Model Engineers’ Workshop – July 2019

July 2019 27

Readers’ Letters

Grinding Rest

Healthy Cutting Oil?

Bombe

Happy Reader

Dear Neil, I recollect seeing an article in MEW published in the last
few years with drawings for constructing a lathe tool grinding rest
for a bench grinder that could be built using only hand tools.
I should be most grateful if you would kindly excuse my senility
and point me at the right issue.

MC Black, by email

My suspicion is that the item you have in mind is Harold Hall’s
grinding rest, last published in the 25 year special in 2015. A
google search should easily fi nd details of this on Harold’s
website. Readers may also wish to suggest their favourite
grinder designs from over the years – Neil.

Dear Neil ... and I thought I was alone! Writing in, Scribe A Line, Peter
Peters from Sherbourne says how he recycles old extra virgin olive
oil as a cutting oil. I’ve been using cooking oil for years. My choice
is cheap cooking oil, the sort that is high in polyunsaturates and
considered less ideal for various reasons. I have to say that, so far,
the metal does not seem to care!

Stephen White, by email.

Dear Neil, MEW No.281 shows on the cover Bletchley Park’s Bombe

in action.

As Dutch reader I had not heard about this museum and did

not know the bombe codebreaking calculator. On page 56 more

information is given, but I wonder how it was working?

Can you give me an explanation.

Henk Salij, Ridderkerk, Netherlands

I’m afraid the best I can do is refer you to the English Wikipedia

article, which is rather tough going! I’m afraid the Dutch article

has no technical content. – Neil

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

Dear Neil,

I have always enjoyed some part of MEW but no 281 is the fi rst that

I have read and enjoyed from front to back.

You and your contributors are to be congratulated on producing

such a great read.

Adrian Seal, by email

My Interests

Hello Neil, I have joined the SMEE , and registered for the

digital group. I may be wrong , but sections of our hobby

appear to be reaching out strongly into electronics and CAD.

You asked about hobbies in a recent issue. My activities in

music (keyboard) have led to the recent construction of a 2

metre tall Voigt tapered pipe PA speaker but this is esoteric!

However I am busy with a spare time research project

involving a small Stirling engine received as a Christmas

present:

• Solar absorber for the hot end


• Evaporative cooler for cold end
  (Both using water and tiny centrifugal pumps)


• Data capture using a Velleman (Belgian) K8055N
  experimenters board


• Control and measurement using Abacom’s Profi lab
  Expert graphical programming tool. This avoids all code
  writing , and creates a cool graphical user interface.

Glyn Craig, South Africa