What did you do today? 2023

Please use this new thread from now on, last year's is here

Edited By JasonB on 01/01/2023 07:00:46

Busy finishing my Trainrail V-Block, mounted on a flat round piece of cast iron I previously turned for a 160mm Chuck backplate but then decided not to use it for that. Machined a square in this to set the trainrail foot. In the centre I made a round insert that screw to the lathe bed to locate the cast iron plate around a centre point.. The trainrail foot is tightened to the cast iron by 4 bolts.
Today I made the T-Nuts for clamping the cast iron to the lathe bed on the left end. If it be in the way of work on the vice mounted in the centre of bed, I just remove the 4x bolts and remove the trainrail only, when repositioned its trammed in still.
-I took a test cut mill and no clamping issues observed yet.

Edited By Chris Mate on 01/01/2023 19:29:43

Started to change my CNC mill control system over to my Christmas/Birthday present (to myself) of Centroid Acorn, from Mach4 and Smooth Stepper.

Did the software today and will start on the hardware tomorrow.

Edited By Nick Hughes on 01/01/2023 21:36:44

First run of the year
Spent the day at EDMES public running session. We had a good turnout of members to help despite having a number of regulars off galivanting with family or nursing hangovers. The weather was a bit dull which put off the customers though it didn't rain until we were about to end. We probably had more passengers over the 4 hours than the 3 mainline trains that passed (behind the photographer) as the navigators in the previous millennium had the foresight to build their line next to the site we would eventually occupy so that their travellers can see us as the head off to London.

Photos of the local air ambulance using the grounds 4 days ago are on our facebook page.

Just finished fitting a universal dividing head to my WM14 mill. Photo shows unit in situ with the alignment bar (I made) in Situ for final positioning.
I inherited this unit from a now-defunct Dore Westbury machine. Naturally none of the mounting holes in the raising blocks lined up, and couldn't be easily re-aligned, so new ones were made from steel stock and accurately tenoned to my tables slots.
Have also made adapters for a 50mm scroll chuck and a Myford chuck thread.
The setup doesn't give a lot of working space or versatility of positioning, as the WM14's table isn't very big, but for free it will do what I want at present in cutting smaller straight gears.

regards Mike

Old meets new there Mike. Looks like a GH Thomas versatile dividing head, an ancient design still relevant on a new Eastern mill. Reminds me, I must get around to making the tailstock for mine.

Correct Hopper, built by my late brother many years ago! Funnily enough I was going to contact you about your posting a while back about quick setting a 4 jaw chuck . What a revelation! (Note the 4 jaw on the. Dividing head). It's now so easy I'll be much less apprehensive about using them & the time taken to set them right! So many thanks.

Regards Mike.

Built my GHT versatile dividing head, raising blocks and tailstock some time ago. It is such a well designed piece of kit.

Only thing that maybe I would now change is the method that GHT secures stock in the spindle originally it was by means of split sleeves. They work fine but I suspect that a modified spindle to accept ER tooling is now more appropriate. At least you would not have to make all those split sleeves !

Regards to all

Derek

Couldn't agree more Derek its on my to do list as well perhaps this is the right time!

Did a "spot of welding" for a friend, turned out to be two 1.2m long butt welds in 10mm plate, and space constraints forced me to do it in PF position (Vertical Up), 4 passes with the wire size I had to hand, for a total of 9.6m (31' 6"&zwnj of welding.

Took about 4 hours, of which about 45 mins was probably tacking up, wire-brushing between passes, and then grinding out restarts etc.

My back was a bit sore afterwards from bending down to do the start of each pass, but I fair enjoyed it... Working with heavier sections and longer runs makes for a much more meditative welding experience.

Edited By Jelly on 05/01/2023 15:23:22

First time out in the garage for 3 months today .

I had a "trapeziectomy & partial trapezoid excision" procedure on my right hand 12 weeks ago yesterday & have made a sufficient recovery now to make a start at "doing stuff" again. Still not got much grip & some movement restriction but told that will improve with time - recovery time quoted prior to the op was 9-12 months, so still a way to go.

Machiney mostly looking OK, with just a bit of cleaning & oiling required on the Myford. Sadly the garage has not sorted itself out in time I have not been visiting, so that will have to be priority No. 1. May have to decide which projects will probably not happen and move them on to make room to work - I find it far easier to aquire "stuff" than part with it, though..

Bike batteries put on charge, but 3 of the 5 came up as "fully charged" within minutes of hooking up the Accumate.

Nigel B.

I got out to do a bit more work on the installation of the oil fired heating system which shall not be named​​​​, was only able to get started at 22:00 so limited progress but I managed to:

• Fabricate brackets to hang the heater and the ducting (the latter being a case of welding bought brackets to metal tabs to attach to the ceiling)
• Hang the heater,
• Hang the ducting, connect up, and fit the supply valves (crudely adjusted for a starting point),
• (Not pictured) turn some BSP ⅛" Barrel Nipples to connect various compression fittings together (the heater input pipe is 4mm, the pump and filter conmections are both 5mm, and all my microbore pipe is ¼" so I can run an all hard fuel line to a bulkhead connection for an external tank.

I'm picking up the compression fittings from BES on my way past tomorrow as I'm seeing a client in Birmingham.

I need to fabricate an insulated duct for the exhaust to go through the wall from 100mm spiral ducting, some end caps and a bit of high temperature rockwool, which might be tomorrow's job.

The big delay is going to be waiting for the electrical cabinet for the 240V-12V power supply and the control electronics to go into, I bought a good quality steel one off eBay but the seller is away for the week.

I may do a test running off a car battery at the weekend if I'm able to.

I'd spent yesterday collecting a vari-speed drive from a gentleman who'd advertised it on this very Forum.

Of unknown make, it consists of two pairs of variable Vee-pulleys arranged parallel but working in series, with a cross-shaft arrangement to expand and contract them.

So today I examined it to find approximately its range (about 1/3 to 2X); then hung it from the workshop's travelling hoist to gain some idea where it might fit next to the Denbigh H4 horizontal mill it is destined to grace.

The unit looks in generally good condition but took a bit of freeing off. Not because of corrosion although the pulleys are surface-rusty, but congealed oil or grease. Judicious use of WD-40 dissolved the gunk and provided some very slight lubrication, enough to turn the input pulley by hand while using an improvised lever to operate the ratio-change. Felt-tip marks gave references for counting turns. Obviously once I've cleaned it up etc., I will lubricate it properly.

The lack of any maker's name, and what appears a motor-mounting surface, suggests it was once a sub-assembly hidden inside some machine or other, but the seller did not know what. He'd acquired it as it is.

.

Although my other machine-tools now have 3ph sets I cannot justify it for this mill, which would normally amble round at maybe 70rpm with 3" side-and-face cutters as likely maximum. Quicker for drills and slitting-saws. I had calculated this speed from old trade books on workshop practice; and the machine itself was built for line-shaft drive via 3-step flat-belt pulleys.

So it will have a 1HP 1ph motor (already there) to this vari-speed unit, then appropriate belts and pulleys to the milling-machine.

Central heating has been playing up. I discovered that the diverter valve for the radiators was faulty: The motor that moves the valve had stripped teeth. The valve is held open by the motor simply stalling at the full open position - at which point it also operates a microswitch that turns on the boiler. Since the valve is returned shut by springs, when the motor teeth slipped, the boiler was switched off and the valve partially closed, so the radiators were not getting warm and the boiler kept switching off.

I bought and fitted a new valve motor head and tidied up the wiring at the same time - discovering a loose earth wire as well ; (why are so-called professional electricians so slap-dash?).

Then I turned my attention to another problem. The boiler has been tripping its overheat cut-out switch on a regular basis. I eventually realised this was because we have turned off most radiators in the house except a couple of rooms, so the circulating hot water was not being dissipated quickly enough, leading to the boiler heat exchanger getting too hot. I have tried combinations of adjusting the boiler feed temperature, the pump speed and the radiator balance to no avail. I then realised that the boiler was just burning far too hot and then I noticed a manual valve on the gas feed pipe into the boiler. I was able to turn this down and reduce the flame size in the burner.

All is now well: the boiler runs happily and does not keep overheating. The new diverter valve head works perfectly and the radiators are getting warm.

You do not state what type of boiler you have.. I wonder if it has a modulated burner system and if so, is it functioning correctly>

The phenomenon of screws loosening is why checking the tightness of terminal screws is a maintenance task in industry, to check a terminal you first loosen the screw which checks the screw is not seized which can be caused by arcing with a loose screw. The screw is then retightened and the cable checked for security. Just trying to give the screw a little bit more can shear the screw or damage the cable. It is possible that the screw was correctly tightened when installed but cycles of heating and cooling and or vibration have loosened it.

Mike

Picked up a new (to me) plasma cutter for a song whilst over in Cumbria on business

So I'm now the proud owner of an ESAB LPH 50...

Which I can't use until I get my Rotary Phase Converter serviced, and fitted with the optional "Hand" switch which allows safe operation of welding equipment by Transwave.

Based on a quick test in the seller's workshop it will cleanly cut up to 15mm, and sever up to about 22mm, pretty happy with that.

Also happy that it's an older transformer type machine rather than an inverter type, as I want it purely for static use, the size and weight tradeoff is totally worth having a machine which is reliable and repairable.

Also my electrical enclosures turned up, so I did some wiring to put a dedicated 12VDC supply in for my heater in the evening.

I'm planning to do the exhaust and tank connections tomorrow when I can get at the outside in the light and should be ready for a test run prior to me wrapping the wiring and then enclosing the wiring and fuel line.

Edited By Jelly on 13/01/2023 15:39:15

Not sure - Potterton Netaheat 80E. Quite old technology now.

@Mike Poole - interesting, I did not know that  Unfortunately the installer put the junction box in a very inaccessible place, (why must they do that?) - requiring contortions normally seen at Cirque de Soleil, and burns to the hands from hot pipes, to get a screwdriver onto the terminal block 

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 13/01/2023 17:29:07

John Doe 2 - pretty sure that boiler does not have a modulated burner. What it does have is a boiler thermostat (not the same as the room thermostat), and that's what you should be turning down. From your description, it sounds like you have partially closed the gas cock in the supply pipe - probably not what the manufacturers intended!

The system when installed should have included a suitable bypass so that sufficient water can circulate to prevent boiler overheating - common practice is to use the bathroom rad or towel rail fitted with two lockshield valves so that it cannot be shut off without tools.

Rob

Edit - apologies, re-reading your posts, it looks like you are pretty clued-up on how it should be working

Edited By Grindstone Cowboy on 13/01/2023 18:01:02

Yeah, none taken - I flatter myself that I am a bit of a polymath - perhaps a multimath? having been trained in many engineering disciplines in three careers.

Yes there is a bypass loop, but the boiler gas burner was simply far too hot for the house load; and the boiler overheat switch kept tripping - even when I turned the boiler feed thermostat down. I have reduced the gas supply feed, and I can see that the burner flame is now much reduced. Before; the igniter tower glowed orange hot; now it remains black.

So all happy now

.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 13/01/2023 18:32:03