Member postings for Speedy Builder5

Thank you.

Bob

It is indeed a nut (item 13) - LH or RH ? before I get angry with it ?

I need to extend the cross slide screw of my Boxford AUD. I removed the screw but need to remove the handle. I have undone all the grub screws , but there seems to be a flat head screw on the end of the lead screw holding the handle on which resists removal. The screwdriver slots are very shallow and "bruised" as if someone has had a go in the past. Is it a screw and if so LH or RH threaded.

Bob

Optimzilla is another free package

I think the first one we installed was the Class 1 machine, weighed about 40 lbs and was quite slow. Within a couple of years, it was replaced with a class 2 machine, much faster and lighter and compact. After that, the Class 3 machine was appearing on most secretarial desks. Before lap-tops, intelligent typewriters started to have FAX capability and became portable, having inbuilt multi class modems. Ah! the days of Oliveti thermal typewriter paper !

This was a stainless steel boiler that I made for a 5" Firefly loco. 10 gauge backhhead and tube plate thickness, all formed over 'jab rock' formers using a club hammer. Most of the joints were silver soldered with the old EasyFlo silver solder and Tenacity 5 flux. PLENTY of heat from a 4 pint paraffin blow lamp and a BIG propane Bullfinch torch on propane.

Use plenty of heat to bring the joint up to temperature quickly, but not too much (Oxy Acetylene is great, but can burn the flux out before the silver solder flows)

Unfortunately (In ignorance) the boiler could not be certificated as at the time (1966) UK inspectors were not prepared to issue certificates for stainless boilers.

If you are set on using stainless steel, pass this one by, I used copper for my 5" loco superheater and used the method shown in ME.

Make a simple jig as per photo, cut the tubes and file the joint as shown and then bronze braze the joint. Do use flux and minimal filler rod so as not to block the tube. Remove tubes from the jig and squash the tubes together. Pickle after to remove all traces of flux.

I came across these examples of "small print" written by my father and his friend (Bernard Attenborough) in 1934, all done without the aid of a magnifying glass and using a single haired paint brush. Bernard was a graphic artist and had a small printing works and was 'au fait' with fine work.

Unfortunately I do not have a camera which will do macro photography, but the signatures are less than 5mm long and quite readable under a magnifying glass.

It just shows what detail can be achieved by both the human eye and hand.

Bob

Another trick - I assume that the inside face will not be seen. With an angle grinder, grind a groove along the line of the fold and reduce the thickness of the sheet by half (0.5mm deep) on the back face. With minimal blocks of wood as others have shown, folding along the line will be both accurate and will require much less force. In my opinion, do not use a hammer / mallet etc, just leaning on the blocks of wood will be sufficient.

Bob

Has anyone used one of these little gas irons. Ridiculously cheap, but I can't get it to heat the soldering tip.

Basically, its is a gas torch which lights from another ignition source (match etc).

For the soldering iron (Or hot knife for plastic), you screw an attachment over the flame attachment and light the gas which exits just before the screwed in iron tip. The gas ignites, but the heat dos not travel down to the soldering tip.

It looks like there is an incandescent "wick" inside the attachment, but it doesn't want to "Ignite"

Any tips on how to use it ??

Bob

And brazing keeps the workshop warm in winter ! Keep the lighting level low so that you can see the temperature of the joint as it comes up to silver / bronze brazing temperature.

Bob

Gloves, fingers and hospital visit comes to mind. What brake have you got to stop the lathe super quick if a snarl up occurs. The best I have done is to run the lathe with a slack drive belt, but even this is a dangerous sport.

Bob

All sorts of uses. Cross points grind one down so that it has a slow taper on it - ideal for "Podging" or aligning two plates together before inserting a bolt. Grind another with 4 tapered flats on it and use it like a bradall to make screw holes.

Grind a 'V' in the centre of one flat screw driver and use it to get tacks out of furniture before re-covering with new material. Van also be used for those cylindrical nuts with a screw slot - use on old electrical stuff.

Thousands of other uses.

Fair point Ajax! The CHRONOS readout is the sort of thing I was looking for, like Jason said, if I could change the pitch of the feed screw on the device.

Bob

All I can say KiwiBloke, you are lucky the bank hasn't told you to close your account. After BREXIT, Barclays Bank is closing accounts of "Europeans" if they don't have a UK address. Yes most of us could offer an address of someone in the family, but that is not strictly legal. AND Barclays are not on their own in closing accounts.

Bob

I guess I was looking for something like this with a hole through the middle?

Thanks all for the input. I wouldn't be troubled by backlash as that is what is inherent in all screw driven slides anyway. I was hoping that there was an encoder that could be "slipped" onto the slide hand wheel in a simple manner which could (A bit like the Vickers wheel) then be interfaced to an Arduino or similar.

As for the BW electronics readout, Mine is fitted to the Z of the Warco Economy Mill and is very useful - Thank you Bob.

Bob

Living in metric land with an imperial machine, has anyone come across small rotary encoders that would fit onto Boxford / Myford lathe cross / top slides which would then be used to indicate the slide movement.

Linear slides etc seem to be the preferred method of measurement, however they are relatively bulky. A small rotary encoder would be out of the way of swarf and cutting fluids but would have to rely on the accuracy of the feed screws - the same as the existing hand wheel dials.

Just an idea ?

Bob

Some time ago, I was given a Good Housekeeping aluminium baking tray - never been used as it was too big for the domestic staff. I had a project in mind for it and cut and folded it etc. I needed to epoxy glue some divisions onto it - but the glue would not bond. Cleaned the joint area with alcohol and re-glued the joints. Still no joy and then I assumed that the hard anodised finish was in fact some sort of non-stick finish which certainly worked !

Moral of this text - not all material is what it seems!!

Bob

Yep, we are too old (70+) for a Bank Credit card here in France.

Too old to hire cars from some car hire companies.