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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted -  25/11/2004  :  14:20
I've always been fascinated by the things people do in their spare time when they can do exactly what they want to do. Men and sheds are a particularly fertile field. Women tend to do their thing in the comfort of the house.



I was delighted to see Andy's picture of the clock movement he has made.







It struck me that we could perhaps start a new topic devoted to spare time skill. So Andy starts it off and my contribution is this:







It's a small steam engine made from scratch and is based on the Stuart 5A but a longer stroke. One of these will drive a 14 foot boat with steam at 250psi. By the way, we don't like to call them models, it's exactly the same construction and materials as a full size engine, just smaller. So come on out there, let's hear about what you make in your spare time. I reckon we could be in for some surprises!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 12/06/2008 : 17:02
A bit of gentle raising block manufacturing today.  Here's what I posted in another topic.

 

You know how old farts like me are always saying that things ain't what they used to be?  Well, this afternoon I found a good example.  I'm putting up a lineshaft in the shed for the 1950 Pickles lathe and am using some 4" x 2" Baltic pine that was originally part of a bench made by Johnny Pickles in about 1927.  When I cut it I counted the growth rings in the timber and found there were 100 in 4".  In other words it took the tree 100 years to grow that 4".  Incredibly dense wood and you would never find that quality today.  If the tree was 4ft in diameter it would have been at least 600 years old.  It brings things into focus, that timber I was cutting was a sapling when the Black Death hit the Baltic region.......  Wonderful what flights of imagination us old farts have when we start tinkering in the shed!  


Stanley Challenger Graham




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tripps
Senior Member


1404 Posts
Posted - 12/06/2008 : 19:17
I hesitate to mention it,  but that's a good example of dendrochronology.  Roy Cropper told me all about it.    Keep smiling.......


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 13/06/2008 : 07:04
Quite right David, I always take notice of ring density when selecting wood.  Those rings were very close and even and I'd bet a pound it grew in a high forest with hard seasons.  Timber like that is generally protected these days.  From the beginning of the 18th C onwards the Baltic was a major source of timber for us in Britain.  Baltic Pine is wonderful timber, very straight and even grain.  Much prized for masts in the days of sail.  Lovely timber, reliable, knot free and easy to work but very strong.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 14/06/2008 : 17:43
Sorry for the gap but I thought I'd get some articles written for the paper so I could concentrate on the shed.  We have made progress today.....





The brackets are finished and the shaft is up.  I have sorted out a driven pulley for the shaft and all I have to do is bush it for the inch shaft.  The existing pulley on the motor will be OK.   I've done a rough calculation on shaft speed and it looks about right, I shall suck it and see.  It's a lot closer to being finished than it looks.  Getting the brackets up and firmly attached to a very bad wall was the biggest part of the job.  Can't think why I didn't do it years ago.......


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 16/06/2008 : 10:04
Good day yesterday. Must have been, I ache! Been out of the shed too long!



First job was a lick of Mongolia on the wall and black gloss on the brackets. Looks a bit more respectable now.



I've had this motor bracket in the treasure chest for years. Higgs Motors, never heard of them. Slightly too small for the Horace Green motor but if I enlarge the slots a bit and make an adaptor plate for the motor we can get away with it.



In another part of the treasure chest there's a lubricator section. In case anyone is wondering, the techical reason for the reducer on the far one is because I made the bginner's mistake of measuring the OD of the thread. It's BSP so instead of tapping it 1/4" I did it 3/8". So I had to make a reducer......



The 8" pulley for the lineshaft needed boring and bushing to bring it down to 1" diameter.

We're cooking with gas now. I'm going to mount the motor on the wall and will worry about lifting it up there when I get to it......


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Big Kev
Big


2650 Posts
Posted - 16/06/2008 : 17:26
Is the overhead shaft against the party wall with your neighbour? Do they not mind the noise?


Big Kev

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softsuvner
Regular Member


604 Posts
Posted - 16/06/2008 : 22:36
Stanley

I hope you are taking care with this job, it is just the sort of reaching upwards job that can give you tennis elbow (believe me I know!).
Very common ailment, went for my 6 monthly do with the osteopath last week only to find that he now has tennis elbow himself! Apparently most common amongst people decorating ceilings. A friend who installs industrial weighing machines, has got it from using power tools held too far from the body.

Malcolm


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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 17/06/2008 : 06:23
Kev, first it will be silent and second it's an outside wall and belongs to me.  No vibration from a lineshaft, they run silent.  Malcolm, you're right and I always get level with the job.  Hanging the motor on the wall is going to be interesting......  Bit of animal cunning needed there.  I had an easy day yesterday and never went in the shed because I had wakened one or two muscles up from a six month sleep......  It's me age you know!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 18/06/2008 : 17:16


The motor is on the wall.  Tidy job and not as easy as it looked but well out of the way of the swarf and easy to get at to adjust the belt, its on a screw jack underneath.  I need to bore the motor pulley out to 1" and then we can throw the drive together.  If you are wondering about the secondary drive for anything mounted on the toolpost, watch this space.  We have exactly the right solution.


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 19/06/2008 : 18:07
Red letter day today!  Johnny's 1950 lathe ran under power for the first time since 1988.  It's been a constant reproach to me but I feel better now.





I haven't got the online starter wired up yet as the circuit diagram is beyond me but Doc knows a sparks and he's going to bring him down.



Remember me saying I had the answer to the matter of the overhead drive?  Here it is.  Made by The Marine Engineering Company, Stockport.  It's a quarter horse motor with a built in clutch and brake.  Once your set up you switch the motor on and pull on a cord to engage the clutch, as soon as you leave go a brake comes on and stops the drive instantly.  All I have to do now is find a way of hanging it up........  By the way, I've never seen anything like this before and can't remember where I got it from.  I tripped over it one day and grabbed it.  Things always come in eventually if you keep them long enough. 


Stanley Challenger Graham




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Bodger
Regular Member


892 Posts
Posted - 19/06/2008 : 19:43
Stanley, i'm not sure if this is the right location, but this link is a very interesting account of a guy called Newbould who invented a device for setting angles to within one second of a degree, and his trials and tribulations in the USA of patents and manufacture. Tony

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php?t=159279&page=12


"You can only make as well as you can measure"
                           Joseph Whitworth
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pluggy
Geek


1164 Posts
Posted - 19/06/2008 : 20:40
Elfin Safety would love those belts Stanley......  Wink


Need computer work ?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 20/06/2008 : 06:22
Pluggy, you've never seen a weaving shed with 1200 belts running like that. It was always accepted by the inspectors that though they look dangerous they are safe and that was on the evidence of the accident books. Besides the fact that it is a private workshop and therefore nit covered by the act, the belts are safe by virtue of their position.  Everything in a workshop is 'dangerous', try putting your hand into a grinder, a miller or a chuck.  Safety depends on operator practice not boxing everything in to the point where it is impracticable.  Even the inspectors recognise that.  Look at the number of accidents on fully guarded machinery due to carelessness, stupidity and guards creating a false sense of security.

Doc brought Darrell the sparks in last night and we now have a fully functioning and earthed starting system. One thing becomes obvious, I am going to have to give the matter of the overhead drive a lot of thought because I am short of headroom..... I'm going to let this go for a while, more important to win the shelves back, rearrange the tackle and make a bit of swarf with the lathe. It can't be said to be fully resurrected until it has made something!


Stanley Challenger Graham




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pluggy
Geek


1164 Posts
Posted - 20/06/2008 : 14:10
I shouldn't worry about your belts Stanley.  Like you say, Elfin safety aren't involved.

 Might I suggest a Sterling Engine as a project for your lathe ?  Sort of like a steam engine that doesn't a boiler. Should be right up your street, plenty of plans on t'internet.......... 


Need computer work ?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart


36804 Posts
Posted - 20/06/2008 : 18:31
And they are bloody useless, that's why they never caught on, incredibly tempramental, no power and lousy thermal efficiency.  Don't worry about projects for me, I have castings for three marine engines, a dividing head and one or two other little jobs.....

I was having a fiddle with the 1950 lathe today and measured the swing, 12" so bigger than the Harrison and longer in the bed.  The 8" 3 jaw that is on it is an old Cushman, very good chucks made in Hartford Connecticut.  Very heavy chuck and I tried the lathe on top speed with it on.  No vibration and actually too fast but I shall keep the pulley sizes as they are.  Nice to have a high top speed for polishing and such. 


Stanley Challenger Graham




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