Member postings for Steve Withnell

So then the mag would be geared up 12:1 to get 6 sparks per rev. I'll check the gearing! Thank you.

I started the restoration of a 6 cylinder BTH magneto. Got the points and advance/retard all freed off and working. Plan is to drive it off a small electric motor as a demonstrator set.

I realised I don't know if the magneto is driven at the same rpm as the engine - the gearing in the mag looks like 6:1 so it should be. ChatGPT says it should be the same - but chatGPT makes stuff up.

Any experienced views?

Edited By Steve Withnell on 30/05/2023 10:51:02

HSE legislation also puts board members in the dock - which is a constant threat of jail time just to keep people sharp.
 

Edited By Steve Withnell on 30/05/2023 10:47:19

Just last week a junior lawyer in the US was reprimanded by a judge. His case relied on 5 previous cases quoted in detail. He had used ChatGPT and ChatGPT had invented all of them. He had to "throw himself at the mercy of the Court". ChatGPT has previous at inventing stuff- if it can't generate an answer from its dataset, it just makes stuff up. It NEVER returns a 'don't know'.

Thanks for the responses, that worked just fine. Now I'll sort out my config management and backup!

Steve

I powered up my KX1 setup yesterday and XP bluescreened. Properly.

Then I managed to ensure that the O/S was unrepairable.

The system was built on a Dell desktop using XP Service Pack 3. Mach 3 (USB config) was the original "locked down" version supplied by ArcEurotrade. It has run for quite a few years now without a hitch and has served me well.

I've put the hard drive in another XP machine of the identical specification as drive D: If I run the version of Mach3 using the command line prompt that is on the D: drive - all works fine.

Question - what directories do I need to copy across from the D drive so Mach 3 will run exactly like it has always done but from the C: drive?

Regards

Steve

Edited By Steve Withnell on 02/05/2023 13:50:56

Thanks, lots of helpful stuff in the comments as usual. I'm going to leave it alone now! It was the material that came in the Stuart kit, but bear in mind I have had the kit a long time, maybe ten years since I started work on it and just decided it was time to get it done.

As aside, Stuart supplied 1/2 x 3/8 inch bar for the connecting rods, whereas the drawing shows 1/2 x 5/16ths. Not sure why they did that, Maccmodels stock 1/2 x 5/16ths and I used their material.

I've just carefully drilled out to 6.3mm a piece of gunmetal bar as part of making the conrod bearing for the James Coombes. The intent was to ream to 1/4 inch.

I seem to have completely taken the edge off my reamer! Is there a particular process for reaming gun metal, or was my reamer made from chinese rice wands?

If that motor is only 9 Watts as per label, why not just get a lamp dimmer from B&Q?

Thanks Jason - a lot of work there - much appreciated.

Now I've more time, I will go and have a more determined run at F360. CUT2D has been good to get started, but it's not going to support some of the more complex pieces I want to get to.

Regards

Steve

Thanks Jason, that's really helpful. What do you mean by "adaptive cut"? I'm using CUT2D/Mach3.

Steve

And the first Steam parts. After a long lay off, the James Coombes is back from under the bench and back on it.

Schoolboy error - the long rods are 1/8th thick and the short links are meant to be 1/4 inch thick. Nesting them together in 1/8th material wasn't the smartest thing I did yesterday...

I didn't cut through the material and rely on tabs, but left 5 thou to hold all the components together. I did have some tabs, but wherever the machine cut a tab, I got a machining mark in the side of the part, I still trying to work that one out. I can't see where the cutter (3mm Titain coated carbide) deflection came from to blemish the part.

Also used a slitting saw in the Warco mill, so getting all the skills warmed up

I have a little motor with a prop shaft which mic's up at 1.48mm. The coupler that came with it is a sloppy fit, not a good idea at 10,000 rpm.

So I turned a new one then drilled that 1.5mm. Sloppy fit.

If I was talking 14.8mm it wouldn't be a problem, but how to I get a sliding fit at the small diameter I have? I did wonder about freezing the thing and drilling it 1.4mm whilst it was very cold, but I doubt that will get me close.

Any thoughts on how I get to a true sliding fit?

That's delightful! What a lovely job.

That oiler is a 'shapely lady' I think. For my single cyclinder victoria I made my own, which isn't too difficult. Im not an expert, but I don't think the one in the photo is big enough.

I copied mine from this engine - for scale the screws are 12BA. This link takes you to how I made the lubricator for my Victoria.

Shapely Lady

I've googled around but can't find the weight of the ML10.

If I take the motor and cover panels off, take off the chuck and tailstock any estimates of the remaining weight?

TIA

Steve

I think its just the boiler and water tank that's missing.

Personally, I would not give it house room.

After too many years languishing under the bench, I finally pulled out my James Coombes build.

I had intended to build "to plan", unlike my Victoria, which I made substantial modifications to.

I was pleased to find I'd made much more progress than I remembered, but I hadn't stuck to plan! I'd never liked the table columns, it didn't seem right to transition the round columns to a square platform. Just me being a bit OCD, so I turned them from square bar, so I could create a square plinth top and bottom. I'm pleased with how they look, but it has created a fitting problem - the valve gear bearing blocks screw directly on to the threaded posts that secure the columns. Any misalignment in the thread axis is corrected by rotating the column.

I need to fix that first, before I progress.

Any ideas welcome!

Steve

Perhaps I'm out of touch, but isn't lead free solder only mandated for potable water supplies? I'm still buying and using tin/lead solder for electronics. If so, then boilers for model engines should be fine with tin/lead solder (Where silver brazing isn't mandated).