What did you do today? (2014)

Thank you Jason, I am really pleased with it.

Now, John. The "Hammer Debate" I am not too fussed what other people's experience with hammers is/was but I can recount mine.
For many, many years I "swung a hammer" and during some of those years I worked Piece Work. Other years I worked Post and Beam so a different type of hammer was used most of the day (small sledge usually) and other years/days I did fine work so a lighter hammer was needed but mostly I did timber frame so my hammer of choice was an Estwing. Not any old Estwing, it had to be MY Estwing, 22 ounce, long shaft, framing claw. I have had the same framing hammer for more than thirty years, before the Estwing was a Picard.

I have favourites in the workshop. Presently my "go to" hammer is a small three ounce Ball Pein with a shaft of my own making, it has terrific balance, for Forge work I have a vintage 21/2 Lb rounding hammer, again on a hickory shaft I formed. If the hammer I want isn't to hand, I go find it. Why? Because the likelihood is, with the right hammer I will hit whatever it is I need to hit correctly the first time and every time.

Anyone who tells you different either hasn't had to swing a hammer for fifteen hours a day for weeks on end or has such finely balanced muscle control any tool they hold, they hold it perfectly(?) EVERY time. Any tool. Not very likely.

I am not trying to be superior in any way here. What I am saying though is that not all hammers are created equal and when buying a hammer it is, in my opinion, a very personal thing. Under my bench there is a box containing half a dozen hammers of various type, none of which I use. They just don't feel "right".

My opinion only and it may not work for you.

graham.

Yep, that sounds about right. As for large hammer types we won't go there, I can't hit a barn door, even with a baby sledge.

John

Not just hammers, it's the same with screwdrivers and spanners and .....

Years ago, I had a matrimonial crisis because my then spouse had, in my absence, given a bean-counter neighbour access to my tool-box!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Holy Smokes!

That would have triggered a diplomatic crisis in my house too.

I give spanners, screwdrivers and other small tools away, saves clutter. And broken screws, bolts and other fittings. Incidentally, if you really must use Gorilla type tools, I find the Facom brand Vise Grips to be terrific.

graham.

Actually cut some metal today!

15 minutes to the nearest minute to cut 2 3/4" round EN1A on my bandsaw, may be a useful yardstick for others.

Turns to a lovely finish with my tangential tool, it will be a wheel for my driving trolley..

Neil

Got no 2 3/4" so tried 75mm - one minute 50 seconds.

Now got to work out what to do with that slice ?

Hi All

I went down to my local band saw tool sharpening company the other day picked up a couple of band saw blades and got into conversation with the question what are you like at screw cutting and tapper turning (dangerous when you get asked questions like this). Anyhow it turns out he is restoring a Matchless motor cycle and needs a nut making for the end of the crankshaft and the sprocket on the other end taper boring and a keyway cut. The taper was easy 21 tooth sprocket held in the 3 jaw perfectly true clocked the bore from the old sprocket made a plug gauge from 1" bar and checked the fit by bluing and marked the point were the tapper fitted the old sprocket. Mounted the new pilot bored sprocket and bored out until the tapper gauge fitted. Finally planed in the 3/16" keyway by racking the tool slide back and forward with a specially ground boring bar. The nut was a tricky item 28 tpi L/H with an OD of 0.453" I made up first a stud of the same thread then compared it to the thread on the crankshaft satisfied all was correct I turned away the first few threads to get the root diameter so I knew what sized hole to drill in the embryo nut. Fortunately I had a 60 deg. internal threading tool that was small enough after that it was simply a matter of taking of double 5 thou cuts until the sample stud fitted. An interesting project now back to Pansy and Simplex boiler making.

Peter

Your bandsaw is a bit beefier than mine, John! :-P.

Neil

Bit more work done on me new lathe.

Last shot, on page 11, was of it in a sorry state, only done to upset the flat earth society

Which progressed to this.

Doesn't look a lot but now on the deck and level up, took some doing to get 0.00000000001mm concave on the cross slide. Hope that's Ok or I'll have to lift it again and take the fag paper out under the middle foot.

Shelves fitted, trimmed and fitted with rubber sheeting. Compound slide removed and replaced by some temporary high tensile beech fire wood. Tailstock still unfinished.

Doors on, painted to match. big steel block to replace the compound in the search for rigidity and concaveivity.

tailstock still unfinished.

Tailstock now done. got 110mm on the lever feed and 75mm on the screw feed and it self ejects tanged tools on the zero mark. I gaugeing scale fitted for easy to read and zero settable depth.

And the mod done to the barrel that Bogsey spike about.

Shot from underneath of an M8 grubscrew loctited into position to stop the tang from spinning. there is another screw diametrical opposite. They have been fitted in these positions so they are not in obvious visual sight.

That more or less sets this machine up ready to work.

Edited By John Stevenson on 22/03/2014 21:22:18

G'day John, it depends on your brand of fag papers (Get the batch number btw )and the relative humidity of the workshop. If you stop breathing for a while it makes a big difference. Where you stand next to the lathe can distort the accuracy. I have an 'X' on the floor just like they do for the Oscars. Micro-Angströms are what people want from a cheap Chinese lathe. Tracking the movement of Uranus is a good start but watch out for Klingons.

* Danny *

Sir John,

". . . took some doing to get 0.00000000001mm concave on the cross slide."

Bragging git!

How did you measure that, and where the heck do you find the time?

Nicely done as we expect from you.

Geoff - Drawer organising went well yesterday, and in shock today.

.

Good point Danny.

Never thought about the 'X' so in best colour coordinateded Wilco's rattle can blue, we present.

Your foot brake won't work now with that can stuck inder the bar

I know, spotted that as well, it's not the blue can though so not sure what.

I'll check in a bit and put it away, If I get a minute [ or two ] later after waxing and polishing the Donald I'll have a play with the miller next.

Did a couple of bits more on the Monitor

Turned this bit of angle iron

Into the governor latch lever and made the catch plate as well which is case hardened to match the hook part of the lever which is also case hardened.

Also made a drive pully from an inch length of ERW tube and some 1/8" steel offcuts

Trued it up on the flywheel and machined 3 facets to be blended into a crown. After the photo I also bored the inside at a slight angle to represent the draft angle of the original casting.

Finished job, I'm not to worried about the internal finish as it wants to be a bit rough to look like a casting

J

Decided to make the18-tooth 20DP pinion for my shunter that I've been putting off. Poking around my cutters I found a 17-tooth one I made for a tractor gearbox and rejected. i wondered why I had rejected it - careful inspection showed it was the sector flange was wrong, nothing wrong with the gear itself. It as just shy of 1/2", just waiting to be reamed. So I reamed it 1/2" and turned a 3/4" stub with a 1/2" register and bored out to 8mm. Fitted gear high-strength retainer then parted off the collar and turned the gear a bit thinner. 2BA hole for a grub screw, then an hour of fettling to allow the motor to drop down and engage the gear. Had to be done without dismantling so I used a mix of grinding stones and a carbide burr. Still had to file a bit off the motor mounting lugs.

Should give me a 50% increase in drawbar pull (adhesion permitting) for a 30% decrease in top speed Speed is now theoretically 2.4mph instead of 3.6, but a scale speed is only 1mph anyway. Actually, I think that the new ratio will let the motor rev more freely, so perhaps still hit 3 mph.

Neil

Just finished one project and found my next at an auction yesterday. Its a KENNEDY, the 6" version which I will have to spend some time on over the coming weeks. It cost me the price of a bottle of cheap chardonnay at our local (how do they justify charging £16 for plonk?) - no wonder all the pubs are shutting!

And this lot from today's boot for pence...................

..................it's phenolic but is it Tufnol? - I'm not sure. Just never seen it this big before, four bits of which:

1 x 170mm dia. x 50mm thick.

1 x 160mm dia. x 50mm thick

2 x 115mm dia. x 45mm thick

I cannot see me ever using it but how can you walk past a pile like this when its so cheap?

Rik

Hi Rik,

Are you sure it isn't farmhouse cheddar?

Neil