Member postings for Edward Hobbs 3

it absolutely is a Quickly, thank you very much I didn't expect to get an answer so quickly. The previous owner did tell me the name but I misheard it as "LSU" which would explain why I couldn't find that!

Hi all, thanks for the information that's super helpful

mart: yes i think i've mis-measured, the thread INSIDE diameter was 12.4mm which would make it an m14 thread

roger: measuring the thread it appears to be around 10mm so will see what i can find

clive: the carburettor is made by "bing", but i'm fairly confident that it is not the original carb - it's tricky to make out in the photos but it's being held away from the engine block by lump of steel about an inch long, doesn't look very factory!

Hi Folks,

I recently purchased this locomotive with an engine that appears to be from an old moped or motorbike - it's two stroke with an integrated 2-speed gearbox and what appears to be a decompression valve on the top to kill it.

Does anyone know what it is, or how I might find out? I need to get a new spark plug as the previous owner forgot to put it back in, woops!

I can't provide much more information sorry, the spark plug thread appears to be 12mm based on measurement. I've looked all over it but can't find any badge or logo from the original manufacturer, although i did find a serial number if that would help

Hi Bob, I've sent you a PM (:

Hi Baz,

Sorry for the delay, I'm terrible at remembering to check back on these posts - thank you for the advice, it seems obvious in retrospect but I completely missed it.

I re-faced the valve a week or so ago, using your tip and facing from the inside out and leaving the sharp edge to allow the cone to bed itself. I used a piece of acetal plastic i had and threaded it to hold the valve in place, then took very light cuts around .001" at a time until i couldn't see the dent.

I finally was able to test my repair yesterday and it seems to have worked well, no more steam coming out the injector! (unless I want it to ).

Hallo Folks,

I have a leaky injector steam valve on my Polly 1 that I need to fix, I was going to purchase a straight replacement but with Polly being halfway through transfer to a new owner they don't have any in stock and so I figured I'll try fix it myself.

I've highlighted the issue in the picture, but short version is there's a ding in the valve sealing surface and it's allowing steam to pass through.

The valve is made of a stainless steel cone which is screwed in and seals against the round hole.

I can make a fixture with the correct threads to get it mounted in the lathe, and my current plan is to remove material from the face very slowly until i get a clean circle all the way around - this means i don't have to worry about concentricity too much as I'm not making new holes.

My question:

Does this hole need to be chamfered to better fit the cone, or is a sharp edge the way to go for the best sealing surface? If a burr is raised on the inside of the hole, how would you go about removing it while keeping that edge? deburring tools seem to leave an uneven finish which i'm not sure would seal properly.

Thanks,
Ed

An exciting development!

A copy of the CD-ROM version of the book came up on eBay last week, and I've managed get the winning bid. I didn't share before in case I brought too much attention to it and drove the price up by accident

There was one other person who had bid, but I don't know who they are as eBay won't tell you - if you are reading this, mystery bidder, please get in touch I would love to have someone else who is building the same engine to talk with.

I am going to get in touch with archive dot org to see what the copyright implications are for giving them a copy as it's so hard to get your own now, will update this thread with what they say. It may be we can solve the inaccessibility problem once and for all but I don't want to end up on the wrong side of someone's lawyers.

Fingers crossed!
Ed

Sorry for the delay, thanks for all the responses - It sounds as though it shouldn't be the end of the world.

Given I still need to make at least 7 more I think I'll chalk this one up as a test part, finish it off to see how turning the tapers goes then proceed with the SMEE 3.5" standard wheels for the 8 that will actually end up on the loco.

Hi Folks,

I've just started building a kozo shay, and I'm currently on chapter 1 building the wheels. I've started with one so I can see how the process goes, but I think I might have got too keen and made the flanges smaller than they should be.

I've got to the point where the blank needs to be mounted on a fixture to turn the tapers for flanges and tread, but the plans are difficult to read and I think that I have misread the flange width.

Apologies for the scribbles on the plans but I thought I should probably blank out the non-relevant dimensions to avoid copyright issues.

I've turned the blank (without tapers) to 2.5mm thick on the flange, as I thought that was the finished dimension for the base of the flange, but i think looking at the plans it may actually be 2.5 at the top of the flange. Should this cause an issue? From what I can see the worst thing that will happen is the flange will be slightly thinner at the outside edge, but given where the wheel runs and the small angle that might be fine? Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Hopefully this makes sense, happy to draw more pictures to clarify what I mean.

Hallo, Folks.

I've recently purchased a set of castings & plans for a 2" Thetford Town showman's engine, and given this is my first "proper" project I'm currently looking at what books/information is available about the engine.

I haven't been able to find any copies of this book online, the only one I can find is a copy on CD-ROM in the British Library!

If anyone knows of a copy, or has a copy they'd be willing to sell, I'd love to know. Any other recommendations would be most appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Ed