What did you do today? 2023

Further exposition will have to wait until the new, improved, website is in operation. But here is a taster of progress to date; the lefthand side:

And righthand side:

The steps and water pocket were made over a year ago to my own design, based on the full-size engines. I don't think I posted any details here at the time. I am happy to do so if people are interested.

Andrew

I think I see where the confusion has arisen. The order of the sides is LRRL, but are shown two inside and two outside, as Nick says.

The sides follow the full-size engines, except for the one in the Burrell museum which has the driver cutout and brake on the other side to all the other engines for which I have pictures.

Andrew

Having now seen Nicks post and enlarged the image I can see the way the flanges face so you won't have a "pair" as you do with ploughing engines

Andrew -

Thankyou for that link!

That's a very reasonable price at £35 for 20.

Interesting that the manufacturers, William Lees & Sons, say on their site's home-page they sell to distributors and private buyers too. At one time industrial companies would only sell to industry, even though that may include distributors.

I see they stock 'Clecos' pins and their pliers too, as well as other tools including a slew of mysterious bars and clamps no doubt intended for building aeroplanes and similarly highly-specialised work..

Anyway I have added that to my ever-growing 'Engineering' bookmark index.

Nick and Andrew, I see it now, At first glance I thought they were all the same way round leaning against the wall. I have just had a reminder I need to go to Specsavers for an eye test, so need to follow that up.

Chris Gunn

Hi, I've had a large door from a scrapped electrical control panel for several years, it's made from 1.5mm steel. I got it for a tray for my Chester Champion milling machine, and yesterday I started to alter it, which was to round off the two square corners that will be at the front of the machine. I wanted a good size radius on them so they wouldn't hurt to much if I happened to bump into them, and they will make it look better. So using an 8" MIG welding wire spool, I marked a radius on the folded up side of the door, and at the point where the small radius of the folds start, and I then drilled five small holes spaced out from one end of the scribed line to the other, on the waist side of the scribed line. I then turned the door over to what was the outside of it, and scribed a new line at the edge of the small holes, using the same spool. this then enabled me to cut along the scribed line with my jig saw.

Using a hacksaw with the blade upside down in the frame, I could saw along the two folded edges, at the point where the small radius is, towards the square corner, and then though the edge corner itself.

Today starting with the two edges that will be at the front, I heated them up and gently tapped them round the edge I cut with my jig saw and welded them into place, and then heated the other two edges and tapped them round to a point where I could determine where to cut them, to butt up to the front two edges, and then finish heating and bending to line them up and welding. Once all the welding was done, they were dressed with a flap disc in my 4-1/2" angle grinder, to give the nice profile of the small radius of the folded edges.

I have also removed most of the old paint from the side of the tray that can be seen in the above photo, and you should notice the the two holes the the door catches were in, have been filled and flushed off.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 04/10/2023 22:08:01

Interesting approach, Nick.

All looking the part, as if an original pressed-steel tray supplied by Chester with the machine.

Did you use a former for the bending or simply tap the flange gently all the way along each part until it met the flat? I was wondering how you persuaded the web to bend without cockling.

I'll have to remember that tip for turning the saw inside-out. It's a shame 'Abrafiles' seem to have vanished but I've found those abrasive-wire blades sold by builders' merchants, I think for cutting tiles, will cut mild-steel fairly well. Sometimes when cutting sheet metal I back it closely, even including the cut itself, with some scrap board, with more wood clamped on top, to deaden the vibration and prevent too much "flapping".

Hi Nigel, no former was used, each one was just heated to a dull red progressively and gently tapped with a smallish hammer to meet the flat, but after welding each piece, they did need a little dressing to shape.

Regards Nick.

As to recent infornmation and learning, I am going to make 1-a dual indicator tramming device for mill, I got the parts, some turning milling & drilling and small boring for a good fit, then see where it lands. 2-to try to fit a normal indicator onto a coaxial indicator to try to monitor what it is measuring, and see if the basic design of it is usable without the indicator fitted to it.

Edited By Chris Mate on 05/10/2023 07:25:54