Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

I recently added my congratulations to Mark Rea's thread concerning his first model - a Grasshopper Beam Engine.

In my post, I referred to the Grasshopper engine that originally powered the chain ferry across the River Itchen in Southampton.

It was my further intention to add a picture of that engine, I have one somewhere but, as of writing this, I can't find it! What I did find was a list of references to the Grasshopper Engine in the pages of Model Engineer. Here it is:

It was easier to add the list as a scan than to retype it in this post! There may be other references since 1958. If I can find the picture of the Southampton engine, I will add it to this thread.

I've chosen to start a new thread rather than adding to Mark's thread in the hope that it will be easier for the search function to find the information.

Mark refers to his engine as 'Elmer's Grasshopper'; most of the references I have are to the 'Easton-Amos Grasshopper'. Comments welcome.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Mark,

I congratulate you on your Grasshopper build.

For various reasons, despite being a reader of ME for a long time and a member of this forum, also for a long time, and having made a great deal of swarf, I have never built an engine! If I had, my first choice would have been a Grasshopper; I still have an envelope of drawings for one in my filing 'system'.

You refer to the 'Elmer's Grasshopper', ought I to know about the 'Elmer' part of the description? How many variations are there on the Grasshopper theme?

In Southampton, there used to be a chain ferry across the River Itchen, just downstream of where the Itchen Bridge is now. When the ferry was taken out of service, its Grasshopper engine was removed and, the last time I heard, was preserved in one of Southampton City Council's cavernous store-rooms. I left Southampton in year 2000 so I am not up-to-date but I believe, in pre-lockdown times, that engine could be viewed by arrangement?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 17/07/2022 16:13:13

On this forum, ALWAYS type a space before typing a right bracket. That way, the smiley gremlins don't wake up!! That's, of course, assuming that you don't actually want a smiley!!!!

And, ALWAYS hit the right arrow key before replying to a quote. That way the cursor moves into virgin territory and the left-hand margin line ends where the quote ends and doesn't follow your reply to the bottom of the post.

Suggestion to Moderators: I seem to post these tips quite often - maybe they could be posted close to the advice on posting photos?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Alec,

Please forgive me if I'm 'teaching Grannie how to suck eggs'!

Starting from the lathe mandrel:

The chuck back-plate should be located radially by the register on the lathe mandrel nose.

The chuck should be located radially on the back-plate by the male register you machine onto the face of the back-plate so that it is a precise fit into the female register on the rear face of the actual chuck.

The fixing screws are responsible for securing the chuck to the back-plate to prevent relative rotation or axial play: they should play no part in radial location and so can be a comfortable clearance fit in the holes in the chuck.

5/16" BSF or M8 sound about right to me for an M-type or an ML7 machine. Choice of thread depends upon what size cap-heads you can most easily obtain and what taps you have.

Machining of the face of the back-plate should include a face skim (outboard of the central register ) so that the chuck will seat so its axis and the lathe mandrel axis are parallel, i.e. no relative squint. The register on the back-plate should almost, but not quite, fill the female register in the back of the chuck, it should not bottom-out.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

P.S.: you don't need to make your own fixing screws - eBay is full of sellers offering all sizes and lengths and thread types of cap-head screws.

Swarf, Mostly!

P.P.S.:  when I wrote the above, I was assuming we were discussing a three-jaw self-centring chuck.  I have now tried Alec's link and see we're actually discussing ain independent four-jaw chuck.  I think virtually all I wrote is still valid.

Swarf, Mostly!

 

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 09/07/2022 13:03:02

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 09/07/2022 13:08:38

Wow!

I joke about having an 'every day chuck' and a 'Sunday chuck' (both three jaw) but it looks as though the owner of that lathe can have a different chuck for each day of the week and two on Sunday.

Shame about all the plastic.

There seems to be brass swarf so not a virgin machine.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Frances,

Thank you for your post. I'll ponder thereon.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good afternoon, again, David,

Thank you for your interest and for your posts.

Regarding the 'master' socket in our original Virgin landline installation:

It isn't a 'master line-box'. It looks like any other surface mounting single 631A or 431A phone socket.

I've always accepted the regulation that subscribers/customers are not permitted to tamper with the phone supplier's wiring.

I would certainly never tamper in the extreme way that regulation was intended to prevent - if, for example, mains voltage gets on to the phone network, there may be no local evidence of a problem yet some poor BT/Open Reach/Virgin linesman sat on the edge of a cable pit may be the one who suffers the consequences.

My practice, in three residences in turn now, has been to install a socket adjacent to the company's 'master' socket and to wire my extension tree from there. Most of 'my' wiring is 6-core phone cable, some buried in the wall plaster and some routed beneath the upstairs floor-boards. Its configuration is part 'daisy-chain' and some branches. I've installed a 631A plug on a short flexible pigtail out of the side of my basic box and connect to the company's system by plugging that pigtail into their master box. This configuration permits simple and complete disconnection of my wiring from theirs in the event that troubleshooting is required. I believe that Nick has the same set-up. Maybe I should take and post a photo.

In the current situation, the old landline master socket (and my base box) are at the opposite end of the living room from the position of the hub (router). Neither is at all simple to move. So when appropriate, I have bridged from the Virgin adaptor to my pigtail using a six metre 4-core flexible extension cable. (And, at different times, a 6-core flexible extension cable, no difference in system behaviour.)

We have four phones, two labelled REN=1, the other two unlabelled. I beleive that the unlabelled phones are also nominally REN=1 each. My hunch is that our hub is a bit deficient in the ring department and the actual ring load is pulling down the delivered ring drive signal to the point where only a single phone that happens to have a very low real REN will ring. The phone that does actually ring isn't doing so as stridently as it did before the chengeover.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 27/06/2022 14:15:25

Good afternoon, David,

Thank you for your post.

Are you familiar with the Virgin fibre-phone system to which we're being changed over?

There isn't a master socket in the traditional sense. Before I go further, please forgive me if I don't use the correct designations for plug vs socket with these telephone connectors. The basic source of the telephone system is an RJ11 socket in the rear panel of the hub (aka 'router' ). Virgin have sent out an adaptor comprising an RJ11 plug, two inches of four-core cable and a 431A socket. This adaptor plugs into the RJ11 socket on the hub. The phone that rings does so when plugged directly into that adaptor or, after reconnecting the domestic network, into any of the other sockets. The phones that don't ring, don't ring anywhere on our domestic system or when plugged, alone, into that adaptor.

Our whole system was working properly a week ago, the day prior to the changeover.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good afternoon, Nick,

The Virgin literature we received with the fibre-phone adaptor refers to Hub 3, Hub 4 and Hub 5. Please advise which one you have.

The current state of play here is that one particular phone does ring on incoming calls, regardless of where in our domestic network it is plugged in and with the other three phones plugged in. All the other three phones fail to ring. The one that rings is a BT 'Decor 2200' - it does not have a label giving its REN. All our phones were working OK on our domestic network before changeover to fibrephone.

None of the other phones ring on incoming calls when plugged in alone to the fibre-phone adaptor.

The Decor 2200 may have been working all along but it usually lives in one of the sockets I'd disconneected to 'simplify' the configuration for post-changeover testing.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 27/06/2022 12:25:31

Mark,

As I wrote in my earlier post this afternoon, the original installation here comprised four telephones. Only two of them have clear inscriptions as to their RENs, i.e. 1 each. The first is a BT phone with buit-in answer-phone facilities. The second instrument is a compact phone, made in Taiwan for BT. The other two are also BT phones but I cannot find any labelling as to their respective RENs, I assume that it's one each. All four phones were ringing OK on incoming calls on Monday, the day before changeover. They all ceased to ring on incoming calls on Tuesday morning, that's on our domestic wiring tree, connected via pigtail with a 631A to the original Virgin landline 'master socket'.

Since installing the Fibrephone adaptor into the router, we have only had the first phone (listed above) connected to the adaptor. It does not ring on incoming calls.

I hope to eventually have all four phones working on the domestic wiring tree, via the pigtail + 631A but connected to the router via the adaptor and a 6 metre extension cable. The access point to the wiring tree is at the opposite end of the living room and on the opposite side of the fireplace to the router position - neither are easily movable.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good afternoon, ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, there have been some interesting inputs.

I'm now able to report the latest developments at Swarf Castle:

We were advised by letter that our change over to fibrephone would happen on the 21st June. That, of course, was Tuesday but for some reason I was convinced it would be Wednesday.

So, mid-morning on Tuesday we lost broadband for about twenty minutes and then discovered that incoming calls on the original Virgin land-line did not cause the phone(s ) to ring.

Having realised my mistake on Wednesday morning, I fitted the supplied RJ11 to 631A adaptor, transferred the living room phone from the domestic (i.e. non-Virgin) phone wiring to the adaptor via a six metre extension cable and re-booted the router. We soon discovered that while we could call out, incoming calls still did not cause the phone to ring. This situation has persisted until midday today (Thursday) when I grasped the nettle and called 150.

The situation here is that my wife is the Virgin account holder but, at nearly 80, suffers from memory loss. I am 85 but, as a secondary account holder, never knew the account security details. (The account dates from Nynex or Cable & Wireless days, before we were married.)

Having pointed out twice that the account password I offered wasn't valid, the Virgin phone bot said it was transferring me to 'a member of the team'. At this stage, I was resigned to a long wait but, credit where credit's due, I was answered in about six or seven minutes.

My wife had joined me at this stage and we explained our problem with remembering the memorable word (aka password). The Virgin guy led us through several security questions and we got over the forgotten password hurdle much more easily than I had feared. I then had to describe how I had connected the adaptor and phone and he tested the line but the test revealed no line faults.

The current state-of-play is that we are to expect a contact, via email, from the Virgin phone specialists within 48 hours.

It is a nuisance having a lame phone. For example, I made an on-line purchase this afternoon and initially tried to pay via PayPal. I had to withdraw because PayPal wanted me to enter a one-time authorisation code via the phone keypad in response to their un-rung phone call. I had to return to checkout and enter my debit card details instead. Still, I am relieved that we have progressed as far as we have. The Virgin staff member was constructive and understanding throughout our call.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

P.S.: I know that 631A is the plug, not the adaptor's free socket. Still, it is the right family of connectors!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 23/06/2022 16:31:10

Hopper,

May I suggest a slight modification to your splendid lever-operated tailstock:

Since the operating lever is simple to remove, I suggest that you might fit a brass contact 'button' (of the same diameter as the bar ) at the end opposite the knob. The operating lever could then do double duty as a 'bumper bar' to eject tools from the tailstock barrel.

I may do the same to my Myford LOTS although I already have a 'bumper bar' - it stows in a pair of Terry tool clips on the wall behind the lathe. I made it, well actually I adapted it from something else, long before I acquired my LOTS.

Do you remove the operating lever from the attachment when the ML7 is not in use - on my own attachment, the lever prevents the plastic lathe cover from properly fitting over the tailstock.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good day, Seamus,

Welcome.

Have a look at the Myford web-site. All the illustrated parts lists (aka 'exploded diagrams ) for their lathes are there in down-loadable form. It's easy to go on-line each time you need them or you could download so you've got the ones you need on your computer in case the Myford site is unobtainable in the future.

Once you've done that and studied the exploded diagrams for your ML7, please clarify which pulleys you need.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I've just noticed my spelling error in the title of this thread. I really do know how to spell 'telephone', honest I do.

I've given my keyboard a good ticking off so I hope it won't happen again.

Please, please, could one of the moderators insert the missing letter? Or will that muck up the search engine?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Nick,

Thank you for that information.

It sounds as though your house phones are wired in an almost identical configuration to ours. 'Great minds think alike'? I referred to the 'Virgin master socket' but it's only 'master' by function - it's actually a standard socket, not a 'master line-box'. I wired our extensions in that configuration from habit - my previous house followed the same configuration with a BT phone. It was 'illegal' then for a subscriber to tamper with BT's wiring so the pigtail and plug provided the necessary isolation, both from a legal point of view and also to enable the extensions to be easily disconnected if BT needed to test their line.

On the subject of 'irregular use': a work colleague years ago had previously been a GPO telephone linesman. This was in the days before betting shops were legalised. Bookies received their bets by phone. My colleague told us that it was common for one bookie to phone his competition from a phone box and then get the called party to hang up first. They would then wedge a cigarette packet (or similar) under the rest, hang up, and leave the phone box. (A four pence local call would last until the caller hung up. ) Anyone else calling the competitor's phone would then get 'engaged' until someone used the phone box and removed the cigarette packet.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 13/06/2022 08:40:22

Nick:

How many 'house phones' do you have? Do they all ring OK?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I'm sorry, folks, I obviously made an invalid assumption.

By 'ring-back code' I meant the following: you pick up the phone and dial the ring-back number, then hang up. After a few seconds, the exchange rings you back. When you pick up, the exchange clears down and you get dialling tone. But it's demonstrated that the ringing part of the system is working.

I've seen it used by telphone engineers as part of checking a new or suspect installation. I don't know if it's a permanent facility or whether it's just activated temporarily for the line concerned.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Well, as they say, 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again'.

I just found some Virgin Media on-line FAQs and am now a bit reassured about the ringing several phone instruments query.

I'd still like to know the ring-back code, though.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 11/06/2022 11:40:27

Please does anyone know the ringback code for UK landline phone systems? If so, is it the same for BT and for Virgin Media phones?

I ask because we have been advised by Virgin Media that our landline phone is to be replaced by a fibre-phone system in a few days. Their letter gives a telephone number that 'has all we need to know' but which actually delivers a frustrating sequence of irrelevant press button options! The accompnying internet URL is no better.

Our domestic telephone installation comprises four instruments, inter-connected in a way that permits their simple and total disconnection from the Virgin 'master socket'. Incoming calls happily ring all four instruments so our total REN number seems to be acceptable.

The new fibre-phone system comprises an adaptor that plugs into the back of our broadband router - the phone (installation) then plugs in to the adaptor. I am eager to discover whether this new system will also ring all four instruments.

Since I have been unable to fruitfully contact Virgin Media for verbal confirmation I would like, when the change occurs, to be able to dial the ringback code to determine whether the new fibre-phone system will work like the old system as regards ringing four instruments.

If it will, I can connect the adaptor in our router with the connection point of our domestic telephone wiring with an extension cable of suitable length. We shall have to put up with the fact that our router and the connection point are on opposite sides of the living room fireplace and that neither can be easily repositioned. Grrrr!

Please forgive me for any typos in this post - I am a bit cross just now.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Well, that's embarrassing! Thank you, Baz for lightening my darkness.

When I had separated the base from the main tailstock body, there was the grub screw, #10, plain as a pikestaff.

So I have now removed the eyebolt that's too long but the proper one is still hiding.

Robert Butler: My lever operated tailstock gubbins does look like the real Myford deal, if a bit dusty. Now I've got it AND a spare tailstock body, I think I prefer to enjoy both options, screw handwheel and/or lever operated.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 04/06/2022 12:05:06