Member postings for John Rutzen

I took the spring off my motor switch and put a plastic knob on it. I also put a friction pad on the arm to prevent accidental operation. I now have it mounted above the lathe and find it really convenient to operate.

My Amadeal 25LV mill, which has worked well for 6 years suddenly stopped today and I wonder if anyone can please help diagnose the problem. It was running ok on a light cut and the earth leakage trip just cut the power. When I reset the trip the display lit up and the contactor went in but there was no number displayed and nothing happened when I turned the speed pot. The display was lit up and I checked the fuse and it is ok. There is no evidence of burning on the control board but it is potted so you can't see much. There are no loose wires, no smoke or smell.

I suppose it's heresy but I just use plain old bright mild steel. I doubt if the rest of my mill, vice etc is good enough to warrant super precision. If you always use two bits cut from the same length they are pretty good.

This is an IR image taken with my Samsung WB500 converted to Infra Red.

Hi, there are a number of videos on Youtube about converting specific cameras. I bought a Samsung one and it was very easy to do. The filter fitted on a 52mm thread which I epoxied onto the front of the lens. The pictures come out with a reddish tinge so you need to do a bit of fiddling around with the colours - I used Iphoto but you can also use GiMP. I'll post a picture if I can figure out how to do it.

Hi, it's quite an easy and interesting project to convert an old digital camera to infra red. I've done it on a couple of old cameras. It involves removing the infra red stop filter that covers the sensor and adding a visible light stop filter over the lens using the filter thread. The last one I did cost me £15 on ebay.

I always climb mill the last thou or two, it produces a much better finish.

Having watched Bangers and Cash it's probably worth at least 20 grand in THAT condition!

Loctite will be fine too. Have you ever tried getting it apart by heating? Steam at the temperatures we use won't remove it. I've loctited liners into cylinders more than once in steam engines. I've had to do this when a blowhole appeared in the bore. You can also loctite small screws into boilers for say holding the firedoor on though I prefer not to drill holes in a finished boiler to fit things like support brackets but they won't leak or come out.

Thanks Jason, that's interesting to consider as an option. The design of the joint would also obviously have a lot to do with it. I've only ever used it to make fillets when I fabricated the flywheel for my Rumely tractor.

Hi Jason, lovely photos and very interesting , especially for someone like me who fabricates nearly everything. I hadn't considered JB welding cast iron together for a cylinder. Does it stand the heating/cooling cycles and the moisture? Also , I'm pretty sure that you can silver solder cast iron though I haven't tried it.

That's very interesting to know Paul. There are many drawings out there for bits that don't work, it's very frustrating at times.

They are in volume 103, there is the complete volume of ebay for £12 including post at the moment.

Hi John, yes that is the Austen-Walton one. I now have the articles , they are in October 12th and October 19th 1950 issues. The top and bottom steel plates are very distinctive.

Hi everyone, thanks for the feedback. I've found the Austen-Walton article at last! A friend who lives locally had a load of old volumes and I found it among them.

Thanks Paul. going back to the Austen Walton pump I've found it is described in volume 103 , 1950. Does anyone have that please? Would it be possible to get a copy of the relevant article? Thank you. I have volumes 102 and 104 and there is a picture of it in volume 104 and he says it was recently described so I am assuming it was in volume 103.

Paul, I've downloaded those files from Grabcad but I can't open them. My computer is Windows 10 Pro. Can you suggest what's wrong please?

Thanks everyone. I'll look up my old M.E. volumes, I have some of the twin sisters articles, I just couldn't see any reference to the steam pump in the index. I'll also check out that Grabcad thing.

Hello, i've been looking for a design for one of these and seen photos of one made by J L Austen-Walton. I can't find this in the M.E. index though I do see that the drawings are available. Can anyone tell me the reference please?

I bought some hard anodized aluminium sheet and tried to spray paint it with etch primer for aluminium, the paint just fell off! You have to sandpaper it with fairly coarse stuff to get a key. Another piece of bare aluminium was ok.