Member postings for Perko7

Thanks gents, those copies from Ady1 are all that I need. Could not work out how the plumbing connected to the steamchest and what size the connections would be. Working from an original General Arrangement drawing of the loco I'm building and scaling down the full-size arrangement was never going to work. Will post some photos when I get to that stage, still preparing drawings so I know how much metal I need to trim away.

Saw a video of a space rocket exploding not long after take-off, it was termed a 'rapid unplanned disassembly'.

Hi, wondering if anyone would have a copy of ME Issue 2770 Volume 110 1954 which describes the cylinders for the 5inch gauge Netta. I am building something similar and would like to use a published design for the cylinders rather than try to invent one. Happy for scanned pages rather than posting to Australia. Thanks.

The problem I think is in the understanding of the word 'intelligence'.

According to most dictionaries I've seen, intelligence simply means the ability to learn and retain information, in which case the phrase Artificial Intelligence to describe machines which can do this is accurate.

What these machines are not capable of doing is 'reasoning' which is a much more complex activity involving the ability to think and draw conclusions. They are also still machines with no soul and therefore incapable of feelings or emotions which often influence our reasoning.

AI for example could never dream, reason, and generate designs in the way that Einstein, Bell, Tesla, Da Vinci, Edison, Stephenson or any of the other great thinkers and inventors could, so in that respect I think the human race is not under threat.

Tried posting this a few minutes ago and it disappeared, apologies if it ends up doubled-up.

Just completed my first attempt at shrink fits, putting steel rims on cast iron wheel centres for a model loco. Wheel centres were 67mm dia, bored the rims to 0.1mm undersize, dropped the centres in the domestic freezer overnight, then this morning put the rims in the oven at 220°C for about 45 minutes, took them out and the centres just smoothly dropped in under their own weight, all except one . It is now stuck about 4mm from home with a slight misalignment. Don't want to press it the rest of the way as I don't have a press and doing it in the vice may put too much stress on the fairly delicate centres.

Thinking I could pop the assembly onto a loose fitting shaft, and rotate it slowly in front of the gas torch to see if I can heat the rim up enough to allow the centre to seat properly with some light pressure.

Any other suggestions?

Interesting question. It's been many years since I did dynamics at uni as part of my engineering studies, but I think the answer would be that the impact energy multiplied by the frequency should approximate the input power minus the various losses. So, 55J impact at 1450 impacts/minute is 79.75kJ/min which is 1329J/sec which is 1329W, which is about 83% of the input power so not an unreasonable figure.

The effectiveness of this input energy in dislodging material would then need to be assessed in relation to the mass of the moving parts, the velocity at the time of impact, and the effort provided by the person holding it. There would seem to be too many variables there to allow a simple comparison with a lump hammer but someone with more recent experience than me might be able to calculate it.

A simple approach suggests that if the machine weighed the same as the lump hammer, and if the velocity at the point of impact was similar, then a similar result would be expected. For how long would be subject to the fitness of the man with the hammer.

Perhaps some empirical evidence is needed for comparison??

A few years ago paints in Australia were oil-based enamels or water-based acrylic and worked well. Then a couple of manufacturers introduced enamels that were suitable for water clean-up. They were horrendous. Did not cover well, streaky when brushed, fussy about which undercoat/primer they would work with, and the cleanup was worse with water than when using turps. Found some other brands that still do the standard water-based acrylic and that is pretty much all I will use these days. Tradition was that you used gloss enamel on interior trims (skirtings, architraves etc) but I have used gloss acrylics for these with no problems and they are easier to repair when damaged. The only enamels I use now are in spray cans for use on metal.

It is also called a 'Link' drive and examples were developed by Brown Boveri and also by Oerlikon for large electric passenger locomotives. It allows the motor to be rigidly mounted in the chassis along with the gear drive to preserve correct alignment, but allows the driven axle to move on its suspension. It also reduces unsprung weight in comparison with a nose-suspended axle-hung motor which makes for less damage to trackwork.

There is a detailed explanation of it in a textbook I have (Electric Traction by A.T.Dover) along with some diagrams and pictures. Even after reading this I still can't understand how it works .

I'll have to look at the Wiki article I think.

I use empty pill bottles. They are about 40mm diameter and 60mm high, and fit quite neatly in a cutlery drawer fitted with dividers at a suitable spacing. The drawer holds about 56 bottles and there is a separate tray half the depth of the drawer that slides on top and holds various things that don't fit in the smaller bottles. One pill bottle will hold about 100 6BA x 3/8" hex head screws. I use these for all screws used on my loco projects (5BA to 12BA and M3 to M5)

Larger fasteners for household use (wood screws, wall anchors, roofing screws, miscellaneous bolts etc) are held in empty clear plastic fruit containers with wide mouth screw-on lids stacked on shelves above the workbench. Smaller household fasteners I keep in the packets they were purchased in, which are then held in several cardboard trays similar in size to shoeboxes (but shallower and without lids) in another drawer.

Apart from 5BA and 7BA hex-head bolts in exposed areas for cosmetic reasons, and 10BA round-head screws in some areas to replicate rivet heads, all other threads on my non-steam loco are metric.

Steam loco currently under construction has 6BA for all cosmetic bolts, metric elsewhere. Have not progressed to boiler and cab yet so may need to revise this later.

If only someone had the necessary financial resources to produce a range of metric hex-head steel bolts in the smaller sizes matching BA up to say 10BA. Smallest I have found locally (Australia) is M3 and only in Stainless Steel.

I have some cast iron spoked loco wheels needing turned up, but they have a very hard skin on them which I have been unable to break through using carbide-tipped tools. I have read on this site that the skin can be removed using an angle grinder. I've been able to turn a spigot on the wheels so I wondered whether I could mount them in a battery drill running at speed and hold it against the bench grinder also running. Would keep the residue away from the working surfaces of the lathe and provide a relatively 'round' finish for further turning. Any thoughts?

In the drawing office we always used White Spirit to remove residue from tracing paper including pencil, masking tape glue, and other general grime. Worked very well.

I now use it to remove labels from pill bottles that are being re-purposed into containers for BA fasteners, and to remove the residue from those self-adhesive sealing strips you put around your doorway when it comes time to replace them.

Always remember with a smile a comment by Barry Sheene on a TV broadcast of motor racing in Australia. The commentators were discussing the proposed team being developed to run factory-backed Ford sedans in the local V8 championship series, Barry's suggestion was:

Ford Australia Racing Team

Much laughter ensued.

A character greatly missed in the motor sport world.

These guys do some interesting work making big fat swarf in various colours:

https://www.facebook.com/cuttingedgeengineeringaustralia/videos/907559030690862

Not sure if this link will work so if not just look up cuttingedgeengineeringaustralia on Facebook and have a look at some of their videos.

Both my lathes (one about 95 years old and the other about 5 years old) have belt drive. The old lathe has flat leather belts, the newer lathe v-belts. I would not consider anything else. The belts, if tensioned sensibly, provide an in-built torque limiter so that if you accidentally dig in when turning (it happens to all of us at some time) or worse still drive the toolpost into the chuck (I've not done that one yet) the belt will slip preventing any major damage before you are able to cut the power.

Both my lathes are powered by a 1440RPM 240V AC motor. Speed changes for me are therefore reliant on changing the belt position, which is clumsy and inefficient but I'm happy to do that for the quantity and nature of the work that I do on them. If I had more $$$ I would trade one in on a new machine with a quick-change gearbox but still retaining belt drive.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. Best to talk to a few others in your local ME club who have experience on a wider range of machines.

Hi Trevor, TEA Transmissions in Tiaro, just south of Maryborough, make bevel gear sets in 2:1 ratio and Module 1.5 which is close to 16 DP according to my maths. I have purchased from them previously and they seem happy to supply small quantities and will post them to you. Another source might be Ronson Gears who list a range of metric bevel gears in stock which are close to your dimensions. Hope you have success in your search.

On further examination, I think the arrangement I am looking at is more like the Gooch valve gear. I will look at the simulations for that and see if it works.

Ok, I've been reading up on this subject for a little while and have viewed the Dockstader simulations and read most of what Don Ashton has written, but there is still one thing that puzzles me. Most (if not all) the simulations and design texts assume that the valve rod is suspended in a fixed position and the expansion link is lowered or raised to provide forward and reverse running. The original drawings for the loco I am constructing have the expansion link suspended in a fixed position and the valve rod raised or lowered to provide forward and reverse. None of the simulations seem to accommodate this arrangement. The expansion link slot in the simulations appears to be curved to approximately match the radius of the eccentric rods, so when the piston is at dead centre, there would seem to be minimal movement of the valve rod between full forward and full reverse as the expansion link is raised or lowered. In my example, with the valve rod being raised or lowered instead, would the curved slot in the expansion link need to face the other way (as in say a Walschearts link) so that there is minimal valve movement as the valve rod is raised or lowered when the piston is at dead centre. If the curve is the normal way there would be significant movement of the valve between the mid-point and the two extremities of the expansion link.

Hope some of you more experienced loco builders can point me in the right direction.

I've silver soldered lots of steel bits over the years and have nearly always used emery paper followed by warm soapy water and a stiff brush as the final cleaning regime before soldering and never had any trouble. Agree also that you need considerable more heat for steel than non-ferrous metals, and need to apply it quickly before you burn off all the flux.

Hopper, yes of the 4 locos built to this design all are still in existence. DL1 is in running order at the Ipswich Workshops Museum, DL2 is mounted on a plinth with an awning over it in the town of Forsayth which was the terminus of the line these locos were built to operate, DL3 is in working order at the ARHS Rosewood railway, and DL4 is in operating condition at Normanton and used regularly to haul the 'Gulflander' tourist train.