Member postings for Bill Dawes

Thanks guys, yes everything there is of interest to me, I just love everything to do with engineering anyway (my Brummie heritage)

We live in Somerset so got a few preservation lines around.

Looking forward to our first trip to Statfold.

Bill D.

Hi all, my wife bought me a ticket to the Statfold railway Enthusiasts weekend, originally canceled because of you know what.Sadly we decided we did not feel ready to go to the August one because of you know what.

My wife phoned them to discuss possibility of rescheduling for next June, very helpful lady said no problem and within 1/2 hour new tickets were emailed.

My wife is full of praise for the helpful and friendly welcome she has had on the several times she phoned them.

Never been there before, has anyone else?

Bill D.

Well done, greetings from Somerset in the UK. Something I have been thinking about for a while so this has given me some inspiration, It is about time i used my welder I have buried in the back of the garage, never used it enough to get past the stick welding itself to the job! Thank you for sharing, interesting to see how many different parts of the world we get posts from on this forum.

Best regards

Bill D.

Clive, my wife had both her eyes done last year. She was dreading it, she has a thing about messing with her eyes.

She had the first one done and I went into the cafe for a cuppa, I had barely taken a few sips and the nurse called me back in saying that's it all done. My wife was beaming, said it was amazing, could see better straight away and also improved as time went on, had second one done a short while later. My wife said 'tell him its a doddle', just what other people had been telling her before the operation.

So in a nutshell have it done, based on my wifes experience you start seeing things properly again, not just clarity but colours as well.

Just have to take it steady for a couple of weeks (no bungy jumping, mountain biking, heavy exercise)

Bill D.

Adrian R, Alldays & Onions, established c1650. Like many old engineering companies they also ventured into cars, pushbikes, motorcycles, hot pie trikes etc.

When I started there we had a posh lady on the switchboard, you know the old spaghetti type, (the switchboard not the lady) she could not bring herself to say Onions, it was always 'Good morning, Alldays and O'Nions' she was from Solihull you know.

Bill D.

Wonderful stuff. Reminds me of my early days in the world of fan engineering. In January 1957 I stepped through the hallowed portals of Alldays & Onions, fan engineers, in Birmingham to start my apprenticeship. In those days they were still making smithy and foundry equipment as well as fans. Bellows and various types of forge blowers were amongst the product list including hand driven field forge fans.

Catalogues in those days (I have one going back to the 1800's) always seemed to proudly boast, 'medal winning' and 'new improved pattern'

Happy days.

Bill D.

Hi Larry, do you have the right front clearance on the tool, remember on that internal turning the curve of the material is going into the tool rather than away from it as on external turning. do you have any side clearance?

Bill D

Plodding my way through my build of Emma Victoria. Can anyone assist in a question (I'm sure there is) Is the boiler fixed to the smoke box. Cannot find any reference to it in Henry Woods excellent build series and googled to no avail.

There is of course the supports at the firebox end which allows for expansion but is the whole thing left to 'float' or should it be rivetted/screwed to the smoke box spigot.

Bill D.

We are fortunate in our hobby in the UK to have such a good source of supplies and reliable suppliers. Even in these difficult times I ordered stuff off Macc Models supplies and Tracy tools recently, both came virtually by return.

Bill D.

i wonder if this episode of our life will wake us up to over reliance on imported manufactures goods. Maybe we will realise that financial services are not the only important part of the economy. Exporting is of course important to most economies so one countries export is somebody else's import and vice versa but we need a better balance.

Bill D.

Perhaps I should have also said that blower or exhauster is more determined by the application rather than any difference in the fan.

Bill D

My wife and I are in self isolation being classed as vulnerable. We have established a routine for handling post. Anything that is plastic wrapped such as ME magazine are removed from wrapping with rubber gloved hands, wrapping disposed, contents quarantined for at least 24 hours. Rubber gloved hands washed, gloves removed.

I understand that paper and cardboard can be contagious for up to 24 hours, metals and plastic surfaces up to 72 hours.

Might not meet medical standards but every bit helps hopefully.

Keep safe guys.

Bill D.

As an industrial fan engineer of some 60 odd years (still working) I can throw some light on the blow/suck question.

Firstly any fan blows and sucks and vice-versa. Names such as fan, blower, exhauster are frequently used as loose terminology. In the industrial fan industry a fan is generally considered to be a medium to high flow at low to medium pressures. Likewise a blower would be a low flow high pressure. High and low of course are all relative terms but in the fan world pressures don't generally go much beyond 400 mbar for multistage units. Above that comes into the compressor category.

In terms of application there are blowers and exhausters or a bit of both.

So strictly speaking a steam raising blower is actually an exhauster by virtue of all or most of its pressure is on the inlet side, pressure in this sense being negative pressure (relative to atmospheric pressure)

Interested to see your home made fan Stewart, well done. Thought about making my own but need to finish my loco first, see if i can be bothered then, Saw those ex military blowers? some years ago, they were quite cheap, should have bought one then.

Hope this helps.

Bill D.

When I was an apprentice back in '57, during my time in the machine shop I worked back to back to an old fella who turned a lot of brass bar. When parting off he normally kept the stream of chips under control with a steel rule acting as a deflector, except when he decided to share it with me, showering me with the stuff and walking home at night every other step was a kangaroo hop from the bits stuck in my socks.

Happy days! H&S very minimal then.

Bill D

My thoughts as well Phil, maybe I will get my Emma Victoria that I have 'making' for the last 7 years (where did that time go?) finished this year!! Bill D

I have used Arc several times including a new Sieg mill. Excellent service from the boss Ketan. just after I bought the machine I had trouble with the digital readout on the quill, turned out to be my fault but I had a response from my email the next day (Saturday afternoon when they phoned and had a good chat) My wife has also dealt with them several times for b'day/chrissy presents and can't speak highly enough, no mean feat I can tell you!

Good luck

Bill D.

Went to a Mercure hotel yesterday for afternoon tea (yes that's how we live down in Somerset) new place and very nice restaurant, sat down at said new table and guess what, yes it wobbled. Looked at feet (4) and they appeared to have screw adjusters, whizzed one around a bit but made not a scrap of difference. So conclusion is, wonky tables are specially made for the restaurant market.

Bill.D.

Any of you guys work(ed) in the commercial furniture industry because I would like to know if they make a special design for cafes with one leg slightly shorter than the other, every table I have ever come across in a cafe wobbles.

Bill D.

I should add that working in the industrial fan industry we use a huge amount of motors, mainly 3 phase, but 400 quid for such a small motor is scandalous.

Bill D.

Hi John, I used to have a clarke lathe/mill, I changed the motor for a 3 phase to use with an inverter, as far as I know still have the old motor which you are welcome to have, will have a look tomorrow and let you know.

Bill D.