Member postings for 1

Today I started on converting a warm and well lit home office into a warm and well lit model engineering workshop.

What passes for my current workshop is the end of a draughty and uninsulated garage with very little natural light and the office is very lightly used due to impending retirement. I have done very little in my shop for the last 4 weeks or so since freezing my wossnames off in pursuit of a hobby seemed a bit extreme so casting around for somewhere better suited I lit on the office and the decision seemed to be what our former colonial subjects would call a "no brainer".

There is some electrical work to install power sockets at bench height, a bench to make, which will be a 3 metre long kitchen worktop, and some shelves to put up. After that move the lathe and mill/drill and away we go. Hopefully I should be set up again just in time for Spring!

Jim

I also have a WM 16 and to clarify Bazyle's post the drawbar is a captive arrangement (avoids bashing the top of it wiv an ammer to release your tooling). To cater for different arbors and chucks Warco supplied 2, one at 3/8 Whit and the other at M10. I have used both.

Jim

Bob

Maybe I haven't been doing this long enough or maybe I'm just lucky but my mistakes so far (and there have been a few) haven't cost me a great deal in financial terms. What gets my goat is the investment in time and care that disappears, usually in a split second, to be followed often with the question "What on earth did I do that for?".

On my current project I am actually retaining the spoilt bits as a kind of reminder to take more care instead of my usual practice of binning them straight away.

All part of the joys of model engineering I guess.

Jim

Thank goodness it's your eyes Kwil, I thought it was mine!

Win, I have seen requests such as yours on here in the past and the impression I get from previous responses is that the people on here, like me, are mostly hobbyists (emphasize "mostly" for the benefit of John Stevenson, who I hope will not take offence at my dig!). Although there may be many who are capable of producing what you need we prefer to spend our time, that most valuable of assets, pursuing our hobby not manufacturing what look to me like car speedo drives.

Maybe some kind soul will help you out but it isn't going to be me and I suspect your best option is to approach a commercial small engineering company. Best of luck.

Jim

I log on usually on a daily basis but I would not say that this forum is "vital" to me, it's only my hobby after all. I also look at other forums where build logs are more prevalent and sometimes give me an idea of what I should be aspiring to and sometimes give me ideas for tools and set ups.

However I find the ME site invaluable for the breadth of the subjects discussed and the wide experience of it's contributing members. For all its software faults I would definitely miss it were it to disappear.

Jim

Thank you all for your input. Looks like I have my next project lined up.

Jim

For my next project I am considering Mogens Kilde's Double Diagonal engine as serialised in ME No 4383 - 4394 starting in Aug 2010. However it is a little on the small side for my taste so I would like to make it a bit bigger, say 1.5 times drawing. I know little of actual design or drawing and since Mogens has drawn it in metric units it would seem to be a straightforward case of increasing all measurements by 50%.

Does the team think my simplistic approach will work or are there complications that I will only find when I get in to making swarf or even worse when I try to run it?

Jim

Whether you use a positive locking device such as your castellated nut and split pin or a secondary lock such as the stiffnut suggestion depends on several things. Firstly the requirements of what you are making, a scale appearance for instance. Then there are the likelehood and consequences of the nut coming loose and then the difficulty of manufacture. Drilling the hole for a pin would seem to me to be no more difficult than making a clean looking slot in the side of a 5/32 nut. The easiest would be an appropriate grade of thread locking adhesive, again dependant on usage conditions and bearing in mind that once it is used disassembly and reassembly , although far from impossible, is not straightforward.

Jim

Whether drain cocks are necessary depends also on what medium will be used to run the engine. I have 2 Stuart 10s which I run on compressed air and then drain cocks are not at all needed.

When painting my engines I used Stuart paints and found that it went on well without primer and seems to be lasting OK. Again, if the engine is to be run on steam it may be different.

Jim

Hi Al

I have a Warco mill which I used reasonably successfully for about 18 months. Then I noted the advice from many different posters on here in many different threads who were largely of the same opinion, that a DRO transforms mill operation. I now have a magnetic track DRO from Machine DRO, whose advert appears on the right of this page, on the X and Y axes of my mill. The downside is the cost of this system but having considered some of the cheaper options with small displays and scales which were not fully proof against ingress of moisture (such as cutting fluid) I am more than pleased with what I have.

It has many different functions (most of which I haven't used yet), a large display and easily useable programming buttons. The first and most obvious benefit is that I no longer need to consider the problem of leadscrew backlash when moving the table. I no longer mark out my work as comprehensively as before, using the DRO to position the job and using the marking as a confidence check only. I would say definitely go for it and get the best you can afford, it can always be transferred if you upgrade the mill later.

I cannot comment on 2 or 3 channel as my mill has an electronic depth display built in so I never even considered the Z axis but I am sure others will be along shortly with more advice based on more experience than mine.

Jim

Thanks for the continuing interest. I had planned on slightly changing the design of the straps to form them each from a single piece of metal and avoid the need to solder. However the thickness still has to be 4mm to fit the already made eccentric sheaves. Jason, if I could produce what you have shown in your link I would be a very happy bunny indeed but I need a heck of a lot more practice to get anywhere near that standard.

I hadn't realised that there would be a warping effect from taking metal from one side only of a bar and as the overall length of my straps will be 43mm I will watch out for it. My need for a 300 mm strip was to allow me to clamp the material at the ends and still make 2 straps and have the luxury of 1 scrap.

I have now ordered a 3/16" bar from Macc Models.

Jim

I didn't really want to thin down an imperial size because turning brass into swarf seems to be an expensive hobby best avoided if possible but that seems the way I will go.

Thanks for all suggestions.

Jim

Evening all

I'm building Bogstandard's Paddleduck engine and I have got as far as the eccentric straps. The plan calls for 4mm thick brass 21mm wide and I reckon a strip 300mm long would suit.

I have been unable to locate any such size, can anyone give me a steer to a supplier please?

Jim

Andyf, are you sure she is taking a sock out and not putting an extra one in just to wind you up?

Jim

I don't have a Myford, for one thing I enjoy my hobby on a limited budget and at the time I bought my chinese lathe couldn't see that a Myford would be 10 times better to justify the price being 10 times as much as what I paid.

I cannot comment on the standard of the Myford spares that RDG sells but I do know that in this world you generally get what you pay for and the prices that RDG and other similar retailers charge for their offerings allow me to continue to enjoy model engineering. It's true I have had faulty goods from RDG but I have found that their response to my complaints has been first class . Let us not condemn a business for seeking to make a profit, they are not in it for fun after all. It's a sad day when any company has to shut it's doors but what do we think would have been the outcome if RDG had not bought Myford? It is unlikely that a kind hearted philanthropist would have bought it and proceeded to carry on as before making a loss but keeping Myford owners happy. If you don't like dealing with RDG then go elsewhere, as you say ultimately the only power we have is the power to walk away.

Of course, you could always set up a business making "Compatible" spares in the UK to the standard you would like.

Here's a quick heads up for you if you go Christmas shopping on your own over the next few weeks. I got done at Milton Keynes Centre shopping mall but I imagine they’re working at all the big shopping centers.

Here's how the scam works: two seriously good-looking young women come over to your car as you are lifting your shopping into the boot. They both start wiping your windscreen with a rag and suds, with their boobs almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank them and offer to pay, they say "no" and instead ask you for a lift as far as the bus stop. You agree and they get into the back seat. On the way, they take their tops off. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen on November 3rd, 10th, twice on the 11th and three times just yesterday.

Jim

As Jason says personal preference comes to the fore in the choice between horizontal or vertical engines, the making of bits is the making of bits whichever configuration they are going tio end up in.

I finished a 10V a couple of months ago as my second project and used both Harold Hall's series in ME and the published booklet (which was primarily bought because it had the drawings converted to metric measurement) for guidance. I found that in many instances I took advice from the 2 sources and then found my own way of doing things. The Standard, or "A" frame, posed no particular difficulties in milling the feet and cylinder mounting face and as you are working at College I guess you will have access to a milling machine as well as a lathe.

I also have a 10H which I assembled from a ready machined kit and find that they are both equally fascinating to watch running. It really matters not what you build as long as you do it as well as you can and at the end see the thing spinning over. The sense of achievement is surprisingly gratifying.

Jim

Nicely done Gary.

I also started with one of these and found it very rewarding when it ran. I think it is a brilliant first project as it has building tips with the drawings and also is drawn in metric units unlike many older wobbler designs. I went on to a Stuart 10V and now I'm working on John "Bogstandard" Moore's Paddleduck twin.

It would be nice to send a picture of your engine to the designer who has a page on his site for them to encourage others.

Jim

Terry

You seem to have come under a lot of fire for attempting to draw the attention of newbies such as I to possible shortcomings in products from the cheaper end of the scale. I for one have noted this particular pitfall and may well profit from your lesson. Thank you for posting. Nuff said?

Jim