Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: Z750Jay on August 15, 2014, 10:34:01 am
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As the Government has decided to scrap the ship I was up posed to be working on this month it has become a sort out the workshop month. Today was sorting out the taps and die box. Now you would expect a workshop that services the fleet of Her Majesty to have to best kit going.
Nope, we have a handful of metric taps and ties we actually use, BA with most of the small ones mission leaving the worlds supply of 0BA- we do use the BA sizes as aloof the pinky stuff has them. I also found a ton of UNC, UNF, BSF, BSP, and BSW with some of the taps having a manufacturing date of 1944!
Truly modern we are
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I have some metric taps if you get stuck....might have to go out to competitive tendering first, I can talk to my mate about putting in a ridiculously high bid to borrow his first, or you could borrow one of my boats for a while free gratis....might have a gold pen knocking about I could 'accidentally' leave on your desk if it helps your decision :-))
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%) Over the years I have gained from many flea markets and secondhand tool stalls a lot of drills,taps and dies, some of which date to before the war,the drills have have been sharpened so many time they are getting short,the quality of which is far better than the Chinese type you can buy today, the only trouble is that I have been to lazy to sort them out in sizes,Ray. %)
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As a pinky many years ago, I kept all my BA gear
0 to 10 spanners, taps dies and thread gauges.
Funnily enough, my Marblehead and IOM yachts
rigging use BA fittings so I have the gear for any
work needed.
Ned
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Ex Greeny myself. The main problem I have is the 3 previous dockies who had my bench were also "oh shiney, that will come in handy" types. I kept finding stuff. Everyone seems to of just shoved everything into a toolbox and stowed it under a bench and started again.
Heck, I even have a 12 BA tap and die. I did not even know they went that small!
Naturally the one thing I wanted to find in all this lot, a M4 tap was not there.
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For us ignoramuses -
Could somebody explain what pinkys and greenys are exactly?
(and shinys - but I can guess what that refers to)
Richard
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Greeny is a term for an RN electrical branch member as Electrical Officers wore a
green stripe between the gold rings of rank.
Pinky was a slightly derogative term for the Radio/Radar sub branch.
This was back in the good old days.
Now I think they are all Weapons Branch.
Ned
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Wow, 12BA taps and dies if I remember right there was a guy who wanted a 10BA tap but the smallest he could get was 8BA, if I remember I used 12BA nuts and bolts to mount my E.D. bee diesel motor in the 1960s, I have a set but that only goes down to 8BA so 12BA is really tiny, Ray.
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I remember I used 12BA nuts and bolts to mount my E.D. bee diesel motor in the 1960s,
Ray
My ED Bee used 6BA bolts through 7/64" holes in the mounting lugs. 12BA would have gone straight through!
Dave M
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:-)) Sorry about that the memory plays tricks at times,just seemed small to a young lad,then 12BA must be really small,Ray. %)
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Greenies (manly electrics) and Pinkies (Girly electrics) are now lumped in to one 'technical branch'. Basically means they now know nothing technical at all.
Sooooooo glad I got out when I did as the lack of technical skills is scary
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>:-o Same thing every where all reduced to the lowest denominator,skills are dying out and what we have left with is what I call the snap on brigade,Ray. >:-o
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I did a five year apprenticeship as a toolmaker in the days when we had a manufacturing industry. Gradually firms became run by accountants instead of engineers, which meant 'badge engineering' - just buying kit from abroad and sticking a badge on it for a quick mark up that financial year. No R&D. No real manufacturing. The industry gradually died.
There were over 2,000 in my firm that made thermostatic controls. Everything, including tiny screws, was all made in house. 12BA was a commonly used size back then. I am surprised we are not on Chinese thread sizes these days.
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Even worse, on the types 45's it's OEM maintained so the lads and ladettes are not allowed to touch stuff if they wanted. And to make it even better, the ships are built so cheaply most of the OEM are now out of business! We had to bodge a repair to one of the ships galley as even though we have a complete galley in a store, the dockyard and Navy are not allowed to fit it as we got them cheap on the condition that only the manufacturer is allow to fit them.
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Chinese being switched on use metric thread. Next week I have the joy of sorting out our drill collection.
2000 + mostly blunt drills not in the size you want.
Still, without the skill fade in the RN I would not have a job.
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On a recent visit of a T45 to this fair City, it was pointed out to me that the starboard door at the stern was missing. Apparently, it had been removed by heavy seas down south. They had, at that point, not been able to replace it, because the manufactures have gone out of business; in its place was a stout piece of plywood. I was given to understand that this is a common problem when spares are required on the T45's.
LB
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Yep, that happens a lot. Lucky my workshop is a treasure trove of parts so we can keep the fleet kind of ready to go to sea if they have the money or crew for it. Currently most of the fleet is undermanned by 8% and these ships are leaned manned anyway
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My last BIG ship was Eagle in 1967.
2700 crew enough to man most of the
'fleet' today %%
Ned
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They will be victualling the ships we have left at Tesco
to get the fuel discount next. >>:-(
Ned
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Am I missing something here.
Major Galley meltdown in the Med.
Sorry lads and ladesses
Sarnies till Kitchens R us can fix it
in Pompey next November :D
Ned
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What ship are they scrapping?, was at the naval yard on Monday and saw D34 (type 45) and another poking its head over the buildings in the distance, with illustrious proudly parked near the old girl victory. start of rant - for a historic ship why did they cut a hole through one of the gun ports to create the exit - sacralidge.