What did you do today? (2013)

With regard to car maintenance, which used to dominate my week-ends, with a bit of practice and having freed off all the nuts and bolts involved, it was easy to decoke a Morris 1000 or change the clutch on a Maxi in a short time. Whether you enjoyed it was irrelevant - it had to be done and you couldn't afford to pay anyone else to do it.

Today I floated about the house and workshop re-reading and re-aquainting myself with clock-making practices and my half-finished clock in particular. I find that I have made motion wheels and many other bits and can only half remember them from a year or two ago.

It is amazing how much I forget if I have been away from it for only a month or three.

Spent most of today ripping my CVA lathe into pieces for spares.

Sad sign of the times to find that a high precision toolroom lathe such as the CVA is worth more for the sum of it's parts.

You will be lucky to get £900 for a decent model but a clunker of a Colchester will fetch £2000

Yet the fixed steady and metric screwcutting gears will both fetch £400 each on Ebay in the States as they fit the monarch 10EE which over there is revered.

£500 for the taper turning attachment, £300 for a tailstock, £150 scrap for the headstock, bed and base.

Anyone know of any cheap CVA's for sale in the UK ?

i shall be spending this morning helicoiling a mates engine and then round two with a vincent hub bearing conversion........

Took delivery of my B1 copper boiler TIG welded and a lovely job delivered personally by Kim of Hot-Coals, look at there web site. Now lets make all the bits for it

Bob.

Springbok, Those kits look really nice and a good price.Hope they're still around in a few years when i finally retire cos I'm having one

Yesterday got my Netta through its steam test, today curld up infront of the telly (watching Scrapheap Challenge), and full of a flippin cold (man flue!!!)

went to model show in manchester, realised I will have to repaint my new 5" as it looks awful! Looking forward to draining the abcess in a little while!

John I only purchased the boiler from them as they had one in stock, and at the Bristol exhibition looked superb, and when delivered was Tig copper welded with all bronze bushes silver soldered and properly tapped and first class. , a maker in the west country quoted 8 months and after that when I asked said well maybe another 8. As the man said "Nuff Said" It only took the snow at the time for delivery to be quicker. Fizzy That sounds very painful hope all goes well.

Bob

Bob,

How about a picture of that boiler now you have it?

Today nice and quiet finished making some table cover "boards" for one of my mills and the rest of the day sharpening Slot Drills

Well went today to make a start on all the bits for the boiler as I have said in the thread help on brass oooops as I looked at what I have left mostly bars of odd sizes, My workshop is in the cellar, (the cottage was a 1700s old cider house) thus my workshop is size of house I sometimes think it is to big and I keep all the bar stock at the back and in one corner, Whilst building the B1 like all my other loco's steel is used. If I had spotted it I would went to phos show but Manchester is to far for me to travel these days for supplies, (have seen most of the exhibits anyway more times than I can remember)
So will be useing my old trusty computer to order said items.

Bob

I mended my folding sack truck by tying a granny knot in the piece of string that stops the handle coming off, I kid you not, that's how it manufactured. To finish off I drilled out the wheels spindle hole and made two new bushes because the sleeve had turned in the plastic wheel.

Cheers Michael.

got up...went to work...came home

Started to get my old POS Bridgeport stripped and out to make way for a new mill.

Told the stupid customers I wasn't working today or tomorrow but the phone never stopped ringing, so by the time I got a shed load of perspex I bought off Ebay put away and the rarely used big doorway cleared it was nearly 11;00.

Excuse the blurred pic, having trouble either with my phone or the caffine intake.

Hour and fifty odd minutes later, head off, ram off, riser off, slotting head off, bed off and screws off, just about to make the turn out the doorway on the right.

Priceless....................

Opened the workshop. Got a call to urgently take my daughter 10 miles for an appointment and wait an hour to bring her back . Got back to workshop.received a call to take my son 10 miles to an appointment and wait.Got back to the workshop. Was asked to take wife to sainsburys and wait. Had lunch. Sun (and heat source) going down.Locked workshop. Well, it's club night and there is a warm workshop!

Hi All.

New member of the family, ML7. All is good. Re-light of the workshop, more cleaning of said ML7. Gibs and Dial test indicators. Removing 25 years of swarf, Almost complete. Ashpan pin, and boilertube-firehole turned. Still cleaning out old muck. Split betwixt lathe and product, but getting there....

K.

Not much today, but yesterday finally got the lpg Zafira sorted - the solenoid valve was almost seized unless warmed up. Interestingly brake/clutch cleaner had no effect, but 10 minutes in meths freed it up and a quick dab with a cotton bud had it working like new!

Slightly miniaturised the control valves and vapourisers for automotive LPG could be very good fbasis or model designs, especially as this would allow propane, with its much lower (and therefore safer) pressures to be used.

Neil

Cracked on making some more bits and pieces for Graham Meek's Screwcutting Clutch for my Super 7. Just a skim to take off from the main body to finish that. I cheated and bought the gears from HPC (Usual disclaimer) They do them in Delrin; I'm using two screwed together for the wide gears (which curiously are not actually detailed in the original article - or the book as far as I could see when I skimmed through one at Manchester). Makes a change from building locos.

Took delivery of a truck load of logs early this morning and spent until 1:30 pm stacking them in the log shed. Luckily the rain stopped just before they arrived - but it's throwing it down again now. Have eaten lunch and can almost stand upright again. Any possibility of workshop activity today is very unlikely - I'm off for a shower and lie down!

N

Well actually not today but Thursday night.

Now the POS Bridgeport has gone to that big scapyard in the sky, India actually, very fitting sending a POS there to make more POS parts I now need to look for a new name for the new machine.

Seeing as it comes from China [ at least they can make thier own machines and not rely on cast offs ] and it's based on a Bridgeport clone I came up with this plate to fit to the head.