Hello and a part-built blowfly

[springcrocus]

Big Hole!

Seriously, though, I think you are doing a great job with the limited tooling at your disposal. I've always felt that the harder you have to work to obtain a result, the greater the satisfaction.

Keep up the good work.

Regards, Steve

[Lisa]

Both boring bars are now done, just need to cut and grind the tools for them, then make that mounting plate for the cylinders.

[Lisa]

I was just in the mood for some simple turning today, so made the bushes for the crosshead ends of the connecting rods.


Also meant the Taig lathe got a bit of use, as it's been somewhat neglected of late.
Meanwhile, a package of grub screws arrived in the post, which finishes off the smaller boring bar, and means I now have hole fillers for the cross slide when the bolting plate isn't fitted.

[Lisa]

This might take a while...

A bit of 100x8mm steel for the mounting plate for the cylinders, made a start at cutting it, but my back it seems is not 100% just yet and started protesting.

So instead I had a search through the pile of spare castings and such hiding under the bench; there's a fair chunk of a 7¼" gauge loco there that can be sold off to help fund a boiler... and/or a bandsaw.

[Jim]

The Hafco band saws are brilliant Lisa and very versatile. I've used mine for all sorts of cutting jobs including dare I say it, wood when it was too hard to get to the circular saw.

Jim

[barlowworks]

Hi Lisa

I would go for the band saw, I have a Femi 780 and it's a very useful piece of kit. Check out the band saw thread in the tools and tooling section for more info. (I tried to post a link but the technology beat me again).

Mike

[Lisa]

Jim, that's probably what I'll get, dad used to have one that we used all the time. Where do you get your blades from? As I recall, the Hafco ones might as well be made from cheese for all their effectiveness, and the local place we used to get blades from isn't there anymore. Unless Hafco have improved their blade quality since I last used one; which admittedly was the mid-late 90's.

Mike, I'll have a look into the Femi, ta, not sure on their availability in aus though.

[steamer5]

Hi Lisa,
As you know bandsaws are one of, or the most useful tools in the shop. Machinery House could likely supply decent blades. I got lucky a couple of years back one of our local tool shop, & we don't have many, had Starratt blades on speacial! I gave the moths in the wallet a shock that day.

Here's a link to what I did to mine.....still got a couple of other upgrades to do, but they arent top of the list

www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,6363.0.html

Cheers Kerrin

Edit,
 For some reason the site software isn't adding the 6363.0.html as part of the link, sorry don't know how to get round this, but that's the posting. It's under tooling & machines, 6x4 bandsaw upgrade

[racinjason]

Lisa I get mine from Hare & forbes they are starrett blades about $12 each.
Cheers Jason

[Lisa]

Thanks folks, nice to know they're selling decent blades now.

[Jim]

Aug 3, 2017 7:37:55 GMT Lisa said:

Jim, that's probably what I'll get, dad used to have one that we used all the time. Where do you get your blades from? As I recall, the Hafco ones might as well be made from cheese for all their effectiveness, and the local place we used to get blades from isn't there anymore. Unless Hafco have improved their blade quality since I last used one; which admittedly was the mid-late 90's.

Mike, I'll have a look into the Femi, ta, not sure on their availability in aus though.

Initially I used to make up my own blades Lisa from a roll of Starrett band saw blade material  and when eventually that ran out I bought a packet of Hafco's blades and had no problems at all that was about 20 years ago. I've replaced 3 as their teeth have worn down, none have broken.

Jim.

[Lisa]

I've been busy with a bit of money-making programming of late, and still am really, but decided to take a break to do just a little bit more in the workshop.

I never did polish the rods up, and they're covered in surface rust despite being coated in what I thought was a liberal amount of oil.
So I thought I'd make a start polishing them up on the not-a-linisher:

Some emery wrapped around a bit of pipe with a slot cut in it, then put in the pillar drill; does a nice job of taking the tool marks out of the job, and I'll switch to a finer grit once they're all done to really polish the rods up.

[Jim]

That's another good idea to add to the list. Thanks Lisa for how to polish rods on 'Not a Linisher'

Jim

[Oily Rag]

Lisa , snipped " I never did polish the rods up, and they're covered in surface rust despite being coated in what I thought was a liberal amount of oil."

The pain of living in the sub toipics eh, every thing rusts in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea.

My method is to never use normal oil. It drys, dust settles and rust will be on the upper surfaces in no time.
I find using CRC Long Life, sprayed/applied is good. A good Brew! I keep cans of the stuff here and there about in the workshop. WD40 etc is only useful for what seems like 10 minutes.
I tired Lanotec but it seemed to leave stains on items.
I also always cover the item, so the dust and humidity does not settle on the upper surfaces. I cover all my drill stands, mill tables etc as the less used ones will be rusty in a week.

In the bike workshop I don't bother, it is my chosen path of professional expression, but the Red Room is for my chosen path of hobby expression, so it is looked after

[Lisa]

Yeah the rust is everywhere. Once the rods are actually done and polished (just bought some more emery as I've only got 400 grit left) I'll spray them with silicon lubricant, as sold for vertical blinds, windows, and treadmills; and different to the silicon polish sold for rubber goods, furniture, etc.
We used to use this on dad's loco's, which kept the rust at bay nicely (and gave a good shine).

I keep old towels for covering the machinery, they've been soaked in oil in the past, so make for good rust-proofing covers.

[Lisa]

And so begins a lot of chain-drilling:


Got into cutting the mounting plate for boring the cylinders, a new hacksaw blade works wonders. Dad also helped, by holding on to the cut part so it wouldn't drop; he's having a pretty good day today.
So now it needs this cutout to hold the cylinder, same as the frames; chain-drill out the bulk of it, then mill to finished size. Plus drill the bolting holes to attach the plate to the bolting plate on the cross slide.

[Lisa]

Gradually getting there; dad was watching on and offering 'advice', nothing helpful, but it's nice when he gets involved.

[Jim]

That sounds familiar Lisa. My kids think my advice is about as useful as a porthole in a submarine, great though that he's interested in what you are doing and trying to help. 
I'm not sure if it would work on the job you're currently doing but I used my little B&D jig saw with a little metal cutting blade to cutout all the openings in the tender frames and prior to that a lot of the cutouts on the Burrell. It worked very well on 2<3mm plate.

Jim

[Lisa]

Dad has trouble stringing a sentence together these days, but sometimes he comes up with some words of wisdom. Of course when I was younger I ignored any advice I didn't ask for; something I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of at some point.

Meanwhile, I finished chain drilling this afternoon, then a bit of work with a cold chisel and some blatant violence with a hammer knocked the centre out without issue.



I've cleaned it up with a file, so now I can mill it to finished size and drill the holes for bolting it to the shiny new bolting plate.

[Lisa]

Today I turned down the heads on some countersunk M10 bolts, these are what will hold the plate to the lathe bolting plate. They were supplied with a 20mm head, and I couldn't think of any reasonable way of countersinking that diameter, so opted for turning the heads down to 16mm, then boring and countersinking the plate so they'd fit a little below flush.


I've also mostly milled the cutout to size, but didn't have the time to finish before having to make dinner; there's still about 0.5mm to come out of the length.
Almost there though.