Today’s session started later than usual and was more of a potter around cleaning up after the last few days work. I then spent time sorting out the filing cabinet fitted in the new frame between the Myford Lathe and the Milling machine. Quite a relaxing session really and perhaps that’s why about 1200 hours I felt up to sorting out the remaining two items for the camshaft turning fixture, for the Seal engine build.

Camshaft turning fixture for the Seal engine

It was really nice to get back to the lathe after all the ‘non’ critical work to build the new stand. After chucking the smallest diameter brass bar nearest to the finished size of the bush, it was simple enough to get to the finished size. I decided to hold the centre drill and finish drill in the ER25 collet system to be as accurate as possible and the hole drilled to form the bush.

Seal camshaft turning fixture and first of two bushes

About this time Mike (the MGA owner) phoned to check I was still up and said could he nip around to see the brackets. 10 minutes later he arrived and after bending the second bracket to shape (I wanted Mike to be there to confirm the layout). Because of the annealing process the bend went far easier than I anticipated being relatively soft for stainless steel. The bend was a little too sharp for my liking but Mike decided to take them home and check all was well. A visit over the weekend should see the project finished when Mike brings his lovely MGA to us.

That really seemed to form a natural end to the days work. So I decided to stop and spend the rest of the afternoon re reading Steve Huck’s article on camshafts  ready for starting the camshaft cutting tomorrow. Exciting times……