Begin with Bogs

I suppose I had better start off by introducing myself, and explaining why John invited me to post on his site.

My name is also John, and I heard somewhere that it is a very old name and roughly means ‘Gift of God’.

I can assure you now, I am far from it. Just an overweight 6ft chappie, who has a passion to pass on my experiences without all the technical jargon normally associated with someone who has a lot of experience in Model Engineering.

Because it would mean that there would be two Johns (one is enough for any site), I have decided to go with a shortened version of the name I normally use on the web when posting to technical sites, which is Bogs.

The full web name I use is Bogstandard, and people call me all sorts of names in relation to it, Bogs (preferred), Bogsie, Boglet , in fact almost any name you can come up with. Bogstandard has a general meaning here in the UK, and that is ‘nothing special’, ‘uninteresting’, ‘run of the mill’ or even ‘normal’, and that is how I prefer to be seen, just a person that is nothing special, except in this case, I have a wealth of information I would like to pass onto you, without going into technical jargon, just basic things explained in basic ways that should be able to be understood by the layperson. People have said that I have a natural talent to convey difficult procedures, through the use of quickie freehand sketches, and layman’s text, to a format that is very easily understood by the not too technical people amongst us. So John invited me to see if I could help to explain a few things on this website for ‘Newbies’. We will have to see if I can live up to his expectations.

I am no-one special, other than I have come through it all the hard way. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. I don’t have letters after my name (I could if I wanted to), all they mean to me is that someone has done a lot of reading, and I have a passion of hatred for people who spout formulae and numbers without the practical knowledge to back it up. Reading about it is good, doing it is even better; I personally think 25% reading to 75% practical would be a good ratio for a learning regime. Read about it, then do it.

I will, during these little posts, be concentrating on lathe and milling machines, plus of course small bench machines such as grinders and buffing machines, purely because that is what most people aspire to owning for their own workshop. For other machinery, it takes you away from the ‘Newbie’ status of this site, and as such, even though I have experience in most workshop machinery use, you will only ever get fleeting coverage, if ever.

You will all have large learning curves to climb. I am hoping that my pointy stick will get you over the hump without too much pain.

Enough about me, let’s get on with the job in hand, and try to explain a few things.

What is a Model Engineer?

I suppose, because you are reading this, you think you are a model engineer, or someone who wants to become one.

Wikipedia defines it in its opening paragraph as

Model engineering is the hobby of constructing machines in miniature. There is some debate about the appropriateness of the term. Some say that all ‘engineers’ should be professionally qualified as such; however, the historic meaning of ‘engineer’ is one who constructs or tends engines, and as such is a fitting epithet for those who make working models as a hobby.

I personally have to disagree with certain parts of that statement. I don’t think model engineering can be defined so easily, all because it covers such a multitude of skills and specialized techniques, coupled with the desire to make something with your hands, be it a freelance model of a bamboo raft to a perfect scale replica of a world famous engineering feat.

Model Engineering, or ME, just to save my typing finger, has a worldwide following, from the eminent person in the public spotlight, to the adventurous youngster straightening out a nail using a brick as a hammer, and everyone else in between. I think, wanting to make something with your hands, using either hand or machine tools qualify you to call yourself a model engineer. I will be concentrating on the machinery side of things, unless a bit of handwork needs to be described.

Also, please remember, ladies should not be discounted, thinking it is only a male dominated pastime. My hero is a Lady (a real Lady, after being honored for her work in ME) called Cherry Hill, who produces masterpieces of perfect scale models that are admired all over the world, and are used as reference pieces for budding engineers throughout our university system. So it really does allow the whole spectrum of people to become MODEL ENGINEERS.

To get the boring stuff out of the way first, I think I will continue on my next offering by trying to keep you all safe and in one piece. The most important thing in engineering, workshop safety.

Whys and Wherefores

So what made you want to turn perfectly good metal into scrap? Because that is what you will be doing in the beginning.

Maybe you saw an engine somewhere, and you got the urge to make one, if you are into say models boats, you think you can make yourself all those fittings that just aren’t available. These are just a couple of examples, and people will have all sorts of reasons to get into ‘Model Engineering’.

I will tell you now, starting out in machining metal can become so addictive, that it will be a worse habit than smoking or even drug taking. It can very easily take over your life, you can end up living, breathing and spending every last penny you have in the pursuit of it.

I will try to keep you down to earth, and lay it all out in front of you. That way, you can make your own decisions and hopefully you will not make the mistakes that befall a lot of people who try to ‘go it alone’.

Start small, and grow with your new found hobby. EBay gets full of people selling off nearly new machines because they thought this was for them. They went out, loaded their credit cards up with thousands of pounds worth of machinery and tooling, only to find, it isn’t as easy as they thought, and after a while struggling, they give up, and sell all the expensive equipment they have bought for only a percentage of what they paid for it. DO NOT MAKE THAT MISTAKE.

Opening the Box

So you have chosen your lathe, whether large or small, that choice must be yours and yours alone.

You are the only on who can make that decision.

Take advice by all means, and ask about, to see what others think about the machine you are looking at. No machine will ever be perfect, so expect a few negative results as well. What is acceptable to one person; isn’t to another.

Don’t get caught up with ‘home grown iron’ and ‘heavier is always better’ brigade. You can easily become the owner of an old heap of worn out junk that will take years of work, and lots of pennies to get to a fully functioning and accurate state. You only get what you pay for. In the second hand old iron market, that can easily end up as way too much. Buy a well restored one by all means, but people who have restored a machine, will know exactly what they have, and how much it has cost them over the years, so don’t expect to get it cheap. Just be careful.

Another item to consider is the cost of the bits to be able to use your new machine

You MUST add on at least another 50% of the machines cost to buy the necessary tooling to be able to do a half decent job of work.

This brings us very nicely onto the next part.

You have made your choice of say a very popular model, the mini lathe. This isn’t a recommendation, just an example.

You dive in, smash open the box, and drag the grease covered machine onto a bench, what next?

After getting the machine cleaned down (WD40 or white spirits, does a reasonable job on getting the grease off) you expect to be able to use the machine. WRONG

You can plug it in, and after checking that nothing or anyone is going to come to harm, you can turn the machine on and play about just to make sure everything works OK, but on no account try cutting anything with it.

These machines are made down to a price, so that when they are made in say China, they are only assembled, mostly by unskilled labour, and are not set up for use. That great job falls into your hands.

If a retailer was to set the machine up for you to be in a ready to run state, you would be expected to pay another 200 to 300 squid for that to be carried out, and besides, doing it all yourself, you get to know the ins and outs of your machine.

I can’t show or explain what you have to do, that only comes with experience, but half an hour setting up the gibs (jibs) on your machine will go a long way towards you becoming an expert.

You have to twiddle screws so that eventually, you get the sliding bits running free, but at the same time have no side to side or up and down play.

So I am going to leave it there, with you in limbo, with a machine you can’t use.

Don’t worry; I will soon be back to give you a few hints and tips. In the meantime, go out and spend some more of your hard earned cash on lubrication for your machine. Slideway oil is a must, as is a general purpose lubricating oil, a litre of each will be fine for now, and if you are really flush, buy a tub of general purpose grease as well. £20 spent now, will save having to buy a new machine in a couple of years time.

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/Chronos_Catalogue_Oils__Lubricants___Adhesives_etc_124.html