Member postings for mgnbuk

I would have expected a bigger "hump" in the CO2 graph between 1938ish and 1945 - huge industrial production from largely coal based manufacturing + very high fuel & explosives usage + huge amounts of destruction.

Talking to the crew of the Canadian Lancaster fund raising to cover their fuel cost some years ago at Oshkosh, they used 50 US gallons of high octane fuel per engine per hour travelling unloaded - we sent 1000 bomber raids of heavily loaded Lancasters, Halifaxes etc. regularly. And a period documentary about a US B29 raid on Japan I watched recently quoted 7000 US gallons per aircraft for the round trip & there were over 500 B29s on the raid + a substantial Mustang escort force & these raids were also conducted regularly.

Such levels of fuel consumption alone over a 6 year period worldwide + ground force & naval usage would surely have caused an emissions "blip", yet the graph shows a dip just after 1930 & not much of a climb immediately thereafter ?

Nigel B.

Can't say I have given the "green-ness" of my workshop activities a second thought & have no intention of doing so. My stopping such activities would make no appreciable difference to anything in the greater scheme of things - totally eradicating my 1/68000000 contribution to the UKs emissions would make no appreciable difference either & totally eradicating the UKs entire contribution would make for all of a 1% reduction in worldwide emissions & that would be snuffed out within a year by other countries increased output.

Additional workshop electricity consumption is negligable & most likely exceeded by the excess generated by the solar panels that I can't use that goes back into the grid. Heating (when required) is around 1/2 a litre of red diesel an hour through a 5Kw air heater - not going to get worried about that while the 20% of global emissions attributed to military activities world wide are off the COP agenda.

All my machines are "second user" & the newest is over 25 years old (barring the Chester 3-in-1 sheet metal machine which was new 20 years ago). Most of the metal in the stash is industrial offcuts or recycled from other sources (still working through my late father's stash of angle iron bed frames !) - re-using or using up "stuff" that has already been made is surely for the better ?

Nigel B.

It seems cheaper to buy a complete DRO than a single Anilam scale!

When an Anilam scale failed on the Harrison at work it was cheaper to fit a complete M-Dro system than replace the faulty Anilam scale.

IIRC the Anliam scales output complemented signals (A, /A, B. /B, A, /Z) & the inexpensive Chinese scales just have the high going signals (A,B,Z) - I have not tried connecting a Chinese scale to an Anilam counter, though.

A Heidenhain or similar TTL output scale with the correct grating pitch should work, but a Newall designed for a Newall counter won't, as they are an analogue interface. Newall did do a version of their scales with a TTL interface built into the read head, but they were very pricey many years ago. I had a quote from Newall for a replacement system for the Harrison before going M-Dro & it was 3 x the M-Dro quote.

Nigel B.

Hi Nigel B, unless you are kidding us,

Not kidding, Nicholas. I was out of the country late September (touring in Germany) but had no problems getting fuel on the way out, while I was over there or when I returned. I don't bother with "news" when away, so was unaware of such problems, which must have blown over by the time I returned.

Nigel B.

Forgotten what happened in September?

What happened in September ? Can't recall anything out of the ordinary.

Nigel B.

The German Govenment grant of €9570 for a BEV rather skews things in the EVs favour & the ID4 having only around a quarter of the example Tiguans range would put off many. Of the examples given, only a base model ID4 may qualify of the UK grant of £2500 on qualifying vehicles with a RRP OTR of under £35K. The original German magazine article quotes depreciation guesstimates not shown in the link, which are higher for the EV than the ICE car.

The insurance estimates suggest that the EVs are cheaper to insure in Germany, but the opposite appears to the case here ?

Not sure running & maintenance costs lower - seen several suggestiions that BEV tyre wear is higher than ICE, brakes require un-siezing more often & coolant changes expensive. I have been tentatively looking at MG BEVs & some of the 3year service plan costs quoted on the owners forum are more than a 3 year plan for my current diesel Hyundai.

Nigel B.

I like the sound of LibreCad and wonder if anyone on this forum has used it

I tried Librecad & Qcad when Draftsight stopped working, but neither would reliably open the drawings I had done previously with Draftsight.

I settled on Nanocad, which has been fine with the older drawings. It has it's quirks & won't draw lines tangent-to-tangent between two circles, but it was reasonably straight forward to configure the interface to look basically the same as I had Draftsight set, which in turn was basically the way I used to have Autocad LT set at my previous employment. The quirks have been reasonably straight forward to sort out with the built-in help function & I have managed to complete all the drawings I have needed to do on it. The keyboard commands seem to be the same as Draftsight & Autocad LT.

Nanocad has a perpetually free version, so there doesn't seem to be the risk of investing time learning something from one of the big players that is touted as "free to non-profit users" then have the rules changed later down the line. Fusion 360 is one that lost functionality from the initial offering & Dassault Systems have moved the goalposts again for EAA members, who used to have access free to the student edition of Solidworks but now have to pay (at a discounted rate admittedly) for access to a "cloud based" version - but for how long ?

Nigel B.

I still wonder how to fix remake half nut threads,

Boxford half nuts were made from a single casting that was the pair in one piece - the leadscrew thread was made by drilling & tapping the casting after machining the other features, then the casting was split along the leadscrew thread centreline. The leadscrew thread drilling & tapping was done on a fixture in a radial arm drill, with the tap being a special type with two cutting sections in series - the first section being undersize & the second section being the "finisher" - and an undersize shank. The tap was driven through the casting & dropped out onto a leather pad below the fixture so the tap didn't have to be withdrawn.

The half nuts on my Super 7 (which are a similar pattern to your Zyto) appear to have been made in a similar way.

Nigel B.

Yesterday [i.e. 7 days later] , the Battery was flat as the proverbial pancake … but it’s a good brand, and only a couple of years old.

You may be lucky Michael, but my experience with a battery that had been totally exhausted followed the manufacturer line that this causes premature demise. In my case it was the habitation battery on a new motorhome that, unknown to me, had a split charging fault. While the fault was rectifed reasonably quickly after the dead battery episode, the battery never recovered & was replaced under warranty in under a year due to lack of capacity. As the motorhome was built to my order & delivered less than a fortnight after it left the production line, the battery would have been a fresh one from the manufacturer.

Bosch/Varta batteries seem to last very well.

Indeed - my usual "go to" brands. Both are Johnson Controls brands & likely the same batteries with different badging, though Bosch usually sell for less than Varta equivalents. Yuasa can also be good, but there are Yuasa and Yuasa - "OEM" Yuasa motorcycle batteries can carry different codes to "replacement" Yuasa batteries recommended for the same application. Had this with my wife's Honda VTR 1000, where only an OEM battery bought from a Honda dealer performed as expected. Strangely the OEM battery was cheaper than the "replacement" alternative that didn't perform as well.

EDTA has been known to give a couple of years of extra life, so is worth the effort.

IIRC EDTA dissolves the lead sulphate & this can clear plate shorts where the shed deposits have built up at the bottom of the cells. But the lost material is still lost & capacity is reduced. From my POV, it would not be worthwhile to spend time & money on either the reach truck or the ride-on sweeper at work trying to extract a bit more "life" using EDTA - we are aware that the batteries are well past their best, that they have a high rate of self-discharge & much lower than new capacity. But they can currently perform to the low usage requirement expected of them. Should the usage change to be required to run a full shift on a charge, then EDTA will not restore that level of performance & the MD will have to reach deep into his pocket to get them re-celled.

Nigel B.

Didn't do anything for the fuel consumption, or journey time!

I have been trying to reduce the depth of my ignorance about EVs over the last couple of weeks & one point that keeps coming up is that EVs seem to work in the opposite way to IC cars WRT stop-start urban operation - consumption drops rather than increases in such conditions & such conditions are where maximum range per charge is achieved.

Doesn't help with the journey time though ! Not going through the Dartford Crossing is something I do not miss - almost worth the extra cost to go North Sea Ferries to the Continent rather than use Dover crossings/Tunnel on it's own (another is not having to go through France ...).

While EVs with a reasonable range at an (almost) affordable price do seem to be coming now, I'm still not convinced enough to want to take the plunge yet - still too many unknowns. One is the variability of range with changes in ambient temperature (most tests of a variety of budget EVs suggest around a 25% drop as a minimum) - my 1.6 TD Hyundai is reasonably consistent all year round (within 1-2 mpg) & I have a genuine minimum 500 mile useable range per full tank regardless of load or season at motorway speeds. My current operating mode is a 100 mile per working day commute, of which 80 miles or so are motorway - seemingly not the best mix for an EV, where range at higher speeds is reduced.

Another big question is depreciation - first generation EVs don't seem to have done too well in that regard, as buyers are wary of a vehicle with the potential for a big bill (battery issues) with only a short (or no) manufacturers warranty in place. Manufacturers appear to be cutting the miniumum capacity level that generates a battery repair or replacement - most seemed to be 75% before, but now 65/66% seems to be being mentioned. This may well work itself out with time, as more battery repair or refurbishment options become available with increasing numbers of EVs in operation, but having watched a couple of YT videos showing such repairs, they appear to entail a significant amount of work & are unlikely to ever to become "cheap".

Overall running costs (rather than just the "fuel" element) don't seem to be mentioned much, but many articles mention increased insurance premiums over IC cars (much higher groupings in many cases) & other tests mention higher tyre wear & increased service costs for items such as brakes (siezing due to infrequent use with regenerative braking) and expensive coolant changes - so how is the overall "big picture" ? From running the numbers on my IC cars I know that the biggest single cost isn't servicing, fixed costs like insurance & road tax, etc. or fuel, though, it is depreciation. A large depreciation on a higher purchase price will soon eat any fuel savings in the long run.

May be interesting to start a "General EV discussion" heading along the lines of the Motorcycle one to hear the opinions & experiences of EV owners (or would-be owners) ? Despite being a confirmed "petrol head" I am open to changes, but currently don't feel I have easily accessible answers to many questions & actual users experiences would go some way to helping with that.

NIgel B.

Modern electronic chargers will NOT charge a dead battery ! If it senses below about 8 volts - NO GO !

If a 12V battery has been discharged below 8V, consider it dead & due for replacement anyway.

While it may come back for a while if you do manage to recharge it, it will be damaged & it is only a matter of time before it dies permenantly - usually at a most inconvenient time. Starter batteries ar designed to be kept charged, deliver a short burst of high current to start a vehicle & then be recharged back to full again straight away. They do not take kindly to being deeply discharged or being left in a discharged state. Deeply discharged in this context is 50% of rated capacity - regularly discharging a starter battery to 50% will substantially shorten it's life expectancy. This is something that battery manufacturers document, showing the expected number of recharge cycles that can be expected at varying depths of discharge. If deep disharging is required (i.e traction batteries) the internal construction of the battery is different & these can sustain regular discharging as low as 20% of capacity without undue life shortening - downside of these is that short high current bursts (like starting an engine) can damage them.

Modern 3 stage electronic chargers do a very good job of getting batteries to fully charge & then maintain them if left connected with no danger of overcharging. The inexpensive versions that Aldi & Lidl sell (around £14) seem to work well initially, but I have had a couple fail (one in warranty & replaced, another out of warranty) & am loath to buy another. I use an Accumate on my bike batteries - well into it's second decade now. All the bikes have the Accumate quick connectors permenantly fitted, so sequential top-ups over the winter are a doodle.

EDTA is another crutch to try to extend the life of a battery that is past it. Better to bite the bullet & replace a failing battery if you need whatever it is attached to to function when you need it.

Nigel B.

Ive got two settings on my car battery charger. High and Low.

The rating plate on the charger should say what the charge currents are for both settings. I would guess at Low being 1-2 amps & High between 4 and 8 amps, depending on how expensive the unit was. Rule-of-thumb for charging a lead-acid battery I was taught was to charge at around 10% of the battery capacity to prevent damage, so 10A for a 100A battery. If your car has a small battery (say 45 A) & your charger is 8 A rated you may be a bit on the high side, so if you have the time charging it for longer on low may be beneficial.

In the car the alternator will be supplying all the vehicle demands + just replacing the amount taken from the battery by starting the engine - the full output of the alternator isn't going through the battery.

Nigel B.

I recall this type of cable terminal from the works where I started my apprenticeship, but have not seen them since & didn't know what they were called to look them up.

Seems that Ross Courntney ceased trading around 2001. These seem to offer an alternative means to the same end for quite a bit less than the vintagecarparts items.

Nigel B.

IIRC both China & India stated an intention to reduce coal usage over a defined period, so just because they won't commit to doing what we did & dump their existing coal generating capacity before there was an alternative in place doesn't mean that they are not doing anything.

Alternative sources of affordable ME sized tooling (but still a lot more expensive than China & India) would include the likes of Poland & Czech Republic, but I seem to recall reading that Poland is more coal dependant than either China or India !

An other aspect that rarely seems to be mentioned WRT "Globalistaion" is shipping emissions - according to one transport source quoting 2018 figures " Shipping currently accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions – higher than those of Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, France or the United Kingdom. "

And the recent hot air generation exercise in Glasgow avoided taking into account military emissions, which are apparently around 20% of the total.

Air source heat pumps appear to be a solution that will not be appropriate for most. Experience with 3 stand-alone units heating the offices at work suggest that they are not particularly reliable (2 out of the 3 have failed) & are prone to icing up in our damp winters. We have a fan heater on standby to assist the ASHPs in winter. A central heating ASHP unit installed by my employer in a new build house designed to use it was great when it worked, apparently, but it failed every 2 years (compressor) & repairs were almost as much as a new unit. He sold the house & the new owner replaced the ASHP with a gas boiler fed from an LPG tank (no mains gas) when it failed for a second time on him.

Nigel B.

Maybe down to population density ?

A colleague mentioned on Monday that over 50s could now book the booster before the 182 days "rule", so I did so online. Earliest date offered was presumably 182 days since my 2nd original dose & the nearest of the many options offered was at a chemist 1/2 a mile away. I went for the local football stadium (3rd or 4th option by distance at 2.2 miles) as parking is easier & they had a wide choice of time slots on my prefered day. I rang my wife, who went online & booked the same time slot on the same day at the same venue, so only one visit for us both.

Couldn't really have been any easier to arrange something at our convenience, but then Kirklees is quite a large metropolitan area & part of the "Leeds City Region" so a lot of people & a lot of facilities.

Nigel B.

Seems an odd choice for a tapered roller bearing.

+1

Always regarded silicone greases to be mainly a rubber / plastics lubricant. Perusing some lubricant & bearings manufacturer information suggests that it can be used for rolling element bearings under specific conditions (i.e very low operating temps for lightly loaded bearings), but it does not appear to be a general recommendation. One bearing manufactuer mentions derating the bearing load ratings to 1/3 of normal if using silicone grease & grease manufacturers mention "low speed, low loading".

Really can't see why you would want to use this product in this application - just use a plain lithium bearing grease with no additives as recommended by the bearing manufacturers. Given that TRBs "pump" lubricant from one end to the other, making provision for easy re-greasing would be advantageous.

Nigel B.

Capacitor supplier

Not used them, but came across them when looking for a replacement induction motor fan. They also do start capacitors.

Nigel B.

There are no field coils to conduct the heat into the motor body !

Field windings add to motor heating, they don't sink it. Most modern industrial DC drives with field controllers have a "field economy" setting that reduces the field current when the motor is at standstill to help reduce heating from this source.

A separate through motor blower will be a big improvement over the built-in "stirrer" and should help to remove heat from the armature - need to allow the warm air an easy escape route, though. Forced air cooling is the way that industrial DC motors get cooled & the (mainly centrifugal) blowers can be very powerful. In most industrial environments, filtration of the cooling air is important & some motors have pressure or airflow sensors to indicate when the filters need changing or cleaning - inadequate airflow leads to burned out field and armature windings.

Just had a 15Kw DC motor rewound from a Correa CNC milling machine at work, though this intitially failed due to a shorted interpole winding, not through an overheating issue - £5500 + Vat & 6 weeks turnaround due to delays getting the correct section wire for the rewind. No real option but a repair this one, as replacements not available any more.

Nigel B.

I have no idea about locomotives, but a Google of "D60 0-6-0" brings up references to an Armstrong Whitworth diesel electric shunter of that configuration, built around 1936 as part of a batch for LMS. D60 in this context was the works serial number. It is referenced at the end of this Wikipedia entry

Not sure if that is helpful or not !

Nigel B.

Iskra

A Google search for "KPB 7301" brings up what appears to be the manufacturer's website - the star symbol appears to be the same.

Nigel B.