Member postings for Bill Pudney

As an ex draftsman, there was a time when I had a box full of drafting pens, compasses, a beautiful beam compass, general drafting ephemera collected over 20/25 years. I've still got the compasses, the beam compass, (made by a former model engineer in Southampton!!) and some odds and ends, but the pens were ditched some time ago. Although I now use TurboCAD, I'm with you Danny in that it does seem sad that all the old skills are being lost. To me a CAD drawing has no soul, whereas a well drawn "hand-draulic" drawing tells a story about the person who drew it.

cheers

Bill

Vaguely related to Sam Longleys' post. Although we live in Australia, The Boss still listens to the shipping forecast on the BBC. As well as the Archers....damn I'm going to have the Archer's theme tune as an earworm for the rest of the day..........

cheers

Bill

Those baby Oliver Tigers are beautiful aren't they.....

What did I do today. Well I finally assembled the tapered gib arrangement to my Sieg C3. Very pleased with the result, no carriage lift, nice and smooth up and down the bed. Dropped a plastic tub of bits on the shed floor, which mean't grovelling around under the bench, waking up lots of spiders. Didn't get bitten.

So a pretty good day all round!!

cheers

Bill

As part of my ongoing Sieg C3 lathe upgrade, today I almost finished the tapered gibs mod. The weather stopped me, it was raining pushrods, it sounded like someone was firing a machine gun at the sheds corrugated iron roof. Just have a little bit to do on the gib adjuster screws, cut the gibs down from overlength and reassemble. The next thing on the list is a swarf/chip guard protecting the apron gears, which may incorporate some bearings. Then some way wipers, I already have some felt. The last thing(s) on the list are thrust races on the compound and cross slides along with a modified leadscrew nut for the cross slide.

Then I can get on with my next project!!

cheers

Bill

I've had a Sieg X2 for about 10 years. The tilting capability is a pain in the neck, I set mine up as accurately as I could when it was new, and subsequently check it about two or three times a year. I have NEVER used the tilting facility, checking and adjusting is easy but very boring. For any angled holes or whatever I have a small tilting vice that works well.

If I was buying a new machine now I would probably get a Sieg SX2P.

Best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

My (sadly late) brother was in the RN Submarine Service. He reckoned, tongue in cheek maybe, that making a good pot of tea was part of the entry exam for the Submarine Service. I'm no tea drinker but his tea was the best I've ever sampled. Not a big sample size however.

Chris' Way....

1/ Fill kettle with fresh, fresh water. Never reboil.

2/ Warm the pot thoroughly

3/ After warming, and seconds before the kettle boils, add one heaped teaspoon of tea per person, and the traditional "one for the pot"

4/ When the kettle is boiling, take the pot to the kettle and fill the pot. Put the lid on and cover the teapot with one of Mums Teapot Cosies.

5/ Allow to brew for 3 to 5 minutes

6/ Enjoy

Apparently British Army tanks have a "Brewing Station" so the tank crew can enjoy a good brew. Is this fact or ficton??

cheers

Bill

Beautiful sheet metal work, and welding there Shaun!!

What type of material do you use and how thick is it??

I'm envious!

cheers

Bill

You could also look at the 7075 range of alloys, these are pretty much the highest mech. properties, except for elevated temperature (over 150 to 200 degrees C) use when the 2024 series takes over.

It machines well, beautifully in fact in the harder tempers, for instance T651.

Best of luck

cheers

Bill

I've had a Sieg C3 for 10 or 12 years. Apart from the (very) occasional whoopsie it has been a terrific little lathe. However I have always been annoyed by the amount of torque required to rotate the leadscrew.

During a recent trip away I resolved to sort it out. The phrase "....you're a bloody fitter, so FIT the damn thing..." was my mantra.

So yesterday I took it all to bits, today I modified the two leadscrew brackets by drilling some oil holes and Dremelling some oil grooves, and re-assembled. It was obvious that one of the left hand leadscrew bracket holes was slightly adrift, not by very much but enough to make a difference. So that was corrected. Everything was cleaned and (once again) re-assembled. Bingo!! the leadscrew could be spun by fingers alone.

So everything else was put back, and the machine given a present of a good clean and oil.

I'm beginning to question getting another lathe, as this one is now getting to be rather nice. Despite its not being English, German, Swiss or American!!

cheers

Bill

Thanks for the nice words chaps.

Old School....I got the Sugden castings from a fellow traveller in the UK, I don't know if he still has any or is planning to do any more. I'll try and get in touch with him and if we get the go ahead I'll post his details here.

steve de24.....Yes the Vipers have a "funny" needle valve as you describe. I may make them as shown on the drawing, or make them with an O ring as I did for the second Sugden.

cheers

Bill

Since 2012 I have been chipping away at building two Sugden Specials and two Nalon Vipers. All four motors are virtually complete. In fact the Sugdens are ready to run, the Viper just need needle valve assemblies

They are all 2.5c.c. compression ignition model aeroplane engines. The Sugden was presented in Aeromodeller magazine as a build series in the mid 50s. The Nalon Viper was designed and built by Norman Long, also in the 50s, it/they (there was a Mk1 and Mk2 version) were reviewed by both Aeromodeller and Model Aircraft magazines.

Thanks to David for the EN36a material, heat treatment and grinding of the crankshafts for the Sugdens.

I have built both a Mk1 and Mk2 Viper, sadly the bosses camera developed an issue when photographing the Mk2. Maybe later....

cheers

Bill

ps The phots are also in an album, they have been inserted apparently at random in and around the text!!

Edited By Bill Pudney on 25/03/2016 02:12:24

Edited By JasonB on 25/03/2016 07:36:51

Elektron/mag alloy...very popular in the late 40s and 50s. Until people realised it could and would corrode very quickly, once the protective coating had been scratched.

At one time I had the misfortune of seeing a Whirlwind (or was it a Wessex??) helicopter that had fallen into the Solent. It had been in the water for less than 24 hours, most of the fuselage skinning was gone and in the main gearbox there were holes that you could put a clenched fist in. Both the skinning and gearbox casting were mag alloy, different alloys, but mag alloy.

cheers

Bill

If it was up to me I would get a set of collets and a collet chuck (if appropriate for your machines) or two from CTC direct. Over time I have bought a lot of their stuff, including ER32 collets and collet chucks from them and have never been disappointed. I use ER32 collets on both my C3 mini lathe and X2 mill. Probably shouldn't mention those two machines in the same post as a Myford and a Tom Senior!!

No idea about what chuck fittings would be appropriate for your SS7 and Tom Senior though. All I would think is that you would want a chuck on the lathe that permits bar stock to go right through, i.e. not a chuck secured by a drawbar, whereas the chuck for the mill should be secured by a drawbar.

Google CTC Hong Kong and have a look........

Best of luck.

cheers

Bill

Very clever, extremely well thought out. Although it's not cheap the price isn't outrageous, when the price of a conventional folder is considered.

Well done Mr Magna-Bend, the best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

+1 on Tracy tools, I also use Drill Service (Horley) who have been very helpful and quick, they can also post gauge plate to Australia so that the total cost (part cost + postage) is less than buying the exact same stuff (i.e. same factory!!) locally.

cheers

Bill

I think the concept of a "virtual club" is an excellent one, and this website, most of the time is indeed a VC. I subscribe to MEW and generally enjoy it, of course there are some bits that I don't enjoy, 3D stuff and CNC stuff in particular, but that's my problem. It's not the fault of the magazine that occasionally there is an article or two that doesn't float my boat. ME magazine doesn't appeal, mainly because I'm not into steam, sooo 19th century!! Just joking.

The amount of help and advice that's available on this forum is amazing, got me out of the mire on several occasions.

I suppose that it goes with the territory but some members of this virtual club still surprise me with their lack of humour, thin skin and general pomposity. But it's all grist to the mill. There are always the others who frequently write something of real interest, or make me laugh out loud. Just like a Real club really, I suppose!!

keep up the good work

cheers

Bill

Ady1, I'm not sure that the industrial revolution would be in MEs time span. When I was at school I learn't that the industrial revolution was from 1750 to 1850, at least in England. In some other countries it was yesterday of course.

cheers

Bill

When the Spitfire was designed, the only way that RJM could get the required 8 machine guns in an efficient wing was to use a thin, elliptical wing. Apparently he wanted to use a very thin airfoil, to enable the highest speed. His Schneider Trophy experiences had demonstrated that a thin wing produced less drag.

The elliptical wing certainly did take a long time to build. Somewhere I read that a Spitfire took approximately 30% more labour hours to build than a Hurricane.

When the RAF High Speed Flight was formed towards the end of WW2, the Spitfire was selected as the aircraft to use as it had the best potential for high speed. No doubt the fact that the RAF had quite a lot of them helped!!

For my money the Spitfire was the most beautiful aircraft ever.

cheers

Bill

I think he wrote several books. I have one, which is pretty much his autobiography, titled "Wings on my Sleeve".

As others have said, a great man, from a time of heroes and Great Men.

He had a wonderful, slightly whimsical sense of humour too.

sadly

Bill

Impressive!!

cheers

Bill