By continuing to use this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more

Member postings for Clive Hartland

Here is a list of all the postings Clive Hartland has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.

<< First < Prev 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 Next > Last >>
Thread: brass wire mesh in 1mm weave
26/04/2011 19:44:06
I have a requirement to make some new baskets for our Ultrasonic tank.
The old ones have now worn away on the bases with the activity.
I have been searching on the net and some of the prices for a Sq Mtr of brass mesh are frightening. One was £201 pre Sq Mtr, one I found at £48 per.
Does anyone know of a better source that can supply smaller pieces?
I have tried all the normal traders like Reeves and Arc Euro and Chronos.
 
Clive
Thread: Magnetised tools
26/04/2011 19:39:08
Thank you for all the comments about the magnetised tools, I am going to persaude my work partner to buy one of the de-guassing boxes from Farnell or Maplins.
 
Clive
25/04/2011 18:59:59
Suddenly I have a lot of tools both on the bench and on the lathe becoming magnetised!
Toolbits laid in the tray come up with a load of whiskers, any ideas?
 
Screwdrivers on the bench the same, laid down and then picked up and again whiskers on the edge.
 
I have no magnetic chucks, no magnetic stands or clamps. All very strange.
If I give the tool a knock it clears itself.
 
Clive
Thread: Technical and engineering drawing.
24/04/2011 11:14:37
I am more inclined to think that the older generation (Us) had better basic skills as we had it included in our education syllubus.
We then went into industry/work with the ability to carry out these basic skills and learnt on from them.
One of the hardest things I had with a steep learning curve was to convert to the electronic testing of Theodolites, I would go home with my head bizzing.
In consequence I started to build my own PC and learn the basics which in the early 80's cost me an arm and leg. My first PC plus printer was some £1500, a 386. I still have it but now I have made about five PC's and do not look back.
The rate of change in the equipment we sold changed almost monthly and of course we had to learn the new equipment on the trot as you might say.
Technological advances and miniturisation being the watchwords coupled with reduced power consumption to allow a full days work on one battery!
Some of us specialised in one type and others were more generally applied as they had more skills in the machining and basics of engineering instrument wise.
I just found it hard to get the young ones to accept the basics and to follow protocols laid down.
Some of the basics would be the upkeep of the ultrasonic tanks which the young workers would not deal with and it was left to the older ones to clean and replenish.
This was annoying as the younger ones were the ones that would contaminate the tanks and not care. They were expensive to run being Freon or Chlorothene.
Another thing I found was that they would go to a pub at lunch time and drink and by mid afternoon were drowsy and useless.
Anyway they are days gone by and now I am retired I no longer care and just do my thing,
I hear from the firm occasionally about the goings on and whats happening and it is all changed completely, centers of exellence I am told,and then I wonder why they send the work down to me in an ancillary firm a hundred miles away?
 
Clive
23/04/2011 22:05:48
Looking at the young of today I have found that there is a distinct lack of interface between hand and brain, yes, they can use computers and digital TV items and enjoy sending highly significant text and pictures to each other. But! give them a monotonous detailed job and within minutes they are off on a jaunt.
I had the hardest job trying to get or even find likely candidates for apprentice training and in the end only had one when we needed at least four to fill situations within three to five years. (We had to make do with older candidates to fill posts and teach them up!)
Teaching them the basics of engineering, filing, drilling, thread cutting and trying to instil this knowledge was an uphill climb as they could not remember constants from one day to the next.
As for trying to instil knowledge of Optics in conjunction with electronics was a nightmare situation.
Then letting them loose on a machine was not possible as I am sure they would jhave lost digits or even maimed themselves, again through lack of knowledge and experience. No way could they grind a tool!
In fact, this single apprentice attained a City and Guilds cert. and immediately de-camped to work on the then Southern Rail (Connex) as a signal technician, Since then I have not been on a train.
 
As regards to Technical Drawings, I forever found errors and had to vet everything that came through carefully to check for errors.
Worst was sending off circuit diagrams for printed circuits and receiving a mirror image circuit boards from a reputable board maker, not once but several times. Cant get the staff they say but they still drive around in big cars that I could not afford.
 
With drawings for modelling use, they are mainly drawn up by amaturers for amature use and errors or conception of design do not get layed down properly in 2d or envisaged in 3d.
I have found several errors in an expensive set of Loco drawings and received much the same comment when seeking clarification about them as other posters have found.
Working through the drawing I was soon able to make a correction to make it work.
 
I have Geometric and Technical Drawing qualifications and actually passed the exam when I was 15, achieving a Distinction, they had never awarded 100% so I was marked at 98%. It has never had any effect on job application and has never been referred to.
 
Mention has been made of our early years of model airplane making and how much we learned from that. Deisel and Glo-plug engines taught me nearly all I needed to know about vehicle engines and instilled a desire to learn as much as I could about such things so that I am now fully independant and can repair anything I need to,
But you do not see that now! Its a throw away society and its 'Easy-come-Easy-go'.
 
I do not think it matters which angle a drawing is set in 1st or 3rd angle, being able to interpret the physical shape/outline and the hidden detail is able to be put off to one side on a seperate sheet if need be.
Tolerances are fine but in any case you still need to follow a Norm. be it DIN or a current Uk Norm. Nobody seems to know, but DIN Norm is pretty standard and easy to follow.
In my work I have to work in Deutsche text and sometimes the translations do not come through very well and I have to amend to correct them.
Some of the drawings of the Theodolites are extremely detailed and can take some considerable study to see how parts are functioning and it is all hidden detail. I wish I could post one to show it.
 
One aspect I have not seen mentioned is that the last Gobment did away with Tech. colleges where students did engineering as a part of their studies, woodwork was a nice afternoons work for me and I slipped classes to stay in the engineering dept. until I was able to leave school and join the army at 14.
So we now have at least a generation of people who have no concept of model making nor knowledge of how to read a drawing so ergo we get rubbish drawings from them.
 
Clive, long post I know
 
Thread: Precision Tailstock Alignment
23/04/2011 11:56:31
It has just come to me, how do they bore out the quill shaft hole in the tailstock?
Is there some boreing tool that can travel and be driven from the headstock?
 
mgj's idea sounds good but possibly bore a few mm oversize and make a sleeve and fix in place and then bore that to take the existing quill shaft, later true up the taper from the headstock with an MT reamer.
This will bring it all up to the headstock height and also bring it in line.
 
I think that the idea that the tailstock has been switched at some time is more than feasable and no doubt there is someone else out there iether oblivious of a problem or who is also seeking an answer.
 
Clive
Thread: Balancing bench grinding wheels
22/04/2011 16:20:36
I think I will try that david, sounds a good idea but I will have to make some bench space first as I am at the moment up to my ears in bee stuff and boxes taking all the space.
 
Clive
22/04/2011 15:43:03
I bought a small grinder from B & Q and it ran awful! Vibration and wheel wobble.
My first thought was to remove the wheels and I was surprised to find two dished pressed metal washers on iether side of each wheel. Non of them were, how can I put it, true.
I made up four new ones from bar and put them on thinking it will run true now, No, it did not. My next thought was to dress the wheels which I did with my diamond stick.
Result was it vibrated more, so I live with it in that state and it is only used as a roughing grinder anyway.
Balancing grindstone wheels is easy enough, you need a parallel knife rest and a bar to fit the bore and set it on the parallels and see what happens. I am dubious about removing any part of the wheel to balance and what else can you stick on that will sit tight?
 
Clive
Thread: Nickel Plating
20/04/2011 09:09:14
Some years back I went to a firm callled Star plating as they were the only ones who would do small batch colour anodising, they were doing it in rubber buckets!
It all came out very good depth of colour.
Perhaps there is a pointer here as a DIY job.
I would think that any process will do as long as the end result is satisfactory.
 
Clive
20/04/2011 07:43:56
Ramon, when I went to my Anodiser he was using' Tin' as the cathode. Later he went onto something else and I bought the 'Tin' off of him to utilize in my bullet casting to get a 5% tin content in the bullets.
I made a profit by selling it on to the other shooters.
I know that he used Titanium holders as the customer was critical about the marks left by other means.
I have always assumed that the Anodising process was modified by the electrolyte used.
One point to bear in mind is that an Anodiser is after conformity or his customer will start making noises, so a continuous process has to be monitered very carefully whereas we who want small items done are not too worried by that.
 
Clive
19/04/2011 19:11:01
I dont know how I missed the lead and always get the Anode and cathode mixed up!
The Chromic acid vapours exhausted to outside kills trees anyway.
No wonder I have Asthma breathing all that muck in.
 
Clive
19/04/2011 16:35:08
Graham has mentioned that some members may not know about Anodising and what it is.
Anodising is a surface treatment on Aluminium to give a hard durable surface and to give a cosmetic effect.
Anodising is non-conducting and would require penetration into the base metal to achieve contact.
The treated surface is extremely hard and does in fact add strength to a component.
AA25 will affect lathe tools and cause wear of the cutting edge.
 
The process is by etching the aluminium surface in a bath of hot caustic for a stipulated time to give a depth of etching which is then rated as an AA rating. I have only used three ratings, AA5, AA15 and AA25. I seem to remember these are Microns. correct me on this.
 
The articles are then place in a bath of sulphuric or Chromic acid and the anodes are Tin or Stainless steel. (maybe wrong) This process puts back a depth of surface and again is time sensitive. Important if items have to fit together.
 
After this they can be place in a dye, Black, red, Gold, Blue and other colours which penetrate the open pores of the anodised Aluminium.
 
The final process is to seal the surface of the coating and there are commercial solutions that do this. It is possible to coat the surface with PTFE as well!
 
Items that are Anodised are Water bottles in colour and shop fronts and I think the Audi car made of Alu is anodised as well.
 
If anyone wants to jump in please do so.
 
Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 19/04/2011 16:37:43

18/04/2011 21:29:05
Whatever method of plating Ramon tries he may have trouble obtaining the chemicals in small quantities.
As I think you are after a cosmetic effect then the simplest method will be best.
As an aside, electro plating of copper and nickel including Chrome is porous.
The nice shiny effect of chrome is obtained by polishing the Nickel base and plating onto it with the chrome. This is also polished but sometimes it fails as most of us have seen the chrome peeling off our shiny bumpers.
The plating foreman would soon reject anything not up to his standard and was a patient man and would show how it was done , once!
I did in fact cadmium plate all the bolts and nuts on my m/cycle, passivated, they were not dangereous. The lustre of cadmium is sadly missed and only aircraft components are now cadmium plated.
We also had plating stripping baths and I occasionally 'Lost' a job by forgetting it was in there and it was dissolved to a wafer!
One of the main jobs was cleaning and replating the hammer and letter bars off Creed Teleprinters and they all had to be kept in sets.
There was also a degreaser/ paint killer bath called Magnus 755 which would take all the carbon off a cylinder head and return it like new metal. Better to see all the cracks and faults. Gunged up Diesel pistons came out like new as well.
My six months in the plating shop gave me a great insight into preserving of metal and the cosmetic finishes that could be done.
Now of course H & S have all but killled the job.
Later in my Leica service I became involved in Anodizing, and luckily made good friends with the shop operator and learnt all there was to learn of tolerances allowed for the thickness of anodizing. All my maching was in HE30 and was anodized. AA15 or AA25 depending on the location it would be used in.
 
Clive
Thread: Cutting fluids
18/04/2011 14:59:09
I have never had an odour problem with cutting fluid at the 20 to 1 mix. Add the oil to the water and it does not globulise and this may be the problem.
It does get adulterated with lube oil from the machines and this can be skimmed off if it gets too much.
 
Clive
Thread: Nickel Plating
18/04/2011 08:07:58
Ramon, Nickel plating requires a base metal to plate onto so you will need to copper plate first.
I spent six months as part of my army tech. training in a plating shop at Donnington workshops and learnt a lot of basic skills there. Cleanliness both physical and chemical is paramount.
Another item is that the base layer , copper is polished to give a polished nickel layer.
Straight nickel will give a slightly rough surface.
Perhaps you should consider using stainless steel for the components or another alternative is Zinc plated and passivated.
All the processes involve an acid dip which will etch the surfaces.
Stainless steel is the way to go I think.
I sem to remember that most of the spraybars were made of brass in my engines of yesteryear, in fact I had to make a couple of them as some of my crashes were a bit spectacular and bits got broken.
I have also carried out black chrome work which still requires copper plating before being done, the copper is brushed off leaving a beautiful shining black finish which is all but impenetratable. This method was used on the components of the big guns recuperators to stop corrosion.
 
Clive
Thread: VFD Drives
17/04/2011 16:01:03
I have had a VFD unit fitted to my bench drill for some 20 years odd. I did at first have an interferance which I chased back through the screened cable to the clamp inside the VFD unit which had come loose.
Since then no problem.
I hooked up with a screened five core cable which is easy to get and it is earthed at the machine end.
 
Clive
Thread: Darjeeling Himilayan locomotive
16/04/2011 22:13:04
Hey, I printed it off and it took 22 sheets for the instructions and about 22 sheets of card for the model.
Just made it with the magenta ink cartridge warning it was running out!
I am into card models and have made lots over the years.
I cannot get my grandsons interested, they would rather fiddle with their electronic games, etc.
Be aware that there are two different scale models on offer!
 
Clive
Thread: Machinable Ceramics
16/04/2011 22:07:10
Have you ever considered using Mica as an insulator, I remember in my youth seeing spak plugs with mica insulators on old farm engines.
Another thing to try might be fire clay, I expect its still available and it would conform with any 'locking in' shape you use. They use it on gas hobs to hold the Piezo igniters in place.
Corien, I have a sheet about 12" x 12" which I am willing to donate to the worthy cause of spark plug advancement.
I can cut it into small pieces if needed. All I would need is an address.
 
Clive
Thread: oil filtering
15/04/2011 19:54:55
As soluble oil is an emulsion it will not filter very well in an inline filter. Heed what mgj says and do the magnet trick, obviously it will not pick up non ferrous.
The alternative is use some muslin cloth and bag up the end of the inlet.
I have always had a metal basket under the inlet in the tank which catches 75% of the junk that gets washed down.
Thats why they are called settling tanks so that the fluid can dump the heavy bits and be re-cycled through the pump.
 
Clive
Thread: Horizontal Milling With Inclinable Head Machine
14/04/2011 14:18:57
The whole principle of a vertical mill is that you use iether endmills or shellend mills using a suitable arbor.
Side cutting in the right direction in the vertical mode is normal.
Setting the head to say 90 deg. for certain operations is also normal. Drilling holes in the 90deg. mode is one operation I do.
Very seldom have I had to use the head set to an odd angle. Chamfers are done in the vertical setting using a 45deg. tool and of course slideways are done with the right cutter in the vertical mode.
Slots are cut with a slot cutter and 'Tee' ways are then opened out in the vertical mode.
I have used shellend mills on big jobs, mainly alu. or brass.
The same applies to large dia. ie. 2 to 3 inch cutters. These normally used to generate flat surfaces or just to remove waste metal.
No biggy here at all. Experience will show how and what to do and how to apply it.
The size of the machine and the power available governs what tool and how you use it.
Rigidity is another factor and locking up clamps and slides. You will occasionally get a kick back from the job and tool you are using which may upset the clamped settings.
Tool speed is another factor and blunt tools that bounce and chatter.
 
clive
<< First < Prev 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 Next > Last >>
Magazine Locator

Want the latest issue of Model Engineer or Model Engineers' Workshop? Use our magazine locator links to find your nearest stockist!

Find Model Engineer & Model Engineers' Workshop

Sign up to our Newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter and get a free digital issue.

You can unsubscribe at anytime. View our privacy policy at www.mortons.co.uk/privacy

Latest Forum Posts
Support Our Partners
cowells
Sarik
MERIDIENNE EXHIBITIONS LTD
Shopping Partners
Subscription Offer

Latest "For Sale" Ads
Latest "Wanted" Ads
Get In Touch!

Do you want to contact the Model Engineer and Model Engineers' Workshop team?

You can contact us by phone, mail or email about the magazines including becoming a contributor, submitting reader's letters or making queries about articles. You can also get in touch about this website, advertising or other general issues.

Click THIS LINK for full contact details.

For subscription issues please see THIS LINK.

Digital Back Issues

Social Media online

'Like' us on Facebook
Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter
 Twitter Logo

Pin us on Pinterest

 

Donate

donate