Matt's projects

[Fretters]

Thought I'd start a single thread for everything rather than keeping track of multiple. With the way I tend to switch between things at any given time, makes it easier for updating too.

Finally got off my **** and ventured out to pick this machine up the other day. The truck seems to have been laid up more than its been running the last year or so, so whilst everything is working peachy on it, I went down South to collect this.

It's another Drummond dual height bed 5" lathe. This one has been pulled from a shed which slowly collapsed around it, hence the current condition. It's been owned, but unused, by the same chap for the last forty years or so, which is whom I got it from. It's not going to be getting done any time soon, I'd guess, as I still have the other 5" to complete, but at least I have it here and out of the elements now. It has a 14" faceplate and 9" 3 jaw chuck with it. Appears to date around 1913/1914, as close as I can tell.

There's a slight chunk missing out of the bottom of the bed, where one of the bolt holes for the tailstock end leg is, the tailstock end leadscrew bracket has been replaced with a rough cut replacement, and the tailstock is from a later machine, (judging from how many mismatched part machines there appear due to the Ministry packing and shipping their machines, this might suggest it saw active use during WWI on one of their mobile workshops or the like, but without a plate on there, it's impossible to say for definite), but other than that it seems to be in generally sound condition underneath the rust. No flywheel or treadle though.

Finally finished painting the legs/plinth for the other 5" too.

Other than needing the paint excess scraping off the machined surfaces, they're done. Just need to finish painting all of the other bits in the darker green now. Stripping perfectly good paint due to a colour mismatch is not my first choice of getting my jollies, but it was the only way to prevent everything looking a bit of a dog. I'll definitely make sure never to split a job across tins again though.

This was the mismatch between the old and new paint.

If it wasn't for the fact that the newer, darker shade of paint is how I expect Mid Brunswick to look, I'd have taken the paint back and got it sorted. I always thought that first tin was too light in shade though, so I've stuck with the phaffy, lengthy approach, but at least will end up with a colour I prefer.

 

[healing]

Good thing your steering wheel is on the wrong side or it might not of fit in there.

 

[foghorn1966]

Fretters, I'm going to de-rail your thread.... What is the deal with that switchpanel in your truck? Cool lathe find.

 

[Fretters]

Fretters, I'm going to de-rail your thread.... What is the deal with that switchpanel in your truck?

I like toggle switches. Figured that I could fit eighteen toggles on a panel where the radio bay is, so I did. Some are in use, some are spare as yet. Two are for rear facing lights, (clear and fog), one enables the turbo fuelling circuitry, two are for the electric rad fan modification I made, (removed the viscous fan), one turns on the auxillary rad fan, one is for the dash gauges etc. No real need for all of those switches, but I just think toggle switches look ****.

 

[drivesitfar]

Fretters:I almost missed this thread with the name change, but happy to see you started one with all those awesome projects you seem to do.

interesting car/truck you have there and I'm betting it was squeaking a bit driving down the highway. you might have to make one of those toggle switches to kick in the hydraulics for the heavy duty shocks.

reminded me of driving 6 hours to a client's gym a few years ago that told me he had 1000 pounds of olympic weight plates for a gym i need some for and when i arrived at his gym he said he found some more and had 3000 pounds. he said he'd give me a screaming deal if i took them that day so i put all 3000 pounds in my little 98 Honda CRV and had to rearrange the load a few times to keep it off the tires for the drive home. I've since bought a trailer hitch and a little trailer for just these kinds of deals for the same car.

I'll keep watching this thread to learn some new stuff and help if i might happen to have an answer you might need that i know.

good luck

 

[bonneyman]

I like toggle switches. Figured that I could fit eighteen toggles on a panel where the radio bay is, so I did. Some are in use, some are spare as yet. Two are for rear facing lights, (clear and fog), one enables the turbo fuelling circuitry, two are for the electric rad fan modification I made, (removed the viscous fan), one turns on the auxillary rad fan, one is for the dash gauges etc. No real need for all of those switches, but I just think toggle switches look ****.

Cool!

 

[Fretters]

Good thing your steering wheel is on the wrong side or it might not of fit in there.

Aye, we drive on the correct side of the road over here.

interesting car/truck you have there and I'm betting it was squeaking a bit driving down the highway. you might have to make one of those toggle switches to kick in the hydraulics for the heavy duty shocks.

One of the first things I did when I got her a few years ago was to uprate the shocks and rear springs. She can take quite a notable amount of weight without breaking a sweat now, which is fortunate, with the amount of things I've inflicted on her to carry.

reminded me of driving 6 hours to a client's gym a few years ago that told me he had 1000 pounds of olympic weight plates for a gym i need some for and when i arrived at his gym he said he found some more and had 3000 pounds. he said he'd give me a screaming deal if i took them that day so i put all 3000 pounds in my little 98 Honda CRV and had to rearrange the load a few times to keep it off the tires for the drive home. I've since bought a trailer hitch and a little trailer for just these kinds of deals for the same car.

It's no fun when they're on the arches, is it. You don't have much choice with deals like that though.

 

[Fretters]

Added another 5" Drummond to the collection today. This is to take the place of the IXL/Ehrlich, which was a machine I bought simply expecting it wouldn't need much work to get it running. The IXL is almost there, but another Drummond came up fairly local which is pretty much rust free and shouldn't need too much work, so I decided to bite the bullet and get that and let the IXL go. If I manage to sell the IXL, that'll make the workshop lathes exclusively Drummond. This is a shot of the latest, and oldest, 5".

Copious amounts of grease and swarf need cleaning off, and it does need some work, but it shouldn't take too much to get this running in basic form. The work it needs can be done later on without impacting basic use. This one is one of the original design 5" machines, probably 1912 or 1913.

 

[Fretters]

I thought I'd start whacking the vice progress photo's in here rather than keep cluttering the vice thread further. I'll just pop before and final photo's in there from now on. So, just to play catch up in this thread, the Parkinson wood vice.


Before.

Derusted.

Oiled with raw Linseed oil cut with Gum, (pure), Turpentine.

Current state.

 

[Jarhead0408]

Very cool man! Keep up the good work!

 

[Fretters]

Swindens 4". Dated 1944 with a crows foot, (arrow), so probably REME.

Before.

Jaw inserts, leadscrew nut and rear jaw retaining collar.

Base/body.

The slide/jaw assemblies.

Jaws and body derusted.

Leadscrew retainer collar screw heads centre punched and drilled out so that the collar and rusted solid screws could be removed.

Collar off and leascrew out.

The leadscrew nut fitted. It's simply an interference fit into the rectangular slot in the rear jaw body.

Current state.

Made new screws from some old brass woodscrews for the rear jaw assembly retaining collar.

 

[joshs74nova]

I think we also need some pictures of that 4runner setup you have. It looks a bit different for sure. I have a soft spot for the 1st and 2nd generation 4runners.

 

[Fretters]

I think we also need some pictures of that 4runner setup you have. It looks a bit different for sure. I have a soft spot for the 1st and 2nd generation 4runners.

I'll dig some photo's of it out.

 

[Fretters]

Some of the non standard additions to the Surf.

Bleed and fill valve for the coolant system, fitted next to the heater valve on the bulkhead. Never actually needed to use these though as yet. I'm usually super slow on refilling coolant, so never tend to have problems with airlocks. They're there if needed though.

Gauges and partial switch panel shot. The third gauge hole has a vacuum gauge shoved in there now. More to fill the hole than for actual use.

This is the basis of what became the electric rad fan conversion. That was just some random GM aluminium fan shroud I found at the scrapyard, so it all got designed around that.

Extended it with threaded rod sleeved with tube for strength to get it to fit the rad. Angle iron used as the bracketry. Pretty much any bog standard Bosch auto fan motor will fit it.

Not much clearance from the waterpump once fitted.

It's now painted Hammerite copper, hammered finish. Don't ask why, I just had the urge one day.

This is a little pressure limiting chamber I fitted in the turbo circuit, before the pressure sensor.

The end with the blue line has a little copper disc internally, with something like a 1mm or so hole in it. Simple reason for that is that the pressure line now runs through a VSV so that the turbo extra fuelling mode can be enabled/disabled by disconnecting the pressure line from the boost sensor. That expansion cylinder is just to prevent a sudden blast of pressure hitting the boost sensor when the VSV is operated. I'll post a photo of the VSV setup and location when I can find them.


Side exit stainless exhaust.

Subtle in appearance dampers.

What can I say. White just seemed so dull.

I'll post more as I dig the photo's out.

 

[Fretters]

Very cool man! Keep up the good work!

Cheers.

 

[Fretters]

The infamous 18 toggle switches where the radio bay is.

Surpassed only by the rear relay panel in the 'Billy No Mates' stakes.

What used to be the glovebox.

This is the VSV which controls the turbo/boost circuit. It's bolted to the side of the air filter, just in front of the boost sensor.

Btw, this is what you call a tight fit when it comes to trying to sneak a retirement project down the side of the house. Came across this photo whilst I was looking for the others, so thought I'd pop it up.

 

[Fretters]

The little expansion chamber for the boost circuit and the rad fan control relays.

That relay setup is designed so that it allows manual enable and disable of the rad fan along with automatic switching, controlled by a temp switch, (I believe the switch was appropriated from a Corolla), in the thermostat housing. It's independant of the ignition, so the fan can cut in when the car is parked too. The obvious drawback with that setup is that there is always draw from one of the relay coils, but it's only mere mA's, so isn't a factor for concern, generally.

This is the rerouted vac piping due to the EGR assembly having been removed. That allows for smooth engine shutdown instead of a slight judder.

 

[bonneyman]

Mighty fine engineering work in there, bud!

I wouldn't have the patience to do that.

 

[drivesitfar]

are you doing all the mods on your SUV so it can fly some day? i wouldn't know where to start to ask any questions on some of the things you have put and plan to put on that engine and inside, but it looks like you are doing a great job.

of course i'm going to ask a vise question after admiring the colors you pick and that old English steel you are making like new again. the little brass screw on the stainless ring i'm guessing holds the jaws in a certain position since it looks like they can rotate 360 degrees. correct?

still not sure how your vise nut is held in place, but until i find a Swinden vise it isn't that important unless you have pictures or care to share. i have my doubts i'll ever see one over here, but i did find a German Leinen vise so never know what i can find.

so you work on the slow methodical restorations of old English and American cast iron while you probably could build a space ship with that mind of yours. keep thinking Matt because that's what you are good at.

also i think i figured out why the Jeep is wedged in that space. it keeps the undesirables out of the shop behind the green door where all those awesome projects are sitting.

cheers Mate and keep up the great work

 

[Fretters]

Cheers chaps. The Surf has had that work done gradually over the space of a few years. She serves me well with transporting all of this old machinery and tooling I collect, so it's only fair she gets the odd bit of attention on occasion.

The Gypsy did only just fit down there. It was a close shave, there's no doubt, (there was literally only a paper width remaining either side), but she squeaked through. She's parked up in the other rear shed now.


That ring at the rear of the body, secured by the brass screws to the rear jaw assembly, is just there to keep the rear jaw assembly located in the body/base, so that it doesn't slide out. The clamping for jaw position is done by that large bolt in the protrusion out the side of the body. That bolt closes down the slit in the body to clamp the barrel in position. These photo's shows that part best.

The nut, (looking at the bottom of it in this photo, the short piece which is about 1/4" high and notably shorter than the rest of the nut):

just fits and wedges into this slot:

I'll take a photo of it insitu from the outer side of the rear jaw assembly later.

 

[drivesitfar]

Surf is a Toyota 4 runner or ?? i know you use it like a 1 ton pick up, but you do seem to care about how she runs.

Gypsy is a Willys or Jeep?? are there any mountains close by to take it out for a spin in the dirt or is she just for city driving?

Rosie is purely for showing off your old English steel kind of like the models did for the car sales?

it's been a few days of decent weather (at least here lately) so is the linseed oil under the Parkinson paint job still looking good? by the way i'm probably going to see where i can buy some boiled linseed oil or should i buy both styles of linseed? is it fairly common at a hardware store or where can i find some? i think you apply yours with a rag or do you brush it on like you do the paint?

thanks Matt

 

[Fretters]

Surf is a Toyota 4 runner or ?? i know you use it like a 1 ton pick up, but you do seem to care about how she runs.

Aye, Surf is the Japanese name for what we and you call the 4Runner. No idea why they gave it a different name over there. I definitely do baby her a bit.

Gypsy is a Willys or Jeep??

Good god no. A 1961, (if I recall correctly), Austin. It's actually Gipsy, the proper name, but I always refer to it as a Gypsy.

are there any mountains close by to take it out for a spin in the dirt or is she just for city driving?

At the moment, she isn't usable at all. She needs a fair bit of work to get her sorted. The main problem is that the Flexitor unit, (the front suspension & crossmember), is rotted somewhat. The rest of the work is more just getting her back to decent working order, rewiring, removing an I beam flat bed, (the amount of weight in that metalwork alone is massive ), that a previous owner fitted etc., and then just finding out what other rot needs sorting.

it's been a few days of decent weather (at least here lately) so is the linseed oil under the Parkinson paint job still looking good?

That oil under paint seems fine. Just scraped a little patch earlier, and it seems to have bonded quite well, both the oil and the paint. It wasn't quite as clingy as the paint alone, I'd say, but there's only a gnats of difference in the tenacity of the oil/paint combo over just straight paint. It definitely didn't scrape off easily. I think it's a method I'll likely use again.

by the way i'm probably going to see where i can buy some boiled linseed oil or should i buy both styles of linseed? is it fairly common at a hardware store or where can i find some? i think you apply yours with a rag or do you brush it on like you do the paint?

I'd go with Jake's method and used boiled. It'll probably just dry a bit quicker than using the raw/turpentine mix like I do. Only reason I avoid boiled is that I like to know exactly what I'm applying, hence the raw oil without additives. Brush or rag, it matters not really which way you apply it. Brushing will work it into nooks and crannies better, but you use more. Rag will just apply a thin, fairly even layer.

I took a photo of that nut, fitted.

As you can see, there's nowt other than a pure tight fit holding it in place. On a tangent, it appears that Linseed oil I applied to the portion of bare cast in the inner middle of the body has fumed either the oil coating or the cylinder itself, judging from that yellow ring around the cylinder. Noticed that when I took it out for that photo earlier. A quirky effect I hadn't expected.

Refitted the jaw inserts and leadscrew today. The screws for the leadscrew collar will likely end up being replaced again, (I could only get hold of 3/8" long screws yesterday, so they're just barely long enough. It's a devil trying to get hold of what one wants in BSW these days), and there are a few other finishing touches to do, but she's in usable condition as is now.

I've left the leadscrew collar plain on this one instead of painting it. Just coated it with Linseed oil to protect it, same as with the handle and ball.

 

[drivesitfar]

totally awesome vise now instead of the rusty old piece of steel you received. is it going to collection shelf, mounted or just up for auction?

sorry i didn't get the names correct on your car and didn't know Austin made a 4 wheeler. sounds like a project and you are the right guy for that work i'm betting.

not to clutter up your thread with my do dads, but i picked up a sandblaster that might get your attention and for only $10. of course i'll actually need to buy maybe a $1000 compressor to use it to it's full capacity, but throwing it on here for you to take notes on to make your own like the guy i bought it from did. it actually works and came with 80 pounds of sand inside it he didn't need any longer either.

as always thanks for sharing your wisdom and your vise ****.

cheers

 

[Fretters]

totally awesome vise now instead of the rusty old piece of steel you received. is it going to collection shelf, mounted or just up for auction?

Cheers. It'll be staying here, and hopefully getting mounted and used once I start getting the workshop in order, if I ever get there.

sorry i didn't get the names correct on your car and didn't know Austin made a 4 wheeler. sounds like a project and you are the right guy for that work i'm betting.

No worries. They're not exactly a well known thing, and the design is a bit misleading. They do look somewhat similar to a certain American brand. On the restoration front, I'll be stuck when it comes to the welding. I honestly cannot weld for toffee. That'll definitely be something I have to get someone else to sort, unless I learn in the interim period.

not to clutter up your thread with my do dads, but i picked up a sandblaster that might get your attention and for only $10. of course i'll actually need to buy maybe a $1000 compressor to use it to it's full capacity, but throwing it on here for you to take notes on to make your own like the guy i bought it from did. it actually works and came with 80 pounds of sand inside it he didn't need any longer either.

I'm as bad as anyone for sidetracking threads, so feel free to chuck owt in here. Let us know how that performs when you use it. Looks like the chap put quite a bit of time and effort into making that. Definitely not your bog standard type blast pot, and for that price, you got an absolute bargain.

 

[Fretters]

Took some photo's of the wood vice quick release mechanism for you Dean.

The spring and tensioner:

Fitted;

The half nut:

Fitted;

Overall photo's of the reassembled vice:

 

[drivesitfar]

Looks great Matt. also looks like the linseed oil under the paint job is doing ok. yes?

did you find any pictures of the Record's newer quick release mechanism yet to see what they changed to remove the lever?

cheers and keep up the good work

 

[Fretters]

The oil/paint combo seems rock solid. Not found any info or photo's of that alternate QR mechanism as yet. There seems to be practically no info regarding that.

Stripped and started painting that unknown vice. Had to drill the screw heads out on yet another vice. I seem to be a magnet for rusted screws. I'm back to my usual colour with this one.

The inside of the body and the underside of the slide, (I've painted a slight portion of the rear slide underside red, just so that it doesn't have a stark stop point on the paint when looking at it from the rear), will be getting oil put on there rather than paint. It creeps into all of the nooks and crannies better than the paint, and it's as resilient a finish once dried.

Had a devil of a time getting the jaw inserts off. They didn't want to part company from the screw shafts, once the screw heads were removed.

 

[Fretters]

Another one of those 'not entirely intentional' purchases came here yesterday. I will learn to stop placing those occasional token bids on Ebay items. I ended up being the only bidder, on something which I actually sold one of a few months ago to try and make space in the shed. You ever get that feeling something is, (or isn't), meant to be? A Rapidor Minor.

This one actually says 'New Manchester Saw' on the bow, whereas it usually has 'Rapidor Manchester' embossed on there. Been trying to figure out what the crossover or deciding time/point between the two was, and it appears that the former may actually be the earlier of the two ways of marking the bow. I'd always thought it was the other way round, on the odd occasion I've seen one marked like this, but I found a snippet in a magazine from 1933 which suggests that they were called the new Manchester saw when they first started in production in the early 30's or thereabouts, so at least I've ended up dropping across an older version than the previous one I had, it seems.

It's been modified for electrical cutoff at the end of the cut, but most of the original clutch mechanism is still intact by the looks of it, so it could be returned to it's original design of freewheeling the flywheel instead. There's shedloads of grease and swarf to remove, but it all seems to have made sure that the saw is quite well preserved, overall. I'm thinking this one may just get a clean and some oil on it. Seems a shame to strip and paint due to the minimal amount of rust which is present.

Was considering just fettling this one and selling it on, but it's growing on me. The lesser seen bow embossing combined with the fact that a previous owner has put quite a bit of time and effort into making slight modification, (quite nicely done they are too, with a bit of pride for a change), and repairs to it are making me think it might end up staying here. The original cast iron legs are here too, although they're not fitted in the photo's.

 

[toomanytoyzz]

Can you post like 1,000,000 more pics of that Gipsy? I am a vintage 4x4 nut and I've never heard of one let alone seen one before. I really love the split windows. Is it diesel? VERY COOL!!

 

[drivesitfar]

Fretters: too bad you keep ending up with all this nice old English iron. wish i lived closer so i could store some of it for you.

that said I'm happy to see you have another project worthy of your talent. by the way i'm not sure I've asked you about your favorite way to remove a boatload of grease off a machine or vise. do tell?

cheers

 

[Fretters]

Can you post like 1,000,000 more pics of that Gipsy? I am a vintage 4x4 nut and I've never heard of one let alone seen one before. I really love the split windows. Is it diesel? VERY COOL!!

Aye, it's a 2.5 BMC diesel engine in there, if I recall correctly. The thing is a bit of a heap and needs some work, (that's quite an understatement, btw ), but it was one of those things which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The engine bay.

The only sideshot I can find of it offhand.

The whole rear bed is somewhat of a contraption made by a previous owner, (a scrapman, I believe, so as you can likely guess, it was literally made from whatever was to hand at the time ), so that framework needs removing and something a tad lighter putting in its place.

A diagram of the internal controls. As you can see, the height of mod cons and luxury.

by the way i'm not sure I've asked you about your favorite way to remove a boatload of grease off a machine or vise. do tell?

Paraffin, (kerosene), with me. I get the main bulk of the crud off dry, either using brushes, cloths or whatever else works, and then either a brush occasionally dipped in paraffin else a rag soaked in the stuff to get the last remnants off. White spirit works too, but doesn't cut it quite as well as the paraffin.

 

[Fretters]

Well, it just goes to show that even when you do something the correct way, fate can still kick you in the nads if it chooses. The bed now has a crack in it, at the rear, running for a distance of about 6" or so. Fortunately it's along the length of the bed, so nothing has broken off, but just trying to decide whether to reinforce with plate, else ask someone to braze it for me. With it still being structurally sound other than the crack, I'm leaning towards a reinforcing plate or two screwed underneath and along the rear edge of the bed, rather than having the worry over whether brazing will find or create any more weak spots and also to negate the need for trying to tidy the braze up afterwards. In that second photo above, the crack runs down that rear lip and underneath the crank arm.

As to how it happened; removing the crank from the driveshaft. Absolutely no BFH's were present in this little event might I add, before anyone asks. The crank and shaft are a taper fit. I have a little, basic bolt type press, (in essence working in the same way as a machinists or bottle/screw jack), I made up for these to press it out. One end goes on the left upright in that photo, with a piece of 3/8" or so thick steel bridging the gap where the pivot block is, and the other end goes on the end of the shaft to force it outwards. Pressure is simply applied by turning a nut. The slight flex induced in the uprights was obviously enough to find a weakspot in the cast before the taper seal cracked.

Would 4mm plate be meaty enough for a task like that, (it's the thickest stuff I have to hand at the moment)? It's more just to give it that extra little strength and stop it flexing than to take the brunt of any load, and the leg assembly will be acting as a brace when that's bolted on too, as that bolts on either side of the crack. The reinforcing plate will be screwed on underneath, to make it less notable. I'll obviously be drilling the end of the crack when I find the true end of it too, to stop it progressing further.

 

[Fretters]

Decided to go with approx. 2.5mm thick plate for making a plate on this hacksaw. Was tempted to not plate it all, as there's good chance the crack wouldn't be a problem as was, but decided to just put a bit of something there to give it a tad of extra support. Nowt fancy, and the plate hasn't been cleaned to excess or painted, (it seemed daft putting something looking pristine on there when I'm not planing on painting, stripping etc. this machine), so it shouldn't look too out of place looks wise.

This is the crack. The left hand side is the rear of the bed where the crack started, and at the right I've drilled a hole at what appears to be the end of the crack, to stop it worsening.

The bottom part of the bed I decided not to plate, but just to pop a plate at the rear, upright part of the bed. The stand braces the crack from underneath on the flat part, and it would only be a **** trap if a plate was there, so I've left that bit well alone barring drilling that solitary hole.

Nowt more than hand powered tools were used in cutting that out. Just a hacksaw and a coping saw. Finished the edges off and did the finish shaping with the files. This is the only thing I used a powered machine for, (namely the pillar drill), just to make sure the holes were square.

Drilled those holes initially at the tapping drill size for a 3/16" BSW thread and then used that plate as the template to mark the holes on the bed. After I'd marked the bed, those holes in the plate were drilled out to 5mm which is just large enough for clearance of the screws. Holes drilled and tapped in the bed.

Those were all drilled using this. Thought I'd have a change from the breast drill.

Test fit and final check for the screws.

Plate fitted.

The reason I went with fairly thin plate is so that the screws would be able to pull the plate roughly to the shape of the bed.

As to whether fitting that plate was a sound or foolish idea, only time will tell. It should hopefully make the uprights less likely to try spreading outwards though.

 

[drivesitfar]

Nice work Matt. it looks like it's been there for years and with a little patina to follow on the screw heads in the future and you might not be able to see it at all. i hope it works as well as you think it should.

by the way i do see a lot of hand drilling on your projects. is that always your preference or just what you had handy to use?

cheers

 

[Fretters]

I'll definitely be a happy bunny if it works well and as intended instead of causing more grief. I checked through no end of info before deciding, and plating always seems to come up trumps over brazing, whenever it's an applicable option, and it's a method which has been used for donkeys, so hopefully the theory should be sound. It probably would have been fine as was, but the plate will just give me that little extra peace of mind if everything's okay.

As masochistic as it may seem, drilling by hand is definitely preference over need. For working on stuff at weird angles, for example, I always find it far easier as you can check and correct angles multiple times if necessary before you've gone too deep or suchlike, as you might when using an electric drill. Plus, most of the time, it honestly takes little longer than using an electric drill, provided sharp drill bits are used.

I know it seems quite contrary, especially considering my penchant for old machinery, but I do seem to do far more work with hand tools than any form of power tool.

 

[drivesitfar]

speaking of sharp drill bits do you use a power tool to sharpen them, hand file or just buy new drill bits often?

so you don't think the new vice addition to your shed is a Record? what are you inclined to believe is the company that made that one?

by the way i forgot to mention it before, but i really like your hand drawing of your Austin's dashboard. or was that one you found and did a little custom lettering to?

 

[Fretters]

I seem to have a large collection of bits. I just keep swapping them over when one dulls. I'll have to get around to sharpening them one day, I suppose.

As far as I know, that illustration is an original one from the owners manual. It's one which someone sent me ages ago, so I can't say with complete certainty though. T'was back in the day when artwork was still king.

With that vice, I honestly don't think it is a Record, unless their first vices were completely different to their later ones. It just has nowt about it which says Record to me, though I could be wrong. It would be nice if I could find some info regarding manufacturer, but I've come across absolutely nowt so far.

 

[drivesitfar]

Matt: i might have picked up a clue to the mystery of your latest vise. doesn't my new (old) Paramo vise look familiar? if i only had some wine colored lacquer and a good brush we might have twins from the same mother.

it's good to add a few more English vices into my "little" cabinet and since there are some pretty good size old US ones inside there with them they pretty much keep to themselves. the US vises don't seem to know what they are saying for the most part which might be a good thing.

speaking of a few drill bits i have a few drawers of them myself and not always sure when they are dull until they start to smoke some gives me notice.

 

[Fretters]

That's definitely the closest I've seen so far. There are still subtle differences, but the fixed nut is suggestive it could be early Paramo/Record or some copy.

 

[Fretters]

I've modified the flywheel slightly on the saw to remove the need for the dog clutch assembly to keep drive engaged. It had been setup previously so that the clutch was always engaged by tensioning the spring anyhow, but there is some wear on one of the clutch arms, so I've locked the flywheel instead of it being freewheeling. Removed this part, which is the piece which has wear on it and has been repaired and altered in the past, (the part between the bed and the flywheel):

and drilled, (that was no mean feat. It took ages, as I only had enough clearance to get my smallest hand drill in there, due to the rim of the flywheel fouling anything larger), and tapped the collar of the flywheel to take a grubscrew.

You can see the gap where the other part of the clutch assembly should be.

Dimple for locating and holding the tip of the grubscrew.

The finished setup with grubscrew fitted.

I've refitted the outer parts of the clutch assembly purely for cosmetic reasons and so that I don't lose them. They're serving no purpose other than for show as is. To return it to original form is simply a case of refitting the other part of the clutch and removing the grubscrew, so it's not an unreversible modification. The grubscrew was made from a piece of 1/4" threaded. A leftover from the 1/4" screws I keep having to trim down to length for vice jaw inserts.