Work continued on the pair of patterns for the Seal engine. I am now at the stage of painting to get a good finish. To help me I use two different spray colours so I can see clearly the areas I am covering. This works well and after making a few more adjustments, seen because of the paint finish, I am not to far away from finishing these patterns befre casting some to see what lessons I can learn in pattern making.

Whilst I will need to dust off the furnace I thought it would be sensible to complete all the different project patterns making best use of the furnace time. I must admit to being a little surprised at just how many different jobs on the go (or waiting for me to cast the part). These include a pen stand to display the pens I make (I hope to try a local Saturday craft fair in Brixham soon), a casting of the 3 pronged bracket to run the power feed to the milling table project (I will try first to use the metal part it will mate with before seeing if I need to make a wooden one) and a more substantial table for my Clarke bandsaw (for use when operating vertically).

I am quite happy I have the system of melting the alluminum sorted now but am not so sure about my patterns but the only way to find out is using them. We shall see. I expect to use the furnace the end of this week if I am lucky so watch this space.

My purchase of a Clarke bandsaw has meant my Warco bandsaw has to go. It has been a great servant to me and is still working fine. If it wasn't for the fact I wanted a vertical cutting ability I should not have replaced it.

Included in the sale are a couple of new blades so its all ready to go. If you are interested then please email me. It will need to be picked up from Brixham in Devon. Below are some photo's of the bandsaw. I have fixed the price realistically at £50 so first come, first served.

Phoning Machine Mart proved to be a less stressful experience that I expected. After being put through to 'some one in technical' I spoke to to their engineer who explained that whilst it was the blade, they needed to see if the machine caused it or whether it was a faulty blade.

My description was quickly accepted and the engineer said they would replace the blade even though it was classed as a 'consumable'. So that was good news. I went onto say I was pleased with the saw but the stand was rubbish! He said that a friend of his had bought the same model and held the same views as myself, he built a new stand for it. That convinced me that I should go the same route so as soon as some good weather comes, I will take my Mk Jaguar out of its comfy home and fabricate a stand in the resultant space.

20 minutes after finishing my call to Machine Mart I had a return call where I was told that the man responsible for retail blades would not open a pack of five for just one blade so they decided to send me a pack instead! Common sense but its nice I didn't have to fight for them. So well done Machine Mart and that's a gold star.........until the next time.......well done

Sunday 19^th July 2009

After completing the little spur gears yesterday I considered the only other outstanding project for someone else, my brother in law Steve’s motorcycle (adjustable) handlebars. With the saw table nearly completed, well enough to use it at least, then once the handlebars were done, I could get back to this years main project, the pair of Seal engines.

When reviewing where I was I thought that my initial approach of getting these large chunks of metal to the 35mm depth was correct. If you read an earlier posting you will know I put the project to one side because I was having a little difficulty with all the ‘X’ axis handle turning on the milling machine (I have a few back issues). However overnight I thought I was making it harder for myself by not cutting the blocks as small as possible using the bandsaw first. So today whilst turning one on the lathe the other block was in the bandsaw.

I had taken the decision to turn one of the two blocks by attaching it to a faceplate on my larger Turner lathe. Something I have tended to shy away from in the past through lack of experience really. However prompted by the need to find an easier way to remove the metal I mounted one on the face plate and this proved far easier than I thought, although I had to make some fittings to clamp the aluminum in place. A classic case of something you’ve not done before being easier than you think.

With the bandsaw working hard in the background good progress was made with the first block on the lathe, before they were swapped over finally bringing both to size. I may well use these two brackets to experiment as it were with making one on the lathe and the second on the milling machine.

Two 'blocks' of aluminum for motorcycle brackets

The next stage was to centre the block on the faceplate so I could bore the first 45mm diameter hole. To do this I made a pointer that one end was held in an ER25 collet in the tailstock. The other pointed end was placed into the centre punched hole marking the bores centre. This held the block in place whilst the clamps were tightened. Then the pointer was used with a dial indicator to centre the piece by adjusting the clamps.

Using a DTI to centre the piece for boring out one 45mm diameter bore

I must admit that whilst the home made clamps made recently are not that pretty they are effective. I take great comfort however that the famous Edgar T Westbury mentions in his articles that he was often criticised for his work holding using whatever came to hand as it were. Well if its good enough for Edgar its certainly good enough for me! That’s not to say I won’t replace them overtime with neater clamps, but my time in the workshop seems to be more limited nowadays so needs must.

After setting the piece running true I packed up for the day since England were bowling and a win is on the cards……………sorry to my Aussie friends………

Cricket - lovely cricket!