Member postings for Ray Lyons

Nice to see some positive feedback. I have been following some demonstrations on youtube and they look good. The vice looks a bit cheap but I guess it could be replaced with a light machine model.

I backed out and bought the woodworking bandsaw instead and pleased to say that it works well. Next time round I may be tempted to spend some more money on the metal cutter.

I was very tempted to buy one of these Aldi machines and if it had been iavailable in store the grocery bill this week would have been much more but I have two saws, the old favourite, a 6x4 horisontal bandsaw and a Kennedy. These take care of all my cutting now. I think that the Aldi saw would be a good addition to any model workshop since it appears to hace a small footprint and covers most of our needs.

On the subject of blades, I make my own for the bandsaw, silver soldering the lapped joint as described in the magazines on a number of occasions. I also have an Aldi wood cutting bandsaw. This is the small cheap machine. It only cost about £70. At first, I could not get it to cut straight, the blade just wandered all over the place at will. Reset the thing several times and was almost at the point of taking it to the tip when I found a Silverline blade of the right size. It turned out that these blades are thicker than those supplied with the saw and once set up, cut perfect, added to which,they have a lifetime warrantee.

Anyone seen the new offering from Aldi today. Available on line only is a portable bandsaw which looks interesting. Only two reviews on the web page but it is capable of cutting through 2" steel bar. Could be a useful tool to have in the shop

I have reached that age where I get a free TV licence(for now) and recently have received an EMail warning me that my licence is due that day and should be renewed before midnight or face a fine of £1000. This has happened a number of times.

I have an official letter from the TV people advising that a new licence is not required until next June. I ignore these EMails because they are a scam.

A similar dodge is when you look to renew the car or driving licence, the search engine will take you to a number of siites which charge a fee to submit the request to the DVLA. I believe a similar scam is operating for renewing a passport. They charge for a service which is free from the official site.

It is now many years since I bought my lathe from Warco. I started by assembling the stand, bolting it to the tray. I then turned it upside down and painted the bottom of the columns with two coats of industrial paint. When dry, I cut some pieces of felt from the packing case and stuck these on the bottom plates using a roof adhesive. All this was to protect the stand from rot when in contact with the concrete floor. Since then, I got two pieces of 1/2" plate and made up a frame to support the lathe on casters. I removed the plate between the columns and filled the space with a metal drawer cabinet bought in Lidls and sprayed in the Warco colour the remaining space is filled with a drum and pump for the suds system.

The only niggle I have is the heavy cast iron headstock cover. I fear that it can accidently drop and cause some real damage to fingers. I tried to fit a gas strut from a car but without much success. I now have a plan to build a new cover from aluminum and use a catch to keep it closed.

The lathe is a joy to use and I think that once you get used to the various change levers, you too will start to manufacture large bags of swarf.

An "under the bench" project which i have to do is fit a 3PH motor with controller but I have been a bit slow on that one, mainly because I can not see a simple way to retain the lever controls and safety switches.

When I bought my Warco BH600 many years ago, it arrived on a 36ft pallet truck. ( why did I think that delivery would be ba a short bed transit with hydraulic crane?) The driver could not reverse up the lane to my garage and I had visions of him dropping it on the road leaving me to sort it out. As it turned out, the driver was very helpful and having got the pallet off the lorry using a hand operated pallet mover, he helped steering it while i used my car and a heavy strop to tow it up a hill onto the flat outside the garage. Once we got there, the driver took over swinging the pallet around as if a toy putting it into the garage.

When it came to moving it into position, I jacked up the pallet and fitted castors allowing me to lever it into position. Lifting was carried out using an engine crane..

Some months later, I went to the Bristol Exhibition where Warco had a rather nice vertical mill. I was very tempted and booked into a local B&B so I could telephone my son that evening to check if there was enough room in the shed He was quite anxious that I did not buy since after the troubles with the lathe I would do myself some harm with a mill. Next morning, I came home, not wanting to be tempted by another visit to the Warco stand. I often regret not buying and perhaps getting a couple of strong hands to offload and install.

Are we re-inventing the wheel. I well remember the trolly bus, a common mode of transport in my youth. Very little noise, smooth ride and no smoke but those overhead cables could be a pain. The last time I used one was on a night out during my national service days when the driver took a corner a bit fast and the arms became detatched, we had to walk the rest of the way- a bit like running out of power in a new electric car

Hi, I bought a 2T folding engine crane many years ago. It breaks down into sections which although heavy in themselves, can easily be transported in a car.

When it came to lifting my Warco BH600, I put some castors under the crate to get it into position for lifting. when I did so it would not swing enough to line up with the fixing holes in the stand so we had to put it down while I bought a large swivel and well greased, made the job very easy.

I did the last bit by myself, gradually lowering and using podger spanners to locate the holes in the stand.

I believe Milford Haven have a good model engineering club and meet every Sunday afternoon at their outdoor running track located at the leisure centre

Chris,

Just a thought. I know from experience that the operating manuals leave a lot to be desired. Don't know about your model of lathe but when I needed a decent manual, I went to the Grizzley site where they sell similar lathes in the USA. Check to see if the Warco has a Grizzley match. They allow you to download a super manual free of charge

I have two,an expensive one bought about 10 years ago and a Lidl type bought recently. I think the cheaper one is better, mainly because over time the sysyem has improved and the lens are better controlled. One tip I was given by a welder is to always wear a pair of plain glass spectacles when welding because sometimes, especially on stainless steel, slag will break off to fly in all directions. I now also use a "cheater lens", taped to the inside of the helmet which works better and cheaper than prescription glasses.

I look forward to seeing your report. Aldi are not the best with on line orders. Last year I ordered a 55" television but due to an error on my part, they sent two. I sent one back but it went missing over the Christmas holiday. It took a long time to get my money back.

The bandsaw I was referring to is very similar to the popular 6"x 4" metal cutting saw which has been about for years. I have one which although neglected (abused) is still going strong after more than 30 years service. This saw advertised by Aldi is only available on line and cuts about 3" square. They may have got it wrong but the quoted motor rating is about 1.5HP. You need to go on line and look at the offerings for last week. They also had a cement mixer on the list but this was deferred for a later date.

Not to be confused with the usual woodworking bandsaw, this one is powered by a variable speed 1100 watt motor and has a cutting capacity of 127x127MM. It can be mounted on a stand or bench and hung up for storage. The only downside is that it is only available on line so no chance of examining before purchase.

Have you seen the latest offering from ALDI, another bandsaw but only available on line at £150.If I didn't have a Kennedy, this would be on my want to have list.

I bought one of these last time they were in stock. Bought one of those metal filing boxes for storage which holds everything except the shield. Used it this week, still working fine.

A few weeks after I bought mine, Aldi brought out a similar welder but with a digital output indicator.

Many years ago, when the 1/2 HP motor on my Myford S7 began making noises, I bought a controller from EBay and using a secon hand 3/4 HP 3 phase motor began using a bench setup to test. After some time pouring over the manual and getting nowhere, my son came along to see what was happening. Without looking at the manual he just began tapping the keys on the controller and the motor started. He said that all controllers use the same logic. Did not understand then or now but I have since installed these controllers on the Myford,(with a new 1HP motor) Sealy mill/drill and a shaper. The next project , which has already been bench tested is to fit one with a 2HP motor to my Warco BG600 lathe, although this is a bit more complicated since I would like to retain some of the features of the Warco, such as the leaver start/stop and the safety switches. This is one to ponder over the winter.

I have the same problem on a number of sites. Could it be a Windows 10 update?

Why do pressure washers all seem to have different designs for hose connectors. Many years ago, the lance on my Alco washer broke and was repaired by fitting an air hose connector which worked well.

Recently, I washing the car (before the onset of the hot weather) when my plastic cased small washer blew up. There was a loud bang followed by streams of water from the casing. Because Lidl were advertising a new one for £40 the following week, Disconnecting the lance, the rest went to the tip.

The new washer is ideal, light in weight and although not a very high pressure is well equipped and ideal for washing the car and not forgetting the 3 year warranty. It was also a surprise to find that the old lance fitted the new machine.

This morning, I had to pop into Aldi to get a few items of groceries when I found a wall and floor washer at a knockdown price (last one) of £4.99. Got it home and was surprised to find that it fitted the Lidl machine. Now looking forward to the drought ending so that I can finish off the car and get the winter grime off the paved area around the garage.

I have 2 other washers, one is the Wolf Sky Blaster where a casting on the pump outlet is broken. At the moment it is on the list of jobs to do, having failed to "solder" the aluminium, I hope to build it up and then machine to fit. This one has unusual hose fittings but I may be able to make a connector to fit the Lidl machine which will get me through until there is time to fix the casting. The Wolf came with one very useful attachment, an extending lance with accessories for applying detergent and washing. It is ideal for cleaning the upstairs windows which I would like to do before the winter. If only all washers had standard fittings as on air equipment we would not have to throw away so many useful bits.

You may have seen the claims from some that they can run their cars on water. This is in fact a method of generating hydrogen using stainless steel coils. It makes my hair stand on end, thinking of the very volatile mixture being fed into an engine manifold on a car and in many cases, the crude controls leave much to be desired.