What did you do Today 2018

Say hello to crazy Maisie!

John.

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 16/01/2018 12:57:57

Masie, meet Roxie...

Ginger cat impersonating Rommel in Bridgeport column.

I always thought he was the desert fox, but now he's a desert cat.

Engraved divisions on 2 new dials for my very old Adcock & Shipley horizontal mill. Aluminium and next to clean burrs off and make a jig for stamping numbers  ---Mick

Edited By Mick Henshall on 16/01/2018 17:51:36

Made two stepped PTFE joint rings to replace the standard rubber rings which had rotted away either side of the central heating pump (see ten most useful items ).

Surely, everyone who uses Fernox must have this problem eventually ?

Cut the 48 holes for the first of three collet racks for the Hardinge HLV cabinet. Used a 32mm Rotabroach cutter held in a 19mm ER32 collet in the mill. Nice clean holes with minimal deburring required.

I bought alength of 7075-T6 bar a couple of months ago because it looked like it had the block for a V8 engine buried inside. After making a considerable amount of swarf, look what I found. I have roughed it out to allow any built-in stresses to relax before machining to final size.

There is a lot more swarf still to be removed, but it is at least starting to look the part.

I take it that is a 'small block' V8

If I have done my maths right, it should come in at under 50cc. So yes, a very small block V8!

You need room for 144 R8 collets? Blimey that's an investment!

5C collets, not R8. Current collection is 128 including imperial, metric, a few mixed hex and square ones and some emergency collets and arbors. One of the draws will have holes for the centres and drill chucks.

I'd planned do do this when I rebuilt the lathe 6 years ago, but hadn't got around to it. Then, while looking for a collet, I lifted one of the cardboard boxes full out of the filing cabinet draw they live in. Said box fell apart, spilling collets all over the floor...

The collet I was looking for was needed when working on the coolant pump.

The coolant pump was being finally fitted after I cleaned all the crap off the chip pan.

I'd cleaned all the crap off the chip pan because I wanted to move the lathe.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.

Oh, been there, been there.........

Today I mostly stripped a bench mount belt sander down to find the front roller had siezed and has badly worn bushings - next weekends project to fix

Seems there is always something to do before doing anthing productive!

Edited By Andy Carruthers on 21/01/2018 19:08:46

Drilling some 1mm holes to pin cranks to axles I managed to break a drill, oh bother says I (Well something not quite as polite). Ok, not the end of the world but unfortunately it was a carbide drill that I was using as the axles are some nasty grade of stainless. Apart from scrapping is it possible to have the drill spark eroded in a hole this size? Spark erosion is not something that I have any experiences with, but I'm sure somebody here will know.

Before anyone queries the very small hole size, it is on a16mm garden railway tram loco that I'm currently building, if I do scrap the axle and crank I will remake it using ordinary mild steel as it's much easier to drill small holes in.

Phil

Sourcing a replacement nut and washer for a SMA RF connector the thread was specified a 1/4" UNS which resulted in my curious mind finding thsi site

**LINK**

Amazing range of special duty threads. In fact I'm amazed at the number of threads period.

regards Martin

I had intended to start tempering my sand for castings last Monday. Just as I was finishing the mug of tea before going to the workshop, the house RCD popped. And stayed popped when reset. It was a fault in the kitchen socket ring. Eventually traced it to a section of cable between a stud wall and a wall that had been very damp. This morning, replaced it and another section that looked as if it had been chewed by mice before we got the house.

So, by this evening I managed to get to where I'd intended to be at lunchtime on Monday. Probability of any casting this week: Nil.

What a complete & utter bloody waste of a week's leave.

Regards

Richard.

Not Model Engineering as we know it!

Have just reinstalled the air compressor for the church door opener.

Last week it started "tinkling" instead of delivering air. Since replacement would be circa £800, a pal and I thought we had nothing to lose, and opened it up. Looks like a fridge compressor, but top is clamped on, rather than welded. The bolt holding a sort of welsh washer in place had broken; flush with the bottom of relatively small, deep, bore. To make matters worse, the bolt head was stamped "12.9". And it was HARD.

Turned up a tight fitting bush ready to start trying to drill out the remains. Disconnect compressor pipe and mains cable. Clamp to table of Mill/Drill and after two broken drills, (one a carbide tipped one!) finally removed the debris, at the cost of some damage to the casting. Once eventually out, progressively drilled the casting until it could be tapped 1/2" x 40 tpi ME, interspersed with repeated use of magnet and vacuum cleaner to remove the swarf. Turned a piece of BMS to 0.500" diameter and used a die to give about 0.300" thread length. (would have liked more, but frightened of breaking through casting).  Trial fit and mark top of bore. Part off to 0.250" less, face, drill and tap for 1/4 UNF, (to match existing hardware)

Trial fit to check that the blanking washer will be clamped. Clean rust and dirt off all everywhere. Loctite 1/2 x 40 thread, and screw hard into place with long 1/4UNF setscrew and nut. Remove the improvised stud box. Hylomar sealing face of plate and underside of head of new short setscrew, and tighten down. Test before connecting to reservoir, and it delivers compressed air!  Reconnect to reservoir, and return to the church door.

After correcting a minor leak, it will open the door four times on the contents of the small reservoir before cutting in again, for just under 10 seconds. Then find GRP cover is squashing the nylon delivery pipe; so butchered to make a slot for the pipe, and now the mains lead.

Come home and search for CDM to award myself! Still looking; but a satisfying end to two days of slow work.

Howard

Edited By Howard Lewis on 27/01/2018 17:43:09

Don't ever try and thread the end of an aluminium tube overhung by 7", it will bend away from the cutter and make it VERY difficult. i had to surrender and move the steady, even though it meant ruining the surface finish of the last 10mm so I had to rebore it 10mm deeper.

Neil

Could be worth turning up a top hat shaped plug to fit in the tube so you can use a tailstock centre to steady things.

For Philip Rowe, If you haven't found a supplier of EDM hole shooting, is it worth breaking up the drill with a small punch? I had luck doing this when an M3 tap decided to glue itself into some stainless steel.

My progress today was drilling and tapping all the mounting holes in the collet draws I'm making for the Hardinge. M4 thread forming tap in a battery drill was much faster than the coordinate drilling* in the milling machine. Tomorrow, I hope to drill and tap an emergency collet so I can slightly shorten the heads of the 36 Allen screws so they will fit into the drawer slides.

* Had to shorten the 3.7mm tapping drill to be able to get clearance between it and the drawer sides in the mill. The Beaver mill has got 17" max clearance nose to table and 0" minimum. Given that a tool holder and tool generally uses up a minimum of 5" and a milling vice might use another 2-4" this is silly, since it reduces the maximum work height to less than 9". In this case there wasn't enough clearance with an 8.5" work height.

Oddly enough, the next project will involve welding up an 8" riser out of bits and pieces that I've got. I'd already planned to make it for one specific job that needs doing, but I'm beginning to realise how useful it will be in general.