Volume 9, No 4- April, 2004

Statement of Purpose

Regular Meeting

Collier Library, Houston Texas, 1:00 p.m., March 13, 2004, Tom Moore, President presiding. 27 members were present, including visitors Milton Clerc, Gary Haskins, Laurence McGomery, and Robert Mate. Doug Chartier is working on organizing a foundry field trip. He also circulated a list of members to obtain their approval for publishing their names as the club roster. The vice president was authorized to purchase a projector that connects to a computer and a new projection screen.
 

Business Meeting

Minutes are sent via email or regular mail to club members.

Presentation

Joe Fay of Cooper Hand Tools, talked about the development and construction of Nicholson hand files. Joe distributed a booklet - The Guide to Files and Filing. He explained the three grades of American Pattern files as SMOOTH, SECOND CUT and BASTARD. These names come from the condition of the chisels that are used to cut the groves in the files. The rough chisel marks left by the nearly spent chisel creates a bastard of a file. Joe also showed some interesting rules with vertical numbering rather than the convention horizontal numbers.
 

Show and Tell 

Special Interest Groups Activity

Novice Sig

The sharpening workshop equipment was demonstrated.  The equipment included a H.S. tool bit sharpener and a tool holder for correct angles by Joe Williams.  A "Drill Doctor" was brought in by Dick Kostelnick which seems to do the best job of all the drill sharpening methods (4) tried.  Rich Pichler brought in a 6" grinder with a wheel dresser, an inexpensive ($40) wet grinder, a $50 ceramic honing stone, water stones, diamond hones, a "Lansky" knife sharpening kit, an old fashioned saw sharpening vise, and various sharpening jigs to hold the various tools at the "best" angle.  Hand axe sharpening with a potable belt sander was demonstrated.  One of the members brought in an interesting 6" grinder that had an adjustable tool rest that was marked off with common angles.Next month, if a VCR player magically appears, the very elementary "Hand Tool Safety" tape from Cooper Tools and perhaps a home tape of lathe work will be shown.  In any case, it is planned to do a hands-on drill sharpening session with each one that wants to try.
 

Casting Sig

Ray Ethridge Showed the materials he uses to make sand cores with a sodium silicate (water glass) binder that is fused with carbon dioxide gas. He makes the core box from clay and uses Karo syrup as a core boxrelease agent by mixing it with the sodium silicate and sand.

Ed Gladkowski (left photo) showed the pattern he used to make the gear box housing for his lathe mounted drill motor.

Featured Articles

Shaper Improvements
by J. R. Williams - HMSC Member

Shaper Switches: An additional switch was installed on my Logan Shaper, adjacent to the original On-Off switch, to provide a rapid means of turning off  the power to the motor. The original switch has a safety shroud that does not fit my fingers and when the Emergency power switch became available, it became an answer to my problem.  The switch has only to be pushed down to actuate it, and locks in the Off position. To restore power, you have to turn the knob about a 1/4 turn.

Shaper Feed Ratchet Bushing: The feed mechanism on my small Logan Shaper was showing it's age. A new ratchet pawl was fabricated in an attempt to eliminate the intermittent operation problem. The new part helped but was not the solution. The ratchet case operated on the shaft with the cast iron housing to steel bearing surface and about 3/8-inch in width.  I bored out the housing and machined an Oilite bearing, with increased width, that was pressed into the housing.  Problem solved.

Shaper Casters and Support: When I lifted the Shaper off of my truck and set it down on the concrete floor, after a long trip home,  it was evident that a means of moving the little unit was necessary. Rolling it around on 1/2-in. steel pipe sections was not the answer and it is top heavy. After locating four casters of sufficient capacity and two sections of steel flat bar, I fabricated the two support bars. The bars are 1/2-in.x 3-in. steel with additional sections welded on the ends for the caster pads. This makes movement by one person easy.  The next problem was locking the casters. The unit came with four cast iron pads with waffle faced rubber pads. I used four large socket head cap screws with a rounded point to fit into the cast pads. The screws work in nuts that have been turned down on the outside, leaving a small shoulder, and pressed into holes drilled into the bars. This saves tapping the large holes manually. I could install lock nuts on the screws, but so far they have not been necessary.

The next meeting will be held on Saturday April, 10 2004 at the Collier Library 6200 Pinemont, Houston, TX at 1:00 p.m. Bring along a work in progress to show. Visit Our Home Page at homemetalshopclub.org

Right click below then select [Save Target As...]
From Netscape select [Save Link As..]
Microsoft Word version of this newsletter 132 KB