Well I have been busy ish, in the workshop with two unplanned for projects. This one involved making brackets for a lovely British classic car, an MGA. I hope that I will be able to post a picture of the mirrors fitted as soon as the weather and the mirrors have been fitted.
The problem was that the owner, my architect Michael, couldn't find suitable mirrors to fit the 'A' posts or windscreen uprights. He didn't want to drill holes in the wings (and I agree totally with that!) and as he tours to France and elsewhere he wanted the advantage that good wing mirrors give. All the sets of mirrors he saw all had the same shortcoming, literally! They all were too short and didn't secure easily.
At the recent car show in Exeter, Michael found an nice set of round mirrors. When trial fitting they also did not go away from the car enough. I should have explained that Mikes MGA is a soft top or convertible. Well Mike brought the car down and we looked to see what could be done by 'adapting' (that means sawing parts off!) the brackets. The extension was only two or three inches and we decided that some stainless steel of the right size, could be machined to suit. The photo's below show what was done. In the middle of making the extensions I decided it would be nice to have some flu (hence the delay in writing up the project) so yesterday I phoned Michael to say they were ready.
The fixings used will not be the final ones, as some nice stainless steel sealed nuts and bolts are being sourced by Mike. He really does look after his car and also uses it. Hopefully the extensions will help in the driving pleasure. Time will tell.
Constituent parts - cut down brackets and stainless steel blanks.
Milling one of the flats to match bracket.
One of the brackets completer prior to polishing.
The pieces made are the two stainless steel shafts. The bracket on the left hand side is bought. Needs stainless steel bolts and hopefully stainless steel capped nuts similiar to that used for the mirror itself.
About Mike Freeman
Hello, my name is Mike Freeman and I am a retired Chief Fire Officer from the United Kingdom with a keen interest in model engineering, silver caddy spoons and sea fishing. I live in the pretty fishing port of Brixham, South Devon, in the United Kingdom.
I am a sufferer of degenerative osteoarthritis, which impacts on the amount of time I can spend in the workshop, and is the reason why you will see seats and a stool in some of the photo's. I have only recently added the above sentence after a discussion with one of my Doctor's from the excellent pain clinic, based in Torbay. This does affect concentration one of the reasons why I double then re-double my measurements and set ups.
Before completing nearly 30 years of public service I and my wife Sandy, owned and ran, a small restaurant in Okehampton Devon. Prior to marriage I worked for my father in his various businesses, in the early days these were garages, which he bought in a run down state, then built them up before moving on, to start again.
I took every opportunity in those early days, to work in his workshop's
learning 'on the job' rather than as an apprentice. This, I suspect, is the reason why my building various model's in the early days, turned into model engineering, when funds allowed the required equipment to be bought.
My workshop comprises one half of a detached double garage. It has a
stud wall separating the two halves and unusually perhaps, its own
shower/toilet/washbasin compartment! (the true reason for buying the
bungalow - don't tell the wife!!!)
It is fully insulated with a ceiling and fluorescent lighting supplementing the one window. Several double electrical sockets are dotted around in
relevant positions.
Equipment consists of 2 lathes (1 Myford ML 10 and 1 Chinese variable
speed motor with etched glass DRO's), 1 milling machine (RF25 far East) floor standing pillar drill, Proxxon bandsaw, Warco bandsaw, 6" wire brush and polishing mop motor, 6" coarse and fine grinder, Proxxon mini drill, various benches and an engineers vice. I have just acquired a third lathe, a Myford ML7 which I am at present evaluating so I can decide which of the Myford's I will keep.
I have only just bought the Chinese lathe and had it fitted with DRO's prior to delivery. And what a bonus they are! So good in fact that I decided to buy another set for the Milling machine. Whilst my engineering experience can only be described as limited, I find the use of DRO's has affected my accuracy levels which have improved tremendously (although that's not saying much!) and would recommend their fitting to any model engineer.
Prior to retirement I built for my son's 17th birthday a Locost car. This
was a tremendous project and a great feeling when it passed its test. The book it was based on suggests it can be built for £250. Ours was nothing special in the sense of all new parts but still cost about £900 to build!
