Member postings for Chris Gunn

I was told by my shotblaster to prime the parts immediately.

Chris Gunn

I had an email from NAME yesterday with the advance details of this show, I imagine all the secretaries of the societies that belong to NAME also got this email.

Chris Gunn

John, I had a worn cam on my Bantam, the square was worn out, and I found out that Boxford sell the same cams, but with a hexagon socket instead of a square. I bought a set of 3 and no problem. However, Boxford were very reluctant to sell me them, once I said they were for a Colchester. I had to jump through some hoops to get them to sell them to me, and then they said I could not return them. I imagine they may have had complaints over the socket being hex instead of square. I would swap out the 3, and get a tee handled wrench.

Chris Gunn

Andy, How are you holding the workpiece?

This is a long way from the 2 ladies who used to sit close to me in Timsons drawing office in the mid sixties. Timsons built bespoke printing machines, and Jess and Jean were employed to prepare the proposal drawings. Jean would use her box of Windsor and Newton water colours and a fine brush to colour in the drawings, and Jean would annotate the drawings in black ink in beautiful copperplate. We had a very demanding boss, and sometimes the drawings were re-done several times to make sure the information was understandable. Here colours did not matter so much, as the drawings were not depicting the materials used, but the functions of the various parts of the machines.

Chris Gunn

Bob, sorry to hear you may have to stop driving that makes life difficult. However the offer still stands if you can get a friend to bring you. I have to confess, I built the boiler to the later Stuart Turner/Taylor drawings, but have not steamed it so far. I piped it up from under the base as well as the boiler, with shut off valve, so I can run it on air for demonstration purposes. That is what i have done, and it runs sweetly on 20psi, so no compounding, but it does seem nicely balanced. I did not drive anything with it, but I do have plans to make a diorama of a machine shop using Stuart and PMR miniature machine tools and line shafting, with the undertype in the boiler house.

Chris Gunn

Martin, there is a spring in the sleeve.

Chris Gunn

Bob I should also say that building the boiler was hard work, I needed 2 torches and had to buy a bigger burner as well. I did use a set of Stuart Turner castings and drawings I manage to get from ebay. I used the ME articles as well, and it all turned out OK. I Think it is a really good looking miniature now finished and painted. Chris Gunn

Bob, I built one from the Taylor drawings a couple of years back, and the ME articles calls for a barrel 5" diameter x 12SWG. I know you are not far away from me, you are welcome to come and have a look. Chris Gunn

I know this is a bit off topic, but SOD, if you want to take parts out of the chuck and put them back later with precision, get yourself some soft jaws, very cheap and easy solution.

Chris Gunn

John, I use Pentel Micro correct markers, not designed for our uses in the workshop, but you get a fine white line, which dries fast, I use it for marking out steel for cutting, any any other marking of bins and parts and so on, much easier to see being white. Not a fine enough line for marking out hole positions, but I get the impression you just want a guide to cut to. the mark can be cleaned off with thinners. They seem to last for ages, a very quick google shows a pack of four for available for under £8

Chris Gunn

As Dave said the internals of the motor are mucky, this is because the motor is not totally enclosed and has vents in the end plates which suck in the muck and swarf. I would swap it out for a new TEFC motor, 1ph if you want to retain the existing reversing switch, of a 3ph one if you go down the VFD route.

Chris Gunn

Colin, Look for Brook Crompton Motors and have a look at their catalogue, which lists all current specs, or ABB will probably show the dims in their catalogue, you motor plate should show the frame size you have, I cannot make it out from the picture.

Chris Gunn

Rather than by WD40 in aerosol cans, you could buy "maintenance spray" from Morris Lubricants in 5L containers and decant it into a trigger spray bottle. The initial outlay is higher, but the price per cc or whatever is much lower.

No connection with the company apart from being a satisfied customer.

Chris Gunn

Any relation to Mike Stand?

CG

Paul, the Bearing Boys sell them as well, 6mm bore about £8 each. I used them on my 4" and 6" Garrett lubricators I made, they work OK, but over time the thick steam oil gets in between sprags, and fills up the gap so they do not engage. A bit of a squirt with maintenance spray and a jiggle about gets them going again. I used them on a silver steel shaft, unhardened, and after 6 years no signs of wear.

Chris Gunn

Stuart undertype, my favourite stationary engine, but not the best picture.

Chris Gunn

When I machine flywheels i will leave a mm at most to finish the second side, and taking a skim and a small chamfer will tidy that up. If I were finishing a 3.5" diameter flywheel, I would use the soft jaws to hold the machined end to face off the casting and hub. Very quick to do and pretty well guaranteed concentric.

Chris Gunn

Bill what do you usually drink?