What did you do Today 2018

I sorted the pictures I took of our trip to Blists Hill Victorian Town last week. We were lucky to be there on a casting day:

By mid-afternoon it was all broken down. The foundryman said it took a week to do all the moulding and set the flasks up then fettle the castings and paint them. Our cast iron welly remover is now proudly sitting on our back doorstep.

Of course, No visit to the area would be complete without a picture of the historic and iconic Iron Bridge:

They aim to have it back from restoration in November. There is a walk way on the other side that allows a look through some gritty windows the get a rather ethereal look at the the structure.

Cheers,

Rod

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 23/04/2018 13:11:39

When I lived there I put the high frequency of power cuts in E Anglia down to the flat countryside resulting in more lightening strike on the power lines. I suspect the shorter interruptions are automatically reset and the longer ones required a man in a van to go out and fix something.

We used to just get in the car if it didn't restore quickly and go have a meal somewhere. But it was getting quite tedious inn the end.

Murray

There are seven chilled cast iron sash weights under the flames with more wood waiting. Fingers crossed that this is a de-chilling exercise and not a waste of time exercise.

Rik

Rik, I doubt that will have any effect I'm afraid. I have tried days in the wood stove running it hotter than usual but still not enough. Wood doesn't really get hot enough unless being blown.

If I were you, I would quietly delete the post and keep all that information to yourself !

Our Men's Shed (just getting started) has been given a rather scruffy Model A Boxford lathe, I spent the morning cleaning the lathe, and sorting some of the bits and pieces that came with it. the only damage I have found so far is in the 4 jaw chuck, 3 out of 4 of the square key holes have a side out of them. The chuck is fairly tight on the spindle, I have not tried too hard to get it off yet. On looking up the hand book I can see the reason for the broken holes, the book says put the chuck key in a hole and give a good bump with your hand. There is a 3 jaw chuck, plus a brand new Bernard 3 jaw that needs a back plate. Looks like I have a wee job on getting the machine up and running, but from what I see it is actually in not too bad condition.

Ian S C

It's nothing very original, but this **LINK** is worth a look.

http://moticeuropeamericasblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/cracks-in-pipe.html

Nice illustrations of Stress Corrosion Cracking

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/04/2018 11:06:07

Here's a photo of the Boxford at the Darfield Men's Shed.

Ian S C

Bear in mind this is pretty much specific to stainless steels. Not many of us actually subject that material to high stresses in a corrosive environment and safety critical application.

The mechanism seems to share a lot in common with the issue of "pinholing" of 304 (also Austenitic) which I am now more expert in than than I would like, due to my unhappy encounter with Franke (of sink fame). The chromium seems to combine with the likes of chloride ions, resulting in a loss of corrosion resistance. So I am now the proud owner of a Franke sieve where the sink used to be. A sieve that I have blocked with metal loaded epoxy adhesive.

Murray

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The photos are specific to stainless steels, but I'm sure my first acquaintance with Stress Corrosion Cracking was related to aircraft skins.

MichaelG.

This is why we shouldn't use SS in boilers where it is in contact with high temperature, high pressure water unless very sure what grade it is. Tap water contains chloride, and when we boil it away it gets more concentrated

Ian S C,
No problem of lathe alignment there then !!

BobH

First try out of the new flycutter:

Not much metal needed removing from the chimney base so with a 1mm DOC and 0.2mm feed per rev, at 41rpm, the mill, and flycutter, didn't even break sweat. The chimney base seems a nice fit on the smokebox, meaning my alignment and cutter setting with gauge blocks must have been about right:

Andrew

With rain forecast for tomorrow I'm glad not to be a birdwatcher as the annual dawn chorus walk near me sets off at 5.30am tomorrow. In fact I don't intend even to get up in time for the post walk breakfast in the village hall at 8am. If I push myself I will get to the Men's Shed by 10 in time for the first tea break.

Started work on a trailer hitch for my new E-Bike today, drilled some hole in a bit of steel(all OK), came back to do some more work on it a short time later, switch on and the motor started to rotate, and never got above about 20 rpm, odd I thought, gave the pulley a flip and away it went, looks like a new capacitor is needed. If I can't find one in the junk box, I'll nick the one in the saw bench, infact I might take the whole motor from the saw.

Here's one of my trailers on my old bike, the other one has two wheels.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 28/04/2018 11:46:49

Edited By Ian S C on 28/04/2018 11:50:27

Among other things I machined the curved surface on both perch brackets:

I can now store the flycutter until such time as I start machining the cylinder block and other items that sit on the boiler.

Andrew

Good day out today, drove through lovely countryside to Dartmoor with it's stunning views for a picnic lunch, then on down into Plymouth to get some essential suppliers for the next brew from excellent home brew shop The Hop Shop in Mutley, then back via the A30 stopping at Monkton at the Otter Valley Ice Cream lay-by for the best chocolate ice cream, in the world (said all Jeremy Clarkson). Probably (apologies to Carlsberg)! Brew day Monday now to look forward to.

Chris

Fitted new brushes into my '93 Hoover ' Never Die' washing machine. Perfect again now.

Shocked to find ALL new machines are cold fill only. For 'efficiency'.

Never mind that it is 3x more expensive to heat water using electricity.

Modern machines use so little water that if you connect them to the hot system you get mostly cold in the washer and hot in the pipework, where it then goes cold. You have to heat it electrically no matter what.

And that's the other thing, my 'Never Die' is a 5kg load max, all these new ones are 7kg min.,then 9 and 11kg.

How big are these families ?