SHED MATTERS 2

[Stanley]

The good news is that I popped into the shed. I tidied up my small tools, a lot of them can be put away tidy. Then I cleaned the brass chips off the Harrison and put them in the non ferocious scrap box. I had a look at the knurling tool. Knocked the pins out which are worn and poked an accurate 1/4" reamer through the holes. What I need to do now is make some pins out of hard steel and make them a really tight fit!
A small step but it's a start. I have a good stockpile of articles lodged with the editor so no hassle about that.....

[Stanley]

I had a thought last night about what to do after my pins for the knurling tool. There is a small matter that has been nagging me for a while and I suspect it might interest the lads......

[David Whipp]

Good luck in the shed today, Stanley.

Your depiction and description of creating an engine has been an education; long may it continue!

[Stanley]

Thanks for that David, I have had feed back from at least one man who has been triggered off.... Watch this space....
By the way, I learn as well and the biggest lesson from the last few months is that even a major disadvantage like not being able to see straight can be overcome by care, attention to detail and a magnifying glass! (And, I admit, a lot of bad language!)

[Stanley]

It's nice to be back here once again telling you about what's happening in the shed. Good to tell I haven't been in properly for over a week, I did two and a half hours this morning and it's nice to sit down.. First job this morning was improving the drunken axis pins in my knurling tool. You know what I always say abort there being a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots? It kicked in this morning when I remembered I had a drawer full of hardened steel pins. I soon found two that were a drive fit in the freshly reamed holes, popped a drop of shaft lock in and they worked fine. They are pot hard so I had to get the angle grinder out, fit a thin cutting disc and lop them off.



Done and dusted in no time. Perfect fit and a good job. Box on....



The next job was to get this box from under Johnny's lathe. The one you want is always at the bottom and while I was down there I had a good sweep up, it's a while since this lad saw the light of day. Question is, what's in it? I promised you something different!



Here you are, it's a Dumore toolpost grinder that I won in a workshop clearance many years ago. When I got it I stripped it down and went through all the bearings etc. It has hardly done any work and is in as new condition despite its age. It still has all its accessories with it.



Including the brand new diamond dresser for the wheel, quite a large diamond as well... It has lots of spare stones, belts and spindles for internal grinding and special jobs. The motor speed is 15,500rpm running light and you adjust for different stones by altering the belt pulleys.



I made the mounting for the Harrison and had to take a minute or two to reacquaint myself with it. The first thing you do is make sure the top slide is set at zero, then adjust the grinder orientation so that it is square with the lathe. I was lucky in that it was fairly simple to make the mount so that the spindle centre is at lathe centre height.



Here's the view from the business end.



Being American it's single phase 115Volts (1/2hp) so I run it off a 110volt converter and it seems fine. When you first start it up it's frightening! A little motor doing over 15,000rpm is impressive!

[Stanley]

It's nice to be back here once again telling you about what's happening in the shed. Good to tell I haven't been in properly for over a week, I did two and a half hours this morning and it's nice to sit down.. First job this morning was improving the drunken axis pins in my knurling tool. You know what I always say abort there being a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots? It kicked in this morning when I remembered I had a drawer full of hardened steel pins. I soon found two that were a drive fit in the freshly reamed holes, popped a drop of shaft lock in and they worked fine. They are pot hard so I had to get the angle grinder out, fit a thin cutting disc and lop them off.



Done and dusted in no time. Perfect fit and a good job. Box on....



The next job was to get this box from under Johnny's lathe. The one you want is always at the bottom and while I was down there I had a good sweep up, it's a while since this lad saw the light of day. Question is, what's in it? I promised you something different!



Here you are, it's a Dumore toolpost grinder that I won in a workshop clearance many years ago. When I got it I stripped it down and went through all the bearings etc. It has hardly done any work and is in as new condition despite its age. It still has all its accessories with it.



Including the brand new diamond dresser for the wheel, quite a large diamond as well... It has lots of spare stones, belts and spindles for internal grinding and special jobs. The motor speed is 15,500rpm running light and you adjust for different stones by altering the belt pulleys.



I made the mounting for the Harrison and had to take a minute or two to reacquaint myself with it. The first thing you do is make sure the top slide is set at zero, then adjust the grinder orientation so that it is square with the lathe. I was lucky in that it was fairly simple to make the mount so that the spindle centre is at lathe centre height.



Here's the view from the business end.



Being American it's single phase 115Volts (1/2hp) so I run it off a 110volt converter and it seems fine. When you first start it up it's frightening! A little motor doing over 15,000rpm is impressive!



Here it is coupled up, tested and ready to go. Note that my only concession to the grinding dust is an oily rag on the bed. I am not going to live forever and what dust escapes the rag isn't going to ruin anyone's life....



The first thing I wanted to address was this big end mill which originally had a 1" shank, too big for my chuck so I turned it down to 3/4" but never got it quite right as it's so hard to hold it true without damaging the pot hard cutting edges so I bandaged it up.



And got it near enough to grind parallel. It doesn't matter if the cutting end is slightly off centre, it will grip tight in the chuck now.



Then I gave the two smaller fly cutters I made the same treatment. Far better finish and of course dead straight and parallel.
I clocked off at that point and went for a hunt for every centre I have. We;ll make sure they are all ground exactly to the right angle. I sorted out some other items for treatment as well. Might as well make a clean sweep while I have Mrs Dumore sat on the lathe.....
A nice satisfying morning.... I deserve a sleep now!

[plaques]

15.000 rpm is a seriously fast speed. Any grinding wheel with a surface speed of over 10.000 ft pm needs to be treated with respect. Even with all the usual precautions I would recommend standing well away when you first switch it on. Having said all that it looks a nice bit of kit.

[Stanley]

You're dead right P and I do! Notice that the wheel guard is a substantial piece of metal. All the wheels are manufactured for that speed....
One thing I forgot to mention this morning is that the grinder looks as though it was made for the Harrison, even the paint is the right colour!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley , good to see you back in the shed Looks like you have had a good day in thee too.
The toolpost grinder is a really nice bit of kit, like you say once its out and set up you might as well grind everything you have in one go. I have seen several for sale but they always look battered and have none of the attachments or tools etc with them, looks like you got a gem there.
Glad to see you back in the shed anyway and you have not lost the shed bug. ...................keep up the good work.
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

Thanks Mick, it felt good but I could tell I have had a spell out of there!
P, I forgot to mention yesterday (but I'm sure you realise) that 15,500rpm is motor speed. By using interchangeable pulleys the spindle speed can be anything really, you'd run the tiny internal wheels at 25,000+.
I made a couple of mistakes yesterday, I forgot to slow chuck speed of lathe down to under 100rpm and should really have dressed the wheel once I had squared it up. I'll do that today before I go any further. So long since I gave it an airing I have to get my head back in gear. It's capable of a better finish than that.....

[Bodger]

An interestg 18 mins. removing a !5" dia welded trunnion from a hydraulic cylinder, then removing the 4 tubes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMhbRPqwfa0

[Stanley]

I was a bit conservative with the possible spindle speeds on Mrs Dumore. I read the destructions on the motor and it gives the pulley sizes for wheels 1/8" to 1/2". Would you believe 42,500rpm? Amazing....



Here's the job. I've gathered all my centres together also punches and marking tools. We might as well have them all with nice 60degree points on them!



As promised, the first job was to slow the speed down to 97rpm on the lathe spindle. Then I chucked a good round bar of HS steel and used it to mount the diamond dresser. I knew I had the spindle parallel to the lathe centre and one pass gave me a perfect face.



The next job was critical and for me the easiest place to slip up. Centres are a standard 60 degrees included angle so I wanted the top slide set at 30 degrees. A torch, an 8X lupe and some swearing but I got it accurate.



I had to do a bit of thinking about this one.... I haven't got a parallel to 3MT adaptor and so I used the quill out of the tailstock. I popped the 3MT reamer in and gave it a wipe. These reamers are handy! If you ever see them and you are in funds, grab them!



I got a bit anal and decided the 4jaw SC was more accurate and checked it with the clock. Not quite perfect but close enough for me.....



I'm as ready as I can be, so away we go. That's when it got boring.... But, it's a worthwhile job so I stuck to it.



Clocking off time at 10:30. I didn't know I had so many centres! I've done the two dead centres with parallel shanks because they are both hardened. By the way a couple of the centres have carbide tips but the wheel managed them OK. That'll do for today.... I'll address the small tolls tomorrow. One thing I am certain of now i9s that if anyone inspects my centres as an indication of general standards, I shall get a high mark!

[Stanley]

Bodge, I've seen Adam doing that job before but I watched it again. He's a good lad. Have you ever watched any of his other videos?

[Stanley]

Later, after a good afternoon sleep... I have been a naughty boy. I decided to do a bit of skiing (Spending the Kid's inheritance). I found a parallel sided 3MT socket and bought it. I don't like having to use the quill... I also bought something I've been promising myself for a while, a 3MT boring head. Daft buying tools at my age but when I die someone will get the benefit!

[Bodger]

Have you ever watched any of his other videos?
No but will look out for them

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, looks like you have been busy again, by god you have some centres there ! , no matter how bad your eyes are I would think you will always be able to just feel about and put your hand on a centre or two, at least which ever one you find it will be in tip top condition now.
42,500 rpm , thats some speed eh I would imagine any inbalance in a wheel will self destruct in no time, hence the dressing the wheel each use ? A really nice bit of kit Stanley and you dont see boxes like that these days either................... nowt wrong with still buying tools at your age Stanley, if you get some use out of them and you enjoy choosing and buying them go for it I say

Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

You're right about the centres.... amazing how they accumulate, all from side deals.... I think I only ever bought three new ones because I came across some old stock in an ironmonger's shop in Ilkley and couldn't resist a bargain! I nearly did the centres on the Clarkson T&C grinder but when I looked at them they were fine. I shall play with the punches and markers this morning....
Lost no sleep about the 3MT socket and the boring head.... I have a light boring head but this one is much heavier, calibrated in thous and I think dirt cheap at £60 including VAT and postage.
I don't know about you but sometimes I think I'm in the shed just to be there, always between projects or when I'm getting back into the water after an enforced lay-off. Didn't feel like that using Mrs Dumore. Lovely tool which deserved to have a good run and a warm up. And all the jobs I am doing are necessary from time to time and improve general standards.... No worries.....

[Stanley]

I put all the nice accurate centres away and got the candidates together for today' session. I wanted to put accurate and sharp points on my markers and straighten all my punches up as well.



I shan't go through them all but the marker illustrated one problem, it was very hard to get them centred accurately. It doesn't particularly matter about this as long as it tuns true enough to put a new accurate point on it. I had the same problems with the punches but once again getting a good concentric point was all that matters. As a matter of fact I did two of the punches by hand on the grinding wheel because they had taper shanks. No matter, they all ended up with accurate points. Essential when marking out of course even with good eyesight.



It didn't take long to get to the point where my punches are as immaculate as my centres.



The next job was to make sure Mrs Dumore was perfectly clean, lightly oiled and stowed in her box. Then back under Johnny's lathe and all the other boxes stacked on top. I cleaned the inside of the box as well and oiled the hinges.



The last job of course was a deep clean of the lathe. I know I'm fairly relaxed about the grinding dust but I do recognise it's a bad thing. So a good vacuum and a wipe down with an oily rag. That was enough for one day. A nice tidy shed with better tools than yesterday.... What more could a bloke want? I have a funny little job lined up for tomorrow......

[Stanley]

Looking forward to tool deliveries this morning....



Here's the funny little job. A friend of mine wants tiny holes making in these flakes of jet so that they can be used to make jewellery. I've given considerable thought to how to do this, not as easy as it looks even for someone with perfect eyesight!

[Super_7b]

Hi Stanley,

This kind of thing might suit:-

http://www.megauk.com/carbide_drill_bits.php

Just one of the top entries on Google when I searched for PCB drill bits, I have no connection to them.

These are available in small sizes and are solid tungsten carbide as they are used to drill fibreglass printed circuit boards for component leads (think transistors and resistors). They have a standard 1/8" shanks, so are not too fiddly to grip. They have to be used in some sort of drill press though, as they are just itching to snap off. You can often find sets cheap on ebay where big pcb houses sell off drills that have become too short to use on their cnc machines.

BR

Mick

[Stanley]

Thanks Mick for the heads up about the tungsten drills but as you'll see below, we didn't need anything as exotic as them. Jet isn't really a fossil though it's often described as such, it's formed in exactly the same way as coal, from vegetable matter cooked for millions of years under extreme heat and pressure. The peculiar thing about Jet is that it is exclusively carbonised Monkey Puzzle Trees and in terms of hardness it's on the same level as Anthracite. So I fully expected an ordinary HSS drill to cut it and so it proved. But thanks for the thought anyway....



The first thing to do was gather some tackle together. I have a selection of very fine drills but after measuring a needle and thinking about threading the pieces on wire I decided on a 2mm drill. I put the smallest collet in the Dremel and went on to the cunning plan I worked out for work-holding!



The back lit magnifier was a given considering how bad my eyes are! I'd decided to bed the pieces on Blue Tack to hold them but was a bit worried about the possibility of the drill grabbing and throwing one of the tiny pieces across the shed. That would have meant disaster. So I decided to do the drilling in the bottom of a straight sided container which would hopefully catch any escapees. The baking tin that normally contains a bunch of small chuck keys looked about right. I had to get it clean and dry so the Blue Tack had a good hold and washed it out with trichlorethylene and then dried it off with the cleaner I use for preparing for shaftlock. It's actually cleaner from a dye testing kit for finding cracks. Worked like a charm and the Blue tack stuck to it like the proverbial. One tip about using trikes, be very careful how you dispose of it. It's an organic solvent and if a rag soaked in it is left lying about it can have a distressing habit of spontaneously combusting!



Here we are set up and ready to go.



Preparation is all! No problems whatsoever with the drill at about 10.000rpm.The Blue tack held it perfectly and the job was done in no time. It took longer to tidy the tackle away! next job, box on....



I needed some non-ferocious blanks. The treasure chest didn't let me down.



It didn't take long to set about making them into perfectly shaped discs 3.5" X about an inch thick. I'm going to be naughty now. I can't let you see what I am making for reasons that will become clear later. This is Top Secret and if I tell anyone I have to kill them..... All will become clear eventually.
One small matter. As I have often said before, the problem with material out of the treasure chests is that you often don't know exactly what you are dealing with until you stick a cutter into it. This was the case here. I'd have said it was cast gunmetal, most probably one of the LM series that BR and the Navy used for bearings. If it is it's very peculiar because the roughing cuts destroyed a good cutting edge on HSS. I had to go to an option I don't much care for, a ceramic tip. That worked fine but I'm still not certain why it was so difficult. It's either a very hard grade of Aluminium Bronze or it was sliced with an abrasive wheel and there are some sort of inclusions in it. No point going into a decline. I cheated with the ceramic tip and modified it slightly on the green grit wheel and I'm getting a good finish.
That was it for the morning, one blank cleaned up and the second getting there.... You'll laugh when you find out what I'm making and I'm not going to let any clues slip out!

[chinatyke]

One tip about using trikes, be very careful how you dispose of it. It's an organic solvent and if a rag soaked in it is left lying about it can have a distressing habit of spontaneously combusting!

That's strange, trike is none flammable! Must be the grease you remove. Be careful of using it in an enclosed space.

[Stanley]

I think you're right China. Now what other solvent could I have been thinking about? The bloke on the degreasing tank at General Gas Appliances had to be taken off the job because he got into the habit of inhaling the fumes and I think became addicted....



Never leave Granddad in charge of the Burial Fund.... The plunder arrived today. I now have a 3MT parallel socket and a nice little Chinese boring head with a 9 piece set of brazed carbide tip cutters..... Happiness is having the right tools.....

[plaques]

Inhaling Trike is bad enough but for gods sake don't light the old pipe up. It may be more than the Ozone layer that goes for a Burton.

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley,
glad to see the tool purchase arrived and hope you are happy with the quality I think most stuff is improving from China and all that is either available or afordable for us anyway !. As for the burial funds , looks like you will be having plastic coffin handles not brass now

As for your mystery project.........Ummm what the blank reminded me of was a 'Jim fixed it for me' medal, from You know who ............. but I doubt there will be much demand for them now so don't think its that. Maybe a couple of stands for your punches or some other tool related type item ? lol
I will watch with interest to see what develops.
Cheers Mick.