Member postings for Colin Heseltine

Without hoarders there would not be any antiques around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Colin

Gentlemen,

If rucksacks are frowned upon then what suggestions do you have (humorous or otherwise) for carrying around the goodies one has purchased. Having had my hand in a split for a large chuck of the year, then carrying a bag/holdall (weighty or otherwise) is a NO NO, unless I wish to have a damaged hand for the rest of my life. I suppose items could be deposited in the car after each purchase but this seems a waste of good tool/model/display viewing time.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Colin

A friend of mine has a Myford Super 7 lathe he wishes to sell. The serial number indicates it is one of the latest machines from1994. The serial number is suffixed with the letter 'M'. Can anyone tell me what this 'M' designates. The machine is immaculate with every conceivable accessory.

Thank you,

Colin

Someone I know has used a credit card sized piece of cardboard with something like a 6 x 5 matrix of squares on it. Each square has a letter of the alphabet on it and a digit from 0-9. These are allocated at random. All he does is remember a key word which means something to him and uses it to find the appropriate numbers of the pin.

I must admit to using the pin hidden in telephone or fax number in the past.

At one time at work I had to remember about 20+ passwords for different items of computer hardware/routers etc., and being a bank they were not always simple. But using them regularly I could remember them all.

Colin

I must admit to having a Surface Grinder. I bought a Surface grinder (Excel No.2) a Harrison L5 lathe and a Shaper back in 1973. I paid £30 for the lathe, £12 for the Grinder and £8 for the Shaper, all 3-phase. They all came at scrap value from Cannock Tech College. Sold the shaper for a Cincinnatti Vertical Mill and kept the other two. My dad was an engineer at Cincinnatti and did quite a few jobs for friends of mine at home. Lots of brake disc, brake drums, flywheels, clutch pajig and rts and the occasional cylinder head. After he retired he made a lot of punch tooling for a friend of mines business. The lathe had been upgraded to a big bu..er with an 18" odd diameter chuck. When he finally stopped work I kept the Grinder. It has done a few jobs but not a lot, would not get rid of it, it does not owe me anything.

Picked a Stent T&C grinder up at kit car show at Stoneleigh one year. IIRC it cost ne £125.

Just bought a nice toolpost grinder for the Myford. A friend of mine was tidying his workshop up at home and found two of them. One went on his Hardinge lathe and I had the other (it actually came from Myford in Nott. when they shut down.

As Neil says none of these are essential, but n my case given the opportunity to gather (as Neil puts it), I gathered.

Colin

I remember 1976. Snowed on31st May or 1st June then scorched for next few months. I was in Round Table at the time and we spend a lot of time on Cannock Chase volunteering with Fire Brigade helping to beat out fires. Alos diod quite a lot of rally servicing that year and all the reservoirs water levels in Wales very low.

Colin

Russell,

Glad to see the guarantee for life is still working. Mine went back to them about 30 years ago for service (had it 44 years now). I think its due a service. Perhaps I'll give them a call.

Colin

Put two more 13amp electrical sockets in the workshop. Takes me up to 30, plus four 3 phase outlets. Got conned into going to IKEA by wife and daughter last week. Decided had to make the best of it so bought two of the Jansko LED lamps (one to go each side of the recently acquired BCA Jig borer - plugged into the new sockets) and quite a nice 3 level rolling trolley. The trolley has a steel mesh base, ideal to put the tools etc in for the milling machine, keeps the suds tray empty of spanners etc. I may have to get another trolley to use for the lathe. Rapidly running out of floor space. Its like walking round a very narrow maze.

Colin

Image is reversed.

Colin

Its that time of year again. For about 2 or 3 days we get these things. They rattle the windows when they fly into them. When they fall onto their backs they are stuck there. The cats love to play with them. UGH

I have one of the hydraulic lift tables and it works very well. Currently has a bench drill on it.. Which can be slid onto bench when required. Trouble is at present I tend to use the drill on the hydraulic table. I brought it to try and move my fly presses off the bench, but they are not the easiest/safest of things to slide around.

I have look at the Unistrut and was planning to use the 41mmx 41mm channel and one or two of the Unistrut wheeled saddles. Due to lack of roof height I was planning on bolting a length across a number of roof joists to spread the load and then fixing electric hoist on s wheeled carrier. Clearance height may well still be a problem.

I like the post and overarm solution but this would mean moving all my three phase distribution board and cabling to fix it to the wall.

Colin

Tom (tomfilery),

Many thanks for that. At least I now know I wont be attempting to tighten it further.

I will give it another dose of lubricant and keep my fingers crossed.

Colin

Tom,

Thanks for confirming the milled ring should move. I have WD40 or equivalent soaking into it.

Is it a standard right hand thread, I,e. anticlockwise to raise the ring?.

I need to find some way of holding the ring without damaging the milled edge. Did try to grip with a small 3 jaw chuck, but did not want to damage or break anything. Now I know it is meant to move I can have another go.

Colin

Assembled Boley 8mm watchmaking lathe to a backboard to make it usable.

Made the two aluminium pulleys, one for 6000rpm sewing machine motor and the other for the intermediate shaft.

Runs quite nicely.

Quick question for those who know about these things. How is the tool height adjusted. I appreciate I could use shims under the tool. On top of the top slide is a circular ring on which the tool rests and it is then held down by the cap, which has two slots in it (one for square tool and one for round). The circular ring is knurled al the way round, and I feel that this should rotate to raise the tool to centre height. It is on a central boss that the clamping screw is threaded into. The only problem is, it does not move, I think it may be seized. Have flooded it with releasing fluid but would like an idea before I either break it or damage the knurling.

Thanks,

Colin

BobH,

When were you at Cincinnatti? My dad worked there from age of 16 till he retired in around 1982/3.

We used to have a Cincinnatti Vertical No.2 milling machine at home.

Colin

Finished a quick bearing swap on my 4" belt linisher. It was bought second hand on Ebay around 6 or so years ago. It was always noisy, the mains wires stuck out of the broken junction box on the back of the motor and for the last couple of years I have needed to wear ear protection to use it.

Couple of days ago an engineer friend of mine came around for some aluminium, to make some spacers and I said what do you think of these bearings and switched it on. He took quick listen, shook the spindle and condemned the bearings. 10 minutes later we had it dismantled. The bearings were open cage and obviously grinding grit and swarf had got into them. Swapped them out for sealed bearings. and within hour the machine was ready for reassembly.

Changed the cable from on/off switch to the motor, fitted gland and newly made cover plate and gasket to the motor.

It runs a lot better and quieter now, Why didn't I do it when I got it, didn't have time and just needed the push to start the job. Next job is to try and make space for nice BCA jig borer.

Colin

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and it brought back a few memories. I worked for the NCB at Compower, its computing arm. We process all the payroll, personell records etc. I worked in the Mining and Technical department and worked on programs which reported on Face Delays., i.e. what time had been lost due to breakdown etc. In order to have an appreciation of what went on underground we had to attend a 3 week underground mining course. This entailed a number of lectures and a lot of time spent touring round various collieries spending a lot of time underground.

I can remember vividly crawling along a line of powered supports only a few feet away from the coal cutter machine. This was in a 2ft 6" high seam so not a lot of space between the base and the upper support. Another time heard a huge bang as they blasted a heading and felt the shockwave and face-full of coal dust. One of the things they did whilst underground was to take us into an unlit area and then get us to switch off our headlamps. This is real darkness, you cannot see a hand in front of your face. The man-riding conveyors were also interesting. Lying face down on a heavy rubber belt and travelling quite a way reasonably quickly and with very weird feeling as passed over the conveyor rollers. The speed of descent in the cages certainly left your stomach behind as your rapidly dropped to bottom of the mine. I must admit I never really felt worried whilst down below but it certainly was a hostile environment.

Colin

Billy ,

you have a PM

Colin

NDIY,

It feels like it sometimes. Over last few weeks cut up around 60 metres of Unistrut into pieces 12" or 20" long. The bandsaw, linisher all get lots of use and then finish filing by hand, then average of 6 holes in each piece. The aluminium I mentioned earlier all has corners radius cut on fly press. then partially rolled on Gabro folder once holes punched. My should takes a lot of stick on the flypress. then all rivetted together. Trouble is it don't get chance to use equipment for hobby use.

Colin

I've just centre punched 864 holes ready for punching out with 5mm punch on flypress.

I use one of the Eclipse automatic ones, but it is so painful on the hand after that quantity of dinks.

Admittedly it is in aluminium 1.5mm sheet. Trouble is I need a deep dink in order for the pointed tip on punch tool to locate correctly.

I'm on my third Eclipse punch, the mechanism seams to give up after several thousand uses.

I did find one of the larger size Eclipse automatic punches on which the tip can be unscrewed and changed, but I have never seen any of the alternate tips.

Colin