Member postings for Richard Parsons

Can anyone help? I need to make bench mounted joggle/ hole punch. The thickness of the sheet metal involved range from 0.75 mm (21 SWG, 0.032” up to 2.5mm (12 SWG, 0.104”. The metal is Aluminium.

In Joggle mode, the ‘joggles’ will be 20mm deep and as wide as is possible as I need to ‘joggle’ several meters. The depth of the joggle will depend on the thickness of the metal being joggled. Therefore I would think that the maximum stroke length will be a little over 2.5 mm.

Edited By Richard Parsons on 26/09/2010 15:26:56

Edited By Richard Parsons on 26/09/2010 15:28:48

Drill sharpening on an offhand grinder is very much a skill. Until I built a tool grinder I used a Picador ‘Swing jig’ (I still have it). The trick is setting the drill in it in the danged thing. For drills under 3.2 mm (1/8” I used to use and often still do a block of square steel with ‘V’s files across the diagonals and a front clamp to hold the drill. It is then rubbed on a diamond plate. I know it is not exactly correct but the drills cut! I also built a 4 facet hone which was written up in Model Engineer somewhere in the late 70’s to 80’s. Again the problem is setting the drill in it. I saw a ‘wishbone’ sharpener but it was beyond my skills to use.  Over here I often make and use diamond pointed drills which I make with an old lump of ‘hex’ sawn at 64 degrees across the diagonals and rubbed on a diamond plate. I think I saw this at an ME exhibition at Wembley on the SMAEE stand. These drills are very good for sheet metal as they do not ‘pick up’

Edited By Richard Parsons on 25/09/2010 11:20:02

Sam’l  you comment why no profile? Model Engineers are a lonely secretive lot. We go to our workshops (the place which SWMBO calls our ‘play room’ and stay there with luck for hours. The dog might visit us occasionally, but it usually leaves when something goes wrong.  It does not like the language which would make the hairs on the head of a Billingsgate fish porter stand on end. My shop has many cobwebs in it my SWABBO is afraid of spiders. Nuff said!

My only public appearances are at the Supermarket (for portering and payment duties) and at the local Kocsma (a place where you can get delicious liquid refreshments from barrels and brown bottles).

John -So it was you who left those confounded bricks there.  I nearly fell over the damned things leaving the Angle and Greyhound one night on my way to visit the Port Mahon! (Yes they are both real inn signs).

Edited By Richard Parsons on 24/09/2010 13:18:38

Kenneth

Why the weight limit?  Money - OK that I understand. May I suggest that you take a leaf from the ‘old ‘un’ work and before you decide have a read through Mr Mason’s Minnie which you will find on this site. I would suggest that you look at a second hand Myford ML10 in good nick with a good inventory. Make sure it has a Vertical Slide with it. For years vertical slide was the way Model Engineers milled things. If you are really interested in clocks check the ‘Bull wheel’ count on the ML10 I cannot remember whether it was 60 or 65 teeth (65 is useless for dividing -5x13-) but 60 is a number to conjure with. The 65 tooth bull wheel was the reason I got a Super 7 and not the Myford 4-25. In clock making a good pillar drill is much more use than a light milling machine.  

Finally remember it is a hobby not an obsession and certainly not production. Sometimes figuring out how to make the thing with what you have got and making the necessary tools is the greatest fun of all.

I was recently evicting some Hungarian language books from my (English) section of my library and I came across a book I had totally forgotten about. It is called ‘Clock & Watch Escapements’ by W.J. Gazeley published by Robert Hale – London.  It has an ISBN which is 0-7090-4738-X. You could probably borrow it from your local Public Library.

I now know where I read the comments about lightness.  Gazeley, who devotes a whole chapter to the various forms of Gravity Escapement, shows a Grimthorp 2X3 legged escapement with ‘balance’ or ‘trimming’ weights on it. The reason for low weight is inertia. The pendulum is disconnected from the going train and receives its impulse from the clocks power source indirectly from the gravity arms as they return to their midpoint position. 

I have had another look at the photo of Reeves’s clock. It looks as if he has separated the pendulum part from the ‘scape’ its self. I suppose this was so that people could see the ‘scape without the problem of having the pendulum in the middle of the clock.  That may give problems getting the thing on an even 'beat'

Gravity escapements are not often used as ‘regulators’ because of the weight problem. The dead beat is easier to make.

I used to have 3 notices on my shed door these said “Keep out – this means you!”, “No Admittance – for any reason” and finally “KYBNOOTH” Painted iin 6" high letters in red –Keep your (basic Anglo-Saxon).Nose Out Of This Hut-. It still did not stop em! nothing does!  The only thing is to try to keep 'under their radar'.

Edited By Richard Parsons on 17/09/2010 10:02:00

Bill’s clock was much smaller than Claude’s device. Looking at the picture on the internet I understand why you needed a better method of cutting the plates.  Old Claude did seem to love his piercing saw or power fretsaw.

The problem is which one of the several varieties/flavours of Gravity Escapement did old Claude use? You can only see a bit of it here. Since it is an advert I make the ‘usual disclaimer’. Was it a Grimthorp -often wrongly called the Denison- type? Here or an Arnfield (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjZmMF5-u24) , the 6 armed Thwaites type (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eIRoqWUjRk).  Finally how about this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5y4Y5_4Jiw&feature=related). Sorry I cannot create the links

Success is to keep the whole thing light by comparison with the rest of ‘Going Train’

An old armature clock maker a friend of mine built one to his own design. It worked poorly. Research unearthed a comment or critisms that most small Gravity Escapements were too heavy. The ‘scape arms must be light. I eventually built a pair for him out of metal recovered from alloy drinks cans. These were annealed using slimy soap from the bathroom soap dish as an indicator. Smear the stuff on and heat gently all over when the soap goes black and starts to burn stop!  Cool and wash. The legs were cut over size and were formed over a wooden former by knocking the edges to get ‘form strength’ (just like a forming up a boiler back head). Lightening holes drilled and their edges formed over into a trumpet shape with the ball of a ball peine hammer bopped with a mallet. The next task is pure patience.  I seem to remember hours of scraping and filling -with a no 6 cut file- and rubbing on fine grade paper stuck to birch faced ply, until the legs were exactly the same weight. This has to be done with great care as drinks cans are very thin and even a 6 cut file is quite coarse by comparison. Draw filing is the order of the day. This took many evenings.  The clock worked well so the remarks about lightness were right.

Good Luck with the clock

It would have been nice to read my subscription copies of MEWS No 168  and ME No 4386. But they just have not arrived. I suppose that there was a shortage on the print run so the weird (minimal) foreign subscribers were forgotten. Or my subscription has run out and no one has sent me a reminder. But I pay by direct debit so how can that be? Mr Editor there may be another reason which I will E-mail you about. This is not the place for it.

As to the problems of safety, a ‘Gnome from the local city’s Elfin Safety’ forbad me to use a hand held graver on my lathe –it was a 6mm Lorch- my reply was “how the h*** did you get in here?” It replied (I could not be sure of its gender) I saw your light in this shed so I came to see what you were doing.  Oh it added “You will have to re-hang your gate I took it off its hinges as it was locked. I have the right to go anywhere”.  My reply was in Russian well it ended with ‘off’ followed by a call for ‘Ole Alligator chops’ –an old large black mongrel with a set of snappers that would turn a crocodile green with envy.  I duly received a visit next day from the rozzers and cautioned about the matter.  The idea of trespass went un heeded..

The problem is the idea for the need for absolute safety. Our local Managers (whose job it is to manage the people) must NEVER allow the word ‘Blame’ to appear on their CVs. and they will ignore the rules and laws to to make certain it never happens

When we were children if we hurt ourselves we got a clip from our dads and soon learned to use a longer ‘pokey stick’. 

Mr Crewmech we are not running at ‘production speeds’.  What is wrong?

Edited By Richard Parsons on 14/09/2010 15:32:33

David,

The problem is in the tool’s name. It uses a word which causes All forms of ‘Authorities’, local Safety Managers, the local police, other long noses, who have no business to stuff their oars in but do so, to have the heeby-jeebys and act. This causes problems which will cost the ‘victim’ a lot of worry, heartache, loss of freedom and expense. In the eyes of these folk, for an ordinary citizen to have any knowledge of these things, or even things which are sharp, should be totally forbidden and those who have such knowledge be locked away. One very prestigious museum I know of had to remove all its extensive collection of very old examples of these things from public view. You can only see them by appointment and then only after, I understand quite extensive police checks.

I would suggest that the forbidden name and its associated names (which are also not to be mentioned) are not to be used.  The tool should be re-named as an “Extra deep hole making device”.  We are Model Makers, Engineers or Artificers we are not lawyers so it is best to steer well clear of such things altogether.

Finally it is not illegal to make any form of thing that looks like the ‘thing we must not mention’ so long as it cannot give fire or be EASILY converted to do so. You try telling them that! they will throw away the key.

Three Jaws chucks are not always very accurate and can be tricky to put things back in to it. You can get problems even if you mark the thing. Hence the long screwdriver which is passed up the head pipe of the lathe and is held by a brace of old vine bottle corks. The long ‘driver was made from a bit of an old window stay with a hole drilled up it and the bit old allen key was crimped in.  As my Chinese friend the inspector Mr Wun Thou Wong says 'Keep it simple sirry irrot'  Using the long screw driver you can use the chuck to help you loosen the grub screw which can become very tight as you cut the thread.  It is a good idea to have two nuts and two spanners to help get a finished stud out if it gets too tight during threading.  Tip Do not let the end of the thread get too close to the face of the lantern.

Does the screw have to bigger than the stud –No- but the largest stud you want to make (as I read it) is 6mm so ... Doing it my way you only have to make one chuck.

Why is it called a lantern chuck? It is a clock maker’s name. The original type is used to shorten screws (or re-thread them). Two sides of the business end are filed away so it looks like an old fashioned lantern. These filed holes were used to let the operator put the a screw in (and remove them).

Peter use studding or make your self a lantern chuck. Turn a piece of steel two to three times the length of the threads of the longest stud you are going to make and about 4-6 mm wider than the widest stud you are going to use. Drill and tap (6mm) a blind hole in it to leave just enough metal to allow your shortest stud to screw in and project on the inside of the blind hole. Put it aside somewhere safe

I would then make all of the studs (and a few spares) you need. These will be threaded on one end only.

Put your lantern chuck into the lathe blank end outwards and a grub screw into the blind hole. I always mark the chuck against one of the jaws of my 3-jaw.  This helps to get it back accurately. Drill it and tap for the smallest stud (6BA). Screw in a stud and with a long hex key screw the grub screw up tight (I made mine from a length of scrap with a bit of a cheap hex key and two corks which I push up the head pipe of the lathe). Cut your thread, loosen the grub screw remove the finished stud and repeate. When you have finished all the smallest studs, re-drill and thread the lantern chuck for the next size up.

Edited By Richard Parsons on 08/09/2010 16:02:12

In 1975 I went to the local electricity board showroom. It was at lunch time I asked about 3 phase supply (which was hitched to my house from an underground cable which ran under my back garden without any way-leave}. The girl went to a cupboard looked in and came back. “Have you got a licence?” She asked “no” I said.  “You have to have a licence” she retorted. Before I could ask here where do I apply for a licence? She had vanished. I spent the next few years on and off trying to find out where I got a licence. There was no point in trying to go ‘higher up the tree’ as you would never get past the ‘flack stoppers’.

I would like to read MEWS 168 but it is the end of the holidays so I doubt if I will receive it. I may get 169 in October if ‘they’ have been issued with their winter loin cloths and cleft sticks.etc, but 168 I doubt it.

John Olsen many thanks, I understand your points. I may well look into an auxiliary countershaft, but I am writing a set of logical ideas for such an electronic device and the way it should be used. It would have a limited speed range. Yes It would have one relay yes but that is it. There is a company that provides speed controllers for large AC fans

I will agree with you on the size of the market. However plans are cheap and easy to sell. Part kits (plans and boards) are not so easy, full kits are a bit more difficult and ready to run even more complex in terms work contents etc. There is a very nice place to trade it is a niche market one which can provide a small company with a nice living.

P.S I wanted to edit my last posting but could not. I wanted to add that: -

The calibre of a gun is the ratio of the barrel length to its bore and not its bore.