What i've done today

[JonL]

Dec 30, 2023 9:59:56 GMT stewartcottle said:

hi all yes at larst i think i am in the right place.

wel lets start at the top.....

my name is stewart cottle

son of ken cottle.

and i am looking for Jim Vass . i have some news for him and any one who new dad .

The Update IS : dad past away in may 2023 and i am in the prosess of shuting down the workshop.

i need to know if dad had been doing some work for Jim .

we have phoned him but had no luke.if any one can help me plz e-mail me at [e-mail]

thank's for your help.

my best regards stewart .... Happy New Year All

Best of luck with your search.

[Cro]

Dec 30, 2023 9:59:56 GMT stewartcottle said:

hi all yes at larst i think i am in the right place.

wel lets start at the top.....

my name is stewart cottle

son of ken cottle.

and i am looking for Jim Vass . i have some news for him and any one who new dad .

The Update IS : dad past away in may 2023 and i am in the prosess of shuting down the workshop.

i need to know if dad had been doing some work for Jim .

we have phoned him but had no luke.if any one can help me plz e-mail me at [e-mail]

thank's for your help.

my best regards stewart .... Happy New Year All

I’ve passed onto a friend in contact with Jim and he’s passed it on.

Adam

[David]

Dec 25, 2023 17:38:50 GMT steamer5 said:

Hi David,
Had a similar experience with the boring head coming loose! Not a fun experience, luckily no part was damaged with not thinking this thru! Oh or the mill!
To prevent a similar moment I jumped on eBay, found a guy selling both a right & left hand 12 mm boring bar plus inserts for not a lot…. Must add a set screw to make double sure the head doesn’t come loose!
The other advantage to changing to boring bars is they cut way better than the style you have, mine never really cut well, I did watch a video on YouTube that said that as received they aren’t ground correctly & went on to show how to fix them.
Merry Christmas

Cheers Kerrin

Similar to your set screw idea I was thinking a pin through the head into the arbor might be a good idea.

I've also heard these brazed carbide tools are not sharp as delivered. Which is unhelpful because who can (or wants to) sharpen carbide at home?

[ettingtonliam]

Sharpening brazed carbide tooling is easy. You just need a green grit wheel on your grinder, which I've had for years.

[dhamblin]

Fenchurch at Sheffield Park by Daniel Hamblin, on Flickr

A little bit of full size today as I went for a ride on the Bluebell Railway for New Years Day. Pictured here is LB&SCR A1X No. 72 'Fenchurch' with the LNWR Observation Saloon at Sheffield Park station, with the gas lamps lit, and waiting to shunt the saloon into the carriage shed. Today also saw the return to normal service of rebuilt Battle of Britain pacific No.34059 'Sir Archibald Sinclair' after a major rebuild, which included fitting a new inner firebox to the boiler.

Regards,

Dan

[David]

Dec 31, 2023 10:05:37 GMT ettingtonliam said:

Sharpening brazed carbide tooling is easy. You just need a green grit wheel on your grinder, which I've had for years.

I don't want the carbide dust though.

[JonL]

Yesterday I made a crankshaft for the Stuart Score I'm very happy with. Today was spent angrily tidying the workshop to find the recently purchased 9/32 reamer I've lost. All machines cleaned down and oiled, all tools back in their rightful place, still couldn't find it. Then I realised it hadn't been delivered yet; I was confusing it with the 3/4 reamer I'd ordered for the cylinder bores...

[Jo]

Please tell me you are going to hone the bores not ream them...

Jo

[ettingtonliam]

Oh dear, have I been wrong all these years by reaming cylinder bores up to about 1" dia? Naughty me!

[JonL]

Jan 2, 2024 18:01:45 GMT Jo said:

Please tell me you are going to hone the bores not ream them...

Jo

For that size yes I'm going to ream them. Have you done something different on your steam engines? It's only a 3/4" dia bore. Always interested to learn.

[chris vine]

I guess it depends on how good the reamer is.

I have some that work like a dream and others which, although leaving a hole the correct size, are horrible things!!

Chris.

[simon6200]

I’ve had a very good couple of days. We had our usual New Year’s Eve run and barbecue at SLSLS followed on New Year’s Day with a garden gauge day at Cripple Creek Tramway. By great good fortune, both days were overcast and mild, rather than the more likely stinking hot with burning sun, in Sydney in January. If anyone is interested in the days,
youtu.be/93v9Tduduug
youtube.com/watch?v=WUSzeISqqqc&feature=shared
James Sanders is filming my B1 as he drove. His own newly completed NSWGR 27 class is featured also. Warwick Allison’s Ayesha can be seen flying along the elevated track.
I’m sure some will find my extension controls objectionable but .alas, my back will not bend. They all clip out in seconds if necessary.

[JonL]

I don't object to controls like that, if it makes it safer and easier to use then let the rivet counters enjoy their unmodified shelf-queens.

[JonL]

Today has been a "why the hell didn't I do this years ago" revalation.

Ever since I got my mill I've been using the Jacobs chuck it came with. Grossly oversized, and whenever you swap between an R8 collet and the chuck there is much manual tedious winding to move the head up and down. Today I fitted a much smaller model engineering chuck more suitable for the sub-7mm drilling I'm normally doing. Slaps forehead, why didn't I get one years ago. Such a simple and cheap thing to buy, and makes me feel a bit of a mug for Soldiering on with the massive one for so long.

[dscott]

Today is Public running at Reading and many expected due to Decembers being swapped for a Santa event.
Yesterday was a first Model Exhibition near Maidenhead which was lovely.
Hit one of the traders for £17 worth of useful Model Engineering bits and packets.
Got a nicely started 4400 class in OO gauge a Malcolm Mitchell kit. Yes instructions included but any trouble I am friends
on Facebook with Malcolm so could be helped.
We have one started in 5" gauge to works drawings so this may help. Cylinder patterns this summer please.

David and Lily.

[David]

Jon, it sounds like the workshop is getting a real going over! I did the same angry tidy up recently to find a telescoping bore gauge and a few other things.

The usual method of filling boilers at my club is to slide a garden hose over a 1/2" copper pipe that is screwed into the blowdown valve. When I do this I have to crouch down and hold the hose in place or it shoots off. Another club member has a nifty system using garden hose fittings which I thought I'd try.

First up was make a fitting for a hose barb to thread on to. Measuring a tap gave a thread 33mm dia, 11 TPI. 25 BSP I think. I started with my carbide threading insert but it couldn't cut the thread deep enough. I found a pointed HSS tool, picked up the thread again and kept going until the fitting screwed on.



Then while out looking for hose clamps a son learning to drive backed into a truck while parking. Luckily it did no damage to the truck but it broke the cover of one of my rear lights. Could have done without that. I saw it coming but he didn't respond to my 'STOP! STOP! STOP!' in time :(

[runner42]

Hi David,

I have the same principle of boiler filling using the blowdown valve with the same hose connection affixed to the end. However to get the thread I cut off the end of an old garden tap and silver soldered it to the copper tube that takes the ouput of the blowdown valve below the boiler.

Brian 

[David]

That's a good idea Brian, and now I realise I could have done that. We had a new brass tap that was leaking and it turned out to be bad machining of the seat which broke through to the outlet so I could have sacrificed that one.

[steamer5]

Hi David,
I do the same idea but different, I have the push connector & a coupler that way you cover both possible connection types, suggest you put a ball valve between the fitting as above & what ever way you couple up to the blowdown valve, I use a short length of silicone tube, it save you getting wet when connecting / disconnecting you don’t need to ask how I found that out!

Cheers Kerrin

[steamer5]

Hi Guys,
If anybody likes mountain steam, heres an hour long doco of the Fell Engines that ran here in NZ. Our old neighbor was a guard on the last train. The museum is a great place to visit to see the last of these unique engines


youtu.be/HRlATlojnD4?si=SH9ChNbKQZnl6OUw

Cheers Kerrin