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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
25/11/2004
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14:20
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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
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Ringo
Site Administrator
3793 Posts
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Posted - 22/01/2005 : 12:51
I think it looks brilliant, ok it may not run as intended but it shows the principles of a steam engine. How about a local school as the new keepers of your engine? The OGFB award for history?
Edited by - Ringo on 22 Jan 2005 14:41:22
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 22/01/2005 : 16:10
No, I'm giving it to Carole as a small compensation for all the time Doc spends looking after us.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Ringo
Site Administrator
3793 Posts
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Posted - 22/01/2005 : 18:16
Good idea, she might even dog sit for you again.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 23/01/2005 : 04:50
I don't need to bribe her to do that. Jack and her have a thing going, he adores her.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 18:28
One of the things that a dedicated shed man is always on the look out for is free, high quality material. I came across a worn out one and half inch gas tap in a scrap heap and salvaged it. Of course, being a tap for making threads in hard metal, it was pot hard. It's over a hundred years old and made out of old fashioned cast steel. One of the nice things about cast steel is you can alter the hardness by heat treating it. I had a good fire going one frosty night last winter so I threw the tap in. This meant that it was brought up to white heat, held there for about three hours and gradually cooled down as the fire died and went cold. This softened it and so I wsa able to turn it round again. It's in the stock box now, a rare and valuable piece of material that will be re-incarnated at some point into something useful.
The observant amongst you might realise that the chuck is a bit of a rarity, a four jaw self-centering chuck. Very handy when dealing with square stock and of course this tap had a square shank for the tap wrench that was used to turn it.
Believe me, winning something back from the dead is very satisfying......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
andydiamond
Hairy Horologist
424 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 19:21
Most of us making things in the shed or the workshop value the "scrap bin" very highly.
I don't relly know why it is called the scrap bin, as there is no scrap in it as far as we are concerned, it should probably be called the storage bin instead!
The problem comes when we get given some odd article made of metal of unknown provenance as the antique dealers call it.
My last rummage in the "bin" produced a lovely old cast iron disc, about 6" diameter and .5" thick.Great, that will just do the job for a backplate for my new oval-turning chuck,I thought to myself.
Mounted same in the lathe,tried to skim the face up, heard a faint laughing noise, looked at my turning tool ( high speed steel) and realised the disc was having a laugh, the tool end was worn smooth.
Right you bugger, a newly sharpened tool steel bit in the tool holder, try again.More faint laughs from lathe area, tool steel end worn away to nowt.
LISTEN, YOU ARE ONLY A PIECE OF CAST IRON, COP THIS.......Tungsten carbide tip in toolholder, loud screeching noise, a few faint scratches on cast iron disc, carbide tip now unfit for further use.
More noises of merriment from disc area, only stopped by my toolpost grinder, which finally got "under the skin" of the plate.
Next time a R.R.engineer gives me something in the way of material to use, I will carry out more investigation into it's "provenance", especially when said engineer has a sly grin when handing it over. . . . . .Of course, to make things worse, in the middle of all this, Elaine shouts through the door " are you going to stay out here all night enjoying yourself ?" £"!^$%#
Andy.
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Stevie
Mad Woman of Thornton
834 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 02:37
I give up .... I tried and I tried to think of a female equivalent to this macho 'Shed Culture' and I have come to the conclusion that there isnt one .... other than cleaning of course! You guys get to retreat to your sheds to play with your toys and us women get to 'clean' the house without you under our feet!
Now I feel really hard done by, so lets have some suggestions from the girlies as to how we too can claw back back some 'our' time that doesnt involve men ... or chores that in most cases tend to make their lives more comfortable?
What happened to equality?? |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 03:44
Stevie, when Johnny had his workshop down Federation Street a young lass used to go in and watch what he was doing. She ended up with a Myford Super7 lathe and was a woodturner all her life. Cherry Hinton is the best miniature engineer in the country ar was, I don't know whether she is still alive. Look her up on the web, I'll bet there's something there about her.
Andy, sounds as though it was cast on a chill. Ploughshares used to be made like that, it alters the crystalline structure of the metal and it is as hard as glass. If you read Newton Pickles account of his dad starting work you'll find that he worked for Burnley Ironworks and at one point was put on flywheel turning. The tools they used for turning the flywheels were over three inches square and Cast iron. They were cast from the same material as the wheel but on a chill so that they were glass hard. They were sharpened on a slow, wet grindstone so as not to raise the temperature because like cast steel, it can be normalised by soaking in a fire. This converts the Martensite crystal structure which gives it hardness to more normal Austenite. If you soak CI long enough it becomes malleable and very tough. I have a piece of Meehanite CI which very few engineers would recognise today. It is centrifugally cast and has a very fine structure. It's used for making piston rings. CI brake drums and Stanton and Stavely CI pipes were made by the same process.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
andydiamond
Hairy Horologist
424 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 09:02
Thanks for the info Stanley, I thought it might be something like that, or a booby-trap from Rolls heat treatment plant!......
Stevie, I confirm everything Stanley said about Cherry Hinton, her work is SUPERB, with the greatest attention to detail. The funny thing is, when each model was completed she ran it once to prove it worked, then stripped it, and painted it in such a way it would no longer run as a working model.
Andy.( this is my 250th post,I get promoted now!!)
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 09:20
That tap was still tough stuff even though I'd normalised it. No doubt I'll find a use for it.....
As for promotion, where does it get you? I keep amassing these points but nobody has ever told me whether points mean prizes or not! So, my advice is, don't hold your breath.....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
andydiamond
Hairy Horologist
424 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 13:16
You were right about the promotion Stanley, I thought a telegram from the queen, or a pint from Doc, or summat, but nowts happened yet. . . . . .
Andy.
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Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 13:34
Nandy,I'll grant you Honorary Dalesman status given your obvious affinity with Gods own County. Even you can't help where you were born. Nolic 
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator"  |
Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 13:46
Nandy, by doing your cheat of posting twice I've now past 500 - do I get any promotio? Nolic
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator" |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 25/01/2005 : 15:45
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all. Don't hold your breath Andy.....
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
andydiamond
Hairy Horologist
424 Posts
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Posted - 26/01/2005 : 09:41
Honourary Dalesman...WOW!!---I don't know what to say Colin. Tell you what, I'll buy you a pint next time I....Oh bugger, I can't 'cos I'm a proper Yorkshire man now. . . . . . .
And the posting twice business was not my fault, I now have to use the forum jump after a posting, 'cos if I hit the back button I post the same one again!
And another thing Nolic, you can't have any promotion 'cos you have declared yourself a King, which doesn't leave you with any room for more really, does it?
Or are you going for Pope this year ?
Andy. (H.Y)
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Shed culture
