What did you do today? (2013)

Assembled the painted SkyHook parts.

It works a treat in the OverheadCrane Unistrut, but grief with the new Unistrut I have just fitted above the bench, as it's been folded to the maximum minus tolerances.

Had to reduce the diameter of the 'runners' and grind away most of the metal from the tube above said 'runners'.

Need to make a concave plug that the locking shaft pushed against the InnerTube, as the existing narrow point of contact does not prevent the OuterTube from loosening.

Photos soon that will make things clear.

Geoff - Decided to call it a day after 'fixing' the SkyHook, as I was ready to hurl/break something.

Cleaned up the insides of the rings that I trepanned the other day and then took the OD down until they fitted into the rims. Hope to solder them tomorrow which should give me some rigidity back so I can thin the rim on the other side.

Soldered the webs into the tyres

And then finish turned them all

Looking good Jason.

Coarse engineering for me today. Hoping for a birthday lie-in, I got a call from my wife who had broken down. Her exhausts had snapped in two due to fatigue/corrosion where it entered a split joint -probably a loose clamp causing play and fretting off the galvanising? fetched it home early on Sunday before there were enough people about to be offended by the corvette-like roar and crackle.

Got rid of rusty clamp with the angle grinder and made a sleeve from a bit of old exhaust pipe, Wrapped joint in 20gauge tinplate(!) and much gun gum, split sleeve over the top then used two big u clamps to tighten right up. Solid as a rock

On the positive side, while at Halfords picked up an outdoor R/C helicopter for £40 with my birthday money Much easier to fly than the little ones, but I only half charged it by mistake so not along flight.

Neil

Hi, not exactly ME but engineering all the same, and it was yesterday afternoon and not today.

At the end part of winter earlyer this year my Astra was having trouble starting in the cold mornings. It turned out that the glowplugs needed changing. So having got a new set, duely set about changing them. First one came out fine, next one however the nut sheared from the body of the plug, even though I was trying to ease it out gently. Second and thrid also sheared.

So what to do about the situation. Well I decided to let them be untill the better weather and strugle on. However with one thing and another all the nice weather came and went with no progress untill yesterday when I tried my solution of removing them without having to remove the head and drill them out, which is something that is not particulary practical with it in situe.

The idea I had was to cut the top part off using a disc cutter in my Dremel, then remove the nut and then cut the internal stem down level with the stub end that was sticking out and then weld a drilled out 8mm nut onto the stub end.

I could then hopefyully remove the glowplug with a socket and extension bar hoping that the heat from the wleded on nut would loosen it a littlle bit. However the first attempt just removed the rest of the internel stem and the secound attempt just sheared off like the original nut. So it was time to get a bit serious and get my O/A welding torch out and give it a bit of heat and then weld another nut on and then give it a bit more heat with the O/A and allow bto cool. Then using a bit of penetrating oil and giving it a bit of a tap on top with a suitable length of bar and a hammer and teasing it gently back and forth with the socket, it was successfully removed and a new one fitted.

Maybe now that I have a successful technique, I will be able to remove the other two bad ones next Saterday.

I hope this idea may be helpful to others with a similar situation, ME or otherwise, but I do stess that patiance is needed and more than one attempt may be required. There are four more photos in my general photos album for anyone who is interested.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 17/11/2013 20:15:14

Hi

Not bad at all to be able remove that glowplug

I where thinking of something similare that happend to me last summer and I did really struggled to remove som bolts on the exhaust manifold on my daughters car..the first one broke..the next one...ish!

My brother ( who is smarter than me ) told me to by some penetraiting oil with freezing effect

It does actualy spray the oil on and than freeze the bolt down to -43C below, letting the penetraiting rust removing oil to penetrait easy..

The bolt it self is then easy to get loose as it get smaller do to the freezing effect...I do belive

The rest of the bolts did loosen very..very easy..the bolt before the telephone call to my brother... I had to drill out ...lot of work!

Edited By Johnny Gleden on 17/11/2013 22:39:48

Made some progress with the construction of Steve Ward's (kwackers) rotary table controller got the circuit board soldered up and started on the box it will it in for now.

Stripped and reassembled a little (2 1/2 / 3hp) Kawasaki industrial engine, payed $NZ10 for it at a garage sale. Took the little Villiers 2 stroke off my portable generator, and will replace it with the Kawasaki. Looks like I'll have to buy a new V belt. Now I'll be able to run the alternator at full power, this motor has over twice the power of the old one. Ian S C

Been pulling my new/old shaper apart to get things working again, got the ram tidyed up abit.

There's nothing like a coat of paint and a 'British Made' plate to ensure accuracy, precision and reliability

Only ribbing you, if you get the rest like that it will look great.

Neil

I also had a good response from these people for heater/boiler spares:

**LINK**

As you say, some stuff is of such abysmal quality it barely lasts through the winter.

Merry

Finished the SkyHook by trimming the length of the Monopod.

Photos uploaded. New thread to follow.

Geoff - Called it a day.

HI Geoff,

I wish you'd used that to make a video of you putting it up.

Neil

Not today, but last couple of months. Some parts for the Stuart S50. Crank, crankpin, con rod, crosshead, valve rod, piston, piston rod etc. Some final finishing needed but I want to make sure they are going to fit together before spending any more time on them.

Gary

There's always one in the classroom

Geoff - Trying to ignore the smart*****

Photographs of you supping Earl Grey and munching Chocolate Tiffin will be much appreciated too

Martin.

Martin,

Dream away

Oh, I munch on DIY 70% Jumbo Oat Crunchies.

Geoff - I'm being distracted from sausage making

Got a present from my brother- one of these, minus driver. 1960's and believe it or not it still works, romping around the garden on a single D-cell

Something I haven't seen before is a motor with three wires reversing with a single pole change over switch. Perhaps it has three brushes?

Neil

Spent the day at the local A&P show, took one of my hot air engines along, and joined up with "Christchurch Vintage Machinery Club" surprise, surprise one of the others there bought along a full size Robinson's patent hot air engine, just unpacked from its container yesterday afternoon, having just arrived from Austrailia. After stoking up the fire box, and oiling up, it ran faultlessly all day, more than my one did, the little breeze kept blowing the burner out, bother.

Ian S C

Neil, do you have the box? That's a nice tractor. Ian S C