Member postings for Chris Gunn

Never mind about the circlips, tell us more about the consul, the Ellison scam and the salt bath.

Chris Gunn

Piero, I had a Tom Senior with a knuckle head, but found the knuckle head with a collet chuck in it restricted the height of the work a lot. Whatever job I wanted to tackle held in a vice I struggled with. I would be on the look out for an S type head which is much better, otherwise a nice little machine.

Chris Gunn

Gareth, it is a good lathe, I had 3 or 4 at one time, and a quality item, but it is a big lathe, so a lot will depend on what you want to do with it. Think also about the power supply you will need to run it, and things like changing the chucks, they are heavy!! If you plan to make small steam engines, go for something smaller, I am afraid I do not buy into the "you can do anything on a big lathe brigade, so get the biggest you can". There is nothing worse than constantly trying to make small stuff on a huge lathe, yes it can be done but a long long way from being ideal. Get a lathe that suits the size of work you will do 95% of the time, and borrow a big lathe from a club or a friend to do the big flywheel when it comes along once in a while.

Chris Gunn

Danny, I tend to do the same as Jason, but on the last but one cut I feed the bar in, and reverse feed and let it run back at the same setting, it will usually take a little out, but when it has finished you are pretty sure the spring is out, so your measurement for the last cut with be right. I then make the final adjustment and go in and out again for the final cut. this also helps to get a parallel bore if the cut is long and the boring bar slender. If the job is important a few extra minutes does not matter.

Chris Gunn

If it is a round head Student it will be LO.

Not sure about the later square head ones.

Chris Gunn

Martin, why not leave the stays a little bit longer so the hornplates are slightly wider apart and clear the weld bead. Then you need to increase the length of all the shafts and spectacle plates by the difference, everything outside the frames will stay the same. From the picture it does not look as if you would need to add much.

Chris Gunn

Ian, if you visit any of the shows or car boots keep your eye out for sharp branded taps and dies, Dormer, Presto, and others mentioned above, marked HSS GT, check they do not look abused, ie with worn squares or shanks, these can often be bought as a job lot or cheaply. This will take time though. I would avoid non branded tooling for regular use. If you only have 1 hole to do then buy a cheap one, some are better than others, use one of "our" suppliers is best, you have some comeback. I can help with M6 taps but have no surplus dies. PM me if you are not sorted out

Chris Gunn

Mark,I am in Kettering so not far away, I can do it for you but what diameter/length is it, so I can check if I have a bit.

Chris Gunn

PS PM me if this is any good for you.

Bob, do a bit of local research, look for steel stockholders, non ferrous stock holders, and find out where they are, then arm yourself with a couple of pictures of what you are going to build, then head into the trade counter/office and show your pictures, tell them this is what you are building and, ask for something specific or a rootle through their scrap bin in exchange for a contribution to their coffee fund. In my experience you have a good chance of getting something at a good price. The same applies to smaller engineering companies. If you pay for what you want you can always go back.

Chris Gunn

John, it was 229 June 2015, I hope you like it, I wrote it.

Chris Gunn

Here is my two penorth,

As far as name changes go, I would substitute Miniature for Model.

In my circle of Miniature engineers, at the older end of the scale in most cases, only 1 out of 30 or so has any CNC equipment capable of producing components and 1 has a CNC engraver, so only a small percentage of CNC compared to "traditional" methods. None of these 20 will buy any CNC equipment, but most appreciate what can be done and would readily buy CNC made parts.

Will new comers to the hobby start out with CNC if they are not from an engineering background? I would suggest not if this forum is anything to go by, most of the threads I read by newcomers describe buying traditional hand operated machinery and learning how to use it. I cannot remember reading a thread where someone says they have just bought a CNC lathe as a first machine and asking for help.

I would imagine that younger entrants to the hobby who have a background in CNC could well go down the CNC route provided they could afford the equipment.

When all is said and done, the CNC machinery can assist in the manufacture of most of the parts, but at the end of the day the parts must be assembled, fettled, cleaned up, tested, timed painted, lined, all of which rely on traditional skills, so being able to produce a nice miniature requires a lot more skills than programming a CNC machine, and it is a worry that very competent CNC machinists may not have the skills to turn a pile of nicely machined parts into a 5" G locomotive.

Chris Gunn

Julian, I am sorry I did not respond to your earlier post on lifting injectors. It may help if I explain why I asked. I recently was allowed on the footplate of a full size showmans traction engine, and was asked to put some water in the boiler. all I needed to do was to open the steam valve, and the injector picked up and did its job. There was no need to open the water valve. I queried this and was told the injector was a lifting injector. I have to open the water valve then the steam to add some water to my miniatures. if I did not shut the water valve when I was finished the water would drain away through the injector. This did not happen on the full size engine. I assumed the description Lifting injector meant there is no need to shut the water valve as the injector was above the water level, but on reflection this is probably not right, so I am missing something I guess, but what?

Chris Gunn

Andy, if you send me your email in a private message we can take it from there, rather than put your email in the forum pages.

Chris Gunn

Andy, I have some spring steel in sheet form I will never use. I can cut you off a bit FOC. PM me if this is of interest.

Chris Gunn

Nathan Like Phil I have an Alexander, which came with a 2 speed 3 phase 380/420v motor fitted. This would not work with my Transwave 3 phase converter for reasons I cannot remember ( I failed principles of Electricity at Tech), and would not work with an 240v inverter either, so I fitted a new 240v 3 phase motor which was very easy to do controlled by an inverter and also a stand alone single phase suds pump and tank, all very easy to do, and easy to use. The Deckel may be different, but if not this is a good solution.

Chris Gunn

Welcome Geoff and Mark, from another Cytringanian.

Chris Gunn

Ken, I built a couple of steam donkeys from the book by William M Harris, "The Steam Donkey Engine", published by the Village press Publications Inc in the USA and obtainable in the UK. This has full drawings of his model based on an American Hoist and Derrick Company engine. This book is well worth a look for fleshing out the details and proportions. I am just adding the final details to my models, and will take some pictures when they are complete.

Chris Gunn

Tim, as the author of the article in question, I am sorry if the descriptions have given rise to any confusion. I am using the descriptions that appear in the drawings, which in this context are pretty standard, weighshafts are mentioned in many articles covering locomotive and traction engine construction. I felt that this was better than using "non standard" descriptions which may have caused more confusion.

Chris Gunn

Has anyone made a successful lifting injector for 4" and 6" Scale traction engines?

Chris Gunn

I have been running my 3ph Bantam with suds pump from a Transwave converter for 25 years or so, no problem, switch the main motor on first, and the suds pump second, and switch them off in the same order. When I added my 3ph Bridgeport 10 years ago, I did the same, and again, switch the main motor on first, then suds and or the feed motor second, and in reverse order when finished. All the existing motors, and switchgear can be used without any alteration at all, a big bonus surely.

Chris Gunn