Member postings for Sam Longley 1

if that was the case ( Curved surfaces etc etc) why is it that the radar reflector on my boat is made from flat surfaces which are inclined at 45 degrees from the horizontal or vertical ( thus directing the reflection away from the transmitter one would have thought)& not simply a circular ball that would always display a section of its surface directly at the transmitting radar?

& if it is that hard to direct a mirror why did Colonel Custer & co use them to signal to the rest of the cavalry in all the westerns ( up to the bit where he got an arrow through his hat that is !!) & why have I got one as a signalling mirror as standard equipment in my liferaft.

The trick with spark plug leads is to hold them firmly , plus hold the person standing next to you firmly. Then the current flows harmlessly through you & they get the shock. As shown to me by my father when i was young !!!!

The mind boggles at what you would get up to as a vet

So how does one view the attachment because i cannot see it !!!???

Has to be the robotic one I am afraid--- !!!!

(I would also point out that wives can be a somewhat expensive investment)

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/11/2016 06:18:40

This is cheating a bit as it is not so much a "what i did today" but more a "what i am going to do soon"

Does anybody know what robotic carpet cleaner Which magazine voted best buy?

I used to get Which but found it a waste of money as once i bought my TV ( & did not get the one they recommended) & a camera i did not buy anything else that they tested in 2 years

So does anyone else get it & can they give me a clue as to the best buy please

If I wait long enough I expect H Hall might come up with a design but i will be 100yrs old by then !!!

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/11/2016 20:54:12

Cut deep slots in the heads with a dremel. Will damage the surrounding part but that can be filled with liquid metal later

Use a right angled screwdriver to turn the screws. Pack a piece of timber between the opposite side & the return angle of the screwdriver to help apply pressure to keep the blade in the screw such that by pulling the arm outwards as you turn it pushes the blade inwards onto the screw

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 12/11/2016 21:15:32

Thank you John

items ordered

But i am still going to make some to prove I can. I used to profile grind my cutters for my moulding machines & once I have drilled the root of the sprocket I reckon I can rig a simple profile unit on the grinder & grind the tips. Profile grinders can be really complicated but they can also be very simple & I have the grinding wheels already.

Just needs a few arms on the grinder plus a follower & a pattern against a pin that matches the grinding wheel profile

I do have a milling machine plus dividing head& tailstock etc so I could soon sort out a gear cutting set up. I thought such a project would be a good starter for learning the process as they do not have to mesh with other gears. Being only 3mm th steel they should be easy to cut. But now you are all putting me off.

I had considered bicycle sprockets & I know I can buy the correct gear sets from Reeves, but that is not the point of the hobby. & any way I want to know how so i will buy some chain, set up some drawings & have a play.

(Then I will buy the bits from Reeves !!!!)

Ok thanks for that. It is cleary a complicated and complex subject. Any tips on where to get cheap cutters please or does one not buy them like standard gear cutters?

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 07/11/2016 13:12:35

I want to avoid buying pre made sprockets for the drive on my PYRTE traction engine & would like to have a go at cutting them myself from 3mm plate. the chain sold by Reeves is 8.3mm gauge but I can obtain 8mm fairly cheaply so could go with that.I need 2 sets to give me 4:1 twice , thus 16:1 approx but not critical I am told

Then i thought about cutting the teeth. I started looking for a cutter & sprocket cutters can cost hundreds of £'s & I cannot see anything in model shop sites. I may be missing some thing

Then it suddenly occurred to me that chain rollers are round so the tooth cuttout should possibly be a semicircle & do not actually mesh with another gear. So what if I drilled loads of holes of the correct diameter at the correct radius & at the 8mm pitch of the chain then milled the excess metal away

Would that leave me with a working sprocket?The teeth would need little points on the end where the rollers drop off  for clearance & there must be a way to file/mill those off or just cut the teeth a bit short to reduce the engagement.Or even go round again drilling overlapping  holes with a bigger drill/mill at a wider radius & catch the teeth ends to form the points. Not really correct but would get me to a position where I could touch up with a file

Or am i talking rubbish. If so what is the correct way to go about it please- if it does not involve too much explanation that is !!! & if it is the way to do it are there any tips? I do have access to a CAD programme so could set it out first--- if I can remember how to use autocad after years of retirement

Thanks

Sam Longley

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 07/11/2016 11:57:46

I would suggest that you can just as easily build a house on a 1 metre module than a 4 foot one & your friend building your workshop probably got into trouble because he was possibly trying to think in imperial as well as metric. Clearly not a tradesman experienced in metric units & not a reason to reject the metric unit. I have used both & have difficulty with imperial units. As a joinery manufacturer I often had to go onto my shop floor & do some setting out or to explain something. Messing about in 1.8's. 32.s etc was a nightmare & millimetres was far more accurate for setting out. My older machinery was all converted to metric scales until renewed with new plant to avoid errors. My joiners & machinists understood it easily as well.

In my early years on site I used to use a steel square to set out roofs ( A roofing square) for the carpenters & mine was in metric configuration. This was far easier than our old contract managers imperial one as one could simply multiply by 10 when scaling rafter lengths etc.

I can assure you that the mix of feet & yards has caused lots of problems as the units are so close. We had a lorry load of DPC that lasted years because the site ordered yards instead of feet ( then the secretary typed it as rolls but that is another story) & motorway curbs that were a yard long not a foot. The list went on.

That is why the industry (construction) chose millimetres & metres. There can be little confusion between the 2 being such a big difference in size

The problem comes when people try to think between the two systems. Once they are tuned to think metric & forget imperial they find it easy. Do mnot think of a room in feet , think of it in metres. Unfortunately in the construction industry problems arise because in schools kids are taught to think in centimetres as well & carry that forward in future life.

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 06/11/2016 19:53:13

Make sure you use a calibrated one, they vary in length by quite a bit. Try comparing 2 different makes of 5 metre tape.

When BS 5740 ( think that was the No.)was first introduced there was a lot of fuss over calibrated tapes in the building industry - now long forgotten. But certainly the old carpenters boxwood 3 ft rules varied by over 3/16 inch as we used to compare them in the joinery shop when arguing about fit of various components.

If you buy a measuring wheel from Screwfix & measure the same 30 metres twice you will often find it varies by up to 1.5 metres each time you run the 30 metres

That reeks of --- " I borrowed it & never returned it !!!!!!!"

Which we have all suffered from in some form or other over the years

Only thing I would like to do that with would be the mother in law - but it never seems to work-- Like a damned pigeon !!!

So could one braze a copper boiler instead of silver soldering-- or is it the same thing?

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 06/11/2016 07:47:14

You would not, you would use millimetres & metres,( which are the correct units to use in the building industry,) hence for the last one you would say 15.24 metres

As for your sheet of ply you will notice that it is not 3/4" thick etc it is 18mm etc

I would further suggest that you try working out the area of 4 ft 12 15/32" multiplied by 2 ft 6 3/16"

Then perhaps you might welcome the introduction of the metric unit.

Fortunately my training started just as metrication in the building industry was introduced because it drove my father mad trying to teach me duo decimals

Did the 2 wheel bearings for my PRYTE traction engine today. Small beer compared to most on the forum but this was my first go at silver soldering, although I have some Sif bronze flux & a coil of silver solder purchased 40 years ago. no idea what type it is!! I also have some fairly strong hydrochloric acid & that really fizzed when i dropped the parts in & I managed to get a quick mouthfull of nasty fumes. Will take care next time !!! Should have known better as it cleans my boat propeller in a few minutes.

Tried it any way & guess what? --- It worked first go - Yippee!!!! first hurdle at silver soldering cleared , but i does highlight the problems I am going to have further down the line.

So far I have made the tender & fire box & I am going to move on to the cylinder,crankshaft etc before i try the boiler as that is an expensive bit of material to purchase & i want to see something constructive before I invest too much. I do have the material for the wheels though, so they will not be long in the making.

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 05/11/2016 13:51:28

Although I did not see it myself I recall a teacher in our grammar school who had to fill some glass containers with acid from one of those for a class lesson. He rushed into the classroom where one was standing, grabbed the neck of the bottle & as he turned to carry it away the neck cracked & the bottle split splashing the contents all down his legs. he was seriously injured .

Cannot even imagine such a container being left in a classroom these days, yet we had several standing about in the science labs & dozens of jars with the glass stoppers of various acids on open shelves for lessons. Some were quite concentrated & we could only use them in the fume cupboards.

May I suggest white sail cloth

Go on the practical boat owners forum & you will get an old sail for nothing as yachtsmen do not have a use for them & they clutter up lofts

But I seem to recall that there should be a white rabbit in there somewhere providing additional supercharging