Member postings for John Rutzen

I have an Amadeal mill which I am very pleased with. The brushless DC motor never even runs warm never mind hot. Even with prolonged use it's still cold. There must be something wrong with yours. My 3 phase motor on my lathe which is converted using capacitors to run on single phase never runs hot either. Warm at the most.

Hi, I'm looking for a pair of 31/2 gauge bogie wheel castings, Must be 10 spoke and to turn up to 2.75 or 3 inch diameter. I've thought of cutting them out of steel but.I will give the forum a try first. Thanks.

Common Salt?

That shearing tool works on the same principle as a skew chisel in woodturning. Hard to use woodturning to avoid a dig in but that wouldn't happen here. I'll have to make one because I find it difficult to get a good finish. Thanks for the post.

I've got broken drills out by the following method. Boiler pickle [ dilute sulphuric acid] injected into the hole. Then warm it with a blow lamp. You have to do it a few times but the drill just pops out with the fizzing action of the bubbles! Works great in copper or brass, I don't know if the acid will attack the stainless. It will dissolve the points of the tap and it will probably then unscrew.

I made a double ended centre height gauge, one end faces up and the other down. The refinement I have in mine is a powerful magnet fitted in the base. I got the magnet out of an old microwave oven.

I got my carbide end mill in the post today so will try it out .

Can you still get FC3 cutters? I couldn't find any. Thanks for the advice to blow away the swarf, I'll try to rig that up. I have always used a paint brush to brush it away but that would be a better idea. I've ordered a carbide cutter and will try it on a bit of scrap first.

my Amat 25 mill does 3000 rpm on high speed and 1500 on low speed. I don't know what the recommended speed for a 1/8th cutter on gunmetal would be. It would be 3200 rpm with HSS on mild steel. Tubal Cain says feeds must be kept up with mills or they just rub. On this basis most of us shouldn't mill ports at all!

Hi, thanks that's good feedback. I was worried about breaking one in the port because they are very brittle.

Has anyone used miniature [1/8] solid carbide end mills for cutting ports? I have some ports to do and thought about buying one of these. My FC3 cutters are a bit blunt. I may have a go at sharpening them on my Quorn but it's getting a bit small to see what I am doing.

I have Alec Farmer's book on boiler making and he says the tubes should not be a tight fit. There must be a gap of 2 to 5 thou. He also said don't try to re-silver solder a leak, you'll probably end up with several leaks. Either use a punch to close the leak or use a tiny piece of comsol with the appropriate flux.

Hi,

I think we could do with a model engineer article or two on fixing minor leaks. As you say the received wisdom nowadays seems to be that any new boiler with a leak is scrap. This thinking is stopping many model engineers from even attempting to make boilers. I have a friend with a boiler with a crack round the silver solder on one of the flue tubes in the firebox and who doesn't want to try re- silver soldering it. I had a leak round a rivet on the foundation ring. That one responded to a few taps with a hammer and has not leaked since. Fortunately my boiler inspectors accepted that fix after a few discussions.

Hi, I remember an article by Bill Carter about how he made boiler flanging plates from mazak. The reference is 1982 vol148 issue3673. Does anybody have a copy please. I would like to read it again and would appreciate it if someone could email me a scan/ photo of the article.

Thank you.

Hi, thanks for all the input. I want to keep the weight down also to make it easier to manhandle. When you get over 70 lugging heavy locos in and out of a small car boot on your own isn't easy or a good idea. So I won't be adding lead. I have Don Young;s articles from the '70;s on constructing fabricated cylinders and if they were piston valve that would be the way to go. David, do you know how the Simplexes lasted long term? I don't know what alloy I have but it is 2 inch thick blocks and machines beautifully.

Hi, I don't have any cylinder castings so it's not as if I'd be wasting any. Looking at the drawings it looks a definite possibility and it would reduce the weight a great deal. Jason do you mean you have used aluminium without a liner in a I.C. engine?

Yes, I intended to use an iron liner for the bore but I couldn't think of how to bond the port face plate except using Loctite and I don't know whether I would get steam leakage from the inlet to exhaust. The valve chest bolts could hold it all together.

Hi, I"d like to know if anyone has any knowledge of using light alloy for locomotive cylinder blocks. My reason for asking is that I want to reduce weight as much as possible to avoid having a front heavy locomotive. The loco in question is the Webb compound Jeanie Deans. On another thread I've been getting a lot of input on this loco so I am not asking for info about it but someone who is building one commented on how front heavy it was with the big cylinder up front. I remember reading an article by Neville Evans on one of his locos some years ago and he suggested light alloy cylinder blocks with cast iron liners. i don't know if he ever tried it. I have lots of alloy blocks so i have the material for nothing at hand. The problem as I see it would be how to manage the port face. I don't know if the alloy would wear satisfactorily or if it would be necessary to let in a piece of iron in which case how could it be made steam tight? I thought of loctite and I have used this satisfactorily to put liners into blocks. I don't know about sealing a flat surface though especially with the differential expansion.

hI Nick, I've got that book and read the chapter on compounds. Thanks for pointing it out. It's a sad reflection on British engine drivers that they weren't considered intelligent enough to drive a compound whereas the continental ones were. LBSC doesn't say this but the fact that the simpling valve was automatic rather that controlled by the driver implies it.

hI, thanks for the posts. The one on the build thread looks superb. I hadn't heard of that forum before. I've located

an old set of drawings,, someone in the club here is going to lend them to me so I will be interested to see if LBSC had any secrets or not. I'd like to see how the one in your club was done Duncan.