Very Little Gravitas Indeed*

To kick off the new area I've decided to post a few things currently on my workbench. Although I'm working on a few projects at the moment I don't seem to have anything completed to show even though I seem to manage some time at the workbench.

So I'm going to try with this thread to post a few things which don't seem to fit into the project updates.

To start with I'll cover two new acquisitions to the workbench. My father-in-law usually gives us all a small money gift for Christmas. He is a time served plumber, an apprentice under Sir Tom Finney, he has given me a few of his lead working tools and so I like to invest his Christmas gift in more tools for my workbench. This year the funds have gone into the purchase of a Knew Concepts piercing saw. I originally tried to buy it via Palmer Metals but after a few days it appears they no longer seem to be stocking them so I went to Betts Metal. The service was excellent and the saw is very nice.
Knew Concepts 75mm Sawframe | Betts Metal Sales
The second item is a Haff drawing pen, I kept looking on ebay for something suitable but decided that at the price that some people on ebay were asking it would be better just getting a new pen direct.
Drawing Pens
It took a couple of emails to sort out an invoice, payment and shipping but I got there eventually, I just need to find the time to practice with it.



I also decided that I needed to sort out a few extras for my mini lathe. It would be nice to get a small vertical milling machine but at the moments funds don't permit. The next best option I decided was to get a vertical slide for the lathe. This was purchased quite a while ago but I could decide on the best mounting arrangement. RDG Tools do a mounting bracket but this just extends it from the cross-slide which to me just seemed to restrict it's travel across the centre line of the lathe. So I got a flat steel plate and drilled it for attaching to the cross-slide bolts but then moved the vertical slide closer to the centre line. I got a 2 1/4" angle plate to provide a clamping surface for some projects but it looks a little bit overweight for the vertical slide. So I'm currently considering getting some steel bar stock to make a smaller horizontal clamping plate.




The final thing across the workbench recently are the new Mark Wood wheel castings for the 8F - very nice!
Scan b LMS 8F



I had bought some tender wheels from JPL a while ago as they seemed like an improvement over the Walsall Wheels offering. However there is a slight difference between these and the Mark Wood Wheels


Mark Wood publishes a slightly different sequence to what I have used in the past
Turning castings

So I decided to try this method on the JPL castings to practice before tackling the Mark Wood castings so this is where I'm up to, cut 4 on his turning plan.



the main shape has been roughed out, so the next step is removing the bulk of the material from the rear (cut 5) and then forming the profile. To form the profile the wheel is clamped between a couple of aluminium mandrels.
Suporting castings

As I don't have a power saw or bandsaw the thought of cutting 25mm discs in aluminium bar 1 1/2" diameter wasn't that attractive. Fortunately I found a company online offering custom cutting lengths so it worked out about £1.30 per disc, although if you have a friendly local model engineering company you might be able to find an similar arrangement possible.
Aluminium Round Bar
Again the service was excellent and I will use them again.


* My final note - to explain the title of the thread. As an avid reader one of my favourite authors is Iain (M) Banks. I enjoy both genres, non-sf Crow Road and Wasp Factory etc. and the sf stuff. Many pundits rate the Player of Games as one of his best but for me the first Culture book Consider Philebas is better but my favourite is Use of Weapons. In his culture the sentient ships have a long tradition of some rather quirky names, and in the Use of Weapons one such ship was named Very Little Gravitas Indeed which appealed to my sense of humour.

As another aside if anyone has watched SpaceX's stunning efforts to launch rockets and land them back on a barge. SES company first to use 'second-hand' SpaceX rocket - BBC News
The two barges are named - "Just Read the instructions" and "Of course I still Love you" in homage to Iain M Banks Culture ships.

 

I managed to grab a bit of spare time over the weekend to visit the Leigh trade show - which reinvigorated my enthusiasm to get something done.

I had turned up the mandrels for finishing of the wheels, I seem to have forgotten to take any photos apart from this one using the form tool to make the tyre profile.


Still plenty of wheels to turn so perhaps more photos next time. Anyway back from the Leigh show my first task was a damn good clean up and tidy. The joys of an empty cutting mat.


Then I mod I'd been planning for a while but never got round to. The base on my bench drill was clamped in place with a large nut and bolt which needed a tommy bar to tighten up. A while ago I ended up with a quick release spindle from a push bike and thought I might be able to modify it for the bench drill. It ended up being quite a simple job to shorten the spindle and thread the end 5mm and now a quick release clamp on my bench drill.



Back to the wheels, the plan was to make some telescopic axles pinned with a taper pin. I wanted to make a drilling jig to simplify drilling the hole for the taper pin. I machined up a block of steel for the jig but then got stuck on how to mill the V slot in the jig. I don't have a milling machine so it was trying to sort out some method in the lathe with the vertical slide. It became a stumbling block because I couldn't work out how to hold the piece securely. During these deliberations I started playing with a V block to test how to machine the slot when it struck me - why bother machining a V slot when I could use the V block for the jig.

So this is now how to turn a V block into a centre drilling jig!

I drilled and tapped (5mm) a series of holes along the V block. I cut a couple of strips of steel strip, the outside holes being a very generous oversize hole for a 5mm thread to allow them to shift about a bit. One centre hole was drilled and tapped, again 5mm, as the clamping plate. The other plate centre hole was drilled and reamed 1/4".



I then turned a 45deg. bevel on a 1/4" bar, when inserted in one bar it allows the plate to be clamped dead centre on the V.



I then turned a steel bush drilled with the size of drill required, this was then hardened. The alignment peg is then removed and replaced with the drilling bush.


The axles were clamped in the jig and drilled, this was then followed with the taper reamer. Now to sort the insulation!

 

No problem at all.

The reason I didn't use the V block clamps supplied are that they are big bow legged affairs and just got in the way of the drill chuck, by using the smaller plate I could clamp the bar closer to where I was drilling it.

I never really thought it through all the way so would be interested in the single jig, although I'm quite content to do each stage separately. This jig was just going to be a general purpose cross drilling jig so I just focussed on the one task.

This one's a little easier being tender wheels so not too fussed about the quartering, I was going to sort the insulation next, then fix the wheels. The axles have been cut over length so once the wheels are mounted I can put them back in the lathe and trim the axles to length. As for quartering to be honest I've never really bothered with a jig, I've always done it by eye, wheels pushed on by hand, lining up spokes etc., testing the chassis with the other wheel set and coupling rods. If it rolls fine and doesn't bind then the wheels are then pushed on to the requisite B2B.

 

I'm just nicking Steph's solution
Split axle pick-up in 0-gauge, Page 3

The non-telescopic bit has been drilled and reamed for the 2mm GRP rod.