Member postings for Ian Fowkes

Some drills available these days are of pretty awful quality with oversize and off centre flats that often don't locate properly in even a deep centre punch making it virtually impossible to drill an accurate hole. I have recently purchased metric and imperial sets of unspecified but presumably Chinese origin that fall into this category, some can be corrected by re-grinding but many are not even straight. No problems with my diminishing stock of 30+ year old Dormers though.

The problem for a beginner though is knowing how to identify bad drills, and obtaining quality drills seems to be getting harder for us all.

Ian.

In a previous life in the 70's I worked in the nuclear power industry and can say that stainless boilers, albeit of a very different type, were the norm in an environment where steam temperatures and pressures are very high, failure would be catastrophic, a long life is essential and repairs extremely difficult. Mind you the boiler shells were a good inch thick and encased in reinforced concrete several feet thick!

Ian.

Could be that the silver solder paste is melting before the parent metal is hot enough, this can cause the silver solder alloy to separate into it's constituents and cause the effect you describe.

There is a huge amount of information in the technical section of JM's website which may well be worth a visit. **LINK**

Ian.

With all respect, have the people who are suggesting buy the proper stuff not read the original post where Clive clearly explains that it is simply not available where he lives (see his profile for location). He also explains that overseas post in that country is not reliable.

Ian

Someone briefly mentioned printing ink which strikes me as being an ideal engineers blue substitute, the thick gooey stuff as used in litho and other traditional print processes is oil based, will adhere to dry metal and will transfer easily on contact to another surface (that's what it does in it's intended use!) and should easily be available in Pakistan - perhaps you can scrounge the tiny amount you need from a friendly local printer - even an "empty" tin will probably yield enough. And it's available in any colour, even blue.

Ian,

I have a Chester DB7VS which appears to be essentially the same machine as the Warco WM180. While having the basic 7 x 12 dimensions of many so called mini lathes it is rather more substantial than most weighing in at well over 50kgs and is fairly rigid although not to the same extent as the Myford and Harrison machines I was brought up on. It came with 3 & 4 jaw chucks, tailstock chuck, faceplate, drive dog, centres, steadies and a full set of changewheels for both metric and imperial screwcutting so it was perfectly usable without much further expenditure. It also came with a set of TCT tools but the quality of those was not to the same standard as everything else.

The machine did have the usual Chinese rough edges and did need a fair amount stripping, cleaning and adjusting to bring it up to standard but since then has has served me well.

The only serious criticism I can make is the tendency of the motor to overheat when turning large diameters at low speeds, first discovered when I noticed a smell while turning 6" diameter driving wheels it does mean plenty of long breaks during such work. Smaller diameters and higher speeds are no problem.

Ian.

John,

I too was approached to make such a plaque but as my engraving skills are somewhat lacking I chose to decline.

I have a sad feeling the preponderance of non ferrous metal plaques in Jubilee and memorial woods is likely attract the wrong kind of visitors and I would therefore be inclined to consider a non metallic alternative such the plastic laminate of the type that has been engraved by sign makers for many years now. Such a plaque would perhaps not be as attractive as a polished metal one but at least the material would not deteriorate in the elements and would have little attraction to thieves.

On the subject of protective laquer I have in the past protected unpainted metal with the clear acrylic top coat from two part car paints, this is very easily available, seems to adhere well to most materials, has a high gloss and is very hard wearing.

Ian.

Just reading this thread and I noticed the advert (obviously targeted by keyword) at the top of the page - "Scrap metal, Ferrous & Non-Ferrous Car Recycling, Best Prices Paid, www.WardRecycling.Com", obviously ads like this do nothing to help the problem.

I was dismayed to read this thread, it is hard to imagine how disheartening thefts like this must be the victims.

Ian.

My Axminster (Sieg) mill has 75 0.02mm graduations on x and y axis handwheel and 60 0.025 graduations on z, 1.5mm per revolution in all cases. It is confusing having a different scale on the z axis but must be Chinese logic. My machine also has a fuselage, Chinglish for column I believe.

Ian.

Sid, what you say is absolutely true.... but totally unbelievable!

I have an old brass paraffin blowlamp .... I wonder

Michael has raised a very good point about the influence of boiler tube size on combustion. It is important in a coal fired boiler (at least in full size) that the total cross sectional area of the tubes has a minimum ratio to grate size otherwise it will be difficult burn fuel fast enough to achieve maximum heat output and also the flue gases will be forced to travel too quickly down the tubes and not transfer heat effectively. The use of a large number of small tubes is usually necessary to achieve this ratio and in a small boiler thin tube walls would most likely be necessary in order to simply get enough tubes in, something which would be a problem with steel tubes.

As Michael has said there is much more to all this, the boiler designers of the past did not have computer models but they did know a great deal about thermodynamics and did put all those tubes in for a reason.

Ian.

Only the hot flue gasses in contact with the tube wall will give up heat to the water,so as Jason has said the case with large tubes is that most of the flue gasses will not be in contact with the tube wall and so will stay hot and contribute very little in terms of transferred heat. Obviously turbulence within the tube complicates the issue but at least with small diameter tubes you can be sure that all of the flue gasses will be close to the tube walls which should maximise heat transfer regardless of tube length. As for the single tube boiler this is nothing unusual, many small scale models have a single flue as have had many full size boilers, it is all a question of how much steam you need, history has has shown that the multi-tubed locomotive type boiler produces the highest steam rates for a given boiler size but if such high steam rates are not required then a simpler boiler may well suffice.

Ian

It seems that greed has now completely taken over, just counted 26 Olympic torches on ebay, the most expensive being one not available until late July with a start price of £130K! No bids on most including that one. .... Dream on greedy people

Hi Stewart.

Nice work indeed. I was not familiar with this type and while watching your video was really scratching my head trying to work out how it works, anyway googled "Simpson & Shipton and found an article which explains it, it is a very unusual design though.

Congratulations on completing such a fine model.

Ian.

Personally I think it was a bit ridiculous in these austere times to make a torch for each bearer, surely enough to cover all the legs in one day plus a few spares would be enough, then at the end they could be distributed to worthwhile causes. Less impact on the environment too.

The person who's bid over 150k will be cheesed off about the others that are appearing for sale, obviously the more there are the lower the prices will be.

Apparently the gas burner is made by Bullfinch who make much cheaper products more suited to my needs. I don't think the cool yellow Olympic flame would melt even the most expensive silver solder!

Ian.

I'd be surprised if torchbearers get to own the torch and kit, and I'd be even more surprised if they are allowed to make a substantial personal profit from it. This may well have repercussions for both seller and buyer... perhaps the bid that was retracted was done so as a result of the bidder taking legal advice.

It's at £150.3k now, I'm gobsmacked!

Ian.

Can I suggest you upload your photos to an album, click on "my photos" in the "my account" box in the top left corner, follow the steps to create an album and upload your photos to it. You can then click on the camera icon to insert those photos into a post.

Ian.

You are welcome to use this design of mine, no dimensions are shown but the basics are bore10mm or 3/8", stroke 32mm, ball dia 6mm or 1/4", ball seat bore 5mm, ball travel limited to 1mm by 1.5mm dia pin through body. Pump body 16mm or 5/8" dia, valve box 12mm or 1/2" dia, valve box fittings from 12mm or 1/2" hex. Eveything else can be measured from the drawing and scaled to suit your particular requirement. The main body is designed to be fabricated from whatever non-ferrous materials are available by silver soldering (Before machining) or the dimensions could be modifed to suit a casting if available. There is no O ring or gland but if required an O ring could easily be fitted in a groove turned in the ram.

Cheers Deltic.

Ian.

I've since looked at your pictures, it looks like you have more than enough equipment to make a start. You will of course need hand tools, drills, tap & dies etc, but what you don't have you can buy when the need arises. I built mine on a Unimat 3 which is half the size of your Myford, a tiny Cowels drill press, and no milling machine. In those days machine tools and hand tools were expensive but materials and castings seemed quite cheap, it seems to be the other way round now!

Glad to be of help.

Ian.