Member postings for Speedy Builder5

One of the ways we "polished" aluminium in the aircraft factory was to put the component onto a large bed , loaded water and marble chips on top of it and then the table was mechanically 'shaken'. The marble gently polished the surface to remove stress raisers etc. - The panels were about 40 ft x 5ft and saved a lot of time than some of the other processes available.

Oh, that's a shame, as posts often get lost over time. 1932 Austin 7 owner/operator

BobH

What sort of precision - camping frame is rough old stuff, but telescopic.

Hi Nobby, That looks like its fair buzzin round, no coolant and with at least 1" overhang. You must have your angles and rakes about right. I made a similar back toolpost for a Boxford which used a modified Myford 7 topslide, and it worked pretty well.

Well BillyMills, I was at the office laser copier the other day, and fed my A4 sheet of 1/8 plate into the cassette. There was a whirr, munch,crunch before the fuse in the plug blew. Ho Ho !! Marking blue versus Laser printers - I guess 'blue' is a little cheaper??

Anyone else got a laser printer for printing onto metal components ?

Never thought about it before, but if you mounted a rotary table on the bed, could you use the power feed to pull a tool through a component to cut keyways etc, or would it strain the half nuts etc too much?

My underdrive with fabric impregnated segmented belt doesn't slip - and I have used it for more than 20 years now. Must admit, I find it a bit difficult to take the belt appart for maintenance, but only done it twice.

Bob H

And Brazetec 5507 even has a little Cadmium in it !! I think I would go with more bricks, and more heat. Copper EATS heat, and is very different than silver soldering steel components.

More detail on laser cutting please - could one 'butcher' an inkjet printer some how, and what / where would one get a laser from ?

Bob

Interesting description of the devices, "Same phase same ring" Could you get different phase and same ring?? Assuming single phase that is.

As others have said, use the cordless phone - it has other uses besides being a pager.

Slightly different, but I use wifi connection in the w/shop to get internet radio here in France.

Corr!! That's some old chuck for a little old Boxford ??

Old ones were soft soldered. When we were at boarding school, a guy had a Mamod stationary engine. Not content with the speed, we wired the safety valve shut, put some moth balls in the fire hole and waited for the revs to build up. She was going well until one of end of the boiler blew off !! I guess that at that time, most of the water had been used up and the last blast of steam did its best. Can't remember it ever running again !!

I think I am missing something here. What is an avatar, and how would one use, install, make one ??

Bob H

Perhaps a bit late, but should you anneal this chunk of steel first - maybe it was once heat treated and is a little hard. I often chuck a known hard bit of stuff into the log fire and leave it to get red hot for 20 mins or so.

Bob H

And what are the comments on drill/taps ie; the taps with a drill point on them, generally only two flutes, but I have found that the ones I have got are excellent. At least you get the right tapping drill size. I usually drill out with the 'correct' drill first then pop the tap thro.

Buying like you suggest is quite expensive. Sets are usually cheaper even if you don't use them all, and of course there is the dreaded P&P which adds up. Some suppliers have minimum charges also ! I have bought many taps and dies from car boot sales - you get a lot of repeats, but often they are good quality as they have been 'relieved' from a good workshop over time.

I would not buy carbon steel dies (Taps yes) as a HT bolt will destroy the cutting edges also I would only go for split dies where you can adjust the diameter a fraction.

One of my 6Ba taps was very blunt until I discovered it was a LH tap !!

Even if you think that you will only use a tap etc on brass, the day will come when you need to cut something much tougher. Remember the size of your die holders, and try to buy dies that will fit them, nothing more anoying than having to make / buy an new holder.

Saltpeter (Sodium Nitrate) the stuff that makes the blue paper of fireworks fizzle.

We used Cyanide salt baths for case hardening mild steel. That was nasty as well. We softened Al at Vickers Weybridge in huge ovens. There were two processes. Soloution heat treatment and Precipitation.

Soloution - heat to 900 - 1000deg F for 20 - 60 mins and quench in water. This 'dissolves' the alloys into the aluminium and makes it softer.

Precipitation - Age hardened the softened (anealed) aluminum alloys - about 300deg F (Don't know the time, but some alloys precipitate at room temp !!

BobH

I had a hand shaper once, but soon got fed up pulling the lever back and forth. I wouldn't go for one again, but if I had space, a small powered unit would be good. Whilst at college, one of my mates did a feasability study of adapting the hand shaper to sit on the lathe bed, and be driven by the lathe chuck. It included an auto feed for the cross travel, but I have no idea what happened to the design once it had been marked (Photocopying was expensive in those days - 1966).

Change the label - Rev/Fwd? Or did you mean that it goes in rev in both positions. Could it be that the handle spindle is screwed into the wrong side of the rotor shaft ?

BobH