What did you do Today 2018

Down at the Men's Shed Terry arrived with a huge 6ft dia coil of plastic duct that will carry our electricity supply. It took a whole army at the depot to coil it that small as it prefers to be straight. Installation is delayed because the builder of the housing estate off which our electricity will come sold a bit of land that it has to cross to someone they can't remember who so we can't get the wayleave to dig a few feet of trench. Put up the meter cabinet ready for them. As the ground had dried a bit we then heaved a potato sorter across about 200 yards of field to be nearer the shed for its eventual restoration. Bought a doughnut at Lidl on the way home. oh ok, I bought 2 actually.

Are you close to a land registry office?

Neil

Went to a craft fair today to sell kit pens. Today was as slow as every other fair in the last year-18 months. People want to hang onto their dosh. The only pen I sold was the nicest of the lot, made from the same material as many exquisite blue Conway Stewart fountain pens. The guy I bought the blanks from bought up the stock at the CS liquidation sale a few years ago and is selling it off to pen makers. The stuff goes for about £10,000 a tonne at the prices he's selling it at. Shame acrylics are well nigh impossible to cast at home.

Regards

Richard.

I don’t think people write by hand anymore. The only time I write these days is taking notes at club meetings as secretary, when I use a fountain pen. Parker Duofold. Otherwise everything is keys on phone or computer.

Of those who stop at my stall, about 50% say they remember using fountain pens and how nice they were, about 25% consider ones for presents and the remainder consider them for themselves. The materials available are very attractive, and kit pens do look flashy and relatively posh. I really want to sell custom fountain pens, where only the nib & feed is bought in, but taking 15-20 hours work for a one-off is not viable to sell. Going into production, even ona small scale would cut the unit time by a lot, but it bores me rigid doing the same thing time after time.

While people do not write a lot, there is still a certain cachet associated with using a fountain pen, and they feel so good to use if the nib is correctly tuned. Personally I always use one, having a pens dating back to c1915 in fairly regular use, and a box on my bedside locker of 25 inked up pens, from which I choose 2-3 every day. I regret to say, my little collection probably exceeds 200, of which Parker pens form at least 50%.

Regards

Richard.

I have used a fountain pen for years but I chucked the Parker ones as they all leaked badly. Modern ones are not as good as the older Parkers. I have had my current Sheaffer (which cost me circa £ 70-80-00 & is excellent) for about 6 years & sits by my armchair.

It is odd that when I was working, a couple of juniors commented that it added to an air of authority. I think it was possibly because fountain pens in the modern office is something of a rareity

I had a look, but all acrylics seem to be cast outside the UK. I think one of the monomers is covered by the psychoactive substances regulations. It also needs to be cast in a pressure pot to crush bubbles. Polyester is very brittle, polyurethane is too soft to polish up adequately, and epoxy seems to discolour over time.

Regards

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 15/04/2018 12:20:45

I opened the gate so someone else could do something. The first piece of real work was done on my workshop today, cutting one end off the existing slab to move it away from the fence line a bit and hopefully this afternoon will see the other side of the slab excavated to extend it in that direction.

I also started reading Tormach manuals in anticipation of getting an 1100, 4ths axis, and Rapid Turn in about 3 months. Can't wait! That's the justification for the new workshop - I'm not paying that much for a machine and sticking it in a steel shed. Pretty shocked at the price actually, for what is really a hobby machine. Also a bit scared by the comments on CNC Zone about the lack of quality of some units - oil holes not drilled through etc. I hope I don't get a dog. I'm an old assembly language programmer so the primitiveness of G code shouldn't be too much of a shock.

Assembled Boley 8mm watchmaking lathe to a backboard to make it usable.

Made the two aluminium pulleys, one for 6000rpm sewing machine motor and the other for the intermediate shaft.

Runs quite nicely.

Quick question for those who know about these things. How is the tool height adjusted. I appreciate I could use shims under the tool. On top of the top slide is a circular ring on which the tool rests and it is then held down by the cap, which has two slots in it (one for square tool and one for round). The circular ring is knurled al the way round, and I feel that this should rotate to raise the tool to centre height. It is on a central boss that the clamping screw is threaded into. The only problem is, it does not move, I think it may be seized. Have flooded it with releasing fluid but would like an idea before I either break it or damage the knurling.

Thanks,

Colin

Colin,

I have a similar top/cross-slide to yours. Once you undo the clamping screw the large ring should turn to allow you limited (2-3mm) adjustment of tool height. Mine definitely doesn't have any locking screws in the ring.

Regards Tom

I bade farewell to the old Mondy. Six months unused and it started after two seconds cranking!

The clutch was still fubared.

Neil

Tom,

Thanks for confirming the milled ring should move. I have WD40 or equivalent soaking into it.

Is it a standard right hand thread, I,e. anticlockwise to raise the ring?.

I need to find some way of holding the ring without damaging the milled edge. Did try to grip with a small 3 jaw chuck, but did not want to damage or break anything. Now I know it is meant to move I can have another go.

Colin

This afternoon I heard the sound of a tap running in the bathroom. Went in an nothing on, but a wet floor.

Rushed to workshop got a screwdriver, into downstairs loo and levered off a panel to shut a ball valve. Quicker than trying to get to the stopcock in the street.

Water pouring through a large area of the living room ceiling, mercifully missing most things of importance, but not good for walls and ceiling.

Damn - I need one of those 'easy fit' isolation valves.

Managed to narrow it down to the cold tap supply to the washbasin. I managed to lever off a few large tiles without breaking any, luckily the plasterboard behind them was soaked and not full height. Then some reverse origami (facilitated by a speedfit-t) and I got this out.

Can anyone suggest how the stainless steel braid got this hole in it? Looks like its been dripping for a while before it burst -see the corrosion.

Fixed now, but I think I might replace the hot tap connector as a precaution as it uses the same sort of connector.

Neil

Neil,

Had the same thing here abt 4 years ago - pipe was only 2 years old and it did the same as yours. Problem is really poor quality of manufacture. The crimp is supposed to contain the stainless braiding over the full crimp length, but in my case went in only half way, with maybe 8 or so strands perhaps 3mm into the crimp. The inner rubber/plastic water tube is thin and bulges - it would burst but for the stainless braid, and that bulge pulled the poor crimp free and that was that..

Joe

Ian, I'd say the steel braid was mechanically damaged a long time ago - probably by a human gorilla who happened to be in the plumbing trade. Primates of that kind are not rare, sadly. They're the same species that typically overtightens compression fittings, causing the olive to wasp-waist the pipe, so that the very thing their overtightening was intended to prevent (a leak) happens.

The splayed ends of the braid have probably been munching lesiurely through that rubber core for years. Usually it's the hot flexi that gives up the ghost first because the high temps degrade the rubber faster. Rigid copper with sweated joints was all the rage at one time, and there is still much in its favour, all things being equal.

Would I be correct in saying that water companies do not allow their use in new installations anymore?

No, apparently WRAS ones are OK anywhere , but cheap ones have caused legionella outbreaks in hospitals!

These day every mixer tap is supplied with a pair.

I fitted the one in the photo, only about four years ago. It wasn't under any stress, the olive at the bottom was fitted to a short length of 15mm pipe then pushed into a speedfit T, so definitely not twisted or damaged.

I think Joseph is right, the braid probably wasn't fully in the ferrule.

The web has plenty of horror stories.

Neil

Sorry, I meant Neil. And I assumed, wrongly, that poor workmanship and by someone other than you, was to blame.

Not a rash assumption with me involved