Member postings for davidsuffolk

That is true and I had thought about it. Being plastic I had always used ordinary specs as eye protection but won't be able to do that now. Have to wear goggles or similar now I guess.

And re Julian's comment of raising eyebrows to drop them back, that was the very reason I reduced the kens depth as for me they always dropped when I didn't want them to!

That was Dennis Taylor who wanted the optical centre to be right at the top of the lens. When he was sighting and bending down he was looking through where the frame would normally be so they made him special glasses where the lens projected up higher. Similar problem but from the opposite direction.

Edited By davidsuffolk on 11/02/2015 15:00:36

Like I suspect many others, my eyesight has got worse as I have got older.

Being shortsighted that had meant that I needed glasses for distance but that distance has got shorter over the years and I now need varifocals so I could see shorter distances as well.

The problem I had found was that no spectacle could allow me to focus on something REALLY close (say 4-6"and to cope I would have to take my glasses off as I can see that close better unaided. It was a real chore to keep taking them on and off and just lifting to my forehead often caused them to drop back at a critical moment.

There used to be a type of spectacle called a "half eye" where the bottom was a lens but the top was empty. I asked my optician whether a reverse of such a thing was available but was told not.

On clearing a cupboard I found a old pair of glasses and decided rather than give to charity I would try and convert to my reverse half eye.

I wear a rimless plastic lens pair so it wasn't too hard to remove the lenses and grind them to the shape I wanted.

I have lost the medium (3' or so) distance but the long distance is fine and now I can see close up with no problem at all.

A result!!

Edited By davidsuffolk on 11/02/2015 14:12:36

I have my rule and pencil in my hand as I type. Hopefully have something to send by the end of the day!

Sadly, the only sketches I made were done in a notebook which got very dirty as the building progressed and in any case were extremely sparse. Definitely not sufficient or good enough to be any help to others!

I had really looked for plans because the original maker was local to me but even the Norfolk archive said they had nothing. Tidman ceased trading in the 1920s and not much seems to be left.

The reasoning behind the article wasn't so much as to say look at this perfect copy of an original engine but more to document the trials and tribulations of a complete beginner trying to make his first "proper" build"

Most of the parts were made just based on the photos of the museum machine and were complete guesstimates for position and size. I used what I had to hand rather than what perhaps there should be and consequently there is a mix of imperial and metric. The screws are all imperial for example whereas the shafts are all metric sizes. If anyone wished to make a copy I don't suppose it will be a problem as it wouldn't matter if a shaft was 12.5mm instead of 1/2" ? I really ought to re-iterate that many of the parts were just what I thought "looked right" rather than being correct. The governor for example didn't exist on the machine in the museum so I had to guess what should have been there.What is on the final machine is about the 3rd version (as the first 2 didn't work well!) and was made as much for looks as function.

What I can do however is to measure my machine and try to draw some basic plans but with the caveat that they may be not 100% correct to the original. I have friend who may be able to change hand drawn to proper engineering drawings. This may well take a while so probably best if I email them to ME later on. If anyone does want to try and build from scratch I am more than happy to measure or send a picture of a specific part.

The eBay vendor told me that he had bought all the sets from Gratton Model Engineering when the owner sold up due to ill health some 8 years before. I don't know any more than that and whether Gratton had them cast themselves or bought them in.

Bit of a co-incidence here as the building of this engine in the YouTube article was submitted to ME as an article for consideration and I hope it may appear soon.

As for a source of castings I can't help. The set I bought were the ones on eBay. The vendor said that they were originally made by a small company that had ceased trading many years before. He had bought 5 or 6 sets (all there was) and the one I had was the last left and which he had planned to make for himself.

As far as I know, there are no plans anywhere (which made the building for me as a beginner quite a challenge) but there is a complete example in the Bridewell Museum in Norwich, The curator there was very helpful and took it off display so I could measure and photograph it.

I put a request for help on the homeworkshop website and I was contacted by a man with another set, at that time unbuilt and I have since been told that there is a further set with a man in Norfolk.

If wished I am more than happy to share my very limited knowledge.