What did you do today? 2023

I don't know about you all, but I find my 3D printer is a bit ... sensitive.

It works fine for a while then needs a lot of TLC to get back in working order.

The latest challenge seems to have stemmed from a glass bed (mirror tile) which was bowed by about 0.2mm. It seems like the don't like to make them out of glass much these days (apart from some probably new old stock which some printer firms are selling off at outrageous prices).

So I thought I'd try making an aluminium bed instead - the plate being cheaper than the 'proper' glass tiles I could get...

The thing I didn't think about (of course) was the thermal mass and conductivity of ally. This was resolved by setting the bed temp to 70 which amounts to 55 - 60 on the top. Seems to be working quite well now!

Iain

Edited By Iain Downs on 02/02/2023 22:19:10

Hi. I watched the Apprentice this evening, and I've often wondered what makes most of those candidates supposably highly intelligent, and why does the one who gets fired, always thinks Lord Sugar has made a big mistake? Lord Sugar was a successful businessman long before any of them were born. I'm no businessman of any sort, but I didn't see one good idea from any of them. Quite glad I was a "Blue Collar worker" at least I had a good sense of direction in my chosen trade by the time I left school. Yes I still had a lot to learn and I made mistakes, but I did approach jobs the way I was shown, and didn't modify the tasks until I was able and confident to do them in a more efficient way, and was very successful with the work I did.

Regards Nick.

Did a test run on air with latest loco. Couldn't understand why it was only chuffing twice per rev. I've just realised that the gasket on the exhaust manifold should have a hole in the middle to let the air through. That's tomorrow's job!

Duncan -

Been there all right!

My club once built a loco as a club project, as a portable-track work-horse.

The motion-work was made by some of the most skilled and experienced members, all excellent craftsman, but would that chassis run on air?

It would struggle round half a turn, suddenly leap to the other dead-centre, struggle round..... It baffled the builders for months, until a chance blow of air on hand revealed a tiny perforation from an over-deep cross-drilling, leading to the discovery of the exhaust-gasket with no hole!

;;;;

What Did I Do Today, though...

.

£70 poorer from an ear-flushing. Wax removal used to be carried out free, on the rates, by the nurse at the GP's surgery.

That aside, Task Number One was cementing a loose brick back into the house wall. The original Edwardian mortar is badly weathered and this particular brick had lost the cobwebs holding it in.

Ladders and I have An Arrangement. If I don't climb them, they won't alarm me. However, with the aid of a confection of scaffolding parts to make a stabilising frame, a 15-foot ladder section, rope and caving equipment, I succeeded in that little project. Only another umpteen feet of re-pointing to do.....

'

Then after tea....

'

Screwed the three main parts of my steam-wagon's ash-pan together. The temporary assembling used M3 round-head socket-screws and nuts but I ran out, so have replaced them just as successfully and probably more cheaply with Phillips-head versions from 'ToolStation'. Once painted they will look reasonably like rivets to anyone desperate enough to lie on the floor and peer underneath.

It's not complete. The main part, Version Three, is done, but I've still to sort out its suspension below the boiler, and to make a damper. The former's location constrained on one side by the steering drag-link, the latter's by the front axle. Nothing's easy on this project!

Edited By Nigel Graham 2 on 03/02/2023 01:03:08

It works a lot better now!

Hi, today I had to fit a new horn on my car, which was a pain to get at to say the least, unless I went through the whole rigmarole of removing the front bumper as described in the Haynes workshop manual and I would have had to have an assistant to lift it off as well, which I don't have, and I didn't know if the horn itself was the problem or a wiring fault. This is the first horn that I've ever had to change in my life and on all the cars that I have ever owned. I found it was the horn at fault yesterday afternoon, and fetch a new one ready to fit today, but of course the new one came with spade connections, whereas the original has a plug in connection, and the new horn has the connections on the other side as well, now I know I could have snipped the plug off and crimped spade connections on, but the ends were much too short, coming out of the wiring loom and that would have been awkward to do as well, however, luck was on my side, as the socket on the old horn was clipped on with plastic retainers and once it was removed, revealed a pair of bullet type connections in the socket piece, so I just made up two short leads with one end bullets and the other end spades crimped on and I put some heatshrink sleeving over the exposed parts and onto the wire covering, which should stop water and dirt ingress getting into the crimped areas.

Regards Nick.

A message to Jelly please. I like where you have put your heater, thinking of doing a similar setup. Where did you get the ducting and outlets from?. I presume they are 75mm.

I ordered with Duct Store who were cheap, fast and good.

My setup is 80mm (nearest to 75 in spiral ducting), and works fine.

I would consider using an adapter as close as possible to the heater and running 100mm or 125mm as the pressure drop from the narrow ducting does seem to have an impact on the volume of air moved at lower power levels (although obviously bigger ducts does reduce flow velocity, so would reduce the "throw" of the supply valves).

It's worth noting that if you buy their push fit connectors with rubber seals on (very hand to not need to use sealant), the first few runs at full power will result in a really unpleasant synthetic rubber smell, which goes away, but appears to be years of low-level off-gassing accelerated into to a couple of hours.

My other suggestion would be to duct the air intake of the heater to draw air from floor level, to encourage mixing.

The current setup heats the room to a very comfortable temperature from waist height up, but doesn't have the oomph to push warm air down to floor level.

The alternative solution would be to use an in-line fan (probably a cheap mixed flow fan) to increase the velocity in the duct enough to reach floor level but it would take some careful setting of the speed controller to prevent it pulling too much air through the heater reducing it's effectiveness.

Also, worth knowing is that you can cut the hose barbs off the heater and pump fuel connections with a hacksaw, file the burr down and then use suitable brass compression fittings (5mm on the pump, 4mm on the heater) and microbore copper tube to run the fuel line.

I got those from BES.

Because I had ¼" microbore to hand I used 4mm/5mm compression to ⅛ BSP fittings joined to ¼" compression to ⅛ BSP fittings with a ⅛ BSP female × female pipe nipples; each assembly only cost a few quid and it's a lot more secure than plastic piping; I would expect you'd need to do that to make up the 4mm connector on the heater at least, which does allow you to use a 90° elbow fitting for neatness.

My fuel tank is outside and comes in via a ⅝" bulkhead fitting (with ¼" × ¼" compression connectors) attached to a metal plate which is screwed over a 32mm hole in the wall (to allow me to get a spanner in to access the compression fitting in the future if needed).

The pump and power supply are in a steel enclosure too for neatness and protection.

I can add pictures of my fuel and power setup later if you're interested, will just have to find them, though the ones I have are a bit messy as I took them before I replaced the stock wiring looms with a dedicated 7-core automotive cable and grouped all the wires at the heater end into one superseal connector...

Which is also a good upgrade as it turns out.

Edited By Jelly on 11/02/2023 18:37:03

Many thanks for your reply Jelly. A lot to work with when I get my heater, again many thanks.

I'd asked on here about verifying a small anvil as being for jewellery work. That done I passed it to a friend who does some silver-smithing as a hobby, and started making a box for it, using oddments of plywood.

Completed that today (varnishing).

Continued another task for him - refacing his bench-block. This is chunk of 4.5 inch square mild-steel about an inch and a half thick; that had been sawn and heavily stamped "18" - possibly a batch number, but someone had faced the opposite face for use.

This was all now very rusty.

Refaced the original working face on the Harrison lathe, but I was unable to obtain a really good finish: no tearing or chatter but rings as if the tool had dug in very slightly in places.

I put it on the Drummond manual shaper - it just fits the vice with the moving jaw replaced by a piece of plastic bar - put the radio on and commenced wearing my arm out flattening the sawn side. So he'll have a choice of which face to use!

The first attempt produced a vavy surface I credited to slack in the table and knee gibs, and slightly poor tool-grinding. I've now reground the tool, nipped the gibs up a bit and lock them for the cutting. I've still another layer to scrape off to remove the worst of the "18 " but now seem to be obtaining a decent, flat surface with a reasonable finish.

Why not mill it?

A couple of weekends ago my friend had artlessly asked me, "Do you have a milling-machine"

I replied, "Y- yes" , very guardedly, his wife and our companions grinning as they twigged immediately he wanted something doing (this block).

I collected the block, examined it, was not confident I'd obtain any better results by milling, and a manual shaper doesn't use electricity... except that necessary for the operator's fuel (tea).

.

The exercise, using the shaper to almost full capacity, is proving useful in showing where it needs some fettling. Adjusting the ram gibs to remove slight twisting and possibly up-lift make the ram stick on its outer travel, showing the upper surfaces of its slideways have worn slightly concave or wedge-shaped along their lengths. I will have to measure it to establish what needs facing down where.

I've already replaced some of the plain, very short grub-screws for the gibs with new square-head ones fitted with lock-nuts (the photos on lathes. co do show some samples so fitted), so it will appreciate the remaining ones treating similarly.

Here it is:

The centre mark on the turned surface is a shallow centre-drilling to prevent creating a pip, and to give a starting edge for outwards feed. Spindle speed about 70rpm with the motor at nearly 1000rpm, fine feed change-wheel train. HSS tool. The worst ring is faintly visible just within the outline square, but the spandrels are all to a very good finish despite the interrupted cut! Odd.

On the shaper, the steel looks still rusty but that's a lighting effect. It's actually posed: I'd already shaped the worst roughness off but had gained a torn surface, before turning it. The tissue to protect the turned face is visible. Note though hard to see, the near-proper shaper-tool form (it's probably a lathe spring-tool, in high carbon steel). Also the bread-bag tie on the vice handle, to stop it dangling in the way of the advancing table hand-wheel. Leather glove (to the left), to avoid blisters.

Reputedly there is a bench under all that clutter!

Nigel , have you tried a skiving tool on the shaper I find it gives a good finish on steel.

I'm in the final stages of adding a stepper motor drive long travel to my Unimat SL.

Got all the electronic bits and pieces fitted to the lathe base board, just needed to wire it all up. That, and tidying up the led lights and associated control gear.

All arranged for this afternoon, after grocery shopping.

Arrived home and after putting the car away was greeted by the unmistakable stench of a blocked drain.

Ah well, best laid plans and all that.

3 hours, 16m of drain rods, two manholes, 2 showers and a change of clothes, plus copious quantities of Anglo Saxon profanities. Topped off with a handful of painkillers.

Just finishing the second bottle of merlot and remembering how much I hate sewage.

There's always tomorrow.

regards,

David

Bernard -

Sorry - I'm not familiar with the term "skiving tool". It rings a vague bell but I forget in what context, and I don't know its form.

I have looked in my copy of Ian Bradley's book (a MAP publication) on lathe and shaper tools, and he doesn't mention it there. He does though give advice on tool-setting on the shaper, and the drawings for an adjustable tool-holder designed to fit the Drummond manual shaper, taking small bits ground from HSS bar stock. (Or indeed from such sources as broken centre-drills etc!)

Today -

I delivered the machined plate (the "customer" and his wife are among my Saturday caving pals), plus the plywood box I'd made for the silver-smith's anvil I'd given him from among my umpteen years'-worth of accumulated, assorted tools I'll never use. As a finishing touch I had cleaned the plate's sides and given them a couple of coats of light-grey spray primer.

He's delighted! Said the surfaces were better than it had been when new to him. It had had only one surface machined and the other was rough-sawn; but I cleaned both faces.

Paid me in honey from their hives.

I've promised him a box for that plate, which I think he uses as a sort of surface-plate-cum-anvil.

''''''''

David -

That brings back 'orrible memories.... I'd arrived home late on Friday night to the delightful sight and smell of a small back yard more or less submerged in cess. Had to buy a set of drain-rods, 5l drum of Jeyes' Fluid and heavy-duty rubber gloves. I forgot the medicinal Merlot though.

I managed to get my 3D printed Dremel holder on to the lathe & succesfully reground the 3 jaw SC chuck jaws.

My initial design of Dremel holder fit the Dickson toolpost securely, but I hadn't got to grips with the "Thread design workbench" in Freecad to accurately model the thread for the Dremel nose - variously described as M19x2 or 3/4"-12. M19x2 taps are rare and expensive & the only standard 3/4"-12 thread seems to be 3/4" BSF. Zoro put up a new 3/4" BSF tap for less than most used ones were being listed at on Ebay & the M18x2 hole I had modelled opened out easily with the new tap held in the chuck & the holder mounted on the toolpost. The Dremel screwed into the resultant hole nicely. Turns out I should have allowed a couple of millimetres more for the Dremel body to clear the toolpost as it interferes slightly, but it does just fit.

I didn't make up a grinding jig a-la-Hopper, but chose the "centrifugal force" method of running the lathe spindle at maximum speed (2200 rpm on the Super 7 IIRC) to hold the jaws against the scroll. Top slide set at round 10 degrees to give fine outfeed capability & I proceeded slowly to lightly touch the clamping face of the jaws, which had been marked up with a marker pen to judge progress. I had treated the chuck to a strip down & clean last week before starting the regrind.

It was apparent straight away that only 2 jaws were being ground initially, but after several light passes all were cleaned up. The small marks visible in the "light" jaw show the remains of the original surface.

This has made an improvement to runout. Checks carried out on a length of 25mm silver steel using a 0.1mm resolution dial gauge showed 0.08mm TIR close to the jaws and 0.13mm around 100 mm out before the grind improved to 0.03 mm TIR and 0.08mm respectively afterwards - a worthwhile improvement, I think & not bad for a 60-ish year old chuck.

I'll have another try at the 3D printed mount, both to give a bit more clearance to the Dremel & get to grips with the thread before moving on to the main reason I wanted a toolpost grinder in the first place - sorting out a Soba brand (short for "SO BAd" ? ) direct spindle nose mounting ER25 collet chuck that I made the mistake of buying at an ME Ex. It was sometime after the purchase that I found it wouldn't screw onto the spindle nose, which took at lot of lapping using a 2MT Myford nose adapter to get it to fit the spindle only to find that the ER taper runout was so far out as to make the item useless. A regrind of the collet seating taper with the chuck mounted on the spindle should (hopefully) make the thing useful.

Nigel B.

Inspired by Mike Cox's article on using a hacksaw blade to make a grooving tool, I've made this to do internal grooving...

the slot through was made by putting a grove in the end of the bar and then soldering the cap on (with the M3 threaded hole already in place.

Iain

Hi. I have some copies of The Model Engineer from the 1950's listed below.

Copy of Exhibition Souvenir Handbook and Guide.

49 copies - Early 1950's mixed dates, 1953-1955.

1956 binder complete 6 months, Jan. to June.

1958 binder complete 6 months, Jan. to June.

1951 binder complete 4 months, July to Oct.

Anyone who is interested can pick them up. I live in Canada, Province of Ontario. in the Peterborough/Lindsay area.

For more information contact me @:-

Email:- [email protected]

Hi, I took delivery of a set of deep 1/4" drive sockets ranging from 0 - 8BA, which I ordered on Tuesday 28th Feb' early afternoon. Impressed with the speed of their service, with a total cost of £16.73, which was the lowest price I found without any extensive searching.

Regards Nick.

Hi, yesterday I had a fiddly little job, a couple of weeks ago, one of younger granddaughters who is almost six, bought herself a ring from a car boot stall, which is adjustable to fit ones finger.

Apparently my granddaughter keep fiddling about with the adjustment and one half broke off, and so I was given the challenge to mean it. While silver soldering was out of the question, my only option was soft solder, so I used some lead free solder, which wasn't the easiest stuff to use with a soldering iron, but the hardest thing was holding the ring and the broken off piece together in the right place, but after much adjustment to my helping hands, I managed to get in the right place.

The finished result was successful, although I don't now if it will be strong enough to last.

Regards Nick.

I had an odd early morning request today.

My 7-year old granddaughter wants me to make a DNA helix from K'nex so that she can go to school as Rosalind Franklin. There are lots of examples online and even a dedicated kit (£60).

I did suggest that, since Franklin's expertise was in X-ray crystallography, my graddaughter should take an X-ray image and have a Fourier transform in her pocket for people who can't see what it's supposed to be.

Managed to get out and do something this evening after an inordinate amount of time tied up doing other things.

So I quickly knocked out a little job I kept putting off:

A BSP ⅛ F×M adapter sized to be a force fit into a solid jerry can nozzle (the green thing on the left).

Once I get an additional olive for the pictured ¼" compression fitting (I seem to have mislaid them) I will install a copper dip-tube which extends to slightly less than full depth in a standard jerry can and press it in.

The end result is that I can hook it up to the diesel heater's bulkhead fitting on the outside of my workshop via a flexible hose (with crimped ⅛ BSP female swivels) allowing me to change out 25lt jerry-cans of fuel as and when required with a single clip.

I should get the sign-writing brushes out and add "Gas-Oil - not for road use" to the Jerry Cans too, lest I forget which is which and get myself in trouble with HMRC at some point in the future.

I also got to fully test-drive the smart controls for the heater which arrived the other week, an Internet of Things enabled "RF Blaster" which allows my smart home system to replicate the Remote Control and operate the heater in response to the workshop temperature sensors, smartphone or voice control.

It's not necessary at all, but being able to set it going whilst eating tea so by the time I go out it's up to a good working temperature (say 12-13°C) is a nice touch.

Putting the heater outlets directly above the operator position for the mill and lathe was also clearly the right move, I can run it on a far lower setting than required to heat the entire workshop up to a comfortable room temperature and still be toasty warm whilst stationary operating a machine, meaning if I go to do something physical immediately after making a part, I don't melt.

Edited By Jelly on 06/03/2023 22:33:45