Member postings for Phil H1

Really nice engine build Paul.

Its interesting that other Trojan and its look alikes have appeared recently. I tried to build Trojan without castings when I was at school. I tried again using bar stock about 12 years ago (photos in my album). I was surprised to discover that a casting set is about £100 now!!! The completed simplex, fully machined looks like it was about £3.

Phil H

Dave,

I think the threaded inserts would be added before you pour the epoxy. Bolts or short pieces of stud could be used to keep the epoxy out of the threads.

I am with John Haine on this subject.

Only the cheap looking, nasty, over polished, horrible clocks that they used to sell in jewellers (but with a high price tag) have a highly polished surface with all the edges completely ruined because they are rounded over.

They should be a nice finish but still look flat with beautiful clean edges.

Just my opinion. Over polishing is simply ruining all the hard work.

Phil H

John,

Perhaps you could modify your late brothers engine and bring it along to the Rob Roy Rally day in September?

Phil H

John,

Excellent. Thanks very much for that, you caught me just in time. I can easily make those modifications now.

Phil H

John,

Have I got you right? I thought a sketch to clarify might be a good plan before I hack metal. Thanks very much

in advance. Phil H

John,

Thanks very much for those tips. Exactly the kind of stuff I am looking for.

I have just (10 minutes ago) machined the short sections of angle for the expansion link but I haven't drilled the holes yet. So the first change is quite easy if I have understood correctly. Just to clarify (please), the little press fit pin in the angle is moved closer to the eccentrics (away from the valve chest) by 0.0975". Is that correct?

Again, if I have understood you correctly, reducing the length of the lifting arms is a pain (specially the slot milling) but not a real problem. A shortening of 0.1875" according to your recommendation.

That would suggest to me that on the original valve gear drawing, at the central expansion link position, the lifting link looks vertical. But with the changes, it will tilt slightly like a forward slash ..../.... because the lifting arm is shorter than the change on the expansion link.

I will sketch it and post here.

Interesting links. Yes Mr Hancock. There are two young ladies here and the wife. At least one of them walks round in light clothing but keeps pressing the heating control. I think getting others in the house to consider an electric suit will be an uphill struggle.

Mad though isn't it? Why isn't everybody in a heated suit?

Thanks Rex. Painfully slow though. But I now have a boiler, super heater and regulator from Bromsgrove. Just need to get it tested.

Long time since I added anything. I have started building the valve gear parts. I cheated a bit and bought some laser cut parts. So first we have the embryo eccentric rods which consist of three parts each to be silver soldered together. Here they are with 3 straight off the thermal block and 1 that I have started to clean up.

And the rest of the embryo valve gear parts at various stages of machining and cleaning up.

I have said this before and my post didn't seem to get noticed. It might be a bit mad but surely it is worth thinking about the following;

My boiler kicks out a fair few kW as it burns lots of gas to keep the whole house warm. Why can't we devise a sort of practical, reasonable space type suit that keeps individuals warm or even cool. I would imagine such a suit would be burning 100s of W rather than kW.

I know they suggest layers and even electric blankets of older people but it does seem mad that we are all burning kW rather than W.

Has it already been done?

Phil H

Bob,

I agree with Jon, it would be a great article. I like to see it in the forum here but I think it would be great to see it in one of the magazines to show what can be done - perhaps educate a few people at the same time.

Phil H

Jason/ PhilR, thanks. It wasn't just a dream then.

Jason,

I would imagine the method is not dissimilar but no - my memory was a 'system' for forming the rivet appearance on say a locomotive tender or a running board. Features that have say 30 or 40 rivets in a straight line and it was meant for the smaller gauge model locomotives. So you can probably imagine that the dimples really would be tiny.

I am struggling to remember how it worked in detail but I remember the strips of thin brass would be guided along a straight edge whilst the punch/ press produced the tiny dimples. You can imagine that it also had a means of moving the sheet along by a specified amount so the dimples would be evenly spaced. They had bits of sample brass on the bench with the dimples already formed. I am sure it would have been the Midlands or Alexanders Palace in London in about 2012.

Phil H

It depends how small and in what material. For example 1/32" brass snaphead rivets are usually available from the usual ME suppliers.

Also, at a model engineering exhibition, I saw a 'system' for producing a riveted appearance for the smaller scale model locomotives (probably gauge 1). A thin brass plate would be 'pressed' on its rear side and a snap head rivet appearance would show on the front. Forgive me but I don't have a suggested supplier but it might remind somebody who does know or has also seen the system.

Phil H

John,

I had a loft tank but now have a pressurised system. The newer system is a pain. I'd go back to a tank tomorrow.

Thanks Rex, I have added it to my calendar and I will try to get some more of my Rob Roy built for the meeting.

Phil H

Anthony,

Additional... There are some really good locomotive boiler build threads on the proboards model engineering site.

There is quite a recent 5" gauge Britannia boiler build (over the past few years) and Julians 5" gauge Terrier/Boxhill type locomotive boiler build. Both threads are excellent and show the boilers being build up from scratch including plate flanging etc.

The Britannia build also gives information on the sizes of Sievert torch and nozzle sizes, along with other silver soldering kit information.

From memory, the Britannia builder struggled when he tried to use 'loose' rivets as you suggest and he found that bronze screws were more successful.

I think most people seem to struggle more with the high melting temperature silver solder and they seem to reserve its use for the smaller fabrications rather than trying to use it for the larger, first stage soldering steps. I think most people try to use the lower temperature solders and use shielding techniques to prevent the melting of previous work. I suppose it depends how experienced you are with silver soldering and what heating kit you have available.

Hope that helps.

Phil H

Anthony,

In the mid 1980s, I made the huge mistake of building a Rob Roy boiler to the old 1960s design without the input from my local club. Your questions suggest that you might be about to make the same or at least similar mistake because even my modified Rob Roy boiler drawing in the Rob Roy and William book is not up to date .

Please, please pause a moment and speak to your local club inspector if you haven't already done that. They will give massive amounts of advice and tips on how to avoid some of the pitfalls and they will make sure you make the necessary modifications e.g., the correct silver soldered top fitting for the water gauge.

Loads of people will give advice here - but please see your inspector first.

Phil H

A bit alternative and completely crazy idea - or is it? As I flicked the button on my central heating to warm up a bit, I decided to look at my boiler information. It kicks out 10s of kW to keep all the rooms in the house warm and with other females in the house (not being sexist - just a fact), they tend to like it warmer than me.

Then I had a crazy thought. Why aren't we all walking round in temperature controlled suits that would be rated at about 100W rather than 10s of kW? The building would be controlled to say +10 degrees C at a fraction of the energy and we would be very comfortable walking round in our individually controlled 'space suits'.

I know some might just say well put a jumper or two on but you then have difficulty with the layer thicknesses and the on and off business as you overheat at certain times.