Love of lathes.

[Refugee]

I had to look even further back today.
It has two belts and the motor is a faster type than I have seen on lathes in the past with the speed selection done on the motor end.
It is a very curious belt set up indeed with the belt coming out at the front and over the head stock pulley.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Big Al, yes the bed is neatly scraped and is very original under the head-stock; a nice surprise.

I fully agree Alan D; I'd have loved to use my new toy the blaster on the bed to make a better and much easier job of removing the dirt and rust but I know if I did I would surely slip and blast one of the machined surfaces destroying its accuracy so suffer I must. Like you I've restored many things just for the fun of it; I've restored many vintage radios knowing full well that once restored I would lose interest in them; I even spent ages restoring a wreck of an AVO Wave Winder bringing it back to as new with no intention of ever using it to wind coils; there is so much satisfaction to be had in simply getting dirty in the workshop tinkering around.

Thanks Refugee; this non standard motor is pretty much what I would expect to find on a lathe it being roughly the same speed as a 4 pole; the lever at the end of the motor doesn't change speed at all but it does in fact change direction of rotation allowing the lathe to be reversed which is something I never do with a screwed mandrel nose; it's bad enough having a lump of timber become detached in a woodturning lathe but to have a heavy chuck or face-plate hurtle towards me at great speed isn't what I would call fun? Yes; this lathe is fitted with two flat drive belts; one from the motor to the counter-shaft and the other from the counter-shaft to the head-stock. I'll be able to explain more fully the belt arrangement later once I install the belts but for now a brief explanation. The motor drives the counter-shaft then the counter-shaft drives the mandrel through two pulleys per belt plus an additional idler pulley at the head-stock. The counter-shaft to mandrel is indeed strange in that the counter-shaft rotates pulling the front of the belt down from the mandrel pulley and over the idler pulley but this part is fully enclosed going through the inside of the head-stock casting; the belt then travels around the counter-shaft pulley going uphill to the mandrel but in so doing the belt goes through the rectangular opening to the rear base of the head-stock then to the mandrel pulley. The rectangular opening for the belt is actually located to the rear of the head-stock where it runs in the open but out of harms way regarding operator safety. As I say I'll expand on this belt arrangement once I can add accompanying images.

I've just had another wonderful session in the garage. As you rightly say Alan D it's nice to use a new toy; I know I've gone over the top in cleaning the idler pulley and pair of retaining collars but why have a beautiful fully restored Graduate lathe if I don't make excuses to use it; it was such a pleasure to mount the idler onto a wooden dummy mandrel in the Graduate and spin it at 1,500 rpm allowing me to use abrasive paper to polish it then I did exactly the same with each of the collars; I'm sure these items look a lot better than when I removed them from the Lorch. The idler shaft was not polished only washed with paraffin but the grease hole will get blown clear with the air line. Anyone owning a lathe will agree in that doing these small jobs is most rewarding; I also installed both new counter-shaft bearings into their housings so the housings can now be painted ready for when needed. All in all a lovely day tinkering around but I knocked off because my arms are aching so much from all the paint scraping.

Kind regards, Col.

           

[Retired]

Hi,

What a delightful morning I've just had in David's (Yorkie) company at Rufforth Auto Jumble near York. I was up by 5:30 am and at Rufforth for 7:30 am; when I arrived it was cold with frost and ice which had just about cleared by the time I met David at 9 o'clock.

When David arrived I had already been back to the car three times with goodies. I had taken a wish list along with me and priority was for items I needed to progress this Lorch restoration along. I had considered brush painting the Lorch using Paragon machinery enamel already having undercoat to hand but how much top coat would I need? With 1/2 litre costing around £21 because of the VAT and delivery being added this paint was not cheap and I'm fed up of brushing paint because it takes ages to do a first class job.

I visited the UPOL stall first and bought 5 litres of UPOL P88 cellulose primer surfacer plus 5 litres of decent quality universal thinner whilst there I also bought a pack of ten paint filters. Next I wandered around and bought the last 5 litre tin of Paramose paint stripper. More items were bought then I met up with David. I had been on the lookout for a tin of Gunk this is usually available in small tins but suddenly because I wanted some I couldn't find any but fortunately David spotted some 5 litre tins so I bought a tin.

Lots more goodies followed; one bargain was the 6 big rolls of paper towel at £7 which are ideal for garage use and at the same stall I bought a box of disposable gloves. David got caught out on a previous visit with this type of paper towel I believe David paid £12 then could have kicked himself shortly after seeing the towel much cheaper so it pays to wander round first to see what's on offer? We both bought small items like electrical connectors and soon I had most of my wish list much to my pleasure.

I had explained to David that the small HVLP Bergen spray gun I fancied at £15 was in fact a bit too small for my use and I already own a full sized HVLP (High volume low pressure) gun but that I was now looking for an LVLP (Low volume low pressure) spray gun but as yet not seen one? Once again as we wandered around David's keen eyes spotted just the gun for me; this being a full sized LVLP spray gun which was boxed with instructions and tools at £29:95 so I bought one without haggling.

I had been browsing YouTube interested in what was new on the paint spraying scene and I came across one of these LVLP guns being used. This particular Fast Mover gun only uses 4.5 cfm of air and is perfect for a novice because it doesn't put out as much paint as the more common guns so I am keen to try one out connected to my big compressor; I'm interested in cutting out as much fog as possible whilst paint spraying because this fog is wasted paint which is expensive and running at a much lower pressure is also a bonus; I'll report back once I've used this gun but first it will require completely stripping and washing off with thinners to de-grease it which should be done with all new spray guns.

All this sounds very expensive just to repaint a lathe but in fact the materials I have bought this morning will last for ages and buying like this in bulk works out much cheaper longer term with the benefit of having these materials in stock. I could have bought one of these spray guns at the same price through eBay but it was much more convenient to pick one up this morning.

I also bought two type "C" 32A circuit breakers for use in the garage; a while ago I installed a new garage two way consumer unit and although the incoming mains consumer unit used to trip occasionally with type "B" breakers installed as I powered up my big 3 phase transformer the new consumer unit was having non of it hence buying the type "C" breakers. The stall had a big box full of both types of breaker and at £1 each they were cheap.

As I say I enjoyed a wonderful morning with David and returned home around £140 lighter but got good value for the money and all bought in one location rather than trying to shop around wasting lots of time. I still need to buy top coat paint but I need to have this mixed so couldn't buy it at Rufforth; on the UPOL stall I noticed tins of "Candy" paint which I would like to experiment with sometime; this Lorch was considered for a candy finish?

I left Rufforth at 11 o'clock leaving David to wander round spending more money. On the way home I decided to take the M1 motorway for speed which was a big mistake when I hit miles of gridlock. Back home our TV had packed in and whilst at Rufforth I had tried five time to phone Bron with my little used mobile phone but without success although the number was ringing? Not only had the TV gone down but so had our land-line which is still down but I sorted the TV out without problem.

I'm now set up to de-grease the Lorch and bring it to the undercoated stage so I've got a job ahead of me which I'm looking forward to.

Kind regards, Col.

           

[AlanBeckett]

When I saw that last picture I thought you'd had a dodgy Curry

Alan

[Radio Fixer]

All good to get Colin. I like having stock as well. But I am a little wary of too many inflammable substances around the garage. I used to have 5L each of cellulose thinners, 5L of anti-chill thinners, 5L of IMS, and 5L of White Spirit. But I have run stock down as I'm doing less cabinet work. At the moment I have no thinners left at all but may need some for a cabinet when the weather warms up. I'm out of IMS and wont replace that and I'm buying, slightly more expensive smaller quantities of WS. I do have quite a number of 'rattle cans' of cellulose lacquer and paint.

I don't anticipate a fire but I wonder how you stand with your household insurance? Would large quantities of such easily ignited substances invalidate ? I assume there are regulations on storage and guess this would be in a fire proof steel cabinet that none of us nuts is going to have ?

Maybe I'm just getting more nervous with old age but what is the point of insurance, which if you have it proves you think you need it, if you then possibly invalidate it. No good saying I only had a bit of thinners in there, I'm sure the fire officers are good at the forensic.

Gary

[Yorkie]

I don't anticipate a fire but I wonder how you stand with your household insurance? Would large quantities of such easily ignited substances invalidate ? I assume there are regulations on storage and guess this would be in a fire proof steel cabinet that none of us nuts is going to have ?

Maybe I'm just getting more nervous with old age but what is the point of insurance, which if you have it proves you think you need it, if you then possibly invalidate it. No good saying I only had a bit of thinners in there, I'm sure the fire officers are good at the forensic.

Gary

Don't get Colin started on house insurance Gary - you'll wind him up even more than if you mention sport on TV!

I think Colin will confirm that he doesn't have it, having been messed about years ago when he tried to make a claim and the insurance Co. wriggled out of paying.

[camallison]

......... fire proof steel cabinet that none of us nuts is going to have ?

I keep my Creoseal and other paints that have high VOCs in an old metal coal bunker that I have re-erected in the garden, in a shady area. It cost me an hour work dismantling it and then transporting it back to the house, courtesy of Freecycle.

Colin

[Retired]

Hi,

I never do curry Big Al so no problem.

Thanks Gary for mentioning insurance which as David rightly points out I detest as much as football. If our bungalow caught fire and burnt to the ground I would do exactly the same as if I had insurance and sort it out myself or in my case ourselves because I can rely on Bron; all I can rely on insurance companies to do is to send their loss adjuster up to tell us to get lost the way they did when two ceilings fell in due to water ingress six weeks after Bron and I moved into our "dream" bungalow. I'm a non drinker but if the insurance company who ripped us off went belly up I would throw a street party to celebrate. Living with buckets and bowls catching rainwater and in winter melting snow for eighteen months has to be tried then perhaps others might share our views on insurance companies. Apart from the car the only insurance we have is on our rubbish central heating boiler through British Gas who honour their agreement. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the poor souls recently flooded are now having similar problems to Bron and me?

When I worked at Brook's the company invested heavily regarding safety and in No 4 department I would walk through to see the steel flameproof paint store with its doors wide open; says a lot for management in that department?

I'd like to store this kind of product in our shed located in the rear garden but if it caught fire we would also end up with a forest fire because the shed is located under large trees and laurels. I'm also very careful with oil soaked rags because these can self ignite if piled.

Best thing I can do is to get cracking and use this material?

A few months ago I bought my first and only mobile phone it being very cheap and basic; I bought it just so that I could let Bron know once a month when I was on my way home from Rufforth; what a waste of time this has been today; I didn't know I also needed to test our land-line before setting off; talk about bad luck for our land-line to be out of action whilst I was at Rufforth this morning and it still is out of action; I feel like giving both phones a decent burial; so much for modern technology?

Kind regards, Col.

[Refugee]

I don't insure appliances as they can be repaired. I have washing machine brushes in stock and even some gas boiler parts too. I never buy a fridge/freezer but always singles. When they are under warranty It takes days on end getting the shop to send an engineer. If I fix one of those it is a trip to the tip or chop the thing up and save the metal. The plastic fits in one black bag for disposal.

Don't worry about the gas as I had to learn about it back 30 years or more ago.
We had oil central heating and my parents had the servicing done by the same company that supplied the fuel.
We used to get dizzy in cold weather and one day it broke down and I got to have a look at the thing.
Once I had fitted the new part the fuel air mixture needed setting up as the setting parts had to come off during the repair.
I set this up from memory having seen the adverts from those little Colourtune kits in motoring magazines and that was that. I was expecting the thing to take about 40 minutes to heat up so that the thermostat clicked off.
Just under 20 minutes later it cut off and I was cursing the thing and wondering what the hell was wrong with it.
It was piping hot and the safety cut outs were all still set.
The second fault was buying the fuel and getting the servicing done by the same company.
It also fixed the dizzy cold weather too.
The fuel supplier contacted us asking whom was under cutting there fuel prices.
A new broom sweeps clean once a service contract is ended on one of those beasts.

The last repair I did was on the gas here.
It was green spot on the brass sensor tube that detects birds nests in the flue. The whole thing had to be stripped down to get to the faulty part and the new sensor switch ordered from E-bay remains in stock.

How did Colourtune work?

You watched burning fuel through a window (a clear glass spark plug) and the colour of the flame tells you what is burning in the combustion chamber.
The flame burns yellow as hydrocarbon fuel burns to carbon and carbon monoxide.
Then it burns blue from carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide.
Then it goes out with a splutter and a pop if there is too much air.
You get the extra energy from burning the carbon monoxide when it is set up correctly and this was the selling point of the kits. It made the car go faster and further on a tank of fuel.

Fixed boilers should all have a window to look into the combustion chamber and that is all I need now and all hydrocarbon fuels are basically the same when it comes to setting these critical adjustments up.
It gets fixed as fast as the E-bay seller can get the parts to me.

[Radio Fixer]

Whoops !! stay away from household insurance then. Just for the record, in all the years, we have had one successful claim and that was for a new lounge and dinning room carpet that got badly red wine stained. Of course the premiums went up the following year!
As said it would have been cheaper, adding up all the money we have paid in over decades, to have sorted it out ourselves. But I doubt I could persuade SWMBO to cancel it and she deals with all that stuff ... and I need a quite life

We don't take out any extra insurance on appliances.

I used to do boiler service and some repairs but now they have made it Gas Safe Engineer only I leave it to someone else. We have at last found an engineer who seems competent, fair and honest.

I remember the Colourtune device Refugge and very good it was to ... takes me back to days when cars were simple and I did it myself. But I wouldn't want one again.

Electricians having to be London Authority approved, with the power to do the work and also the inspection, seems unfair to the customer to me. It should be like building regulations really, else being ripped off is likely to happen. They all seem to be doing very well and the prices are high, for the time spent, compared to say a kitchen fitter. Recent experience would indicate by a factor of two ! Not certain yet as the job isn't completed but that's what it looks like. Yes! the fitter doesn't supply anything but had fantastic tools costing thousands.

Sorry to have included you with the "nuts" Colin 2, you have taken sensible precautions. No offence intended.

Gary