[Thad E Ginathom]

Drill Bits I Have Known And Loved...

I guess I went into the shop and asked for something really small. It says 76 on the tube...



I got the vernier caliper because I'd gone into the shop for some sort of gauge which was ridiculously expensive and realised I could get this multi-purpose tool for less. I'm a little bit OK with thousandths, not that jewellery ever needed measurements like that, but have never managed to get any feel at all for metric small stuff.

Excuse the intrusion

[Jeroen]

Just thinking inch/letter makes my brain, look at these horrible tables:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_bit_sizes

I will stick to metric!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Drill Bits I Have Known And Loved...

I guess I went into the shop and asked for something really small. It says 76 on the tube...
)

What did you pay for it? Thruppence, I imagine?

Not sure it would fit into any of my chucks? Maybe the Dremel!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

HaHa, I'. not that old! Decimalisation (currency) happened before I even left home. But I doubt it was much. And they had only few left, so I bought them and they gave me the little screw-capped aluminium tube they were in. Now I have three, and I don't know if they would fit the Dremel even. I used to have a jeweller's flexible-drive pendant motor. And before that, an archimedian hand drill (I think it's called).

[sandeepmohan]

A cable that is hardly under stress or tension, I find it surprising that they can snap. Sounds like the usual joys of owning an Italian motor car.

The last time I had a cable fail on me was on my Yezdi motorcycle. Fortunately; they had some good design going on in the gearbox (probably derived from Jawa), that allowed you to keep the clutch engaged while holding onto the play on the gear shifter, so that saved you from being stranded. Heck; these steel cables never snapped on my Enfield. Probably due to timely replacements or improved part quality.

[Jeroen]

My drill bits arrived by mail earlier today whilst I was away cycling. As soon as I came home, I picked up my new drill bits and went into my garage.

I need to recheck my order. Either I, or they goofed up. Some sizes missing and some size double!



Anyway, drill bit in my chuck and some drilling to 7.4 mm eventually.



Here you can see the inside of the knee protecter. You can see the part of the hinge. I took it off as it is this very bit that needs inserting into the part I am fabricating



Left the part in the lathe, just in case and stuck the hinge bit in. Perfect fit!



On these old Spider you do come across jobs not that well done by the previous owner(s). This particular hinge was held in place with two odd screws. So I replace the odd one for a nice new shiny one, from one of my many part boxes.





This part I am making, a bushing, fits into a bracket underneath the dashboard. It needs to machined to the exact diameter of the hole in the bracket. The diameter of the hinge pin 7,4 mm and the diameter of the hole in the bracket is 8,3mm. Which does not leave a hole lot of material.



I had decided to drill first and then turn the down the outside diameter. Once that was at 8,3mm I cut the piece off. As the wall of the tubular parts is quite thin, it actually sheared off a bit:



No problem though, it did not damage anything. Here you see the old damaged/perished parts and my freshly new machined part. First project on my Lathe finished!



Just needed to install it all:

Here you see it fitted into the bracket:



With the hinge inserted. The other hinge is not fitted yet, so it shows a bit of play:



All done, looks perfect again! Note the emergency bonnet release wire



All covered up again.



This was a very simple job on the lathe. And I still learned a lot. But this is the sort of simple jobs I got the lathe (and the mini mill) for. On older cars, these are the sort of bits that break, wear and you might not be able to get replacements. So I can make them myself!

Jeroen

[Sutripta]

Best not to grip the drill bit on the flutes.

Regards
Sutripta

[Jeroen]

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, 22oC, sunny. Time to take the Spider for a little tour. We like touring around the area we live in. Very rural, very pretty, very Dutch. We did about 80km and at no point were we more than 25 km from home.



We took a little picnic and stopped halfway. Windmill in the background, open meadows and little canals in front of us. With ducks building nests!

[Jeroen]

I spend most of my Easter Monday behind my lathe. I have started on my second little project. A tap follower. I got the design fromtoly dukhovny, known as Tubalcain on Youtube. Very simple, very straightforward. Or so I thought.





Converted the inch measures to metric mm.

The problem was I have not been behind a lathe for such a long time. So I keep forgetting to take certain things into consideration. One thing is that the largest diameter on this tool is 16 mm and the only steel round bar I have is 40 mm. Also, I had not realised, 40mm round bar will not fit through the spindle.

So I had to take a hack saw to it. Makes for good exercise, working away all those calories of the chocolate easter eggs!



Then I had a problem. My lathe would not start! Checked the mains, the plugs, the fuse on the lathe. Just as I was about to take the lathe apart, I noticed the Chuck Guard still open Duh, safety feature! On the lathes I worked we did not have these



I decided to square of one side of the round bar first





Next, drill a hole for the tailstock centre piece







So I had to bring 40 mm to about 17mm, which was slow going. But I did give me a lot of time to experiment with different speeds and cut depths.







I found under 30 mm diameter I could make a 0,25 mm cut (so 0,5mm diameter) easily. Using a bit of cutting oil I could do a little more

Had to change out the jaw chucks to hold my part.







Same approach, square off, drill, turn







So now I had a nice round bar of 17 mm straight. Next I decided to drill the hole. i don’t have the final drill bit of 9,5 mm. I started with 3mm, then 6mm. I have ordered some more drill bits and also some round bar 10, 20, 30 mm.





So far so good. This little lathe is a bit slow going, partly hampered by inaptitude of course. But it was fun and I learned / regained some knowledge on how to set up and operate a lathe again.

I did think about personal safety. Wore goggles all the time, no watch, bracelet, rings. No gloves and no sleeves! As Blondihack keeps saying. This lathe is out to kill you!

In between I also started on the Spider boot emergency release. Just opened up the bits that are in the way to see what it looks like and what I might need. Another trip to the bicycle shop most likely to get a few things



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Last night I finished the first part of my tap follower. It is also the first piece I made from steel on my lathe. All in all, I am sort of pleased how it turned (pardon the pun) out. The finish is fine. I did have some problems, mainly due to my inexperience on how to set up the part in the lathe for the various cuts.

Also, for some reason drilling the hole, did not as smoothly as hoped. At one point the drill bit managed to get stuck, so there is some marking inside. Not sure if that is going to be a problem.







I still need to drill a hole in the neck of it and tap M4 thread though.

Today I am expecting delivery of my stock of round bar. The next part, is about 9 mm diameter and I really don’t want to have to make that from my original 40mm round bar. I have ordered 10 mm, amongst others, so that should be a lot quicker and easier.

To be continued.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

I did think about personal safety. Wore goggles all the time, no watch, bracelet, rings. No gloves and no sleeves! As Blondihack keeps saying. This lathe is out to kill you!

All the youtube machinists stress this. I'd be more afraid of a mill, which just goes to show that perception of risk, by the uninformed, is not much help to us.

I learned this lesson from a woodworker, who told me, everybody is afraid of the circular saw, because they can see its teeth, and when that blade is moving, it is perceptibly scary. On the other hand, nobody feels like that about power planers, where the cutters are moving so fast they don't look dangerous at all, but coming into contact with them is very, very nasty.

There is another youtuber, whose videos are more like old-fashioned training. A bit too much for me, as I am not actually doing it. But I'll post the name/channel if I find it. But as you used to do machining, I imagine that most of this knowledge is getting re-awakened in your head now.

[Jeroen]

A little simple job I thought. Still, it took me almost the whole Saturday afternoon to fix it! Emergency boot release on the Spider. It all looks very simple, but it was an endless struggle getting the various (and few!) bits in place. Threading the outer cable through, getting the inner cable in etc.

I also found out my previously purchased cables were too short! Regular inner/outer brake cable for a bicycle is 1,70m. Which I thought would be plenty, but it was in fact about 20 cm short. So back to the bicycle store. Luckily he sold outer cable by the meter as well and a rear brake cable for a tandem was 2,70m!

Here you see how I attached it to the actual boot locking mechanism



I made a similar loop to pull it from as with the emergency bonnet release cable. This one is now behind the driver side, down in the bottom. Out of sight.



Bit of drilling for some of the parts





I also had a look at the little door for the fuel lid. It also has a cable release. But I can easily access that from within the boot if it ever snaps.

One thing I had to remove to get all of this installed was the CD changer for which I had milled new brackets earlier. Took me almost an hour to get it back in place. Only four screws, but they go through two layers of carpets. And as I had been messing with the carpets, nothing would line up. So very frustrating, but I managed to get it fitted back in finally able to line up all the original holes with little pins.

Bit of tidying up afterwards. I have various bits of inner/outer and other parts left. We have these great plastic bags with a zipper lock from Ikea. They come in very handy for storing parts. But don’t tell my wife!



I also acquired another engine tester / analyser. I have an add in one of the Dutch classic car magazines. If you subscribe, you can place adds for free. I put an add in requesting people who have any information about my other engine analyser/tester Souriau to contact me. I had forgotten about that add. I have found the man that knows everything already. But the add is still there. Got a mail from a gentleman asking me if I was interested in buying his old engine analyser/tester. We had a bit of correspondence.

He had a 1938 Rover P2, 6 cilinder which he recently sold, but still has a Topolino from 1949. Nice cars. We exchanged quite a few mails. In the end he sold me his Actron tester for a very reasonable price. Comes equipped with a very comprehensive manual too. So I have to figure out this one too!



Today we are touring in the Jaguar. A friend of ours has made some baby clothes for our grand child to be. We are picking them up and then taking them over to our daughter and son in law. Its nice weather, so we can sit and meet in their garden. We don’t want to go into their house due to the corona virus at this point in time.

I had mentioned before I think the W123 is ever so slightly pulling to the right. I called my pal Johan and asked for his advice. He has brought me in contact with some very professional car people before. He advised me to go to a shop in Leerdam. About 15 minutes from here. So I have made an appointment to have the W123 aligned later this week. I hope that’s what wrong with it. I can do without another major suspension job like on the Spider.

I also got this letter from the RDW (the Dutch equivalent to the DMV). It is a reminder to have the MOT or APK as we call it, renewed on the Spider before 27th of May 2020. Due to its age, the Spider only requires a bi-annual MOT/APK. These letters arrive digitally. Everything to do with the government, taxes and this sort of thing, is completely automated and digitised in the Netherlands. So you have your own “Government/Authorities mail box and they send all letters, correspondence to it, rather then by regular mail. Very convenient.

Forgetting to renew becomes expensive very quickly. As all these systems are automated you will be fined automatically if you don’t renew in time. Quite a fine too, Euor 250-300 or there about I believe. Only if you, officially, take your car of the public road, do you not need a MOT/APK. Can be arranged online as well, but it cost money per month/year. And you can’t drive your car during that period obviously. But it works well if you are doing long term restoration for instance.

So I will call Goof this week and make an appointment



Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

There is another Youtuber, whose videos are more like old-fashioned training. A bit too much for me, as I am not actually doing it. But I'll post the name/channel if I find it. But as you used to do machining, I imagine that most of this knowledge is getting re-awakened in your head now.

I hadn't subscribed and found it hard, but found it: THATLAZYMACHINIST.

His website tutorials page

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I hadn't subscribed and found it hard, but found it: []

Many thanks Thad. Looks very interesting. My order of some round bar has been delayed. I hope to receive it in the next couple of days, so I can finish my Tap follower!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Last night, finally, the new roundbar I ordered arrived! So I can finish my tap follower lathe project in the days to come.

Spanner mate Peter and I have taken an initiative for our Dutch Alfa Romeo Spider Register, I mentioned before. On May 9th we will hold the first ARSR virtual technical meeting!

We have organised endless technical meetings in the distant past. And scattered around this thread you will find some examples of some of these meetings with the Spider, Jaguar and Mercedes clubs.

These days the Spider Technical meetings are often combined with Peter offering his valuation services to our members. Because that is what Peter does this days; Appraise/value classic cars.

It must have been at least 12 years or more since we organised anything for the Spider Register. We were very active for 12-15 years, from the mid 90s till 2009 when I left for the USA. But it nice to do something again.

Peter has prepared a very interesting story about the valuation of classic cars. I have put together a presentation around doing all sorts of DIY jobs on your Spider. In fact all images and examples I am using are from this very thread.

Last night Peter and I did our first dry run. Testing to see how the presentation look like on different screens. So I had my PC, Mac and iPad all hooked into the Zoommeeting.



At work I am using Skype, but mostly Microsoft Teams. Which is actually working really well and very convenient. For these sort of general/hobby video calls I do prefer Zoom. It is very convenient and intuitive. Even my wife, who no disrespect, is the most computer illiterate in the world, managed to get going with Zoom on her iPad and her PC all by herself. Zoom can be used for free. But if you conduct calls with lots of people it will disconnect after 40 minutes. As we use it to stay in touch with our kids, I have taken up a monthly subscription, about Euro 12 / month. And that means I can now organise these video calls for up to 100 people for any amount of duration.

The one downside all these video calls have: As part of my day job, when not travelling and I have not travelled at all this year, I am spending all my hours behind my work PC. And now because of this Corona virus, I am spending all my spare time behind my personal Mac, attending even more virtual meetings!

The announcement of our first virtual technical meeting went out a few days ago. We have decided to limit the number of participants to 30 only. We want to make sure people can ask question, have a bit of a discussion and with more that might become problematic. The 30 places were taken up within 24 hours. So we will probably plan a repeat session.

I might have mentioned before: I am running a little add in one of the Dutch classic car magazines I subscribe to. It is asking readers any information they might have about the Souriau Tester / analyser. It is a free service if you have a subscription, so I thought I would give it a go.



Earlier somebody contacted me and offered me another tester/analyser which I also bought, see a few post earlier. A couple of days ago a gentleman contacted me. He had the original Dutch manual of the very same model Souriau as mine. So I bought it of course. Turns out he is a classic car nut too, he has several cars in several stages of restoration. And he lives nearby, only a twenty minute drive from us. So we have agreed to meet once this lock down eases of.

Yesterday the manual arrived as well. I am very pleased with it. Very clear instructions on how to proceed with each type of measurement!





I am still waiting on our new friend Leo Andriessen to let me know whether he could finally fix the Souriau. I don’t want to press him. He is busy enough with his company and the Corona virus. No hurry.

Tomorrow I will be taking the Mercedes W123 to get a wheel alignment. Fingers crossed that will solve the slight pull to the right I have noticed the last few months.

Jeroen