Member postings for Baldric

The important thing to take from the commercial device is that there is a divider in it, so that the swarf settles out and only the liquid flows over the divider, I have seen a similar thing on a larger bamd saw in the tray under the blade. I seem to remember the Elliott lathe I used to use had a similar divider in its suds tank.

Baldric.

Like you, I find it confusing and have to think each time I change speed, am I wanting to change gear or motor speed. I always end up looking to see if it is twice or half speed I am changing, if it is then change the motor speed. I keep thinking I should put a label on the machine to remind me what I want to change.

Baldric.

Nearly 3 years ago, we had an air source heat pump, after we moved to a 1960s detached bungalow. There are several reasons we went for this, no gas in the village, oil tanks was in the way of a new workshop, old boiler was approaching end of life. The cost was about £10,000 I think, that included replacing some radiators, but not all as some were big enough, a new water tank, the old one was end of life as well amd all controls, pumps etc. Apart from an issue with the controller failing, exactly the same controller that can be used with any other system, we have not had an issue. We have felt warm, with the heat on 24hrs a day, we have solid concrete floors but do have cavity wall insulation.

We also now have solar panels, with batteries, we don't make a profit from that over the year, our 4kw system does mean we generated 3000kwh so far this year, but as an electric only household who work.from home, we do see a big difference in import. The amount you can get for export does seem to vary quite a lot, now we are with Octopus, we are getting 16p for each kwh exported, better than we first got with another supplier, so this year may show a better return.

Are these for everyone, probably not, but these are my real-world experiences, are we happy, yes. Would I go for an electric car, not at the moment, but then I regularly go to the office 130 miles away so to get a car with the range I want means it will be big, expensive car as I don't want to stop on that journey.

Baldric

I have looked at fitting it inside the cross-slide, I can't see where I would fit it, there is the slot for the taper turning attachment & holes where the cross-slide feed bolts to, see the pictures, without the attachment fitted. Sorry for the mess, I was mid production of a batch of nuts.

The underside looks like this, taken later, when I had finished the nuts.

More details of it are to be found at lathes.co.uk.

The Machine DRO attachment for the normal cross-slide extends the cross-slide out the back, you then machine a slot in the main casting & extension for the magnetic tape, this would interfere with the taper turning attachment.

Mounting the scale on the side would probably mean 1" of lost travel towards the tail-stock, I already find I am often against this as I try to keep the tailstock in as far as possible so it has the support of the body.

It may be that what I am trying to do is not practical.

I have seen these systems, I have always wondered is the swarf from drilling could ever catch on the wire, pulling it & affect the reading, hence I have not really considered them, is this a real problem?

I would like to fit a DRO to my Boxford, but my lathe has a taper turning attachment, so the cross-slide gets narrower and sticks out at the rear. Machine DRO sell a kit to fit a standard Boxford that fits in the cross-slide, but this would prevent the use of the taper turning attachment. The other thing I would like, is not to limit the saddle travel and how close the tailstock can go to the saddle.

Has anyone fitted a DRO to a Boxford with taper turning attachment? If so can you let me know how you did it?

Thanks,

Baldric.

To answer the question about seals on mudhole doors, you can male the joints using a mold and molten lead, so I imagine that is what was done. The lead can be re-melted to make a new joint, as you don't want to re-use them. When I have seen this done, they are rdged rather than flat, the mold is round, then to male them oval theu were run down a tapered piece.of wood, where the bottom was the oval required.

Baldric

I was not aware of that, I wonder why someone decided.to create a new standard when it means a lot of equipment won't fit. I am sure you can get narrow 19" racks, that just leaves less room for cables down the side of equipment.

I found out the hard way that whilst.ply is actually imperial, plasterboard is metric, so it didn't match my spacing of joists.

I saw the chains used on a film at Didcot, I went and lifted them, they were made of a foam like material, it was tempting to swap them.with real ones from the 50t hoist, but that would have required a crane.

As a BBC studio engineer, I would leave at 11pm from one show & return at 9am the next day to see a different set or for a sitcom about 5 sets. If the parts are not to be looked at closely, then don't put in to much detail that no one will see. The change to high definition TV caused issues with sets where imperfections could be seen.

Baldric.

https://www.automationshop.co.uk/sy57-back-cover-ip40.html

I have previously designed & printed my own using 4-pin XLR connectors, the two motors I have, both same NEMA size, have diffeent mounting holes, but the one linked to seems to cover that option.

Baldric

I found this page a few days ago **LINK** I have read it suggested that for models we may want less compression to avoid to much friction, and there is a section about O-rings in the "Model engineers handbook" discussing this.

Baldric

They say later they need to put the part on an angle, studding and nuts wouldn't allow for that but the balls wouls, until I read that part I was thinking along the same lines though.

Baldric.

It was well worth a visit today, and I would say it is worth visiting even on a normal steam day.

Baldric,

I read this as Lowestoft Model Engineering Exhibition, but I have checked it is London, not Lowestoft, that would explain the confused look when I questioned this at Forncett Steam museum today.

I have my email and website with my ISP, but I now feel trapped with them because of the hassle of changing everything at the same time, just something to be aware of and not something I would do again unless they are not linked contracts.

Baldric.

I realised I have not updated this in a while.

I soldered the top tubeplate quite happily, and then all the bushes for the fittings. I gave the shell a hydraulic test and a steam test, with no leaks in the boiler.

A firehole door & grate were made, then it was mounted on a board to connect to a pump and engine.

Sorry about the picture on it's side, it looks fine on my PC.

I have steamed on coal it, but decided I need to add a blower for it keep the fire going, I created a blower to get it going from a centrifugal PC fan run off a USB power supply piped to a ring that goes round the chimney, this seems OK for raising steam, even though it is printed in PLA, it actually hangs on 3 bolts & has 3 more at the bottom to keep it off the chimney. The picture doesn't show it working well, but it is adequate.

Playing with my PC, I have found the same as Mark Rand, in FireFox it is the responsive mode, toggled using control-shift-M, this is available in Microsoft's Edge as well, but you have to go via another menu first. In this case I don't think you can blame Microsoft, as FireFox is not their product. I also make keyboard mistakes like that and struggle to find what it is I did, this is especially true in some applications with many options & developer tools.

I have made some progress over the last couple of months, between doing other things.

Plates flanged, using wooden formers.

The outer shell & firebox were fitted on to aluminium end-caps on studding, with one end in the 3-jaw chuck, the other end supported with a centre, the ends turned.

The same setup was used on the mill with a dividing head to put all the holes in.

I decided to go with option 3, just as I could then access the tubes easier, I did have 1 tube I needed to revisit. This photo shows the tubes ready for soldering.

The firebox was fitted, making sure the rivets were soldered.

Then the inner was fitted to the shell, again making sure that the rivts were soldered, the solder flowed through the joint and came round the rivet.

One issue I have is that the notes with the kit have a drawing for bushes to hold the fire-hole door, as drawn they are so long they will touch the inner, I only realised this after I made them, so will re-make them shorter with less thread, not that they need 1/4" depth, I will grind an older tap so it has a flat botton.

I now need to get some more solder, so there will be a pause until next weekend.

Baldric.

The holes ringed in red bolt the the saddle, the green part clamps to the bed. The yellow part connects to the cross slide.

Here is a closeup of the part that travels on the slide you have.

The red bolts are where the previously shown part connects to the saddle, the allen bolts dis-engage the cross-slide screw. The part in the second picture engages with the slot in the cross-slide. Also visible is a cover I printed to stop swarf getting on to the cross-slide screw.

As you can see on my lathe the cross-slide is a different one, rather than having a part that bolts on the the normal cross-slide.

I hope that helps.

Baldric.