Although I didn’t go to Kettering I did receive a Slaters SG38CANL Gearbox which had been bought at the show for a little job that I was asked to do.

Although I haven’t fitted it yet I foresaw no real problems until I was looking at the final drive gear and the grub screw that retains it. This is something that I pay attention to as I have been bitten before and indeed this one is a replacement for one of the former San Cheng gearboxes which required a slot cutting in the axle to allow the grub screw to screw in far enough to clear the intermediate gear above it.

Although this image is much magnified, the grub screw fitted to the gear is tiny and I had no idea what size hex key it needed and no way of measuring it. I decided to give Slaters a ring to ask what size I needed.
I rang and explained my problem and the gent that I spoke to (Martin) immediately said Oh! we should have supplied one, let me have your details and I will get one in the post. He was good to his word and from a call at 1pm on Thursday I had the hex key delivered on Friday lunchtime.

For anyone who find themselves in the same position or loses one, the size is 0.9mm

Like many modellers, for years I have had one of those cheapo plastic Needlepoint oilers that are available via Amazon, eBay etc. While working on the Princess I noticed that mine appeared to be leaking. I decided to see if I could make a new reservoir and reuse the nozzle end. Using a set of metric thread pitch gauges I was struggling to determine whether the pitch was 6mm x 0.9 or 1.0mm.

I drilled and tapped a piece of nickel rod M6 x 1.0 and tested the nozzle. It didn’t fit. I attempted to rethread it M6 x 1.0 but it then sat at a jaunty angle in the end of the bar.

Before going any further, I counter bored the unthreaded end to 8mm and reamed it. I made a press fit plug from more nickel bar, pressed it in and soldered it for good measure. Then decided to make a new nozzle using only the O ring and the needle from original.

I am really pleased with how it turned out for about an hour’s work.

On the tool making side of things I noted while doing some milling of small brass parts that there was a bit of deflection due to the part sticking out unsupported from the end of a collet block. I had seen video on Youtube of various people making machinist jacks to support items being machined and thought I would have a go at making some.

Although I had thought about them over time, I haven’t tried making them before because I didn’t have any suitable material but after watching how one You Tuber went about it, that gave me an idea. 

Last year, my 20+ year old mitre saw gave up the ghost and before disposing of it I salvaged what I could in the way of useful materials and fixings. The biggest chunk of useful material was the slide which carried the saw backward and forwards when making the cut. This tuned out to be thick walled tube which was 30mm OD and 20mm ID. Not ideal, initially for making screw jacks, as I don’t posses any means of making threads that big (I haven’t yet attempted any single point threading but I have just bought a couple of lathe tools for the purpose so watch this space). 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when a friend of ours was winding down his handyman business and moving house. I asked him if he came across any bit’s of useful metal as he was sorting out ready to move, that I would take them off his hands and save a trip to the tip. He was sure there would be and a couple of days later he dropped off a carrier back full of nuts bolts and studs. In amongst the contents were a a number of cut off lengths of M16 stud, each about 4 inches long fitted with two nuts. There were also a number of M16 high tensile nuts and bolts most of them still sealed in bags (that’s how I know they are M16). A combination of these formed the basis of the jacks. I turned down four of the nuts and made them a press fit into the thick walled tube. I am not sure what the tube is made of but it really does machine well. 

The high tensile bolt heads were a bit tougher to turn and even harder to knurl so on the second one I didn’t attempt to knurl it. I used a carbide end mill to cut scallops and then cross drilled for a pin to allow fine tuning.

I couldn’t resist adding a small brass cap to stop the pin from coming out as I wind it in and out. The two locking collars were made from another standard nut, turned, knurled and then parted into two. The standard nuts which thankfully I have most of, are so much easier to machine than the high tensile ones. Finally all the parts were cleaned with acetone and blackened with Birchwood Casey.

I mentioned in the post above that I also had an Eclipse scribing block. This was a gift from a friend when he was moving and I was very grateful for it. I am a little ashamed to say that aside from using it a few times with my indicator I have done very little with it.

Having discovered the WD40/Ultrasonic Cleaning method I decided to see if it was a fluke or whether it really needed the soak in vinegar first.

Because it was a test I took a few more before and after photos

I put all the smaller parts in the pot of WD40 and ran it through the US cleaner for half an hour. When they came out the dirt was loose, but they were not as clean as the items that had been pre-soaked in vinegar.

On the bright side, I gave them a rub over with ScotchBrite and the dirt came away easily with almost no effort. A second run through the US cleaner had them like new.

I did the main column with WD 40 and ScotchBrite which did take a bit of effort.

Hello I’m Rob and I am a tool junkie… or so it might seem.

During breakfast and morning coffee I have taken to watching YouTube videos on machining, restorations etc. while Chris catches up on the news and current affairs.

While watching one such video a gent in the states who has a superb machine shop that he inherited from his Grandfather was making an adjustable indicator holder.

The resulting tool was excellent, but as it was nearing completion I couldn’t help but notice that the design was pretty much the same as some adjustable scribing blocks that I had seen on eBay while searching for Moore and Wright tools. Sure enough a search on Moore and Wright scribing block brought up several, ranging from one with some parts missing for £10 up to pristine boxed examples that were almost £100.

I found one that was complete (if rusty in places) but unboxed, that the seller was asking £15.99 plus P&P for. I put it on watch while I browsed further. As per a number of my recent experiences, by the time that I had found a couple more at sensible (to me) prices, I had received a lower price offer from the seller of £12.99.

Offer and counter offer is one of the functions of eBay that I really like and I have used it to negotiate a better price on a number of occasions. Being a tight Yorkshireman, I decided that I didn’t want to pay more than £10 plus P&P for it but knew that if I counter offered £10 that the seller would in turn counter with £11.

So I offered £8. My thinking being that the seller would then counter with £10 and sure enough they did. Result and a happy bunny.

On a side note, I think that if you enter into negotiations like this, it is only good manners to buy the object in question although I don’t always take up the reduced price initially offered as sometimes I just put items on watch out of curiosity with no intention of buying them at any price.

This is what it looked like when it arrived

I stripped it all down and put all the small parts which were rusty into a pickle jar full of white vinegar (we bought a gallon of it a while back). I left them for 24 hours and then brough them out and cleaned much of them with ScotchBrite but there were lots of small parts and springs that were either difficult to hold or lot’s of small crevices etc, to get into.

Then I recalled another video that I had watched, where a gent (again in the US) with an decent sized Ultrasonic cleaner had put various objects into small pots of different detergents including one of gasoline. These containers were then placed in the US cleaner which was part filled with water and turned on with really good results.

Another recent purchase was a 5 litre bottle of WD40 so I decanted some into a small container dropped in all the small parts and gave them a 30 minute cycle with the container surrounded by water (approx. 3/4 of the way up the container and above the level of the WD40) but no additional heat. I say no additional heat because my US cleaner has a temperature dial which goes up to 20 degrees, but even with the temperature set to zero, it still gets quite warm.

I was absolutely blown away with how clean the parts came out and the added bonus of using WD40, not only does it clean, but it doesn’t send the parts rusty like detergent or other cleaners might.

As you can see below there is still some pitting and general wear marks, but from any kind of distance it almost looks new.

Now as I mentioned at the beginning the plan is to use this as a dial indictor holder rather than a scribing block as I already have a nice Eclipse Scribing block that a friend gave me. More on that in another post.

This is the finished and reassembled tool fitted with a dial indicator.

I wasn’t really sure where to post this only that I didn’t want to distract further from Adrian’s excellent scratch build with it.

Further to my post here on buying a set of Moore and Wright odd leg/Jenny Callipers second hand via eBay the next day I received a second reduced price offer on a selection of four pairs of Moore and Wright Firm Jointed Callipers for £10 plus postage so in for a penny etc. I bought them.

They arrived today and although not in quite as good a condition as the first pair that I bought they have none the less cleaned up nicely and if I spent a bit more time on them I have no doubt that I could get them back to being almost pristine.

Although they were listed as two pairs of odd leg and two pairs of external callipers. One of them had had the legs reversed and is, on the basis of where the writing is positioned in relation to the other pairs, an internal set giving me a nice range for very little investment in them.

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I have included below the first pair that I bought now that they have been cleaned up. So quite unintentionally I now have a three pairs of odd legs all of which are different sizes. So I can have one pair for marking out on the lathe, a pair for the mill and a pair for the bench. 

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Having seen them all together I don’t think that I will be able to resist having a further go at cleaning/rubbing them down to try to make them all as good as I can.

A recent post on scratch building a loco over on Western Thunder highlighted some of the basic tools used for scratch building. The gent in question (Adrian) posted a photo of the tools laid out on his bench. They were the usual scribe, 6in rule, dividers, set square and, a pair of odd leg callipers.

Now I am sure that I am not alone in my lazy habit of using expensive digital/analogue measuring callipers for scribing my marking out when machining…

A quick look on the web revealed that I could get some Chinese odd leg callipers for under a tenner but already possessing a set of Chinese (or indeed they might be Indian) cheap callipers which are crude to say the least I thought I would have a look on eBay for some second hand named brand alternatives to see what was/is available. Now one of my favourite Sheffield made brands are Moore and Wright so I started there.

Searching Moore and Wright odd leg callipers brought up quite a selection even some new ones. Many of the cheaper end of the buy it now examples were simply two pieces with one leg bent and the other sharpened. Having seen Adrian’s set I rather fancied a set that had a separate scribe pin. I was a bit short of time so I put a couple on watch and returned to them the day after. As it turned out it was the same seller selling both of them and overnight I had received Offers on them. The offered reduction was only a couple of quid but it meant that the better of the two pairs that I was watching came in at £10 posted.

This is what I got for my tenner. A rub over with Scotch Brite and WD40 and they will be as good as new. I am well pleased with them and will enjoy using them for many years to come

The arrow alongside the date leads me to think that they are ex military

Each time I use them I will think of Adrian, and his unbeknownst kick up the pants.

This would have been an edit but I forgot to click post reply before applying the Scotch Brite. They have cleaned up as I imagined and while doing so I found a couple of small dings which I smoothed out with a diamond stone so they are now as good as they can get.

I did a little more potentially useful recycling today. Earlier this week I discovered a brand new round file which needed a handle. The very next day we received our grocery order and in it was a new dish washing brush which meant the old one was being discarded as being worn out. As I was about to put it in the recycle box I wondered if the handle was solid as an idea was forming. I popped it in the workshop and this morning I had 10 minutes to saw the remains of the brush head off to see if the handle was solid.

Having determined that it was solid, I measured the file tang and cut the brush handle to length leaving the comfort grip. I drilled out the cut end to accept the file and a few bashes with a rubber mallet later and I now have a file that is really comfortable to use.
I have to admit that the colour is not great but I am not too fussed about that.

This may not be as relevant to some in these days of keyless chucks but here goes.

I have got into the habit of watching Youtube videos on my phone while having coffee, usually on lathes or machining of some sort. During one such video yesterday a guy in the US had made comfort handles for for drill chuck keys and when he explained why it struck a chord.

Today while at the lathe making return crank bushes for the Princess I decided to have a go at a handle for the chuck key for the drill chuck that I use on both my lathe and mill.

Really quick to make and it doesn’t need a lathe to do it. A Drill and a file would suffice. I made it so the handle was a tight interference fit and I did such a good job that I had to drill a 1mm hole in the end to let the compressed air out to allow it to push into the bottom of the main hole in the handle. It got quite a bit of use while making the bushes so this evening and it was so much more comfortable to use that I made a second one for the much smaller chuck key for my Proxxon Mini Pillar Drill

Both handles are made from offcuts of Delrin rod that I had in stock but they could be made from pretty much anything. I had eyed up wooden dowel, aluminium bar and brass rod before remembering the Delrin.

For those of you not wishing to spend a packet on BA nut spinners from Markits et,al a chance conversation with a friend brough back a memory of a much missed GOG Member whom I have referred to in the past David Smith (known on various forums as DLOS). He was really a model engineer and he had mention in a posting a few years ago that he had made BA nut spinners from appropriately sized caps screws using the hex head as the socket.

Having a spare couple of hours last night I rummaged through my screw box and found that an M4 and M5 cap head screws were just right for 8 and 10 BA and a couple of grub screws suited 12 and 14BA.

Although I used the lathe they could be made by anyone with the ability to drill and tap metric threads. I did turn down the heads of the cap screws but again nothing that couldn’t be achieved by putting it in a drill chuck and applying a file.

A tip worth mentioning: If you use grub screws for any of them, in order to get enough threads to engage the grub screw, you need to drill the hole a bit deeper. This means that the head of the grub screw wont stay at the end. My solution was, once threaded, I screwed the grub screw in as far as it would go and then with a bit of brass rod I measured how far in the head of the grub screw was from the end (1.5mm and 4.5mm respectively in my case).

I then cut a couple of short lengths of brass rod that would slip inside the threads (2mm I think I used) This allows you to tighten the grub screws against the bottom of the hole while the head is level with the end. I was planning on Loctite-ing them but I don’t think that they need it.

The handle parts were made from a length of bent 6.35mm brass bar which equates to a 1/4 inch (I must have bought it as quarter inch but any suitable sized bar would do. Hopefully it’s the last bent piece in my stocks as there is nothing more irritating than trying to tun something that you have to lose half it’s thickness before you get it to run concentric.
It’s not visible in the photo but the bend in the bar meant that the grooves look a bit like Zebra stripes, in that go they go thick then thin as the bar flexed away from the cutting tool as I turned them. You don’t need them for the tool to be functional but I can’t help messing.

I know that there is at least one other reader with a similar Milling machine to mine so I thought that this might be worth sharing.

For many milling operations, the accuracy of the work is improved if you lock the table in one or both axis. The problem with doing that is access, particularly on the Y axis. Locking the table is done by means of a cap screw which when tightened nips the gibs and prevents the table from moving in that axis while you work. These are located in the mid point of each axis. The Y axis one being under the table at the right hand side and directly in line with the hand wheel. There isn’t a lot of room in the there and for me at least at best I get my knuckles covered in grease at worst I leave skin behind… I do have a set of long T handled Allen Keys but the T bit is too long and it has to be put in at an angle to clear the hand wheel.

While watching a video where someone else was struggling to tighten the mill table down it occurred to me that I needed to make something with a straight shank that was thick enough to grip and turn

I initially planned to use brass or acetal but while rummaging in my tub of Allen keys looking for one that I could cut down I found and old cheapo centre punch with a knurled grip. It was so cheapo that at best only the tip must have been hardened because the tip was totally mashed up and cutting the end off, facing it and drilling it out on the lathe was no effort at all. Once drilled I ground a slight chamfer on one end of the stub of Allen key and bashed it into the punch handle.

Now I have the perfect tool. It fit’s under the mill table and allows me to lock/unlock the mill table with minimal effort. I had thought of cross drilling it to add a small cross bar but I don’t think I need it.

A while ago when making the improvements to the tail stock of the Unimat, I mentioned that I planned to make a machinists hammer.

Well, I made a start and ,machined up the body of the head the screw in faces, and the shaft but hadn’t done anything about the handle by the time I sold the Unimat.

Primarily this was because I had struggled to thread the 8mm stainless rod that I used for the shaft and was awaiting delivery of a new set of metric taps and dies to complete it. The taps and dies duly arrived but by then I was on with other things so it was being used just with a the bare rod as a handle. I had managed to thread the end that fits into the head it was the handle end that I had struggles with. About 3 weeks or so ago I got around to threading the handle end of the shaft but was undecided as to what to make the handle from. I had a choice of some 16mm diameter aluminium rod or some of the acetal rod that I had made the faces from. which is just over 20mm diameter. In the end I opted for the acetal. but it wasn’t until yesterday that I got my finger out and made the handle.

Having drilled and tapped it 8mm. Instead of knurling the acetal rod to create the grip, I decided to turn concave grooves using a HSS tool bit that I had ground into a curved end but hadn’t tried out on anything.

Once that was done it was just a case of fitting them together. In the end I had to cut a few threads of ether end to ensure that no threads were visible where the shaft enters the head or handle as I hadn’t really thought too much about how much thread I was creating versus how deep I could actually tap each piece.

Aside from regrinding a few tools to sharpen them, this is my first real go at grinding a tool from a blank to create a particular shape. My plan with this one is to have a go at turning a chimney at some point.

Once I screwed the faces onto the head and the handle onto the shaft I couldn’t get them off again without risking marking them up so I wasn’t able to take any photos of it further disassembled.

This is the finished hammer which has turned out rather better than I had hoped when I started out. It’s main function will be to ensure that materials are seated properly in the mill vice of lathe chuck but I am sue that I will find other uses for non marking brute force….

I was asked on a forum how I went about using Glue N Glaze for windows. Having written it down, I thought a short demo video might also be welcome.
https://youtu.be/8rPizlfKsjs

I mentioned in my Parting tool upgrade post that I planned to upgrade the locking clamp for the tailstock too.
Like many locking clamps on the Unimat III the locking clamp for the tail stock is an M6 cap screw. It being tucked down the side of the tail stock body it isn’t always convenient to get to. Watching the videos from the GOG virtual shows done by the late David Smith (DLOS) on workshop practice I noted that he had done a similar upgrade and it prompted me to think about it. I finally go to it.
As luck would have it I have a small stock of 50mm stainless M6 cap screws. These are only threaded for part of their length so I started by threading one of them along it’s entire length. Not an easy task in stainless but I got there. Next I cut of the head and cut it approximately to length. 
Then I drilled and tapped a short length of 16mm aluminium bar M6 and turned a 20% taper on the closed end. Having tried to fit it all together so that I could work out the handle length I realised that I had it too tall and it wouldn’t screw past the body of the tail stock. I parted off 5mm and that cured the problem. I screwed it on hand tight an marked where the handle was gong to be and had to change plans again.
My initial idea was to use another M6 screw for the handle and make a knob similar to the pinch boss to fit on the end. My test run proved that there just wasn’t enough room for any kind of knob so I was pondering what I might do when I remembered that I had a short length of steel bar in my tool box that I had had for years and it usually found use as a drift so was a little battered on the ends.
I faced one end off and turned it down to 5.85mm to thread M6 again it being stainless, made this a bit of fun but once I got it started it wasn’t as hard as threading the screw. Then I decided to taper the rest of it to make a handle shape so I centre drilled the threaded end and used a live centre to support it while I turned the taper. After initially completely forgetting that I needed to turn the topside feed not the carriage feed I ended up with the handle below which I was quite pleased with.

Having cross drilled the pinch boss I assembled it all and it looks like this

This is the unlocked position and a quarter turn locks it

Carried away by this success I have ordered some more 8mm stainless rod to make another to replace  the cap screw on the quill lock.

3D drawing has been a bit of a distraction from the other things that life has thrown my way recently but I also made a small upgrade to my parting tool holder for the Unimat.

Due it small size I had to buy a mini parting blade and this is what it looks like below

The bit that’s supposed to hold the blade and keep it from moving is this bit, which is for all the world like a bent washer.

After parting a few items off I noted that on some of them the back of the part was actually convex because the cutting force had bent the “washer” and allowed the parting tool to move to one side as it was cutting.
Having bought my long length of steel from Wickes I decided that I would look at making something a little sturdier.

This is what I came up with.

The slot is wider than the blade (1.45mm) because my smallest milling cutter at present is 3mm but I do have some brass bar that will fit in the remaining slot should I need to take out any slack.

Here it is fitted.

There is a small shim in between the fixture and the tool holder which helps apply an even pressure. The fixture is thick enough not to bend under pressure and long enough to hold the blade inline with the tool holder without being able to twist while cutting.

Next I plan to make a locking handle for my tail stock. It currently locks via a cap head M6 screw which isn’t always very convenient.