Member postings for Bill Pudney

I recently had an issue with my MEW subscription. I put a message on this forum,within a day Neil had kicked off a response, within a couple of days my problem was solved.

I should have posted a thanks straight away, but other issues got in the way.

So here we are. Very many thanks to Neil and his colleagues for sorting out my problem!! My particular world has resumed rotating on it's normal axis!!

Thanks again.

cheers

Bill

I have a Mitutoyo vernier caliper, no dials, no batteries; also a mechanical Moore and Wright micrometer; also a good quality steel rule. Somewhere there is a piece of string with knots every cubit, but that doesn't get used much. The steel rule gets used for anything that needs to be within about +/- 0.5mm, the verniers for anything that needs to be +/- 0.1mm, the micrometer for anything less than that.

cheers

Bill

If the specified material is nothing special, obtain some black steel flat bar not smaller than the required cross section. Heat and bend the portion that requires to be bent. Drill and counterbore/countersink (as required) the holes. The last thing I would do, quite honestly is to machine the part from a piece of plate, that's a huge waste of money, time, cutters etc etc

cheers

Bill

I've had a Sieg X2 (non brushless, 350W motor etc etc) for about 10 or 12 years. Yes the torsion spring thing is a little bit harry tate, I changed to a gas strut about 6 years ago. Yes the "Z" axis movement may not be as wonderful as it could be, whether fitted with a torsion spring or gas strut. However, the machine is basically a good small mill. I have become used to working around the Z axis lack of precision movement, which is only a partial problem when wanting to change the direction of feed from "down" to "up", when the user forgets that there is a issue.

Best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

Over 50 years ago I attacked my 150cc Bantam broadly along the lines of Phil Irvings "Tuning for Speed", turned it from a 45mph telegram delivery bike into an 85mph Streak!! Best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

I've had pretty much the same issue!! I am currently awaiting a "human" response, it's been two days now............

cheers

Bill

I've always understood that a screw was threaded all the way to the head and a bolt only part way.

cheers

Bill

After machining quite a bit of cast iron, I thought my poor little Sieg X2 mini mill needed a bit of a clean and oil. So I did. Only real surprise was that the X axis (?? side to side) leadscrew was supported by two thrust races. After ten years the slides definitely needed some oil, but they were clean with no apparent wear. So everything got a good wash, clean up oiled or greased as required and re-assembled. Everything now feels silky smooth, backlash free and good.

Happy New Year

cheers

Bill

ps Isn't cast iron filthy stuff!!

Edited By Bill Pudney on 04/01/2018 02:26:54

I'm with Hopper. Then there is a "chamfer" at an angle other than 45 degrees. During my apprenticeship I was told that this is a "snape", however it was on the Isle of Wight and I've never heard it anywhere else!!

cheers

Bill

Well I had quite a good time. I spent a very satisfying three or four hours fitting the lower dovetail slide on my home made carriage for a little lathe. Being cast iron my hands were suitably black and oily. The Boss even understood when I came indoors to use the ultrasonic magic bubbles to clean the bits. A good day, no bah humbug required!!

Merry Christmas

cheers

Bill

SS Great Britain ....not a failure, maybe because it only had one "t"; Titanic, the failure was to increase speed when there were icebergs about: HMS Hood a failure of politics, it was known that her armour was not right for likely engagements, but the politicians between 1918 and 1939 considered her a most important mobile flagpole which could not be out of service for the time required to update: Mary Rose was something like 33 years old when she sank.

The hull of a ship, especially a warship, can be considered as a box, very stiff and very strong. When being built they are not "suspended", they are built/assembled on very carefully placed blocks. When the ship is being assembled/built, considerable care is taken to ensure that everything is where it should be, to the extent of using lasers to ensure alignment before and after "launching"

For Petes sake, lets just huddle up in our cave and hope that the great big bogeyman goes somewhere else.

Oh and by the way in the mid 60s the War Office, not the Ministry for War changed to the Ministry of Defence

Merry Christmas

cheers

Bill

Just before I retired, it was suggested that we investigate the use of air blast instead of liquid coolant. The advantages seemed to be many, but principally it revolved around the mess that liquid coolant made, and the cost of cleaning up afterwards.

Sadly I left before anything happened, I wonder if anything did happen?

Merry Christmas

cheers

Bill

Sam, Q1 Why no steam catapults?

A1 No steam

Q2 Why no electro magnetic launch system

A2 Experimental system and VERY expensive, I'm not sure if even the USN have got it working yet, but I'm happy to be corrected.

unasked question but relevant to Q1. Catapult launched aircraft require not only a catapult system (steam, electro magnetic, magic whatever) but a recovery system, that is arrestor wires strung across the blunt end of the deck. These are not simply random bits of steel cable, strung across the deck, but bits of steel cable with a gobsmackingly complex and expensive set of hydraulic dampers to absorb the loads imposed by a (say) 20 tonne aircraft at 150mph.stopping in (say) 20 metres.

Merry Christmas

cheers

Bill

I used to be a draughtsman working for the MoD as a ships draughtsman. The section I was working in (Ship Section, responsible for hull and associated systems) had, across a wall, probably 12 to 15 metres of shelf space full of "Design Guidelines". In these guidelines were surprisingly, approved and tested methods of doing just about anything concerned with ship design. The concept, as explained by my boss, was that if you stuck to the guidelines, experimentation was minimised, success was, if not assured at least highly likely. By all means deviate from the guidelines, but be prepared to have your design interrogated at length. As proven new developments came along, the Design Guidelines were updated.

So I would suggest that this leaking seal, is just something that needs a bit of care and attention. Almost certainly it's design and construction complies with the associated specifications, this means that all components also comply with specs/drawings etc. I would even wager that it has an acceptable leak rate. The seal would have been tested on assembly/installation but after some use it's developed a leak. Whereupon the whole world of journo's, uninformed public, etc etc all jump up and down and label the builders, designers, users as incompetent, everybody is an instant expert.

Quite simply there are a lot of people who just do not understand the design process.

Merry Christmas, from this wide brown land

cheers

Bill

I have ordered stuff from Arc, and it's been here in my hand 4 days after pressing the button. This may not sound very exciting, except that I'm in Australia. Australia Post cannot get an ordinary letter from Melbourne to Adelaide in 4 days!!

Merry Crimble

Bill

In my case I was so impressed with my 5 tool, toolpost turret, that I bought a Schaublin 70 Turret lathe! What's more I'm now deep into self punishment making a copy of the Schaublin 70 toolroom lathes "screw operated carriage" for the turret lathe!!

cheers

Bill

I don't like stuff with batteries, or electronics generally. No doubt this makes me another Luddite. I get by with, in order of precision, a good quality steel rule, a Mitutoyo vernier (no dial), and a M & W Micrometer (0-25mm) a Starret 25 - 50mm, an M & W imperial depth mic, a "cheap" 5 - 30 inside Mic, and luxury, a 14 to 17mm bore Mic. The only digital measuring thing used is a "box of angles", I'm paranoid about the battery going flat.............. This lot does me!!

cheers

Bill

Sorry to hear this, I've always enjoyed Johns contributions. Sometimes you really do need a sledgehammer to crack a walnut!!

Get well soon JS, come back and burst some pomposity balloons!!

all the best

cheers

Bill

In the UK, at least where I worked (Vosper Thornycroft in Southampton), it was known as "Pussers Lino". Anything supplied specifically for the RN was at that time known as "Pussers", that's "Pus-ers" as against "Puss-ers", if you see what I mean, Pusser being one of many nicknames for the Real Navy (RN). Certainly the stuff in my house was similar to the stuff used in electronics compartments, albeit a slightly different colour. So maybe "my" lino was old stock, left over from WW2. Laying the lino in a ships compartment had to be done in one piece, to prevent electrical tracking along the joins. It was VERY expensive and only used in Electronics compartments. The stuff in my house was about 1/4" thick and a sort of coffee colour. I've got a vague memory of being told that the new stuff wasn't as good as the old stuff. Trust me it burned well!!

cheers

Bill

This is almost certainly totally illegal now, but.....

Back in 1971 I bought my first house. The previous owner was a Shipwright in the place where I was working at the time. The last time any work had been done was, going by the newspapers under the lino, the mid 50s. Sadly a lot of the lino had to be ripped out, sad, because it was in good condition. The lino was "Pussers Lino", used in electronics compartments on RN ships, it was at least twice the thickness of ordinary lino, very heavy and very robust. I had taken out square meters of the stuff. So being young and naive, I stacked it up in the back garden, along with all the stripped off wallpaper, paint scrapings, bits of odd grot that you find when stripping an old house. It made a sizable heap. I threw on a match, and carried on with washing the emulsion off the ceiling of the back bedroom. Some time later I noticed something flickering and looked out of the first floor bedroom window, up at the flames, deep orange flames and lots of them. The thick black smoke made me think of a destroyer making smoke at high speed, appropriate really, given the fuel!!

Fortunately the fire burned itself out fairly quickly, with no damage, but I have never forgotten the flames and black smoke!!

cheers

Bill