What have you been doing today?

[Nikhil Bhale]

Trying to build a traction engine. Based on my interpretation of Jules De Waals plan. Just finished front wheels.

Regards
Nikhil

 

[Jonathan Coates]

I put limit switches on the mill power feed as I don't want to crash it. I used the original adjustable stops for actuation.

 

[Steamchick]

I chased more leaks in the boiler I am re-building. At each hot-job, the old silver solder melts before my new stuff. - I reckon it is a different alloy to the available alloys today. But I have re-made almost all the joints and I think maybe today's hydraulic will be the leak-free test?
I start out think this is fun, then decide it is a challenge, finally just a big "Whew!" when it is finally re-sealed and good.
But my technique has really improved in doing 2 boilers this last month. Just will I start on the 3rd just yet? - While I have my hand-in?
Perhaps wheel building is easier? - I'm not even going to try. I'll stick to something I can finish - with perseverance.
WELL DONE NIKHIL! Your front wheels look excellent!
K2

 

[Samet ÇALIŞKAN]

I installed a dro on my lathe. I made a video for those who want to see how it is done.

 

[Jonathan Coates]

Cleaned up a nasty large vee block that I got off Ebay for cheap as it was brown.
After a tickle it looks a lot better.

 

[Nikhil Bhale]

I completed rear wheels for the traction engine. Instead of riveting pads on wheel as per drawing I milled out them using rotary table.

I made a mistake in making them and milled both wheels in same setup. So I had to redo one wheel.

I made the wheels out of sch 80 4" pipe. It was a long process on my mini lathe. So I outsourced the job to local fabrication shop. They made me 3 wheel blanks for dollar a piece. So it was a bargain.

For next job i am confused, do gears or do the sheet metal work.


Regards
Nikhil

 

[Sprocket]

I finished up a few Bluebird nest boxes this week. Two went to neighbors, one still looking for a spot. We’d been seeing Bluebirds checking out the box in our yard, now we’re having what looks to be the biggest snow of the season.
Always hard to change from metal tolerances to wood tolerances.

It’s way too early here to be building nests, but they are looking for spots
Doug

 

[wce4]

I completed rear wheels for the traction engine. Instead of riveting pads on wheel as per drawing I milled out them using rotary table.
View attachment 154834
View attachment 154835
I made a mistake in making them and milled both wheels in same setup. So I had to redo one wheel. View attachment 154836
I made the wheels out of sch 80 4" pipe. It was a long process on my mini lathe. So I outsourced the job to local fabrication shop. They made me 3 wheel blanks for dollar a piece. So it was a bargain.View attachment 154837
For next job i am confused, do gears or do the sheet metal work.


Regards
Nikhil

Excellent job on that , I wouldn't have never thought of doing it that way!

 

[Lloyd-ss]

I finished up a few Bluebird nest boxes this week. Two went to neighbors, one still looking for a spot. We’d been seeing Bluebirds checking out the box in our yard, now we’re having what looks to be the biggest snow of the season.
Always hard to change from metal tolerances to wood tolerances.
It’s way too early here to be building nests, but they are looking for spots
Doug

Do you have to put the stove pipe snake guards under your bluebird boxes?

 

[Sprocket]

Loyd,
Snakes don't seem to be a problem here, and the only one we've put a "cat baffle" on was at my daughter's. She has a large, active cat who thinks he's a dog, but still chases birds occasionally. We put that one up a little late last spring, and the Tree Swallows appropriated it in less than a day. I think raccoons would be more problem here than snakes, but that design is supposed to make it hard for them to reach anything.
I have one of each in the yard. (Tree Swallow and Bluebird) and they know which is which. Those two birds co-exist well, but compete for the same nest
cavity.
Doug

 

[Steamchick]

Mended a downpipe from roof guttering. 50 year old plastic pipe supports had cracked and broken. This modern stuff doesn't last like the previous stuff - cast iron that lasted nearly 70 years....
I"ll probably not need to do that job again in my lifetime.
A sobering thought?
K2

 

[Lloyd-ss]

Loyd,
Snakes don't seem to be a problem here, and the only one we've put a "cat baffle" on was at my daughter's. She has a large, active cat who thinks he's a dog, but still chases birds occasionally. We put that one up a little late last spring, and the Tree Swallows appropriated it in less than a day. I think raccoons would be more problem here than snakes, but that design is supposed to make it hard for them to reach anything.
I have one of each in the yard. (Tree Swallow and Bluebird) and they know which is which. Those two birds co-exist well, but compete for the same nest
cavity.
Doug

Around here, black snakes are a serious threat to any birds that build their nests at all close to the ground. All "successful" Bluebird boxes around here have the stove pipe guards, and yes, they really do work.
Lloyd

 

[Lloyd-ss]

..................
A sobering thought?
K2

No, of course not. Just a fleeting pause about something totally irrelevant. Carry on as usual, please!

 

[Steamchick]

Carrying on as instructed!
Here's more brief pauses for thought... even if irelevant to "what are we doing today?"
An Aluminium smelter I worked on building in 1980 has been decommissioned and the site cleared having had a 40 year life. Electric switchgear I designed in the 1980s is near end of life having passed its 40 year planned life. Cars I helped develop in my job have come been and gone except for odd museum pieces!
But in the model club we are recommissioning a 1952 loco, amongst other stuff that has well out-lived the makers. My house is a decent 118 years old, built with gas lighting that has been replaced with electric filament, fluorescent and now LED lighting.
Beyond the imagination of the builder?
My oldest model is my Father's toy electric motor that dates from about 100 years ago.... used on his model assembly kit, and still works. But I have my Grandmother's propelling pencil from about 125 years ago that also still works.
Who knows what will last and what will be consigned to dust? Lots of clocks, watches and other heirlooms from the mechanical age, yet few old electronic things? My 1977 calculator has finally expired... my slide rule still works.
Could builders of Roman, Greek or Egyptian buildings and structures have imagined they would last thousands of years?
Victorian house builders built to last a "lifetime", which was more like 60 to 80 years then. So they would be pleased to see all their thousands of houses, etc. still in use approaching 3 times that span.
Time is irrelevent. "Now" and "pleasure" count for a lot.
That's why we enjoy making models. The pleasure is an addictive "now" thing.
What is your pleasure today?
I hope mine will be steaming a 30 year old boiler to test and set a new safety valve for another refurbished 30 year old boiler.... (pleasure) then maybe a bit of gardening.... (just stuff "to do")?
I don't build bird boxes, nor suffer snakes eating birds, but do watch for toads while mowing spring grass, and hibernating hedgehogs when clearing winter leaves, etc. The birds here nest in shrubs and trees that I have grown for their nesting -right outside the kitchen window. Woodpeckers enjoy the old dead tree trunk that I use for a flagpole.
This musing simply passes an hour before breakfast, as my body woke me at 5.30am. - I reckon the body is now twice as old as my brain thinks it is...?
K2

 

[Lloyd-ss]

Ken. Thank you for sharing that hour with us this morning. A very introspective post my friend, but it shows a mind with clarity. I must use caution when I am in an introspective frame of mind. On a cold and rainy winter morning when it is obvious the sun will be absent for yet another day, it can be easy to sucked into the darkness. But on a pretty spring morning, those introspective thoughts become memories of a lifetime of accomplishments {and failures) and so much to be proud of. The only thing we can change about the past is how we personally view it. I bet anywhere you look in your house you will see a personal accomplishment, even if you have to look past the derelict gutter to see it.
It is 5:30 where I am now and I need to decide whether I get up and make coffee, or try to sleep a few more hours.
So what did I do today? Same as you, I put my thoughts down with pen & ink. Figuratively, at least.
Years ago I had a therapist and I was laying out this laundry list of the bad parts of my childhood. He said, "I know those are real and we are working on those, but now, can you tell me some good things about your childhood."
And darn if that wasn't the longer of the 2 lists. That has saved me from the doldrums many times.
Yes sir, carry on!

 

[minh-thanh]

Always hard to change from metal tolerances to wood tolerances.

.

What did I do ?
More than a month ago I bought a lathe about 660 USD.
A lot of things need to be cleaned and adjusted ..... Crazy
Yesterday I still felt it wasn't quite right, so I took the slider off and looked at it
The lower clamping part makes terrible contact
I had to resurface it, and make some spacers, trying to get the best contact possible - although the bolts still needed to be adjusted - just about 5 degrees - but the result was quite good.

 

[Steamchick]

Hi Lloyd, I can only say "Thankyou for reading my post".
Personally I have always been a a happy chappy, as there is no time to ponder and be depressed. But I understand as these things ard just chemicals in the brain, stimulated by many different things, I simply live in wonder at the fact that everything exists!
I realise there are those that have more of the depressing chemicals than I but it's simply the variation of mankind, like nose shapes, etc.. I have a couple of friends that can suffer a bit of depression, but nothing severe. So I lack experience in how to respknd to knowing you needed some therapy years ago. I simply reckon it is a part of the education in living, that helps to make you what you are. Hence , I appreciate all your advice, as you have a clear view despite my sometimes confused musings.
My musings this morning were simply that. Unemotional musings on the curiosities of life, the universe, and everything. "When you are standing on a planet, that's revolving at 300 miles an hour"... (or whatever) it is easy to be filled with the simple joy of existance, when you think of the "improbability" of existance and being able to think! No time for mellow moments! EnJOY!
K2

 

[Lloyd-ss]

.

What did I do ?
More than a month ago I bought a lathe about 660 USD.
A lot of things need to be cleaned and adjusted ..... Crazy
Yesterday I still felt it wasn't quite right, so I took the slider off and looked at it.....................................

That new lathe looks like a great addition to your shop and a real bargain, too. You said it needs cleaning, and from the looks of it, you are doing a splendid job.

I have worked on the slider on my lathe, and it originally had about .003" clearance. I was able to lap it down to the point where tightening the bolts on it almost locked it up, but not quite, so that the carriage still moved freely. I could not find a spec and I assume the bare minimum of clearance is best?? To eliminate one source of chatter??
Lloyd

 

[minh-thanh]

That new lathe looks like a great addition to your shop and a real bargain, too. You said it needs cleaning, and from the looks of it, you are doing a splendid job.

With this lathe - only with this lathe -, after cleaning and aligning everything, although there are still a few places I'm not satisfied with, in the end it's like you said: a bargain.

I could not find a spec and I assume the bare minimum of clearance is best?? To eliminate one source of chatter??
Lloyd

I could not find a spec and I assume the bare minimum of clearance is best?
Yes, that's the best

To eliminate one source of chatter??
I don't know, but with a small lathe - the body is quite "fragile". So the cutting tool needs to be sharp - That's why I regularly use HSS and sharpen it very sharp. And I'm quite satisfied with this lathe

 

[Richard Hed]

Carrying on as instructed!
Here's more brief pauses for thought... even if irelevant to "what are we doing today?"
An Aluminium smelter I worked on building in 1980 has been decommissioned and the site cleared having had a 40 year life. Electric switchgear I designed in the 1980s is near end of life having passed its 40 year planned life. Cars I helped develop in my job have come been and gone except for odd museum pieces!
But in the model club we are recommissioning a 1952 loco, amongst other stuff that has well out-lived the makers. My house is a decent 118 years old, built with gas lighting that has been replaced with electric filament, fluorescent and now LED lighting.
Beyond the imagination of the builder?
My oldest model is my Father's toy electric motor that dates from about 100 years ago.... used on his model assembly kit, and still works. But I have my Grandmother's propelling pencil from about 125 years ago that also still works.
Who knows what will last and what will be consigned to dust? Lots of clocks, watches and other heirlooms from the mechanical age, yet few old electronic things? My 1977 calculator has finally expired... my slide rule still works.
Could builders of Roman, Greek or Egyptian buildings and structures have imagined they would last thousands of years?
Victorian house builders built to last a "lifetime", which was more like 60 to 80 years then. So they would be pleased to see all their thousands of houses, etc. still in use approaching 3 times that span.
Time is irrelevent. "Now" and "pleasure" count for a lot.
That's why we enjoy making models. The pleasure is an addictive "now" thing.
What is your pleasure today?
I hope mine will be steaming a 30 year old boiler to test and set a new safety valve for another refurbished 30 year old boiler.... (pleasure) then maybe a bit of gardening.... (just stuff "to do")?
I don't build bird boxes, nor suffer snakes eating birds, but do watch for toads while mowing spring grass, and hibernating hedgehogs when clearing winter leaves, etc. The birds here nest in shrubs and trees that I have grown for their nesting -right outside the kitchen window. Woodpeckers enjoy the old dead tree trunk that I use for a flagpole.
This musing simply passes an hour before breakfast, as my body woke me at 5.30am. - I reckon the body is now twice as old as my brain thinks it is...?
K2

What is a "propelling pencil'? Maybe you'd better demonstrate it so we know you aren't lying.