Member postings for DMB

In my opinion, it's much better to have separate machines because otherwise, you will be constantly setting up and breaking down, which is very time consuming. You could argue that it doesn't matter as it's only a hobby but I think that over the course of umpteen hours building a big ish project like a loco., it will make a significant difference to the length of time to complete.

Most clubs have a lathe if they have a workshop, so if on a start up budget, it could be better to get a vertical mill on which all your drilling can also be done and join the club for access to a lathe. Forget buying a drilling machine. Mills have a built in advantage over drilling machines of having co ordinate tables.

One club here, is re - lining the walls of a wooden storage shed with sheets of fairly thin ish plywood, about 10mm. A few weeks ago, they cost £42, the member went back this week for more and same quantity was £55!

Wow! Look what I've achieved, ha, ha. Less than 24 hours and nearly 3 pages of arguments. Imp/Metric is like religion and a few other subjects that just run and run.

Having taken the P , I can say that I try to use what I'm given. Almost finished building Harold Hall's grinding jig for which the drawings were in metric. I enjoyed the journey as metric is so easy to use due to its decimal base rather than the medieval duo-decimal rubbish. If I am confronted with Imperial drawings, that's OK in that I was taught that at school to start with and metric later. Result is I can still visualise Imperial measurements that come so naturally from schooldays. Still prefer to multiply or divide in 10ths, metric. HH is one of the better model engineering designers who got it right whereas some have made drawing errors all over the place. Just one problem - sourcing small quantities of his specified material sizes. If necessary I can easily convert small dimensions from one system to the other, just using the calculator between my ears, not difficult. E.g., 19mm to .748", done in head. Real calculator says .7480314" I picked 19mm as a purely random size to convert. Obviously, I would much rather use one or other rather than flitting to and fro with the risk of errors.

My original points were that different milk suppliers placed emphasis on one or other system, no consistency. Conversions looked odd but admittedly I didn't think about American versions being slightly different. The other point about Chains or for that matter, Cables, Fathoms and lots of other ancient measurements really should be scrapped.

Just as crazy, new car, 17ft long is described as being 5181.6mm. I can more or less visualise 17ft but not that ridiculous quantity of mm.

About the limit in mm is 600, generally used to describe the depth of kitchen worktops. Why not 60cm?

I would have thought that metres would be best size unit for a car's length and perhaps, call me 178cm, not 1.78m tall.

Edited By DMB on 08/04/2022 21:58:24

My latest order, one of many, list as long as your arm, from a certain ME supplier. His label on the bottle of cutting oil reads "500ml", which I'm willing to believe. But! His label is stuck on top of his oil supplier's and peeping out, just below his label, is a measurement of quantity from his supplier: "1.056 quarts"Oh really? So his supplier thinks more than 2 pints = 500ml(1/2 a Litre)! Whoever Rockoil employ obviously didn't go to my school who taught me that a Quart is 2 Pints! My supplier's halo not slipped but his has.

Much like a very nice one - off( not part of a set) favourite saucepan in the kitchen from a well known chain of small shops. Yet again the retailer is innocent, it's his supplier employing staff who are probably too young to have been taught these measurements. Inside has a ladder type scale marked, 0.5L, 1.0L,1.5L, 2.0L on the left and to the right, trailing slightly lower, 0.50QT, 1.0QT, 1.5QT and finally, 2.0QT. This had me foxed for ages until the confused lightbulb suddenly lit up! QT means quarts but again, 0.5L is approximately a pint and 2.0L is 3.52 Pints, not slightly more than 2 Quarts!

These quaint medieval measures should have been scrapped long ago. I frequently walk to a M&S shop for their milk as it tastes better than similar from the Sainsbury's opposite them. Asda and Tesco's similar (semi skimmed) also on a level with Sainsbury's. I reckon it's down to "food mileage". What else? It's marked as 2 Pints and 1.036L, suggesting that they're supplier is using Imperial. Some of the others' bottles are marked 1L and the equivalent in pints, so they're different supplier(s) are using metric.

What a mess to put it politely.

On my walk to M&S, I walk under a railway arch, Brighton" East Coastway " to Lewes, Eastbourne, etc. Arch has enamel plate stating number of Chains, presumably from main Brighton Station. Why Chains? Someone in railway infrastructure management wants throttling with one! About time they joined the 21st Century and used Metres.

BTW, I've been left school a little while now - 70+ 'old codger' but I can easily cope with changes. Just wish overpaid people for whom we voted, would make decisions.

John Templeman, looks like a well executed job. I obtained most of my screws from a handy local shop which does all kinds of fixings. "Nut & Bolt Store", Portland Road, Hove.

Another John!

I have almost finished building mine, just got to complete the leadscrews. Busy finishing off the wooden baseboard to mount it and the grinder.

Quite a lot of work but seems worthwhile as it's an awful lot cheaper than the commercial alternatives. Cost of them would buy a hell of a lot of (sharp) new end mills......

Just need now, to experiment with vee block and clamp, rather than make Harold's end mill holder, which seems like anothe small marathon.

Got a decent looking white cup wheel fitted on grinder, so nearly ready to go with better shaped lathe tools to start with, then follow up with end mill and slotter grinding experiment.

Am I a lucky boy or what? Never seem to have had problems with suppliers or their delivery people. I have seen a few moans on the forum about some of the couriers but they have all been OK here. Some suppliers seem to be quicker than others but I have no way of knowing if any slight delay of a day or two is down to a courier or Royal mail who are just as good as the couriers.

I have usually got several projects on the go so can switch from one to other whilst awaiting a delivery so makes little difference.

Nigel Graham2

Thank you for your advice on blocking up through threaded/ drilled holes. May do that eventually but have to wait for time being- priority is to get HH s t& c grinding jig up and running, earning it's keep!

John ("Dirty Metal Basher" ) knickname received from one of the tabletop layout brigade who don't like getting their hands dirty.

Edited By DMB on 25/03/2022 19:11:28

Edited By DMB on 25/03/2022 19:16:13

Always try to avoid blind tapped holes like the plague.

I find that there is generally, no need for a blind tapped hole, so ignore drawing, poke tapping drill right through and tap generous depth for what is required, not necessarily all the way through. Good example being the clamp screw mount, part no. 22 and the adjustable fences, part no. 11, both page 99 in Harold Hall' s book, " Milling, a complete course" where he describes in detail the construction of his tool and cutter grinding jig. I drilled the tapping size holes right through. No messing about trying to remove tap swarf from the bottom of a blind hole, just take a large breath, mouth close to hole and blow - HARD! Also no risk of winding tap in too deep and busting it in the work. I either use my special thin oil mix for small holes or Trefolex for larger stuff where it's easier to wash out with paraffin. Don't use any form of sludgy jollop, Trefolex pork dripping,etc., etc in small holes - very difficult to wash out. Downside of what I've done above, is an unsightly hole in the tops of the fences, but does it matter?

Now go to page101, "Swivel Base" Part no. 31, has an M3 blind tapped hole 8mm deep, x4 off. I actually had to do 8 off - 4 wrong edge and 4 correct edge because I failed to check drawing one more time! Boy, did I swear! I thought that my error wouldn't be very obvious by re-doing those holes on the opposite edges rather than re -positioning the 6 off M6 through holes in the top. Point is, 8 blind tapped tiny M3 holes in mild steel and no busted tap. I used the thin oil jollop.

Guy Lautard's recommendation of 1 part Turpentine, not Turps substitute, 2 parts White Spirit, 3 parts Olive Oil. I use a tall narrow Salad cream bottle with a paper measuring strip up the side. Shake well and decant into small plastic squeeze bottle with pouring spout, wife's used hair colouring jollop bottle. This is my favourite concoction for tapping, or just drilling, small holes. Ali and like alloys, paraffin or WD40. Always Trefolex on dies because it's easier to wash out of the dies and off the work. Lastly, don't buy 2nd hand taps and dies - very likely to be blunt, will year rather than cut and taps could snap under the strain.

Edited By DMB on 24/03/2022 09:38:18

Edited By DMB on 24/03/2022 09:41:46

I think that the various posters above are just trying to be as helpful as possible with advice on drawing layouts, being basically what the OP asked for.

The only training sessions that I know of, are unfortunately no good to you in the west country. I am of course referring to the SMEE courses at their HQ in South London which is OK for anyone living within say a 50 radius. Can only suggest that you continue reading every bit of source material going and don't hesitate to keep on asking questions on this forum, it's there to be used. No question is daft, we've all had to learn at some point. Try joining a club near you, check out their workshop facilities before you join. There is sure to be one or more of the older members with loads of knowledge and experience and be willing to help you. Most clubs seem to have a lathe and drilling machine, so if I was starting, I wouldn't buy them and look for a club that also has a milling machine as well or buy that item first and make use of club lathe and drill. I should like to add that I'm completely self - taught in the use of a mill. Beware bad practices on YouTube like using your hands as brake pads to stop chucks revolving.  Good luck.

Edited By DMB on 17/03/2022 20:21:10

Doesn't matter how good a reputation of any business, not just couriers, they are all only as good as their worst employee as he's the bigger who lets the side down and gives the outfit a bad name. As the old saying goes, give a dog a bad name and it sticks. Probably like the proverbial to a blanket.

My personal experience of Hermes has been as good as any of the others. Am I lucky? The same Hermes guy has been delivering in my road for several years.

Re previous post, found receipt, rubbish flavour Tom's were cherry tomatoes from Morocco, 250g, 48p and better flavour are Piccolato, "specially selected", "intensely sweet and aromatic" from Tunisia, 220g, £1.59 Superior presentation in cardboard box, charge 3x as much!

Thank you Clive, will follow your recommendations and see what happens. Re my previous post about seed selection via taste testing what's offered by supermarkets. Started yesterday with Aldi. Cheapest packet, rubbish. More expensive in cardboard box, good flavour. Will get some from Lidl soon. Waste not, want not said by parents, so unsatisfactory ones will get skin cut and used with my favourite 4 cheese Tortelloni, in place of usual tin of chopped Tom's.

John

Last year's disaster was many fruits going black and rotting. Have seen (and smelt) seriously bad gangrene on someone's feet. All came to mind with the black Tom's!  Don't know what the black Tom's were ?

Edited By DMB on 08/03/2022 09:06:22

Remember doing a bob-a-job, washing out masses of flowerpots when I was (more than) a bit younger.

I don't mess about with seed fermentation, just spread them out on doubled up absorbant paper (bogroll) and put in sun on windowsill to dry. Store in dry place til wanted following year. Method worked well in the past.

Some changes executed on Myfords were due to improved design. Good example being later vertical slides had twin (smaller diameter) securing screws to increase the grip. No doubt that the changed clutch design was a great improvement.

Up to a certain time, all threads were BSF or 2BA. Last few years some Metric was used, probably when new stocks needed to be ordered and Imperial becoming comparitively expensive. Leadscrews, of course, were 'Specials.'

Threaded hole in Left hand side of carriage is BSF, fit the Traveling Steady. Row of tapped holes front and below Headstock to fit Gearbox, are BSF. Leadscrew bearing brackets secured by  steel pins and 2BA screws. Outer end of changewheel pegs have a washer and 2BA screw. Banjo nuts = BSF. Row of screwed holes along rear of bed to fit massive cast iron taper turning attachment are BSF. I think only 2BA  and 1/4" or 5/16" BSF were used. Much commonality between the bed models and their common accessories.

Edited By DMB on 07/03/2022 15:20:59