Blog - PS8 Steam

Somewhat of a gap between the last posting and this one!   Work has been horrendously busy so I have had little time to play.  I did manage to finish the steam pipes for the S50, 10V, 500 steam plant and a new video is uploaded here.  The VMC190 has gone to a better home and I now have a Boxford Duet.  The machine wasn't expensive, but the licences are! All working and I am slowly getting the hang of it.   

VMC190 is on eBay - so should be sold soon.  Duet is in place in the workshop and licenced Boxford software installed.  Cut a few pieces from Brass, Aluminium and plastic and all seems to be OK.  Still struggling to understand some of the terms.  I have the LH turning tool and the parting off tool.  These came with all the machines, but I need the following:  Internal and External thread cutting tools and a chuck key that fits!

Lack of space means I really do need to sell the VMC190.  With luck I can do a little more on the data capture front beforehand.   In preparation for selling the machine, we produced this short video: https://youtu.be/lc6sey5nzw8

Started work to capture data flows between PC and VMC190 - more detail here.  

Boxford Duet has arrived!

Working on the VMC190 and the Boxford software.  More information here.

Cleaning up the Boxford VMC 190 - mostly just grime.  Seems to have had very little use.   Gathered all the EPROM label details and the serial number - I can approach Boxford with these are see what my options are!  The machine is now in the workshop - on top of a substantial Axminister tool cabinet.

Boxford will sell me a licence for the s/w and new EPROMS for the machine - along with an engineer visit to install them.   Needless to say it's not cheap!

The Myford ML7 has gone to a new home in Loughborough!  I now have a little more space!   The Super 7 is staying in the garage - the shed is simply not big enough.

The ML7 is now sold!  About the same as I paid for it and I have had a lot of fun with it.   So, space available for the CNC Mill in the workshop.  The Super 7 is staying in the garage until I get a much bigger workshop!

Collected Boxford VMC190 from near Exeter.  Includes the manuals and five tools holders.  Seen it running in manual mode and it will be great if that still works after it's journey.

Painted the rear panel and tool rack matching grey (RAL 7001) and fitted to the Super 7.   Looks good!  Need to dress the DRO cables securely out of the way.

Finally added the DRO to my Super 7.  Works a treat!!  I've had this kit for more than a year and it was going on to my ML7.   The instructions from M-DRO are very good and although it all looks a little intemedating at first, it's just one step after another.  I have also made the brackets to fit the rear spash guard and tool rack, but the only panel I could get was painted myford aqua - sort of bluey-green.  I am now repainting that grey to match the stand.  I'll take pictures when the paint dries.

On a suggestion from a friend, I have finally made my simple lathe alignment nudger tool.   Not really sure what to call it.  Just some random stock milled down and blackened, a bearing and a screw.  Picture here

Super 7 is basically finished - stand and much of the lathe repainted.   New motor and VFD fitted inside the cabinet as well.  I next need to add the DRO kit (that I bought for the ML7) next.  Not a lot of text at present, but there are a few pictures here.

The other half has been asking me to make a simple iPhone stand to hold the phone horizontally at almost vertical.  This is to make watching YouTube videos easier when lying in bed!  Click here for the picture.

That's another big gap, and the world changed in the meantime.  Currently in lockdown, working from home, and going slowly bonkers!   The Warco lathe is now cleaned up and sitting in the garage waiting to deliver it to Pete in Dorset.  Alongside it is a new toy - a Myford Super 7.   The ML7 is in the workshop and am very pleased with it.  I have a DRO kit to install, but not sure now whether I might fit that to the Super 7 instead.

That was a long break!  Summer pretty well over and it's time to update my limited progress! The back pain was caused by gardening - always a mistake when I could be spending time in the shed.  Anyway, the original wooden bench in the shed has been removed and both the mill and the lathe are sitting on their proper stands.  The Myford ML7 has it's own Myford stand.  Frankly, taking it all apart was easy, but then I was too busy to do much and putting it all back together was more of a struggle.  Thankfully I have help from Ken who lives locally and is quite the ML7 expert.  The lathe is in very good condition and needed few repairs or replacement parts and just a few licks of paint.  This weekend ought to be the final alignment of the beast - and then I can start using it!

Good news and bad news! I collected the lathe and mill stands from Warco on Friday and was all set to go. However I have hurt my back and am not in a position to do anything. Severe muscle cramps in the small of my back and I am having to take it very easy. This is hugely frustrating!!

Ordered a proper stand for the mill and one for the (Warco) lathe from Warco.  Fiting those in place this coming weekend and taking out the wooden bench that came with the shed.  Plan will be to put down a piece of 1" thick board to spread the load across the length of the shed.

Myford stripped down and rebuild begun. It's now in place in the workshop.  More notes and pictures on same link as below.

Accquired a new lathe!  A Myford ML7 - second hand of course!  Pictures and notes here

Good grief, life has been busy and I have not been updating this blog!   In no particular order I have just completed the Axminster 5 day advanced course in lathe and milling work.  Five full days and quite tiring, but learnt a lot of new techniques:  making my own cutting tools from HSS stock, screw thread cutting, hardening and annealing, cutting dovetails and scraping.  I will add some pictures shortly and put the link here.

At home, continuing to construct Bengs' Big Nick flamelicker.  A nice kit of semi-finished (or not finished at all mostly) parts.  There is a new section under engines to show progress.

Added new page to record progress on Edgar Westbury's Wyvern engine.  See here.

PMDX-424 Controller working!  Some fussing with enable lines to the stepper drivers was required.  So I have Mach-4 running on my laptop talking to the controller card, which in turn talks to three stepper motor drivers.  Much more information here.

Completed the case drilling and filing for the PMDX-424 controller card, power supplies and the three stepper motors.  I do like die-cast boxes - cheap and touch and easy to work.

Life has been busy, so this is a catch-up.  Spent three weekend cleaning paint off machines, cleaning up castings then repainting them, but some successes.  The Stuart beam is back together and runs well.  This is now on a sturdy baseboard which keeps the engine and the flywheel pedestal in line.  The Stuart 9 is running well and I need to decide how to present this.  Stuart 1 has been completely stripped down and endless layers of paint removed.  Holes re-tapped, new bolts and nuts and a new paint job.  I am keeping the same colour (blue) as I think it works well.  Not sure what the original was, but this is now Peugot Blue.  10V and S50 and now joined by a 501 boiler and a newly made steam manifold on a single board.  Each item works, but the plan is to pipe it all together over Christmas.

First real steam test of the Chiltern Steam Engine - notes and video here

Paint jobs finished on both the 500 and 504 boilers.  The 500 is going into a new steam plant with the 10V and S50 engines.

Dreadful job, but helped by 5l of paint thinners - removing all the 'wrong' paint from my boilers. All done and rubbed down.  Now using E-Tech XHT high temperature paint.  Not expensive sprays and I bought matt black and matt red.  The end walls of the boilers (which are cast iron) are now black, and the thin side panels (Aluminium) as red.   The thinners dissolved the insulation from the smaller boiler panels, but luckily I hadn't add insulation to the larger boiler yet.  I ought to be able to finish both tomorrow.

Having completed the Chiltern beam engine and mill engine, I have put them together with the Chiltern boiler that I completed some months ago.  All three components are now on a new steam plant - pictures here. Very pleased with this as it's also my first attempt at silver soldering.  Apart from a few initial disasters, such as not making the flux thick enough (should be like single cream, not skimmed milk) and managing to simply melt the piping, it does get easier.  Ten silver soldered joints in the plant and all seem to be OK. Couple of joints in the pipe and I didn't have single pieces long enough.  Pleased with my 'control panel' with a displacement lubricator, two regulators for the engines, and a regulator to allow a compressed air connection.  Brass hexagon drilled and tapped to 1/4" x 40 tpi.  Still needs to be painted - when I work out what paint I ought to be using.

I now have all the replacement parts for my Stuart 500 boiler, so I finished that today as well.   Pressure test was fine, so time to fill with water, light the Stuart spirit burner and stand back.  Few leaks where I hadn't tighted the bolts.  Happy with water gauge as I hadn't built one before, and I have never cut glass before today.  The side panels of the boiler are insulated, but of course do get hot.  Too hot for the paint I used - the final coat of black matt paint bubbled up and started to flake off!  The etch primer underneath looks to be OK.  Obviously some research required!

Completed the Arduino based stepper motor indexer.

Finished the Perseus steam engine and after some running in and after little timing tuning it's running very well.  Pleased with this little engine.   Video on Steam Engines | Perseus page.  Frankly not sure what I am going to do with it!

Midlands Model Engineering show.  Great time and lots to see.  Good lecture on silver soldering. Managed to buy a casting set for a Stuart 10V, and a kit to build the Chiltern Steam beam engine.

I did manage to do some work on the fruit machine - loads of fun!

The lathe is christened!   Enough shed built to enable me to put the lathe into position and turn some metal!

Putting in insulation panels, some plywood lining, and spending hours in B & Q

New baseboard for the S50/10V/Chiltern boiler steam plant completed. Chiltern boiler clad in 5mm x 1mm mahogany strips.

Bought a Stuart S50 off eBay