I see some Steam Enthusiasts on here! (1 Viewer)

[Ditcha]

Thought some of you would like this turning a hex on a component.

 

[John Barrett]

The Repair Shop comes to sleepy Hamble!

I received a request from the Model Engineer Club Chairman to see if I was interested in repairing an old steam toy. He'd had a request from an 'outsider' who lives in Southampton: this was his father's and it had great sentimental value. Of course, I said yes, and along came a 'Doll' steam factory from 1935. It had a bent and dented chimney which was sitting (floating) on a wardrobe rail ring - a bodged repair-, bent rods, and an allegedly seized cylinder. There was a small oil reservoir but it could not be called a displacement lubricator.

Close examination and some 'interrogation' established that the gent had not realised that it needed steam oil and not 3-in-1, hence the seizure.

I loosened things up and tightened a few screws, fired it up -with steam oil in the tank- and it went like the clappers, and continued to do so! Unfortunately the chimney fell off at this point...

Additionally, there was no way to control the flow, so we agreed that I would fit a small globe valve.

I made a new mounting plate for the chimney, silver soldering a thin brass tube to it on which could be dropped the chimney, now dent less and straight! I spent a while cleaning it all up and greasing the 85 year old bearings.

I had to get the handing over ceremony prepared a la Repair Shop: tea towel to drape the item, face masks for the grateful hugs, and tissues for the inevitable tears of joy...

I had it all ready but he just sat and stared at the toy for a long, quiet, time! I'd made a little key to turn the potentially hot valve, and also gave him a BA spanner for his new nuts and some steam oil in a plastic pipette. He almost cried with joy...

He gave me the litre of Tanqueray gin I'd asked for and the 20 quid for the new steam valve, but he said it wasn't enough, so he's bringing me another bottle of Gin next week!

 

[bigwood]

Nice work John. I gave my late father in law an oscillating engine I made at school with a small upright boiler and a solid fuel burner. It was really moving to see him sat at the table with the engine puttering as it ran.
When he passed away mother in law passed it back to me so I gave to our son. He hasn’t run it for a while but it’s on his shelf with his models.

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[emjaiuk]

Thought some of you would like this turning a hex on a component.

View attachment 556627

I saw it but I don't believe it. I'd love to see that in very slow motion.

 

[andy63]

Second that.. Nice work ..Great result..

I'm slowly getting myself back into spending time in my little workshop..
For years most of the stuff I have made has been tools to make various machining processed easier..not long finished a worden tool and cutter grinder..
Everyone asks ..what do you make ..and you can see they can't get the point of the sort of things I show them..
Well I decided that I should perhaps have a go at some sort of working model.. just so I can say...well I made this ..and get a better reaction.. ...
The family clubbed together and got me some castings and material to have a go at a little stationary internal combustion engine...
It will most probably take me ages...but if one day it runs I'll feel like I've achieved something... not quite on the same scale as your projects John..but its a start...
Andy..

 

[Ditcha]

I saw it but I don't believe it. I'd love to see that in very slow motion.

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[jockaneezer]

I'm looking at upgrading my Tom Senior mill for a nice Bridgeport I've got my eye on. I was hoping to run it off a vfd, but I noticed the 3 feed motors are rated at 90volts dc, so that scuppers that idea for the moment and my wallet got a severe fright at the price of rotary phase converters.
There's a slim chance that the input transformer looks to have a 240v tapping (but 'tricity is the devil's work to me!) and I need to get my tame sparky neighbour out to look at it and hopefully I can run the drive motor from a vfd (1.5 hp) and 240v into the transformer might run the feed motors ? Any advice/input from knowledgeable members would be appreciated.

 

[John Barrett]

I'm looking at upgrading my Tom Senior mill for a nice Bridgeport I've got my eye on. I was hoping to run it off a vfd, but I noticed the 3 feed motors are rated at 90volts dc, so that scuppers that idea for the moment and my wallet got a severe fright at the price of rotary phase converters.
There's a slim chance that the input transformer looks to have a 240v tapping (but 'tricity is the devil's work to me!) and I need to get my tame sparky neighbour out to look at it and hopefully I can run the drive motor from a vfd (1.5 hp) and 240v into the transformer might run the feed motors ? Any advice/input from knowledgeable members would be appreciated.

Apologies, but include me out! I hack metal, not electrons!

 

[andy63]

I'm looking at upgrading my Tom Senior mill for a nice Bridgeport I've got my eye on. I was hoping to run it off a vfd, but I noticed the 3 feed motors are rated at 90volts dc, so that scuppers that idea for the moment and my wallet got a severe fright at the price of rotary phase converters.
There's a slim chance that the input transformer looks to have a 240v tapping (but 'tricity is the devil's work to me!) and I need to get my tame sparky neighbour out to look at it and hopefully I can run the drive motor from a vfd (1.5 hp) and 240v into the transformer might run the feed motors ? Any advice/input from knowledgeable members would be appreciated.
View attachment 563148

not knowledgeable and not sure I understand... do you mean 3 feed motors on the different axis are rated differently to the main drive motor which you would like to run of a vfd... if thats the case can they be kept as is and the main motor wired up to a vfd on its own..
I not long upgraded my lathe to a 3 phase motor run of a vfd and its just so much smoother and quite .. the flexibility of the machine has increased tremendously without the need for constant belt changing..
Andy

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[jockaneezer]

andy63, that's about the size of it. The spindle motor is one and a half horsepower, 3 phase, dual voltage, so could be run off a standard vfd easily enough, but the three individual feed motors for each axis require 90vdc to run them. Most British built industrial milling machines tend to run the table feeds via a gearbox driven from the main motor (bit like a lathe) but lots of Bridgeport/turret types often have no feeds at all, or maybe just on the X axis, via a separate motor.
This mill I'm looking at is well specc'd, 3 axis feed, 3 axis dro with a separate dro for the Z axis on the quill, plus it includes a slotting head and only has one tiny mark on the table. It's a little bit overkill for what I need, but that's never stopped me in the past !
I have a Harrison M300 that I run off a vfd and my home built 2"x72" belt grinder runs from a vfd too.
If I was starting from scratch, I would be tempted to buy a rotary phase converter that would run all the 3 phase gear I would ever own and possibly a welder too, but rpc's are priced at almost £1k for a 4kw unit and a vfd is under £200.

 

[andy63]

andy63, that's about the size of it. The spindle motor is one and a half horsepower, 3 phase, dual voltage, so could be run off a standard vfd easily enough, but the three individual feed motors for each axis require 90vdc to run them. Most British built industrial milling machines tend to run the table feeds via a gearbox driven from the main motor (bit like a lathe) but lots of Bridgeport/turret types often have no feeds at all, or maybe just on the X axis, via a separate motor.
This mill I'm looking at is well specc'd, 3 axis feed, 3 axis dro with a separate dro for the Z axis on the quill, plus it includes a slotting head and only has one tiny mark on the table. It's a little bit overkill for what I need, but that's never stopped me in the past !
I have a Harrison M300 that I run off a vfd and my home built 2"x72" belt grinder runs from a vfd too.
If I was starting from scratch, I would be tempted to buy a rotary phase converter that would run all the 3 phase gear I would ever own and possibly a welder too, but rpc's are priced at almost £1k for a 4kw unit and a vfd is under £200.

Yea.. I get that.. I'm sure you will come up with a satisfactory solution if you get it..
You are talking about machinery that I've only seen in industrial settings and my little 1st floor workshop ..once a bedroom ..is doing well to accommodate a myford lathe and a small bench mill/drill..the plus side is its usually nice and warm and I don't have any trouble with condensation/rust.
Andy

 

[Kiwi Brit]

saw this in town recently, Blenheim, South Island, NZ

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[emjaiuk]

Bah! That's easy.

It really is if you've got the most complicated cutting head I've ever seen

 

[John Barrett]

I've been back in the workshop for about a week, and it's taken that long to produce this drop link: well, four actually, the other three are waiting for the pillar you can see in the pictures. I needed to make one of the four spacing pillars to check the distance between the two bearings when the gib and cotter were tightened up. I needn't have worried, as no-one was more surprised than me when the keys settled in the right places!

 

[Steve and Denise]

John Barrett what would be the smallest hole you could do with a boring bar ie is 9.7 mm possible ? Can’t be a drill as it has a tapper to 11.7 over a length of 10 mm

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[John Barrett]

John Barrett what would be the smallest hole you could do with a boring bar ie is 9.7 mm possible ? Can’t be a drill as it has a tapper to 11.7 over a length of 10 mm

I have small boring bars, but for very small short tapered holes I would make a custom bit from a piece of HSS square or round bar.

 

[John Barrett]

John Barrett what would be the smallest hole you could do with a boring bar ie is 9.7 mm possible ? Can’t be a drill as it has a tapper to 11.7 over a length of 10 mm

This is my smallest 'boring bar'. It is a solid tungsten carbide miniature bar which gets used for those little 'awkward' jobs. They cost a fortune...!

 

[Ditcha]

This is my smallest 'boring bar'. It is a solid tungsten carbide miniature bar which gets used for those little 'awkward' jobs. They cost a fortune...!
View attachment 566661

PH Horn or Sandvik with thro centre coolant solid carbide

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[Ditcha]

John Barrett what would be the smallest hole you could do with a boring bar ie is 9.7 mm possible ? Can’t be a drill as it has a tapper to 11.7 over a length of 10 mm

Steve if you know anybody with a cnc milling machine you can generate the taper by milling with a bullnose cutter.

 

[jockaneezer]

John Barrett what would be the smallest hole you could do with a boring bar ie is 9.7 mm possible ? Can’t be a drill as it has a tapper to 11.7 over a length of 10 mm

You could use a custom made "D" bit to cut the taper ? I have a few I've made over the years, usually from silver steel, hardened and tempered. Just need a pilot hole drilling first, then follow up with the D bit, but I would recommend using a slow running drill press rather than a pistol drill if you have access to one ?

 

[John Barrett]

Other people would spend Christmas Eve out shopping...

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[John Barrett]

And I spent today finishing it! Well chuffed.

 

[Ditcha]

Beautiful workmanship that's fantastic

 

[John Barrett]

Beautiful workmanship that's fantastic

Thankyou. What's alarming is that there is a diminishing number of us left who can make something like that from scratch!

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[Jamesh]

Thankyou. What's alarming is that there is a diminishing number of us left who can make something like that from scratch!

Amazing
I was telling my kids the other day that the three nights I was so excited I couldn't sleep when I was a lad were ......

1. Birthday
2. Christmas
3. Night before the model engineers exhibition at Wembley arena / sandown park!!

Building a Vic smeed starlet ATM, but nowhere near your standard!

I have a myfold ml8 but would love an ml7 too.

Cheers James

 

[John Barrett]

SNIP

Building a Vic smeed starlet ATM, but nowhere near your standard!

I have a myfold ml8 but would love an ml7 too.

Cheers James

I built the latest version of the International One Metre racing yacht a few years ago, and it was so fast I couldn't control the thing! I sold it to another Club member who couldn't wait to get his hands on it!

6th November 2017
Received from Mr XXXXXX the sum of £1,100 (One Thousand, One Hundred Pounds) in full payment for one ‘Alternative’ International One Metre Yacht.
As seen and approved.
Many thanks
John Barrett

 

[Jamesh]

I built the latest version of the International One Metre racing yacht a few years ago, and it was so fast I couldn't control the thing! I sold it to another Club member who couldn't wait to get his hands on it!

6th November 2017
Received from Mr XXXXXX the sum of £1,100 (One Thousand, One Hundred Pounds) in full payment for one ‘Alternative’ International One Metre Yacht.
As seen and approved.
Many thanks
John Barrett

View attachment 570099

Nice...
I might build a IOM yacht a the starlet is destined to reside at my dad's house...

My local club sails IOM....

What design did you use?

Mine would end up weighing 6kg!!!

Cheers James

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[John Barrett]

Nice...
I might build a IOM yacht a the starlet is destined to reside at my dad's house...

My local club sails IOM....

What design did you use?

Mine would end up weighing 6kg!!!

Cheers James

This one 'ere. Lightning fast!

 

[Jamesh]

Thanks....

One thing that quizzed me was why they are still very much narrow sterned model sailing yachts, where as full sized yachts are generally broad beamed??

I presume they sail an upwind, down wind and reaching course?

 

[Jamesh]

Building a Vickers V8

Building a cedar V8 IOM. Designed by Ian Vickers June 2012 I have sailed and raced mostly dinghies all my life, Lasers for the last 25 years. I trained as a wooden boatbuilder in the sixties and du…

radioyachtingnelson.com

Looks lovely!!

Used cedar on the starlet.

Have some more I could cut into strips... Wasteful though..

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