Member postings for Nicholas Farr

Hi, custard powder will explode, I saw a film where it happened in a custard factory, don't know if it was the one that Clive Hartland has mentioned though. You can't just light a fuse that is inserted into a pile of custard though. This type of explosion is known as a dust cloud explosion, where there is a large cloud of enough dust that is airborne inside a building for instance, and the smallest spark or flame can set it of. There are many products that are able to produce airborne dust, that this can happen too, that you wouldn't think would exploded in this way, which is one reason why good and efficient dust extraction should be used in these sort of areas. I knew one man that was a contractor in my old job at times, who was killed by a dust explosion at a different company he was doing work for, when a spark entered a silo that was being filled at the time, which produced dust to form in the top of it, can't remember the product, but not something that you would have thought would explode.

Regards Nick.

Hi, the smallest tap and die I have is 1mm. Below is a trial I did quite a while ago on a piece of 3mm diameter high melting point silver solder, as that is what I had to hand. A short length was turned down and threaded, then at the other end a 0.75mm hole was drilled into the end about 15mm deep and was tapped, this was then turned down to about 1.4mm and cut off about 3mm long. Quite a fiddly job.

The bottom photo just shows that the 3mm long piece does screw onto the threaded piece.

The smallest BA size I have on a chart is No.24, which has an OD of 0.0114" (0 .2895mm) and has 323.6 TPI, tapping drill size is 0.22mm.

Regards Nick.

Hi Tony, smart, pro looking job, yes a nice piece of perforated sheet will make them look better.

Regards Nick.

Hi, for many years now, the only real way that most companies can expand is to be global, but here in Great Britain not all big companies will have such resources to do so. The company that I worked for, for most of my working life, was started by a one man band, back in 1860. when I started with them in 1970, they were part of General Refractories Ltd. They were then bought buy Hepworth Minerals & Chemicals, and subsequently by Watts Blake & Bearne Minerals Ltd. The company already had international partners when I first started to work for them. In around 1996/7, the company was then bought by the Belgium company Sibelco. The site where I worked for the most part is still working although one of the partner firms was sold off, but they still have most of the sites that were there back when I started working for them, save for a few smaller ones, where the resources have expired. Their British headquarters are in Cheshire. Cooper Roller Bearings Ltd. is still making bearings on exactly the same site when my father worked for them, before I was Born, and are now part of the SKF group. The point that I'm making is that although these two companies are not exactly British anymore, they still work in Britain and employ British people that have to be trained in various skills, and I expect there are quite a good number of other companies that have a similar situation.

Regards Nick.

Hi David, many people moan about far eastern lathes, but my one has done a lot of very good work, so I wouldn't worry to much about your Super Adept, and I'm sure you will make good use of it.

Regards Nick.

Hi, Dennis, before you rush out and buy an adjustable reamer, which are not exactly cheap at the size you will need, I have a 1-13/16" to 2-7/32" one, and the bottom adjusting collar is just a shade over 1-3/4" in diameter and a little over 1" long, and the screw threaded portion is 1-1/2" in diameter.

Of course there is a very slight taper towards the bottom end of the blades.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 07/08/2023 16:49:13

Hi Ady1, when I hooked up my satellite finder on my new dish, the freesat box was in standby mode, and when I disconnected one of the leads from the LNB, I kept getting a very uncomfortable tingling in my figures when the other hand was holding onto my aluminium ladder. It soon dawned on me that I had to go back indoors and turn the box off completely, then go back and connect the finder, and go back and turn the box on again, and once it was all set up, I had to do the turning off and back on in reverse. So yes they are juiced up nowadays.

Regards Nick.

Hi, as JasonB has said, another thing that people don't do is making sure the drilled hole is sloping slightly downwards to the outside, which will help prevent rain on the wall running into the hole and into the house.

Regards Nick.

Hi MichaelG, I've recently replaced my satellite dish with a new one for use with my new Freesat box, the dish kit came with a similar moulded piece of plastic, which they call a brick damage cover. Someone may have just put a connection box under yours, but I think they would have had to cut a hole big enough for one into the brickwork. In the instructions with mine, the cover is just glued on with a suitable adhesive. I haven't put mine on, as the drilled hole didn't make any real damage.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I can't see why power tools should be excluded. It's one thing having a power tool, but another having the skills to use them to their full capabilities, for example, I'm very confident when using a chain saw, but to create very detailed sculptures with one, is something that that I don't have the skill for.

Regards Nick.

Hi, i agree with using a cylinder hone, with an adjustable reamer, the blades wouldn't get to the bottom of a stuffing box.

Regards Nick.

Hi JasonB, yes that's a well known technique, often referred as stich welding, used it quite often during my working years.

Regards Nick.

Hi, cold rolling produces stress though-out the the metal that is rolled, not just at the surface of each side, although the stresses are greater on the surfaces of each side. The only true way to overcome the situation is by heat treatment.

It can be seen on the graph above, that normalising is slightly hotter than annealing, and normalising will be a little stronger than annealing, but the temperature has a narrow window, so a controlled temperature environment would be needed.

Regards Nick.

Hi Mick H, I have spares of these three volumes that John has mentioned, they are not all it the best condition, but all the information is readable, and volume 82 was half heartedly bound. You can have them for the price of postage, or you could collect them in person, just PM me if you are interested.

Regards Nick.

Hi Adrew, have you tried Myford Ltd.

Regards Nick.

Hi, I've got a copy of the Practical Mechanics of March 1952, which is one of bundle of those that my father bought.

Regards Nick.

Hi Martin, one thing you should use though, is a piece of plate something like 16 to 20mm thick, with a close fitting hole for the column, to go between that narrow edge of the base and your press cross beam. If you are pressing straight onto the edge of the base, there is a real risk of fracturing it with such a lot of pressure just on a small area each side, and it could even damage the cross beam as well. Your jack may not work so well in a horizontal position, so it maybe better to life that end up a fair bit.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 31/07/2023 08:14:15

Hi, before I read Noel's post, I was thinking about heating it on a bonfire, but I'd build the bonfire first and then set the base on top and the light the bonfire, to gradually raise the temperature, instead of sudden heat. Once it got burning you can then add more wood, until you think it's hot enough, and then let the bonfire burn itself out and allow it all to cool down in the ashes, but you may have to it a dull red heat to do any good. When it's cool enough, pour a good deal of penetrating oil in that hole in the bottom and in those grub screw holes.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 30/07/2023 15:35:41

Hi Margaret, well done for getting your old screws out. I would replace them with hex socket head ones, not Torx, and I've had plenty from those that Diogenes has linked too, and they have always been very good quality, but I do agree with Bill, that the countersunk holes look overly deep, and personally I would be inclined to put a small countersink into the threaded holes, up to about one thread deep at the most, which you can do with a 10mm twist drill quite easily, just in case the countersink on the screws are protruding through the holes a little, which may have jammed them up in the first place.

Regards Nick.

Hi Nigel Graham 2, having used folding machines and press-brakes throughout my working life, I'm aware of bending radius, and what the tools will take, but it is mostly down the the width of the Vee block, and mine is 20mm wide, which will allow for a larger radius, and in fact, looking through my judges notes when I entered this into an ME exhibition, I did actually bend a piece of 2.5mm steel, with no more effort than what I bent the 1.5mm piece, albeit being about 45mm wide.

Below is my 1.5mm and 2.5mm samples that I made at the time I finished adapting the tooling for my fly-press.

Regard Nick.