Recent content by mwilkes

Don't need DROs on a lathe, but I've just put some on my Taig and it's a lovely lovely thing - being able to measure along the lathe bed is especially useful.

I'd have a small spring-loaded platform, probably with a velvet cushion on it, above a rubber water reservoir of some sort and a couple of check valves. When Cat sits on the platform, water'd be forced through valve 1 up a tube where it'd trickle out into a collecting bowl. Cat may or may not...

A fellow HMEM member, Dave (a.k.a. deverett) pointed me in the direction of a local model show in Monagear (in Wicklow, Ireland) yesterday. Dave - I didn't get to see you at your stand (you were AWOL), but I loved your engines! Sorry if I've pipped you to the post with photos, but thought I'd...

Harry - thanks for the support. It's interesting you mention the chilling of castings. I'm trying to decide whether it's my fault or the castings' fault that I cannot, no matter what I do, machine the things! The plans ask for a 1/32 ridge in the centre of the eccentrics to act as a guide for...

I don't think describing something as an improvement counts as a whinge...

@gwr - yep - Definitely an improvement from the guernsey days, I think

Last week I discovered a nasty slag inclusion in the casting for an eccentric for a Twin Launch. I emailed Stuart Models and 2 days later I received two replacement castings free of charge. Thank you Stuart Models! (Andy Meakin in particular)

@George - thanks for the tip - I'll check the casting. Beautiful engine you have there! I notice your eccentrics don't have a ridge in the centre that the drawing suggest - having a flange on the outside looks much more sensible (and easier to machine!) - I might copy you...

Update: Stuart are going to send me a replacement and a spare free of charge. Andy Meakin seems to be a very decent chap...

Oh I didn't mean to cast negative aspersions on Stuart in particular - just castings in general. A poor choice of thread title...although as it happens I had problems with a 10V casting and some of the castings for the twin launch i'm working on look like the two halves were flung together in an...

Bloody great hole in my casting.... Reckon Stuarts would send me a replacement?

I actually made a decoder for the machine-dro sensors using Arduino for a different project (a guitar fretboard cutter) - so if anybody feels like rolling their own I can help out with code for a HTCL 2022 quadrature decoder chip - turned out to be pretty accurate :-)

Thanks for comments - I'll see how it goes without a cover first - I like (relatively) easy access to the gib adjusters, and it's easy enough to wipe the swarf off. Since it's magnetic tape anyway swarf'll just find its way under the cover and it'll be harder to clean out. It has already...

Turnip Twaddler is an excellent word - I shall save it for future use. I find that people who look at model engines and/or turnip twaddlers fall into two categories: the ones that say "wow", and the others that say "what does it do". The first bunch I like. The second lot I find very difficult...

I stuck strips of self-adhesive magnetic tape to the cross slide and the back of the lathe bed, then attached the sensors with fairly shoddy brackets... Tape was £5.63 inc VAT per 100mm from machine-dro Sensors were £138.85 inc VAT each. They do more expensive ones with a resolution of 1...