What Did You Do Today 2021

While a long time ago, if you have access to them through a club or local library, the articles in the 1920s and 30s by Herbert Dyer (also writing as H Dyer) are excellent - see the ME index for more information.

Thank you.

Nearly a century ago !

I know most model-engineering replicates machinery originally built from castings and heavy-section stock materials, or is devoted to delicate machining and hand work such as in clocks, but sheet-metal work does seem a neglected area.

Boiler-making needs relatively thick plate accurately flanged over formers, steam-locomotive tenders, cabs and cladding can involve a few akward shapes, and modelling a car means many finely-compound curves. On the whole though the more advanced areas of forming thin sheet-metal and related fabricating are left out, but could be very useful both in replicating original versions and for such purposes as machine-guards.

I mentioned being unable to make wired edges on circular work, but I have used instead, lengths of tube slitted to fit over the edge.

After crunching his plastic speed change gear in his WM12 mill, a fellow model engineer asked if I could make a replacement for him. Not to waste set up time I made a few just in case I was asked again. Thankfully he reported back that the gear fitted perfectly with little noticeable increase in gear noise, that was a relief.

Nigel

Son in Law had bought a small compressor from either LIDL or ALDI.

He bought a tyre inflator but found that the threads for the Inflator and hose connector do not match.

Checked, 1/4 BSP on the Inflator, 12 x 1 for the hose connector.

5/8 A/F brass, turn to 0.508", Chamfer, Die 1/4 BSP.

Hacksaw to length. Return to chuck, face, chamfer, cehtre drill, drill through 6 mm, open up to 11 mm for 3/8", Tap 12 x1.

Apply sealant to threads, screw together.

One happy son in law, looking to check tyres on all the family cars.

Howard

I've been wrestling with the idea of fitting my lathe with an electronic leadscrew. Spurred on by the discussion on this hallowed forum and the series of videos by James Clough on YouTube, I have today decided to go ahead and to that end have ordered the major parts. Due to the long delivery times, I don't expect to make rapid progress but have made a start by designing the drive for the spindle enclosure.

My lathe doesn't have a gear on the spindle and the gearbox output doesn't run at he same speed as the spindle, so I've had to develop a system to obtain a 1:1 drive from the spindle to the encoder. This is what I've come up with:

The spindle end as it is now:

The proposed encoder drive train:

And sneaking around the back:

Further progress for those who are interested will be put in the album at:

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/albums/member_album.asp?a=55895

John

Looks like a clever workaround John. Looking forward to more progress on this.

regards

Had to make two compressor head gaskets from ally sheet.

Then ran my 300cc flash steam engine on air.

Have to retard steam inlet as need a lot of pressure to run on flash steam timing.

I have a pressure relief on the head have to use on available air pressure to be able to run it.

Having had the overnight period to think about what I wrote above re. the encoder drive, I realise that I need to clarify the statement about the spindle and output shaft speeds being dissimilar.

Although strictly correct, what is more accurate is to say that the output shaft rotates at a different rate to the spindle although at a fixed ratio, irrespective of the gearbox speed selection. Otherwise it would make a nonsense of the thread cutting gear change wheel combinations! The actual ratio is nine revolutions of the spindle to two of the output shaft. So I can fit the encoder to the output shaft after all (via a belt drive) and juggle the reduction in the maths part of the program. I could have saved myself a whole bunch of work if I'd thought about it even longer! Back to the drawing mouse.

John

Had a Feeling Bad incident...

I've accidentally killed one of my garden frogs!

Lying on the floor, head through the worshop door and under the front of my steam-wagon where I was re-fitting the front axle after a modification, I noticed something on the bottom of the door jamb, about 18 inches from my face.

It took me a few moments to identify it as a small frog.

Post-mortem showed cause of death to be traumatic conversion from isometric to orthogonal body shape. Inquest concluded it had been there, unseen by me, when I'd turned the workshop lights off and closed the door late last night, trapping the animal against the jamb.

Scooped it up with the 17mm spanner I had in hand, put it under a nearby bush, and reflected that I must be more careful on completing late-night engineering sessions, but at least it would have been an instant death.

RIP, little amphibian.

I found myself at a bit of a loose end while waiting for some paint to dry, so I decided to investigate 3 LED lamps, which failed recently. I cut the frosted plastic bulb off and saw this inside.

The miniature switch mode power supply is obviously beneath the panel carrying the LED's and connects via the two pins on the white connector towards the centre of the board. When powered up, I found that measuring on the + and- pins of the connector, one lamp read 1.2 volts and the other two, about 110 volts. With the LED boards removed from the lamp assembly, I was unable to get any resistance readings through any of the LEDs.

I then took the board from the lamp with what I assumed was the failed power supply and fitted it in one of the lamps with the 110 volt supply and BINGO, it worked. Not much of a sample I know, but out of 3 lamps, two had faulty LED arrays and one had a faulty power supply.

If I had taken a bit more care when cutting them open,I could have glued the now working one back together and had a free lamp.

Of course Nigel G should have had door opening training with the relative assessment before being allowed to control a door.

When I was at work, I had to report 2 accidents. One was where one of my lads tripped over his own wellington boots whilst walking down a corridor - apparently there was a footwear training course which he was subsequently sent on (Which did not include wellington boots) and on another occasion, my secretary put a staple in her finger (No course available for that) and I seem to remember that the accident report was mysteriously lost - By my secretary!

"Door opening training"... Ah, in this case the fatality was due to door closing.

Blow me, when I opened the workshop door this afternoon, there was a frog sitting on the floor immediately inside, staring up at me! They aren't easy to pick up without risking injuring them, so I chivvied it to hop gently outside and into a safe area. It had most likely crept in when I previously had the door open.

I did once have a genuine door-opening near-miss. It was at work, or at least on work duty, and I should probably have reported it. Driving somewhere on a work trip, I stopped at a service-area. It was a windy day, and as I opened the door to resume the journey a gust of wind caught it, jerked it out of my grip and rammed the very corner against my forehead. Half an inch lower and it would probably have had my eye out.

Nigel, sorry to hear the frog croaked...

OK, OK, I'll go and do something useful.

I suppose someone had to say it, Kiwi......

Stood back and admired the axle horns riveted onto my frames. What a relief to get that all done.

Opps!

Edited By Buffer on 06/07/2021 12:18:53

You know what they say...

He who never made a mistake, never made owt!

Own project - continuing fabricating my 4"-scale steam-wagon's ash-pan.

The club's steam loco - refitting its narrow bunkers after a service, presented the very fiddly task of inserting 4BA cheese-headed screws though their internal base angles. Casting round for something to hold the screws after struggling with pliers, such as stiff wire to make a crook, I spotted an oddment of bamboo from the garden.

Two cross-cuts with a hacksaw and there we were, and it worked: a screw-head collet made from Chinese grass!

Aye up Boss, I've finished with the red lead primer.

And a grand job you've made of it. I reckon that'll do!

Wife decided she would like a new door knob for newly decorated hall cupboard door. Some thing Art Deco was the gist. So made this.

In good books for a while.

David