What Did You Do Today 2021

Samsaranda, I have sent you a PM. Regards, Lynne

So have I. regards Mike

Having been on the lookout for some metric keyway broaches as I'll need them soon I was glad to see a set on auction at a pretty low price weekend before last, ended up paying only £52 for a 4mm 5mm 6mm 8mm and 10mm set, they arrived today and I was pleased to see they are the Dumont brand and had no chips in any of them, they looked a bit worse for wear but cleaned up nicely, the bushes got a bit of damp on them at some point but are also cleaning up alright.

Installed a 'Billy Bookcase' in my workshop. A set of reasonably robust shelves for just £25 and exactly the right size for the available bit of wall. Leave a space for the dehumidifier, which can be moved out to allow the Warspite to be unracked.

Not much left to do, I want to add drawers to the benches and a couple of sections of plasterboard to tidy the wall/ceiling joint left to do.

Do not trust 'instant grab' in a sealant gun to stick plasterboard to plasterboard - you need at least one screw to hold everything while it sets!

I now have a date to empty the container and move everything in. I'm starting to get excited!

Neil

Well, it was yesterday - delivered boiler plugs to the railway. They were M14 x 1,5 after a bit of investigation - I'd wondered if they were 9/16" x 16 BSF.

Simple job, but no standard nut or gauge, so I had to aim for the same fit as the sample (left in pic), which would only actually screw into the die without cutting if I sprang it open a little with the centre screw.

It was easiest to turn the screw blank to 14,2 mm or thereabouts so that I could clamp that hard in the dividing head and turn out any resulting chuck marks before threading.

Mercifully somebody'd left the divvy head set up on the Bridgy clone so I didn't have wrestle the thing into place, and there was a 2" carbide insert mill already in the spindle - just as well, cos the ring spanner for the drawbar was nowhere to be seen. So cut the hexes, then back home to the Warco to finish turn and thread.

Why is it when you volunteer at museums and the like you always seem to be looking for tools used by someone else and not put back where they belong. I wonder what the percentage of time wasted in this way is??

I felt I ought get oily hands after some indolence lately, so hied hence I unto the workshop to dismantle a test-assembly on the milling-machine table, and thereto set the wagon engine's baseplate for further machining. It needs locating-nests for the main-bearing pedestals.

With an eye on the sundial, so I did not forget to return to the house for a coffee and listen to the play on the BBC Home Service. Thus entertained by the Moomintrol's dramatised Winter adventures (he'd awoken in mid-hibernation), and with the crankshaft assembly safely back on the dining-room window-sill, 'twas the hour of braving the drizzle and sallying forth to sister and brother-in-law; to partake of Christmas Dinner and exchange gifts.

Back from my less dramatic Winter adventures, here I am awaiting a rather different story on the wireless... one of terrifying paranormality experienced by two climbers in a Scottish Highlands bothy. Will I need a cushion to hide behind if Things become too Ghostly and Nocturnally Bumpy ? Dare I go to bed immediately after, with the lights off ?

Happy Christmas All!

I want/need to go and use the grass cutter and strimmer but the wife wont let me.....

she says it's to near Christmas.....bah Humbug........

first time I hear a chainsaw I'm off.....lol.....

it's 14 plus deg outside and the weeds are going nuts.....

so will go trim the grape vines and perhaps run some string lines for the new workshop....160m2....

All the best ........

IMO that's part of the job. You don't usually get a drawing either, and often have to guess or calculate the sizes, threads and tolerances when you're asked to duplicate a worn or mangled component.

You can't always run an outfit partially staffed by disparate volunteers like it was an efficient business. I'm just grateful to be able to participate without having to clamber about in sooty smokeboxes or weed kilometres of lineside.

Last week REALLY, but as of yesterday, G'Chn, and their girl friends now have "over the door" hangers to increase storage space in residences and some new egg cups (Bored out in the Lathe )

Can't repeat, as these jobs used up the last stainless steel sheet.

Next job will be to make up holders so that I can grind the brazed carbide boring tools

(Santa brought a new drawbar Arbor for the Boring Head to replace the tang type. )

So that letter did get through to the North Pole or wherever!

Howard

Good on your wife. It's Sunday too. Shouldn't do noisy stuff or hang out washing on a Sunday. It's against bylaws in some sensible parts of Germany. Even worse is the oiks in little planes that want to fly their noise machines over my garden in the summer when I want to sit peacefully reading Model Engineer.

Meanwhile I liked your little Dickensian commentary Nigel.

Still busy setting up the mill I bought.
I recently received a new vice, 2x 1-2-3 blocks, Wiggler & Edge finder and a clamping kit.

Mounting the vice:
My mill bed has 4x T-Slot channnels, so I gave it a thought on how to mount the vice. Decided to bolt it to the 3rd channel from the front and decided to mount it in the centre. With the vice mounted to the 3rd channel, if I move the bed Y-Access front to back with spindle centre from fixed jaw to vice max opening moveable jaw, I have in both cases at least 2/3rds of the bed enganged, I think it ok.

I also decided to mount a 20x30x bed with bar on each side of the vice. Now I must slightly mill the vice on both sides 100% square(Not the bolting area on both sides), as well as these bars bolted(And milled) with 4x bolts(Shortened) on each side of the vice. I did mount these bars with 4x bolts each to bed.
Idea is to slide vice between them to get a quick truing position of the vice, seeing I got a swivel bed, then one check is eliminated for most work. I hope this works out. The swivel bed looks it was machined at the square position(0-degrees). So maybe I can make a lock for it in this position. Will have to see if this works out in reality by checking the tramming after shifting the bed or removing replacing the vice..Cannot do this yet.

Wooden Cabinet:

Clamping kit(Blue holder):It has the T-Slot protection build in bolt cannot screw through it in bed.
I mounted the Clamping kit away to the left, + 1-2-3 blocks & Edge finder & wiggler in a sliding wooden box mounted to the wall left side out of the way easy to get to..

Vice Handle:
I made a mount for the vice handle, so if I take it off the vice(Most of the time), it has one place to go next to this wooden cabinet out of the way.

Edited By Chris Mate on 27/12/2021 17:57:47

When I set up my mill the X-axis DRO wasn't working properly. Had to resolder the hard-wired connection I fitted. Still wasn't right, so I left it unpowered overnight and then in the morning it worked.

Not until after I'd ordered a replacement read head from Machine-Dro... still it's useful to have a spare.

The only machine in commission is the bandsaw, which has been cutting M10 and M12 studding and screws to length for use as machine and vice fixing bolts.

Lots of other 'stuff' all muddled up with the the useful engineering bits. Some is useful, some is of dubious utility, to me at least. So far I've found three working (but ancient) Nokia phones as well as two Motorola ones... Some of this will go on eBay I fancy.

The awkward stuff is things like cocktail sticks, cotton wool buds, shims, fixings, fuses and an infinity of adhesives and lubricants. All worth keeping, but they have to be found a sensible home. As well as putting things in 'to sort' boxes - HO railway, musical instrument bits, astronomy bits, photography bits, miscellaneous cables and wire... And a huge amount of 'useful' metal which ranges from proper bar stock of known composition to bits of broken vices and enough brass oddities for a few episodes of Bargain Hunt (such as a 2" long boot and a table bell shaped like a Welsh Lady).

Neil

I found a magnetic toolholder, on the wall behind the mill - vice handle, ER spanners and the tommy bar (when and if I find it!)

I wouldn't have even considered moving any of that 'awkward stuff'. It would have all gone straight to the tip.

I filled a 5-yard skip...

Please use the new 2022 thread from now on.