What did you do today? 2023

Yes, it was great. Especially good was the earth moving equipment being allowed to really work.

John

I am in the middle of making some heavy duty hinges to hang some wrought iron gates off. First time using soft jaws, just the job to hang onto these parts to finish the bores after welding.

By more luck than judgement there was just enough room to swing them over my saddle.

Last week I poured a base for a new to me 16" x 12" shed ready to start building it this week

Wow, that is model engineering - 16" x 12" shed !!

Shed envy for sure

Of coarse a typing error, should have said shoe box not shed

Funnily enough been making some hinges myself recently

@Alan W2,

I like the look of the box section welded to the pipe.

Bear.......

Just finished reassembling the late Stan Bray's live steam 00 gauge Crampton.

One of only two in the world, because after two sets of castings, the moulds were damaged.

Will be kept as a memorial to a good and proficient model engineer, and friend.

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 02/08/2023 18:16:10

Haha, the "pipe" started as a lump of 4" solid bar.....3 full

Bags of swarf later as there are two of them.

Spent a couple of days screwing the shed together and cutting a new roof

I made a plastic sleeve. In this way I can use longer bars that extend on the left side of the lathe. So less waste of material.

Sonic - are you aware of what used to be called a 'spider' before that term got used for a support in a chuck. The Spider fitted where you have the sleeve has 3 radial screws so can be adjusted for size of stock.

Last year the heatwave made the St Albans club BBQ a fire risk so had to be cold food only but this year it was called off as recent rain had made the car park field unusable. Lots of track but no trains.

Lucky for me I was 250 miles away at the Exeter Miniature Railway (EMR) public running day which was super sunny. And I got a hot dog from the lovely Karen.

Embankment in the background is the mainline to London. We often seem to run more trains on a Sunday than they do but GWR has generously helped fund our steaming bay.

Our latest recruit (owner moving up from 4mm scale to 1.5in) unfortunately had some trouble owing to a sheared pin in the valve gear cross shaft. Not sure if the single sided (not through hole) pin is poor design or a deliberate shear weak point in case of hydraulic lock but with slide valves that isn't a real problem.

Edited By Bazyle on 06/08/2023 21:53:58

Not as much as I should have done!

Mowed the hay-meadow (allegedly a lawn).

A little work on the steam-wagon, then moved it off the outside bench it has occupied for some three weeks, back into the workshop. Accidentally knocked the water-tank filler on the door-frame, distorting it.

.

Good deed for the day:

My washing-line post cleat is a short length of half-inch steel tube pressed flat in the centre section and bent to a sort of shallow U-shape, and pop-rivetted to the steel pole.

I noticed this morning a solitary bee building a nest in the down-pointing section. She would fly away somewhere and return with a fragment of freshly-cut leaf to carry up into the tube and secure by however they do that.

The top of the tube was open too, and despite the near-closure of the mid-section, rain-water would run down into the nest. Can't have that!

Ferreting around the kitchen and bathroom soon produced a plastic bottle-top that clipped neatly onto the tube top.

I like my garden's bees - and many other invertebrates. Well, perhaps not the snails devouring my bean plants. I chuck them over the wall into the overgrown garden of the empty house next door.

The bees though, and the butterflies, the spiders, wasps and woodlice, a different matter. So I hope my leaf-cutter bee approves of the new roof!

Set out 116 numbered pegs in a field for tomorrow's agricultural show old vehicles section. Of late the numbers of cars entered is increasing but stationary engines decreasing. The organiser's insistence 3rd party insurance stymies the simpler entries.

Goodnight. I have to be there at 7am for the first arrivals.

Public Liability Insurance for up to £5m costs me £6 per year with the NFU. So not really prohibitive as it equates to around 60pence per show.

regards

After an agonising wait for some silver steel to (not) be delivered, then re-ordered from a different supplier, I finally got around to putting the 3D-printed light drill press together. By dint of a bit of nimble fumble-fingerness, I managed to press the wrong button on the video recorder and thus missed the actual construction and just got a photo of the initial set-up. That's the second time I've done that! You'd have thought I would have learnt my lesson by now - but no such luck. Anyway here's a still from the Youtube video of the reveal:

Looks pleasingly like the CAD image. It could really do with some springs around the two columns at the front under the motor mount but couldn't find any online. If I still had my lathe, I'd make my own. I REALLY miss that lathe!

John

I found a nice die holder. It was rusty but I applied some rust converter and now it looks much better.

The cars on show have increased as it is deady easy to show a car,no trailers or other statioary transport,no hassle ,free entry to a show,and the car owners arrive late and are the first to go home early, The stationary engine owners see it going on,some classic cars only stay for a couple of hours with lots of excuses why they must go home early. One year I was roped in to do the announcing and commentary on the show arena,when the classic cars were due to come in I had one entrant with a Rover,he made all the excuses why he could not possibly go into the arena as the ground (farmers ) field was too rough and might damage his car, I got him later on at the end of the show,when it was time to hand out the brass attendance plaques, I announced that for all vehicles to get their plaque they had to drive into the arena, that Rover owner drove in to get his plaque . Stationary engines have dropped off in numbers possibly due to owners old age or departing this world, the engine dispay at a show tending to get the roughest part o the field, driving licence with trailer test required for larger trailers.and insurance with a decent insurer has got more expensive though some clubs arrange cheaper insurnce for club members.I have shown engines for 49 years and wonder how much longer I can keep going,engines and trailers seem to get heavier every year. (and so do lathe chucks)

Have been machining the aluminium rear wheel rims for my 1 1/2 scale Allchin traction engine. Had a bit of a problem because they are 9 inches diameter and my lathe won’t turn anything bigger than 8 inches. Solved the problem with lateral thinking, made a fixture out of cast iron to bolt on my rotary table and then mill the various diameters on my vertical mill. It has worked well but arm aching turning the table to make the cuts, below in the photos you can see the 9 inch cast iron plate that is bolted to the rotary table.

Today I finished my Fluroscint valves for my Britannia. Hopefully will cure the cloud of steam that swamped my last run out.