Member postings for Tomfilery

David (Clark),

In the main, I don't experience the problem with posts running under adverts and have seen over the past year, or so, the efforts you put into correcting the causes of this phenomena. What I personally find more annoying than the problem is the people who apparently make no attempt to discover what might be causing the problem, nor how to correct it (by searching previous posts - of which there are loads!), before posting their whingeing comments on the forum attacking both you and the website.

It might be a good idea for you to post a link, or notice, on the Homepage advising people what to do to correct the problem if they do experience it, thereby avoiding those of us who seldom see the issue (and who clearly visit the site often enough to have seen both problem and recommeded solutions) from being subjected to the infantile comments of those throwing their teddies out of their prams.

Might save you some grief in the long run.

Regards Tom

Weldsol,

That had occurred to me, I just haven't got around to it yet.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to respond.

Regards Tom

David,

Many thanks.

I had realised that it might be PGMS and that it could be chopped from longer stock, but I don't think so. I suspect it is silver steel - though I was only going to use it for axles.

Regards Tom

Gents,

Many thanks for your responses.

Have either of you come across ground round steel rod in 13 inch lengths which wasn't silver steel?

Regards Tom

Hi,

I have been given a quantity of what I was told is "key steel" (as in keying pulleys to shafts). The rectangular/ square material is clearly that (and was in packets declaring it as such) in a variety of odd sizes. Does anyone know whether this is likely to just be accurately sized mild steel, or something harder/ stronger? If only mild steel, I'll just use it as stock, but wouldn't really want to waste something more specialised.

The round stock I was given looks to me to be silver steel (drill rod) with a ground finish and in 13 inch lengths. Is there any other type of steel which comes in those lengths anyone is aware of?

Much of the metal has been stored in a damp atmosphere and exhibits some small degree of pitting - though I could still use it for 16mm rolling stock axles, etc.

If anyone has any ideas about the likely composition, or machinability of the material, I'd appreciate your views. I haven't had the chance to try machining any of it myself yet

Regards Tom

Graham,

If you have a "standard" QCTP with two tool positions set at right angles to one another there is a neat trick I saw demonstrated by Jake Sutton on the SMEE stand at Sandown Pk last year. He used a support (as per the Jabus) in the tool position at right angles to the lathe bed axis and a TCT tool in the other position to cut the material. If I recall correctly, he said that once you'd set up the cut (to get the desired diameter), you had to leave the support loose, until everything was running and then lock it in place.

He describes this (and there is a picture of it) in P575 of ME of 21 Oct 2011 - in his article "My 2 1/2 inch Gauge Adventure".

I haven't tried it yet, but thought it looked an excellent idea and less fiddly than the Jabus.

Appreciate that my description may confuse some, but refernce to the article should make it clear.

Regards Tom

Thanks for the repsonses chaps.

Ian SC - yes you do get black fingers from the dust!

Don't think I'll worry about metalurgical testing - looks like others have found they work Ok as material for nornal cast iron components - and I wasn't intending resmelting them!

Regards Tom

Having read this thread, when first posted, I happened to be looking for some material to use as a former for flanging a boiler end plate. At the same time, my 2001 VW needed new rear discs, so I asked the garage to retain one for me, so I could give it a go.

Having now started cutting the disk up, I can report that it seems to be cast iron. Drilling it produced fine silvery flakes (like the iron filings you used as a kid in magnetism experiments), rather than threads of swarf. My disc was worn to 9mm thick - might be useful as raw material for 16mm scale loco wheels!

If any one knows of a simple test to confirm it is cast iron, I'd like to hear from you.

Regards Tom

Mike,

I had exactly the same problem a couple of years ago (recognise things could well have changed since then). I placed an order for some steel, payed by PayPal and then - nothing! I tried phoning and emailing several times - all to no avail. In the end, I raised a dispute through PayPal and got a full refund - though never any expanation as to why I never got any response from Macc.

As per other posters' suggestions, I'd allowed for sickness, holidays, etc., but was just ignored. Haven't attempted to deal with them since.

Regards Tom.

Bernard,

I would recommend that you do NOT use ferric chloride on copper. Ferric chloride is used for etching the copper tracks on printed circuit boards. Richard Parsons is right that it will attack the steel faster, but it will still attack your copper.

I have seen various website posts re the use of Alum to remove steel taps from non-ferrous metals and which appears to be fairly non-aggressive - try googling for that.

Regards Tom