No32 Souvlaki & On the Subject of Necessity Being the Mother of Invention.....

[bigduke6]

Thanks for that Geoff. I've already made a few of the screws according to Peter's method, but I have enough brass to make about another half a dozen so I'm going to whilst I'm on a roll. I'll follow your suggestion for cutting the thread; what you advise is virtually what I was doing, except your method holds the die at right angles to the job better. Cheers.

No problem Rog, your way is fine also but its getting the die square as you say and as its such a small thread etc no room for error, although this method does draw the die in the least resistance on small bits is crucial.

As an Apprentice in the training school we had to do it all by hand with a square etc, but it was mainly tapping, when we were in the college we were taught the easy way. One thing I do remember was two square metal blocks that were fastened together with several different methods called the "fastening assembly"

Of course you never got two square blocks to start with...... one side had to have material removed by chisel..... lots of lightening cuts had to me made then the waste chiseled away, what joy....

In the end you had one square about about 4'x4"x 1" as the base and a square approx 1/2 " that would fit diagonal on top of the big one.
All these sides had to be within a given tolerance and all square to each other, filled, scraped flat and then polished...... then marking out for the holes for fastening and dowels etc. Getting to this stage took some time and you were marked throughout the stages, to get this stage you didn't want to start again, so the tapping, reaming had to be spot on......... then the final hurdle was to drill the hole on one of the studs to allow for the split pin to go through when the castle head nut was torqued down.

What we never thought about at the time is each job you made it prepared you for the next, so all the taping and threading before did come in handy. I never got my fastening assembly back, it went into the Glass Display case outside the Training School managers office.............only works of art went to this case and it had been outside the office from when the training school was built, not much rotation on the items displayed, to have two pieces of work in there from the same apprentice was unheard of, until 1986......

[Roger Payne]

Hi Geoff,
Many thanks for yours. All helpful suggestions are most welcome. It's at times like these that I wish I'd paid more attention to my metalwork teacher at school. Mind you, HAVING to do something as a schoolkid is a very effective deterrent to developing any interest in a subject! Looking into it because you want to makes a big difference. I found exactly the same with trying to learn a little French.....

[Peter Laidler]

While I was an apprentice, examples of our work weree usually presented to visiting dignitaries and other local visiting worthies. Alas. most of mine went into the 'also ran...' category. Like my set square, made during the last stages of our basic fitting part of the course. You were meant to take this square away with you to use thereafter instead of the crap Moore and Wright offerings. Alas, mine was the only 91 degree square. The class instructor wrote o my report to my parents words to the effect '.........a/t Laidler produced the only 91 degree square in the tutor group. He shoud mot be too down-hearted because when or if 91 degrees becomes the engineering norm, he will be ahead of the game.....'

[Bindi2]

While I was an apprentice, examples of our work weree usually presented to visiting dignitaries and other local visiting worthies. Alas. most of mine went into the 'also ran...' category. Like my set square, made during the last stages of our basic fitting part of the course. You were meant to take this square away with you to use thereafter instead of the crap Moore and Wright offerings. Alas, mine was the only 91 degree square. The class instructor wrote o my report to my parents words to the effect '.........a/t Laidler produced the only 91 degree square in the tutor group. He shoud mot be too down-hearted because when or if 91 degrees becomes the engineering norm, he will be ahead of the game.....'

Mmm that quote explains a lot..