Member postings for PaulR

That made me laugh out loud. He'd also need a yard-long stick of solder. I would pay money to see that :D

Right, I'm giving graphite a wide berth and going for the easy solution - brass.

Following on from my other question....

The plans call for bronze or graphite for the displacer rod bearing. Looking at various suppliers 'bronze' seems to cover regular bronze (the coppery coloured stuff that I'd call bronze), phosphor bronze and gunmetal (can't believe how pricey this stuff is these days, maybe I should take up woodwork!)

As the part is going to be glued in place I thought cast iron, brass or even aluminium might do the job until I came across this interesting page:

**LINK**

which, as the rod through the bearing is steel, shows that graphite is miles out in front in the slipperiness department!

Trouble is I can't see it for sale anywhere and have no idea how to machine it (some web forum I read said it was very dusty). Does it usually go under a trade name or something? Will it be possible to make an accurate 2mm hole through it with a D bit? Should I just use brass (which according to that page has a lower coefficient of friction than cast iron when put with steel)?

TIA

Paul

Thanks to all for the tips. The shellac idea looks neat, I suppose I could make a little stubby 'faceplate' to stick it to rather than play a flame over the real one. Looks like a really nice finish on that bit of brass in the video.

Ian, that's monstrous (in a good way)! I don't hold out much hope of randomly finding a frying pan in a skip although I think we have some Trangias and mess tins lying around from when the kids did their DofEs but I bet they are nowhere near thick enough.

Good idea! At the risk of going way off topic... Any tips for turning the outside diameter? I've used super-glue and/or a wood pad and a live centre in the past. I'm sure I once saw someone turning a disk held with wax somewhere on the net...

Sounds like the Geordie pronunciation for you know what!

@Michael Thanks for the link - added to my stash

@Jason Doh, why didn't I think of eBay?! Plenty of suitable bits on there, cheers.

Just need to figure how I'm going to turn/groove the bottom plate that has no central hole - super-glue and cross everything I suppose...

Despite two previous Stirling failures (made 'by eye' without any plans) and one moderate success I'm going to attempt a simple LTD/Ringbom type engine. It calls for two circles of aluminium plate, one 8mm thick, the other 5mm thick and both about 4.5" diameter.

These sizes seem too thick for plate and too large a diameter for bar - can anyone suggest a source (preferably one that won't break the bank (I've never machined aluminium before and expect to make one of two mistakes :D )

Cheers

Paul

Mill table and head not perpendicular seems the obvious one to me - does it happen on everything? What if you turn the work-piece through 90 degrees?

Finally took apart the 'Clarke' drill today to see what if anything could be done about the wobble in the quill. Turns out the bearings are nothing more than a pair of holes in the casting, each having around 1/4" bearing surface and being maybe 2.5" apart - the chuck/arbor seems rock solid (surprisingly).

I didn't fancy sawing through the casting and inserting a cross-wise screw to tighten the bearings (as some websites suggest) but inserting a 3" ribbon of 2 thou shim steel before returning the freshly greased quill has made an enormous difference; there's no play in it at all and the shim seems happy enough to stay in situ as the drill is used (I've left a good length sticking out the front just in case it does start to sneak inside during use!).

I've only ever used shim for packing up lathe tools etc, it never occurred to me it would work in this way - maybe the tip will help someone else with cheapo-drill-wobbles!

Paul

Power hacksaw and lick up the dribbled contents might be less messy than parting off - you might get extra iron in your diet too!

I like that but never heard it before, so had to look it up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bushnell_Stout

LOL, I don't qualify on any of those counts but I still buy the cheapies and chuck 'em; experience tells me that spending more on a 'better' one is not likely to be worthwhile. That said, there are enough posters in this thread who are obviously delighted with their openers. I suppose the moral is, just because you pay top dollar doesn't mean you're getting the best product.

What sort of steel to use for the business end of a P38-style opener?

My wife won't have one of those in the house since she sliced her thumb open on one 25 years ago! Must confess I always found that type difficult to use anyway.

Almost as funny as the pre-trip packing and the fish at the inn - probably my most read book and no doubt will read it again.

EDIT Never read the follow up, must do that too one day.

EDIT Er, maybe I've read 'Red For Danger' as many times.

Edited By PaulR on 26/02/2017 11:50:01

Edited By PaulR on 26/02/2017 11:51:17

We've had two like that in recent years - one cost a few quid and the other was about a tenner; both kicked the can (rather than opened it) in no time at all.

Handy links:

http://www.georgia-outfitters.com/images/p38plans.jpg

http://patentpending.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/p38_p51_can_opener_2.jpg

Edited By PaulR on 26/02/2017 10:29:58

Edited By PaulR on 26/02/2017 10:31:19

LOL. I guess you could lick the underside then switch back to the top of the bonnet for your fried egg!

I'd forgotten all about those US Army can openers, even easier to make I'd guess.

There's always this method I suppose, but I can't see it being very popular with the other half...

I've bought fancy ones in the past but always end up buying the cheapo ones and throwing them away as none of them seem to last five minutes. The 'engineering' of these cheap ones is very simple (no, 'crude' is the word) and it seems to me I could make one at least as bad.

But how to make the toothed wheel and what material to use?

Paul

PS I've only just noticed that even these cheap ones are 'handed' - being a southpaw you get so used to the discomfort of all sorts of tools and utensils that you never think to question it.

Remember the 60's and 70's wall-mounted and motorised versions - ah, the future never looked so good!

Will you be putting something in #254 to cover the hole in #253?