Member postings for Baz

Noel I seem to recall Reeves selling cast gunmetal frames for both sizes of Lion, I think they also done them for Virginia, that would be back in the late 70s to early 80s. Perhaps someone with an old Reeves catalogue could look it up. Must have missed your posting first time round.

Considering the amount of use any home made tool for model engineering will get in its lifetime, or our lifetime, I don’t think it matters at all what material you make them out of, you are not going to wear them out. If you have a piece of material handy, use it, if it works that’s great.

Bill I couldn’t agree more, time is the most important.

Curiosity got the better of me and I had a look at the prices, they are having a laugh.

To be honest the yellow doesn’t look too bad.

Depends what you mean by a custom colour scheme, if you are thinking pearlescent pink and candy cane stripes it would certainly have a negative effect on value, changing the traditional maroon to an Oxford blue shouldn’t affect value too much.

It would be nice to know if Model Engineer are planning an exhibition this year.

Seeing as we have become Gardeners World, can anyone come up with a way to get rid of bindweed?

I am pretty sure that the movement of the arm bears no relationship to the movement of the tool. No doubt someone more proficient in CAD will offer us a drawing to prove or disprove my thoughts.

Andy I think you will find it reads 50 x 0.02 which is 1mm. 0.02 of a mm is eight tenths of a thou.

Love it 🥰

The original Quorn design has been around for 40+ years and I have never read or heard any complaints about the 32tpi rocker adjusting screw as originally drawn. The only alteration I would make to the original design is to make the bed bars a couple of inches longer, reason being that if the felt wipers are fitted you can find travel is a bit limited. I fully realise that they were made the size they are because of the standard length of a bar of silver steel is 13 inches but it is also available in metre lengths so it’s easy to just add a couple of inches to the standard sizes.

Andy I am in a similar position, Really enthusiastic until Covid hit and due to me and wife both being classed as vulnerable we kept hidden away only going out when absolutely necessary, now I find that I have no enthusiasm for the workshop and as loco needs hydraulic and steam test I cannot run the loco, cannot even be bothered to raise steam at home to check it over, also used to be fairly keen caravanner but since Covid van has not left the drive, we have booked a pitch in West Country for a week but I have lost all confidence for towing, never used to bother me but now I dread it. Don’t know what’s causing it but I know a lot of people are experiencing similar problems.

Only difference between a router bit and a proper corner rounding cutter is the shank diameter, as Chris says use a high spindle speed and take it gently. Both carbide and HSS ones work equally well.

Just checked Hemmingway site and the 30tpi tap and die are listed for sale at around £30 the pair.

The Hemmingway Quorn is an updated and “improved “ version of Prof Chaddocks original, the differential nut is one of these improvements, nothing wrong with the old 32tpi version. Suggest you buy the Quorn book and then you will see what other improvements have been made. Don’t Hemmingway offer the taps and dies under their Proprietary parts listing?

Not strictly a capstan lathe as it has no capstan turret, just a work holding fixture, not much different to many second op machines seen in industry back in the sixties and seventies.

We have a 25 year old Franke tap that started dripping a couple of years ago, I paid mega money for the proper cartridges only to discover that they were no different to the cheap as chips ones from the high street plumbing merchants.

Had a very similar problem to Duncan’s, I purchased a Myford VMB and about a year later I ordered a variable speed unit for it, no problem, paid my money, forget how much now and a week or so later it turned up, bolted it all on to machine and jobs a goodun. Fast forward a year and phoned man at Myfords and said how impressed I was with it and could I buy one to fit on to a Myford VMC, no you certainly cannot, why not, you factory fit them, why can’t I buy one, long and short of it is he refused point blank to sell me one for the VMC, next week I phoned again, can I have a variable speed unit for a Myford VMB? Of course you can sir! Absolutely identical motors on both VMB and VMC, As Duncan says no wonder they went bust.

What’s wrong with a bit of silver steel? It’s precision ground and of known specifications.