Innehållsförteckning för November 2022 från Model Engineer & Workshop

John Smith, the Artful Dodger Longer standing readers may remember pat articles by John Smith, showcasing his exceptional skill and patience as a metalworker. One example detailed four attempts at making rounded corners for the bunker of a model locomotive tender and sharing the successful technique he used in the end. Some time ago John submitted the first dozen or so instalments of a series of hints and tips for those new to our hobby. Originally the series was planned to have over twenty parts. Sadly John’s health declined, and we lost contact. Following the change of publisher earlier this year, I was reviewing my stock of submitted articles and found the parts John had finished and was struck again by the quality of his writing and exceptionally good workshop…

Regular readers will be aware that the last round of the Stevenson Trophy was held in 2020, under the rather trying circumstances of the first few rounds of covid lockdowns. The complications of running even an online competition - chiefly being able to get the trophy from the past winner and pass it on to the new one - mitigated against running the competition in 2021, indeed I will only meet the 2020 winner, Ian Johnson, for the first time when I collect the trophy from him at the Midlands Model Engineering exhibition! The photos shows Alan’s winning entry, a quick change tool system for a Sieg KX1 CNC mill. This is the fourth year of the competition, the trophy being funded by readers and members of the www.model-engineer.co.uk forum…

Telephone Exchange Clocks Dear Neil, Mike Mathews asks if any telephone exchange clocks still exist. I have one on a wall in my lounge. Mine is in a modern light oak case and according to the maker’s label was made in February 1939 by Chloride Gent and, I understand, was originally installed in the East Chiltington exchange. My son has an older version in a dark oak case in his workshop As I don’t have a telephone exchange to provide the power to excite the pendulum, I have devised a circuit to charge an electrolytic capacitor from an old ‘wall wart’ power supply from my store of ‘useful’ items. One day I will get round to tidying up the bird’s nest. The ‘clock with no dial’ provokes a lot of…

Des Bromilow achieved an easily manoeuvred workshop crane with this hybrid of a pallet jack and an engine crane. The problem I am trying to solve is getting older and weaker, advancing age but also I want to work smarter. Since I don’t have an easy solution for that problem, I figure I can design and build something to reduce the impacts. One of those impacts is lifting heavy things, such as chucks on to the spindle of the lathe or lifting a vice or universal dividing head on to the table of a milling machines and so on. The tasks I’ve mentioned would require a crane with very fine levels of adjustment on the crane hook, especially when handling a chuck on to the threaded spindle of my big…

Although I very much like my mini lathe which is quite suitable for my purposes, I did find that the geared head was noisy. My machine had steel gears which overcomes the problems of broken plastic gearing which many people have commented on, and this may be part of the cause. However, I decided to look at eliminating the internal gears of the head by converting this to a direct drive. This means exactly that: there would be no more high and low gear ratio just one continuous variable drive. It occurred to me that the design of the head had not seemed to change over the lathe’s evolution although the motor had been improved. The brushed motor of older machines had now been replaced by a brushless motor, more…

I realised that I have enjoyed our hobby for nearly 50 years but that there are many who only take it up after retiring from work. Perhaps I could pass on to them some of the “dodges” that I have picked up over the years which have helped me to stay safe and produce good work. So this series is aimed at the less experienced model engineer. A picture is worth a thousand words, so my plan is to present each “artful dodge” as some photographs accompanied by as few words as possible. Safety is not a very interesting topic, but it is important, particularly as many of us are acquiring larger machine tools with very powerful motors. Clamps are very important when drilling large holes on the drilling machine…

A small project I had recently was to remove a broken off screw and fit a new one to return an old tool to useful service. The replacement needed was one of the spade head thumbscrew types. Whilst not in common usage these days, some sizes and threads are still available. The broken thread was removed but on inspection of the part, the threaded hole was found to be a standard TPI but over size on the diameter compared to a standard screw. As thumb screws were not available in that thread size as well as being an oversized special, I set about to make a new one. Once it was completed it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the tool so thoughts turned to finishing the component.…

I developed these lobed knobs, photo 1, after making a carriage stop, for my Clausing 6933 Lathe, photo 2. I started out with a 1.5” knurled aluminium knob, that hurt my hand. Especially bad in the position that it was in, just in front of the rack. I get lot of turning power with the lobes, without needing a guerrilla grip. It didn’t help that the knob needed to be a maximum of 1.5” in diameter. I no longer seem to have a gorilla grip, since I’m over sixty! This time around, the knobs are to hold the door on the headstock of the Wilton lathe I use at work. The knobs have to be 1½" max to clear the Collet closure. The design is very easy to execute, providing…

Lateral Flow Lubing TIP OF THE MONTH WINNER! This month’s winner is Frances Coakley, with a tip that makes use of a small object most of us are now all too familiar with! Re-use the small test tubes that were part of a covid lateral flow test - they make excellent small oil or for me cutting fluid dispensers. The repluggable top allows drop by drop dispensing by compressing the flexible tube and they will stand upright in a simple frame or a hole cut in small tray that also holds MT2 arbours. I use one for cutting fluid when threading - a second one currently has plus-gas in it as easier to drip it where needed than with the spray can. If I get a third (having a couple…

A major part of the work needed to get the Churchill back into working order was on the spindle clutch/ brake control. Neither of these functions were found to be working correctly. A novel but entirely satisfactory solution to both problems is described which neatly avoided the need for major internal surgery to the all-geared headstock just to fix the brake. The problem The lathe is shown here in photo 1, it has been copied from a picture in the handbook of a Churchill publicity photograph in 1948. It is a remarkably modern looking lathe for its time and was billed as being strong and equivalent to the Colchester Bantam in capacity and performance. Without power at the seller’s venue, the crude tests I was able to apply to it…

Many readers will remember that in 2015 we produced a ‘special’ that celebrated 25 years of Model Engineers’ Workshop. In sorting through things following the recent changes, I discovered a modest number of copies of the special, which we originally thought had sold out Rather than trying to sell these, I am offering them as prizes for a photography competition. Email a good quality picture of yourself in your workshop, along with around 3-400 words of description and your address to meweditor@mortons.co.uk. If your picture is chosen for publication, you will win a copy of the 25 Year Special together with a £25 gift token. No alternative prizes can be sent, and the editor’s decision is final. Overseas readers please note we can only send gift tokens in UK pounds.…

IN HAND FITTING there is, on occasion, the problem of reducing the thickness or width of such parts as distance washers, collars, piston rings. etc. A lathe and time being available, the solution is, of course, simple in the case of steel or brass washers, for they can be tinned and soldered on to the faced end of a piece of bar to hold in the three-jaw chuck, or even on to a piece of flat plate which can be mounted in the independent chuck to spin facially true. Machining will then reduce the thickness, picking up the depth of cut from the top-slide feed screw. When such a part has to be thinned by filing, however, other methods are possible. If a piece of bar or plate is used…