SHED MATTERS 2

[Stanley]

Here's a reminder of yesterday's pic of the drill sharpening jig that has been puzzling me for years.



Here it is after I had stripped it down, cleaned all the parts and re-assembled it. Can you spot the difference? It threw me at first because my rebuild was the only way it could be done so that the scale and the register mark on the head lined up.



So I did a bit of testing. Ignore the clamp, it's only there to hold the drill in place. The square proves that this orientation is correct, if the supporting arm is in this position the cutting edge of the drill lines up perfectly with what would be the surface of the grinding wheel. No wonder I had never been able to work out how exactly it was used, it had been re-assembled wrongly at some time. If you look carefully you can see the scale for different sizes matching the register mark perfectly. Assembled the other way they don't match. Another thing I have realised is that there is a part missing, There should be an insert with a centre point on it in the bracket at the tang end of the drill. The knurled knob on the extreme end is the fine adjustment. I shall make a replacement tomorrow and do some thinking about how I can mount it and whether this is even possible on this grinder. It may need a dedicated grinder or perhaps be mounted on the T&C grinder.... Thinking cap on!

[Stanley]

I've been puzzling over how to mount the jig... At first I was looking for a way to mount it on the original mount because that made it easy. All I had to do was make sure the bar was at right angles to the face of the wheel. But then it struck me that another way could be to do away with the original mount and just use the post. I'll sort the angle out when I come to it.



The first thing to do was make sure there was enough room for it on the side of the grinder. I cleared everything out and had a good clean up, it's a dirty corner because of the grinding dust.



You ought to know me by now, when I start cleaning I can't stop! I ended up chucking an old piece of carpet out and cleaning the floor. That led to the area round the pillar drill and so that got a good clean out as well. (No, I didn't find that 29/64" drill I lost in this corner!) Big does and little does I finished up with everything clean and tidy and got back to the job in hand.



This is all the stuff I had shifted out of the corner. It all had to cleaned up as well! (If anyone is wondering what the grey pancake is, it's a block of lead I use as backing when using hole punches or anything with a delicate edge. When it gets marked badly I just re-melt it and cast it again.)



It begins to look as though I will be using the left side of the grinder for the drills so I had to take the side guard off. One of the holding screws was at the back against the wall. This little angled screwdriver is one of those strange tools that only occasionally come under starter's orders. Just the thing and no problem getting the screw out!



It didn't take long to turn a piece of 7mm silver steel rod down to 1/4", cut it to length, put a 60degree point on it and harden it.



I tried it out with a drill mounted in it and it's fine, everything lines up. Evidently when you use the jig you have to hold the drill down against the backing and the stops by hand.



This shows the offset the mounting post will have to have to get the correct angle between the cutting edge of the drill and the face of the wheel.



Out with the protractor and a bit of careful measuring, the angle is 15degrees. This is tomorrows job, make a final decision about where it is to go and make a mounting block that caters for this angle....
Satisfying morning, good work and a clean shed. By the way, offsetting the top side to cut the right angle on the tip of the silver steel was easy, I could see the graduations clearly.... What a difference!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, looks like you have a nice drill sharpening jig there with sheds you never seem to find a situation when there
This project looks like time well spent to me.
I went to Pickering stean rally with John on Friday and had grand time, the best bit was a road run into Pickering for fish and chips in a Sentinel steam waggon, check it out here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3LNNwSx6M

cheers Mick

[Stanley]

I think it will be OK Mick, very old and very well made.... No maker's marks on it but I'm sure it was made by hand but commercially. I've bookmarked the rally...I 'll look at it later.



I've settled on how I am going to mount the jig. What I need now is a substantial bit of stock to make a base out of. If you think you recognise this, you're right. It's the fag end of what I used to make the pedestal mounting blocks and this is the dodgiest piece, laminated on one side.... First job is to get it clean and square....



This is how bad the worst side is....



While I was working on the slab in the mill my mind was wandering around where to mount the jig. I'd abandoned the right hand side of the grinder because there wasn't enough room and it suddenly occurred to me that I'd missed the obvious answer. Shift the two surface plates to the right! I did it and lo and behold, plenty of room. Isn't it funny how we miss seeing things that are staring us in the face..... Plenty of room now! Box on....



I've got the block square, all I have to do is attack the bad face. I don't want it perfect, just flat and square. It will be at the bottom.



A couple of passes and it's flat, that's all I want.



I've finished with this cutter for a while and the edge has taken a beating from the scale so I sharpened it....



The next job was to set the angle vice up and set it to 15 degrees. Then the usual progression of centre drill, a pilot hole and the finished 5/8" bore for the mounting pin.



When I'd bored it and broken all the edges I set the block and the jig up in the vice and checked the angle. I think I have got it just right! That was it for today. Tomorrow I'll drill the block for the holding down screws and try the jig out.....

[Stanley]

Mick, just watched the Sentinel film. That lad knows how to handle the beast! I like the fact it isn't all polished up, just working as it should. I notice you managed to get the cushy job and left John to do the firebeating.... Nicely done....

[Stanley]

I had mail from Mick this morning, with a bit of luck his mate Tom will be dropping the shaper and the castings from John in on Sunday.... He says he suspects that Elfin Safety wouldn't have been impressed by their ride...
When I was with John at REW I helped to make a completely new boiler for a Sentinel starting from cutting and rolling the boiler quality plate right up to testing. I can tell you that they are an extremely well-built boiler! It runs in my mind that the plate was 3/4".
We had one small hitch during the building. To get full certification the boiler had to be viewed at intervals during the build by the insurance surveyor. They sent a young lad and he was aghast at the fact that the joint in the rolled shell wasn't welded. It was built as original with a connecting plate front and back, double riveted. He insisted the joint should be welded and in addition the edges of the straps sealed with welds as well. John refused on the grounds that this would make the joint weaker as it would be too stiff and because it couldn't breathe as the designers intended it would induce expansion and contraction stresses in the adjoining plate which eventually would lead to grooving and possible failure. In the end the insurance sent a more experienced man and he passed the construction with no reservations.
I did the final drybolic test on the boiler, memory tells me it had to be taken up to 525psi, a very high value. There was one tiny weep on a rivet but the surveyor passed it because that would soon dry up as it sealed with scale. The old boiler maker I was working with said that if necessary he could have cured the weep by putting some sal ammoniac (The old name for ammonium chloride) in the water and letting it corrode for a few days but he knew it wasn't necessary. He also told me that the old blokes got the same result by peeing in the first fill but that wasn't as strong and took longer.

[Stanley]

I knew I was a bit short of room for the big drill sharpening jig so I moved the base plate of the small one about 1/2" to give me some wriggle room.



I drilled the plate for the mounting screws, countersunk the holes and fixed it in place.



The jig mounts in the right place but I'm not quite satisfied... I want it to have a bit more support than just the thickness of the plate. I'll address that tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

I was delayed a bit this morning by an overwhelming urge to paint the shed in the backyard! Now I can see better it was a constant reproach. The shed itself is in bad condition, I got it for nothing and it is rotten at the bottom but despite that it still stands, is watertight, surprisingly dry inside and a very useful bit of storage room for some less sensitive items. So I used up the remains of the floor paint on it.



As I said yesterday, I wanted a bit more support for the mounting of the jig. I found a stub of 1" bar, faced it and then broke the tip off my centre drill in it! Most unusual.... I didn't try to retrieve the situation, it wasn't worth it. I ditched it in the scrap bin outside and started with a fresh bit of stock. No problem and I soon had it faced and bored out 1/2". The target is .653".



When I had bored it deep enough I cut off the 1 1/2" piece I wanted in Mrs McMaster. So quick to set up and cut it. What a difference! The smoke is from the cutting oil on the blade....



I bored the bush to finish size....



Just the ticket!



Close of play. I've put a bevel on the top end of the bush, the bottom end needs to be ground to the angle to suit the plate before welding. That's for tomorrow....

[micktoon]

Morning Stanley, I got your E mail ref shaper, hopefully someone will be passing one direction or the other but its safe in the meanwhile.
Looks like Mrs Mcmaster is having a useful life now . The drill sharpening jig will be handy too, you shouldfind the welding easier to do now you can see more clearly.
Keep up the good work, Cheers Mick

[Stanley]

Don't be too sure about the welding, I think I need one of those electronic screens... Mine is like looking through a dense fog!

I started the morning with a lot of little jobs that needed doing. Cleaning two fluorescent fittings up and getting them put away safely indoors, washing my soft toys and making sure I hadn't got any timber about that would do for the back gate repair I have in mind. I finally got my act together...



But then got diverted again. Remember the ICI flask? It bothers me that it is sat around with some volatile liquid still in it so this morning I set it up in the vice. The clamp is holding a small nut against the valve to keep it open and the gas is slowly leaking out to atmosphere. There's a wind blowing so I think we are fairly safe whatever is in it! All I can say is that it's colourless, odourless and invisible....



Then I got down to my onions.... I got it welded on and cleaned the screw holes up then replaced it on the grinder base.



Lousy weld but a proper job! I can make sure all my big drills are sharp now, there's a morning's work in itself!

[Stanley]

You can tell something different is afoot! Different set of tools altogether.



Bad case of excessive contrast here but the job was to break the old rotten battens off, free the strap hinge and attack it with a hammer and then the grinder to get most of the rust off it. This hinge is probably original, blacksmith made out of wrought iron and about 150 years old... Still a good hinge!



Getting on, it was important that the hinge goes back in the same position.



The repairs are done. Two new battens screwed on and the top one held by the hinge as well. You'd be amazed how heavy this gate is! I used two inch 12s screws and they stuck out on the face of the gate so I ground them all back. One now bolt in the hinge, the most important one next to the pin.



I found my old tin of Buckingham Green paint and there was just enough to give both sides of the gate a good coat. I'd taken the brass numbers off and polished them. It's a gentleman's gate again!



The inside of the gate looks just as good and I got the hinge right, it swings well and the latch works nicely just as before. The gate is hung so that it automatically closes, the only gate in the back street that does!
I like that, it's been nattering me. Ready for winter now. It's still an old gate with a rotten patch here and there but overall it's sound and should last another ten years. Should I be worrying about the replacement?

[Tripps]

That's exactly how I made a back garden gate at my previous house. I was very proud of it.

Uncle Jim ( a time served joiner), came - smiled - and kindly told me the cross brace should be the opposite way round. I checked today, and it seems that theoretically he was right.

gate cross brace

I of course did nothing about the problem, and the gate was fine.

[Stanley]

Your uncle was right David. I knew that and put the cross brace the right way round on all the large field gates I have made over the years but the orientation of this one follows the original because that way it covers a small rotten patch in the vertical board at the bottom of the brace. It will never sag..... The gate has now had all its elements replaced apart form the central vertical boards and the hinges and apart from that one small patch of rot is as good as it was when new which could well be 150 years ago, all the evidence points that way (You'd be amazed how heavy it is). It could well last me out......

[Stanley]

Plenty of drills to go at....



I started by getting the unusual ones out. These are the drills you care for for years and never use them but if you do need one, they are a life saver. I cleaned all the taper shanks up in the lathe but none of them need sharpening. Too long for the jig anyway. I soon got fed up with that occupation.... dirty and repetitious. I had a good look through the other drills and decided I was just manufacturing work. These drill have all been sharpened by hand and none of the angles are exactly right. Despite that they are good sharp drills. I didn't see a lot of point regrinding them all to the same angle, I can do that as they need re-sharpening. So I copped out, knocked off early and went to make the bed ready for a sleep......

[Stanley]

First job today was to get clean and tidy. My Harrison lathe was a disgrace, not just chips but dust from cleaning those taper shanks yesterday so the first job was a good clean and then I stripped the chuck, it was stiff from the muck inside it. Then I decided to vacuum the carpet but my old upright cleaner wasn't doing it's job correctly so I upended it and had a furtle. The belt driving the brush had come off so I fixed that and got the carpets clean....



That's better, cleaner than they have been for a long time. God knows how long the belt has been off!



The next job was to solve the problem of the ICI copper flask. Nobody has come forward saying that they want it and it's under the feet so I wanted to scrap it but couldn't put it in John's non-ferocious bin with pressure still inside it. I got rid of the remains of the gas and couldn't unscrew the valve assembly so I just cut it off. Sorry Tiz but it's safe now and in the scrap....



You might wonder what's going on here.... Well, it all started because I want to refurbish the two Kirkham's high pressure steam cylinder lubricators you can see on the left. John gave them to me when they were closing down. These lubricators were the industry standard, every engine I have run had at least one and I have the spare volute springs and balls for the valves in the bottom as well as spare glasses for them.
They have been living for 15 years in the no man's land to the right of the HM getting covered with chips. They were dirty when they first went in there! To get them out I had to shift a lot of other stuff and decided to get the lot out and vacuum the floor. It was then I realised that Henry, the shop vac had a stoppage in his flexible pipe. It took a bit of finding and getting out but eventually I had Henry cleared out and working well. By the time I had vacuumed the floor in the corner it was knocking off time. Good job too, I was knackered with all that reaching and bending! Good exercise I know but enough is enough! I'll clean this lot up and get most of it put away tomorrow and then attack the lubricators....

[Stanley]

I can tell I had a hard day yesterday but nothing serious. Good exercise this cleaning up!
Mick and I are working on the shaper problem.... What a good man!

[Stanley]

This morning's main job was to get these two lubricators clean enough to work on. At the moment they are a disgrace! Nice to have a 'dirty bench' outside in the yard and have a fair morning....



A while later, one lubricator has a relatively clean face and the drybolic jack (By Eversure of Birmingham) and greasegun are cleaned up and ready to be put away tidily.



Here's the second one, it's had a harder life, all the sight glasses are missing and it's in a bit of a mess! The label reads; '26/12/57. NCB. Stainforth.' That must have been where it was originally, almost certainly on a winding engine.



Because the sight glasses were missing it was easier to take these top fittings off to clean them. Note the wire that goes down the inside of the glass. The individual drops follow this wire when they rise through the glass and don't get on the glass. The glasses were filled with distilled water during normal use.



By 10AM it had just started to rain but I was finished outside. Can you see the difference? These are clean enough to work on now.



The forbidden zone next to the HM is a relatively tidy space now. A big improvement!



Knocking off time. It's been a productive couple of days, a lot of crap cleaned up and tidied. I have all the spares for the two lubricators, only a couple of bits to make. By the way, both these lubricators are top of the range have four separate feeds.... We can start stripping down tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

All ready to start stripping down, I'm going to do the worst one first...



Getting the top off after dismantling the top fittings for the sight glasses was the easy bit..... You get your first sight of the system of cams in the base which drive the four individual pumps.



First job was to withdraw the drive shaft after removing the gland it passes through.



A bit later and I have all the valves stripped down and two of the pump mechanisms removed. The pumps are retained by a small collar on the end of the rod with a taper pin i9n. These were never intended to be easily stripped and the two left in are as fast as a thief. The springs are in good nick so no need to risk doing any damage trying to knock the pins out.



I decided to get the reservoir glass clean and left it safe in the kitchen. No problem if one is cracked I have spares! But this one is in good nick.



All the seats where packings have to fit cleaned off. The rest of the base casting cleaned but no attempt made to polish it, this is a working lubricator not an ornament!



I turned it upside down and cleaned the base off. Then I blew all the passages through with compressed air. The base is a labyrinth of drillings and passages and you can gain access by removing the bolts and splitting the casting but no way am I going to do that because there is no need.



Then I mounted the top in the lathe, this will be easier to clean up!
Tomorrow I shall start on the tedious job of cleaning all the parts before re-assembly. The valves are all in good condition (there are two stainless steel balls in each of them, one for inlet and the other for delivery.) There is also one plug missing so I shall have to make that.
One peculiarity, I haven't measured the threads yet but I suspect they will all be either 26tpi brass thread or BSP.

[Stanley]

I may be AWOL today, or at least severely curtailed as I have an eye appointment at 09:10 for retinoscopy at the Butts Clinic.... I shall be back!

[Stanley]

Managed an hour in the shed this morning. First job was to spin the top plate up in the lathe and clean with 000 wire wool. I'm not after a polish , just bright and clean.



Gave the bottom plate the same treatment and blew all the passages out again with compressed air.



Then on to the tedious job of cleaning all the individual parts and repairing where necessary.



The lathe was my best friend here....



Close of play. A good start.

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, by god you have been a busy lad , looks like you have found another worthy project to keep you busy anyway and coming on well too. They look quite complicated items and obviously made when things were made properly too.

I have just been busy with this that and the other past few days so not been on the computer.

Cheers Mick

[Stanley]

It's a pleasure to work on them, proper engineering, no plastic in sight! When they are done they look beautiful....
Nothing to get under the feet today so I shall be making progress but I admit this stage of clean and repair gets a bit tedious....



Bancroft was a two feed, these are the top of the range, 4 feeds.....

[Stanley]

Carrying on getting the parts ready to assemble again. My biggest friend today is my old trick of sharpening the wire brush. Works like magic! All the tommy bar holes (and there are a lot of them!) cleaned out with a 5/32" drill.



Some time later.... We have the first bunch of clean parts. On to the next bowl which has the smaller bits in it....



Even later... I have all these parts clean, threads and nuts running freely. The two spindles on the right need a bit more attention, taper pins broken in and one collar missing.



Pins out with no damage and two taper pins ready for re-assembly.



By knocking off time I had the nuts freed, the threads clean, the spindles polished where necessary and what I need to do first thing tomorrow is make a new collar and fit it.We're making progress!
By the way, some of the balls for the valves are missing and a couple of springs but no matter, I have the spares....

[Stanley]

The day started well, I needed to make a small collar for the end of one of the pump rods because it was AWOL.



I soon had that done....



And cut the taper pins back for when they are driven home during installation.



A rare glimpse into one of the treasure chests. This is all lubricator related gear.



I gathered most of the Kirkham related stuff together... My main job now was to make sure I had 4 sight glasses ready.



I found my glass tube cutter and soon had a good line scribed around the tube....



Here was the result..... I needed a rethink!



I found another glass cutter but then decided to look on Youtube to see if there were any hints. I've got a couple of ideas and I'll gave it another crack tomorrow.

[Tizer]

Sorry Stanley, I can't help. I don't have much experience of glass cutting. By my time, most of the apparatus was purchased ready made and much of it was plastic, not glass. Also I've never cut glass tube of such a wide diameter, and it looks thick glass too. Good luck, the Web's your best bet for advice.