Member postings for Bill Dawes

My son sent me a video of a motorbike build, I dont like links so just google 'The flying Millyard' to see what you think, some of you may already be aware of this of course.

On a similar subject I have posted before about an incredible engine I saw at an exhibtion a few years ago, The Napier Dagger. Does anyone know if this was finished ?

Bill D

We are always pleased when we see that a parcel is being delivered by DPD beacause we know that it will be deliverd safely and on time by a friendly driver, they seem to be a bit more fussy over there staff selection, maybe they are better paid, I don't know but it works for me.

Bill D.

I was a little surprised but pleased at the same time to read in the latest ME, Martin in smoke rings had to make some parts several times, I thought it was only me that did that. I recently had to remake a cylinder on my long running Emma Victoria build. First I drilled the exhaust connection in the wrong place and it came out into the cylinder. (the old adage measure twice cut once, read - you can measure a thousand times but its no good if its from the wrong place) I sort of repaired this with a piece of bronze rod silver soldered in and carefully rebored, not perfect but I thought I would see what I thought of it in a day or so .The next cock up was the drill wandering off in the angular steam passage from the cylinder ends, they broke out in the wrong place entiirely. Time to admit deafeat so into the scrap bin it went.

A relative beginner I sometimes despair of ever getting competent, sometimes I know where the problem lies, I tried to take a short cut which as we all know rarely works, other times I find problems depressing as I thought I had taken great care.

Still, spurred me on a bit now, thank you Martin.

Bill D.

Of course I wish John a speedy recovery, I do not know him but have seen his many posts, people like John are the backbone of this forum who help out us beginners.

Also all repect to Ketan, probable most people have heard of him and many people have met him as I have, shows what a caring person he is.

Get well soon John.

Bill D.

Just watched a lovely little film I recorded off Talking Pictures TV, Symphony for Steam, just music background, couldn't make out where it was, not UK I think. Only a few minutes long. Anyone else see it.

Also Fred Dibnah back on TV, BBC 4, love Fred, sadly missed.

Bill D.

I bought a brand new metro in 82 I think, had it about 10 years before being given a company car. My little metro went like a train, taking my wife and I, mom and dad in law and baby in the middle and towing a small camping trailer on a trip to Cornwall.

Also had that butt of music hall jokes the Allegro. It was the 1500 cc maxi engine, reynard metallic finish and very comfy plush looking seats, despite all the negative press I thought mine was an excellent car.

The Allegro and Metro set me on my love of front wheel drive and hatchbacks.

I well remember the look on the drivers face of a Sierra, tail wagging on a snow covered hill as I steamed past in my Metro.

One of my company cars was a Volvo S40, very nice car but always a keen DIYer the lack of hatchback drove me mad, a modest size piece of MDF for instance just wouldn't go in, all the more frustrating because I could see there was plenty of room inside the car.

Most of my cars I suppose have been the best I have had, improvements in quality and equipment undreamed of even in the top range models of years ago. My current car, a Kia Niro Hybrid, Excellent car!! not perfect of course, maybe next time?

Bill D.

My very first car was a 1946 Austin 8, it had a metal sunroof which showered me with rust when opened. I bought it for £50 at one pound a week from a fellow apprentice, he was a year or so older so further on into the car buying elite. Very few of the older generation there had cars, usually rode push bikes, the older apprentices mostly had motor bikes.

Going fishing one day deiving through Evesham I had to brake 'rapidly' behind a coach, foot hard to the floor, handbrake hard on pushing against the seat back I just managed to stop inches to spare. Examination of the brakes later revealed the back brakes saturated in oil from the diff, it was a solid axle of course.

Didn't have a garage in those days in working class Sparkhill in Brum, always seemed to have snow every winter so spent many 'happy' hours on my back in the snow down a side street mending rusty exhausts with Gun Gum bandage. No car heater either!

Happy days

Bill D.

Watched another interesting little film onTalking Pictures TV, 'Precision makes perfect'

It showed the Austin inspection process , it looked very impressive but bear in mind this was a promotional film, not a warts and all fly on the wall documentary

What interested me was the ingenious tools and jigs they had for measuring stuff, mainly on the Go-No Go principle, very little in the way of conventional workshop measuring tools, anyone that worked in this industry would be well familiar with it I guess.

My dad worked at Land Rover Tyseley as a capstan operator, he was always complaining about inspectors and machine setters, held him up I suppose, he was on piece work.

Any that has an old Land Rover, post war up to about early 70s might have a gearbox with bits made by my dad.

I remember going to a Christmas party there in the works canteen and was intrigued to hear the word 'Shop' used, I probably had visions of a tuck shop somewhere in the factory.

Bill D.

As if to illustrate what I mean, listening to pm on radio 4 (pretty highbrow for a brummie) on Boris's latest announcement, every opinion ranging from too much, too little, attacking the working classes of the north, unnecessary, essential, the problem is old people-don't penalise the young you can't stop everybody from dying and on and on. Now you could argue that it is the media's job to present all views but it is the way the media seems to relish stirring things up, particularly the BBC.

Just watching rerun of Boris on BBC1 at 7 pm, a member of the public asked him what did he envisage for Christmas, really how is anyone supposed to know that.

How is any government supposed to cope with that.

I have had my say now so will shut before I get accused of getting political.

Bill D

My youngest son (31) says can I get, as do most of similar generation, I always say can I or could I have.

My biggest irritation is the way the news media (mainly TV) have behaved over the last few months. They sit there in their cosy studios, probably in no danger of losing their jobs (self preservation?) being highly paid to pontificate on why everything is wrong, do they ever go home and think was there any point to my days work and thank god I am not in the position of having to make decisions knowing that whatever it is will not suit somebody, that somebody will be gleefully seized upon by the media and will reel out everybody that has a complaint, all the experts who disagree with other experts, all the scenarios, making intensive use of their retrospective crystal ball that all the media have.

After the first few months of Covid news, which I devoured intently, I felt myself becoming more and more depressed so suddenly decided I could not stand it any more. Confine myself now to the odd news broadcsast to keep up with the 'facts'.

I have a saying, 'I am a very sociable person,just don't like people'

Bill D.

I had an Uncle who worked there and he called it 'The Awstin'

Bill D.

Well I shall continue with my tirelsss campaign to re-educate the nation to say Awstin.

Another delightful little film on Talking pictures was from 1940, showing a Ford garage and its chaotic workings, pushing cars back and forth, borrowing each others tools, never ready for customer pickup and then comparing it with a well organised one fancy check in procedures, arrows marking car path around workshop, tool trolleys and interestingly electric diagnosis.

Love all these promotional films they used to make, British Railways, Shell, GPO, they all seemed to do them.

Bill D.

All I can say Matt is that a few years ago I bought a Warco 290V lathe, power feeds and variable speed control, not had any problems, I love it. Made in China and there are many other branded suppliers that are based on the same machine, Grizzly rings a bell with me, I think I remember googling something and Grizzly came up as a brand based on a Chinese generic machine.

Chinese stuff was a bye word for rubbish many years ago but these days China has many high tech factories, how much quality branded stuff, Apple, Microsoft, Nikon Sony etc is made in China, a lot. (I remember when Japanese stuff was laughed at.)

Bill D.

If Austin called themselves Awstin I wonder how Ostin came about.

Bill D.

Don't know where that emoji came from?

One other thing to remember about centrifugal fans is that there is a danger of overloading the motor if the fan is run fully open (not connected to a 'system'

Radial and forward curved fans have a power curve that rises continuously with increasing flow, backward bladed have so called power limiting characteristcs, the power peaks and drops off. The normal way we select a fan in industry is based on the specified duty point not the maximum power, this is for commercial reasons, why fit a 200kw motor if a 150kw does the job required.

Of course you can fit a motor that covers any condition and I would expect fans that are sold off the shelf such as you buy from Machine Mart etc would be designed on this basis as they are sold for general purposes not a specific application.

This surprises many people not familiar with fans, it is common for people to think that if you shut a fan off it is overloading, the reverse is actually true, its power would be at a minimum. It is the case however that a fan that depends on its motor cooling by the fan airflow passing over the motor, axial flow fans and special purpose fans such as those in vaccum cleaners fall into that category, will be compromised if you shut off the airflow for too long.

So as far as steam raising blowers are concerned (probably more correctly called steam raising exhausters) the proprietary ones you buy with an external separately cooled motor are designed, as far as I can see, such that they will work without problem under all conditions from fully open to fully shut off.

Bill D.

Just watched a quaint little film on Talking pictures channel called 'All that is England' a promotional film made in 30s for Austin cars.

A lovely bit of nostalgia (not that I go back to the 30s I hasten to add) and a slice of coronavirus antidote.

Now the real point of my post, many times recently I have heard Austin pronounced Ostin rather than Awstin as I have always known it. I speak as a Brummie where Austin was based and I never ever heard people say Ostin, if they worked there they would say 'I work at the Awstin.'

Interestingly in this little film, very middle class to be honest, to be expected I suppose for car owning public in the 30s, they were all saying Awstin.

Much relieved at this as I was beginning to wonder if it was my memory that had got it wrong. I blame that brown boot polish Dickinson bloke for starting it all with his Octions.

Bill D.

Hi Duncan I would have thought the axial load load on such small impellers will be negligible as both mass and suction thrust will be very small. A ball bearing will take a good thrust load, we accommodate very high thrust loads on deep grove ball bearings, around 600 lbsf or more ( in old money). Bearings slightly bigger than the steam raising blower ones of course.

On the subject of blade shape again, curved blades both forward or backward are potential problems where dirty gas is involved. Radial blade the best, straight backward sloping not as good but a more efficient compromise.

As a fan engineer I feel I should be making my own blower, not at he stage where I need one just yet but my Emma Victoria is inching (painfully) towards completion so I guess I will have to start thinking about it. Any thoughts on best place for a 12v motor guys.

You see very simple impellers on all sorts of things such as car alternator that Paul mentioned, oven circulating fans, cooling fans on motors etc. A circular plate cut through at intervals and a blade folded out is a classic. just needs a a piece of round bar fixed in the centre and bobs your uncle. Not very sophisicated and hardly in the 'fan engineering' category but it will produce an air flow.

Bill D.

Hi Peter, fan engineering is both a science and a black art. I have always had a saying with fans, if you change something and think it will work it probably won't, or if you think it won't make any difference it will.

Blade type is selected for various reasons, efficiency or application mainly. The ideal is of course the most efficient, especially in these days of ErP regulations (Energy related Products) however sometimes an efficient blade would be not be fit for purpose for some heavy industrial applications. Cost is also a consideration, straight radial blades are less costly than fancy curved blades so as with many things it's all a balance (excuse the pun)

I wouldn't worry about blade type too much, a simple radial blade will give good performance for a steam raising blower, number of blades will be restricted by the space available on a tiny impeller like this, I would probably aim for about 6 blades.

I am talking here about centrifugal fans of course not axials.

The fan casing (volute) converts the energy off the blades into usable energy at the outlet and of course is directional, impellers can also run in a circular housing, probably with guide fans as found on large furnace fans, discharging 360 degrees around its periphery, some losses in performance compared to a volute. The part of the volute where it is closest to the impeller, callled the cutoff, influences the pressure development, too much clearance looses pressure, very close however creates more noise. Again all a bit academic really for this application.

Good luck.

Bill D.