Member postings for FMES

Yes Baldric, but unlike a real auction the bidding is stopped at a predetermined time.

Obviously the idea is to win at the lowest bid, But I might be willing to pay more if its a desirable item, so its hardly fair to not be able to outbid a shill bid or snipe if necessary.

For example, I was bidding on some tool inserts recently, the bid stood at 3.99 for 25 items, I was willing to pay at least a pound an item, so within the last minute I increased my bid to £26, a snipe came in at 5 seconds to the end, preventing me from bidding again.

I could have put a couple of hundred pounds on and hope to have won at 40 - 50, but thats not really the spirit of the auction.

It's like gambling I suppose, you need to know when to stop.

Its about time eBay stopped this last minute bidding frenzy by acting like a real auction, i.e. if a bid is placed in the last few seconds, the end time is increased accordingly - 5 - 10 minutes or so.

Many a time have I seen stuff sold for a fraction of its biddable value because the end time cuts off early.

Hating both shill bidding and sniping, I'll place a bid to register interest early on in the auction, then I'll watch till the end and put a bid in at the last minute or so, and I bid what I think its worth.

If I get outbid fair enough, but most times I'll win at a fraction of the bid price I put in which is hardly fair to the seller and wouldn't happen in a 'real' auction.

Where are you located Nije? a lot of home Diy stores do a sink side filter tap which has a seperate cartridge.

Good one John,

That works both ways too.

I needed an adaptor electrical harness for my Landrover, it was about 18" long with a plug on each end.

I got a quote from LR with a catalogue number, the price was £68.80 inc vat all nicely packaged in a branded LR box.

Thinking that it wasn't that urgent, left it on the counter and went home.

Later, I found the quote with the Cat. No. on it and put a search on the net, I found the actual manufacturer in Birmingham, sent an e-mail for a quote and received a reply of £18.95 including postage.

Upon receiving the harness was surprised to get it in a sealed polythene bag instead of the LR box, but quite clearly identified with the same LR parts bin label.

Going back to the oilers, cheap version - pressed brass (?) plate, cut offset, sharp edges,.More expensive versions- which were incidentally Myford items - fully machined top and bottom housings, and just altogether much better finished.

I needed a couple of drip feed oilers.

Scouting around the Internet I found a pair for about a tenner each and ordered same.

On receipt and inspection they very nearly got thrown in the bin as they were just not anywhere near acceptable quality wise, pressed plate off centre, sharp edges etc.

Subsequent purchase from another supplier, admittedly at nearly three times the price, realised a far more acceptable and higher quality item.

I'm not mentioning company names, but obviously the initial supplier will no longer be on my list of approved stockists, which is a shame as its a company that is regularly mentioned here as a supplier of cheaper tooling.

As previously stated in these posts a, you get what you pay for and b, a poor workman always blames his tools.

As for the main topic of vices - I picked up a Groz Super Precision 150 for £50 at a machine tool sale last year.

No complaints with that beasty.

Edited By Lofty76 on 27/01/2013 09:43:06

Edited By Lofty76 on 27/01/2013 09:44:36

I have a portable magnetic drilling machine that suffers from slow speed lack of cooling, I made up a small adaptor to take a vacuum cleaner hose over the fan shroud, - start up the vac, no more cooling problems at slow speed.

Lofty

My workshop was purchased as a 22' x 16' concrete sectional unit with two 3' doors, one at each end, and two small double glazed UPVC windows, erected on a 6" thick reinforced and vapour barriered concrete base.

The panels had 2" x 2" timber battens bonded to the bolted sections which then formed a 3" bay into which a further vapour barrier and 3" of rockwool insulation, the battens were then covered with 19mm shuttering ply.

The roof was treated to the same but the ply was only 10mm.

I run a standard household dehumidifier with a consumption of around 350 watts on the 'night rate' and this on its own maintains a general temperature of about 10 - 12 deg C even when its frosty outside, relative humidity stays at around 40 - 55%.

The only treatment I do to the machines is a spray round of a propriety penetration spray after cleaning.

I do have air-con installed but is only required for short periods.

Lofty

Edited By Lofty76 on 09/01/2013 19:30:42

Many thanks Jason, these must be like buses, don't see one for ages then three come along at once!!

Hi Gents,

I would like to build a gas (propane) carburettor as illustrated by John Olsen on the Rina Project some time back.

Could anyone provide the dimensions for the Rina unit, or a link to a magazine article? I think the R & B is quite a bit larger (2 1/4 bore x 2 3/4 stroke) so would be able to scale up ok.

Many thanks in advance

Lofty

Edited By Lofty76 on 01/01/2013 20:23:26

I have a remarkably similar unit fitted to my Warco Milling Machine, likewise Chronos list as a supplier, worth a call perhaps?

Lofty

Ahhh, ideal for those secluded window boxes ))

Hi Anthony,

I have had many of these sharpened at a company that specialises in doing it, but its almost impossible to do it properly without the proper jig / grinding machine.

There is always another thought that the tips are brazed in and can become unsecure if the grinding overheats the tip.

I think they are just trying to prevent them from being sharpened inappropriately.

Lofty

Could that be a development page Luigi, some have automatic link updates for regular items.

What scale is it Neil?

Mick,

Are you referring to the paragraph - 106 The attributes needed for competent persons who draw up or certify schemes of examination relating to minor, intermediate and major systems....?

The emphasis is on 'Draw up or certify schemes of inspection'

This is carried out by the Southern Federations Boiler test Sub-Committee in conjunction with PSSR 2000 and as agreed and underwritten by their Insurers Footman James.

As SFMES Boiler inspectors do not draw up schemes of examination they do not, per se, have to be incorporated engineers, merely competent persons as registered with the SFMES.

Of course if the inspector is NOT a member of one of the Federated Societies both Southern and Northern, then of course they would not be covered by the indemnities provided.

Hope this helps

Lofty

Hi Mick,

Is that with reference to commercially manufactured boilers in particular?

The new ACOP refers:

3.9 Inspector:
a. This is a person who is competent to examine and report on all
parts of the system as covered by the Test Code. An inspector
shall not be permitted to examine or test either his own work or
equipment in his ownership but he is permitted to test a boiler
which is owned by his Club or Society provided that he did not
participate in the building or repairing of the boiler. An
inspector shall be a member and appointed by the Committee
of the Club or Society under whose name the boiler is
examined and/or tested after such persons have satisfied the
Committee that they have the appropriate level of experience
and/or qualifications.

Personally, I attained T(Eng) CEI (Aeronautical Engineering) in 1977 which is now incorporated, and is fully acceptable by the current society as I have also had a long relationship with high pressure equipment and compressed gasses, so passing the experience/ qualification requirements on both counts.

Hi Ron,

Jason B sent you a link for this on the 30/11/2012, it's the S50 engine built under the project name of 'Sally'

**LINK**

Lofty

Hello Red,

I was lucky to come upon a dead weight tester that use to check model gauges, but I take my various test gauges to a local diving firm that do my gauge calibrations and issue the UKAS (NAMAS) certificates.

A general calibration would result in a gauges errors being recorded, i.e. a table of measured test pressures and and resultant deviation from those applied pressures, I don't think i've seen many even new gauges being without some small errors, so checking one gauge against another could result in a 'test of two running clocks, - which one is correct?

One thing I would point out is that even being a boiler tester, I'm not permitted to test any boiler that I have built myself.

Have a look in your local directory for either a diving business or one that deals with LP compressor testing, most will offer a calibration service for a reasonable fee.

Lofty

Gents,

As an authorised boiler tester within the Southern Federation, please find a link to the new boiler test code, due to come into force in January 2013 **LINK**

Lofty

Edited By Lofty76 on 25/12/2012 20:00:23

Ahhh, thanks John, just when I needed more project bits (