What Did you do Today 2022

Not what I did today but yesterday, took delivery of another lithium ion battery for my solar panel storage batteries. Started out two years ago with two 2.4 kWh batteries and realised that electricity wasn’t going to get any cheaper so any solar power that I could store in batteries was going to be a massive bonus. Yesterdays delivery was the fifth battery to add to the rack of batteries, making my storage capacity up to 12 kWh which should help to keep the cost of electricity, that we have to draw from the grid, to a more acceptable cost bearing in mind the forthcoming draconian increases that are forecast. Was very pleased how the upgrade went, unpacked the battery at 2.15 and by 2.30 it was fitted and the batteries were reconnected and working, not the first time I have done it and as they say “practice makes perfect.” I don’t think higher management will sanction any more expenditure on batteries for a little while though. Dave W

Trying to flatten the cross rail for the shaper I am building on the mill.As the rail is 420 long and 100 wide there is only the side slot uncovered .After clamping, I milled one side at a time.As the bow was in the middle I could only clamp at the ends and this didn't help the bow which was reduced but still there.I filed the area where the rail bolts onto the table riser.I was then able to turn it over and clamp the rail in the middle through the nut slot.I had to reduce the ends and then moved the clamps and milled the middle section.I now have a flat rail.

Frank

At last, finally got to the trial assembly & trial run on my Scotch Yoke engine. It sounds as though there is a knock on it somewhere, I reckon it may be the clearance between the crank pin & the yoke although I have maintained the clearances as per dwg. I've att. link to you tube channel for you look see. Next step will be to strip it back down & see if I can eliminate 'knock', followed by clean & paint job. Excuse the compressor noise, it takes a large volume of air for the cylinder bore size.

**LINK**

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Another possibility is the flywheel mass is quite big & the inertia may be making the crankpin slap in the yoke slot ??

George.

Is the cross head getting a bit close to the bolt head holding the guide down at the cylinder end?

You could also play with the valve timing a bit to get some cushioning at the end of the stroke by having it open a bit earlier.

Still being on 'light duties' was indoors today and came across my Daughters cine camera in the camera bag were four 90mins 8mm cassette's so made a start on get them on disc

H

More mornings spent in the garden getting rid of some ornamental grass we do not want finishing the veg area ready for planting.

Afternoons workshop time finished the rear buffer beam riveting and today making a start on the horn blocks first one machined to fit the frames quite pleased nice fit no photos. Still got two more pairs to do as they are joined I am able to do a pair at a time which will be ideal as once split they can be fitted in the same pair on the frames so should all line up later on

Derek,

don't be surprised after you split the Horn Block castings that the "open end" doesn't fit well. It has happened on all 20 Horn Blocks that I have machined (these were all 3-1/2" gauge cast Bronze and single piece - it sounds like you have the kind cast as a pair). Even though I made a special jig to hold them and there was no taper on the sides as they came off the Mill, they distorted by the time I got around to riveting them onto the Frames.

No need to worry - I used a Screw and a Nut as an internal Jack and held them tight in the Frame Slots as I drilled & riveted them. I machined the working faces holding the Frames as a pair outside Face to outside Face, Frames sitting vertical in the Mill Vice, using an End Mill.

Thank you Bruce for those words of wisdom I will now be aware of that and at lest know how to solve it. I will drill the holes in the frames from the blocks but may do so before splitting them which will give a guide for when I do split them.

I also will mark them so they only will be fitted to either left or right side as well as which slot they will fit into.

Started work on a Autolock - ER32 adapter. Simular to the FC3 adapters you can get for the 6mm shank tools this will fit in the same way but have an ER32 nose instead. That's the theory anyway. Reason being its to go on an INT 50 machine and finding a tool holder with a 1" BSW drawbar thread with ER32 at the business end is nigh on impossible

A simple soul's answer to non-faffy vise replacement. I hope!

But I did have to knock up a few tee nuts after I'd ordered the wrong size countersunk screws!

Some pictures of the buffer beams and the first horn block ready for splitting when the rivet holes have been drilled, from the other day. As they are milled as a pair I have punched a single mark on either end and also in the first frame cut out as well as engraved a L and R on the appropriate side. Hopefully if I do this to all of them the axles should end up nice and square to the frame.

Hi, I started this little repair job yesterday afternoon and finished it this afternoon. It is a small hammer that I made in school metalwork when I was about 12, but it broke a good many years ago, where it goes into the handle. I came across it a while ago when sorting out an old tool box and as can be noticed, got a bit rusty and a little pitted here and there. So I decided that it was about time I fixed it, I could have used a new bit of rod between the handle and the head, but I wanted to keep as much in tact that I could.

First thing to do was to remove the bit of thread in the handle.

After heating the end up to a dull red and allowing it to cool, I put it in a three jaw and drilled a 3mm hole right through the centre of the thread and then opened the first 3mm with a 3.5mm drill. Then put the handle in a bench vice and used a thread extractor cautiously and got the old bit of thread out.

I then weld prepped a new piece of 1/4" BMS and the broken end of the rod in the hammer handle and welded the two together.

This was then put in a three jaw on my mini lathe and the weld turned down to 1/4"

The rod was then hacksawed off to length and a new thread put on the end with a die in a hand stock and was then screwed into the handle.

Just need to give a coat of rust inhibiting paint and store it somewhere, don't think I'll ever need to use it as a hammer again.

Regards Nick.

Oh, don't worry about using your hammer, Nick! Good to see you repaired it so it can snooze in peace again for years!

I've a few items I made in school metalwork classes, kept for nostalgia I suppose although family nostalgia has never been my strong point. (I wonder what I did with the birthday dates list my sister wrote for me...?)

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More to the point....

What I Did Today.

Finally cracked the problem of arranging my steam-wagon's ash-pan, so it will tilt, grate and all, for fire-dropping. I thought it would be the engine that provides the design headaches. It's not helped by being cylindrical and the grate having to enter quite a way into a 5" bore, vertical firebox - hence needing long swing-arms back to a suspension-rod on what will be the engine frame aft of the boiler.

The whole caboodle uses the damper control-bar also to control lowering the ash-pan, after releasing the intended retainers. The difficulty was making it work without fouling such details as the front axle.

Stopped for tea and a crack at the local paper's cryptic crossword ('tis 'ard), then ventured down the garden again.; but felt too tired to think or do much. As my Grandad would have said, I was like a wooden man made of smoke.

Even so, as I peered down into the chassis I realised I am making a confection of odd--shaped bits of steel yet again, and just laying two lengths of B&Q Best QA*-approved Angle-Iron on the frame-work so far, showed me a much simpler and more elegant approach.

I took the photo two years ago, and it's not progressed much since because it's 3 steps in full forward gear then 2 to 4 back all the time. The woodwork under the boiler is part of its special lifting equipment. The vertical engine will live in the chassis just behind the boiler: the large red plate is nominally for the outer transmission-gear bearings. The black thing to the left is the smokebox and chimney, not a miniature one of those trendy garden oven thingummies!

' ' ' '

*QA: Querulous Answers, Queer Apparatus, Quality Approximate, Questionable Accumulation....

Finished off my Autolock - ER32 adapter. Not yet put it through its paces but I did spin it up and it wasn't wobbling all over the place so should be alright

At last the main horns are completed except for the rivet holes which have been marked. I was a little worried when I started them but soon got into doing them after many measurements taken and calculations checked double checked and even triple checked before a cutter touch the metal.

All three sets fit nicely into the frames now it is a case of drill the holes in them and the frames ready for riveting. I am happy with how they turned out, the inner corners will be filed square once they are fitted.

As can be seen in the photo they are still joined, that is why there is a gap at the top.

Spoken like a true engineer

Hi, it's more what I did this last week, working on a bit each day. This hanging basket bracket which I made at school in metalwork when I was eleven or twelve, had been in use in one of my sisters garden for many, many years and lost it's paint and became quite rusty. My sister didn't have any further use for it and was in the way of her new Pergola, so she asked me if I wanted it or should she sling it, I decided to keep it and see if I could revive it.

Last weekend I came across it hiding in my garage and thought it was time to sort it out. The first thing to do was to remove the scrolls and put them back into shape with a little heating and then straighten the bar that forms the hook, as it was slightly bent between where the scroll, near the hook, is riveted on and the mounting plate. Both parts were then wire brushed with one in my angle grinder to get off the bulk of the rust and they were then put into some patio cleaner to get as much of the remaining rust off and they came very clear of just about all of the rust and were then spray painted with Hammerite No. 1 rust beater.

The scrolls and the bracket were then painted on the areas were it would be difficult to get to once riveted back together, but I decided to do the scrolls red and the bracket black, instead of completely black, which it was when done in school.

I then made a special rivet snap from a piece of 20mm diameter BMS EN8 with what is the bottom, milled off so it didn't roll all over the place and a short part of the top at each end has a flat milled on it for clamping down.

Each rivet was set up in turn and riveted down, leaving the head still in a rounded shape.

The whole thing was finished painted and I've fixed it to a wall in my hallway, but it might be a bit OTT for my Tea Light lantern.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 19/03/2022 23:01:01

Hi Harry

Please advise which method you use to transfer the film images to disc, is it 100% sucessful method ?
I have some Super 8 casettes which I would like to transfer to CD or Memory stick.

Emgee

I assume by super 8 you mean film. I first tried one of those transfer devices that you used to be able to get where you project the film onto a 45 degree mirror and it then shows on a tiny screen that you photograph with a digital camcorder. Unfortunately this had a bright area in the middle of the final video. I than started to project onto a normal screen and recording the show. Tricky to line up to avoid the projector or camera shadow appearing on the screen but manageable.

I was told that there would be issues with the shutters of the camera and the projector not synchronising, but for the few family reels of 8mm and 16mm it was not an issue. If it had been I should have had to send them away to be done.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 20/03/2022 10:06:11

At the beginning of February, Iain Downs posted a request for assistance in producing an eccentric for use in a die filer. As one of the respondents, I postulated that it might be possible to make a variation of a shaper ram action in the vertical plane. Certainly not all done today, but this is what I've come up with.

I've not shown any of the fastenings but it should be fairly clear how it works. With the "bull wheel" turning in an anti-clockwise direction as viewed, It not only provides a variable stroke length but also a slow downward stroke and fast upstroke. I don't intend to make it - I have no requirement for one - it was just an exercise to keep the grey matter ticking over and see if it was a viable design.

John