Member postings for not done it yet

I think you will find that Vestas have already tested a 9.5MW turbine and are supplying them to a wind farm to be under construction shorttly, if not already commenced. So not a third, only 21%

I know that David Brown were actually building a 7MW gearbox several years ago. But things move on quickly.

This turbine has no gearbox, either. It is direct drive and has yet to be developed. It is a new direction for GE.

We also need to note that the oft-quoted number of households which could be supplied is yet another advertising ploy. Households don’t usually use as much leccy during the night (apart from EV owners) and industry uses about twice as much leccy as all the households in the UK, I believe. As a comparison, OK, but not the complete story (but OK for joe public consumption).

The only downside of wind energy is its intermittency. I would expect more total output from wind (on an equivalent cost of hinkley c) by the time that comes on stream (if ever!). Our children and grandchildren will be paying dearly for that particular energy supply. Wind energy is free, with minimal decommissioning cost - and no risk of nuclear contamination. Stockpiling, and dealing with, nuclear waste is not the most pleasant topic, either.

Edited to add that they do it exactly the same way as the interconnectors between countries, only on a smaller scale.  We can import, or export 2GW to France, plus several other smaller connections to/from other places.  They all operate on DC transmission cables (use much smaller conductors for a given power) and then convert the DC to AC for connection to the grid.

Edited By not done it yet on 03/04/2018 10:26:13

Don’t compare maximum power with maximum usable energy. The two are not the same. I specifically mentioned power, which will be the maximum available from cells. That is why one can start a car engine with a lead acid accumulator. Probably not important in this application.

Without actually knowing the design details we can only guess, mind! Obviously not Big Ben sized, but it is the single reason why pp3 size might not be appropriate.

How many birds need to gain access at any one time? Looks like a lot of unnecessary effort/cost, when few holes and perhaps a perch would have been more than adequate.

Chain drilling followed by light finishing cuts with a keen cutter may be a sensible alternative to trying to make heavy cuts with less than keen cutters (and not climb milling, either), when using a less robustly built rotary table. So, much in agreement with JB, I suppose.

If the canister is not near empty or freezing, the answer is more likely in the mode of operation. Poster says ‘it suffocates’. Until that point, it would appear that the burner operates fine. Expensive burners are usually those with often not-needed extras.

The amount of power extractable from any cell will be a maximum when the load is the same as the internal resistance of the cell.

This is one reason why alkaline cells are not the best choice of cell for a typical quartz wall clock.

If the current were miniscule the lower energy lithium ion cells may work better than alkaline cells (zinc-carbon cells are likely just as good as the alkaline cells forvlow power duty.

D cells are clearly going to beat C size cells of the same chemistry (shelf life not considered)

Clearly 6 AA cells will not compete with larger format 1.5V cells.

Regardless, you need to convert these silly mha units ( presumably you mean mAh?) to mWh initially. Younmight then be comparing ‘apples with apples’ and not ‘apples with oranges’

6 PP3 Lithium batteries are close to the same energy content as the 6 C cells and may well beat them, especially if the delivery voltage needs to remain high. Storage and operating conditions will also affect the energy recovery for any of the cells/batteries quoted. Manufacture’s claims are always under specific conditions and usually flatter their capacity compared to real life scenarios.

A lot more info required, I’m afraid, to give any sensible response. Even the battery specs might need consulting, too.

Do all the Hemmingway kits assume no more kit than a lathe? Or was it just the Westbury plans which were like that? With a mill at one’s disposal, the machining options are much much greater.

Four ‘engines’, maybe, but no crane?

Steam engines? Should have been able to get up a ‘full head of steam’ while doing it. Or maybe they carried the lathe on its stand, so a little steadier?

Noticed this one on u-toob. Had to have a look to see what the spoof was. As expected, the upload date was yesterday.

**LINK**

Could be contaminated with novichock.

Most, or perhaps all, commercial scrappies in the UK have monitoring facilities and reject any incoming consignment that triggers the alarm.

Sorry, but any ‘simple’ switch will fail - sooner or later. There are two alternatives, as I see it. 1) A back- up ‘emergency’, should the normal switch fail, or 2) the design must be of a ‘fail-safe’ nature. The former is the easier, I feel.

Any good April Fools to report? Any good pranks?

I rather liked the one that announced that Belgium world cup team were abdicating in favour of an EU team. Said the problem was it might well knock out the Englad team as it would be in the same group.

I thought ‘yep, that should catch out a few dim football supporters’

Invar will only expand/contact by as little a 0.5ppm/K if very pure. 1.2 for most. Only a tenth of normal steels. Not worth worrying about.

The old V Fords (50/60s) used to also drive the oil pump from a tufnol gear. The splines used to fail, I understand. Whether the same shaft was driving the distributor, I cannot remember...

There are loads of normal torque specs for different diameter, and grade, bolts on the internet. Simple ‘goggle’ search is all that is needed. A 610mm breaker bar might be needed to loosen them, but they will likely be tightened to a lesser torque value. Depends, of course, on how strong you might be!

It might very well depend on thread engagement and number of threads engaged. High and plenty should be OK.

If you have space for a 2 ton engine hoist, can you not arrange something onto which you can lift your lathe. Then simply move it sideways to the stand?

My lady makes silver items with silver clay. If one thinks the silver clay is expensive, try the gold version!

Ideal for cast jewellery, but as posted not so good for precision castings. She has tried the proprietary brass, bronze and copper versions and I have a few kg of metal ‘dust’ to try our own fillers. Seems that wifey has moved away from this craft temporarily (she flits around all sorts of crafts but lace takes up most of her time).

There are, of course, fora for these crafts. Just ‘goggle for PMC (Precious Metal Clay). Likely not so much on base metal clays as they are more recent than silver and gold clays. Loads of vids on u-toob, too.

It is mainly an artistic or craft medium. Melting, proper, is better than sintering for most engineering jobs I would say.

Try selling it to a race horse farrier? One at work, about four decades ago, got used about every two or three years by a local horse shoe fella. It was nothing special, just a falling ball sort of thing.