Member postings for Andyf

NI3 was great fun when I was young, Neil. I recall going to Boots the Chemist for some iodine crystals. The pharmacist must have known why, because he asked if I needed any household ammonia to go with it.

But you could buy saltpetre and sulphur at Boots back then, and grind up some charcoal to make gunpowder as per the recipe in "Teach Yourself Chemistry". Much better than NI3 for blowing things up!

However did we survive?

Andy

PS The chemistry teacher's demonstration of the thermite reaction, having gathered us all close to his desk to observe the molten iron running out, is something else which is probably lost to today's youth.

From personal experience today:

HEIGHT GAUGE: An instrument which will prompt you to find out what scrap iron is worth when used in conjunction with a surface plate to check if the bearing surfaces above and below the saddle of a Chinese lathe are in parallel planes .

SCRAPER: something you will need after finding how little the scrapyard will pay.

ANGLE GRINDER: used in the Far East to create dovetails etc, and in the West as a time-saving precursor to the scraper.

Andy

Speedy, I go to France 3 or 4 times a year, and have noticed the variety of chemicals on sale in DIY shops. I think you may have meant to say that sodium chlorate (weedkiller, but can be used as a component of home-brew explosives) is hard to get. Sodium chloride is just common salt, and I doubt that French cooks would give that up without a fight.

Fizzy, concentrated acids were common currency in school chemistry labs when I was a lad and dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Like Versaboss, I know the precautions needed, but I do appreciate your concern. As soon as I can get my hands on some suitable bottles, I will dilute the stuff down to 20%. Though still nasty, that's not as vicious as 98%.

Andy,

A few more:

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in
their holes until you die of old age.

SKILSAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars
and motorcycles. Now mainly used to impersonate the 9/16
or � socket you've been searching for the last 45 minutes.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any
known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes, thereby ending
any possible future use.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that
inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end
opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

INSPECTION LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. A good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume light bulbs at
about the same rate that 105mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat
misleading.

Andy

Quote from Fizzy's "dead cats are better than litmus" post:: "If it is close to the normal upper limit of 40%......"

Well, the well-protected, 3/4 full gallon bottle which Dave C very kindly gave me the other night says 98%, which is about as concentrated as sulphuric acid comes.

It will last me more than my lifetime, so if anyone in the Manchester area wants any, send me a PM, and you are welcome to a cupful; bring your own cup

Johnny was a chemist's son,
But Johnny is no more

What Johnny thought was H2O
Was H2SO4

Andy

No, but here's a Russian way of doing it on YouTube.

All you need is a lathe made in Moscow from old T34 tank parts

Andy

Sorry about your fishtank, Jon. I hope it wasn't too hard to clear up the resulting mess and corrosion. You had the easier task, Norman, wiping the cereal-based pebbledash off the table, computer and Mrs Norman (if any).

Thanks for the PM, Dave. I'll be in touch tonight.

Andy

Hi Dave,

I do a bit of anodising every now and again. It would probably be a lot purer than the stuff I'm currently (no pun intended) using, which was tipped out of some duff car batteries I got for nothing from a local tyre/battery place. Any idea of the strength?

I'm in Sale, if you want to send me a PM.

Otherwise:

Your local tip will take car batteries, so should be able to accept it, though the operatives may not realise that it is chemically the same as battery acid.

If you want to neutralise it and tip it down the drain, find a big non-metallic container (like a wheelie bin), half fill it with water, add the acid (always add acid to water, not vice versa) and then add washing soda crystals until it stops fizzing, and then the same amount of crystals again, just to be on the safe side. This will result in a solution of sodium sulphate (with maybe some sodium bisulphate present.). Sodium sulphate is harmless, but don't drink it, because it was once used as a laxative known as Glauber's Salts.

Andy

John,

As David says, making your own ER chuck might not be too taxing. Here's a how-to for an ER25 version to screw on a Myford nose. As you will see, it includes a false start. Obviously, you would need to adjust the dimensions to suit M12x1 and ER20. The dimensions and taper angle (16 degrees included) can be found if you go to Collets > ER Collets and Collet Chucks on Arc Euro Trade's website.

Andy

Wolfie, one of my late wife's cousins has been obsessed with buses all his life. There seems to be a secret society of bus fans, because he has sold more copies than might be expected of his book on the buses of the Azores, where he went for bus-themed holidays when he was MD of the Portuguese subsidiary of a UK bus operator. He's back in the UK now, running a regional operation for the same company. Must be nice to combine business with pleasure!

I can ask if he has any interior pics - what type and vintage is the one you are modelling?

Andy

PS I was at Birmingham University in the '60s and travelled on their buses a lot,, but I can't remember anything about the interiors.

Edited By Andyf on 18/08/2012 00:56:30

Maybe SRBP printed circuit board, though it's usually 1.6mm thick which is 0.063", and a couple of thou less if you strip off the copper.

Or paxolin sheet, like this 0.0625" stuff LINK

Edit: I see that Tufnol themselves do a 2mm (0.079" )thickness ANOTHER LINK . Don't know what the minimum quantity is, though, and I think there's a tolerance of plus or minus 5%..

Andy

Edited By Andyf on 16/08/2012 11:00:33

Edited By Andyf on 16/08/2012 11:01:57

James, I don't know what sort of mill you have, but on my old Dore Westbury the motor was vibrating noticeably, causing the spindle head on the top of the (not very rigid) round column to nod slightly, producing a corrogated effect in the sort of milling you describe (and horrible gouges when flycutting a surface).

Just a thought.

Andy

Hi Leanne,

You may get some help from Arc Euro Trade's guide here: LINK

In particular, look at picture 62. The problem is how to turn down the shoulders on the internal spacers when your headstock is in pieces.

Andy

You might find Mike's website gives you a few ideas, Mex.

Start here : Link

Andy

Personally, unless for some reason I'm trying to achieve a 100% thread form, I usually start with stock which is a bit under nominal size, giving the die less work to do. So for M6x1 (thread depth 0.5mm), stock around 5.8mm will give a thread depth of 0.4mm. The missing 0.1mm is what would have been the crest of the thread, and that would not add much to its strength. The results are perfectly adequate for general "holding things together" purposes.

Where the job can be held in the lathe, one way to get a die started is to hold it in the diestock, screw it on an offcut with the same thread, grip the offcut in the tailstock drill chuck, butt its end up against the workpiece and then run the die from the offcut on to the workpiece. The diestock arms must be short enough to clear the lathe bed, of course.

If you have the patience, screwcutting the thread on the lathe until it's almost there and finishing it with the die produces nice threads.

Andy

A lot of folk do it that way, Ian. Apart from anything else, as the blade is under tension the blade can't buckle and get kink or a crack in it, as it very occasionally does when "forward sawing". I do it blade backwards sometimes when trying to cut really straight and close to a line, but I can't get much grunt behind the saw that way, so usually go blade forwards if accuracy isn't much of an issue. It gets through the material quicker

Andy,

Hi Bill,

If yours has an imperial leadscrew and no-one comes up with anything better, go to LINK and click on the RH picture on the top row..

Andy

On a similar theme, I know of a mini-lathe from the "Real Bull" factory which arrived with its fuse in the neutral line, so it wouldn't blow if there were a short from live to the metalwork of the machine. I don't know if this was a one-off.

Of course, with the fused mains plugs we use in the UK, there is a second line of defence.

Andy

Well done, Clive. You seem to have resolved the issue pretty quickly, and your DIY repair was probably quicker and less stressful than going back to the shop which supplied the cooker, resisting attempts to fob you off, and then (at best) having to wait in for their "engineer" to come and find he hasn't brought the right parts or (at worst) going to the time-consuming Small Claims Court to test the contention that the shop is in breach of contract because cookers should last longer than 3 years.

Andy

I seem to be logged on continuously, even though I have never clicked to receive cookies since the appearance of "We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our site. If you click Continue without changing your settings we will assume you're happy to receive our cookies"

I turn the computer off completely every night, so it's not as though I'm still logged on from months ago. All very odd.

Andy