Recent Posts

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Member Videos / Re: My week this week, my workshop videos!
« Last post by hermetic on Today at 11:02:16 AM »
Hi Folks,
 I spent most of Monday getting my new car on the road, having parked  the Outlander at Langtoft on Sunday, and got a lift back to Driffield! Tuesday and it was time to install the little fireplace woodburner for Lucy,  the new occupier of my Ratten row house. Quite an involved job to do it properly, but the result was very pleasing, although it was a tight fit! The new motor is lovely apart from the eu de dog which permeates the rear cargo space, but I will attempt to get it in the workshopnext week and give it a clean! The only thing not working seems to be the passenger door mirror which does not fold in or adjust, so I suspect a fuse, more may be revealed later in the week!
Phil, in rainy but not cold East Yorkshire!
https://youtu.be/z4kDTO1Tm80
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Our Shop / Re: Expanding the old "tiny shop"
« Last post by vtsteam on Today at 10:15:55 AM »
Oh, man if it isn't one thing it's another. Two big delays on finishing out my shop. Our under-house cistern is 25 years old -- originally built on a concrete slab with filled and reinforced cement block sides -- total footprint 8 feet by 4 feet, and about 2 feet high, roughly 250 gallons.

This is fed by a spring about 300 feet from the house, and that flows in (and out the overflow) of the cistern pipework continuously unless interrupted by drought. In summer, the overflow goes to a 3000 gallon backup cistern below the garden (build thread elsewhere on the forum) for drought times.

Anyway, the under-house cistern is showing its age, and an outer corner flaked off last month -- it still held water, but concrete block isn't the best material for the purpose. Because the cistern is located in a crawlspace (it was built before that section of house) it would be very arduous to remove, and hard to rebuild, so I decided to abandon it and add a new one outside of the house. This time a commercial HDPE version, which would, we hoped, arrive before snow!

Luckily it did, and I used the old Ford tractor backhoe to dig a hole for it. I covered it according to the mfr's instructions, installed a submersible pump in it, and re-piped to the spring and house. Okay that job done.....

Well, no can't work on my own shop, because my wife wanted a space of her own for storage and potting, etc. and so had purchased a pre-fabbed kit shed (on sale) which arrived just as I finished the cistern. We had planned to just store that under tarps for the winter, and build in spring, but the thought of mouse damage under the tarps decided the issue against.

So out with the tractor again, leveling ground behind the house, putting down 4" of coarse gravel, and leveling that by hand. Then laying the support beams and nailing in joists, flooring, and building the whole shed proceeded to a rather nice looking conclusion. In fact a lot nicer than any of my own sheds. Hers is 10 feet by 14 feet and has windows. I have to say I'm  a little jealous. But she is allowing me to store some of my "junk" in it this winter only so I can't complain!

But for my own shed.......well I did finish the concrete floor, but haven't put up the framework yet to support insulation, nor the false ceiling timbers for the same. We just got snow, and it's getting cold and unpleasant to work, but I am going to go back at it. I really want to continue work on my hot air engines this winter, and I absolutely must get this done first!
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CNC / Re: 3D Print Thread Inserter
« Last post by Country Bubba on Today at 08:02:11 AM »
They sure make it easier to get the inserts square!  I cobbled one up out of some 3D prints, a piece of countertop, a piece of square tube, and cheap $10 iron similar to the one in your picture.
Makes life a lot less frustrating. One thing I did find is make the iron on the "cooler" side and let the insert slowly go into the piece as there will be less "dribble" and excess mess to clean up. :beer:

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CNC / Re: 3D Print Thread Inserter
« Last post by awemawson on November 28, 2025, 12:21:26 PM »
I actually like the way the (presumeably) Chinese designer has used several standard parts to make it. For instance the clamps holding the (repurposed) soldering iron are a pair of hydraulic pipe clamps intended for use for surface mounting. The frame is made from standard aluminium extrusions - even the thing the counter balance spring hooks onto is just a wiring 'Pee Clip'. Just a stamping for the base which is pretty heavy duty, and a folded piece to form the upper bracketry.

Reminds me of British Leyland where many parts were common across models - the lights - the instruments - the brake components. Whereas nowadays every thing is unique and stupidly expensive.
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CNC / Re: 3D Print Thread Inserter
« Last post by BillTodd on November 28, 2025, 10:02:33 AM »
Always amazes me. They go to all the effort of making a plug and then not make it compliant (even if not actually tested)

I was eyeing up one end of that scanner I'm scrapping, it'd make a nice little press like that ;-)
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CNC / Re: 3D Print Thread Inserter
« Last post by vtsteam on November 28, 2025, 09:57:59 AM »
That's pretty neat. Took me awhile to grasp from the description what the device was, but the pics explained all. The plunger heats the insert, and then presses it into the plastic part, controlled by a stop.

And the fused plug, if accurately labeled, would pass something close to 7 Kw before blowing? So the cord is more likely to protect the fuse than vice versa!

Aaah, got it Andrew. I'm slow some mornings... :doh:
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CNC / 3D Print Thread Inserter
« Last post by awemawson on November 28, 2025, 07:35:11 AM »
I've been playing with 3D printing recently and wanted to insert some thread inserts into mechanical parts - ie things that are functional rather than artistic.
Doing it with a normal soldering iron is perfectly feasible however I found it difficult to keep it truly vertical. So exploring making a press, or a fixture for the Bridgeport I realised that this particular wheel has been designed before and Amazon have several offerings already manufactured !

Not expecting much I ordered one and found when it arrived that actually it was quite well made and stout. Two things need tweaking:

Firstly the mains plug purports to be a standard UK 13a one however totally illegally and unsafely is unfused - I knew this from the illustrations and it was a simple job of cutting off the the dangerous one and replacing it. (*)

Second issue is that although it has an upper stop and a depth stop setting the depth stop with the required accuracy to get an insert sunk to exactly flush with the surface isn't possible - far too much wiggle while tightening it. Now they have just used a Tee nut in an aluminium extrusion which is cunning but something more robust is needed. At the moment I'm thinking to use Tee Nuts to fix a brass block to the extrusion, with a fine pitch screw acting as the actual stop.

Experimenting with my Planer Gauge gave me something solid to bring the hot tip down onto while locking the knurled screw, but that's only a temporary solution.

* (For our over seas friends UK 13A sockets are fused at 32 amps at the consumer unit and plugs carry a fuse to protect the flex rather than the appliance - this wire would smoulder nicely well before that limit)


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Member Videos / VORTRIXE & OKMO Z01 Morse Z 3 6cc Throttle Controlled Miniature Gasoline Hit & M
« Last post by Jim Dobson on November 25, 2025, 09:09:16 PM »
VORTRIXE & OKMO Z01 Morse Z 3 6cc Throttle Controlled Miniature Gasoline Hit & Miss Engine Model

Another short vid of the Z01 which is being running in very nicely, Jin is bringing out wonderful gas engines one after another, I've had so much enjoyment from this engine running straight from taking it out of the box and it sounds wonderful running.
I'm using Marvels Mystery Oil (which was hard to come by in Australia) at 20:1 with White Gas (Shellite in Australia) which is just enough to put a bit of colour into the fuel (you can use unleaded petrol). I also put in some Ballistol which is water soluble into the water that goes into the cooling tank.
(Called 'Moosemilk by black powder pistol and rifle shooters')

https://youtu.be/GLcJFm9ds1A
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Announcements & Issues / Re: What happened to 'insert attachment' button?
« Last post by sorveltaja on November 25, 2025, 04:26:53 PM »
I'll test as well:




P.S When I used 'insert image' button and inserted [attachment=1] in it, the attached image shows up:

Code: [Select]
[img]http://[attachment=1][/img]
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Announcements & Issues / Re: What happened to 'insert attachment' button?
« Last post by vtsteam on November 25, 2025, 04:13:48 PM »
Still a problem to insert an image inline. Also for existing posts with inline images, like this one, the post is messed up with text references to the inline images, which don't appear inline anymore:

https://www.madmodder.net/index.php?topic=13865.msg165795#msg165795

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