Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Andrew,

If you go ahead with the Dore design, you'll need some of these:

I found three of these in my 'stash' some time ago while looking for something else. I posted these pix here asking if anyone recognised them but nobody did.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Nige,

The 'Tubal Cain' whose book I cited was the late T.D.Walshaw, a Brit.  The 'Tubal Cain' who makes YouTube videos, aka 'Mr. Pete', is an American.

It seems necessary to point this out every so often.

I've got nothing against his videos but I wish he'd done a bit more research before choosing his pseudonym.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 14/08/2017 19:31:31

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 14/08/2017 19:32:10

As promised (threatened?) I managed to take a few photos this afternoon. They, i.e. the photos, haven't come out too badly considering the sunshine was so bright I couldn't see the viewfinder!

Here goes:

In a lot of cases the mould gets much worse than that shown in the second photo. It can totally cover a spray of fruit and the branch end and leaves, gradually shrivelling the fruit.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Regarding the setting over of the top-slide for screw-cutting, am I the only one who's noticed Tubal Cain's observation (see 'Simple Workshop Devices', page 62) that we're all setting the slide over the wrong way?!?!

He writes that for a right-hand male thread, 'the left-hand flank of the thread cannot touch its mating thread'. So it's the finish on the other flank that's important.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Dennis,

Careful use of a hand-cranked Megger on the 'Ohms' range and a bit of timely inspiration!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Geoff,

Of course you're quite right as far as resistance measurement is concerned. I have a Fluke 8020A which has done very well over the years (once I got Fluke to replace the poisoned LCD display). It still does very well, I keep it for Sundays! I recently replaced its PP9 battery with a long-life lithium based battery of identical envelope. I also have a little hand-cranked Megger whose Ohms range comes in useful for low resistance measurements.

For an 'every day' meter I also have a sub £5 digital multi-meter that is powered from a sub-AAA 12 volt battery - you don't want to leave those switched on by mistake, those batteries are almost as rare as the AVO 8 15 volt battery. Using that instrument's 200 Ohms range seems to flatten the battery.

Regarding the AVO 8, I just like the idea of maintaining it in the condition in which it left the Avo factory. When I bought it in the 1970s for £37 10s from Watts Radio in the Apple Market, Kingston, they were the pinnacle of desire for radio and electronics hobbyists. A few industry colleagues claimed to be able to get me an AVO 8 much more cheaply but theirs wouldn't have come with a document showing indisputable legal ownership!!! I subsequently found both a leather case and even a spare movement in the Lisle Street emporia.

Off topic but it might help someone: be careful when buying a 'tong' multimeter - the cheaper ones only measure AC current via the tong, not DC current!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Clive,

Regarding your AVO 8, have you got a solution for the scarcity of the battery (15 volts) for the high Ohms range?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Dennis,

You might find this thread of interest:

**LINK**

My circuit diagram differs a bit from yours. I didn't need to discover the values of the capacitors or to investigate the motor, my brief was only to replace the faulty NVR.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/08/2017 12:00:34

Thank you to all of you for your replies.

I plan, rain permitting, to take a few photos later today.

Please can anyone (Andrew?) help me to understand the difference between plums and gages?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

We've been asked to dog-sit for our neighbours while they're away for a few days. As a part of the arrangement they gave us license to 'help yourselves to the plums, there are lots and they'll only go to waste. Pick as many as you like.'.

A splendid offer. However, when I got up the ladder among the heavily laden branches I discovered that many of the bunches are badly affected by mould!

These neighbours have two trees, one is a Victoria Plum and I believe the second is a greengage but I'm not sure about that. The Victorias have already been picked. The second tree is, as I have said, heavily laden, some fruit is purple and some is still greeny yellow and firmer.

I'm posting this here because I seem to remember Clive referring to gages in the past but the more replies the merrier.

The fruit I have picked will inevitably have some mould spores - should I wash them or will cooking (plum crumble!!) cope with them? Will the firmer fruit ripen indoors?

My neighbour is not a gardening guru (neither am I) - is there anything he could spray the trees with next year to fend off the mould?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I researched this topic some time ago. Apparently 'the Industry' have managed to get a clause included in the specification for the Smart Meter system that where consumers opt out, their supplier can charge for manual meter reading. This confused me, I thought my tariff standing charge already included an amount to pay for the meter reader?!?! I'm sure the present meter reader isn't doing it for nothing? Surely they wouldn't have the neck to charge me twice?!?!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Max,

Is the boss on the right-hand side of the terminal chamber tapped to take a conduit thread? If so, I suggest you fit a cable gland and route the cable in to the terminal chamber that way rather than through the slot as shown in your initial photo. The gland will provide strain relief and chafe protection as well as sealing. (If the motor is old, you might need an ¾" BSC Imperial to 20 mm Metric conduit thread adaptor.)

I'd reserve the slot for the earth wire to find a suitable connection point on the outside of the motor.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/08/2017 16:54:23

Hi there, Mike,

Your device is the indicator from a tangent galvanometer.

I remember using one during physics lessons at school but that was a long, long time ago!

I suggest you Google 'tangent galvanometer'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Peter,

Last time I looked, all the parts lists and the 'exploded diagrams' for the Myford ML7 (and for the Super Seven) were available as down-loadable .pdf files on the Myford Ltd. web-site. They're organised on a major sub-assembly by sub-assembly basis, e.g. Bed, head-stock, saddle, apron, tail-stock, motorising assembly etc..

I believe that Myford (the new proprietors) still offer the Operating & Installation Instructions (aka driver's handbook) but that also used to be available as a .pdf file in the Files section of the Myford Lathes Yahoo Group. (I don't visit the Yahoo Groups these days - their site software gives my computer acute cyber-lurgi!!!)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Not too off-topic I hope but several years ago my neighbours got a new piano and advertised their old upright for sale. Sadly, there were no takers so I eventually volunteered to take it off their hands and dismantle it for the materials.

It had a cast iron frame. I still have some of that in my stash some 45 years later. It machines beautifully. Its cross-section tempts one to cut a suitable length and transform it into the base/frame of an engineer's level but I already have one of those!

The cast iron frame was supported by a frame of 5" x 4" white pine, no knots to be seen anywhere. I carried that with me through several house moves and carefully kept it in dry storage. I never found a use for it so I gave it to a wood-working friend a couple of years ago. I did early-on use the board that supported the tuning pins, that is beech and forms the front apron of my wood-working bench.

The carcase was veneered poplar, not much re-purposing potential there, and the piano wire strings, once removed, were difficult to store. I don't remember what happened to the keyboard.

Please don't label me 'philistine' or 'vandal', we did all try really really hard to find a musical home for that piano!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

It seems relevant to point out that BSP threads on unions aren't very long - i.e. they're not long enough for the cumulative pitch errors discussed here to get big enough to be a problem.

The shanks of domestic sink & bath taps might, of course, be a different matter. But then, it's not all that many years since they were cut with hand chasers! (Off topic but research 'Barking Brassware'. )

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 23/07/2017 09:44:47

Hi there, Phil,

Your restored lathe looks good.

Did you, as part of the restoration, remove the head-stock? If so, what procedure did you employ on refitting to ensure that the mandrel axis was true to the bed ways?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

But, before you buy, make sure you're comparing like with like. Your present grinder probably has a half-horse motor (maybe continuous-rated) whereas many of the cheapies are rated at 150 Watts or thereabouts and with a 25% duty cycle. When you present the tool-bit to the wheel, you need the grinder RPM to stay high enough for the wheel to cut properly.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

The makers of Cerrobend and Cerromatrix used to make several variants with different melting points. Pedantic, perhaps, but the can't all be the SAME as Wood's metal. I'll admit 'similar'.

I think I have their data sheet somewhere.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my original post. The Ross Courtney component is the one I had in mind. Thanks to your replies, I see that they are still available but the prices quoted have annihilated my interest!

As this is 'my thread', I'll venture off-topic a bit.

Back in the day, I replaced the starter cables in my tinny mini-van with proper cable (Unipren 100) with soldered-on lugs, also by Ross Courtney. I still have a few of those in a tobacco tin somewhere!!!

The vehicle before that, on which I learned to drive, was an Alvis TA14 soft-top - the hydraulic jack that came with that was another Ross Courtney product. The car is long gone (though I hope it might still be on the road somewhere in the care of some enthusiast) but I still have the jack. It employs leather seals and leaks a bit so I don't use it any more.

Thanks again to all respondents.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!