive it, and how long should I wait before querying it?

 

Apologies for perhaps being something of a nitpicker, but I would rather strike whilst the iron is hot, than wait until a later issue arrives to then discover I've missed one.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

 

Hose length is pretty important. The Vax is (guessing) about 2 metres, maybe slightly less (it's too blasted cold to go and measure it), but then there is the rigid handle and nozzle stuck on the end. All of which means that cleaning the lathe is slightly awkward in that I can't easily get round to the back of the 4-way tool post which is where a lot of swarf collects.It's usable though.

 

I do have a hose from an old Hoover vac. A jubilee clip on one end and it fits the end of the Vax nozzle which means I then have an extra however much and this time it is stretchily extendable (the Vax although flexible, does not stretch). I've kept the tools from the old Hoover as well, but memory tells me that the nozzle ends on both the Hoover and the Vax are the same.

 

Diameter wise, the Vax is about 1½ " or 38mm.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

 

Neil/Stub Mandrel,

 

Sorry to read about your nerve problems. Although I do have various health problems, non of them affect my hands (or my legs for that matter). My problem was that the vibration from wood cutting started to make the hand sore between thumb and first finger, plus having to hold the trigger in as well, thus leading to tiredness in the hand. I suspect as well I may have been asking too much of the Skorpion.

 

Strangely, although there is still vibration when cutting metal, it doesn't seem as bad. I've used it on ¼" or 5/8"  thick steel and ½" thick aluminium plate. For the steel I use plenty of oil, whilst the ali was cut dry.

 

Regards,

 

Peter

My Vax uses either disposable paper, or by separate purchase, a cloth bag - and that's what I use. Empty it into the weekly blag bag when it gets full - turn it inside out and give it a good shake/bang on the house wall/ vacuum with the house vac, and back it it goes. Occasionally I might wash it. But I do have paper bags for when the cloth bag eventually wears out - which they do - i'm now on my second in 18 years.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter G. Shaw

Hi Nick,

 

Yes, I came across this problem with my son-in-law's angle grinder when I bought a box of 25 Bosch discs for what would have been peanuts compared to the B&Q individual prices.

 

My 9" angle grinder came from Aldi and has only been used perhaps five time in total. It does the job, but it's a bit big.

 

The 5" grinder came from Argos end of stock or what ever they call it, whilst it's discs are Arrow & Knight (??) bought via the internet. I know it works, but haven't yet had a chance to use it properly.

 

Agree about the safety aspects except for the boots - haven't got any.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

KWIL,

 

That's exactly what I thought.

 

Peter G. Shaw

Hi Nick,

 

When I asked if anyone else was having problems with this issue in my area, this was specifically to see if it was an area problem, or just me. The fact that Mark has the problem seems to rule out an individual postie problem, and suggests it is more of a distribution problem. A suspicious mind might think that there is a bundle of mags sat in a corner somewhere and forgotten about.

 

It's interesting that my local shop occasionally has difficulties with the w/e papers not being delivered. Yet, when I then go to the nearest filling station, there are always plenty. It's not my local shop - they, when all said and done, are working purely for themselves and can't afford to upset their customers by not having sufficient copies. In this instance, it seems the local area distributor appears to have a couldn't care less attitude to smaller businesses.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

Interestingly, I have had some success with a B&D Skorpion fitted with a metal cutting blade. At any rate it's easier than hand sawing, and for someone with Menieres which has been brought on by the rocking motion when sawing, it's definitely better.

 

I've also used a 9" metal grinding disc on an angle grinder to cut up an old file.

 

Currently, awaiting trial, I have a 5" angle grinder complete with thinner metal cutting disks. 

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

ps the Skorpion does produce a lot of vibration, and although I originally bought it for wood cutting, I eventually found the vibration too much to cope with. I now use a circular saw/chainsaw/bush saw as appropriate. The vibration is tolerable for metal.

 

I use a Vax Powa 4000 - 8 ltr capacity/wet&dry function/cloth or paper bags/carpet cleaning function, but no blow function. Bought it in October 1992 at £180. A bit battered now, but still working superbly. Been used for all sorts of things - oily swarf, dryingout the TV after a vase of water got spilled, sucking out a street stop tap tube, sucking up daughters flooded carpet, cleaning the garage floor etc etc. Bought a replacement pattern hose which keeps blocking up - the original never did, but I did manage to break the plastic handle. Anyway, the hose locking parts are now permantly loose so I can simply pull it apart when it blocks up.

 

Otherwise, a superb bit of kit.

 

I have seen a Henry which had not been looked after - it barely worked due to all the gunge inside. I think that is important - keeping the inside clean. Incidently, I use the domestic vac to clean the Vax!

 

Regards

 

Peter G. Shaw

Hi Mark,

 

Nice to know that someone else in our area is having the same problem. Well, it's not nice, but you know what I mean. And thanks for responding.

 

David,

 

Does this suggest that there is something going wrong in our neck of the woods?

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

ps Still nothing this (Tuesday) am.

 

David,

 

Many Thanks.

 

Now a further question - what do I do if TWO copies turn up?

 

 Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

Good morning,

 

It's Monday morning, the postie has been and delivered the usual junk mail, but no magazine. So I have two questions:

 

1. Is there anyone in West Cumbria specifically around Cockermout/Workington area who HAS received Issue 171?

 

2. To David Clark. Could you please look into it, or advise otherwise. For what it's worth, the magazine is paid for by direct debit so there shouldn't be any problems caused by lack of payment. I assume you can obtain my details without me publicising them.

 

Many Thanks,

 

Peter G. Shaw

Ketan,

 

A very fair comment as it had never occurred to me about other companies piggy-backing as you have described.

 

Even so, would it hurt you, or any other company, to at least check through the supplied manual looking for obvious mistakes? It would only need to be done the once, and any spotted problems put on an amendment sheet to be supplied with each machine. But let's face it, when  I have to use someone else's manual to find out how to operate the vertical  fine feed, then it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Also, information about UK drive belts and possibly bearings really ought to be supplied as these are, in my opinion, expendable items. To put it another way, you buy a car, you expect to have to change the tyres and the timing belt and brake parts every so often: these being expendable items. And the same applies to our machinery: certain parts will wear out, or be damaged due to bad maintenance.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

ps Ketan, may I congratulate you on having the guts to stand up and be counted. And for that matter to defend a member of the competion - it certainly does you credit, especially as I notice that Warco hasn't (yet) said anything at all.

Ok, here's my take on them:

 

Precision: that quality which determines whether or not a machine tool can cut to certain limits, or fineness.

 

Accuracy: that quality which determines the absoluteness of the quantity, eg is it 23.456mm or 23.457mm. Should really be used with either absolute (for measurements which may be used elsewhere and hence should be related to a standard, or relative which implies that the actual value may not be correct when compared to a standard, but is in comparison with something else. Also very closely tied up with repeatability which refers to whether or not the same measurement or whatever can be repeated and be shown to have the same value each and every time.

 

Quality: a very much abused word in my opinion. How often do you see something stated as being high quality, or, to put it another way, have you ever seen something stated as being low quality! I refer of course to advertising.

 

Ok, I'll now stand back and await a caning! But no abusive language please.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

A lot of hot air has been expended in this forum, together with a lot of very valid comments on both sides. Somehow I don't think that a consensus is about to be reached very easily.

 

However, I do think that there is something which could be done which would improve matters considerably. And which would only require doing once for each machine type. I refer to the supplied manuals.

 

I have two machines, both bought from Warco, both have their faults, but both were cheap enough for me to afford them. Afterall. my lathe at £1500 15 years ago was considerably cheaper than the equivalent Myford. Mind you, with what I now know, I would have been better off buying a S/H Boxford, ME10A preferably, but that's another story. I also have a Nu-Tool CH10 drilling machine. In all three instances, the manual is lacking in information, eg no indication of the correct drive belt for the CH10, but there is an exploded parts list; the 220 lathe manual has at least 2 errors in it, and no exploded parts list. One of the errors concerned the drive belts - the correct type was given as it happens, but the associated description was wrong thus causing confusion when I changed them recently; whilst the manual for the MiniMill is incomplete in that there is no mention of how to use the vertical fine feed, the on/off control description is wrong, and the exploded diagrams are wrong. It took a download from America before I could discover how to operate the fine feed, and hence discover what was wrong with it. Is it too much to expect an accurate manual? I'm not talkingabout the use of Chinglish, or mis-spellings, just that it be accurate. It only needs doing the once for, in my case, the MiniMill, and even then a lot of the work has already been done in America.

 

In my view, we will have to accept that cheap machines will have problems, but an accurate manual would go some way to helping the users to overcome these problems. Surely it wouldn't add that much to the cost would it?

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

Good morning,

 

No snow, very little ice, sun shining, posties been, but no magazine!

 

So where is it? I mean, I know West Cumbria is the back of beyond, but really it's not that bad. No worse than Thurso or whereever anyway.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

 

 

Sam Stones,

 

Many thanks for pointing out how to find the photos and captions.

 

John S,

 

Not asking for PC, but am asking for politeness. If you re-read what I said, you will see that I said something like "By all means tell people they are wrong, but do it politely." By all means call a spade a shovel, but not a bloody shovel! It's demeaning when done in print and in public.

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw

I ain't not got mine either! And hey, if South London is the "wilds", where does that leave me in West Cumbria? Up the creek and without a paddle?

 

Regards,

 

Peter G. Shaw