Member postings for Nicholas Farr

Hi Nigel, no former was used, each one was just heated to a dull red progressively and gently tapped with a smallish hammer to meet the flat, but after welding each piece, they did need a little dressing to shape.

Regards Nick.

Hi Pat J, OK I couldn't quite remember all the correct words, but I guess most people understood my comment. But thanks for sharing the correct lines.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I've had a large door from a scrapped electrical control panel for several years, it's made from 1.5mm steel. I got it for a tray for my Chester Champion milling machine, and yesterday I started to alter it, which was to round off the two square corners that will be at the front of the machine. I wanted a good size radius on them so they wouldn't hurt to much if I happened to bump into them, and they will make it look better. So using an 8" MIG welding wire spool, I marked a radius on the folded up side of the door, and at the point where the small radius of the folds start, and I then drilled five small holes spaced out from one end of the scribed line to the other, on the waist side of the scribed line. I then turned the door over to what was the outside of it, and scribed a new line at the edge of the small holes, using the same spool. this then enabled me to cut along the scribed line with my jig saw.

Using a hacksaw with the blade upside down in the frame, I could saw along the two folded edges, at the point where the small radius is, towards the square corner, and then though the edge corner itself.

Today starting with the two edges that will be at the front, I heated them up and gently tapped them round the edge I cut with my jig saw and welded them into place, and then heated the other two edges and tapped them round to a point where I could determine where to cut them, to butt up to the front two edges, and then finish heating and bending to line them up and welding. Once all the welding was done, they were dressed with a flap disc in my 4-1/2" angle grinder, to give the nice profile of the small radius of the folded edges.

I have also removed most of the old paint from the side of the tray that can be seen in the above photo, and you should notice the the two holes the the door catches were in, have been filled and flushed off.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 04/10/2023 22:08:01

Hi, well I have a hard copy of that volume 1, so I don't need to borrow it, and I won't be holding anyone else up who wants to look at it.

Regards Nick.

Hi Dave, to quote Donald Sutherland in his character in the film Kelly's Heroes, "What is it with those negative ways"

Regards Nick.

Hi, I think Chris is getting confused, as the two pairs that are standing against the wall, with the left pair with the folds facing away from the wall, and with right pair with the folds facing towards the wall, so it looks as if there is a left and right hand of each of the two different sides.

Regards Nick.

Hi Michael, well it maybe one of those that have a small fork lift truck onboard, if you luck is in.

Regards Nick.

Hi Michael, I'd be a bit cautious about pulling on the pallet, as I've seen them break when doing so, it would slide over sheets of steel much better though.

Regards Nick.

Hi Ian, I too have a Paramo No. 1 vice, which was my late father's, and I can remember it from my very early childhood days. It too has made in England cast in on one side, and hi-duty vice, cast in on the other side. It had a piece busted off the left-hand side of the front end of the moving jaw, but that was easy enough to weld a new piece of cast iron in and dress down to suite, but I did have to replace the jaws, as they were very badly worn, but exact replacements were no longer available, Record ones were the right width, and the hole centres were exactly the same, but they were slightly taller, which meant the holes wouldn't line up vertically, simple solution was to take it to work and get the milling machine man to mill a bit off the shoulder they sit on, this was 25 years or so ago before I had a milling machine and the vice is still in use very often. My father probably bought it from a local ironmongers that he used and favoured, and probably before I was born. Sadly that ironmonger and another good one, no longer exist.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I did weld one up many years ago, but it's not an easy job, and is quite a dirty job grind the vees out, and of course there is a certain amount of distortion as well, so they don't always line back up totally correct. I wouldn't consider it worth the effort now.

Regards Nick.

Hi MichaelG, my dictionary says (as in the case of metal) is a bar of iron or steel in an intermediate stage of manufacture, which is, Middle English, from old French billette, billot, diminutive of bille, log, block, tree trunk. from Medieval Latin billus, >. It seems that it can be any metal now though, from Astro Machine Works being used in a manufacturing process, rather than the manufacturing process itself.

Regards Nick.

Hi, thanks Noel, some nice old heavy machinery there with the line shafting, takes me back to when I first started working in a Blacksmiths shop, albeit not as full as that one.

Regards Nick.

Hi Andrew, nice looking work you've done there. Don't let those snidey ones get to you, they are probably just jealous. Keep on posting about your traction engines as they are interesting, and the methods you use can help a lot of people.

I like your Sir "Nigel Gresley" Brian, I've travelled behind the full size one a few times.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 02/10/2023 19:39:42

Hi, the Record No. 21 to 25 are cast iron vices fitters' vices, I've seen a few of these getting busted in the same area in my working days, normally by people putting a piece of tube on the handle for extra leverage, and at least two were fairly new. The 112 that File Handle has, is one in the range of at least four sizes, and is an engineers' heavy duty one, and is guaranteed against breakage.

Regards Nick.

Hi Noel, I would also like to see the pictures of the Blacksmiths machine shop. I was thinking of going yesterday, but in the end I had other things and places to go.

Regards Nick.

Hi Gerry, there is a vintage SKF RL4 on ebay at the moment. Some numbers & letter combinations denote the clearances between the the bearing elements, but I don't know if those you have are.

Regards Nick.

Hi, you should be able to get everything needed for the alarm that Dalboy has linked too from Cricklewood Electronics No need to dwell over the loss of Maplins, although they do have a website for online orders Maplin but I don't think they have as many components that they had in days past.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I've made a lifting bar from bits of scrap, this is to be able to lift my old Chester Champion milling machine in place where there is a shortage of height, as it's currently standing on my mobile slide compound mitre saw bench / storage cupboard, waiting for it's new stand that I'm making.

You may notice a block of steel on the Y axis, this was to level it it from back to front, as having to swing the head round, made the back heavy.

Regards Nick.

Hi, in addition to what JasonB has said, Ally Pally is now in the ULEZ, so that may well put many people off going there, but I started going on the train after one year when they started having the snooker or the darts there at the same time, and parking spaces became difficult to find, but the train journey was strait forward for me. I do though intend to go to the Midlands one on one of the days, and it's always been my favourite one.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 29/09/2023 10:39:10

Hi Richard, the tailstock and the cross-slide do look like they would fit the RandA lathe, and if the change wheels just have one hole in them for a driving pin, they too might fit. Not sure about the apron though, as the shape looks a little different. The style of these lathes were fairly generic, just like todays mini lathes, which included Grayson. Winfield, and a few others, and even Myford had a look-a-like, but most of the raw castings seem to have been made by Pools. My fathers RandA B lathe was a dark blueish green before I cleaned and repainted it.

Regards Nick.