Needed some smaller metering rods... Dont want to wait for parts...here in germany you can't buy them easy everywere... So...
You have to be really carefull, but as I also worked as a clockmaker cant really say that this things are small ....
Where there's a will, there's a way! Try to polish up the surface with some fine emory cloth as best you can. You don't need the rods getting hung up when they drop down in the jets.
Your lathe isn’t the first choice for a watch maker. Still a little large for a Grand Father Clock. Purhap’s something of this size?
Haha yes youre right.... I have no smaller one at home. The Company i worked for had various small sizes and konfigurations... But as it is, can do small parts on a big lathe but no big parts on a small one.
Good on you Zottel ... secondary rods make a huge difference in performance on my Q-jets. So far I've been able to come up with combinations that work from my stash of parts. I buy my Q-jet kits and related parts from Cliff Ruggles Performance.
That's exactly what I did 60 years ago when Qjets parts were not yet hanging from every other tree. Actually, I took the original stock rods over to my dad's shop where he was a tool-and-die/investment casting mold maker, during his lunch break. Those were simpler times when I could just walk in the side door into the shop area and everybody knew me. (I had previously worked there myself as a machinist.) I could have cut down the metering rods myself but I trusted my dad's skills more than mine. So I explained what and how the rods worked and why the taper. That just took a minute and another couple of minutes on the lathe and it was a done deal. Is it true that every guy in Germany has a fully equipped machine shop in the backyard? ..
Once upon a time ... that was true... But today its not so common anymore. Only a few people are left which know how to work a manual lathe...germany is on its way down in knowledge... Its very hard to find a Shop were you can come trough the sidedoor today ...
Not just your country. After my Mom passed in the early 2000’s Dad And I went back Belgium after nearly 35 years. The topic of trades came up when my Aunt explained the ridiculous wait time to get a tradesman to come and do repairs. “The young generation don’t want to do physical labor anymore was the explanation”.
Sadly true I'm 31 and never felt like fittin in my Generation... But in the last 10 years things really went down...since the old guys died and various small Shops closed forever... I do the stuff all by myself...electric plumbing.... whatever you have to do when owning a house....
The Jalopy Journal
