Member postings for Clive Brown 1

Steam engines usually start off with the cylinder drain-cocks open. I'd think that air from the boiler would be ejected during that time, but I don't think it would be visible separately from the mixture of steam and condensate that emerges.

For drilling up to 1/4" dia. in my MT3 Warco, I use a small Jacobs chuck mounted on a 3/8" dia. parallel arbor. This fits into the collet chuck that is semi-permamently fitted to the mill. Much quicker than changing the whole thing and suffices for much of my drilling, but I do have a separate drilling machine.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 14/06/2023 09:03:11

I do not have experience of this particular machine, bur adjustment of the headstock bolts is unlikely to improve the alignment IMO. The more usual method of improving the alignment of a small lathe is to shim or otherwise adjust the bolts holding the lathe down to its stand. This is often misleadingly called "levelling". The idea is to remove twist from the bed. Search this forum, there have been a number of threads describing the method.

Ahhh! well spotted, another mystery solved. But who makes locos with 5 driving wheels?

I bought mine from Reeves, but that was years ago. They still stock springs, but seem to have reduced the range of sizes, and, irritatingly, sell in pack of 10. For a suggestion, I'd try their 1.25" long x 3/16" bore for starters. They should fit over the hangers and aren't too pricey.

Hacksaw an octagon 90+mm AF. Mount in 4 jaw chuck and drill / bore 39mm hole. Then mount in 3 or 4 jaw using this hole and carefully turn the 89mm dia.

Edit; Jason beat me to it, can't compete with the pictures either.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 09/06/2023 16:17:07

Have you checked the accuracy of your dial indicator over the travel that you're using?

I've lost touch with the R & E personnel that were then involved, so can't confirm any detail, but it seems thar Clupet rings are still made by Rufforth Steam Works somewhere uo here in the NW. see here.

Where / how are you measuring runout?

It's important to make the new flange with gripping diameters the same as the old one, to avoid stressing the wheel when tightening the nut. I've found turning the wheel small angles 0n the shaft before final tightening to be a method for reducing sideways wobble of the wheel rim.

Sounds more like a job for a lathe, you don't say if you have one. Incidentally, are you annealing the copper washers before fitting? I'm not sure that I like the groove idea.

Ebay shows a number of sellers here in the UK, you might best be arranging delivery to UK address, although they have, (had? ) a system of delivery abroad at buyer's cost.

With all due respect to Arc, I'd be reluctant to pay £279 for a 6 - 10 mm drill set. An average of £6.8 per drill. I'd buy cheaper, not too cheap though, and add an imperial, fractional set.

Apart from dynamometer car testing, there were "rolling road" test plants at Swindon and Rugby. These methods would allow direct calculation of horse-power at the drawbar or the wheels. Other calculations presumably made assumptions on friction, gradient etc.

I don't know much about the stationary test plants, but there is some footage here.

The GWR tested their locos over quite a long period, including experimental work on draughting improvements, the benefits were seen in their general loco performance.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 24/05/2023 15:33:42

A money-lender has invaded the classifieds.

Just looked at my Quorn, built long ago. The rocking lever screw is 32tpi, (not 40tpi as I suggested earlier ). I've divided the screw-head into 12 divisions each marked 4 thou. (0.004" ), ie 0.048" per turn. I can't remember how I decided on this calibration, I seem to remember the ME build notes referring to it but I can't find that reference now. A problem with this adjuster is that there is no fixed index mark to refer the scale to and, as ega says, it's a variable figure anyway.

For most of the grinding that I do, the actual cut is controlled by the front bar micrometer, with the rocking lever used as a movement stop, so usually not too critical.

Standard or not, lots of Allchin builders have been able to buy it in the past, but not now it seems. Back in the day when I bought mine, stockists such as Reeves could supply a large range of odd sizes. I did wonder if tube extruders would supply them with whatever was wanted for even a modest order. Bespoke extrusion dies might have been a manageable cost.

Is there some confusion here, stemming from the OP's expression of size? The need is for tube with an OD of 3.75", not the two sizes 3" and 3/4".

M-machine list 4" od which might be closed down and with a butt-strap, to save rolling.

They also seem to list 3.75" od x 2"id, but that's a lot of lathe work to make it 13g wall.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 10/05/2023 16:04:16

Have you tried Reeves? They used to stock it but I suspect, like Blackgates, no longer do so. Rolling from sheet might be your best option.