Table of contents for September 2024 in Model Engineer & Workshop

The Llandovery Bike Weekend A few weeks ago I spent a day at the Llandovery Bike Weekend, a familyfriendly two-day event held in support of Blood Bikes Wales. Blood Bikers are all volunteers and they play a vital role in supporting the NHS by transporting blood for transplants, donated organs and other urgent supplies between hospitals. I was there as part of the musical entertainment, but I had plenty of time to look around and thought I would share a few photographs I took. First is the World’s Fastest Wheelbarrow, which achieved over 58mph at Elvington, ‘piloted’ by Dylan Phillips. Next is the ‘Lister/Honda’ a diesel-powered motorbike. Rumour has it that power is delivered at the rate of approximately one stroke per 100 yards… You can see the skills arena…

Anyone visiting Christmas markets in Europe will have marvelled at the number of wooden toys on sale that were once the traditional favourites of children in Great Britain. These include pull-along trains, dogs and cars, rattles and puppets, plus assorted puzzles and lettered blocks made to amuse and educate all ages, and not just children. These craft skills are very much alive on foreign shores and appear to have reached a pinnacle of creativity in the hands of Ugears, a young team of engineers and designers based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Launched in 2014 the company has grown rapidly to now offer an extensive portfolio of extraordinary mechanisms each of which is assembled from a kit based on laser cut ply. After moving house my workshop gear remains in store awaiting…

Tools are available with a single thread form which will produce a short range of threads but with only a partial profile. These are intended to reduce the tooling costs where use is infrequent and/or a number of pitches need to be covered. The tool shown is tungsten carbide and has higher metal removal rate providing it can be run at the high speeds intended. The maximum speed on my X3 is 3300 rpm so performance would be limited for the smaller sizes. However for Model Engineers time is less important than for commercial applications and the cutters are perfectly satisfactory. I understand that in commercial use these cutters would be used to cut to full depth in one pass. I was not that brave! Photograph 12 shows a further…

I had been looking at making a screw cutting indicator the same as the one on my lathe, as a new original seemed a bit pricy. I drew up the parts in Alibre Atom 3D and looked at casting the body, but a friend said he could 3D print it and it could be used as a pattern. After printing other than a couple of areas where the crosssupport diameter contacts the main body which needed filling, it seemed perfect to use as is. There is also a gear which was supposed to be used on a Boxford would be suitable to match the leadscrew on my lathe. The only difference is it is twice the size, so I had to modify the bottom part of the body model to…

Readers’ Tips TIP OF THE MONTH WINNER! This month’s winner is Peter Webb from Woodbridge, with his solution to keeping swarf out of the moving parts of his mini-lathe. A major issue with mini lathes is swarf getting into the apron gears, especially when using the automatic feed. Gear covers are available from USA but they tend to require fixing holes to be drilled and tapped into the apron. This simple chute is fixed to the saddle using one of the existing M6 tapped holes provided for fitting a travelling steady. The chute is made from two pieces of aluminium sheet with a tab hidden behind allowing them to be joined with Araldite (screws could be used instead). The chute in the photograph is fitted to a 5C3 mini lathe…

We have had an excellent ‘crop’ of entries for this year’s Stevenson Trophy - the workshop equipment competition where readers get to choose the winner yourselves. In fact, we had so many entries, that we have had to strictly apply the 500-word limit and limit the number of photographs (entries with fewer words got an extra photo!). Readers and Model Engineer Forum members can vote up until the 30 September using the link here: tinyurl.com/32tdwh6p. You can also access the poll using the QR Code on this page. The result will appear in the November issue of MEW, and we hope to award the trophy at this year’s Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition in October.…

Work started late in 2018 to improve the quality of bevel gears produced in model engineers’ workshops. These were parallel bevels, rather than the fully formed versions produced commercially. The starting point was a pair of 1:1 Mod 0.5 bevels made without the errors already identified by others. This rapidly led to the realisation that some means of comparing the performance of the bevels was required. At which time the Covid pandemic appeared with its associated restrictions. What follows can be considered a child of the Lockdown! The development work was documented in a series of MEW articles, starting with four parts of “Bob’s Better Bevels” (MEW 316). A very crude test rig was devised which identified the features needed to get more meaningful results, including better bearings, accurate shaft…

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. International Delivery Dear Neil, usually I get my MEW copy in the first week of the month. Three weeks of July have gone, and I didn’t get a copy. Is there a problem? Peter Chevalier, The Netherlands. Hi Peter, I understand your replacement copy has arrived. I’m afraid there have been some problems with our international distributor of late. Mortons are monitoring the situation closely and we hope the problem will be sorted soon. In the meantime our apologies to any overseas readers who have to wait…

With over 125 years of Model Engineer magazine and nearly 35 years of Model Engineers' Workshop in our archives, there's a huge selection of fascinating and often useful ideas for the workshop to be found. From Issue 156, Autumn 2001,we have a particularly useful instalment from Charles Woodward's series on Living with the Stent Tool and Cutter Grinder. Just a reminder, always use the card washers on both sides of a grinding wheel when clamping it. LIVING WITH THE STENT TOOL AND CUTTER GRINDER 3 Charles Woodward shows us how to use this versatile machine Wheel balancing The necessity to balance the grinding wheels arose when I changed the plain wheel from 5in. dia to 150mm (6in.). The 5in. wheel was obtained from my workplace. I think it may have…

One topic that crops up fairly regularly on the forum is clocking the fixed jaw of a vice true to the X-Axis with many finding it a lengthy process and then once they do eventually get the vice clocked true, they are reluctant to remove it to make full use of the milling machine. One option to speed up this process so that you can get the most time actually using the mill is to fit keys to the base of the vice which locate against the edge of a tee slot and make fitting the vice quick and repeatable to within acceptable limits for most work. For this example I will be using an 80mm versatile vice from ARC Euro Trade which comes complete with a swiveling base, universal…

FOR THE REASON that it is SO easily specified, a radius is generally chosen in mechanical design as the junction between converging lines or surfaces as an alternative to a sharp corner-or a more complicated curve as may be employed in special circumstances. Specification of a radius is always as A, where it is only necessary to substitute a dimension for R. A radius, however, is more than a simple academic contrivance, a feature of basic geometry, for the curve it, specifies is often essential for efficient functioning of the machine or component. Generally, it is indispensable for changing the direction of flow of gases or fluids in passages, for conduction of heat from surfaces and for strength in areas of stress in components. Thus, as at B, a right-angle…