Tool Talk

G'day Shane,

did one of those things in another life, Standard 10 with with cut down Triumph Herald gearbox lever extension instead of the pudding stirrer, go on, who else is old enough to remember..... :tongue:

Pommie badge engineering was really handy at times.... :approve:

It's a job for corrugated cardboard first. Chopped, stapled and taped to get the right shape and then that expensive bit of plywood - or masonite if it's gotta be bendy. Seem to recall I ended up using tin for the bendy bits cos I didn't have to buy it.

It's all about planning, or, if you are like me, and planning doesn't work, mock-ups.

Doesn't really matter what it looks like as you're gonna cover it anyway - that's the part I found the hardest, as you need you be neat.... :rolleyes:

cheers,
Bob
 
bob said:
G'day Shane,

did one of those things in another life, Standard 10 with with cut down Triumph Herald gearbox lever extension instead of the pudding stirrer, go on, who else is old enough to remember..... :tongue:

Pommie badge engineering was really handy at times.... :approve:

It's a job for corrugated cardboard first. Chopped, stapled and taped to get the right shape and then that expensive bit of plywood - or masonite if it's gotta be bendy. Seem to recall I ended up using tin for the bendy bits cos I didn't have to buy it.

It's all about planning, or, if you are like me, and planning doesn't work, mock-ups.

Doesn't really matter what it looks like as you're gonna cover it anyway - that's the part I found the hardest, as you need you be neat.... :rolleyes:

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

yeah I did start with cardboard. The plastic quality in the shitbox ..... is nearly as good as a Citroen BX .... all this is falling to bits so I figured some plywood is the way to go. that way it doesn't matter if kids climb all over it ... and I'm not my usual "gentle self" :rolleyes:
 
G'day Shane,

for that "delicate" type cutting I always used a coping saw, or, now that I am retired and affluent, a scroll saw.

Scroll saws are great, even the Aldi one, lots of control - just don't sneeze whilst the blade is trapped as it's odds on you'll need a new blade.... :tongue:

cheers,
Bob
 
Magic cable finder for old mystery reveal "treasure hunt"..

seasink said:
I have never used anything but listening to tapping. I constructed some timber framed houses that way. Admittedly it helps to know how framing is done, so you have a fair idea where things should be before you start.
Click to expand...

Hah Seasink :):)

Upstairs, there is a lost set of cabling that was hung in a wall that was plastered over by the plasterers, but the electrician was crook on the fact the plasterers never pulled the ends of the cables through the board and he could not remember when they finished, where the installed cable started and finished as planned for a bathroom heat lamp and exhaust fan set up as well as two wall power points .

Most of the "finders" can find live cable, but not detect dead cable, I wondered if the one Bob bought might have that capability - it seems from Bob's test it cannot.:blackeye: :wink2:

I guess some smart tech will come up with a "lost cable finder" that just might solve the 1979 -80's lost cable mystery when we put the upstairs extension on our house. :nownow: or, maybe, I will just say what the hell and remove a panel or two of plaster to reveal all.:rolleyes:...or just leave it for the demolishers to find when the house is knocked down and a "new" townhouse or apartments are built on the corner block as will inevitably happen these days of urban re-development.:D

The latter seems the most likely....

Ken
 
bob said:
G'day Shane,

for that "delicate" type cutting I always used a coping saw, or, now that I am retired and affluent, a scroll saw.

Scroll saws are great, even the Aldi one, lots of control - just don't sneeze whilst the blade is trapped as it's odds on you'll need a new blade.... :tongue:

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

Stop tyring to convince me I need more stuff! .... I've never needed or wanted woodwork tools, but a scroll saw would be handy ............. :evil:
 
bob said:
G'day Shane,

did one of those things in another life, Standard 10 with with cut down Triumph Herald gearbox lever extension instead of the pudding stirrer, go on, who else is old enough to remember..... :tongue:

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

Me, for one Bob. In my apprentice days, my mate had a Super Standard 10, handed down from his grandfather. I guess they were mid-fifties vintage? I believe the difference was the Super had an opening boot, the base model one accessed the boot from inside, or was that the difference between the Standard 8 and 10?

Memories. It must have been around the popular time of "Thunderbirds" on TV, as I remember he called it the "Super Thunder Stinger Standard 10", or "Super Thunder" for short. Super Thunder served us well, took us everywhere for a couple of years. As an apprentice mechanic, mate (about 16 when he got it, and before I knew him) overhauled the engine, but something was wrong. It ran well but blew clouds of exhaust smoke, not joking one day it completely smoke-screened my Mum's street when we took it for a road test, laugh. He had about 20 spare sparkplugs in the glovebox, which we could change in about 10 minutes in the dark when it regularly dropped to only 2 cylinders. One of those times, we were on our way to a ball with our girlfriends, we were in suits, changing plugs in Perth CBD, no problem. Finally, we pulled the engine down completely and I found the problem. He had fitted new Repco rings, but hadn't read the bit "not to overlap the ends of the oil ring springy bits" so they had no wall tension. I think we just refitted them correctly and it was fine. Ah yes, what a car.

Sorry, we were talking about tools?

:cheers:
 
Ken, I was talking about stud finding. Tapping won't find a lost conductor.
 
G'day,

Fordman said:
Me, for one Bob. In my apprentice days, my mate had a Super Standard 10, handed down from his grandfather. I guess they were mid-fifties vintage? I believe the difference was the Super had an opening boot, the base model one accessed the boot from inside, or was that the difference between the Standard 8 and 10?.......
Click to expand...

spot on, the 8 was the poor man's version of the 10. Sliding windows, no boot lid, etc ....

Totally under-stressed motor, I had one with a hole in a bore, it was OK provided the radiator wasn't totally full... :D

The same block carried right through the 50's into the Herald series and onto the Spitfire, they tacked two more cylinders on to make the Vanguard 6 and Triumph 2000 - unfortunately, they didn't uprate the oil pump for the extra holes which made the front crankshaft bearing a long way away. Especially with Ryco filters and their ineffective anti drain back valves, must have killed lots of motors.

In original trim the poor little donk put out 20HP or so, Mk3 Spitfires got up to over 80HP, with tacked on bits - trouble was you could also do this at home with factory parts. Extractor exhaust, high lift cam, Mini Cooper pistons popping up into the gasket space, new inlet manifold for 1-1/2" SUs, etc.... a fire breathing Standard 10... with 8" drum brakes.... oops.... :blackeye:

cheers,
Bob
 
seasink said:
I have never used anything but listening to tapping. I constructed some timber framed houses that way. Admittedly it helps to know how framing is done, so you have a fair idea where things should be before you start.
Click to expand...

Or you could use a compass. Just need to know where the the wires begin, put some AC voltage into them (I imagine a non rectifying power brick - or take out the rectifiers/rectifying bridge - from a discarded laptop should do it) and find them that way.
 
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G'day Ken,

Kenfuego said:
.......I guess some smart tech will come up with a "lost cable finder" that just might solve the 1979 -80's lost cable mystery when we put the upstairs extension on our house.......
Ken
Click to expand...

a cable tracker may ? cheap enough, talk to RobMac. You need to be able to get to one end of the lost cable for signal injection though...

cheers,
Bob
 
Getting to the end, if you can find it.....

Originally Posted by bob
G'day Ken,

a cable tracker may ? cheap enough, talk to RobMac. You need to be able to get to one end of the lost cable for signal injection though...

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

Yes that was the basic problem my late lamented electrician mate had in those days, he had laid out the cabling for an upstairs set of new double power points and from them the wiring for the overhead bathroom heater, and exhaust fan - lots of cable behind the new plaster finish, just no visible end or circuit start point - apparently a plastering trick on the electrician to test his memory.. though to be fair they did create openings and pull through the cable for installation of many other power points - just not this circuit.

I did a repair on a plumbing leak under the WC hand basin, and removed half a sheet of plaster for that, but no sign of the missing circuit. The hand basin plumbing was a disaster, they ran the drain outside the plaster, bl@@dy ugly long plastic drain (to make it legal they said) Anyway I have got used to that, makes a sort of low towel rail and resting place for the toilet paper!:wink2:

Mind you I have worked with plumbers and actually installed the original ground floor hand basin drain myself! all copper drain and air vent concealed in the wall itself with just the U joint under the basin visible, but apparently the modern plastic piping plumbers can't work out how to do that:eek: - Did consider redoing their work on this one to conceal the piping - it can be done and comply with all plumbing specs.:wink2:

Sorry just an old whinge...won't get done now,:rolleyes: Gestalt is a wonderful thing - you get used to it and don't notice it!

I tell my good lady that is why I am so easy going...… as we both know.... just us old farts looking after our good ladies.... :D:D:wink2:

Ken
 
LPR toolmakers & Ken's cables

G'day,

just got to give these guys a plug.

I had a plumbing fitting that had to extracted from a rather tight hole, so tight that extraction wasn't nice to the threading on it.... :mad:

No worries, get a die from the draw and run up the thing to clean it up - nope, calipers and thread gauge tell it's 7/16" x 24tpi, what the.... Seems it's "common" on hydraulic fittings like brake lines and similar, even Amazon US has them on offer at $7-$8 [USD] !! plus crikey post and a few weeks wait maybe.

But, google tells me LPR has them, at $32 inclusive, and on the doorstep in two days.... :headbang:

Dunno why I didn't look in there first, these guys go to Lake Goldsmith with all sorts of strange and wonderful engineering tools twice a year - including the knowledge.... :approve:

https://www.lprtoolmakers.com.au/

Ken, your elusive cables might be findable with a Bosch scanner - there's one here that finds that much stuff I don't wanna know about it's confusing, nails 'n all.... it should, at least, easily find your steel GPO mounting plates that the sparkie nailed to the studs.

https://www.ebay.com.au/c/1604190021

read the book and practice first with know stuff - I'm an Aussie bloke and didn't do that, which does make things more difficult.... :tongue:

cheers,
Bob
 
Bob

Many years back LPR was just a small tent stall on the oval at the Bendigo Showground a few stalls away from where my mate Peter and I had our Market stalls. I recall buying some lathe tool holders, tool steel from Len, the business was just a dream in progress and each year at the Bendigo Swap, whenever I had a break I would head down and collect his latest photostat style catalogue, inevitably they got larger, prices a little higher and probably a glossy catalogue as well as the online product. I had a wish list of "stuff" to buy when I retired into a life of leisure.

Ken
 
yep, plumbing, nice tap for low pressure system...

Maybe not, comparing the pitch with one of those flexible hoses they have for the ceramic mixers it is the same, the mixer hose looking to be 1/2". Have to check the green shed, maybe there is a one of those hoses with a female 7/16" end in lieu of the 1/2" male end.... :)

Bob
 
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bob said:
yep, plumbing, nice tap for low pressure system...

Maybe not, comparing the pitch with one of those flexible hoses they have for the ceramic mixers it is the same, the mixer hose looking to be 1/2". Have to check the green shed, maybe there is a one of those hoses with a female 7/16" end in lieu of the 1/2" male end.... :)

Bob
Click to expand...

In actual fact, the thread of the fitting that screws in to the brass body of nearly all capsule type mixer taps is 10mm /1.0mm pitch. Taps are hard to come by. :)
 
bob said:
G'day,

just got to give these guys a plug.

I had a plumbing fitting that had to extracted from a rather tight hole, so tight that extraction wasn't nice to the threading on it.... :mad:

No worries, get a die from the draw and run up the thing to clean it up - nope, calipers and thread gauge tell it's 7/16" x 24tpi, what the.... Seems it's "common" on hydraulic fittings like brake lines and similar, even Amazon US has them on offer at $7-$8 [USD] !! plus crikey post and a few weeks wait maybe.

But, google tells me LPR has them, at $32 inclusive, and on the doorstep in two days.... :headbang:

Dunno why I didn't look in there first, these guys go to Lake Goldsmith with all sorts of strange and wonderful engineering tools twice a year - including the knowledge.... :approve:

https://www.lprtoolmakers.com.au/

Ken, your elusive cables might be findable with a Bosch scanner - there's one here that finds that much stuff I don't wanna know about it's confusing, nails 'n all.... it should, at least, easily find your steel GPO mounting plates that the sparkie nailed to the studs.

https://www.ebay.com.au/c/1604190021

read the book and practice first with know stuff - I'm an Aussie bloke and didn't do that, which does make things more difficult.... :tongue:

cheers,
Bob
Click to expand...

Ouch! From 8 US$ to 32 AUD, that's some exchange rate. Try AIMS industrial next time, they're in Sydney and much cheaper than LPR and have quality stuff, not chinese imports. Most likely their taps and dies are going to be a Sutton made in either NZ, Japan or Oz. You can also choose from carbon steel, HSS (most expensive) or Tungsten.

No affiliation, I just use them for machine tools.

They ship free for orders above 150$ too if that makes any difference (it does to me).

That said, I looked up your die and they don't have that one, but they might be able order it.
 
You are game Double Chevron, you must already have most of those tools duplicated in your shed (somewhere) or has Ange put you there in self isolation and you might risk the purchase!!

Good luck.

Ken
 
G'day,

schlitzaugen said:
Ouch! From 8 US$ to 32 AUD, that's some exchange rate. Try AIMS industrial next time, they're in Sydney and much cheaper than LPR and have quality stuff, not chinese imports. Most likely their taps and dies are going to be a Sutton made in either NZ, Japan or Oz. You can also choose from carbon steel, HSS (most expensive) or Tungsten.

No affiliation, I just use them for machine tools.

They ship free for orders above 150$ too if that makes any difference (it does to me).

That said, I looked up your die and they don't have that one, but they might be able order it.
Click to expand...

aha !! the man with stock wins every time, and, that $32 includes P&P.... :approve:

cheers,
Bob
 
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