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Post by David on Mar 22, 2023 11:06:11 GMT
An interesting day with the CNC machine. We're cutting some mounting brackets for work out of 10x20mm aluminium box section, 2mm thick walls. We put the flood coolant on a few weeks ago and that made a huge difference, so today we decided to see how fast it would go. We started at 300mm/min which is where we left off last time. Then we went to 450, 600, 800 and there was no problem at all. No weird noises and a beautiful finish. I meant to then go to 1000 but went to 1200mm/min by mistake. It sounded a bit different but still didn't seem to be trouble. I think I'll go back to 1000mm/min next time. The spindle speed was 5000rpm in all cases. The cutter is still sharp enough to draw blood as my team mate kept learning. Not sure why he felt the need to poke it more than once. He noticed the coolant losing flow after about a minute. We put 21 litres of water + soluble cutting fluid in the tank before and it seems it was running low waiting for the chip tray to drain. We added another 12 or so litres of water plus more cutting fluid and the problem went away. We're going to try drilling and tapping the plastic enclosures next. We've 3D printed some fixtures to account for the moulding draft so the drill and tap will be presented perpendicularly to the enclosure wall. I'm not convinced tapping relatively thin plastic is going to work with a tapping head I have, but we'll see. These are for a data logger we've designed in-house. It's based upon an ESP32 MCU and has a mobile network modem in it. I'm busy writing the software for it. If you're interested: github.com/DPIclimate/enviro-node |
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Post by jon38r80 on Mar 22, 2023 22:08:03 GMT
Jem
Unfortunately I don’t have any wedding gear myself or have a friend who does either. I don’t think the value of the chair warrants buying any either. I learnt to stick weld when in my 20s and haven’t touched it since so would have to relearn anyway. I could get it welded professionally but it would probably cost more than a new part.
EBay AliExpress and Amazon are my friends for this and sure enough Amazon has them at a reasonable price. Just have to wait now till it gets here.
I’d like to be able to fix it, like you I would rather repair than throw away. As the rest of the chair is still good at least I’m keeping the majority.
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uuu
Elder Statesman
your message here...
Posts: 2,864
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Post by uuu on Mar 23, 2023 10:55:40 GMT
Makes a change from people boasting about the performance of their equipment.
Wilf
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lesstoneuk
Part of the e-furniture
Retired Omnibus navigation & velocity adjustment technician
Posts: 374
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Post by lesstoneuk on Mar 23, 2023 20:22:01 GMT
A welding machine can be had from China for less than £50,in fact nearer £40 in some cases.
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Post by jon38r80 on Mar 24, 2023 0:09:16 GMT
Trouble is you can at least double that buying a helmet and rods to say nothing of gauntlets. A new bit cost 15 and the chair is about 15 years old so about 100 to fix it is a bit steep. Bear in mind it cant be sat on till it’s fixed which is a pain in the posterior. Can’t really justify a welder though it woulbe nice to have. If. I were going to make the investment I would probably end up spending a lot more and buy one of those machines that feed wire and have gas shielding, mig gig or whatever just because   |
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lesstoneuk
Part of the e-furniture
Retired Omnibus navigation & velocity adjustment technician
Posts: 374
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Post by lesstoneuk on Mar 24, 2023 6:05:36 GMT
£8 for self darkening goggles, £8 for a slag hammer, £8 for full gauntlet gloves and £5 for 20 1/8th welding rods. I paid less when I kitted myself out.
You do get basic safety equipment when the welder is purchased but they are more British Leyland quality than Audi.
I bought mine to weld the frames on my class 76 but the missus has blagged it a couple of times for welding on the camper.
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jma1009
Elder Statesman
Posts: 5,922
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Post by jma1009 on Apr 2, 2023 18:30:34 GMT
At what is now the 40th anniversary tomorrow of my involvement in model engineering, I removed the gas nozzle of the small ring on my gas stove with a 7mm spanner. This ring has been feeble for quite a few years, so I cleaned it whilst cooking Sunday lunch, and used a Chinese HSS taper reamer to clear out the jet both sides. Would never have been able to do such a job without knowing about model engineering and having the right stuff to hand!
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,993
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Post by JonL on Apr 3, 2023 21:11:53 GMT
At what is now the 40th anniversary tomorrow of my involvement in model engineering, I removed the gas nozzle of the small ring on my gas stove with a 7mm spanner. This ring has been feeble for quite a few years, so I cleaned it whilst cooking Sunday lunch, and used a Chinese HSS taper reamer to clear out the jet both sides. Would never have been able to do such a job without knowing about model engineering and having the right stuff to hand! Yes it's funny how many other jobs I do now with the little knowledge I've gained from model engineering. Swiss Army Knife of hobbies! |
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Post by dhamblin on Apr 4, 2023 21:40:44 GMT
Under instruction to find torque values for the BA thread fasteners on a 1962 Tube Stock drivers brake valve today I dug some data out of Tubal Cain's Model Engineer's Handbook  In other news applied thinned down varnish to seal in transfers on Britannia's tender tank, cab sides and running plates this evening. Regards, Dan |
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Post by davewoo on Apr 18, 2023 17:53:48 GMT
 New toy arrived on a pallet today, I've been after an Acorntools shaper for years, I used to collect spares from the factory in Acton on my motorbike when I was an apprentice, a long journey from Kent usually in the rain. Works foreman always made me a tea and have a chat, always liked the identical shaper they had in the works, although they no longer made lathes or shapers. Paid much too much but it has the cast stand and original vice, cost the same to ship from Scotland to the Kent coast as I sold my elliott 10M when we moved quite a few years ago, prices of shapers seem to have risen quite a bit in 10 years! |
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millman
Part of the e-furniture
Posts: 329 
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Post by millman on Apr 18, 2023 20:58:11 GMT
What a beautiful machine, a workshop just isn’t complete without a shaper.
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Post by mugbuilder on Apr 21, 2023 3:43:54 GMT
New toy arrived on a pallet today, I've been after an Acorntools shaper for years, I used to collect spares from the factory in Acton on my motorbike when I was an apprentice, a long journey from Kent usually in the rain. Works foreman always made me a tea and have a chat, always liked the identical shaper they had in the works, although they no longer made lathes or shapers. Paid much too much but it has the cast stand and original vice, cost the same to ship from Scotland to the Kent coast as I sold my elliott 10M when we moved quite a few years ago, prices of shapers seem to have risen quite a bit in 10 years! Fabulous machines ,shapers, but boy do they make a mess with swarf spread far and wide. |
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millman
Part of the e-furniture
Posts: 329
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Post by millman on Apr 21, 2023 8:43:09 GMT
I have found that a couple of the large disposable aluminium cooking trays, the sort that most supermarkets sell around Christmas time for cooking the turkey in are ideal for swarf catchers on the shaper.
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Post by davewoo on Apr 21, 2023 20:10:36 GMT
" Fabulous machines,shapers, but but boy do they make a mess with swarf spread far and wide"
Must be why I like shapers as my wife tells me I spread swarf, grease and general grime far and wide, obviously my new shaper is a kindred spirit!
Dave
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Post by dhamblin on Apr 27, 2023 6:51:57 GMT
Simple job last night - a replacement 10BA silver steel pin for the reverser shaft universal joint on Britannia. More importantly it was the last bit that needed to be made for the restoration.
Regards,
Dan
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Post by mr swarf on Apr 30, 2023 19:39:56 GMT
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VGC
Active Member
Designing a perfect new version of valve gear ;-)
Posts: 30
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Post by VGC on Apr 30, 2023 20:39:42 GMT
I updated the official VGC website with my new "Iterator", a (mathematically) simple micro-solver for 1 or 2 equations with 1 or 2 variables, but very useful for closing the gap between "only new design" and "only remodeling of an existing valve gear".
For broad use, I added some more resulting parameter values to the valve gear diagram which also can be used as target for a preset target value.
This allows to easily modify an automatically pre-optimized valve gear or to efficiently optimize areas of a "reproduced" valve gear.
The program description and manual on the main website have been updated accordingly.
The "last few corrections" took me >25 hours...
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Post by dhamblin on May 16, 2023 21:51:23 GMT
Took a chance this evening and headed to the RAF Museum in Hendon to catch the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Avro Lancster B.I PA474 doing a flypast to mark the 80th anniversary of Operation Chastise, more commonly referred to as the Dambusters Raid.  Dambusters 80th Flypast by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr We were blessed with lovely light, slightly broken cloud and three passes. A wonderful flying tribute to a brave generation. Regards, Dan |
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,993
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Post by JonL on May 17, 2023 16:05:06 GMT
I spent almost all of today trying to refurbish one single placard from the Swordfish cockpit. Finally refined a technique that kept the infilled letters nice and bright while replicating the original black anodising on the label. I have to confess I checked this site first!
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,993
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Post by JonL on May 26, 2023 18:47:19 GMT
I cleaned the gunky oil out of the sump of my newly aquired Stuart Sirius and made a needle type throttle valve for it. I think I need to attend Steam Engines Anonymous.
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