Items which gave most satisfaction to make

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My golf buggy

Most finished projects but finally making this after setting out to do so some twenty seven years earlier was very satisfying

In my album there's a blued titanium light-pull shaped like a fish. I think it may be the only thing I've made that someone might pull from the rubble of future centuries looking much like it does now, and wonder who made it and why...

Babies. Unfortunately their maintenance turned out to be enormously expensive. I'm still paying out...

Dave

That was worth the the effort. Quite lovely.

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I found practising making babies was far more enjoyable than actually ending up with a baby.

Ramon Wilson, that boat is almost to nice to get wet....

Mick B1, I rather like ur Dodo.....

Mr Duffer, managed to escape that pleasure "having my own" but help'd bring up somebody else's.....

It's a Brontornis of the Miocene in S.America. Allegedly it was 8ft tall, weighed up to 350 kg, ran at 40 mph. and ate horses.

But it's away with the Dodo these days.

As for the babies SOD, I guess we may both be of an age where we're thinking one day they might be maintaining us.

Oh, and there's a hoop back chair I made on a course 9 years ago from sawn logs with pole lathe, travisher and steam box. I use it every day, and so do friends and family when they come. Nothing remarkable to look at, I hope it survives for many more years.

This I made probably 20 years ago - a replacement Quorn workhead that takes R8 collets. I hope I'd make a better job of it now but pleased at the time how it turned out.

Stepper-driven clock dial mechanism, needs hands & chapter ring to complete. I wanted to try making some gears and one thing led to another.

Almost anything that I complete! Whether it's a repair job or a 'project' or a restoration.

Recently, whilst having a tidy up I rediscovered a tool I'd completely forgotten about. I was very impressed with it - it is a taper pin turning roller box tool which I'd made as an apprentice. Unfortunately I cannot remember whether it was a self designed tool or was 'inspired' by a toolmaker, probably a bit of both, I seem to remember that a roller box tool was an apprentice project but seem to remember that I wanted something a little different and 'out of the ordinary'. It works by using a master taper to alter the tool point, in effect copying the master taper onto the part being made. Should have patented it!

Martin

A photo would be nice Martin! I've been wondering about making a box tool.

Sorry it's not model engineering BUT

Living in a small village with no 3Ph power and having bought a 400A mig welder for £25 I built a 20Kva 3ph generator driven by a car diesel. Then a 14Hp 3ph motor and starter for a bottle of whiskey, this became a 10ton hydraulic log splitter, then £35 for a 24" bladed 3ph saw bench ! Suddenly I had many NEW friends ! Oh and the generator runs on waste cooking oil.The welder would go down to car body work on .6mm or up to 1/2" girder on 1mm, quite happily, the log splitter would break almost any thing. Very useful when the power goes down and great fun to make ! Now I don't care what phase it is and it usually comes cheap as few want it ! Noel.

Another not really model engineering, or not even actually making something, but I was very pleased with the result and got a lot of satisfaction from the job. A friend bought a marlow vertical mill very cheaply, which turned out to be in very good order apart from the 3MT spindle taper which was absolutely torn to shreds, we looked at various options but it was a bit far gone for just cleaning up with a reamer. After dismantling I noticed there was possibly enough meat on the spindle to bore out and adapt to R8. some quick sketches proved the idea viable.As I had just changed lathes and didn't have a fixed steady ( now rectified with a hemingway kit) we decided to see if it could be done on my friends elderly ML7 which came with steadies, (which incidentally has had the wide guide conversion, most successful) All went well and I'm pleased to say the finished job exceeded all expectations and is in regular use. Sometimes things just go according to plan, we even found the star point in the 3 phase motor easily so we could wire in delta for an inverter.

If only every task went so well! If anyone starts a thread on your worst failures I could certainly contribute to that.

Dave

John,

Not in pristine condition but here is the taper pin box tool. I have captioned one photograph so you can see how it works (or is supposed to work!). Afraid it has rusted up a bit since I last used it (probably about 50 years ago). I also made a recessing tool (again as an apprentice - its stamped 1965!) for a capstan which I regularly still use on my Raglan capstan attachment. I've added the photographs of that as well for your interest.

NOTE - Well that was a failure - something wrong with the website which is not allowing me to modify my photo albums!!

A description of the Taper Pin Box tool:-

Is a body with a sliding centre support for the stock material. One of the legs of the support has a taper machined on it and this contacts with a swivelling tool block. this allows the diameter of the work to alter as the whole box tool advances towards the headstock. The swivelling tool block mounts on the front face of the tool and a tangential cutting tool is set up with adjustment for diameter. The rollers are mounted on a non moving face and are set to the stock size of bar being machined. As the RBT advances the centre support is pushed back and this action generates the taper as given by the guide rail which is also the 'master' taper.

A description of the recessing tool:-

A simple rack and pinion driven slide is set in the front face of the tool and this is operated by hand using a lever from the rear of the tool. The rack is machined on one edge of the 'Tee nut' type tool block - the tool block has a 3/8th hole in the front face into which a scrap milling cutter is clamped. The scrap cutter is ground up to give the form required (deep hole recess or a circlip recess as desired). I have used it many times for the later on the capstan attachment of my Raglan lathe as well as on other machines with a suitable MT adaptor.

I'll post photos as soon as the website allows pictures to be uploaded to my album(s).

Martin

Ahh! At last I've accessed the album site.

Here are the photos:

General view with tool in rearward position

Side view showing stock support centre and the guide rails - nearest guide rail is also the taper former

Front view with the guide rails in the forward position. The stock support centre sits just behind the rollers.

A front view showing the spring loaded plunger of the swivelling tool block sitting just to the right of the small guide rail housing.

Side view of the tool in the forward position. This is the start position and as the tool is advanced the centre moves back and the swivel tool block produces the taper.

Here is the Recessing tool:-

Front view showing tool in position and rack of the tool slide protruding to the right

Retraction and advance slide stops - I wasn't very good at neat stamping!

Side view showing tool clamp screw - tool is 5/16th bushed into a 3/8th hole.

Rear view showing the actuator lever and rear of the pinion.

Martin

Edited By Oily Rag on 09/01/2022 14:23:54

Successfully completing almost every job brings satisfaction, but probably the most satisfying, and useful, would be a head to head between the Four Way Rear Toolpost and the Worden Cutter Grinder..

Every tool that functions as wished is satisfying.

The beauty of Model Engineering and any manual craft is that, at the end, there is something to show for the time and effort. And if it is useful then even more so!

Howard

I was quite pleased with my two latest 1/16” scale (3 1/2” gauge) tramcars. One Edinburgh standard car and one Cardiff single deck.

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