Member postings for AndyP

Most of the time I don't ! which is probably why there is nearly 1mm of backlash in the leadscrew now. If I remember I point the oil can nozzle up under the bed and no I never found that hole either, mine is the Chester version but they don't seem to differ much.

Andy

Dizzi,

I made a couple of clamp bolts something like that for my C1, anything is better than the allen headed bolts fitted originally, but now use two of these clamps the size needed is M5 x 40 but needs a little 6mm long spacer turning up.

I use this quick change toolpost from Arc Eurotrade and it works fine. I think they now have a different, possibly better, one as well having seen an advert somewhere recently.

No connection with either co etc. blah, wasn't me guv!

Andy

We bought a Kirby over 30 years ago because a standard upright was lasting about a year. The sales pitch was an absolute hoot - I loved the reaction when I kept calling it a Hoover ! It gets used every day, will still suck your socks off and the only attention it has had has been bags and belts so I am content.

A Henry in the workshop though.

Andy

I have a couple of genuine Optivisors - 4 dioptre for general work and 7 for really small stuff and swear by them, comfortable enough for use hours on end and adjustable enough for my big head! Beware cheap imitations as the lenses are c**p.

No connection etc. etc.

Andy

My ER25 set is 35mm af and the machined portion is 42.5mm long plus a thread 17.5mm long thread if that helps, agree wholeheartedly regarding their usefulness.

Andy

My favourite 2 stroke was a Hewland (might have been Arrows) kart engine, 100cc direct drive, 16000rpm, Castrol R mix all on slick tyres with your bum less than an inch off the tarmac, far too much fun !

Andy

Hi Andrew, I started machining metal for my jewellery business but have been sidetracked by steam engines!

I have cut a groove like that in an 18ct white gold ring to inlay with yellow gold but the groove was probably wider than yours at 1.5mm. I did mine on a mandrel held in a chuck on my 6" Soba rotary table mounted on it's side on the table of my little X1 mill. I worked out the x displacement of the cutter for each 1 degree of rotation of the ring but can't for the life of me remember how! Then it was just a case of INC rather than CNC - that's Idiot Numerical Control.

I have never machined Titanium so can't help there.

Andy

Most model engineering suppliers are probably going to list by gauge number so 13 gauge which is 2.5mm and 4 inch diameter is listed by for instance macc models at £3.25 per inch.

Andy

The open end of the link on the inside of the belt trails so that in this photo

the pulleys are rotating clockwise as we look at them. The powertwist belt which is what I have on my Boxford AUD has arrows printed on it.

Andy

Ian,

Cheers, that will explain why the battery charger it came out of stopped working then. In that photo the component is wired across the leftmost two terminals, the winding across the rightmost two but it was hidden under the tape wrapped round the windings which is itself under a plastic cover so not obvious unless you know it might be there.

Andy

Thanks Mike,

Just to satisfy my curiosity I took the cover off the primary winding and found a small square black component between the centre terminal and neutral, the actual windings are terminated on the two connections I measured 47 ohms on so maybe it isn't a lost cause, just got to rescue the stack of E plates from the bin!
The component has the following legend:- A3 AUPO Q2 125C JET 2A 250V so I suspect that tells you what it is, it is open circuit whatever it is.
Cow pie - that's my Desperate Dan tea mug, my kids think they are comedians!

Andy

I freely admit that the land of the magic smoke is not my normal abode so a lot of the above has gone well over my head but this is the transformer I have dismantled and removed the secondary windings from and re-assembled as per the articles instructions.

The connections are the original mains cable the middle position being vacant.
If I use my little digital multi-meter on the connections everything is open circuit except between the vacant centre terminal and live. That makes me think this transformer is NBG is that correct?

Andy

Since I suffer from the curse of magnetised tools I was pleased to see this in MEW 234 and the circuit looked simple enough for me. The design calls for a 60w bulb to limit the current flowing but my transformer has been liberated from a dead cordless drill battery charger whose rating plate said 18 volts at 2 amps for the output so do I need to keep the bulb's power under that?

I suspect that in my chaotic workshop an exposed bulb like that will have a life expectancy measured in hours rather than months so is there any other simple method of regulating the current drawn.

Cheers, Andy

Google is your friend ! LBSC

Don't forget you will have to heat the boiler shell as well as the water in it, a 10mm thick steel boiler is going to need a hell of a lot of heat to get steam up.

Can I recommend Stan Bray's book Making Simple Model Steam Engines ? Easy to follow and the simplest boiler is just a "pot boiler" of 100mm long 50mm dia 1mm wall copper tube with flanged 1.5mm thick end plates and the minimum 2 bushes.

Andy

That was probably the "Speed with Guy Martin" series on Channel 4, should be viewable here - loved his description of the crash!

edit/ Sorry, didn't realise one has to register to view /edit

Edited By AndyP on 13/07/2015 13:25:14

Completed my version of the self extracting drawbar from Mikesworkshop except the top of mine is removable via a left hand thread so that I can fit the imperial drawbar for my boring head - bad planning on my part I know but it is an Arrand and really nice to use. Slots are for the C spanner that sits by the mill anyway for the collet chuck.

There are lots of good ideas on that site, I copied the table stops as well !

Andy

Ray,

It is definitely simpler but maybe not better.

I have created an album called spark eroder with some photos of the device and a circuit diagram, the squeamish and safety conscious should probably avoid looking

Andy

Ray,

I am sorry I can't help with a stripboard layout although having looked at the circuit it doesn't look impossible and my ignorance of most things electronic is legendary. I couldn't build that without being given ratings for the resistors and types and ratings for the capacitors which I suspect an electronics whizz would say is obvious but it isn't to me.

I built a simple spark eroder which works well enough for me using a scavenged solenoid (washing machine valve |I think) and a microswitch arranged so that it removed the power from the solenoid at the top of its travel. The circuitry for this is separate from the spark power, it may have been based on the one mentioned in the article to which you refer.

If it would help I can dig the device out from under the bench and see how I wired it all up.

Andy

The UK code only covers the testing of boilers and their conformance to the pressure vessels regulations from which we had been exempted anyway.

The Australian code is a wholly more practical document which contains most if not all the information necessary to build a boiler, joint design, material thickness, stay size and spacing etc.

In my opinion a classic example of the difference between our two cultures, one back covering set of rules and one "just do it" set of practical advice.

Andy