EDM and Measurement as a way of life

I write this as an EDM ( that is Elderly Devoted Mechanic ) I spent a fair
bit of my working life installing systems devised by Mr Alvin Strowger, an
American undertaker, sorry mortician this was normally done in my case with
a very hot one and half pound lump of pure copper on the end of a rod of 3/8”
steel fitted with a large wooden handle, none of this mammby pampy 15watt
one millimetre diameter lark and Zap straps with our gear.
At home it was model aeroplanes, not air planes please, seven days a week
unless you went out and smashed them in which case out came the drawing board
and the better mark two was planned and built by the following Sunday.
We discovered the need for modification to the power plants and this lead
eventually to a 41/2”Southbend lathe standing on sound absorbent feet and
tied to the wall by a length of chain to stop it falling over on the third
floor of a block of city council owned flats, not perfection perhaps but we
did manage to both design and build a complete racing motor that was better
than the competition. My mother an unreasonable woman decided again the
milling machine as she claimed it could not be used to do the ironing on,
typical woman simply would not arrange things between the slots.

These days my engineering is normally of that sort that if looks about the
right distance and size i t will be OK so all these ideas of inputting the
details from a computer is not for me. The dreaded backlash in the leadscrews
made it nessessarery for me to try and improve the accuracy of my work. I
started by mounting two slidable verniers to read on the what I now call the
X and Y axis and they gave a result within about 1 or two thou (0.002” ) but
with my eyes being what they are when I am drunk I needed something eaisert
to read. Accuracy improved no end and fairly often I did not need to file
holes to make them match, wonderful! This lead via various things including
Macintosh computers, which I still do not understand, why do they make
things difficult for my by hiding the on and off switch? to the purchase of
a CAD package, this was marvellous, it did in say a day work which I had
previously taken say an hour to do, but mark you very beautifully.
By this time here in the UK we could buy Chinese made digital scales which at
times you did not need on the grounds of cost to smuggle past the other half
(Wife to the unmarried New Worlders) when you came back from your visit to
any one of five annual model engineering shows. Now on the side of these was
a little connector ( SPC?) which if unlike me you knew what you were doing
could be used for extending its reading to a remote read out, some of these
could deal with two or more?

Does anyone please have a nice easy circuit for one of these units?

On the 25 Oct I am due to board a bus here in Peterborough in Cambridgeshire,
England to go with 40 plus other EDM’s to a model engineering show where for
money I can buy a readout unit, incidentally finding that if only I had the
mark 39 model instead of my humble mark two vernier I could have bought a
readout unit off the shelf which will work first time. Is there anyone out
these who can save from a fate worse than death and ensure that I do not
spend at least a month trying to get the right bits before actually starting
to build the thing by telling where I can get a drawing for a suitable
readout unit ?

Now on the heading of this Group it say EDM as I have already explained this
set of letters is currently being misused by many people I have now read over
180 E MAILS and only one deals with terrifying metal into going away by using
electricity and liquid, all the rest seem to deal with some black magic
which a person like myself would only approach with great caution. The one
message on EDM seems to say that someone actually knows less than I do about
something, so this is an organisation I must join and I send what I hope is
some useful info.
Again does anyone have details of an easy build EDM unit please? I have the
“Build an EDM “ book by Robert Langlois and can I think get access to the
1976 Model Engineers for their bits. I would particularly like to see any
ideas on the work head, one person I know used a hard disc drive from a
computer, any more offers please?
I stand in sheer awe of all these people who go about their need for drivers
and TURBOPC?, I though in America the car was king and there was no problem,
is this not so? I also notice the word “ Gecko”, these in the home of the
tongue we are divided by are small animals I find running up the garden wall
of my hotel in Florence, Italy and if you try and catch them by the tail it
comes off in your hand, just thought you needed putting straight on that
before some of you get into what appears to be deeper water, or in this case
a brick wall.
Now don’t forget Oct 24th is my deadline for details on the Remote Readout
unit, less pressure for the EDM details as I have had the book sitting here
for sometime at managed not to break a tap and need to get the bits out.
regards
FiddlerPhil
ppump11578@...