Leaderboard

For the last few months I have been medically chair bound with the exception of odd forays to the garages and workshop to find things. Father Christmas was very good to me giving me a comfy office chair, an LED head torch and a Drill Doctor drill sharpener. My new lockdown past time is sitting at the kitchen table in my comfy chair ,my headlight beaming away and my drill sharpener on the table in front of me. Over 50 years of workshopping I have somehow amassed a huge collection of drill bits , some were my Father's , Rhys gave me a pile of Morse tapered lathe drills but most I have bought when embarking on a new project. Although I am quite capable of sharpening drill bits ,it has not been a regular workshop maintenance task and consequently it was quicker to buy some new drills rather than sort out and sharpen old ones, UNTIL NOW ! The drill Doctor machine will cope with drills from 1mm ( if you are careful ) up to 3/4" . The drill bit is set in a chuck which aligns the flutes to produce a point angle of 118 - 135 degrees with minor up or down variation. The chuck is then slotted into a holding socket above the diamond grinding wheel to be rotated slowly by hand, two turns will dress up a tired drill to new, 10 turns will restore a broken drill. The machine was not cheap but works extremely well, will cater for split point drills and masonry bits, clean working ,not too noisy and a nice way to spend a few hours in the warm recycling useful things. I would certainly never have stood at the grinder for many hours hand sharpening hundreds of drill bits. I have now ordered a couple of graded drill bit holders so that I can again sit at the table and sort out all the sizes and then give a couple of sets to my sons. I recently bought a spring caliper guage for measuring valve shims and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it can display in mm / inches and also fractions of inches so I can now identify some of the odd sized tapping drills I have. That should take up a few hours maybe I will improve my set up with my headlamp and some wireless earphones tuned in to Planet Rock!

Its that time of year to do a bit of maintenance on the E tank as all the time its quietly removing rust the anodes are being eaten away - so today was the day. As you will see, they've been hard at work and it was time to put some old gang mower and triple bottom blades to good use.

I'm always grateful Alan and thanks. If the Topic/thread provides interest and something to read/look at being produced, then it has served it's purpose. Interests vary and is always good to see them all in material forms such as on this Forum, irrespective of varying skill levels and subjects. Reckon you're right Norm. They are obscured by the wheels. Only needed a few thousands of an inch variation on the flatness of the retaining plate while heating up for the lettering to be able to shift. Humbled John. Thanks. Learned to love the qualities of metals and lucky to have lots of patience. Things take me a long time to do, what with learning as I go. A project to me is loads of smaller projects which combine to make a finished one, hence the slow pace. Happy with the progress and the finished item is in sight Regards Well I somehow endured the low temperatures and managed to get some colour on this Water Cart. Matt finish is important as it seems to improve the appearance of a model this size. I had to use 2 different primers, one on the metal parts and another on the wood. Top coat went on fine with only a few undesirable bits in it which were easy to remove after. I used my 45 year old Badger 200 Airbrush, which had done many Murals on Car and Van panels back in the 1970s and still going strong- Once dry, I was able to pick out the raised lettering in yellow, a challenge with a tiny 6 bristled sable brush and an Eye Glass, while holding my breath to keep my hand steady- Currently a partial assembly to keep the bits together and dust free- Colour variations are due to available light, but the last image is what the colour is by eye. Valve internal parts now fitted. Matt varnish for top coat is on order. Currently dulling off the shiny wheel rims using acid to etch the finish. Regards

I bought a basic Martek Drill Sharpener back in 1986, attaches to an electric drill and fixed into a drill holder back in that period. Only covered bits from 1/8" upwards. Still have it, but not used much. I tend to dispose of, or sharpen by hand, any bits under 1/8" and use only for wood after. Although I was successful in hand sharpening 2 off 1/32" drill bits after I broke them while working on my latest project. To be on the safe side, I started the hole with a good one, then followed up with the sharpened one and went fine with no issues. Winter 'clips my wings' with projects due cold workshop and other priorities. Like you're having to do, I do much of small work on the table in the warmer conditions. The other thing keeping me busy is learning the secrets of a different OS from Windows to MacBook Pro after 15 years using Microsoft.

A couple of issues of Popular Mechanics magazine from 1970 arrived today They are of interest because they contain small articles on the Otline model 249 hedge trimmer and the Amp Champ generator. Information sourced from David (factory)s post on this forum

Both supplied by Orline products, I guess these would match the pictures in the articles (neither are mine). David

With the under dash wiring done I could now finish the carpeting of the bulkhead, side panels and floor. When I initially started in 2006 I removed the gearbox cover which was made of moulded hard rubber and had broken in 3 pieces but I was going to make a mould from it and do one in fibreglass but in the meantime it had fallen off a shelf and was now in a hundred pieces. A modified one was made from aluminium and made it a lot easier to carpet. The vinyl edging around the carpeting is wider than I would have liked but the rubber backing just cracks and the carpet splits if you sew too close to the edge, I didn't have this trouble with the hessian backed stuff I used on the Carlton. The bulkhead and the side panels with air conditioning facility - no fuses required! then renovated front seats fitted The new front brake cylinders and shoes along with the new hubs and bearings were next The tyres were all different makes and sizes and well over 50 years old so new 5.50 x 16 Blockley tyres tubes and tube protectors were ordered, the wheels sand blasted and powder coated to prevent damaging the new tubes. The original colour had been cream then repainted yellow and I couldn't decide whether to go black to match the body, green to match the interior but in the end decided to go with silver. Not far to go now but we still have the engine saga.

Finally got around to cleaning up the Aquabug cover that my mate got mended for me Its now in the display next to the machine, I still think it looks better without the cover so am leaving it off for now...

In 1963 when we got the car the old man repaired the join between the front and rear wins with a couple of plates as we didn't have any welding gear at that time and there was also a lot of corrosion on the front wings where the headlamp support bolted through to a bracket under the wing. Once the wings were removed the extent of the corrosion became apparent and new metal from a half sheet of 20 SWG mild steel I had left over from a previous project was formed and welded in. Not a perfect job but blends in well with the 'patina' of the rest of the wings, the corrosion around the headlamp support was a bit more extensive and a double curved piece was formed on a sandbag and carefully welded in to prevent buckling. A quick grind down, thin skim of filler, sanded, primed and given a quick spray of cellulose with an air brush and an acceptable finish was achieved. A new bracket under the wing had to be made as the old one had more holes than it did metal The running board strips had also been replaced by wooden ones in 1963 and the wings were full of holes from previous repairs to the strips but by carefully placing new ones I was able to hide nearly all of them because welding them all up would have corrugated the running boards and I didn't want to try sorting that out. The wings were now firmly attached to the body which in turn was firmly attached to the chassis and in the future if someone wishes to restore it to concours condition there is enough originality left to do so.

I made an aluminum base plate based on DustyB's picture provided. Thanks again DustyB! I used an old scrap speed limit sign I had and cut it out of that. Believe it or not, I was able to find locally, NOS 10-32 Palnuts. It was an all or none purchase so now I have around 80-100 of these... I was not able to find any feet that were close to original so I decided to use what I had, and since I have extra Palnuts, I used them as fasteners on the feet as well. Not correct as original, but it all matches nicely and I think it looks good...

I don't think I'd worry about the letters that have moved, Richard. Doubt anyone will notice if you don't tell them.

I'm running out of suitable complimentary words Richard.