Member postings for Andyf

I am involved with a .22 target shooting club, and it's hopeless trying to warm the air in our indoor 25-yard ranges at this time of year. Above the firing points, we have mounted some of the infra-red heaters you see over tables outside cafes and pubs. These don't raise the air temperature, but heat what the infra red hits, making you feel warm. They provide instant heat, or rather the illusion of heat, so don't have to be turned on beforehand to warm the ranges up for a couple of hours use, and thus prove economical in use.

I keep meaning to get one for my garage workshop, to replace the electric fan heater that's in there now.

Andy

If this gets of the ground and the price turns out to be reasonable, I'd like a metre, too.

As to the price, I see that around £10 per metre has been mentioned, but if the sellers prefer anonymity and someone is handling it for them, he would doubtless wish to add a mark-up for his time and trouble.

Andy

Yes, but unless you have a cast iron ceiling, Robin, the load per post wouldn't be a tenth of that.

Andy

Is this just a domestic ceiling? If so, it shouldn't take too much holding up. Wooden posts. a bit shorter than the floor to ceiling distance, the shortness to allow for the thickness of a loose plywood or similar spreader pad at the top, and for a bit of wooden shimming under the foot. Hold the pad up against the ceiling with the pole, and add shims beneath until the post starts jamming when it's a couple of degrees away from vertical. Then whack the foot with a lump hammer until the post does reach vertical, lifting the ceiling fractionally as it jams in place.

I used this technique when single-handedly cladding my workshop ceiling joists from beneath with heavy 8x4' sheets of 12mm chipboard, and it should work just as well to support a whole ceiling, if you use enough props. My old Machinery's Handbook quotes 550lbs per sq inch of cross section for low-quality pine in compression along the grain, so if you use 4x4" (100x100mm) timber, each post should be good for about 4 tons. 1x1" posts would be OK in theory, but in practice they would probably bend.

Andy

I too appreciate the reminder. Though that particular scam may have been closed down, I'm sure that the idea of getting folk to ring up an extortion-rate line will turn up again before long. It may have done so already; I delete the occasional email trying to lure me into something (I don't know what, never having followed them up) on the pretext that "Your order is delayed" or something similar.

Andy

Graham, if it's of any help, I have a small Warco lathe, and did a sort of review here on my website.

Andy

You could try M-Machine . 10SWG = 3.25mm, 14SWG = 3.25mm.

Andy

Like Terry, I bought a Wanner. That was over 40 years ago, and it still works fine.

Andy

This year's bargain was a bunch of UK made "new old stock" Stubs 12" files which were being offered on Ebay by a (real) tool store.They had obviously got left with a huge pile on their hands, or had bought them as bankrupt stock. £18 for six, inc P&P, and they don't half shift metal.

Oh, and an M&W scribing block for £5 from the local rag, still in its protective grease.

Andy

Good Heavens, Clive! I know little about capillary action; at school 50-odd years back, it was all fine tubes and fibrous stuff like blotting paper and wool.

Must try this for myself, with one of my oil cups, a toolmaker's clamp to hold it, a saucer, a bit of wire and a few drops of oil. I wonder if the diameter of wire has any bearing on the "oil rate". Experiments are called for - probably tomorrow, looking at the weather forecast! Thanks for the info. Something's just gone wrong, because my carriage return/line feed key has just stopped working in this reply pane (though it's OK in other programs) so I'll have to sign off here: Andy

Those look pretty posh compared to mine, Nobby! So does what I can see of the lathe, compared to the scruffy EXEs at lathe.co.uk.

I can see the advantages of Clive's wire; bent into place, it will stay put. Fairly obvious question, Clive: it is multistranded wire, isn't it?

Andy

I made some for my small Perris lathe, Nobby, as shown on the bottom third of this page. Easy to make, and they seem to work well, with the oil siphoning slowly through to the spindle bearings,

You can test the principle with a small container such as a bottle top, a saucer and a bit of wool. Stand the container in the saucer, half fill it with oil, and arrange the wool with one end in the oil and the other lying on the saucer. After a while, the container will be empty and there will be a pool of oil in the saucer.

Andy

Edit: I thought I had replied to this last night, and now see that I did, you having posed the question twice. 

Edited By Andyf on 24/11/2012 08:36:52

Hi Nobby,

I made some tiny ones for the headstock of a Perris (now evolved into the Cowells) baby lathe, as shown on the bottom third of this page. They work surprisingly well. The central tubes simply drop down the original oil holes but for a non-static application like the big end of an engine, screw-in fittngs would be better.

You can test the siphoning effect with a bit of wool,a small container (such as a bottle top) and a saucer. Half fill the bottle top with oil, stand it on the saucer, submerge one end of the wool in the oil and let the other end rest on the saucer. After a while, you will have an empty container and a puddle of oil in the saucer.

Andy

Yoiu could try Gloster (that's how they spell it) Tooling in Quedgeley, Gloucester. Also, Toolco Ltd, which someone has asked about in a recent post, are in Stroud.

I think Gloster have a real as well as an on-line existence. I know nothing at all about Toolco, apart from their location.

Andy

Not sure if Meccano models are really model engineering, but if it can inspire youngsters (without any real safety problems) then I'm all for it.

But I'd certainly class the item which Terryd gives a link to in a parallel thread as engineering, though it can't really be called a model. It certainly shows "ingenuity", a word which comes from the same root as "engineering".

Andy

Being part of a plumbing fixture, it could well be a BSP thread, John. I've just measured the plastic bush in my cistern, which appears to be 1/2" BSP, with a major diameter of 0.825" and 14 TPI.

If your bush is also BSP, it must be a larger size or have pretty thin walls if the handle shaft passing through it is 18.5mm/0.729". Maybe 5/8" BSP with major diameter 0.902"/22.91mm, or 3/4" BSP with 1.041"/26.44mm, both of which are also 14 TPI. The major diameters are nominal, and may be a bit less in practice. BSP is a 55 degree Whitworth thread form. That must drive them mad in more metric parts of the world; it has wide international use for plumbing.

Andy

Hi Neil,

I think most CRT TVs (I still use one in the bedroom, with a set top box) and CRT monitors have a degaussing coil around the front of the tube. Though that would give a pretty big aperture to pass things through, I don't know if it produces a strong enough field or indeed whether it could be detached in one piece when I finally go all modern and get a digital TV..

There's a (slightly) interesting short video here showing the principal of demagnetising a CRT using permanent magnets rotated in an electric drill; your method, but motorised..

Andy

Also (via Google) try Chronos and RDG Tools (the latter now own the remains of Myford).

Not particularly hobby orientated, but Gloster Tooling (also on line) carry a huge variety of stuff, and don't mind small orders.

Andy

Ian, my link leads to half way down the relevant page. Scroll up; tThe first post in the topic is the one I was meaning, where the E shaped laminations of the core are reassembled so they all point the same way, and the I sections discarded, or put in the box labelled Misc Shims. Like your version,the size of object isn't limited by having to pass through an aperture. In fact, it looks rather similar to an "official" Eclipse degausser.

All I need is a decent size scrap transformer, but those are getting harder to find since switched mode supplies have largely taken over.

Andy

Do you put a lamp or something in series to limit the current, Ian?

Here's a trick with a transformer LINK

Whatever method is used, the object being degaussed needs to be removed slowly out of range while the demagnetiser is still running. If the object is nearby when the current is switched off, it will remain magnetised (perhaps more strongly than before).

I have also heard of magnets being attached to a piece of wood North-South-North-South and rotated in the lathe to produce an alternating field.

Andy