What Did You Do Today 2020

Not an ME job, but spent some time transcribing Met Office rainfall data from handwritten records to digital form. All this is in support of a Reading University programme to enable all available rainfall data to be in digital form.

I have what I call a manual fork lift capable of lifting 300lbs, it was in need of three new castors, it has five wheels, two load bearing wheels and two casters on a frame that can be retracted to get the lifting pallet under the load and once lifted the casters can be pushed forward to help manouver the load around and when not lifting there is a swivel castor at the rear to help move it. I bought the new castors some time last year and yesterday finally managed to change them, the rear caster didnt have a threaded shaft to bolt in place, it was a plain shaft a good fit in a tube so I had to weld the nut for the new one in place on the tube, now its done the lifter gets around easily.

Martin P

Well, it will need a bit of editing, although I'll keep most of his spellings and odd punctuation, and then I'll publish it on Amazon for hime so his wish comes true and my Dad gets a proper bound paper copy!

Neil

I thought about changing the workshop fluorescent tubes to LED ones and then I discovered that you could get complete new fittings for not much extra so I bought just one as an experiment and put it on a flexible lead with a 3 pin plug to try it in different parts of the workshop.

Well, talk about impressed! instant light with no flickering so I bought a pack of 10 fittings for £43 on ebay (my wife wanted 2 in the kitchen after seeing the difference) and am busy fitting them at each side of the machines and workbench.

Another advantage is that they are only an inch deep so no more problems with broken glass when walking through with the stepladder.

Well, you have to find plenty to occupy in these times.

Brian

I have been renovating my small horizontal it's aT&LM and is featured on Tony Griffiths Lathe site It is in the lathe section under T&LM If you want to view it.When it was bought it from a car boot sale it had no spindle so the chap I bought it off converted it to a verticle mill and I bought it for 200 pounds.When I finished my engine I bought another mill and I decided to convert it back to a horizontal mill.I have been finishing off the last bits today.As they cut off the bearing housing I had to make new ones but to be able to attach them I had to make them oval inastead of circular.I made poly v pullys to lolook like flat belt pullys New geat to drive the lever feed ,new lever and new nut,also a new spindle.Also a counter shaft.I am pleased to say it is finished and Tony thinks it might be the only one made between 1914-20.

Frank

Any pictures Frank (Bricky)?

Brian

Finished the workshop partition wall. Fitted a new security door to it with 5 lever mortice lock, The door actually fit the opening I made for it. Well nearly, I had made it a bit tight. But all good now.

Disconnected the new sockets I fit yesterday as forgot to add an extra on the garage side for an Oxford battery optimiser for the car. I now have a total of 7 twin sockets in the workshop & 5 in the garage. Never too many. Bonus was I did not have to buy them. Old stock I had. Taxed the car for March. Sorn'd it today as it seems it is going nowhere soon. Fit another workbench. Just the mill to jemmy back into the space now. Backache now.

Steve.

Edited By Steviegtr on 28/03/2020 19:56:00

I cleaned the workshop and did a little bit of research on wheel quartering (locomotive wheels). I am not so happy with the usual descriptions in the books by Martin Evans, LBSC et al but I found a really neat method using the lathe and a couple of machined parts. So I'll give that a go next week.

PhilH

Brian the mill is featured on the Tony Griffiths lathe site.Look not in the mill section but the lathe section under T&LM Thanks for the interest and stay well.

Frank

Neil - your Gt Grandad's Oxfordshire dialect would not have been out of place in my Grandad's Herefordshire village. The 'rubub etc.' etc. conjures up instant recollections of a genuine 'cottage garden' with a 3 hole privy, apple, pear and medlar trees and an old enamel bucket with the bottom missing inverted round the 'forced rubub'. Nostalgia!!

rgds

Bill

it felt right strange for me.

If I am not caving on a Saturday I usually spend the day at the W&DMES track and club-room, but they are out of reach behind locked gates (school grounds) for the duration even before any decision by the society itself.

Ah well, no excuse for not cutting steel, and after my all-too-usual round of mis-measurements and confusing sides on handed pairs, I completed much of fabricating the boiler-mounts for my steam-wagon.

Now, when I say "caving" it's actually a long-term "digging" project our small team has, to work a way through a very deep mass of limestone and conglomerate boulders to find the cave we believe and hope lies beyond - 150ft deep so far and no sign of breakthrough yet. We generally go underground for 3- 4 hours then retreat, mid-afternoon, to the Club HQ for showers, Tea and Cakes.

Clearly, whilst any outdoor pursuits or even meeting the team socially are presently out of the question, one still has to uphold the niceties, so naturally, I retreated mid-afternoon to the domestic HQ for Tea and Cakes.

Helps me remember it's Saturday.

Only afterwards, I did climb back into the overalls and return to the fray, stopping finally when it became too dusky and cold to work on something standing outside the workshop.

Whilst partaking of the tea & cakes, I enjoyed the play on the radio - a dramatisation of Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, the sequel I had not previously known he'd written, to 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Hi Nigel,

At least your knees got a week off!

I started work on the bogies for my new riding truck. Now realised I don't have quite enough material to complete both, for want of 12 inchs of bar. Surpiorsed how much I am using my new to me mill. Dead easy design modified due the small wheels. Got to decide if I can risk a trip to the metal store to get the bar given the local police are new stopping people.

Maybe if I go via the boat I can call it a work trip!

Didn't know about the Jules verne play, will try to download it on the player thingy

Ian

Edited By Ian Childs on 28/03/2020 23:01:04

Edited By Ian Childs on 28/03/2020 23:02:22

Did a bodge repair on a fan motor. This seized the bearing bush after a sintered bronze bearing had cooked its oil. But motor had kept going and rotated bush inside the self aligning housing. Worked for a while then gone sloppy and finally stalled.

My usual source of spare parts - boot fair/junk yard is closed off due to CV and I sold off my lathe last year. So a rummage in junk box for a brass bush. A few minutes work with a sharp new file and calipers took it down to size and after some plain and fancy cussing back in business.

Doubt it is a permanent fix but long enough to procure a replacement. Message - don't get rid of your lathe and do buy new files now and again.

Plenty of time on my hands self isolating in the workshop so making progress with the bottom end of the Lynx

Two more wooden racers, these for the twin grandchildren Jim & Nina coming up 18 months.

Further one is cherrywood, nearer one kambala, plus brass and black delrin.

They're only 4 miles away, but I dunno when I'll get it to 'em in the current conditions...

I'm using this time to catch up on some jobs that I've been putting of as there's always more interesting jobs to do in the workshop like tidying and cleaning the swarf from the lathe and mill which hasn't been done for a while or re-arranging my spare taps and dies in the drawers!

So today I've set to making miniture flange gaskets for my refurbished Clack Valves. After a practice attempt which went better than expected, I got the gaphite coated Klingersil sheets out and prepared two 1" square pieces and carfully cut the centre hole out with a pair of dividers that have been shapened specially for making gaskets.Then trimming the outside diameter of the flange using a surgical bladed scalple. Keeping fingers well out of the way of the cut as I didn't fancy pushing my luck down at A & E. They've got more urgent things to do at this horendous time.

A moment of admiration and gratitude for the staff in our National Health Service.

My small job done ready for assembly. Now to put them a safe place where I can find them when required and to find something else that ive been putting off!

John

Johnboy: -

Hear! Hear! To the moment of admiration.

My workshop and home are full of safe places. Trouble is, they are automatic ones and don't allow me to know their locations.

Anyway. What Did I Do Today?

Progressing with the steam-wagon's boiler-mounts. The boiler is a good deal smaller than the chassis, so needs two longitudinals within the main frame for the firebox lugs to sit on. It's a lot of extra metalwork, all the while trying to think ahead enough to head off potential problems like inaccessible fastenings, obstructions to fitting other components and losing the plane surfaces which hold the footplates and bunker floors. .

Making some progress on the GWR 5 Plank wagon, CAD model, in O-gauge. The resin 3D prints aren't coming out so well for this one.

Ed.

Started a new project making the Rotary Controller designed by Steven Ward (World of Ward). Bought the ready made button assembly and the controller electronics and display from Steve. I bought the NEMA 23 stepper and the TB6560 stepper driver several years ago but never got round to building it up. At that point in time I was going to go the Arduino route but as the creator of that software is unfortunately no longer with us I decide to go Steve's route.

Bits are loosely wired up on desk awaiting some power in order to test.

I spent last night making up a co-ordinate list to be able to mill out the holes in the front panel. Tested them on a piece of 1/2" MDF. All okay so machined the lid.

All okay.

Colin

Hi, I made a couple of bespoke nuts from plastic with a 6mm thread, these will be fitted into a round wooden block and the flat part will sit in a recess to prevent them turning, the blocks will then be glued on the inside of a wooden cabinet.

I wondering if anybody thinks I'm cheating with my set-up for machining.

Truth is, I was too lazy to change the 3 jaw for a 4 jaw, just to do two items and then having to change them back again.

Regards Nick.