Interesting little domestic board....

[Sidewinder]

I still have a Zues book, & use it.

Also carry BSW, BSF, UNC (1/2" only, who can tell me why?), & BSF as well as metric coarse & some fine, with conduit taps & dies on the van.

Keep a greater range in the workshop.

 I can't cut metric threads on my Harrison as it's imperial & I don't have the right changewheel for it.

I was cleaning up some 3/4" UNC threads on Wednesday, mounting bolts for a limit switch rail!

 

[kerching]

My lathe is weird. It has a mixture of BSW, UNC, BA,UNF ....it's just the way they were made.

bought a new cheap quick release toolpost from CHRONOS but my existing bolt was too short

so, turned down a big bolt to .500" at each end. BUT my lathe does not screw cut.....ARSHE!

so over to other lathe BUT it is only a little Hobbymat. Brilliant for small stuff. So after 30 mins of swapping chuck, change wheels, speed etc off I trot. Crashed and burnt, machine struggled , steel too hard, tools carp. Off to pick up 1/2" UNC die from my mate on Monday.

on the plus side found a long forgotten tub of chasers, dies , taps etc UNC and BSW...but NOTHING 1/2" UNC,

hey ho!

 

[Sidewinder]

Anything else & you could have used BSW, unlucky 13 strikes again!!!

 

[kerching]

Anything else & you could have used BSW, unlucky 13 strikes again!!!

Yep...all for the sake of ONE T.P.I.

Ah well

 

[OnOff]

I have a 1/2" 12tpi BSW split die here...which is of no use to you whatsoever in this instance!

 

[kerching]

I have a 1/2" 12tpi BSW split die here...which is of no use to you whatsoever in this instance!

Correct!

i have a drawer full of stuff that won't do!

when am I going to use a 1" x 12 bottoming tap?.......never say never

 

[OnOff]

Correct!

i have a drawer full of stuff that won't do!

when am I going to use a 1" x 12 bottoming tap?.......never say never

I used an M9 the other day on the car (slide bolt / caliper) and had to get an M14 in for a work job a while back both which I don't think I'd ever used before.

I need to mic up all my freebie, ex Mollins Imperial stuff where the lettering has rubbed off, oil and put in a marked storage box for when I do need 1" GAS etc. WTGrape is the Zeus though?

 

[Sidewinder]

A Zeus book us one if these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/workshop-decimal-equivalents-details-clearance/dp/B00C77BX46

 

[OnOff]

A Zeus book us one if these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/workshop-decimal-equivalents-details-clearance/dp/B00C77BX46

I've got two actually. One's 34 years old.

 

[Rob.]

I still have my zeus book from being an apprentice in my tool chest. 

They were standard issue back then. 

 

[roys]

Same hear, still got my Zeus book that I got as a 1st year apprentice in 1981. 

Had a couple of others since then. The last one I photocopied and enlarged so that it was A5 then put in one of those plastic spine folder things. So I now have a Zeus book I can read again without glasses

Funnily enough I was drilling and tapping for 0BA for a wee project at the weekend, I am restoring a big lump of petrol mover and I was needing a brass adjuster for a Bowden cable, round about the 6mm 1/4" range, the only brass screws I had in that size was 0BA cheese heads, perfect

 

[OnOff]

My first Zeus came from the engineering suppliers near college in 1983. Used to buy spirit level "bubbles" and knurling wheels there too for our oddly enough, spirit level and knurling tool projects!

You could also buy Zeus books in W H Smiths back then! I've a shed load of odd Imperial bolts. A company I worked for took over and tba raped a small, high precision engineering firm. Proceeded to lose all the MOD work and closed the place down. I was sent to clear out and "skip" a load of stuff. Yeah right!

 

[Andy™]

ive got a PDF scan of the 1976 version. cost an entire 65p back then

 

[apprentice87]

I still have my Zeus and will be using it within the next hour!

just bought a quick release indexable toolpost for my No. 1 lathe and the fixing bolt is not long enough so need to knock up a 1/2" x 13 stud

better than shopping in Tesco though

Ah!! 1/2 x 13 TPI... That would be UNC then sir. Basically a metric thread form, in an imperial diameter. so 60 degree angle, round root, flat crest. Totally unlike the 1/2 x 12 TPI whitworth, which has a 55 degree angle, round root and round crest. [So, if you want to cut one of them in a lathe, you will need either a thread chaser to round off the crests, or i hear you can get a "new fangled" "full form threading insert" [whatever that may be...!!] [yes, i do know really!!]

What on earth do they teach in the schools nowadays... [Not much by the seem of things...]

john...

 

[Tony S]

What on earth do they teach in the schools nowadays... [Not much by the seem of things...]

No hands on learning due to H&S. The little darlings may hurt themselves.

 

[rapparee]

Ah!! 1/2 x 13 TPI... That would be UNC then sir. Basically a metric thread form, in an imperial diameter. so 60 degree angle, round root, flat crest. Totally unlike the 1/2 x 12 TPI whitworth, which has a 55 degree angle, round root and round crest. [So, if you want to cut one of them in a lathe, you will need either a thread chaser to round off the crests, or i hear you can get a "new fangled" "full form threading insert" [whatever that may be...!!] [yes, i do know really!!]

What on earth do they teach in the schools nowadays... [Not much by the seem of things...]

john...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_obsolete_units_of_measurement?wprov=sfla1 

The clientele of this forum.  :Stir:

 

[kerching]

Ah!! 1/2 x 13 TPI... That would be UNC then sir. Basically a metric thread form, in an imperial diameter. so 60 degree angle, round root, flat crest. Totally unlike the 1/2 x 12 TPI whitworth, which has a 55 degree angle, round root and round crest. [So, if you want to cut one of them in a lathe, you will need either a thread chaser to round off the crests, or i hear you can get a "new fangled" "full form threading insert" [whatever that may be...!!] [yes, i do know really!!]

What on earth do they teach in the schools nowadays... [Not much by the seem of things...]

john...

We speak the same language

There are a few of us on here...but not many

 

[apprentice87]

Machinery's handbook is a great thing to have, [if a bit pricy] but i have another similar one by a british publisher that was nearly as good and easier to use and far cheaper, Cannot think of the name though..

My first ever books on such things were a complete set of these, when i was about 12 or 13, Still got them now and i learnt sooooooo much. They come up on ebay from time to time. If you see any, buy them...

john..

View attachment 8017

 

[phil d]

Speaking of the youngsters, my wife makes me laugh, if my stepson is doing anything at home he'll call around if he needs a certain tool and borrow mine, I don't really mind so long as it comes back and tbh I don't see the point in buying a chopsaw, router, large grinder or such like to do one job. The wife however goes into flap mode, " go round and sort it for him, you know I don't like him using big grinders" or chopsaws or whatever else it may be. Anyway I asked her the other day why she didn't like him borrowing my tools, the reply was amazing, "well suppose he hurts himself" she said, "oh so it's ok for me to get hurt but not anyone else? " I asked, "of course not silly, but you've so much more experience than he has". Now I think my missus completely missed the point that experience is gained by doing things, how the hell is he supposed to gain this experience if she sends me round to do the job just because it involves the use of a dangerous tool? I remember a book once and in the opening chapter it said in big bold lettering  "REMEMBER, EVEN A SCREWDRIVER CAN CAUSE PERMANENT INJURY!"

Ok I got my first power drill for my ninth birthday, an electric jigsaw for my ninth Christmas and I was ten when I got my first angle grinder, I was learning to weld aged eleven or twelve, but that was the way things were back then, nowadays it's all health and safety and big brother pampering everybody.