Member postings for Tomfilery

Steve,

The more usual (in small scale locos - you didn't mention the scale or gauge of this one) is for 2 pipes (or more accurately, one through pipe), so that the steam passes through the lubricator, however, some lubricators do use only one.

If you Google "dead leg lubricator", you'll find an explanation. The pipe shouldn't have any U bends in it and should angle roughly downwards from the lubricator along it's length, apparently.

I made one for one of my 16mm scale locos and it didn't work well, so I went back to the conventional "through pipe" type.

Regards Tom

Peter,

Not specifically in 5" gauge, but there is a WD D type at http://www.wdlr.org.uk/wdlr/drawings.htm which claims to be drawn at 1:24 scale. If it hasn't been scaled down to fit a web page, you could scale up all dimensions, though would probably need to sketch it all out yourself.

If someone had a CAD version they had already drawn, then you could ask them to scale it up for you.

Regards Tom

John,

I would assume so (though we all know what assuming makes of us). You would have to check by measurement.

The cross slide dial shows reduction in DIAMETER, i.e. twice the depth of cut.

My dial is stamped in multiples of 5 (from 0 to 35), each 5 representing 0.5mm removed from the diameter, i.e. advancing the tool 0.25mm. So one complete revolution advances the tool 2mm, removing 4mm from the diameter.

I checked this with my DTI. Topslide is different with each 5 of the dial representing a move of 0.25mm.

Regards Tom

John,

The dimensioned drawing is in the book as part of the four facet grinding accessory on page 124.

Regards Tom

Chris,

I sometimes do it the hard way - i.e. cut from solid!

It all depends on what kit you have. If you have a rotary table and pillar drill/ mill it becomes relatively easy - oh, and have access to CAD so you can plan where all the holes have to go!

I make railway models in 16mm/foot scale and wanted to make some Irish 3 foot gauge wagons. I couldn't get suitable sized spoked wheels (finished tread size 32mm dia), so I made my own.

I first drew the wheels out in Turbocad and then messed around with hole diameters and positions to create something near to what was needed. A key thing was to position all holes on whole degrees around the wheel (just to keep it simple when whizzing the rotary table round). Having drilled the holes, I put a mill in the drill chuck (naughty me - but if you are careful it is Ok) and removed the bulk of the unwanted material - again, I used Turbocad to work out where to place the mill and only plunged a single hole (rather than attempting to mill a shape). See the picture below and it should make sense. Each triangle is made up of three holes (where spokes meet the rim or hub) and a central, larger hole where I plunged the milling cutter.

Having got my roughed out spokes (on the left above) I then filed them to shape (the one on the right). It took just over an hour per wheel and I did it whilst on holiday, away from my machine tools (I do have a vice in my holiday home). A not very good picture of the result is below.

It is a lot of work, but satisfying. Just for a laugh I did a split spoke wheel as well - the third picture in my Wheels album.

As Jason B pointed out, if the loco has outside frames, you aren't going to see much of the spokes, so you are more likely to get away with plain spokes (rather than oval)

Hope this helps

Regards Tom

hi,

8mm watchmaker collets use a thread which is 0.275" x 40 tpi and you can buy a suitable die for that thread, I don't know if that might help you, though I suspect you might find yourself no better than you already are in that the die might not tighten enough to bring the thread down to 0.225". Might be worth a go if your other options come to naught.

RDG Tools have them in their Watchmaker Tools section under 8mm Boley lathe accessories.

Regards Tom

Guys,

I'm really sorry, but it has to be said - you all need to get out more!

Drooling over a bloody scriber - get a life!

Tom

Andrew,

Calm down dear!

I have a cheap oil gun, bought on ebay which doesn't leak and works fine - though it was definitely sold as an "oil gun" - some claim to do both oil and grease and so I avoided them. However, the problem might be that you need to look at your nipples (oooerrr missuss)!

Whilst the original Myford were still in existence I bought a set of replacement nipples from them. The original ones on my S7 (1956 vintage) had a flat top and made it difficult to get a good seal between the gun and nipple. The replacement ones (spherical top) work fine. There was one nipple I couldn't replace (for oiling the clutch) as there was insufficient room to mount the new one. For that one I made a brass adaptor to screw onto the end of the oil gun.

Regards Tom

Bandersnatch,

Might I offer an alternative viewpoint?

I do agree that there is nothing worse than an evangelical convert preaching that they have "seen the light and ye all must follow", however, the majority of the inputs to this thread to the OP were along the lines of "I sympathise with you, found myself in a similar position and now use this", rather than, as you appeared to read, "you are an idiot for using Windows, so it serves you right".

Were it not for threads such as these show that alternative operating systems are useable, one might be forgiven for thinking that Microsoft was the only option. It was as a result of a similar thread a couple of years ago that I actively looked into Linux and realised that it was a viable alternative operating system (though not perfect) and that you didn't have to be a programmer to make it work. As a result of that thread I now do most of my computing in Ubuntu and use Windows for very little.

I thought Peter Shaw gave a good explanation as to why he moved from Windows, based on his personal experience, and he was sympathetic to Clive (the OP) . Whilst I admit Peter's input didn't resolve Clive's primary problem, I would hope it gave him food for thought and encouraged him to seek alternatives to Windows. If threads had to restrict themselves to answering the OPs initial question, most on this forum would be very short.

Regards Tom

Clive,

I too, feel your pain as I went through something similar when I bought my wife (at her request) a Microsoft Surface computer (a couple of years ago). We ended up thoroughly confused and with two different accounts on the computer with different access rights. It was easier to leave them as set up than attempt to change them.

As SillyOldDuffer points out, Microsoft use the word "account" for so many different things that it is almost impossible to know which account they are referring to, unless you are really up on the semantics.

When Microsoft introduced Windows 8, they seemed to be trying to compete with Mac and adopted a " you don't need a manual for a Mac, we'll do the same" attitude. In my view, what they should have done was provide a document detailing where experienced Windows users would find the usual controls etc. Eventually, they had to relent and reinstate the Windows Desktop (which was there, but you had to look for it). I felt, at the time, that if I was running a business using Windows XP, there would be no way I'd have upgraded without Microsoft providing a significant training package for my staff. I suspect they lost a lot of business as a result.

I was so disgusted with their apparently cavalier attitude to customers (you will use it how we want you to use it, rather than how you want to use it) that I gradually started doing more and more in Ubuntu (Linux). I can boot into either Windows, or Ubuntu and I'm currently finding my way around Oracle's VirtualBox, which allows me to run Windows programs inside Ubuntu (in a Windows session). I'm just starting with my Windows TurboCad and Finale Guitar (music software) inside the VitrtualBox and am finding they run Ok (so far). It's not for the faint-hearted, but can be made to work with a little perseverance.

Don't give up. There are other ways to skin your cat (so to speak).

Regards Tom

Clive,

I've 2 suggestions:-

a. For about £15 you could get someone to make you and inking stamp with your custom wording on it (though you might have to mess around finding the best paint/ink to do the job)

b. Get your local vinyl cutter to do your wording. They do massive stuff for van sides, etc., but can also do small stuff. A mate of mine has his local chap do lettering for the sides of his 16mm/foot rail wagons and vans, varying between 20mm and 4mm high. You have to pick off the "surplus" bits from within and around the required text within 1 hour, but can then fix your new lettering whenever you chose - and it is all correctly spaced and aligned (unlike Letraset).

Regards Tom

Michael,

Sorry, but you still have it wrong, I'm afraid.

As you correctly say, the laser will not touch the copper. All he is doing is using the laser to burn away the paint, so that the ferric chloride can get at the thin copper film on the insulator and etch it away. So, everywhere the laser has burned away the paint, the copper will be exposed. Where there is only untouched paint, the ferric chloride cannot etch and the copper will remain intact.

Hope this is now clear.

Regards Tom

Michael,

I presume that he has missed out some words and that what he actually meant was that he painted a piece of copper-clad printed circuit board material and therefore, all he was doing was burning the paint off with the laser, so that the ferric chloride could get at the copperand etch it away. PCB material is an insulator with a thin layer of copper attached to one or both sides.

There a quite a few people doing their pre-etch "marking out" that way with many references to it on the web.

Regards Tom

Michael,

See my post of 19/04/2016 above and JS' response a couple below it!

Regards Tom

Russell,

Many thanks - although SP1 doesn't make specific mention of having fixed that particular mouse problem - I'll give it a go in a couple of weeks when I'm back out there.

Regards Tom

Hi all,

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but does anyone know of any CAD software (apart from Draftsight) which will run on Ubuntu and which allows dxf files with multiple paper spaces to be viewed? All the free ones I've tried don't and either just ignore the multiple paper spaces, or deposit all the components therein into large pile on the model space. Other programs allow some (but not all) of the paper spaces to be viewed under blocks.

I've used model space for the complete drawing and have put the individual components and dimensions in separate sheets in paperspace, hence my reason for wanting to maintain those sheets.

I spend part of the year abroad and use a pc overseas which has the "lagging mouse" problem (which seems to be down to needing a faster pc to run DraftSight). My original files were created, over quite some time, in TurboCad, but my general disgust with Microsoft's approach to their customers means I'm using Windows less and less and Ubuntu more.

I'm a hobbyist and so don't want to spend hundreds of pounds on professional, commercial, products.

Grateful for any thoughts you might have.

Regards Tom

Brian,

As per a MEW from a couple of years ago, IIRC Tony Jeffree (I'm pretty sure it was he) restored a Cowells lathe (and serialised it). One of the first things he did was to buy a new spindle with the 14 x 1 thread, so that he could use cheap(er) alternative chucks, faceplates, etc. as made for the Unimat and similar.

Perhaps a call to Cowells to investigate the cost of a spindle would be worthwhile?

Regards Tom

Hi,

I'm running Ubuntu on a dual-boot laptop which enables me to boot in either Ubuntu or Windows (8.1). I tend to use Ubuntu for email and most of my browsing, using Firefox. Over the past couple of weeks, I found access to the Yahoo fora almost impossible, but seem to have sorted it out now.

I got a clue to the potential problem when I booted in Windows and logged in to Yahoo from there. I was greeted with a massive advert which wouldn't go away, though once I finally managed to delete it, I could more or less get around the two fora I'm a member of.

Today, I added "Ublock origin" to my Ubuntu Firefox, as an addin and with no setting up found that when I logged back into Yahoo groups, all seemed pretty much back to normal. I'm sure the ad blocker will cause some problems further down the line, however, for now at least, it seems to have sorted the Yahoo Groups problem.

Hope this helps some of the others who have posted here.

Regards Tom

Hi,

My experience with "Dixon type" toolholders (not actual Dixon ones) echoes that of Cotswolds Phil (CP).

My Soba toolpost works OK, but buying additional toolholders can be a pretty hit and miss affair! I'm fortunate in that Chronos is around thirty-five minutes from me and when I've found ones which wouldn't fit my toolpost, I've taken them back. Last time that happened, I took my toolpost with me and tried on different holders until I found ones which fitted and locked at around the 40 - 50% mark (using CP's description above).

This obviously wasn't unusual, as when I explained that none of the latest Soba batch on their bench would fit, they produced a box of others with pretty much all of them fitting.

I'm not having a go at Chronos (who were extremely helpful) but it appears that there must be considerable variations in the manufacturer's quality control, or build spec. Just something to watch out for when buying additional toolholders.

I have a problem with my parting off toolholder (which came with the original set} and which moves under load. I haven't yet investigated, but it clearly has a fit issue along the lines were are currently discussing!

Regards Tom

David (and Jason if he sees this),

How did you fix the Celotex to the door, please?

Regards Tom