Member postings for Steve Withnell

I just leave my camera set to auto white balance and the whites seem to come out all white.

I'm using a DAZ 27z - it did say "Whiter than white" on the box...

I agree. I would also add that Arc have the advantage of excellent access to spares, in depth relationship with the manufacturer and fundamental understanding and experience of the Sieg machines they stock. AND they are the only outfit I know of who regularly engage with their customers in forums such as this...ie they don't run and hide once they have your cash.

My first engine (I'm currently working on No. 3!) was a steam engine with one inch bore. I can't remember if it was bored in the 4 jaw chuck or mounted on the face plate. Anyway, I drilled the cylinder with the largest drill I had using the tailstock (around 18mm IIRC) then used a boring bar with a carbide tip to get close to finished diameter, but the finish was rough. To finish I used a home made silver steel boring bar ground very sharp and then ran the lathe around 50rpm and slowly got a really nice finish. Point being very sharp steel tool run very slowly very light cuts to finish nicely. The engine runs very well without any further work on the cylinder bore. No lubricant on cast iron is usual practice.

Not quite sure why anyone would hire a web designer to develop custom forum software. Top quality forum software is available off the shelf. It works out of the box, meets the W3C legal requirements and can be skinned appropriately. DIY in this instance means "Don't Involve Yourself" as Ketan pointed out, it's heartache and pain when you do.

Poor David is getting a beating for stuff not of his making and out of his control, which is at best unfair.

I've never seen a thread on Loco's this long and fascinating...

My favourites - Lightning stood on its tail at full thrutch, a Vulcan coming in low over the hangar roofs and wondering why the total eclipse wasn't announced, standing near the runway watching Tornado's takeoff and being completely drowned in noise and vibration. The "private" Red Arrows display that was absolutely terrifying, all the standard manoevres but faster, closer, lower, awesome stuff. Or maybe it was just proximity and imagination.

Equally I cannot resist the 504's, SE5a's .....

I've been fortunate enough to have been able to fly in (no CPL, PPL) allsorts of commercial fixed and some rotary a/c. I suppose the Cessna Golden Eagle and the Hughes MD 500 would be my pick if I had three wishes. (the third would be free fuel forever!)

That explains the mail I had from them, I had asked about availability of D10 reversing gear kits, the response was "in about six months".

Slightly off track - how are internal splines cut? (ie a pinion that slides on a splined drive shaft?

Out of hibernation and charging ahead making slow progress again. Only two speeds with this project. slow and stopped.

http://whittlev8.wordpress.com/

MY first project was the Nemett. As a novice, you just end up making some parts two or three times to get it right! I've now built a Stuart Victoria to my own configuration and now trying to build a V8. I think you need to work on what you want to work on, it's a hobby so it doesn't really matter if you get it right third time...Working on stuff you have no interest isn't fun and unnecessary. You've joined a club, so you will have plenty of help. It typically takes me two years to produce anything, but the things I make are not intended to pay the mortgage, just to have fun in the workshop, which is what it's about. You just need to make sure the things you make are within the capacity of your machines and tools. So very much agree with 60019.

THis is what caught my eye, but not sure what's happening inside! Basically I want clean steam up the boiler chimney and the oil captured as is suggested here:

http://www.mainsteam.co.uk/condensers.htm

Steve

I'm thinking about building one of these so I have "clean Steam" to go up the boiler chimney. These things seem to have three connections, one is the drain to empty the tank of the "dirty" oil/water condensate, one is the "clean" steam exhaust. Those I understand. The third connection is the input exhaust steam direct from the engine. This one I'm not sure how to deal with.

Should it be kept at the top of the tank and out of the water? Anyone got any pictures of the internal tank design?

TIA

Steve

Yep it's the component that' soldered into the boiler, threaded to take the various fittings.

Thanks Jason

I have a Stuart 504 boiler and I need to replace a couple of the ferrules - easy enough to make, but what is the correct material to use?

Thanks

steve

Take a look at the Seig C3 - Arceurotrade is one stockist, Sieg also have a series of milling machines X1/X2/X3. Pick the biggest you can accomodate!

It's amazing how a "can I swap a plastic bit for a brass bit" question can produce such a huge amount of collateral learning!

Hmm, I'm sure there will be EN/BS comparison tables if you Google. Steels are usually quoted by "EN" which I think is "European Norm" ie standard. Ally is typically quoted by an "HE" ref by the suppliers but I don't know what that stands for. Cast Irons I think are usually referenced by "CR". All the suppliers I've seen do sell by the specification label, not by colour splash. (On larger diameters I usually write in big permanent marker "30" for HE30 or "8" for EN8 and so on, as on first cut, the colour splash is lost.

End of ramble.

Steve

PS: I wasn't in total hibernation all Winter! Just that that Whittle engine is very demanding, frozen fingers and icy tools just don't cut it, if you pardon the pun...Progress anticipated soon.

Thanks for the responses, this is what the washers are for. If you pick this image up from the album and zoom right in, I think it shows a plain 4mm washer as lacking a bit of finesse (see top washer) compared with the lower washer, which is 3mm drilled out to 4mm.

I think the easiest way to do this then, is simply to make a washer from stainless bar.

Thanks for the help.

Steve

and failing miserably!

The way I did this was to stack some washers and press them into my collet chuck as a 20mm stack then tighten the chuck. The drill just snags and rips them out one at a time... too much drill pressure and the washers are forced out of the collet.

I only want two washers drilled. I've managed one, which is OK but ruined a dozen trying to get a second.

Whats the smart way to do this? (I have considered turning down a 4mm washer to the right OD as an alternative, but suspect I'll have a similar problem with this material.

Just to be awkward - My space is 11ft square, I have four 5ft fluorescents formed in a square about 2ft in from each wall. I have a 150W Halogen lamp above the lathe and when I get a round tuit I'll put two more above the mill, one either side. The one thing I have not yet done is to me the roof reflective - at the moment it's just black roofing felt, so I'm wasting a lot of reflected light I guess.