Member postings for Norman Billingham

Yes. If you loosen the drive pulley grub screw, you can slide the pulley towards the tailstock, That gives enough clearance on the L to get a strong pair of bent circlip pliers in and release the circlip from its groove. The whole clutch/countershaft assembly will then slide out. Be careful not to lose the woodruff key, or the ball bearing in the RH end - both have a habit of vanishing into the depths of the machine - I'v never found my woodruff key - it was easier to buy a new one!

It's best not to dismantle the clutch unit - it has a powerful spring it it which can come out sharply and is difficult to compress back into place.

I suspect your chances of holding a static vacuum for any significant time in a PVC pipe are small. Even UPVC is significantly permeable to small molecules like O2 and N2, even setting aside outgassing.

There are MT2 to M33 adaptors. I got mine from RC machines in Luxembourg but I'm not sure if they ship to UK post Brexit.

Simon Hope lists one on his website - looks like it is threaded for a drawbar, which is what you'd need. About £30.

Another way to check is to measure length and diameter to get volume, then weigh it and calculate density - Al bronzes are less dense than brass

Sadly, Jorg Hugel did indeed die recently. His book on drill sharpening is only available (new) from SMEE but sales are certainly not restricted to SMEE members - we are happy to take your money, member or not.

The SMEE course is "members only" for insurance reasons as it's a "hands on" course. It's not expensive to join SMEE and you get the Journal, access to the library and the monthly lecture programme and access to the workshops. We have a surface grinder and a collection of various tool and cutter grinders accessible to members, subject to safety checks.

It's not too difficult to grind lathe tools freehand to correct angles and the course shows how. Surface grinding is a different thing altogether.

SMEE - The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers, is running its annual tool grinding course on October 15 - located in S London and easy to get to by train.

No direct personal experience, but Fynebond, Hxtal NYL-1, Epotek 301-2 and Araldite 2020 are all used by ceramic restorers. Hxtal NYL-1 was used to repair the Portland vase so should be good enough for most purposes. I'm not sure if any of them comes in a double syringe though - it's usually better to mix by weight than volume.

I should have said that we are experimenting with remote attendance at the current basic course, via Zoom. Very much an experiment at the moment but if it works out, it's possible we might offer it for the Polly course in May.

We did discuss the possibility, but the logistics of taking the existing courses outside London are formidable. Would involve hotel expenses, moving all sorts of equipment and big commitments of time, so was totally impractical. We also had enquiries from other Societies but none of them wanted to take it on once they understood what is involved. It's a lot of work and all done by volunteers.

Anyone remember Billy Bean and his Funny Machine? TV puppets from about 1953. As I recall the rather catchy title song went "Billy Bean built a machine to see what it could do. He made it out of sticks and stones, and nuts and bolts and glue" I don't recall the rest.

It predated cnc - the machine could build whatever Billy Bean drew on a screen

The Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (SMEE) is restarting training courses for newcomers to model engineering, in 2022. Part 1 is a three-day course running on Saturdays, February to April, It is designed to introduce newcomers to the hobby, and to help with deci­sions on the setting up of a workshop, and the purchase and use of machines and tools. It also deals with adhesives, soldering, silver brazing, tool sharpening, measurement and marking out.

Part 2 is the “Polly” course which covers the building of a simple working model engine and boiler. This is spread over six, monthly, Saturdays. In each session a different part of the project is demonstrated for students to complete in their home workshops, ending up with a working steam model. The project involves sheet metal work, soft soldering, silver brazing, turning, milling, and painting, and will equip students with all they need to undertake further engi­neering projects and develop their skills. Although aimed at model engineering, previous students have also been involved in restoration of classic cars and motorcycles. The Society also runs one-day courses in milling and in tool grinding.

SMEE is based in Lambeth, South London. Access is easy via Thameslink trains calling at Loughborough Junction station from where the building is just a few minutes’ walk.

Full details of the courses are available on the SMEE website at https://www.sm-ee.co.uk. If you know of anyone who might find the courses useful, please pass on the details

The vapour pressure of liquid butane at 20C is about 2.5 bar (37psi) so a test pressure of 330 psi is indeed a safety factor of around 9-10. However, the VP rises rapidly with temperature. It's about 5 bar (75psi) at 50C and 10 bar (150 psi) at 80C so you lose your safety factor rapidly if the tank gets hot - it's down to a factor of 2 at 80C.

I couldn't see the point either - the bushes are oilite - but I thought if Myford did it I probably should, and that was the consensus here too, so I did drill the bushes. I rather wish now that I hadn't - Myford's total loss lubrication is a bit messy at the best of times.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I had exactly the same issue with my Super 7 - hardly any oil loss on the LH bearing and rapid loss on the R. I stripped down the countershaft assembly and found no measurable wear on the shaft and no signs of scoring. I replaced both bearings and drilled the oil holes in line with the oilers. The RH bearing still uses oil like it was going out of fashion. The bushes are sintered bronze and will retain a fair bit of oil so I've stopped worrying. Although the LH oil cup doesn't use much, the thrust race was well oiled when I stripped it so clearly enough oil is getting through to keep everything happy. Rapid oil flow through the RH bearing just seems to be a feature of the design.

According to the sales leaflet of the time, a basic ML10 with standard equipment and no motor weighs 53 kg, the raising blocks are 4.9 kg and the motor is 11.5 kg.

The man in the blue SMEE coat is Brian Neale who was one of the team who designed and built the SMEE wire eroder.

Edited By Norman Billingham on 21/05/2021 13:30:24

Edited By Norman Billingham on 21/05/2021 13:30:45

The capillary gap can be very small indeed. There are published data for tensile strength of silver brazed copper joints with different gaps. The optimum gap is about 1.5 thou which gives a tensile strength of 0.9 GPa (135,000 psi). Smaller gaps give weaker joints by a very small amount, so it falls to about 0.7 GPa (100,000 psi) for a nominally gap-free fit. It’s thought that may be because it’s harder for the molten alloy to push flux out of a very small gap. However, the tensile strength is still 0.34 GPa (50,000 psi) at a gap of 20 thou. The ultimate tensile strength of annealed copper is about 0.2GPa (32,000 psi) so even with a 20 thou gap the joint will still be stronger than the metal. Bearing in mind that the diameter of a silver atom is about 350 pm (0.000014 thou), a gap of 1 thou will be enough space for more than 70,000 atoms of silver.

Propane cylinder spanners are 30mm AF, cheap and fairly easily modifiable

The compressed vermiculite boards are very good - lightweight and easily cut to shape for odd jobs. The thin boards do become very brittle and prone to breaking. The spun kaolin blanket is also handy stuff to have around for insulation and for odd small jobs.

Both are quite expensive for occasional use. I mostly use a hearth made of standard firebricks which I assemble to suit the job, on top of a Workmate, I got eight of them from Travis Perkins for less than £1 each. Local branch didn't have them and said would deliver - a large truck arrived next day with a neat pile of bricks the only thing on it. That was a few years ago though.