Member postings for Ian Johnson 1

That turned out nice Jason. There's something satisfying about watching a machine do stuff all by itself. Once bitten by the CNC bug it becomes natural to think CNC rather than manual.

Ian

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has awarded The Newcomen model steam engine the prestigious Engineering Heritage Award.

The model, which is displayed at the Hunterian Museum Glasgow, was the inspiration for James Watt to develop his condensing steam engine, an improvement on the Newcomen engine.

This is a very special model steam engine by any standard.

Ian

For more info have a look at www.imeche.org/news

Good point regarding changing the symbol, it could work but only if it is rigorously enforced. Bit like when John Bloor bought Triumph motorcycles, first thing he did was to change the Triumph logo, and make sure the new logo wasn't used without permission. The old logo is fair game for copiers.

I always get my quality tools from reputable dealers, like Machine DRO, Chronos, Arc to name a few. I am confident they would never sell fake stuff. They have got a lot more to lose from selling fake products than I have.

Ian

Soon to be a man with 100 posts to his name! And is that French for a 'Cup of tea'? Milk and two sugars please!

Glad you like the 'threadlocker' image Barrie I am going to unleash it when things get out of hand!

British Standards (BS kitemark) are a good replacement. They cover most products an industries. Respected all over the world and used by many countries. If a CE standard is not covered by BS then it can be easily transposed into British law or vice versa. European standards also include the technical EN range and most CE and EN standards are already incorporated into British law.

A good early example is BSEN3 for fire extinguishers, the BS was very good but didn't use the common red colour scheme like most of Europe. So the BS and EN were combined into a British and European standard. Now all European fire extinguishers are colour coded in red only, but the British extinguishers are allowed to colour code 5% of the extinguisher body in the old BS colour scheme: Blue (powder), Black (Co2). Cream (foam) and water is totally Red as per the old BS colour.

A lot of international standards are identical so it would be easy and cost effective to incorporate them into an individual country's needs.

Ian

Oooooh!!! nearly got drawn into a political discussion there!!! Time for the 'Threadlocker photo! Ha ha

I can assure myself that the 'Chinese Export' CE mark is 100% correct and legal on all my devices, and any old rubbish will still continue to be imported and legal no matter who is in power! The CE mark is a joke.

Genuine or fake? Just to put peoples minds at rest, I bought the Moore & Wright and Mitutoyo both from Machine DRO. They don't sell fake stuff.

The Aldi calipers were from er... Aldi and could be fake knock off copies of fakes, and for under 8 quid who cares? I bought four of them, converted (butchered) one into a odd leg scriber and another into a height gauge.

The voltages are different because they use different batteries. M&W uses 2032 and the Aldi thing uses LR44.

One important difference between cheap stuff and Mitutoyo stuff is the voltage leakage when not in use. That's why a Mitutoyo battery will last years and cheapo caliper batteries will last weeks. Quality electronics as always from a high end product. And I would never butcher a Mitutoyo!

Ian

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have said 'exact' . The M&W Are very good quality though, it shows on the jaw faces which show signs of being lapped in. So I think if the same factory makes them, they must bang out cheap stuff without the same care as the more expensive stuff.

Ian

A few months ago I bought a Moore & Wright 0-12" digital caliper (on left in photo) to measure big things, it was their 'value line' model, and it is a very nice caliper, smooth ,accurate etc. And I also have some cheapo Aldi supermarket calipers 0-6".

On the back of the calipers is the exact same label, with the exact same information on Whitworth threads and ISO metric threads.

So my question is....... Are these calipers all made in the same factory? If so, they seem to make a range from nasty cheap stuff to really good quality stuff.

My Japanese made Mitutoyo caliper is top of the range by comparison.

Ian

The KX1 did a really nice job machining the inside of the pistons. This is what CNC is all about! My KX1 has been idle for a while, it needs to do some work!

Ian

It's not 'old hat' to me! It must be really nice to hear the first tick-tock of the clock. Making a clock is on my 'to do' list

Pretty darn good for scratch built! And yes the base is a bit naff! As for how much it's worth I've got no idea of how to price up a model like that. But let us all know if you do sell it and for how much

Ian

Nicely done! And I like the old school vernier caliper versus the bang up to date digital micrometer 😁

Apparently the reservoir was originally a supply water feed basin for the canal and lock systems. Local news info!

Here's one of mine, it's similar to yours but different! The joint has two sets of wedges pushing against the rods, which have a wedged point. Hope this helps.

Ian

Thanks Jason, that's just what I need, and I need to make sure it goes the right way otherwise the crank pin will unscrew itself. Everything is loose at the moment so I will make sure before I pin or loctite it all together. Strange that no help is given in the instruction or plans.

I am desperate to finish my Stothert & Pitt Beam engine, it's taking me far too long. I got side tracked with CNC stuff. So I'm looking for a bit of inspiration from you lot to spur me on. I need a quick way of setting the valve and timings, as there is nothing in the instructions on how to set it up.

As you can see from the photo it is not fully bolted together (it looks like I dropped it on the floor) and needs final assembly and painting.

And another thing! I made a nice brass plaque saying I made it in 2019 and I don't want to make another one for 2020!

So does anyone have any tips to make it move under air? And I promise to crack on with it.

Thanks

Ian

Good idea! and yes please I'll have a play with the step file that's very kind of you. I'm using Vectric Vcarve if that makes any difference?

I've been playing around with the KX1 doing some plastic engraving over the past few days so it will make a change to do some metal stuff.

Ian