What Did You Do Today 2020

Adding to Speedy Builder's observation, Beryllium Copper alloy was once a common type of bronze used for spring contacts due to its elasticity. It is poisonous and I think has largely been phased out.

I don't know what is used in modern electrical work - phosphor-bronze?

===

As for What I Did Today....

A little more work on the steam-wagon.

I discovered a fabricated chassis cross-member that dips below the boiler-barrel was fouling the ball-joint on the steering drag-link. After considering modifying its outline, I plumped for moving it forwards and beefing up its connections to the chassis to:-

- strengthen the area above the axle,

- support the barrel nearer the smoke-box (neither imparts structural strength) , and

- remove the original snag.

Ball-joints were used on Ackermann steering in the 1900s, though possibly not on the Hindley wagons; so whilst not strictly prototypical are still in spirit as well as more reliable than the wriggly series of clevis joints I'd first made, based on the archive photographs.

I have kept the track-rod correctly clevis-ended, as that is very prominent in front of the axle. The drag-link and drop-arm are nearly hidden by the superstructure and wheel. This works because the king-pin bearing pillars and spring-pads are joined rigidly by a hefty I-beam axle, keeping the rod and radius-arms in one plane.

I made the axle years ago, by welding two lengths of folded channel together back-to-back and trimming flush, to imitate the probably-forged original. I similarly fabricated the pillars to represent what were probably castings.

("Drawings?" I hear you ask. There are none, just a few grainy old publicity photos from 112 years ago!)

...

I was hoping to get this ridiculously belated project to a running state for a show this Summer, though have still entered it as "U/C"... . Not even sure yet if we will have access to our club-room, due to its location, until the present problem is over.

Also to Sansaranda.

The ring in this pic I cheated & bought the blank , which screws apart. The wood was carefully cut out of the block with hole saws. Then it was cemented into one half of the blank. The other half then screwed on. Then lots & lots of sanding with the ring in a mandrel on the lathe at slow speed. Since then I have been making my own blanks from Stainless 316 & machining the groove. I have lots of exotic veneers of which I will be wrapping in the groove & then finishing by hand. Here are a couple I have done using opal.

Steve.

Beryllium copper still seems to be available. It's not beryllium copper per se that is the problem but when it's in the form of dust or swarf that can get into the lungs. Another useful property of beryllium copper is that it is non-sparking, so tools made from it are mandated at the more stringent end of the ATEX regulations and can be bought, at least in the US,

Beryllium oxide is still used in semiconductors as it has the second highest thermal conductivity after diamond while being an electrical insulator. Again it is toxic when in the form of dust. Back in the 1970s when I started dabbling in electronics the advice was to never cut open the new high power RF transistors that were coming in, as they contained beryllium oxide. Another saying was that a cut due to beryllium metal never healed, although I've never tried it!

Andrew

Steve

Would you be willing to expand on your methods for the rings and perhaps indicate a source for the ring blanks.

Your results are spectacular and encourage experimentation!

Hi Jim. Rather than bung up this thread with a long posting I will do it on a thread I started some time ago. If you do a search for a thread called making rings you will see quite a few projects I have doen & I will continue this post there.

Steve.

After much procrastination I managed to cut the bevel gears for my Durham & North Yorks TE. I'm sure they could be better but as they work I'm feeling pleased with them.

If I had managed to produce something of that quality, not only would I be feeling pleased, I would have them mounted on a display frame and hang it in a prominent place in the house!!! Super work, congratulations!

rgds

Bill

Looks like excellent work to me Norman! well done.

I wanted some beryllium copper for making a pendulum suspension spring. I managed to find a supplier and said that really I only needed a small sample. They sent me, free, well over a metre of 50mm x 0.1 mm BeCu tape. Probably enough for a couple of hundred clocks! So far I've made about 5 springs for myself (to get one which worked!), a couple for a friend and supplied a few inches to another friend in Italy. Plenty left!

supplied a few inches to another friend in Italy.

Untouched by human hand? Wouldn’t want coronavirus introduced to Italy - of all places!🙂

Made a new X-Axis left end plate, ready to accept the Mondeo wiper motor. Ongoing project. Oh & tried to program the DRO to do a array drilling 3 holes around a circle for a bearing holding job. Cannot believe it worked. Trial in some wood. Also ordered power supply, speed controller, enclosure,Tacho & all the switchgear required for the tacho & x-axis mod.

Steve.

Those are brilliant Norman, I don't care how long you procrastinated

David

Yes they are. Very talented.

Steve.

The first "round tuit" project I've completed in the coronavirus lockdown. Fitted a box carrying terminal posts, fuse holders and indicating LEDS, to a spare PC power supply. I now have a bench power supply with 12, 5 and 3.3 volt outputs. Handy for electrolytic rust removal an electroplating.

They look excellent. What method did you use; parallel depth?

Andrew

Hi Andrew, yes they are parallel depth. Found and read a couple of interesting articles by D R Machin (ME 17/8/1973 & 7/9/1973) but in the end opted for what for me was probably the simpler approach.

Completed the insulating/ cushioning pads for the boiler mounts on my wagon. Started to work out the next stage - building without drawings is rather like chess: you need consider all manner of arcane possibilities well ahead, even down to the accessibility of fasteners. I never was much good at chess....

Had a bit of engineer's block, so took advantage of the fine weather (albeit chilly breeze) to attend to the Nature Reserve, a.k.a. garden, by digging out some weeds and mowing the lawn for the first time - and first time possible - in 2020.

Even then I had to do some " engineering ". My manual mower was made by a leading firm in a European country renowned for high-quality in making things... but not necessarily in designing them. The rattle in one wheel resolved itself by the wheel disgorging a steel dowel, followed by nearly coming off as its retaining polythene "press-stud" crept out of the tube that serves as rigid axle. This led me to discover the dowel was actually a driving-pin, allowed to escape from its fits-where-it-touches hole as the wheel moved sideways.

And as for the grass-box... Useless! It hangs off two crude, pressed-steel hooks so it drags along the ground, throws the clippings back into the blades when you stop, and empties itself "on site" when you lift it to remove for emptying onto the compost heap.

Still, I now have something more lawn than silage-meadow, the nettle patch is back under control and I have started cutting the flowering-cherry logs for seasoning as making wood, not fuel wood. (I had not felled the tree but trimmed it quite drastically as it was over-shadowing next door's garden too much.)

'

Perhaps I'll look at another area of the steam-wagon tomorrow, on the principle that a break from a problem may help me solve it when I return to it.

Not so much what I did today as what I finished today, it actually took over week as I'm rather out of practice... A 4-Facet Drill Grinding Jig for my Worden Tool & Cutter Grinder.

Today I finished the drill chuck removal gadget. The wing nuts work but look a bit naff, so I'll probably make some knurled finger nuts when I get around to it.

Another "round tuit" job. Made a new tool height gauge for my mini lathe.

          Now off into the garden to clean the fish pond out.

Edited By Anthony Knights on 27/03/2020 11:42:37