I think I once mentioned I had one of these arms but have never used it. When I bought it years ago, it was in good condition and all I did at the time, I tidied up the corroded original connector and re-soldered the armwires where the connector plugs in.
And so the arm rested in a box on the rafters for years until one bad hair day...
I had to replace a neon tube in one of my workshop lights, using an extension ladder to get up there.
Something distracted me and I whacked the box off the rafters with the ladder and the arm crashed to the concrete floor :-[ :'(, denting and scratching the arm right on the j-bend.
I had aluminium tube here of the right o/d but the wall thickness was much thicker than the original tube.
Quite recently, I was in a friend's workshop, looking at bits of scrap metal and saw he had a few short lengths of aluminium tube which had an unusually thin wall thickness. Perfect for a replacement SME wand.
So I deal was struck with my friend. A length of phosphor bronze round bar for his length of ally thinwall tube.
Another friend lent me a tube bending tool and here you can see the result.
The tube polishing was done on my lathe first after carefully squaring off the ends in the mill.
The tubes one end was placed in the headstock chuck and the other end fitted over a live centre in the tailstock.
Successive sanding and a final polish with Chromglanz metal polish. Only one precious piece of polished tube and only one chance to get it right.
After taping the section to be bent, I fitted the original tube in the bender to get the angle right and here you can see the result. All that remains is to drill a little hole or two, rewire and fit the connector and other bits.
mafioso
And so the arm rested in a box on the rafters for years until one bad hair day...
I had to replace a neon tube in one of my workshop lights, using an extension ladder to get up there.
Something distracted me and I whacked the box off the rafters with the ladder and the arm crashed to the concrete floor :-[ :'(, denting and scratching the arm right on the j-bend.
I had aluminium tube here of the right o/d but the wall thickness was much thicker than the original tube.
Quite recently, I was in a friend's workshop, looking at bits of scrap metal and saw he had a few short lengths of aluminium tube which had an unusually thin wall thickness. Perfect for a replacement SME wand.
So I deal was struck with my friend. A length of phosphor bronze round bar for his length of ally thinwall tube.
Another friend lent me a tube bending tool and here you can see the result.
The tube polishing was done on my lathe first after carefully squaring off the ends in the mill.
The tubes one end was placed in the headstock chuck and the other end fitted over a live centre in the tailstock.
Successive sanding and a final polish with Chromglanz metal polish. Only one precious piece of polished tube and only one chance to get it right.
After taping the section to be bent, I fitted the original tube in the bender to get the angle right and here you can see the result. All that remains is to drill a little hole or two, rewire and fit the connector and other bits.
mafioso
