SHED MATTERS 2

[Stanley]

The job is to make the new stop valve, clean all the other parts up and re-populate the periphery of the body. First job was to dig out some 3/8" stock.



Some time later.... The stop valve is made, the rest of the parts cleaned, new fibre washers fitted to the plugs, time for a bit of rebuilding.



All done, ready for rebuilding all the valves etc. but we were getting near knocking off time and I didn't want to get into that job today.



So I chucked the top casting up in the lathe, spun it up and polished it with emery cloth. That's better, ready for some parts cleaning and more rebuilding tomorrow.

[Stanley]

I realised yesterday that I am getting into trouble. The house is getting full of engines and things I have made in the shed... I had to have a reorganisation in the front room yesterday.

[Stanley]

Time to finish populating all those holes in the base casting! First job was to sort out the balls for the valves and clean the injector nozzles. Though the balls are discoloured they are all sound and unmarked. The only problem is that two of the smaller ones (the shiny ones) are undersized. I have little doubt that they would be OK but as I have the correct size to hand I have swapped them.



Once the valves were in place I addressed the caps for the valve chambers. The fibre washers are all in good nick but the caps were badly rusted so I spun them in the lathe and polished them.



The retaining clamps were all badly rusted so some more polishing and cleaning up on the grinding wheel. Here they are all in place doing their jobs....



I cleaned up the old sealing ring for the reservoir glass, it will be OK. New sealing rings for the sight glasses, the old ones were badly distorted and I had the right ones in stock. We're ready for fitting the top casting but before that can be done I have to clean up the retaining rods. That's going to be the first job for tomorrow.
We are getting very close!

[Stanley]

Before I started to clean and polish the parts I went through all the threads and made sure they were clean. 3'8"BSP again, Kirkhams only had one set of taps and dies!



The connecting rods for the top casting were very badly rusted so I popped them into the lathe and gave them a two thou skim and then polished the nuts.



I soon had the old gaskets replaced, the reservoir glass in the top casting nipped down. We are getting close!



The sight glass housings, top caps and guide wires and locking rings all had to be cleaned and the sight glass sealing washers installed. Ready for the final stage.....



What a good job I made some room in the museum! Another exhibit to keep clean. I don't mind actually, the lubricators make good ornaments....



Last job while I was in the front room was to get the sealing cord out for the doors on the Morso stove. That's the first job tomorrow. I didn't clean the lathe up but did get the rusty fine swarf off the slides so it wouldn't discolour the ways overnight....

[Stanley]

It's been a full and exciting morning! I started out with a simple task in mind... to replace the ceramic sealing cord on the door of the Morso stove... Apart from the mucky job of cleaning the inside of the door and the mounting groove in readiness for the adhesive for the cord I cleaned the cast iron rim on the opening into the stove upon which the cord seats.
At the same time as I was doing this I had some dried peas on the stove on a low light in the pressure cooker ready for making some pea soup. I heard the safety valve lift while I was cleaning the stove in the front room and came into the kitchen to turn the heat down further. What I found was not a pretty sight! The safety valve on the pressure cooker musty have stuck and when it lifted it blew off and covered the ceiling the wall, the floor and anything else within range with a sort of very dilute pea soup. It took me an hour and a half to clean up. The only good thing is that a lot of surfaces and equipment in the kitchen are cleaner than they were when I started!
In case you're wondering, yes I eventually got the door seal installed and the door refitted to the stove.

I finished the morning by cleaning the mantlepiece.....

[Stanley]

No specific project today so I started with a good deep clean. Things tend to get neglected in this area when you are pressing on with a job, particularly when you are cleaning up rusty parts in the lathe. The oxide dust gets everywhere!



Once I had things clean I wanted to put the milling vice back on the VM so it was ready for work. One thing that has been nattering me for a while is the fact that the nuts on my hold downs were slightly too thick and fouled the bottom side of the top slide on the vice if they were fully engaged in the slot. I've lived with this long enough! So I milled both nuts off so they clear easily. Big improvement! Funny how you can never take time to do little things like this when you are in full flow.



The next job was to do something about this back lit magnifier which can't be retracted properly because it fouls the new lamp I put up over the bench. I started off with the idea of remounting it lower down but as I took it off I had a rethink. Even in my worst days of not seeing properly I hardly ever used it, I relied on my Loupe and hand held magnifying glass.



So I decided to do without it and reduce clutter. I took it off and stowed it away in the old oak chest... Big improvement again!



So, at knocking off time I had a cleaner and tidier shed. Mick has mailed and I expect him and Sarah tomorrow morning. He'll be bringing the Adept shaper and some cylinder castings from John Mills so I shall have plenty to keep me occupied....

[Stanley]

There may not be a report from the shed today.... Mick has confirmed they will be here this morning. Tension mounts!

[Stanley]

Mick visited today and here are the castings John has sent me. Clean cylinder 3" X 1.5", valve chest and covers. I can see this growing into a small engine!



The Adept No 2 shaper.... I'm going to have some fun with this. Looks unused but needs a clean up. I only forgot one thing, the get a pic of him and Sarah!

[micktoon]

Hi Stanley, good to see you again and we both enjoyed your company as well as a brew. You will have fun with the shaper I am sure. The castings should keep you busy during the winter months too.
Thanks for the bits and bobs you gave me and John, I will keep my eyes open for tipped tools for you on my travels. We were on the way back and I said I bet you had forgot to take a photo, there is always next time.
Cheers Mick

[Stanley]

The visit was a delight. I shall strip the shaper and give it a good clean up and then decide where and how to mount it....

[Stanley]

I started at 8AM this morning by taking the work table off as this made it an easier lump to handle. Remembering my father's dictum, "If someone can put it together I can take it to pieces I got stuck in. I've seen nothing to change my earlier opinion, that it has had very little work but is generally dirty and rusty and what lubrication there is has gone sticky over the years. The aim isn't the Mick route to make it immaculate and as good as new (nowt wrong with that but it's not my way) it's to get it clean, properly adjusted with good clean plane surfaces on the slides. I'm not after a polish, just clean, bright and slightly oiled.



It didn't take long to get from to pieces as my kids used to say and I soon had it scattered all over the bench. I started cleaning, paying most attention to the slides. I wire brushed the outside of the castings (with a sharp wire brush) and found that under the dirt it had originally been painted a fetching shade of blue.



I paid most attention to the slides.



By knocking off time I had the body clean and I started to reassemble the cross slide while I could still remember the register marks I'd put on the lead nut! It's looking better already and I've adjusted the gibs on the slide so that it's free but firm on its ways. Good castings and nicely fitted in the first place with the minimum of fitting needed.
That's a good start, I'm pleased with it so far....

[Stanley]

Sorry lads, no shed yesterday, life got in the way but we're on track this morning!

[Stanley]

I'd almost finished cleaning the body when I left it two days ago, I started today by cleaning the back up and calling it finished.



Parked on the table of the HM. I think this is where it will eventually be mounted for use. Funny how the rust still shows up in the image, it's cleaner than that.



The next part I paid attention to is the table. First job was to draw file it with a good flat file to make sure it was smooth and level. It's not far off a plane surface which is good for an old casting like this.



This is the mating face that fits on the apron, same treatment, draw file and make sure it i
s clean and slightly polished.



Next for shaving was the arm that carries the cutter. Wire brush clean and polish the faces that need it.



This is the clapper box that carries the tool. I put the scriber under to show how it swings out of the cut on the back stroke.



This was closing time, the clapper box is clean, all I have to do now is polish the operating wheel and replace it.
Not the most exciting work but good solid stuff and I am getting a result.

[Stanley]

I know I said I wasn't trying to make the shaper look brand new but this operating handle was so rusted that the easiest way to clean it up was resurface it.



Looking OK!



Next job was to replace the clapper box on the shaper slide.



Then refit the shaper arm to the main castings. Clean the slides and gib plates, oil them and adjust until we had a free stroke but absolutely no side play on both the clapper box and the slide itself.



I fitted the operating handle and checked the slide for freedom of operation. Couldn't be better. Good firm fit with a bit of resistance but you could tell that was just the stiction of the fresh oil. Lovely.



Next thing was to fit the table to the apron and then mount it on the bed of the HM where it will get used. At the moment it's unbalanced and so the clamp was used to make it secure. This arrangement is going to work and it can be used even when the vice is on the table.



This is where it will live when it's not being used. It's finished now so I measured up for the plate I will have to make with bolt holes in the right position so that I can fasten it to the table.



Last job was to clean the lathe and then clean the surface plates, re-oil them and put a new tablecloth on the big one. Nice morning's work. The shaper is in lovely condition, equally as good as new. I reckon it was a bargain at £150! Where could you get another as good?

[chinatyke]

The shaper is in lovely condition, equally as good as new. I reckon it was a bargain at £150! Where could you get another as good?

But what does it do?

[PanBiker]

I was wondering the same thing, is it something like a more sophisticated pipe bender?

[Bodger]

Stanley, it would be a nice project to drive it with one of your steam engine ?

[Stanley]

The difference between the shaper and any other machine in the shed is that it acts in one plane with a reciprocating action and makes it possible to cut a plane surface in circumstances where it would be otherwise impossible in a lathe. By fitting a nose with a cutter it will act as a slotting machine and enable key-way cutting in bores. The same advantages that led to the invention of the planing machine in the mid 19th century which revolutionised machining plane surfaces.
The jobs you do with this are always small and doing them manually is acceptable. There are shapers that are driven by electric motor and they are good but too big for my shed....
I admit freely that this little machine is an indulgence and I shall enjoy playing with it. When that master machinist Johnny Pickles made the 1956 lathe he made many of the parts, particularly the saddle, using a shaper. The shaper was invariably used for making tapered keys and cotters.



Bob Fort cutting keys on a mechanical shaper at Brown and Pickles in 1979.

[PanBiker]

Cunning, I had visions of it being a manual metal bending gizmo, the name conjures up that to me, but I'm a Philistine where lathes are involved.

[Stanley]

It's a nice little addition to the shed Ian and as you say, a cunning invention!



Notice that Bob Fort is holding his workpiece in a small machine vice on the shaper. I need one for mine and I just happened to have this well made little vice sat on the shelf. I've never used it. It was dirty and rusty but has hardened jaws and was made over a hundred years ago under the trade name 'Mancuna' so almost certainly made in Manchester.... The nice thing is that the holes in the holding down lugs fit the slots in the table both ways....



The first thing was to take it from together.... Only one small thing missing, a small nut on one of the jaws....



1/4"BSF nuts aren't thick on the ground even in my shed and I thought I might have to make one but I looked in this treasure drawer... and found one! Boxes like this are worth their weight in gold at times....



One of the jobs during the general clean up was to draw file the base with a 14" flat file to make sure it was level. Old castings tend to warp a bit and this was no exception but twenty minutes careful work brought it to dead flat.



Sat on the surface plate to check it is flat and all the parts cleaned up and ready for reassembling.



It didn't take long to get it back together and apart from some chips on the edge of the jaw, as good as the day it came out of the shop that made it. That was enough for today because my engineer turned up to find the fault on my phone. Tomorrow I shall make two dedicated tee bolts and nuts for holding it down on the table. I have asked Terry Gissing to cut me a piece of steel plate to make the adapter for making it fit on the HM table....

[Stanley]

Today's job is to make two tee bolt holdfasts for mounting the vice on the table of the shaper. I have some already made but these two will be a permanent fixture and when you need them you are always short so two completely new ones made to accurately fit the slots on the table. I'm making them on the VM which is a pity because if the shaper was up and running this is an ideal little job for it.



I wanted to make sure they were a good fit in the slots which are in truth a bit rough because they haven't been machined inside, they are as cast.



Next job was to drill and tap two 3/'8" Whitworth holes in the tee bars. I'm using Whitworth because all the other nuts on the shaper are that thread. One spanner will fit all.



Once I had them made I tried them in all the slots. The vice will normally be at 90 degrees to this.



Once I had made sure they fitted and were the right length I loctited them in. I don't see how Truloc ever made any money out of this stuff, I've beeen using this bottle for years!



Close of play, perfect fit and this is how the vice will normally be mounted. It will hardly ever be taken off. I had a clean up and chip chase round the VM. Newton will be laughing at me somewhere....

[Stanley]

What I am dying to do is get the shaper fitted to the HM table and have a play with it but no word from Terry about my request for a piece of 10mm plate 12" X 8" so I went on to plan B. There's a corner of the shed above the space that I cleaned up and got the lubricators out of that has several interesting little bits and pieces on but they are not easy to get to and so don't get the attention they deserve. So I started by getting all the bits out and here are most of them on the bench while I clean the shelves. In case you're wondering why there are two identical machine vices I got them cheap for a job I had to do for an engine that depended on a piece of 1" bar being held at each end....



The first thing I did was clean up this handy little angle plate and put it near the VM. I tend to forget things like this when they can be the easiest way out of a machining problem.



This was my primary interest. See if you can work out what it is while I am rescuing it....



I needed to get three countersunk screws out of the back which were as fast as a thief! So out came this handy Sykes Pickavant impact driver which very seldom comes out to play but when it does its a godsend.



Almost in bits but I had a problem with a 1/4" nut on the end of the lead-screw. I tried heating it but it wouldn't shift.



Out came another old friend that can save the day when all else fails. The Sykes Pickavant nut splitter. It never fails....



No, I haven't started heat treating steel. I got it out when I noticed that some of the hardened pieces of the slides were blistered. This is because they have been case hardened and if you ever need to do some, have a word with me because I have a tin of Kasenit which is the powder you need.



All the parts cleaned and ready for lacing up.



Here we are, all cleaned up and the slides adjusted so they are tight but no shake. Have you worked out what it is? It's a handy little device for doing impossible machining jobs on the lathe. Sometimes you wanted to machine a face on something that was too big or too oddly shaped to get in the chuck. So you mounted whatever it was on the saddle or the bed of the lathe. Put the faceplate on and mount this on it so that the star wheel poked out just beyond the swing of the faceplate. Fit up a stop or short rod fixed to the lathe and arranged so that it hit the star wheel on each revolution. This turned the lead-screw a quarter of a turn and advanced the cutting tool fitted in the round hole on top of the block. To mount a bigger cutter you could use a tool holder in the tee slot. This star wheel drive was very common on old fashioned lathes. I should think this gadget is well over 100 years old....

Stop press. Just had a call from Gissings. The plate is cut and waiting for me to pick it up....



It was a nice afternoon so I walked down to get the plate. Friday is busy enough!

[Stanley]

Today's job is making a base plate for the shaper so it can be fastened down securely on the table of the horizontal mill. With hindsight, it's a good thing that I hadn't got the plate yesterday as that diverted me into cleaning up the shelves in the corner giving me more room. I needed it this morning because at one point I'll have two machine vices spare... Here we are, tidied up and ready to start. Notice that I've taken the slitting saw off the HM arbour. More room.



First job was to set the shaper up on its plate on the HM bed and mark the positions of the half inch slots for the hold fasts to the bed and the positions of the 1/4" holes for the studs whereby the shaper is fitted to the baseplate. That's light I know but is the size of the holes in the base casting of the shaper. It's an impressive lump when you see it like this. By the way, it's totally unbalanced and if you look carefully you'll see the orange top of the big Carver Clamp that's holding it in place.



I drilled 5.1mm tapping holes for 1/4"whit and the same size as pilot holes for the position of the 1/2" slots for the holdfasts holding the plate by hand under the pillar drill and then transferred the plate to the VM on a plywood spacer to give me some clearance. Then all I had to do was chain drill the slots and finish them with a 1/2" milling cutter. I know, these heroes on Youtube simply set something like this up and do heroic cuts on big mills with carbide tools and coolant but when you're working at the limits on a small mill like this you have to nibble!



Close of play. The slots just need cleaning up and the 1/4" Whitworth holes tapping. Knowing me you won't be surprised to hear I had a chip chase and left everything clean and tidy ready for finishing the plate tomorrow. Then I can start learning about shapers! I'm looking forward to it but I'm not going to start off half cocked. We'll have it mounted properly first.

[Stanley]

A bit of work with the big flat file to clean up the slots and the edges of the base plate and then tap the holes for the 1/4" studs that will hold the shaper on the pate.



Ready for the shaper!



The shaper in place and bolted down. I got the positions of the 1/4" studs a bit wrong. Not sure why but it was very difficult to get a direct fit. I bent the two back ones to get some sort of fit and I have to report the back of the base isn't dead tight on the base plate but it is solid and the slight cant makes no difference to the action of the shaper so I am living with it. Ready for a play with it. I have to sort cutter grinding out first.



My last job was a good clean up, all the swarf out into the bin and and a clean tablecloth on a freshly oiled surface plate.



Then Kev came for his self tappers so I got him to a pic of the Old Fart in his shed!

[Stanley]

I have to report that after a late night session, the Design Committee have told me that they can't accept my sloppy work on the studs that hold the shaper to the base plate. They have demanded that instead of indulging myself by playing with the shaper I rectify the situation and ensure that it is firmly held down flush with the plate with the studs fitted in the right position. I have to admit that they are right.... I shall put this right before I go any further!