Member postings for merlin

I went to the (Edinburgh) Scottish Museum a couple of weeks ago but don't remember seeing any of the old style models that could be cranked. There is a lot to see including a wonderful striking clock designed and made by a Norwegian and the fascinating Chronphage Corpus clock. Close to those two is a John Harrison long-case clock. My wife was particularly interested in the first two.

York, of course, and perhaps the Feet Air Arm Museum and Bovington Tank Museum, both in Dorset. The Muckleburgh Collection of military vehicles is at Holt, about 30 miles north of Suffolk. The Bolton Museum isn't in steam every day but if you contact them they would be pleased to talk to you, I would think. Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire.

As others have said, Ironbridge must come first for any flying one-off visitor, but plan your day(s) there!

PS Bakers fluid = killed sprites = hydrochloric acid + zinc.

Some years ago I saw a formula for a home-made tapping fluid known as 'Angels Tears'. Were these in response to the fate of JohnF's elves?

With regard to car maintenance, which used to dominate my week-ends, with a bit of practice and having freed off all the nuts and bolts involved, it was easy to decoke a Morris 1000 or change the clutch on a Maxi in a short time. Whether you enjoyed it was irrelevant - it had to be done and you couldn't afford to pay anyone else to do it.

Today I floated about the house and workshop re-reading and re-aquainting myself with clock-making practices and my half-finished clock in particular. I find that I have made motion wheels and many other bits and can only half remember them from a year or two ago.

It is amazing how much I forget if I have been away from it for only a month or three.

So far as the bench top material is concerned, I would seriously consider using thck (1"?) kitchen benchtop.

Having had an enormous amount of advice about scroll saws (and it will all be available in 'search' for evermore) I now feel confident enough to make a confession of weakness of character.

After finishing my rather personalised version of W. Smith's grasshopper clock five years ago I wanted something a bit more challenging, so I bought all the metal needed to make Merlin Band Clock. I also bought a 'book of words' which is/was in bad need of editing. I wrote to the publishers about this but nothing came of it. I intended to crack on with this clock and certainly not let it slide. That was five years ago and I have just finished making the centre arbor and the worm on the escape arbor.

In the meantime, in retirement, I have been a perfect husband, kept all house door locks and hinges working perfectly and chopped the firewood.

Is this a record?

Wow! What have I started!

After having read all these miles of appreciated advice I have decided to be content with my hand-propelled piercing saw and try to concentrate better when using it.

Information like all this, though, is invaluable if it can be accessed in 'Search'

Thanks.

I am perhaps sticking my neck out here, but wasn't the great George Thomas the first to design a dividing head that was worked by degrees rather than fractions? His Versatile Dividing Head allows any number of divisions.

When I first began model engineering I spent a year or more reading him in MEand making most of his tools. It was a very good introduction to fairly precise work and I still use the tools.

Here goes!

What is the question?

Are you asking about level of precision in the work done in the shed, or the speed with which you tackle jobs for 'er indoors??

Dimmos like me need more precision in the question, S.C!

Thanks very much for these comprehensive replies.

I have a very few wheels to cut and I remember using a piercing saw for my first clock, when the blade broke frequently. I would start by concentrating hard on doing all the right things - not too much pressure - then I would begin to think of what is for dinner and where to go for summer holidays and ping!

This clock is taking me years to make because I faff about on other things, so I had better not divert diminishing brain cells to a machine that might need modifying and which I will hardly ever use.

Thanks again.

Advice please.

Having a rather unfriendly, even irritating relationship with my (hand) piercing saw I am thinking of buying a second-hand Sealey SM 1302 scroll saw.

It has variable speed, is cheap and looks solid enough for small brass clock wheels and bits. I don't envisage ever cutting wood.

Does the Sealey SM 1302 take both pinned and unpinned 5" blades? Are pinned ones far better than unpinned ones? I had never heard of pinned ones until I watched a YouTube video recently.

I have a stock of skinny unpinned blades for my piercing saw and I would like, if possible, to use them in a machine. Is this possible?

Many thanks.

I made a mechanical 12" hacksaw from a design in Model Eng, I think it was, but although it had a dashpot it didn't lift at the end of each stroke so it needed constanr nursing to avoid jamming.

Thanks Stuart C - found them on Ebay.

Years ago when I made my 12 Dickson-style toolholders I hand sawed each one from a block of about 2" x 3" mild steel. Then the main block had to be made.

No choice, at the time.

Why are you haranguing a bloke whom you know is leaving his job at the end of this week?

Why not find an old-fashioned friend (his name might be Ned or Ludd) who can lend you a pen so that you can write a letter of complaint to the management, publishers or owners or whoever?

You could enclose a stamped addressed envelope for their reply.

Cue for rants about snail mail, cost of postage (ten shillings a stamp) and huge profits made by magazine publishers?

I sympathise S Chesher but what is a Rothenburger blade?

I soon became tired of fiddling with packing tools to lathe centre height so, because I could not afford the real thing, I made a toolpost block and ten Dickson-type tool-holders. I bought the cam bolt or whatever it is called and made everything else to fit. One of the best things I ever did.

I also fixed my mill vice down at true ninety degrees and drilled it and the mill table for easily-removable 1/4" dowels.

The lathe top slide is also fitted with pins at 90 degrees and at screw-cutting angles.

Not worried.

We're all a bit odd (even tha'?) and it is one of my pleasures to have things tickety-boo in my workshop: if the emery paper manufacturers have gone to the expense of making and marketing differing grades then I may as well store them ready for use in that order.

I knew these grades by heart when I worked with them in the early sixties.

The differences are not easy to feel or see.

I could easily spend time with the heater on and minus five degrees outside, noting the effects of various grades on a sheet of metal but I thought that someone here could advise me, which they have done.

After a long break I am back working on the clock and about to polish the centre arbor.

I am very out of date. What would you use to get a really high polish on a roughish turned silver steel 3/16" x 3" rod? Perhaps there are labour-saving modern diamond-using that I don't know about.

What variety of model engineering demands only half a sheet of emery paper or cloth in five years?

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In am trying to put all my emery paper sheets into order of grit size. Some sheets are years old and I would like to check their grades against the new nomenclature.

I can't get any response from 'Search' to 'emery paper', 'abrasive' or 'emery' so I must be doing something wrong.

Those within the range that I want to check are: 2, 1G, 1F, 1C, 1, 0, 1/0, and there are other finer ones that I know have been replaced by 1200 and 2000.

Is there a good website that spells this out?

Thanks

Lay the glass on a thick layer of newspapers. Use copper tube etc as described, drill halfway through then turn over, align, and do the other side. Wear thick gloves, spec, and work out in advance what you will do if it breaks.

I do agree with all that Cornish Jack says, particularly about the micro-second shots that are used a lot these days, as though the programme makers are unsure of themselves.

Cliches, cliches all the way. I paused on the fleeting workshop shots and enjoyed them but the programme wasn't really made for the likes of me.

Prog Two will be mainly close-ups into the faces of men and wives/partners who can't speak due to emotion, the more tears and embarrasment the better, of course. There will be angels singing.

I should add that after stoning them I then ground the opposite end to an angle so that I can easly identify them among others,

I also put a splash of yellow emulsion paint on the case.