Member postings for Mikelkie

I done mine like Neil said bend the whole thing up first, don't be shy with annealing, clamp in place with grooved aluminum block over the half round where bends and radii need to be, if needed flatten in the vice(with protected jaws) and complete the section. clean thoroughly with steel wool, flux up and give it a good layer of solder. Treat the edge of the recipient with solder as well. Clamp near the starting point and apply heat gently and as soon as the solder melts grab the heated end with a pair of pliers till it's cooled complete this until the whole circle is done To clean up excess solder apply clamp reheat briefly and wipe off the unwanted solder using a dry cotton cloth.

Spent all day today and made 2 steel boxes, 200 x 200 deep and 400 mm long complete

with easy removing lids, one went on the Bridgeport and the other will go on to my Tos

lathe. I fitted the coolant pump onto the lid an the unit is standing next to the mill.

Cleaning this tanks is so easy now, that i can kick myself for not doing this years ago

Edited By Mikelkie on 09/12/2016 19:16:17

Best wishes to you Michael G. and speedy recovery

That press plate looks very good, nice workmanship

I like Michael G 's idea first then follow up with Stevetee's suggestion. Good luck.

I like Michael G 's idea first then follow up with Stevetee's suggestion. Good luck.

Made some loco and other castings today, had an early start. Bronze and aluminium

Debbie J

Wish you were here

drums filled daily

Mikelkie

Alan

i hope you came right with your wiring problem

I wanted to send you a drawing how to do this, but I'm

unable to load this up, If you are still battling,i could

email this to you.

Mike M

Hi Alan

Those items on the cover, are they 2 pairs of on/off push buttons and

howmany wires were attached to them, i notice 2 MEM contactors in the

box. can you perhaps post clearer images of those connections on

the cover, it looks like the cover carries external controls for the contactors.

regards

Mike M

Hi Ian

Yes we have done some comparison on two identical engines (Hybrids based on "Simplex"

in 7/14 in) One boiler was not equipped with super heater tubes only 25 flue tubes and

the other with 8 flues less but with 4 superheaters. I must say that the day when it was

steamed up i was worried sick, but i was surprised beyond expectation at the performance.

When both egines were eventually on the track no performance difference could be noticed

and even the late Basil Palmer made an appreciating comment. I,m not shooting superheaters

down but i'm not convinced that they are worth the trouble making them. However my

unsuperheated boiler is now removed for coverting to oil or gas burning to eliminate

the abrasive action on the flues due to the poor quality coal we are using here in RSA

and i,m thinking of turning one or maybe two flue tubes into small suberheaters to try

and improve the performance of the injectors and if that works? well that's as far i will

go on superheaters.

Regards all

Mike M

I don't think it's worth all the trouble making a super heater on models. I won't go into

the deatails here,but use a bit of maths here, focussing on the steam passing throuh the

superheater.When starting off a wonderful mouthfull of superheated steam enters

the steam chests, but the velocity and volume of steam after speeding up a little entering

the cylinders now falls far short of being"superheated" for the exposed area of the super

heater is way insufficient to make any sicnificant difference when operating a model.

If superheaters were fitted as in full size jobs, well then i can live with that, but as i mentioned

earlier a little maths epplied here will scare many builders off. My engines (5" & 7 1/4" runs

as good as any without super heaters, 20 pounds of coal on a steam day?? once a month

so what it's my hobby and pleasure superheaters will not change any of that or the evergreen

argument.

Greetings Mike

Many years ago, when i built a "Simplex" engine with precise tolerances set in The late

Martin Evans drawings, this good looking engine performed very well except that it would

derail for some reason. A elderly club member undertook to fix my problem.

When he brought the engine back, he commented the the axle boxes were too accurately

fitted and more "slack" should be allowed for so that the engine can "walk" on the track

for no track has ever been built on a billiard table

John Stevenson is not wrong, varydrive not only on Bridgeport, but any machine tool are crap

I recently acquired a BP with chromed bedways and worn srews on X & Y
After changing to step pulleys and vfd, ballscrews and nuts on both axes

i now own a near perfect milling machine

I also have a Chipmaster to which i fitted a lumpen two speed gearbox and vfd

after getting rid of the cob variator