Member postings for Nicholas Farr

Hi, one has to understand the difference between temperature and heat, a steel spark from welding will have a temperature close to or even above 3000 C, but will have very little heat, and both will dissipate very quickly, as it will have very little energy. Your central heating boiler on the other hand, will have a good deal of heat, but the temperature will be relatively low in comparison, and the temperature will fall quicker than the heat dissipates, but both will be extremely slower than the spark. The temperature of any flame will be the same whether it is a small or big flame, but a bigger flame will give out more energy and thus raise the temperature of your work, quicker than a small flame, but of course, if the energy is conducted away faster than a small flame is giving out, your work may never reach the temperature that you require. Therefore, large section of metal will require much more gas than a smaller section. Oxy-Acetylene has the hottest flame, but a small Oxy-Acetylene flame will not compete in raising the temperature, with a large Propane flame on larger sections, and may never get it to the temperature you want. Heat will always travel to colder things, not the other way round. The temperatures that the Bullfinch has quoted, is what is possible to raise your work too, and of course the flame temperature will always be hotter than what you are heating.

Regards Nick.

Hi Russell, whatever metal you use, it must be the same diameter as the one on the other side, I don't mean to the last micron, but you should be able to get it to less than 0.5mm difference.

Regards Nick.

Hi Hopper, on one of Billy Connolly's tapes that I still have somewhere, he talked about a door to door Vaseline salesman, who when he returned to a previous customer, the customer said it made the best nights he'd ever had, and bought a load more off him to put on the door knob, punchline was it keep the kids out of his & her bedroom.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 05/06/2023 12:38:21

Hi Dave, posh but fairly plain door knob you've shown there. A pair that I have, although they need a scrub-up are much more interesting, and being solid brass throughout, apart from a steel washer to hold the knob to the backplate, would look a lot more fancy I think. Each knob is approximately 70mm across the flats, the backplate is 78mm across the flats, and it is 70mm high and weights 440g, and you can turn it with a wet or slippery greasy hand.

Might clean them up someday, but I haven't found a door to put them on yet.

As regards to the vice handle, I do prefer those shown by Clive Foster, and have used many during my day jobs, and have got at least two like them in my garage, but neither are what you would call silky smooth finish on them, but they are not rough.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I've got a granddaughter about the same age as that little girl, and she's pretty handy using her dads tools, so I don't if I dare show her that photo, as she is quite a dare devil.

Regards Nick.

Hi Noel, there are drawings of the smokebox of Titfield Thunderbolt in both 3-1/2" & 5" in issue 2762 Vol. 110 April 29th 1954 of Model Engineer. It can be a casting or built up, to which is outlined in the text. The frames were also said to be castings or built up.

Regards Nick.

Hi, the last Vauxhall Cavalier that I had between 2001/7 had a key that would remotely lock/unlock the doors, had to be physically in the ignition switch for the car to start because of a chip inside the key, so if another key that would turn the ignition without the chip was used, the car would not start. The buttons had been used that much, they started to fail and stopped working altogether, along with the plastic part that you held falling to bits. So I went to a Vauxhall agent to get a new key, but it wasn't an off the shelf thing, I had to book the car in for a couple of hours or so, where upon they had to programme a new key for it. As it happens there was some sort of a small recall job to do on part of chassis, which they did at the same time, which was probably why it was in for the time period they booked it in for. Even the spare key, which wasn't a remote one, and didn't have a battery in it, had a chip in it for pairing it to the car.

Regards Nick.

Hi, you could get your vice parallel to the cutter if your X axis isn't, but of course if you move the X axis either way, the vice will move in the Y axis in the corresponding direction. but will remain parallel to the cutter, so it would be fine using it in the Y axis as long as you don't move the X axis. Unless of course you want to cut a taper on one side.

Regards Nick.

Hi ega, I remember seeing the actual machine at a Harrogate exhibition, and it had a note with it saying the construction was published in MEW. Funny how these thigs stick in ones mind.

Regards Nick.

Hi, not so much as what I did, but what I received in this mornings post. Photo shows a 500mm length of M6 Nylon threaded rod on the tube it came in, I guess the supplier didn't gamble on it going missing.

Regards Nick.

Hi, well just because some people what only one lathe, there is no reason why others what two, or three or five in my case, which includes my father's old RandA one, which I don't use very much now. I've also got three milling machines, so there!

Regards Nick.

Hi ega, if it's the one I'm thinking of, it was in October/ November 1997 in MEW.

Regards Nick.

Hi, like NDIY says, use two shallow wedges, as shown in the sketch below which I posted a while ago when someone else had a similar problem.

Regards Nick.

Hi Sonic Escape, Noel is talking about galling, which S/Steel is often prone to do on rotating parts.

Regards Nick.

Hi Sonic Escape, it is quite a normal way of doing such things. Put your two yellow parts that are to be welded to the red part, onto your blue bar, and then hold them in position on the red part aligned up correctly, and then put three or four small tacks on each, then slide your other yellow parts on the blue bar, and hold the green part in alinement, and then tack them in three or four places. Keep all your tacks in the same pattern though, then when you are satisfied, remove the blue bar and weld the parts up, in the same sequence, so that any distortion is the same as possible for each piece. You will probably have to do a bit of easing out once welded and cooled, to get your bar to fit nicely.

Regards Nick.

Hi Sonic Escape, Cylinder Hone

Regards Nick.

Hi Trevor, it might sound a bit counter intuitive, but if you could heat just the arbore instead of cooling it, and then allowing it to cool down, even if you do it a couple or more times, it might give you a chance. The idea of heating it, is it will have to expand, but of course the spindle wont allow it to expand its diameter, so its length will increase. However when it cools, both its length and diameter will contract, and repeating the cycle may just make it contract enough to come out. The expansion and contraction will only be very small, so it shouldn't distort the arbore by any significant amount.

Regards Nick.

Hi Puddleglum, 3 metres is quite a wide span for anything without a bit of depth to it, and a beefy bit of box section will be heavy, rust inside would be the least of you problem, but you can put those plastic bungs in the ends which would slow down the process. Lightweight rectangular section, say 80mm deep would be better, but better still would be to have a central support from the roof, if it's strong enough. Bearing in mind that the larger section you have, the more expensive it will be. 40mm x 20mm x 4mm would be OK if you made a Lattice type beam of a suitable deepth.

Regards Nick.

Hi, as said, a crazy idea, but what you need to do when you start practising your welding, is to learn how to control distortion, because I think you might well get a fair bit on your design. You'd be better off saving your money on the welder and get some hollow tube connectors Metals 4U square tube connectors.

Like Buffer said, you may well wonder why you started it in the first place.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 29/05/2023 16:41:31

Hi, as far as repairing ladders in a work place, it's always a no-no. Even if they are repaired to a high quality, it is probably unknown if they would require some heat treatment to restore their strength, and it is unlikely the insurance company will cover a repaired ladder, short of replacing any makers fasteners. Every time the insurers inspected ladders where I've worked, those that had damage had to be cut up or removed from site, before the insurers would sign off their inspection. Even ladders that were slightly bent or twisted, had to be scrapped.

Regards Nick.