Intro

[eidbi]

Hi All,
I would like to introduce myself as I have been lurking here for a while. I am mid sixties (age not year) IT guy. I have no training in metalwork apart from a 3 month evening class once a week in jewellery making many years ago. So I have some experience in silver soldering from that time. For about 5 years I made silver jewellery for a hobby. I seem to collect hobbies!

I bought a Sherline lathe about 2 years ago and added a CNC ready mill about a year later and added the steppers, controller and computer myself. I use D2nc for drawing simple shapes/parts and I wrote a wizard to create circuit board adapters for SMD chips to Veroboard which I then "engrave" on the mill. For more complicated things I use TurboCad and use D2nc to produce the Gcode for Mach.

I have been researching Bogstandard's Puddleduck engine which I hope to make over the winter using the CNC on the mill as much as possible. So far I have only been making more tools and accessories for the lathe and mill.

Regards,
Hamilton

[dsquire]

Hi Hamilton

Welcome to MadModder. I think that you will fit right in here as there are a lot of members here that seem to collect hobbies, myself included. With your lathe and mill you will have a good start to making small engines and others here will be able to answer any questions that you might have. When you have a chance perhaps you could post a couple of pictures of some of the tooling that you have made for your lathe and mill. 

Cheers 

Don

[Brass_Machine]

Heya Hamilton! 

Sounds like you have a great start on tooling! Bog's has a good book on his engine. Definitely worth doing in my opinion. You will learn a lot. Jewelry making is pretty neat. I have some ideas that one day I will start to do. IT guy eh? Me too. Whatcha do? I am a VMware guy. I manage the virtual infrastructure for an Ivy League college.

Show us what you have! Pictures are nice!

Eric

[craynerd]

Hi there...     would like to see some pics of your jewellry and machines if you find time!

Look forward to your future posts.

Chris

[eidbi]

Hi All,
Many thanks for the welcome. I will try to get some photos of the jewellery and some of the accessories later today.

Regards,
Hamilton

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi and Welcome Hamilton

Looking forward to you CNC build of Bog's engine 


Rob

[GordTopps]

Welcome Hamilton

Regards
Gordy

[eidbi]

Hi All,
Thanks Rob and Gordy.

I saw somewhere that there is a limit of 4 pics to a posting on this forum. Is it acceptable here to make multiple postings just to get more than 4 pics up.
Or should I use something like mediafire or my own web page with links to handle the photos?

I have a web page with some photos (no jewellery yet) the link is www.microflex.ie and there is a password on it.

The user ID is user and the password is userpass just to keep webcrawlers out.
Regards,
Hamilton

[cidrontmg]

Hi Hamilton,
It´s quite acceptable to make multiple posts to overcome the 4-picture limit, but even better to make links for pictures, to sites that are always up and not restricted (no Facebook links for example, please - surprisingly, not everyone is a member, and the links won´t work for non-members). It would also be nice to use image formats like 800x600, or thereabouts. 10 Mb image files take a lot of time with dial up connection. Some people have no way to get high speed access.
Anyway, whatever you prefer, the main thing is, post MANY pictures   
 

[Brass_Machine]

I changed the maximum of attachments to 10 per post. Post as many pictures as you want. As said, linking pictures is best.

Eric

[Bernd]

Welcome to the collective Hamilton. 

I'm into modelrailroading also. I'm into HO, On3 and O. I've got an On3 layout started but like all my other projects it's collecting dust.

I also have a Sherline lathe that has a miil conversion on it. Great little machine for that model work.

Looked at your web site. Nice job on the turntable. A few more pics of the layout in the Gallery section if you have the time. 

Bernd

[eidbi]

Hi All,
I have just discovered Mediafire where I can post files and pictures for free if I keep the filesize below 200Mb and I don't have pictures that size!
Even if I put pics up at their normal full size I think that it lets you view them at a much smaller res, and you can then download in full if you want.

I have been out this afternoon "scrounging" for scrap. A friend has a scrapped piece of a small shipyard crane. It is one of the four "feet" wheel pieces that ran on rails. On it there is a gearbox which I can look into and I see a large brass gearwheel, probably a foot across which would make lots of parts for bogs engine! The whole piece of metal is about 1/2 ton so I can't get it in the boot of the jeep. I will have to try to dismantle it where it is. Just as I was leaving he gave me a block of metal 5 x 5 x 2.2cm with a threaded hole in it and it has "ALBD" and "CRM 30-58" on it. it's harder than a file, I can scratch it with carbide and I wonder what it is. A magnet does attract it.
Regards,
Hamilton

[eidbi]

Hi All,
I got some more progress on the brass gear. It is not as big as I thought but still weighs 5.6 kg. The pictures are in mediafire http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=mexf276pw76mb and I will insert some small size ones here.

The other photo is of two other pieces of brass that he gave to me and told me what they are, but I am curious if any one else recognises them?

The last photo is of the steel piece that I mentioned in the last post.

Many thanks to all for the welcome.

Bernd.
I am making the turntable as a kit that I hope to sell on ebay. I have more work to do on the software though. I am going to use a 20 chara. X 4 line LCD and a keypad for setting up and selecting the track positions. Since I have the input and output I decided that I would also include a real time clock. The friend that I am building the layout for is 'into' timetables and not really interested in the scenic aspect so I am going to use the clock to provide a modellers clock which can be run at a range of speeds to allow a day's movements in maybe 1 or two hours.

Regards,
Hamilton

[cidrontmg]

That brass gear is material for many small engines. The hard steel item - can´t say where it´s from. I think it says "ALBA". There were Alba shapers (cousins of Elliott & Boxford shapers) but I don´t think they used that kind of a logo.