What i've done today

[coniston]

Feb 11, 2023 9:51:15 GMT Midland said:

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Do you know where one gets some alum, I have a small broken drill in the backhead. I spoke with three engineering firms with spark eroders and all three had a maximum capacity of 40 mm. They must have the same machines. I need one with a bigger height or perhaps alum might eat it out.

Cheers David
[/quote]


I got my Alum (Aluminium Sulphate) off ebay. Mix it in hot water to a saturated solution and if possible keep it ho when using it. Although on your boiler backhead I guess you will have to make a dam around the offending part with some plasticine , blutack or similar, maybe heating the boiler gently will keep the alum working, the operative word being GENTLY.

Chris

[JonL]

Funny enough I use a stick of Alum after shaving to dab on any cuts. It's very effective. That was an ebay find, under the name Styptic Pencil.

[David]

Being a complete muppet, I forgot to put in a pin that supports the front of the grate. So the boiler and smokebox came off AGAIN after having done up all the plumbing and bolts twice already. I had drilled one of the holes for this pin in the lower extensions to the inner firebox but then plugged and soldered it up, no doubt wondering why I'd drilled a hole there.

Done now, more damage to the paint and one of the boiler bands that had been painted in place moved a bit so that looks terrible.

This did allow me to tighten up some nuts that were inaccessible with the boiler in place and also shave some material off the cylinder drain lever and paint it, which had been bugging me.

Also tested the tender for water leaks. Check, plenty of big ones. The water taps work pretty well though.

So 3 steps forward and 6 back, as usual!

I am hoping to do a steam test by the end of the week.

[David]

Boiler back on, with a great deal of paint damage. When I took it out I noticed the ash pan had the middle (fore-aft) securing screws missing and wondered why. I know now - if they're in then the boiler won't sit on the rear hornblocks because the screws hit them first! I must have found this years ago and taken them out and immediately forgot about it. I also put a bit of 3mm copper packing under one side that I'd forgotten first time around.

Then the front boiler band got out of place when putting the boiler back on, and got stuck behind the cladding... that took some getting out and more paint off. I had numbered the bands 1 - 4, and when putting the front and rear back on managed to misread them so the front one is a bit loose.

Injectors are plumbed up except for the water inlet.

I'm wondering if I should give it a bit of a spray all over with paint before I do a steam test because it will be too dirty to touch up the paint afterwards and if I try to clean the oil off the paint will no doubt just fall off.

I'll be testing with the cab off too, on the assumption I'll have to take various things apart, so more damage will happen when that goes on.

At this point I'm just plowing on and accepting the fact the paint will look terrible. This thing has to get finished sooner rather than later.

[steamer5]

Hi guys & girls,
Some of you may be aware that we have had a cyclone down here in NZ.

My wife found this on YouTube … youtube.com/watch?v=myBuNR_wl1I&feature=shares

This is the 2nd cyclone to hit parts on the north island in less than 3 weeks, this one was worse., and more wide spread4 people have died, one was a volunteer firefighter who got caught in a landslide while search a house, his mate is in hospital in a serious condition

We were lucky being on the west coast & got very little rain, I drove home from work yesterday morning with winds up in the 80 km/hr plus range…..buy mid afternoon the winds were down in the 40s & dropping. Today blue skys & very lite winds, what a difference 24 hrs make!

The clean up on the east coast will take days, the infrastructure damage months!

Cheers Kerrin

[chrisb]

I am also in NZ, up in Northland we got a good lashing with rain and wind but got away lightly compared to other areas that got it later on. I just have 4 30 year old cypress trees to deal with after they were blown over. Quite a bit of work as they were at least 40ft tall.

[steamer5]

Hi Chris,
Glad to hear you are ok, sounds like you got off lightly, despite what our news media were saying.

Cheers Kerrin

[lesstoneuk]

Is a visit to Phil McCavity allowed in "What I've done today" ?
Damn root canal, still added bonus is that my old dentist has retired and it seems my new one is a pretty Asian lady. No pain, all done in 45 minutes

[Rex Hanman]

When my dentist retired the receptionist gave me a wink and told me his replacement was young and Swedish.

He was.

[kipford]

My dentuist has just retired, so I wait in anticipation to see who the replacement is 

[David]

Connected the flood coolant to the Tormach today. It made a massive difference to cutting aluminium. We are using a new supposedly aluminium specific cutter too so that would also help.

We were breaking cutters and getting nasty burrs before. We can now cut twice as fast and get a smooth cut. The part went from 3:11 to 2:11 minutes.

Looking forward to trying cutting brass, but I have no parts to make. I also hope it will help with steel. A club member reckons it will make a big difference, he can cut a set of loco wheels with a single cheap ebay cutter.

[jasonb]

The aluminium specific cutters are also very good on brass & bronze and the coolant not only helps with getting rid of the swarf to avoid recutting it but also reduces the risk of aluminium chips welding to the cutter. I just use a fogbuster for alumnium and can feed at upto 1000mm/min though 600 is mostly what I use, brass, bronze iron and steel I do dry with just air to clear swarf.

Burrs and over hot swarf are a good sign your cutters are getting dull

[uuu]

I like using aluminium cutters on brass and bronze, too. But I am always a bit cautious, because of the way brass grabs at tools with a high top rake. So the cutter has to be really secure in its holder and the work well clamped.

Wilf

[lesstoneuk]

Today, I did something that I haven't done for the best part of 45 years.
The tank filler on my sentinel needed a lid. It's a simple round lid with curved down sides.
In metal it could be spun or turned from solid. From solid, it would be difficult, great skill needed to get thin, undistorted sides. It could also be 3D printed.
Now way back in the late 70s and early 80s, I made scale aircraft from plastic kits. Some of those models needed a new or different part.... Radome, drop tank, cockpit transparency, engine.... that sort of thing. An example being the Airfix Sikorsky S61 being converted to a Royal Navy Westland Sea King. It had a uniquely shaped radome just behind the rotor head.
Then and now I used a method similar to vac forming but without the vacuum.
The method was to make a profile female mould and a slightly smaller male mould. This former was 80 thou smaller (40 thou a side). This male mould then got stuck to a flat piece of board.
A piece of 40 thou plasticard, as big as the female mould, was laid over the mould then warmed until soft and shiny. Quickly the male mould is pushed through and held tight until the plasticard had set and rehardened.
Once cool, it's removed from the moulds.
A quick trim and sand and there's the lid.
In this case I'm the proud owner of two brand new, tight fitting lids.
Yes, I always do an extra one, I learnt to do that all those years ago.
Just thought you guys might like to have an insight into, what was for me, an old technique. 3D printing isn't always the answer.

I just noticed.... I'm so sorry if I offended anyone.... I'm old school and it takes a lot to change. I must remember to not use the words "female" and "male" when describing the moulds. Please replace these words with "sticky in bit" and "sticky out bit" respectively.

[ettingtonliam]

Now you've mentioned it, what is the official modern way , acceptable to all sensitive people of describing what used to be known as male or female in mechanical engineering terms?

[millman]

I suppose we will have to say internal and external to satisfy the sensitive ones.

[ettingtonliam]

So a bolt is an internal fastener and a nut is an external fastener?

[millman]

I don’t know, you have to ask the woke brigade or the snowflakes for the definitive definition.

[brucevoelkerding]

Leslie - what material did you make your Moulds from ? Did you use a Release Agent ?

[jem]

Lets stick to male and female, we understand that even if the woke brigade don't.

Jem who still uses a 1970's dictionary!!!