Table of contents for March 2024 in Model Engineer & Workshop

Kitchen Chaos I’ve been fitting a new kitchen, not one of those simple swaps of new doors or units, this is gutting the old one down to stripping tiles and rebuilding the window frames. I truly hope that job is finished, or atleast on the final stages by the time you read this. Atleastit means playing with lots of fun tools and gadgets. On the one hand my big Clarke wood routeris great fun, using it with various jigs to cut room long sections of 32mm worktop to shape with sub-millimetre accuracy. Itis rather awe inspiring to use something so powerful as a hand held tool, running a ½” by 75mm tungsten carbide bit at several thousand rpm!. Yes, googles and a mask were essential, as was working outside, which…

Paddle Steamer Medway Queen, was built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company of Troon, Scotland, and launched on St. George’s Day (23rd April) 1924. Her maiden voyage across the Thames Estuary was on Friday 18th July of that year, under the flag of the New Medway Steam Packet Company. Medway Queen’s standard route was then from Strood and Chatham to Southend, and then back across the estuary to Herne Bay. The excursion service was seasonal, usually starting at the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend (now the Late May Bank Holiday) and terminating in September. She worked these routes from 1924 until the beginning of September 1939, and again from 1947 to 1963. Variety was created by special excursions and events such as Chatham Navy Week and the 1937 and 1953 Spithead Naval…

220M07 Modern designation for the generalpurpose mild steel EN1A. Age hardening A property of some metals, especially many aluminium alloys, that increase in hardness at room temperature, on a timescale of days or even hours. If they are to be easily worked they need to be annealed shortly beforehand. Ageing (1) The gradual recovery of a metal from internal stresses caused by rapid cooling or cold working at room temperature,(or faster at slightly warmer temperatures). It is a microscopic process that involves changes in the crystal structure of the metal. (2) The relieving of internal stresses in an iron casting by a process of gradual rearrangement of the crystalline structure. It is facilitated by cyclical changes in temperature and may be promoted by seasoning a casting out of doors. Air-hardening…

Previously, we looked at correcting errors in the UPT constructional information and also at some improvements to design and construction methods. In Part III we turn our attention to a development GWT foreshadowed but was unable to pursue. GHT explains (Reference 1, page 74) that it was his original intention to mount the motor for driving the sensitive drilling attachment spindle on the arm which carried the spindle however no suitable motor was available. GHT instead devised an elegant jockey pulley design with a base board mounted motor. By all accounts that design was successful. The base board mounted motor arrangement probably requires the belt tension be readjusted whenever the drilling attachment is swung out of the way or removed to allow better access for non-drilling operations. Furthermore, the drilling…

The ¾ inch square form rack on this lathe was designed with a few teeth short of taking the carriage the full distance needed along the bed, as a result it ran ‘off the tracks’ when wound up close to the tailstock. It was an irritating fault which became extremely tedious as the carriage had to be hauled back manually into engagement with the rack each time it happened. After nearly four years of ownership since rescue and restoration, I decided to do something positive about it. Plan of attack, phase 1 Photograph 1 is a view of the lathe as it was; the end of the rack is barely visible but is just about level with the end of the carriage. Photograph 2 is a better view of that…

The new Clarke MIG103NG MIG Welder is ideal for automotive and general fabrication, and as it does not require a gas cylinder, it is much easier to transport and store in the garage or workshop. The MIG103NG uses flux cored steel welding wire, a type of wire which produces its own gas shroud as it burns. This means the welder can weld steel, without gas, whilst providing optimum performance and reliability. This new Clarke unit produces a maximum power of 90Amps, allowing it up weld mild steel up to 4mm thick. The MIG103NG is sold complete with a welding torch, 2 x 0.9mm torch tips (1 installed in torch), 1 x earth clamp, 1 x two piece welding mask, 1 x mini spool of Flux cored wide and a wire…

Readers! We want to hear from you! Drop us a line sharing your advice, questions or opinions. Why not send us a picture of your latest workshop creation, or that strange tool you found in a boot sale? Email your contributions to meweditor@mortons.co.uk. Machinist’s Jack Dear Neil, the use of the machinist’s jack on page 40 of MEW 335 escapes me. It’s not clear to me. I should like to see the working/example and what can be done. Drill a cross hole into a thin rod?? How can the jack be used Henk Salij, Ridderkerk, The Netherlands Hi Henk, A fair question! In brief, it acts as a variable height spacer or block to support work for machining or help align clamped work. The photo shows a small one of…

Labelling Your Parallels TIP OF THE MONTH WINNER! This month’s winner is Jean-Marie Elsen, who suggests a way of labelling your parallels to make it quicker to use them with a milling vice. To avoid measuring or the try and error method before using parallels in the mill vice I printed and glued the dimensions on the storage box. Especially the dimension between brackets is important. It is the remaining height from the parallel to the upper edge of the vice. When the workpiece dimension is known, choosing the according parallel is quickly made. I print the letters, because when they are small, they are easier to read than handwritten ones and eyesight doesn’t get better with age. My mill vice jaws have 35mm. The 3 largest parallels in my…

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 of for 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 THE DIFFERENT means for transmitting power between shafts, belts and pulleys are undoubtedly the simplest and, within their application, possess virtues lacking in gears- and chain and sprocket drives. With belts, shafts can be relatively distant, out of line in certain respects, or even at…

Natural lighting is always good, but direct sunlight can be harsh and tends to encourage condensation, so if your windows face the sun, consider a diffusing blind. For electric light the option of old-style filament bulbs has effectively disappeared, and we are left with a choice between halogen, fluorescent and LED lighting. Halogen bulbs offer bright light, but often have a rather short working life – they also seem very wasteful of energy now LED bulbs have become so efficient. Fluorescent lighting tends to produce softer shadows, and there’s a wide choice of colours from warm white to cool blue. It’s still a good choice for background lighting, but the glass tubes are rather vulnerable to use too close to where the work is happening. For my own workshop, I’ve…

Fire Queen’ is a unique steam locomotive: it is believed to be the oldest narrow gauge locomotive in existence, having been built in 1848. The locomotive will arrive in Aberystwyth in late January, and will be on public display in the new museum, display & events building when the railway opens for the new season in late March 2024. The Directors Coach is also going on display, prior to a move to the Bala Lake Railway. Fire Queen’, her tender and the Directors’ Coach were on loan to National Trust Cymru, and were accepted in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 2021. They temporarily resided at Penrhyn Castle pending permanent allocation. Llŷr ap Iolo, Managing Director of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, said: “We are grateful to Julian Birley…

To retain machine tool convention the feedscrew, photo 8, really needs to have a left-hand thread, (the tool slide usually moves away from the operator with a clockwise rotation of the feedscrew). Therefore the feedscrew was screw cut with an M6x1 LH thread. The constructor does not have to stick with the LH thread, a RH thread can be used if preferred. After all the selector will sort things out, but I suspect the constructor will continually wish they had chosen a LH thread. Especially when it comes to the coarse manual setting of the head, and they habitually continue to turn the feedscrew the wrong way. The feed ring, photo 9, has three spring loaded ball bearings pressing on the upper portion of the worm gear which has six…

During a discussion with Stub Mandrel about 100 tooth gears for the mini lathe, a leadscrew clutch was mentioned (MEW Issue 228, p. 69). Using the 100 tooth gears suggested, (3D printed or cut), prevented the use of his leadscrew clutch. So a little thought was given to how to allow the leadscrew to be disengaged, whilst still allowing the use of larger than standard change wheels. With a handwheel on the leadscrew, it is an advantage if it can be disengaged from the drive from the mandrel, for easier and more accurate longitudinal positioning. For screwcutting, if the leadscrew is disconnected from the drive from the mandrel, it is important that it only reconnects in one position, (as if the gear train had never been disconnected). The first thought…