Member postings for An Other

Hi, Bernard - sent you a PM.

There was a time I could have done with some insulation - more years ago than I care to remember, I was working on an old rotating coil PPI radar display. (This generated the rotating 'sweep' on the tube by mechanically rotating the coils carrying the sweep generation signal - it was a long time ago!). I was following all the accepted safety rules of the the time - one hand in pocket, nothing dangling loose, etc, etc.

The testing required the power to be on - about 18 kV supply to the tube if I remember correctly. A colleague walked past behind me, and accidentally pushed me - I touched the HV. The resulting shock flung me back against a wall so I cracked my head, and I bit deeply into my tongue. It took about an hour or so to stop shaking, and seeing red and blue spots. I think I was lucky to to suffer more serious injury.

Nothing to do with insulation, but I guess it shows a need to take care with high voltage.

Edited By An Other on 01/02/2019 18:16:29

You could give these people a call in Luxembourg - I have had brilliant service from them.

RCM S.A R.L.
2 rue Emile Nilles
L-6131 Junglinster
Tel.: +352 78 76 76 1
Fax: +352 78 76 76 76
Email: [email protected]

Their website is multilingual.

https://www.rcm-machines.com/de

(edited for URL)

Edited By An Other on 20/12/2018 19:12:24

To Mark Rand:

This point about lack of a public profile has come up before, and I believe Neil summed it up at the time (to paraphrase) 'its not compulsory'

Personally, I will not post a profile or any other information about myself unless I so choose on any website - I always use a false name, and would never provide an address or contact number. The reason I do not have a profile on this site is because of past abuse, and secondly because of the increasing need for internet security. If I was so inclined, you have already posted sufficient information in your own profile to make it relatively easy for a hacker to start stealing your online identity - your name, and a locality, with some indication of your occupation. I won't provide details for obvious reasons, but it wouldn't be difficult to get an address. and then many other details are easily found. I suggest a little paranoia might provide better protection.

Its easy to say 'rubbish - no-one would do that' I say wait until it happens to you.

If it concerns you so much that you do have personal information on a particular person, you can always send them a PM, and see what that gets you.

Dave - Seems you have a solution, but I would like to make one comment which may be relevant to other searches for material.

I frequently order materials from other countries to be sent to me. These cover a whole range of things, from electronics, to metals, books, even wood. When I first came to live here, I felt cut off from my usual suppliers (at that time, in Germany and and the UK), but after a bit of research, and a few telephone calls, I found out that it is frequently much cheaper to import stuff.

The UK in particular has horrendous postal and transit charges, and I have lost more stuff through the UK post than I would care to mention (worst was an expensive, insured laptop sent via Parcel Farce. I was told to wait one year to see if it turned up, then maybe I would be able to claim the insurance - in the event, I sued for my money and got it, plus interest).

I order electronics parts, and tools from Germany on almost a weekly basis, and always receive them within a week, and the cost is always acceptable, even when delivery is by courier - sometimes it is even free. In contrast, I have often cancelled orders to the UK, because the postal charges have far exceeded the cost of the item.

Many 'continental' companies have excellent stocks and services, and their websites can usually be read in English - two German companies spring to mind - Conrad and Reichelt. Both supply electronics components, and Conrad also supplies a wide range of materials for almost all modelling fields, and both deliver worldwide. Both these companies even have English speakers on their helplines - and I note that Maplin has gone bust - I wonder why?

Dave (SoD),

After reading this thread and the 'advice' (?), I'm glad its not me trying to find this stuff in the UK. I get the impression that no-one reads what is written, or looks at the links.

As I noted, if you get stuck, let me know, and I will try and see if I can send some to the UK - maybe DHL or FEDEX shouldn't be too pricey. As of this afternoon, it costs the equivalent of about 20 pence per metre. The postage will probably cost more. If I can send it, then it probably won't be possible until after Christmas now.

I have another suggestion, considering the comments about its diameter. I assume that since this is for a loop antenna, then the ends will not be connected, which should not cause any problems. Just in case you do need to connect to the stuff, all the fittings sold here are made of brass, and the connection is made by a spigot pushing into the pipe, and locked in place by a screw-fitting compression ring. Normally the fitting is isolated by the plastic, but it is a trivial matter to strip some of the plastic back, and fold a strip of the aluminium back under the compression ring.

I don't know of a source in the UK, but its used everywhere where I live, and costs only a few pennies per metre. I think the stuff originated in Italy, because all the associated fittings are made in Italy. Not sure how easy or expensive it is to send it to the UK, but if you get really stuck, let me know and I'll see what I can do (before the Brexidiots stop international trading), assuming you don't want tens of metres.

As you describe, it is a thin aluminium tube about 15mm diameter, coated internally and externally with plastic, and is used for hot and cold water. The joints are made using a collet-like compression fitting. It cannot be bent too sharply without kinking - I would say about 30 mm radius is as tight as you can go (thats a guess based on usage). The aluminium tube appears to be a continuous tube, not wound from foil.

It doesn't like overheating - boiling water (as opposed to 'hot' seems to either make the plastic deteriorate, or expansion and subsequent return to normal of the tube makes the joints fail, but this shouldn't be an issue for an antenna.

Guy,

Like Michael, I have also made many lost-foam castings in dry sand, with no problems. I used the smallest grain sand I could find - almost like dust. I also used some quartz sand such as is sold for swimming bath filters. Make sure the pattern is well covered by the sand - if it is too close to the surface, then odd things happen. I assume the that as the foam evaporates in the heat, either the resulting gases 'explode' through the sand, or the sand collapses into the void. If it is buried a few centimetres under the sand, this doesn't happen.

I also use the rigid closed cell foam as mentioned by John Purdy. This stuff can be cut with a fine saw or hot wire, and can be sanded to a smooth finish. The white bead type foam is useless. You can make complex patterns by gluing together pieces of foam using hot-melt glue. No draft is necessary on the pattern.

The principle is described in many places online. This site gives a good description of commercial application: **LINK**, It mentions using a ceramic coating to form a sort of 'skin' to reduce the roughness caused by the granularity of the sand. Since I couldn't get hold of any kind of ceramic dip, I tried a suggestion I found online that coating the pattern with a thin coat of latex paint also gave satisfactory result - it does seem to work.

As John says - don't breath the fumes !

Hi, Andre.

We have a well with an ejector - the well is about 16 cms diameter - but - our ejector is, as you note, an 'el Cheapo' cast iron product, and they are freely available 'off the shelf' here. It has been in continuous use now for about 6 years. I had to extract the ejector about two years ago due to an issue with a pipe connector, and was surprised to find it was NOT seriously rusted or showing any other signs of damage, apart from small traces of rust around the edges of the casting - certainly not serious.

The ejector itself was painted (by the manufacturer) with some sort of dark green paint, but no idea if it was some special type. I simply wire-brushed the thing clean, and gave it a quick spray with a can of paint I had on the garage shelf.

However, the ejector was fitted with a galvanized tailpipe to prevent pumping the well dry, and this was horrendously rusted! - the galvanizing was a complete waste of time. This tailpipe was replaced with a plastic pipe as a result.

This well supplies all our water, including drinking water, so we have it checked and analyzed at regular intervals for any nasties, and have never had any reason for worries. The thing that does make me wonder is that despite the corroded tailpipe, nothing showed up the analysis, nor was the water discoloured - maybe we should get the analysis done elsewhere!. That said, we have drunk the water for a long time now, and have not had any illnesses which could be attributed to the water.

Mercs did seem to have a reliability problem some years ago. I used to commute daily between Darmstadt and Stuttgart (They build Mercs there), and it always seemed that the majority of cars which were stopped on the side of the autobahn (presumably broken down) were Mercedes of one type or another (followed by BMW).

Now I live in Romania, and literally thousands of Nth-hand Mercedes and BMWs have been brought in from Germany since the demise of Ceacescu, to replace the old Dacia(Renault) 1300's. They are almost all (or will become) deathtraps, because there are very limited repair facilities here (and the Romanian income is even more limited). Some of them are in horrendous condition (There is an 'MOT' check (ITP), but enforcement is virtually nil).

This problem will probably only get worse, given the technological complexity of modern cars. It isn't enough to be a mechanical engineer, you need electronic knowledge as well.

Hi, Alan,

I converted my X2 to a toothed belt drive. The only things I had to buy were the toothed wheels and the drive belt. It uses the existing motor (in my case, its the model with the DC motor). I deliberately tried to make the minimum number of changes to the machine, so I could revert to the original system if necessary. Another reason for doing it this way it that it is, when all is said and done, a cheap machine and hardly justifies large expenditure. Some of the mods I found cost almost as much as the machine itself, and I felt that if I was going to go that much trouble, I might as well buy a better machine.

I am a bit under the weather at the moment, but I will take pictures as soon as I can, and if you are still interested, I will put some details together for you. It made quite an improvement to the machine - much quieter, and it seems to produce better results.

Not quite what you asked, but is it worth considering modern LED lamps? - it may stop the problem of vibration breaking the filaments of standard bulbs. I assume you are using a 50 volt bulb on a lower voltage to reduce this risk.

You will possibly need a DC supply for an LED lamp, but low voltage types are available. The use of DC would also eliminate the risk of 'strobing' as you work under an AC lamp.

I appreciate this entails a little more cost, but may be worth it in the end.

We have a species of wasp or hornet which nests in or around our house/garage from about May until October. They look identical to a 'standard' wasp, but are at least twice as big - most of them are easily 1.5 inches long - rather frightening when you see one flying in your direction.

Normally they are not aggressive, but will respond to electric lights, so become a risk at night - open a door or window to a room with a light on, and two or three will turn up virtually instantly. The good thing is that they make one hell of a buzz, probably due to their size, so its not difficult to tell they are around.

Very difficult to get rid of - for ecological reason I prefer not to kill them, but once they are in the room, killing is about the only way to do it. The local bug spray is crap. I won't give the name, but it is obtainable in most of Europe. It says on the tin 'instant action' - maybe, if you hit them with the tin, 'cause the spray don't affect them (or flies, mosquitoes or any other flying insect that I can see). So now we are trying to learn to live with them.

They do build beautiful nests, about the size of a rugby ball, and its a real architectural masterpiece, which they abandon each year. Although they will return to nest in the same location, they always build a new nest.

Hi, Annette,

A C0 should be able to handle the size you need, but since it is a very small lathe, you will probably need to take very light cuts, and therefore it will take time.

Assuming the spinners are not a simple cone, but have a curved profile, then these may be awkward to cut. There are several ways to cut the curve, but probably the easiest way is to take several cuts to produce a series of small steps, then clean the shape up with a file held against the spinner while the lathe is running, finishing with various grades of emery or similar.

If you haven't bought one yet, I would recommend getting the slightly bigger 7x10 or 7x12 available from many companies such as ArcEuroTrade, Clarkes, Warco, etc. There is a lot of stuff about the pros and cons of these lathes in this forum and on the internet. They are useful small machines, and have much more capability than the C0, so may be a better option.

I seem to remember an article in ME long ago about building a press from an old steering rack. If I have time I will try to find it.

Back in the days of interesting cars, I bought a crashed Jaguar XK140 to rebuild. It had hit something at the front offside, and bent the steering, then been parked under a tree with the doors open for a couple of years.

We re-aligned the front wheel by eye. (the offside one was about four inches behind the nearside), and freed up the rusted brakes at the same time.

The front bumper was tied inside the car to stop it falling through the non-existent floor (disappeared due to wet leaves inside - which we had to shovel out).

The gear lever was broken off leaving a stump about three inches long, and the car was in gear, so we used mole grips to shift it into neutral. They stayed there for some time during the rebuild, until I located another lever.

A friend then towed it from Oswestry to Abingdon using a 3.4 Mk2 Jaguar. It would be impossible these days, owing to the volume and lack of consideration of modern motorists, but we got it to Abingdon eventually. Of course, it rained on the way, so windscreen wiping was achieved by a rag on a stick out the window - intercar signalling was by frantic waving (no electrics for horn or lights). At the same time, I had to keep my feet on the pedals due to the lack of floor. The brakes did work, but needed enormous pressure on the pedal because with no engine running, the brake servo was useless.

Near Blenheim, I almost lost a front wheel, because we had forgotten to tighten up the wheelnuts after freeing up the brakes. A guy in an electric milkfloat noticed the wheel was not vertical when we stopped at a junction and came running over to tell us.

The small rear window behind the driver also fell out. When we walked back to look for it, a guy cutting his hedge gave us it, and said it had nearly hit him - but he wasn't at all upset - wish people were that tolerant today.

The rebuild is another long story of enormous luck, considerable help from friends, strangers, enthusiasts and a couple of companies in Oxford, and tolerance from the missus. I eventually sold it to some bloke in Canada for an enormous profit (for those days). - It was fun in those days.

I'm short-sighted, and getting worse with advancing age. As a result, I often find I am spending time rootling around the workbench looking for the small part or tool I just put down. Eventually I give up and go off for a cuppa. At some point, I say to the missus 'have you seen my glasses?', whereupon she replies 'Do you mean the pair on the top of your head, or your other pair?'

Done all these things, and felt a total fool - but I did find one answer that works for me. If I can't find anything in the 'shed' now, I ask the missus to come and help me look - she always seems to find things immediately, after I've spent hours looking, or made a replacement. I have my own theory why she can do this, but I can't say anything - she sometimes reads this forums, and I want to live just a little longer!

Think some confusion has crept in here:- Mick B1 notes that he changed to a WM250V, and goes on to talk about the difficulty of changing chucks - that access to the three retaining nuts is difficult. There seems to be some confusion there - as far as I am aware, the chuck retained by nuts is the smaller 7x10 chinese lathe, not the larger WM250 or 9x20.

I have both a WM250 variant, and a version of the smaller 7x10 'chinese' lathes. On my WM250 (commonly known as a 9x20), the chuck is retained by a thread - it simply screws on, and a setscrew is used to prevent it 'unwinding'. There were even two tommy bars in the toolkit to remove chucks. I have never seen a 9x20 with a chuck retained by nuts - perhaps Mick B1 has a 'one-off'!

The smaller 7x10 uses three nuts to retain the chuck. The chuck fits against a flange, and three studs pass through that, and nuts have to be fitted to retain the chuck. The difficulty is that the flange is very close to the headstock casting, and there is not much room to get the nuts in or out. Mick also notes that he has to use some force to get the chuck off. Mine is a close fit, but I don't have to force it. I guess this is probably due to the quality/cost of the machine.

SoDs remarks about the 7x10 are relevant. I would add that there is tons of stuff on the Internet about modding both the 7x10 and the 9x20. I also would say that, having started with the 7x10 and moved onto the bigger 9x20, I wish I had started with the 9x20! - it is so much better that it is hardly worth the trouble of looking at the 7x10, unless cost is a factor.

Hi, John,

There is tons of stuff on the internet for this generic type of lathe. I'll try and find time in the next couple of days to look for some of the links.

In the meantime, you could try searching for info using "9x20 Lathe" - there are many generic models with minor (and some major) differences, but the majority of it is applicable to all the lathe models.

The modification almost everyone recommends is changing to a 3-phase motor/VFD - I have done my lathe, and it is vastly better and simpler than the stock setup. Other 'must-do' mods include a more robust saddle mounting ring, There are (were?) also some Yahoo groups which deal specifically with this lathe, and if they are still in operation they are a good source of info - there used to be 'rebuild' and 'setup' articles available there. Grizzly in the States also do an online manual for their version of this lathe which is quite useful.

I have to say I don't remember very much from ME and MEW in terms of modifying this lathe.