SHED MATTERS. MARINE ENGINES.

[Stanley]

Kev. You may be grasping at straws. If you could see the inside of the flue I suspect you'd find the parging is shot all the way up. Give it a good hard sweep and wee what comes down. When deadly did mine there was lots of old mortar and bits of brick. Not surprising, they have been under attack for a long time. Your original plan of the full liner could be the cheapest and most efficient in the long run. I decided to mine because it was an unknown and by doing the full liner with vermiculite fill I could cross it off the list. I admit it was expensive, £1000, but my concern was as much about gas leakage into next door as into my cock loft. I told them what I was doing and they were happy with it.

[Big Kev]

I'll see how it develops. If I need to drop a liner in (best price so far is £15 a metre), once I've done the repointing, it will have cost me a fiver on a 25kg bag of ready mixed mortar.

[Stanley]

Good luck with it. Shed is suffering from neglect as Beevor weaves his spell over me.

[Big Kev]

Pointing is done and an extension added to the stove pipe. The smoke will now start further up the flue. Let's see if that cures the problem.

[Big Kev]

Pointing is done and an extension added to the stove pipe. The smoke will now start further up the flue. Let's see if that cures the problem.

and after 7 hours it appears to have worked, excellent.

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, looks like you have been in the shed as much as me lol I have a new job to do now as after fitting a new air filter to my landrover I have had a problem, the new Britpart filter was supplied in a cardboard box then inside the box it was inside a thin plastic bag unsealed with the filter inside. What I did not know was that in their wisdom they supply a rubber and a stainless steel washer to go under the wing nut that holds the filter into the housing, these were inside the filter I think wedged inside a tin rim it had around the bottom edge. Anyway the bottom line is I fitted it and drove say 20 miles then the washer has dislodged and been sucked into the turbo and wrecked it. I have to strip it tomorrow and see if I can find the rubber washer as no sign of it at the moment, I am going to contact Britpart but unlike theire nice glossy web pages all the info on them on Landrover forums suggests they are shower of S*** type of company to deal with complaints etc so not expecting much. Just a stupid way to supply and package an air filter, the oil filter had the washers sellotaped to the box lid, so why the hell they did not do that with the air filter I dont know.
Anyway what I was posting for was to ask you what work were you planning to do to the Ellen Road name plates ? , are you making more as they look sort of finished anyway ? Only thing I can think of is machining the top surface maybe ?

Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

Hard luck with the washer, it won't happen to you again.
Finishing name plates, bit more to it than just milling the top face....
Later, the shed got a knock-back when I realised I had a lot of colour slides to sort. There are some images Daniel wants for his book. Sorry lads, priorities!

[Stanley]

Reading is proving more attractive than the name plates!

[Stanley]

Small but vital improvement yesterday. Daughter Susan took number two engine to its new home in Earby. Worktop in kitchen is engine free for the first time in two years.
Yes, I know, time I got on with the nameplates......

[micktoon]

..................You said it Stanley ............

Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

Stop nagging! I took advantage of the fine weather and went out into the yard with the small angle grinder fitted with a flexible abrasive disc and started on the plates. The first thing was to clean up the outside edge which can't be milled with my equipment. A lot of brass dust later here's the result. The more attentive amongst you will have counted them and realised that my memory was at fault, I have four sets, not three. That's a bonus! Next job is to drill the holes for the fixings and then paint the rough background. I shall put three fixing holes in so that I can make sure the plates are flat on the miller bed. I remember when I made the plates for Ellenroad I got into trouble because like all castings that are thin in relation to overall size, they have warped slightly during cooling.
Now then Mick, what exactly are you doing in the Shed!

[Stanley]

Plates cleaned off and given a coat of black Hammerite gloss finish. House stunk of solvent all day even though the door was shut to the shed! Had a look this morning and they are dry enough for work on them.

[Stanley]

I finished early in the shed and thought I'd report to keep Mick quiet. Bit disappointing actually because I cocked up. First job was to drill the holes in the plates, I made them 3/8" because I had worked out how I was going about it.



Dead easy, the plates are fairly accurate castings so I set them up using the screw holes. First problem I hit was the fact that the bed isn't long enough to get enough travel to reach all of the plate. No matter, crack on and do what I could then address the un-milled bits afterwards. Big mistake! Once I started I realised that there was something wrong. Too late to go back I had to do the best I could. Problem was that I hadn't allowed for the metal pieces sinking into the soft wood blocks as I tightened them down. The result was that in effect I hadn't got the plate in a dead level and horizontal plane.



Here's how I finished up, I can rescue the plate, it isn't a total disaster but this is a cock-up and will take a lot of hand work to get it looking reasonable. That's why I decided to finish early, a bit of thinking is called for. The answer is obvious, what I should have done in the first place, clamp the plate flat on the bed so that the minor twists are taken out of it. Never mind, once more I have been honest, shown you the error and proved once again that I am a BUM FITTER!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, I have just checked to see if you had been up to more than me and you have ! The plates are bigger than I thought, once they are next to the miller you can tell the size. I like the look of them, what will you do with the finished plates ? will they be going on engines ?
Glad to see you are back in the shed anyway , I have been distracted this week as an old friend has been able to aquire all the mahogany fittings from an old pub that is getting stripped out , the bar tops and various bits of matching wood from around the pub, he is not in good enough health to be cutting and moving wood about so I have been doing the bits he can not manage. I will be back in the shed next week but more than likely to fix the Landrover rather than the lathe I am afraid but I will be back onto the lathe straight after that. The only other thing I have done in the shed is make a plaque for a friends 18th birthday, I have taken photos so will post in the wood work section tomorrow if I get time.
I hope you can make good the name plate by hand and you will have perfected your next attempt I am sure , looking good Stanley.
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

We'll see Mick. One thing is certain, we will have a fresh approach!

[Stanley]

Shopping and cooking got in the way yesterday but there is hope for today, despite the cold shed!

[Stanley]

I rescued the bum plate yesterday.



Some careful work with the angle grinder and a bit of hand work and all it needs now is to give it a second coat of black paint. Problem is of course that if it's mounted with one of the plates that have been done correctly it will stand out like a sore thumb. However, I had a bright idea. I have a grand daughter who has Alexandra as a given name so I shall give it to her. I also know another young lady called Victoria so she's going to get a surprise present!



The new set-up. I had to go round it a couple of times before I found the right milling depth but once I had it I locked the miller and I'll do all the plates at this setting on the periphery. The letters are proud so I'll do all them the same way for uniformity.



Here's the result. Even in the first stage I think you can see the difference. Right, all we need to do now is spend a while stood at the miller!

[Stanley]

Stood at the miller for a while yesterday making steady progress. At close of play all nameplates bar two got to this stage.

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, glad you managed to rescue the first plate , they are looking nice, I was looking at the Ellen Road website the other day, very impressive indeed. I went to Ryhope pumping station on Saturday as they had been running on steam, thats very impressive too.
Its hard to see how much depth you have from the top of the letters down to the screw holes but I was thinking could you do the tops with a fly cutter in one pass ? sort of like skimming a cylinder head. Those are lucky ladies getting name plates I just hope they appreciate them.
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

Newton always swore by fly-cutters but I've never got into them. Perhaps I should do that in future because of the better finish you get. I took a different route.



I bolted each plate down flat on the bench, fitted the softest flexible abrasive disc I had on the angle grinder and gave all the surfaces a very gentle wipe over, not to get them perfect but simply to get the milling marks and any other blemishes out. The dust is a bugger! Apart from making a mess it's very bad for you so keep drinking plenty of tea!



This is the stage the wipe over gets to. Lots to do yet, The edges of the letters need to be cleaned up, probably with a very fine stone on the Dremel mini-grinder.



Close of play. Seven plates got to the same stage, ready for doing the tiny flaws on the letters. I compared the Alexandra plate I did the other day and it wasn't up to the same standard so first thing today I'll give it the same treatment. Then I did a good clean up to get rid of the bulk of the dust and chips, can't be doing with that about!

[Stanley]

The scene of operations yesterday. Mostly hand sanding of grinding marks and cleaning the letter edges up with the Dremel mini-grinder. The dremel is hung on a chain with a spring at the top to take the weight, makes it easier to control. Nothing dramatic, just concentration on detail.



We're getting there!

The highest speed on the lathe isn't really fast enough for the buffing mop but it's better than nothing. Polishing with this will be the last phase. I'm not going for perfection, just a good clean finish. If I was really obsessive I could spend a day on each plate!

[Stanley]

Close of play, all plates rubbed down and four of them buffed. It was at this pont that a light bulb went on in my head!



The highest speed on the Harrison lathe is 750rpm. It dawned on me that on Johnny's lathe it was about 1200 and if I shifted the motor belt to the middle groove on the three step pulley I would be on about 2000rpm. So I shifted the belts and gave it a whirl. No problems at all, the lathe runs like silk, if anything better at the high speed and of course it was a far better job. So much so that I shall buff the four I did on the Harrison again. If I went to the next step on the motor I think I'd be over 3000rpm but I'm not greedy or stupid! Well done Johnny! Once again you have to admire the way he built the lathe to cover all eventualities. I'm very lucky to have it but the question is why didn't I think of this before?

I shall go AWOL for a couple of days while I het some articles written for the paper......

[micktoon]

Starting to look really good Stanley , the last few shot they are looking sharper and more finished looking. Good idea using the lathe on higher speed with the buffer , I bet your glad you did not think of it when just on the last plate . I hope your writing goes well and look forward to seeing the nameplates finished .
Cheers Mick.

[Stanley]

Thanks Mick. Yes, they keep getting better each pass. By the time I've finished they'll look as though some tenter has been polishing them for years! I'll make sure I put a date on them so that nobody will get confused! Two articles written yesterday, shopping and at least one more article today.

[Stanley]

Shopping, cooking and another article done yesterday so no shed. I am aiming for a spell of light buffing this morning before F1 at dinnertime.....