MEW 319 - Roofing A Shed??????

To continue Dave's forum creep I've just spotted the best imperial measurement ever. Our American friends measure reservoir capacity in acre-feet, the volume of water required to cover an acre in one foot depth of water. It's a lot!

I could not believe 7 pages on recovering a shed roof

I can’t wait for the magazine to drop through my letter box.when I saw that article I was gutted

also article missing as advertised on front page handy workshop light

Try & keep it interesting

It is my understanding that payment for articles comes from the Advertising budget. It is obvious that people who took multi page adverts in the past, - Euro, Warco, Axminster, no longer do so and it looks like Home and Workshop machinery,have also stopped. This causes the re-use of previously published work. If you submit an article ,it can take more than a year to appear, so ther cannot be a shortage of articles in the pipeline.

Keith

I’m a Tin Roof person but enough of that.
The article in 319 by Gary Wooding on constructing a Bandsaw blade tension meter I considered to be in the best traditions of MEW. The device was well illustrated in both 3D and exploded format and the line drawings allow easy reproduction of the unit. I was perhaps a little disappointed that the Assembly and Use only got a single paragraph and whilst it told you “How to” it missed out the “How much” (tension)

Thanks to Gary’s photo of the proprietary meter I had a look at Dakin and Flathers web site which contains a table of recommended tensions for different uses of their blades, expressed in both kPa and psi, the latter ranging from 15000 to 30000psi depending on usage.
I then found myself back in Young’s modulus territory doing Strength of Materials,

E= Stress /Strain

From which we get Extension /Original length = Stress/E
Gary’s original length , the distance between the two clamp screws, is approx 88mm
E, young modulus is fairly consistent for steel, varying between 29,000000 to 30,000000 psi
Substituting we get Extension = 88 x 20000/29,000000 = 0.0606mm (2 ½ thou in terms of Gary’s
½ thou Baty DTI)
Assuming my figuring stands scrutiny it may well be better to fit either a 0.001mm or a 0.0001” as this would give in the region of a half turn of the finger whereas the 0.0005 DTI will only move a fraction of that amount and be difficult to set accurately.

Would I make one, probably not. For the little bit of use that I put my saw to I’ll carry on Twanging.

Regards Bob D

I must admit that things going on had prevented me from taking 319 out of its wrapper. I've now done that and found the shed roof article interesting, given that I paid some chaps a fair bit of money last year to do the same to my (somewhat larger) shed roof. I hadn't been entirely confident about doing it myself. given that it took three of us to get the rubber up onto the roof, it was probably a bargain!

The bandsaw blade tensioner is definitely on the list of things-to-do.

If I were going to be a miserable git (I am). Then I would draw issue with the 'upcycling' article. People who take a perfectly reasonable piece of wooden furniture and paint it bland instead of stripping and French polishing it will, eventually, spend all eternity in a hell with an atmosphere of sawdust and burning paint fumes .

other than that, I'd say it's one of the better recent issues.

I have wanted to write several articles about projects that I've done (rebuilding Hardinge lathe, Beaver mill to as-new condition, making riser block for mill, building bridge crane, scraping and lapping surface tables, making a better dust extractor etc.) Trouble is that I get 'writers block' when doing anything longer than a post card.

I will try though.

As part of the thread drift, I made a similar Tension Meter to the Jacques Maurel Design, published some time ago in E I M.

It has saved me a fortune in not having to replace broken blades.. I can't remember when the present blade was fitted, but am beginning to think that it is worn, and need replacing.

The small amount of time spent in making it was well spent, IMO

Howard

Gary Wooding's device is nicely described and would make a useful piece of workshop equipment.

I am one who 'tunes' a blade after refitting and what I would like to see is what the twang of the plucked blade sounds like with a saw blade that is correctly tensioned. Has anyone done this?

Regards Brian

I would have thought the note varies depending on the size of your saw as distance between supports will affect the note along (think ruler over desk edge) with blade width and thickness also having an effect.

I also wonder if the smaller hobby saw frames are up to taking some of the tension quoted by blade makers?

Now that I think about it, I'm sure you are right Jason. Perhaps I will just carry on as I do already and be ready to increase tension if the blade staggers in the cut--I don't like to set it too fiercely to begin with.

Brian

Mark -

- and anyone else fearing the same.

Writers' block... Well, it's much less of a block if you already know what to write about.

Some tips, having written many articles and letters, to club and other publications:

1) You know what you want to describe and your knowledge of the subject.

2) List the salient points in brief notes - let's take for example, your overhead travelling-crane (as I read it as) for your workshop. I have built one for mine.

- A summary of its intended tasks (e.g. assembling a heavy model, restoring machine-tools, handling heavy machine-tool attachments, a "helping hand" with long items on the power-saw and bench-drill).

- How you assessed its design for function and strength (e.g. hand or motor power, its frame, installation in the building).

- Important stages in its construction and erection.

- Any snags encountered therein, and how you solved them

- The finished project in all its glory, and some examples of its use.

That above in brief notes only, in rough. It is the framework for the article.

'

3) Now (whether a word-processor like MS 'Word', typed or long-hand mss.), re-write that list as at most, three-word headings, if possible the "third" word merely an intervening "and". With big gaps between each.

4) Start to fill in the gaps. Remember we readers know how to make the bits, so unless particularly awkward bits needing out-of-ordinary setting-up, just refer generically to the processes.

Don't omit small but important details. E.g. how the traveller wheels are fitted rigidly to their axles (as on a railway wheel-set as these are, in effect.) Or how you made any pulleys, if blocks and tackle rather than chain-hoist or electric winch - having already explained that choice.

5) Concluding, tell us how the crane (continuing our example) has re-payed its construction.

.

Lighten the text to make it interesting - this is not an instruction-manual on how to build a crane, but how you built your crane, hopefully to inspire and guide others making theirs for their workshops. This is an example of a project unique to situation .

However, avoid patronising the reader. Also, keep digressive anecdotes to a minimum: mentioning why tripping over your cat helped you design the thing is fine, but it's the project we want to read about, not Felix's predatory abilities.

Add sufficient photos and suitable drawings, supplied with captions and their references in the text; but do not put images within the text as that can hamper editing and page-setting. Put them on separate files in a standard, or the requested, format. Don't overload the editorial office with photographs, but choose wisely enough to allow selecting the best for the purpose. A CAD drawing might need submitting in an image format like .bmp or .jpg, as requested or advised by the publisher.

'

Read the intended magazine carefully, including articles outside your immediate interest. You don't want to ape others' literary styles but do need recognise what general styles "work"; and how the text and pictures co-operate.

If the magazine gives guidelines on text format and photo quality (which Model Engineer does not do) ; read them and follow them carefully. NB: The editors will match the work to the "house style" , and over-use of the word-processor can be counter-productive.

Go back, re-read, correct and prune, as I have with this - word-processors are word-breeders!

if in doubt, ask - seek the editor's advice.

'

Note that the above applies generally to any of these technical articles; be you describing a workshop crane that has to be largely unique, overhauling an old machine-tool or your take on a familiar model to a published design.

We look forwards to reading how you built your workshop crane and restored the milling-machine!

.

Finally, why have I not written of my steam-wagon construction? Errrrr..... Even I do not quite date back to Model Engineer & Electrician days, but its excruciatingly slow, intermittent and meandering progress through house-moves, health problems (mine and its), other interests, frequent errors, multiple re-working, no proper drawings, no certainty of success..., renders such a serial impossible!

Traditional roofing is really interesting, I’ve built a couple of small roofs, slated them, done the lead work, ridge tiling etc. don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Getting it all straight isn’t easy. Knowing your birdsmouths from your barge boards is useful too when the cowboy builders come around. Besides, making a roofing square would be a nice milling project.

Not only "really interesting". Highly-skilled too, like most of the building-trades should be.

High things and I agree to differ so I will leave roofs and ladders to the experts; but making a stainless-steel cake-square / centre-finder calibrated in Hand and Eighths thereof is a nice milling project too, if not exactly "model-engineering"!

Neil will provide a set of comprehensive notes for would-be article authors and has indicated that these will shortly be updated for Morton-friendly submissions. I would also add to Nigel's guide, above, turn on the spellchecker!

John

I spent some time recently repairing my garage roof. It is a timber garage the length of two cars. I re-felted the roof several years ago, and it needs doing again. My repairs will last until next year. I really must get the issue with the shed roof article.

there’s a nice series on YouTube by a roofer “fixmyroof” that I learnt from, do it that way and it’ll cost a bit but last 100 years.

I managed to park near Smiths in Camborne and buy the magazine. I am not dissapointed! When After I had carried out a tempory repair to my shed/garage roof I wondered which way to replace the felt next year. New felt, fibreglass or some sort of metal roof. I hadn't considered the rubber method even though I was aware it existed. Now I can add that system to my list. The rest of the magazine is very readable too. I especially liked the page with private ads.

The original felt roof on the workshop started to show signs of old age after ten years. By eleven years something had to be done.

Having an EPDM rubber roof on the flat roof of the garage, with a 20 year guaranteen and a 50 year life expectancy, the workshop roof was a no brainer..

Ordered in the morning, all that was needed arrive at 8 am the following day.

It took two of us half a day with heat guns and scrapers to remove the bitumen that had held the felt, and a lot less time to spread the adhesive and lay the rubber.

You lay the rubber, and roll back half of it before applying the adhesive. The rubber is then laid over the adhesive coated part, and the other half of of the rubber rolled back over it, for the rest of the roof to be coated with adhesive. Roll out the rubber, taking care not to trap any air bubbles, and then fit the trims, one by one one, before adding the joint and corner pieces.Fitting the trims was pretty straight forward (Don't get the ring shank nails in the wrong place or bend them ALMOST impossible to remove. ).

The following morning went round with a Stanley knife and cut off the excess rubber below the trims.

The roof is neat and has no through holes to allow leaks, and being wrapped over the edges, and secured by the trims, make water ingress virtually impossible.

So far, the rubber roof has given me nine years of peace of mind, with more extending into the future.

Very much a "fit and forget" job.

Howard

Last year when I mentioned I needed to re-roof my workshop, I had a HUGE amount of feed back from readers offering advice and suggestions, most of which did not make the pages of the magazine or forum.

A strong theme of those messages was to go with a rubber roof, and I very nearly did this, but cost and time constraints sent me another way.

There was so much enthusiasm and interest in this as an option for roofing a workshop, it seemed a no-brainer to carry an article on the subject. Exactly WHAT got a roof is largely irrelevant, as long as the approach was applicable to a workshop. I would argue that the physical aspects of making and maintaining workshops do belong in the magazine.

As for the Science Museum... it was pretty tightly focused on the origins of our workshop tooling. The clock was focused on solving engineering problems rather than being a detailed build.

But yes, this issue did have a slightly different flavour to recent issues - my aim is to try and keep up a level of variety. I do hear your feedback and will look at the balance of upcoming issues.

We plan a reader survey in the near future, in the hopes of getting feedback on what you do and don't like to see in the magazine.

That said, the main factor influencing content is what I get sent by potential contributors, so if you feel a subject should have more attention… Why not write an article about it? Or if you just want to know more about something, write a letter to Scribe a Line asking for more information on it.

Neil

Now there's a need for an article. Difficult screw/nail/etc remover tools. Probably multiple options to make a series.