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Hmmmm I hadn't thought of buying ready made gears, or even considered it as a possibility. I'll check the dimensions and see if there's something in the catalog that will do the job. I presume I...

Having repaired and re-commissioned our old MARS Atlas lathe (with help from this forum), and dismantled and de-commissioned our even older lathe I am now attempting to repair an old mechanical body...

Thanks for your response


That's kind of what we had in mind, but no idea or experience about how to do it. Like, for example, what to use for fuel (coke?); presumably we would need a forced air...

I am a volunteer with the Brisbane Tramway museum and I'm trying to figure out the best way of bending to the correct shape a couple of 'bumper bars' for an old tram we are restoring.

We have...

Good idea. I can do the CAD stuff myself.
Part of my original question was about material. Is mild steel likely to be OK for a sprocket? It wont be subject to heavy or continuous use.

Thanks to...

Thanks Pipeclay. As far as I can see the teeth are somewhat deformed (as in bent rather than broken). I think they would need some building up before they cold be re-shaped. It is surprising how...

The decision has been made to dispose of this very old, heavy duty lathe if anyone is interested. More pictures here. Not the MARS one, the even older, bigger, one here.

In helping restore some old trams at the Brisbane Tramway Museum I have been asked to see if I can make up 6 or 8 shafts, like the one in the attached picture, to replace some that have gone missing....

Well, my MARS lathe restoration project has progressed to the point where it is operational and being used for some 'real' work (as distinct from producing some replacement parts for itself). All the...

No photos, but a major project over recent weeks has been to fully dismantle the gearbox on the front of the carriage, clean out all the swarf, refurbish various spring-loaded detent balls and...

...and right next to it is an even bigger, older one. It's too big to be of any practical use in our workshop and it ain't going anywhere because it was placed on the slab before the shed was built...

If you ever wondered how to fix a gear with broken teeth, just ask pipeclay. He did a beautiful piece of work on our broken back-gearing lay-shaft.

Before and after pictures below.

Thanks for...

Thanks Franco,

I proceeded with the trial and error approach and got something that looks OK (below).

Now I understand the maths better and have got my head around how Turbo-CAD does gears,...

More progress today.
First priority was to take some careful measurements to start discussions on the best way to fix the back gearing layshaft.

I've drawn these up in Turbo-CAD for clarity. I...

Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't spotted that it was a repair. I just assumed the tooth was only partly broken. I'll have a better look at it next Tuesday.

The last two Tuesdays I have been concentrating on dismantling the headstock spindle and cleaning all the parts. With a lot of care most of it came apart pretty easily until I got to the bull gear...

Most of today's efforts were cleaning the gearbox inside and out and re-assembling. It was previously used in an old flour mill so most of the dirt on the outside ins 'flour and oil paste', almost...

Another half-day working on the MARS lathe today. There's a 3-step pulley as well as a 2-speed gearbox on the overhead shaft arrangement, so there's plenty of speed options. I noticed that there was...

Excellent. Thanks for the suggestion.

Which leads me to wonder if there is a better way of locking the spindle to remove the chuck. I'd hate to get the gears fixed only to have someone strip them again. :doh:

I've added a few pictures a friend took to show the scope of the problem.

Thanks for that. Looks like I'm going to learn a lot about gears through this project.

Would you mind expanding on what PA means? I'm a bit of a novice at this. :roll:

That's exactly the same. Thanks for posting the picture.

Thanks. Sounds interesting. I'll put some photos together and post them.

Thanks for that. :)

I do have a local gear cutting outfit looking at it. The challenge is that the layshaft is cast in one piece with a large gear (OK) on one end and a small one (with about...

I have just taken on a project of restoring, reburbishing or at least getting in working order, an old Mars 'Atlas' metalwork lathe. I'll try to post information and pictures as the project...

We finally managed to organise our fibreglassing training session on the Eureka Canoe today. Pictures loaded here for anyone interested.

Most of the fittings were original. Some were retrieved from another Dutchman we were given that was beyond restoration.

She took a bit of water in the bouyancy compartments but that was probably...

The way things worked out we couldn't manage a 'secret' launch and shake-down sail so it was all done in the full public glare. Naturally we had the expected dramas but all were overcome and she was...

Today was a 'highly destructive day' as we started dismantling the surf-boat in preparation for restoring her. Whoever put those nuts, bolts, screws and rivets in didn't mean for them to come out and...

Our Eureka Canoe project has been progressing steadily, interleaved with other projects. When we are ready to fibreglass the outside we plan to run it as a training session on fibreglassing, probably...

For those who may be interested, and in the area next weekend, Big Secret will be taking to the water at Caloundra (at Military Jetty near Golden Beach on Pumicestone Passage) on Saturday 8 August. ...

Having almost completed the restoration of a Flying Dutchman for the Queensland Maritime Museum, the Wooden Boat Association of Queensland is now lining up a new project restoring an iconic...

I only need to produce one side. It's just that the boat design software I used shows both sides.

It would be easy enough to modify the design to exclude the rudder, then add that later.

The...

I am trying to find out where I can get a small 3D CNC machining job done around Brisbane.

The requirement is to establish a method of efficiently producing a boat half-model to be mounted on a...

Hi Theo,

The research we did before starting indicated that there were many variations in the Flying Dutchman design over time, so It's hard to find a standard model to work to. We were given a...

I came across this picture recently of a Eureka canoe built by the WBAQ member who is promoting this project. Good-looking, light weight, easy to build. (The boat, that is.) :q

Unlikely that...

Thanks Mate, here we go again.

Our next step was to work out the exact dimensions of the sections needed to build up the stem, and to confirm that they could be taken out of the available timber....

The Wooden Boat Association of Queensland will be building a Michael Storer designed Eureka canoe, as a live demonstration, on our stand at the Working With Wood show in Brisbane on 22nd to 24th May....

Wow! Doesn't time fly! I started this thread in December 2006. I have been very remiss in not keeping it up-to-date as work has progressed.

Various members of the Wooden Boat Association of...

Hmmmm! That's a pretty tough act to follow.

Well it's all very well to talk about traditional boats, but I don't suppose that's really legitimate with this project where all the design, drafting...

Thanks for the tips. I daresay there'll be tears before it's finished :(.

What a stunning picture! (and boat)

No luck finding anything remotely suitable in the way of a crook to use for the stem. One of our group let it be known that he had an old (100 years) hoop-pine mantel-piece that might serve if I want...

Some of the CAD drawings I did of component parts are now re-appearing as carefully crafted pieces of assorted timber, depending on what each individual could lay their hands on. My wife Anne took an...

Thanks for the feedback guy. All grist to the mill!

There are so many boat designs out there, some great, some not so great. Why would anyone bother to design another one? My reason is that I...

It is certainly the case that quite a few state associations maintain their own web-sites. There are others who appear not to (probably more interested in boats than computers).

The issue is that...

I didn't attempt to replicate everything that was on the original site. The main objective was to get it so that we can have it easily maintained by volunteers who have limited time, and technical...

Introducing a revised web-site for Australian Wooden Boat Associations. The main reason for the revision, rather than becoming more technical and sophisticated, was to become simpler and easier for...

Questions arise about details like plank lap width and stem rebate bevel width. We've had a few emails and phone conversations around our little group and discovered a surprising diversity of ideas...