Making a part from brass bar

[ARWadsworth]

No you didn't.

[Steve Walker]

Indeed. I've had a lot of labels made from that - usually black lettering on white though, as oil-rigs, refineries and chemical plants are dirty places and if you do them white on black, the letters can fill with dirt and be unreadable.

Personally I prefer Gravoglas 2-plex. You can get versions of that that are a colourless clear layer and an opaque coloured layer, reverse engrave them and fill with black (it doesn't have to be smooth, as its at the back), leaving smooth fronted, wipe clean labels. Like the wax trick, you can use different colours, but there's no need to scrape and polish and the surface is unbroken.

SteveW

[Peter Parry]

What! You angle grinder was broken? :-)

[John Williamson]

He might not have done, but I did. Start with a lump of steel bar and make an adjustable spanner from it using only hand tools.

I also made a small, 28psi, steam engine boiler starting with a piece of two inch diameter copper tube and some copper sheet. Unfortunately,the course finished before I could make the oscillating engine to go with it.

[dennis]

Adam is just trying to be a pratt, not that it takes any effort, he is a natural. He will no doubt continue with his childish taunts in the hope of getting a response. Pathetic really.

Anyone that did O level engineering workshop theory and practice (JMB) would have done things like that. It is only O level stuff, or was in the late '60s before they decided everyone should pass, A levels were far more difficult.

Single cylinder with the valves just being holes drilled in the mounting plate at each end? Working them using compressed air meant you didn't need to make the boiler.

[ARWadsworth]

So you failed geography and English then?

[John Williamson]

ISTR the A level involved a lathe, (1972 or thereabouts) but I left school before I could get to play with theirs, though I have since used one in anger to make the odd (very odd) screw thread. I even recommissioned a Myford ML7 at one place that I worked, starting with a rusty pile of parts.

Yes, but you didn't get the smell of hot steam oil.

Many years later, I had the fun of building and operating the Mamod narrow guage locomotive kit.

[dennis]

8<

The O level I took required the use of a lathe. It required the fabrication of a widget with a specific diameter, a taper, a threaded hole and a knurled bit. AFAIK it had no use other than to test ones ability. The other half was cutting a shape out of sheet steel with some dimensions and holes being measured using a micrometer using only hand tools.

I never did get around to making a working steam engine. One of my neighbours has a couple of 5" gauge locos in his garage. He takes them away and runs them at shows.

I did grind a telescope mirror and make a skeleton tube using cast aluminium rings and retort stand rods during lunch breaks.

[Andy Dingley]

I did metalwork to O level in the late '70s (JMB too) and there was nothing of that complexity involved. There just wasn't the exam time for one thing.

A few years later I did the engineering component of an apprenticeship at BT Factories Division. That involved working to those sort of tolerances, but it was a bit more forward looking (and relevant). Instead of filing a lump to an accurate square, we'd mill it or finish it on a surface grinder.

[Matty F]

As it happens both the workshop ones are broken. I never thought of using an angle grinder. It might have helped.

[Thomas Prufer]

There's a small foundry here that casts for artists, and opened their doors to the public for a day. They use Plaster of Paris for the molds, and two-three days in an oven to dry them and bake out the wax, somewhere around and above

200°C I think. They also said that the molds shrink, and the models and casting on display were noticeably different in size.

I think there's an enormous amount of learning and experience behind what they were telling us... the largest casting was the size of a small car, cast in hollow shell sections in aluminum: a large potato with feet.

Thomas Prufer

[The Natural Philosopher]

I wonder if a scroll saw would take an abrafile type blade?

[Jules Richardson]

Was that considerably better than their traction engine? I remember getting the latter as a gift when young, and being disappointed at how mickey mouse it was compared to some of the working scale models that I'd seen at steam fairs :-)

cheers

Jules (currently playing with wooden 'steam' engines, to be run on compressed air)

[John Williamson]

*Much* better. And eminently hackable.

The basics were the usual Mamod boiler with solid fuel burner below, and a pair of double acting oscillating cylinders.

The ultimate modifications then included gas firing, boiler water fillers to avoid taking the safety valve out, and even radio control in a tender...

I did see one picture of one where the owner had fitted outside valve gear and proper cylinders, but that's going a bit too far, IMHO.

Still available, allegedly:-

now have a new garden without a railway. Not only that, the household bills have just gone down......

[News]

In message , John Williamson writes

Don't piddle about, get a REAL steam loco. Get a Bowman :-)

[John Williamson]

They've not gone down *that* much... ;-)

I'll likely start with summat that runs on batteries, like the Big Big Train 0-4-0 diesel. I've probably got a radio setup that will work with one of those, if I can get the servos.

[Steve Walker]

By the time I did EWTP in the early eighties, we certainly used the lathe, shaper, surface grinder and miller at 'O'-level (that was JMB too).

The first "proper" job, as always, was to make a toolmaker's clamp - I managed to bend one of the screws and there wasn't time in class to make another, but luckily, my dad had the facilities at home, so I finished it in time. It's still in my toolbox.

The 'O'-level itself was part theory exam and part project based then. We had to design and make our own items. Mine was a stand for a DTI that could be used on a surface plate or screwed to another piece to fit my dad's lathe (a Raglan Little-John Mk2). So first I had to draw it up, then make a pattern; cast the base; separate the base into the two halves; machine the base; machine the supports and clamps, etc. My teacher was really pleased, because at that time, the teachers marked the project and submitted the marks and everything to the board and sometimes they adjusted the marks when they looked them over and mine was the first time he'd had anyone get 100% for the project - mainly because I had plenty of practice at home! Pity my other exams weren't as good!

SteveW

[dennis]

We really shouldn't talk about the past.. it might make the youngsters think O' levels were harder in the past.

[News]

G'wan, you know you want to :-)

This is probably not a good time to say that, a few weeks ago, I threw out a pile of old kid's radio controlled cars. All those servos ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

they are dirt cheap these days.

£3-5 usually for basic ones.