Member postings for Gary Wooding

My mentor, Derek, was about 20 yeas older than me - he had worked in the machine shop at Bletchley Park during the war. He was a truly expert model engineer and purchased his 2B from a person in Wales. He decided to pick it up himself and transport it in the boot of his Saab (yes, it did fit). His workshop was in the cellar of his small house in Warwick, access to which was via a narrow stone staircase with a 90 degree bend 2/3rds down. He had already determined that the 2B suds tray was too big to negotiate the bend (it's welded to the base) so he cut the ears off before loading it in the car. When he arrived home with his 'prize' he was contemplating how to get it into his workshop when he noticed a couple of navvies working on the road. After a little negotiating, one of the navvies, who was rather short and very stocky, reckoned he could get the parts into cellar. He picked the base and suds tray up (no mean feat) and followed Derek down the steps. All was well until he got to the bend, when it got stuck. He couldn't put it down (there was nowhere to put it) and couldn't reverse up the steps. Apparently he was getting red-in-the-face and Derek was very concerned lest, if he had a heart attack, he would be well and truly stuck. Derek wouldn't be able to get out of the cellar, the phone was upstairs, and his wife was out shopping. Anyway, the navvy finally managed to extricate himself and the complete Centec was finally assembled in the cellar.

It was Derek who 'found' my 2B and I bought it on his recommendation. It's a great machine.

I have another friend who has a 2A - the knee raise handle at the back is definitely not as good and the table size is also a minus point. The power traverse of the 2B is really useful.

William: I'm in the Midlands and got mine from a guy in Bradford. A strong friend with a van was all that was needed 'cos the VH, table assy (heaviest bit), and base are easy to separate. The base is rather large.

I was lucky in that it has INT30 tapers (very rare I'm told). I fitted VFD's on the main motor and power feed, and also fitted a 3-axis DRO.

Bob: you're definitely correct - I'm not very tidy.

If you've been offered a Centec 2B with a Mk3 VH then snap it up. If it's good enough for Cherry Hill then it should suit you very well. Here's a picture of mine...

I use a free program called Irfanview (https://www.irfanview.net/) to view, edit, resize etc all photos when I put them on my computer. I've used it on all versions since Windows XP. It's very simple to rotate photos and does a pretty good job of simple editing. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Although the Personal Use version of F360 can create only a single sheet drawing, you can place multiple drawings on that sheet. You can also create several single sheet drawings.

Each sheet can be printed with a screen-print program, and, if you use a (free) program such as PrimoPDF, you can create PDFs from those screen prints.. The single sheet limitation is not ideal, but with a little bit of extra work it does the job.

AutoDesk has made quite a few improvements to 2D printing in the last few updates

Doh! It was in the title.

The one in my Mk3 is 4" long uncompressed, has 7 coils of 0.116" wire with an OD of 1.6" and ID of 1.35".

As near as I can make out, a 28lb weight compresses it down to 2".

Is that what you wanted?

There are three versions of the VH. What version do you have?

I do voluntary work for the REMAP charity (www.remap.org.uk). We design and make things for disabled people, entirely free of charge. Our only income is from donations and fund-raising and we use our own workshops .We don't get paid at all. It's been estimated that overall, for each £1 received, about £30 worth of equipment gets to the final recipient.

Thanks, that rather confirms my suspicions.

I've ordered a new one.

I've had this Sievert HFV for about 60 years. I bought it from new. The last time I used it properly was last year, when it seemed OK. On May 1st this year I thought I needed to use the Propane torch, so I tested it out and had to exercise the HFV a few times before the hose filled and the torch was usable. As it happened, the weather precluded it's use, so I put it away until yesterday, when I discovered it was unusable.

Does anyone know if, and how, it can be repaired?

I got a new scam today - text on my phone.

Text reads 'CENSUS: There is missing information from your Census applicationn. To update your application, please visit: https://census-verify-uk.com to avoid prosecution.

The text came from 07944 759099

A few years ago I decided to combine D.A.G.Brown's designs of the 2 jigs he created for sharpening very small drills. There were two jigs, 1 for drills up to #42 (3/32" and one for drills up to 1/4". This is the result of my combination. Is this what you were looking for?

I use Firefox, it has a facility storing logon details for sites you choose. I use it for this forum, for instance. I also use a password manager called KeePass. It's free and works really well - I wouldn't be without it. There's no way I could manage all the 130-odd passwords I've ended up with without some help.

That's what I thought, but the previous change was in February.

I've just experienced a third instance of a strange problem with my Microsoft password following a restart due to a Win10 update. A window popped up saying I needed to login to gain access to Onedrive.

I used my password manager, so it was a surprise when I got a message saying my login details were incorrect. After another (failed) attempt I chose the 'change password' option and entered my old password (from the password manager), only to get the message that it was unacceptable because it was the same as the previous one. So why was it previously deemed to be incorrect?

I received a text message which said...

Royal Mail: Sorry we were unable to deliver your parcel today please reschedule your delivery via: https:royal-deliveries.com

I wasn't expecting any delivery but was curious, so I did a a search on the supplied link and was told the site was blocked..

I wouldn't buy another M&W calliper ever again. I bought one less than 3 years ago. It was used possibly 5 or 6 times a week, certainly no more, and it just stopped working, showing 5.04 instead of 0.00 when returned to zero. A big waste of money in my opinion..

What version of TCAD are you using? Copy-&-paste between different drawings works fine on my (old) V21.2 ProPlat system.

+1 for the Chronos T type blade.

I've got a bin-bag full of the stuff - mostly stainless steel. But I live in the Midlands.