Member postings for Nick Wheeler

You don't do it to see the road.

You do it to see what is happening in or near the road, so you're ready for the car in front slowing down, turning off, pulling out, swerving out of the way of a pothole or any of the other things that can seriously ruin your day.

Most things that surprise drivers are visible if they're paying enough attention and looking far enough ahead!

What doesn't the Myford do that a different lathe would? If the current lathe is big enough, keep and upgrade it. If you need more capacity, a gearbox or other modern features then a replacement would be sensible.

Which is why these cars have heavily tinted rear side windows, and clearer front ones. Which looks ridiculous.

I think it's one of many pointless and ugly features of new cars.

Here's a LINK to a more interesting wheel video; from a Gopro mounted inside a car tyre.

The Eclipse jewellers screwdriver set in a blue plastic wallet are pretty good, and are only reassuringly expensive.

Baz's experience with Parcel Farce matches mine; they're not interested in delivering packages. I had one gently put the card through the letterbox when I was standing next to it! It could have been worse, as the parcel was actually on the van.

I've wasted enough time collecting parcels from them that I suggest any supplier using them should reduce my bill by the postage cost.

The World of Ward divider module.

Neil, thank you for the link as it gives me plenty of confidence in my that ought to be good enough and I can do it right now repair. There's nothing tricky about any of the engineering once you get past fitting the frame into the building.

Somebody forgetting to fit a needed bush would explain why there are no traces of it, and if this had been a very recent installation would be easier to accept. That would still imply require lousy quality control. But I find it hard to believe that there is no damage to either the tufnol bush, clapper hole, pin or clevis from probably 20kg of clapper clonking around on/in them for 16 years! The reported play would have been just as obvious every other time the muffles were used too.

If it were still possible to speak to the installers about this, we would even if that were to acquire the 'correct' part.

Having seen the results of neglect, wishful thinking or inadequate repairs means not spending 5 minutes checking this a couple of times over the next few months isn't acceptable. Now we know about it, we can't justify potentially damaging a 500 kg, 130year old bell. Access is good and there's room to at least kneel under the bell, and I've done far harder jobs in much worse conditions. Dismantling a good part just to have a look is something I'm much less comfortable with.

As the tenor of a light-to-medium eight, it's rung every time the bells are. There isn't a clock, and that would strike the outside of the bell with a hammer.

This is now a ground floor ring, so the congregation and vicar can at least see us, even if what we're actually doing takes some explanation. As for keeping it up, I'm out every night of the week learning the stuff I should have done before I stopped in 1991. This repair used material I'd bought for another job, so they'll replace that and the time will cost my round at the post-practice 'theory session'

Here's the assembly ready to fit:

Although that's a terrible photo, it does show my confusion: there's no way big chunks could get out, and there are no traces anywhere on the clapper, or on the surrounding bell, frame or floor. Because of that, I have no idea what material was originally used. The play wasn't discernible when ringing the bell - I'd rung it down just before the fault was mentioned - although there is another room between the belfry and ringing chamber, which does damp out any extra noises. At <500kg, it's not a particularly heavy bell.

My photo of the bushes is slightly staged, as they're barely longer than the clapper is wide. There's maybe 1.5mm of side clearance for the clapper in the clevis, which is pretty typical of new installations; these things hardly need tight tolerances as they used to be made by blacksmiths.

The plan is to refit the clapper, ring through Christmas and inspect it a couple of times in the early new year. And I've got to clear up the big pile of swarf from making a 33mm diameter bush from a 75mm piece of stock.

The steeple-keeper at one of the towers where I ring mentioned he thought the clapper on the tenor was a bit loose after removing the muffles for Rememberance Sunday.

On investigation, none of the fasteners were loose, but there was about 8mm of vertical play, so we dropped the clapper assembly out the bottom.

After heating to break the loctite, I undid the M20 locknut and pin to reveal this unexpected result:

That's a 1" diameter, 20mm bore tufnol sleeve, floating in a 33mm hole. Neither are damaged, in fact the original machining marks are still visible. There's about 1mm side clearance in the clevis, and no trace anywhere of missing material. So where is it, and how did it get there?

I machined a connecting sleeve out of a chunk of delrin,

and reassembled everything ready to refit before practice on Friday.

except for the bell, all of these parts are about 16 years old and shouldn't be showing any signs of wear. We checked the other seven bells, and they're all fine. So I'm mystified: how did this happen?

Better advice is to never refit locking wheelnuts. They are all terrible and likely to cause you some major inconvenience at some point.

Those two are why I have a 1/4" torque wrench. Using it for the first time was an eye-opener at just how little effort is required to torque such small fasteners correctly.

I did refit an XK cylinder head using a 3/8" TW, which was much harder work than if I'd used the 1/2" one I had at home.

Anyone with experience of LT/Sprinter vans from twenty years ago will know the consequences of not following the exact procedure for torquing the wheel bolts: the rear wheels fall off! It was a pity there wasn't a similar procedure to keep the side door attached to the van.

The common 1/2" drive pneumatic impact wrench gets a bad press, as most of them can't tighten(or loosen!) nuts as much as a normal size person with a 600mm breaker bar. That's because most of them are run off knackered compressors, joined with small bore hoses and connectors.

I would suggest that pretty much anyone who doesn't use a torque wrench is overtightening common fasteners by a significant amount - the M6 bolts for K-series or Vauxhall V6 cam bearing caps only need 10Nm, which is easily applied with a couple of fingers on a 10mm spanner.

The torque specification should state if the thread is lubricated or not.

Your other comments are why the actual bolt stretch is measured for critical applications - where possible - like bearing caps, and angular tightening has become common

Edited By Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 23/11/2022 07:59:46

I wonder how many people share Chris's definition of Model Engineering? Trying to define it well enough to permit only relevant posts would make him wish for a political thread.

that's a £10 note today. £5 if you drink in Wetherspoons. I doubt that a Victorian clock mender, working on the most prominent clock in the country, wasn't able to afford a couple of beers on the way home. I'd be surprised if he didn't have them!

They by-passed the master craftsmen in favour of mass produced items that were legally required to be identical and only cost a penny each. And the man adjusting the clock already had spares in his pocket.

The modern equivalent would be strapping your phone to the part, and having the specially written app tell you how much to adjust it. That's unlikely to work in 5 years time; it certainly won't in 160.

Oh.

Pity

Might as well buy a bigger, cheaper, more useful imported lathe and a nice holiday with the change.

But it will be special Myford rust, carefully developed in a traditional damp shed, and applied by timeserved rusterers to provide the very best coverage and artistic merit.