Tabla de contenidos para August 2023 en Model Engineer & Workshop

Talks at MMEX 2020 Later in this issue in news about the Midlands Modelling Exhibition is exciting news about the return of lectures. This year the talks will be given by well-known contributors to Model Engineers' Workshop and Model Engineer magazines, and I'd like to express my gratitude to everyone who has offered to take part. I'm hoping to attend all the talks and look forward to some interesting discussions after each one. I hope that plenty of readers will be able to come along for at least one of an interesting and varied programme of lectures. I will be giving one of the talks myself. It's grown out of a talk I gave to the SMEE in 2018 on my experiences with ‘fused filament’ 3D printing. I will be…

BEGINNERS WORKSHOP These articles by Geometer (Ian Bradley) were written about half a century ago. While they contain much good advice, they also contain references to things that may be out of date or describe practices or materials that we would not use today either because much better ways are available offer safety reasons. These articles are offered for their historic interest and because they may inspire more modern approaches as well as reminding us how our hobby was practiced in the past. OF simple ways of joining pipes, the more common are by screwed fittings when there is sufficient wall thickness; by clamping when walls are- thin; and by sleeves placed over or inside the pipes, then soldered or brazed, when’ it is required to make permanent attachments. Screwed…

For some time now I have been making small internal combustion engines - and although they frequently use metal to metal joints, when required, sealing can be improved by the use of either gaskets or joint compounds. The compounds are not ideal as if the joint must be dismantled there may be a problem of residue scraping aluminum faces is not ideal. I decided to use gaskets and after some experimentation have evolved a system which works well and can produce small and intricate gaskets in heavy paper orthin card. Photographs 1 and 2 illustrate some gaskets cut recently. This article assumes that you have a CNC mill or router and are familiar with its operation and the generation of G-Code from drawings. There are no special machine requirements, but…

When using the taper turning attachment on the Myford Super 7 lathe, photo 1, the instructions are that the crossslide feedscrew bracket be detached and allowed to hang on the feedscrew, usually upside down. After a couple of times using this method, I was not happy with the feedscrew bracket just hanging there on the feedscrew, the setup had all the potential of an accident waiting to happen. Anything dropped and impacting on the feedscrew bracket is going to potentially bend the feedscrew. Similarly the sleeve of a smock coat could quite easily catch the ball handle and again bend the feed screw. Admittedly this is not such a problem with the power cross feed models due to the larger diameter feedscrew thread, but one still has the task of…

Model Engineers'Workshop and Model Engineer at the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition Exciting news about the forthcoming exhibition at Warwickshire Event Centre Thursday 12th to Sunday 15th October 2023 As regular readers will be aware, Model Engineers'Workshop and its sister publication Model Engineer are teaming up with the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers to celebrate our joint 125th birthday in 2023. To mark the occasion we will be attending the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition, organised by Meridienne Exhibitions. News from Meridienne Exhibitions Meridienne are pleased to confirm some special attractions this year including John Wilks' newly completed 10 1/4 inch gauge LNER P2 “Cock O' The North” which will be on display at the exhibition. John was a prolific locomotive builder and sadly passed away in November 2022. This is…

I had a small workshop, with a pillar drill and lathe, while I was at school. The machines were sold when I left school and started working away from home. Fast forward some years; now that I have a property with a double garage, I have been able to build up a workshop again. My first machine tools were a Harrison M300 lathe and a Bridgeport vertical mill. Both of these machines were chosen as being suitable for a 4" scale traction engine build. I am a professional engineer, mainly in electronics and signal processing, but my only formal craft qualification is O-level metalwork. Acquiring the Mill After setting up a basic workshop I kept an eye on adverts, both online and in magazines, looking for further purchases of machines…

I made this saw in about 1980. Trying to part off a 2-inch mild steel bar in the 4.5inch Denham lathe I had then was a terrifying experience, leaving the only alternative, a hand powered hacksaw. Whoever came up with the name ‘hack’ saw must have been joking, because my saw never hacked, it just slowly cut a less than straight cut through the bar no hacking whatsoever. So I decided to mechanise the hacking process as best I could. In the company I then worked at there was an industrial version in the machine shop, which could effortlessly saw through 2 inch and larger steel sections. You can see my efforts at making a smaller version in photo 1 I made the patterns and had the castings made by…

I had for quite some time (passively) been looking for a tool grinder that could meet my needs for grinding HSS turning tools, scraper tool tips etc. While grinding tool bits off-hand at the bench grinder usually satisfies my needs, having a tool grinder where more repeatable results can be achieved would be a leap forward in my little hobby workshop. By sheer accident I came across a grinder at an online auction site, having spotted the item just a few minutes before the auction ended. Quickly throwing in a bid in a state of affection (who doesn' immediately fall in love with old cast-iron machinery?), I ended up with the winning bid without really knowing whetherthe grinder was complete, which accessories were needed to actually use it etc. From…

Digital Caliper Storage TIP OF THE MONTH WINNER! This month's winner is Derek Spedding who got fed up of losing his digital calipers. This works for mechanical vernier calipers too! Forever losing my digital calipers I made up a wooden hanger to fit on a cupboard door. It was made out of a bit of scrap walnut as per the picture. It works great, however I still manage to lose them, but not quite as regularly as before. We have £30 in gift vouchers courtesy of engineering suppliers Chester Machine Tools for each month's ‘Top Tip’. Email your workshop tips to neil.wyatt@mytimemedia.com marking them ‘Readers Tips’, and you could be a winner. Try to keep your tip to no more than 600 words and a picture or drawing. Don't forget…

Grinding Rest Support Drill a 12mm dia hole thru the grinding rest sliding support and bevel the outside of the holes (weld prep). Then weld the hollow rod in position and machine or grind flush, fig. 11. If the weld bead cannot be completely removed from the inside of the support frame, a small slot can be machined on the outside of the sliding parts for clearance, photos 8 and 9. The grinding rest pivot is made in a similar fashion to the sliding support. The overall width of the support and the pivot should be the same width for the link plates to clamp properly on both parts, fig. 12. Two link plates are required for the grinding rest assembly. Weld the head of the clamping bolts (or machine…

The Halot-Mage Pro is Creality's top of the range model and physically it is considerably bigger than its predecessors at 335 x 270 x 610 mm in size and 13.3kg in weight, photo 1. The machine came packaged to a high standard, inside a stout outer box with plenty of foam packing. Design It's a big, good-looking machine. The most noticeable feature of the HalotMage Pro is that instead of having a UV shield in the form of a large lift-off lid, it has pivoting guard that lifts up to give excellent access to the machine, photo 2. The ‘Mage Arch’ is a great feature as it means you don't have to reserve an area for the lid. This means you can use it in a similar amount of space…

The first necessity when tapping is to ensure that the tap is coaxial with the hole to be threaded. In the lathe, this is easy to achieve. For many years I have used Moore & Wright T-handle, chuck-type tap wrenches. These can be supported on a tailstock centre and give good results, photo 1. I believe that these are still available from Eclipse and other manufacturers. Put the lathe in back gear so that the chuck does not rotate, twist the tap holder half a turn while turning the tailstock handwheel to keep the centre engaged. I then bought an Arrand threading attachment, photo 2, which features a 2MT shank, to fit the lathe tailstock, and a 5/8" spigot. A carrier or body is provided, to which a number of…

Vol. 85 No. 2107 Perdval Marshall & Co., Limited Cordwallis Works, Maidenhead September 25th, 1941 To celebrate 125 years of Model Engineer magazine and the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers, each issue in 2023 features fascinating historic content from Model Engineer relevant to workshops, tools or techniques. These pages are from Model Engineer Volume 85, No. 2107 - September 25, 1941, a momentous month in WW2 as the battle of Stalingrad commenced and the United States started work on the Manhattan Project that would lead to the first nuclear bombs. At the beginning of the next of a V2 (A4) Rocket. In the quieter world of home workshops, readers were invited to consider this design for an automatic lathe stop..…