Member postings for merlin

Thanks for the help.

After browsing for a long time I have ordered a wheel from RDG.

I am looking for a replacement 3-spoke black plastic hand wheel for a 20-year-old mill/drill model RDM20, probably.

It is 160mm diameter and has a 16mm bore with 3 dogs for engagement with the cross-feed lead screw. The holding cap screw is 8mm diameter.

Where can I find one?

Thanks for your replies.

Re advertising your approx location.

What I originally had in mind was that from time to time people, often new members, ask for help in setting up in some way or ask for practical advice, and if their area was by the side of their name on the screen, readers might be prompted to become involved more closely.

Not everyone knows or can remember how to send a private message.

Thanks for steering me, Les Jones 1 - of course it is there, it always is, one just has to keep on clicking.

The sensible way to get rid of all these bits - noggin ends in brass and steel, odd lathe tool bits, MT adapters, good odd-size imperial drills, assorted used hand reamers up to 1/2" diam, 1/2" drill chucks on 2 MT etc, is to get up unnaturally early one Sunday morning and stand in the rain over a sagging pasting table haggling with people who were born to haggle and want to pay as little as possible, no matter the asking price.

I admit to being both old and lazy (some would say grumpy) and I will now 'Over and out'

Andrew Johnston's location is familiar.

Oh dear, I wish I hadn't started this.

I apologise for not giving my area - I confused this forum with another.

If I click on your profile I learn something about you, but can't see any opportunity to say that I live about 10 miles east of Grantham.

There is no 'my account' or anything like that.

Can I appeal to forum members. particularly new ones, to give their approx geographical location.

i am in the process of dismantling my workshop and am having to throw away metals and bits and bobs of tools because eg mod eng clubs don't answer my emailed offers.

I like to think that there must be struggling deserving beginners in the Grantham area who would be grateful for almost anything, just as I was twenty-five years ago.

Thanks for the explanation

Thirty years ago I acquired a Drummond 4" 'A-type' round bed lathe. I corresponded with Professor Chaddock, who seemed to be the 'Model Engineer' expert at the time.

I didn't use it much and sold it after a year or so.

I have a photocopy of the little handbook, a booklet of special attachments and a Drummond booklet on lathework dated 1938.

Do you want them for the price of postage?

If so. pm me (this is an expression I read on forums but I don't know how it works so I will wait to see what happens, if anything).

A very vague question perhaps, but I have a widowed friend who might be wanting to sell a garage full of complete years of railway (not model), commercial vehicle, lorry and so on, magazines, all in perfect second-hand condition, I would guess.

No model engineering, clocks or flying etc magazines, all road and rail; I don't know whether any are bound.

The buyer would have to collect from south-east Lincs.

Does anyone know of a buyer of such things or does it have to be Ebay?

Any idea of a reasonable price for say, a complete ten-year run?

Thanks.

But it dunt cum natural 2 me, wee just av to buy a dick dik dicshunary at a car boot sale and mak an effot to make it easier for our friends to understand wot the ell we are torrking about.

If we have a difficult question and want a free answer then we should make it as easy as possible for the kind b..... who takes the trouble to reply.

It is only good manners, innit?

Thanks, Gordon W., for mentioning the casting of pennies.

I am going to stick my neck a very long way out and probably call down all sorts of abuse, but can I appeal to fellow posters (is that the right word?) to check their postings before sending.

I get tired of having to re-read and re-re-read posts and then interpret what people mean. This is particularly irritating if people are asking for free advice but can't be bothered to check spelling and grammar before sending. Of course, I do not include foreigners or people with known difficulties and I realise that we all make mistakes occasionally.

I will admit that as a now non-subscriber to any mod eng magazine I have no right to be here anyway, so perhaps I won't come again. My loss more than yours, probably.

What a wonderful posting subject - it can run for ever, even more than 'What did you do today'.

I have a suspicion that eventually the subject will deteriorate into 'how did you progress (not how did you get on, that would be too simple) on your wedding night'.

I agree with others that we just have to get on with things. When something new and 'handed' comes along, such as an air rifle, we must try to use it from the beginning as a right-hander.

I also am surprised that electric hand drills are made in only the one version.

It is possible to buy scissors with the handles moulded for lefties.

There is, or used to be, a 'left-handed shop' in London.

I wonder how many of us use the pc mouse in the left hand.

I would like to read about Patrick Stirling who was at Doncaster for many years.

Please can anyone recommend a book title?

Thanks

I don't have a wide experience of this but seem to remember that floor paint is recommended only after a year or so has elapsed since pouring the concrete. Perhaps I am out of date.

Think twice about introducing a trip hazard, i.e. duckboards, just in front of the lathe or any machine, or anywhere in a workshop; you might be walking whilst re-reading your micrometer in disbelief and bingo - it can't happen until it does.

I have managed for years on second-hand carpet; remember that so long as it is free, what is revolting at first can be a design feature a week later. Swarf embeds and is no bother, then you can look out for more off-cuts or rejects a couple of years later.

A severe change of pattern might mean that, to suit, you have to change your overalls from say blue to green or even take to wearing a brown warehouse coat for a while. Admittedly this off-sets the tight-as-a-tick-ness.

Dare I, as a non-subscriber, say that time and time again there are appeals for help and advice from newcomers and the first thought is; whereabouts in the world are you?

I would be more happy to pass on my thoughts, for what they are worth, if the enquirer were near to me and I could actually meet her or him, so much easier that typing.

I don't know whether this should be posted under a different heading, but I would like to ask about the correct fitting of locknuts in older times, before adhesives, aero nuts, stiffnuts etc?

It seems obvious that the slimmer nut simply locks by friction to the lower one. But, by doing so, also it relieves some of the pressure on the flanks of the lower one.

Many years ago there was some disagreement in the letters pages of M E; some said that the (usually slimmer) locknut should be put on first ie the first to be tightened, with the deeper nut tightened down onto it. Presumably the theory is that the upper, thicker, nut screws down so tightly that that pressure on the slim nut is relieved or even reversed.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

I have just uninstalled a programme that I didn't knowingly install, called Webget.

This seems to have got rid of the big adverts.

Windows 7 with Firefox and Google.

I have never had problems with adverts that cover or obstruct part of the screen.

I recently had to refresh Firefox, and now they are there, stopping me from reading much of the right-hand side.

I have installed adblocker as advised in 'search' and that has probably done good elsewhere, but I still can't read the latest posts column on the right.

Advice, please.

Thanks

I have often found squashed swarf in a chuck scroll - too hard to remove with a toothbrush and needs winkling up with a scriber or some such.

To remove the scroll I lightly bang the chuck flat down on the bench top.