Member postings for not done it yet

Only fit a dash cam if your prepaired for the footage to be used against you

I believe this is only if the cam is taken by the police in the event of a serious accident. I have two, one forwards and one to the rear. Useful at the rear for the closing speed of vehicles and evidence of the tailgaters. Of course, if it is you who is a numpty driver.....

If the given disc size is 160mm, there is not a lot of point in trying to cram 360 holes, of 1mm diameter, into one ring and no point in suggesting a disc in excess of 287mm.

Neil has provided one simple solution to the problem (odds on one ring and evens on a second, or more rings). The other alternative is to reduce the hole diameter.

stinks to high heaven and pretty much guarantees to bring on a splitting headache

Incomplete combustion will produce smoke (carbon particles). With meths that could also include partially oxidised bitterment compounds and thus stink - perhaps even simply volatilised bitterment compounds!

With both propane and meths (or nearly all other fuels, for that matter), burning under partially reducing conditions will inevitably form CO (carbon monoxide) which is a poisonous gas. CO has no smell. Think yourself lucky that you were not in a too confined area and/or the exposure was for too long. CO kills.

a 600g bottle ... has about 110L of gas content.

RMM of CO2 is 44 and applying Avogadro's Law and using the Molar Volume of 22.4l, 600 g of CO2 (13.6 Moles) would occupy about 300 litres at standard temperature and pressure. Even though CO2 is a vapour and not a gas a factor or 3 is a bit too far off the practical real value.

Lidl have them on sale from this Thursday at 29.99 a pop

Do you get free PPE at that price?!

Yes of course, but your pressure washer has a single phase motor.

Precisely what difference does that make? 3HP (2240W) is being derived from the single phase mains, whether or not the motor is single phase or three. Just need a few more Watts to run the VFD for the 3 phase motor.

So a three phase 3HP motor will require marginally more at full power. Any overloaded motor should blow its line fuse (or it will burn out). If you do that with a VFD, you would likely jigger the VFD, so they have internal trips which is part of the setting up for the particular motor/VFD combination.

Soft start makes not a jot of difference to the current drawn at full load.

The point was that my single phase motor does not compromise the fuse link at start up. Running at full power will not, either. Unless it is a crappy motor, its efficiency will be above 90%. 3kW is 3kW single or thee phase.

My 3HP pressure washer runs happily through a 13 amp plug. It was supplied that way. It has never blown a fuse in the several years of ownership.

3HP starting on load will certainly drain the mains for a short period, mind.

Edited By not done it yet on 20/07/2017 19:44:43

You can buy what some call "industrial" meths which is 99.5% Ethanol.

Yes, but if DW thought aspen is stunningly expensive compared to petrol, what descriptor would he use for £65 a litre plus delivery (and that would llikely be problematic).

Possibly AR (analytical grade) grade reagent from a UK supplier might be no more expensive. Or just pay the duty on the stuff.

If you don't have a local sealy dealer, you might try a security/fire service or a pub landlord that will cut a deal.

No more manual than any tool that derives its power from somewhere else other than a man (or wo-). I don't class an electric drill as manual either. Portable, yes (well maybe). Handheld, yes (the cutting head). Manual, no.

Edited By not done it yet on 20/07/2017 18:15:02

Any use?

Robust, but most certainly I would not be using 240 Volts!

Any good lathe light would be 110V max and more likely only about 35V. A low output-voltage wall wart and LED lamp is the way to go these days, would be my advice.

In addition to Gordon, a common practice was for local fully competent modellers to enlist on those cheap courses just to use the larger/better machines, but overwhelmingly to machine cast iron, to avoid cleaning their own machines of the grinding paste chippings!

I went on one (I was unemployed at the time, so reeelly cheap!) and found there was no real teaching - just having a project and being put right after one had gone wrong!

If you find a course, see if there is any formal demos or if it is just an "overseen" collection of users.

Yet another idea (the removal of the nipple and cleaning out the lube drilling is clearly the best solution) would be the application of heat to melt the grease. There may be a blockage at the cross drilling which could be foreign material/objects pumped in previously.

Methylated spirit is ethanol, Iso propanol is the next one up the series, so less volatile.

Methanol used to be added to ethanol to denature it (hence 'methylated' - so it was not suitable for drinking and could be sold without being severely taxed (by the 'customer and exercise mob'.

Unfortuately methanol is poisonous and caused death or blindness in those that consumed it. Modern methylated spirits contain a bittering agent to give it a really nasty taste. Only pure, or absolute, ethanol approaches 100% purity. One cannot distill ethanol from an aqueous mixture without it containing at least 4% water, so 96% has always been the highest ethanol content in any sensible methylated spirit.

from a friend that is immigrating.

He's bringing the lathe with him? Transport costs could be considerabe?

Depends a lot on its actual condition, and which model i would think. Later vversionswere popular and still are.

I'm no scraper, but here is my first stab at a reply. The experts may follow later.

1)

Dents and dings usually leave a raised surround at the point of damage. This does not justify scraping the whole bed. Careful stoning to remove the high spots may be all that is needed for these faults.

Machining is good, but inevitably some movement through removing the possibly work hardened skin may leave that last few microns of distortion. Getting both sides of a casting level and parallel is also close by machining, but not close enough. Perfection always costs more than 'that'll do'.

Lubrication retention on a properly scraped surface is better.

2)

Scraping may be only the last stage of other machining so, no, not really!

3)

Of course it takes skill, as well as loads of patience. It is not just a matter of making one surface flat - there are numerous decisions to be made regarding the whole job where there are surfaces that must be flat and in the correct plane to other flat surfaces. One surface alteration done wrongly can mess up the whole job.

Edited By not done it yet on 18/07/2017 22:17:39

And never use a steel hammer directly on a steel drawbar to loosen a tapered tool. Always use a softer headed mallet or a softer material between. That way the spindle bearings are far less likely to get damaged (the drawbar nut can be dressed or changed easily and does not affect the mill operation, whereas damaged bearings are bad news.

Now I know that the nominal pulley size is not the OD of the pulley,

Maybe not quite, but for certain it is near enough for a large majority of applications.. Just how far down the pulley groove do new belts run? Not far is the answer! They don't make pulleys which have much wider grooves than the belt section they are designed for, as that's is just a waste of material. That is why V belts are sized on the outside of the belt, 'nest par' (or n'est pas in 'propper' french))? KISS principle in operation again, I think.

Make your own?

Watch one of the latest 'clickspring' videos where he case hardens from scratch, like Egyptians may have done it.

Cheap, cheerful and apparently effective.

Heat treatment always has the risk of warpage, however slight. Usually finish-machining of some description is carried out afterwards, but not always of course. Final hardness, after tempering, does not necessarily preclude further turning but usually surface grinding is the way to finish a precision piece? But what pecision is required for the job in hand?

I reckon a morse taper would be better hardened as any small dings in the future can affect its seating accuracy. But if you are easily able to cut a morse taper there is no real problem to make another if it gets damaged at all. I have found that getting a good contact area, along the length of the taper, is challenging for a non-expert such as me (but, there again, some tapers only need to have good contact at each end, the middle section being relieved).

So, my extra arbor for my Centec was made using a bought-in hardened morse taper with soft blank end.