I finished the clamp!

[Matty F]

I was making a clamp to match an old one that holds the lid on a large electric motor. The finished clamp in place on the motor:

still needs to be painted black. What a pity! The patent date on the motor is Oct 9, 1888

The finished clamp together with the original that had to be copied:

save cutting a huge block of steel, an extension was welded on the handle. The weld was tidied up with an angle grinder! tried my hand at forging this rusty old bolt by heating it up red hot and flattening the head with a big hammer. I cut the thread much further: through chopping up the big block of steel, in case you missed the earlier discussion:

[Andy Morrison]

[Roger Mills]

make things like that.

[Matty F]

The only expensive machine that I used was a metal bandsaw. It would be possible to use a hand hacksaw but that would be hard work. Otherwise an angle grinder could do most of it. I used a sandpaper flapper disk in the grinder for finishing work. I used a drill press for 4 holes but a portable drill would have done instead.

[John Rumm]

[Chris J Dixon]

Rail traction equipment in general does have an amazing life, the first I was involved with after graduation is still in daily service, whilst I am now retired. ;-) Not sure anybody will be that keen to preserve it though.

Chris

[Roger Mills]

And the welding?

I think it would have been almost imposible to saw accurately enough with a hand-held hacksaw - they wander off the line too easily!

[dennis]

Not with a decent frame, all hard blade and a bit of practice.

[Matty F]

I'm not that good at welding, but I knew we had an expert welder available. Otherwise I would have used a longer bit of steel in the first place.

I don't think I could have done that much hacksawing by hand, even though it didn't have to be that accurate since I knew I'd be doing a lot of grinding. But I design jobs to suit the tools available. The metal bandsaw is rather wonderful. I'd like a small hand-held grinder. Perhaps a Dremel, but I have never seen one. It's not clear from their website whether it will grind steel.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Matty F saying something like:

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Roger Mills" saying something like:

Thousands of apprentices found otherwise over the years. It's not that difficult.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Matty F saying something like:

Course it will - just get the right cutters.

[dennis]

If you have a compressor aldi/lidl frequently have die grinders for about £20.

[Jon Fairbairn]

They will, but are seriously lacking in oomph. I have one; it's 125W whereas the Bosch die grinders start at 500W; I definitely wish I had something more like that. One can do small jobs with a Dremel, but I think you'd be seriously disappointed.

[Matty F]

I guess our 1kW bench grinder would be quicker for my larger jobs then.

[PeterC]

It's getting to know the particular saw. I cut 2 ice-daggers with a saw at work - just cut 'straight' with the saw and it gave me 4 matching, tapered curves. So long as the error is constant it can be compensated for.