Recent content by wakeup

Taps and dies.....I always look for high speed steel with a ground thread. The ground thread bit is the important bit. In the workshop I have a few carbon steel taps with machined (milled?) flutes. Without exception they have large burrs which would completely stuff up any thread. Most of...

My dear old Dad was an engine fitter in the RAF during the war. He suggested a really soft pencil, something like a 2B or thereabouts, just rub the lead of the pencil up and down the thread, depositing a little bit of graphite, screw the plug in tight, slacken and nip up. It needs to be tight...

I don't have DROs on my machines. Yes I understand the value of DROs and its not the presence of a battery that stops me getting them. I'm also familiar with the PC battery. Several times at work, and a couple of times here at home the PC battery has died and required a panic to replace it...

Probably start a firestorm here, but I don't mean to. I must be seriously repressed because not only do I not like anything in the workshop with batteries, but I can't stand dial calipers. I much prefer plain old fashioned direct reading type instruments, even with my aging eyes. Since this...

When I did my apprenticeship the "sequence of accuracy" was (partly tongue in cheek, to make the point) 1/ Piece of string with knots in 2/ Wooden rule 3/ Steel Rule 4/ Vernier caliper 5/ Micrometer The rule of thumb was that checking was always done with the next highest in the sequence...

6060 is pretty much only good for window frames, sad to say. Recently I was trying to buy some 2024 T3 or better material for con rods. It was very expensive, as in not practical. Legend goes that 2024 is the preferred material because of its high temperature strength. So I did some...

Hi there, I've just signed on, thought I would introduce myself. I retired about 5 years ago, with a Sieg C3 lathe and Sieg X2 mill plus a 5m x 6m shed full of stuff. I used to design build and fly F1B model aeroplanes and make lots of metal bits for them. Although I would hate to think that...