Recent content by small.planes

It was a couple of wheels for a freestyle traction engine. I made the pattern from plastic, about 2" diameter and around 1/2" thick roughly. I then 'invested' it in a ramakin made of Pyrex ( dont tell swmbo where that dissappeared to) IIRC, and its about 7 or 8 years ago, I did up to a parting...

Nice. Keep us informed. I have done some aluminium casting using Wickes one coat patching plaster, that might be a viable way to lost wax cast. Dave

Cylinder out of either Alluminium or Brass (Messing), Piston from Cast Iron (Gusseisen - should have the B double s, but Ive not got it on the keyboard...) or Bronze, probably a leaded bronze. There is an easily translated parts/materials list at the end of the PDF (pg 7) hth Dave

Try MSC J and L Industrial. http://www.mscjlindustrial.co.uk/CGI/INPDFF?PMCTLG=00&PMPAGE=343&PMITEM=IGT-10010H Phone them and tell them its to much, and you want some discount. They normally knock some off straight away :) hth Dave

You need a pair of pin spanners, wich looks like an er collet spanner, but the hook is a pin not a hook. Might also be know as C spanners Dave

I suspect it will work harden as bad as normal stainless, its composition is 0.33%C; 16% Chromium: 0.5% Nickel, and with 0.05% sulphur for easier machining! I used plenty of sulphated cutting oil, and the power feed, so just a steady cut, and no rubbing, which AFAIK is how to deal with...

Quick tip for squaring a Vice: Get a long piece of straight bar, needs to hang each side of the vice by a reasonable amount (must be straight, but round or square makes no difference), clamp it in the vice so its level and then eyeball the bar and the T slots / edge of the table. I can plonk my...

Evening, First post here, so I thought Id make it a useful tool thingy :) It a block that replaces the top slide from my Harrison L5. I dont use the topslide much, and removing a slide should help with the rigidity. Its been sat clamped to my mill table (Love having a big mill, can leave...