Member postings for David Colwill

You could try searching "seemless hydraulic tube" and see if you can find someone near you.

Dave

I bought a set of blacksmiths drills on ebay, they are not something I need very often and I do have odds and sods kicking about but thought it would be useful to have a set. When they arrived I was most impressed they was all shiny and looked to be ground a treat. I decided there and then they should looked after and not abused. Then the time came when I needed some bushes with a19mm hole. the first one was opened out to 18mm with an old morse taper drill and then out came the new blacksmiths drill. A slowish speed, coolant on, no need to hurry. All seemed well until the lathe ( a DSG) gave a little sort of cough and unwound my new drill. Since then I have been collecting old morse taper drills with knackered tapers which I then machine to a parallel shank.

I had to do this once and used copper rod drilled out to make a tube I forget what abrasive I used but it was something lying around (probably brasso). Set it up on a pillar drill with slowish speed make the plastercine or blu tak moat and hang a weight off the quill lever. It happens suprisingly quickly (when you're not having to stand over it).

Well I can't see why you're all complaining. Your gremlins only take small stuff, mine must have a hi ab as the bench and one of the lathes seem to have gone missing.....

Just a sample

It's the .com that does it! My website was set up when I thought that people looking for my services ( Theatre ) would find me through it. The reality is that everyone knows everyone and that most of my business is through a couple of big set builders and the rest is people who have heard of me through word of mouth.

The website has been up and running for years now it isn't really needed but why change it? I think that some of the spam has been generated by bots trawling the web and coming across my site, some has come from me advertising in yellow pages ( don't try this unless you wish to be very busy feilding sales calls from all and sundry), a further lot has come from contacts of mine who have had their contacts list stolen, the remainder is me giving out my E-mail.

The spam used to get on my nerves but I use outlook and the spam filter gets most of it. that which it doesn't I make sure I "add sender to blocked senders list" over time it improves.

Anyone who really wants me will make themselves known!

David

My E-mail address is my first name @ my full name .com. One of the frustrations / delights of this is the constant bombardment with scams. I can receive up to 250 spam E-mails in 1 day most of them trying to hoodwink me in some way. This has been useful in that it has allowed me to see a sort of pattern. At times these people can be quite clever and at others unbelievably stupid ( 5 E-mails from Ups all coming on the same day telling me that different parcels have been destroyed due to a van catching fire in New York ).

For those not so savvy. Never open a link from an E-mail. If you get a call / E-mail from an official sounding company put the phone down or close the E-mail and look up their phone number or google them and contact them directly, they will soon tell you if there is anything wrong.

David

Surely the copyright isn't an issue if you just supply a link to it. Also there is no need to store all of the manuals. A page of information as to where the manuals can be found is all that is needed.

My 3 in 1 metal mangler is OK with fibreglass board.

Does it matter, if they have taken time, care and ingenuity in making them?

Edited By David Colwill on 19/11/2012 11:59:14

Happy Birthday for yesterday!

Edited By David Colwill on 19/11/2012 08:10:58

Terry the point is that you knew it was the correct information.

I have supplied bits in en1a which have been then welded to other bits of en8 and have not heard of any problems. I should point out that these were completely non critical items and that I am aware that en1a is not suitable for welding so wouldn't use it where there were safety or loading issues.

I work in theatre and spend most of my time making things do what they aren't supposed to do and frequently encounter the a**e covering no you can't do that with it! I'm much more interested in what you or others have successfully achieved than what some company who doesn't want to be sued says is not possible.

Sorry for the rant but this is the bane of my life.

Edited By David Colwill on 10/11/2012 11:15:20

Good job they were wearing hard hats!

A fairly useful trick for your workshop door is to make a fairly hefty bolt (mine is 3 x 1 bdms) and cut a slot in the top to take the bolt of a 5 lever mortice lock. It is quite quick to use and anyone seeing it is in no doubt about its strength.

Edited By David Colwill on 08/11/2012 22:06:08

I recently ordered some CO2 extinguishers to use as pressure vessels. When they arrived someone (not me I hasten to add) set one off without fitting the horn (Doh) which resulted in it being thrown out of his hand and across the workshop. Forgivable I suppose if you hadn't thought about it but not picking it up and immediately doing it again

I'm curious, does the haynes manual give the 1 to 5 spanner difficulty rating for the various spitfire repair jobs?

David

Ps I take it that refitting the engine is the reverse of removal.....

Edited By David Colwill on 25/10/2012 15:54:51

I made an oil mist for my triac using an old diaphragm compressor. It filled the workshop with choking fumes and was unusable. I found that the chip clearance was a useful feature and having abandoned the spray mist concept found that running just the compressor made a huge difference to tool life. I had thought that this was due to the air cooling the work / cutter but I'm sure that John S has it right. I still use the setup pretty much as was and would recommend the idea as it is fairly cheap to implement and does very quickly pay its way.

This any good?

http://kilnlinings.co.uk/wds-ultra-specialist-board?zenid=31ad6756d88bfa65cfb5cd9664d2fcd7

Chronos did them. I thought they were a great idea. When I went to order one they were out of stock so clearly everyone else thought they were great too. I haven't seen them again

If time is not a problem try setting e-mail alerts for "lath" "miford" and other similar spelling mistakes, that way most of the target audience are not looking at them.