Member postings for Ian S C

Roy, you'll soon find, or already found or other glider tug pilot. I'm sure you'll be as careful in the workshop as in the cockpit. Welcome aboard.

Ian S C

I was in the local library, went after lunch to sort out some jigsaw puzzles, then someone came in and said have you heard about the shooting in town, the place is in lock down, next thing every one gets herded out and the library is closed. 49 dead as I write, and a similar number in hospital with gunshot wounds. The shootings took place at the two mosques in Christchurch about 7k apart. 4 people arrested, 1 charged so far(he's not a Kiwi).

Ian S C

Hi Bob, sorry no video, but yes it does work, it's something akin to watching grass grow/paint dry, but I like to make my motors work for their living, mostly on an alternator or generator, or a water pump, and one is fitted in a boat.

Ian S C

Hopper, at least motor mechanics usually know what they are doing when it comes to car repairs, they sometimes may well be crap at handling the customers, but this company with the castings doesn't seem to know what it;s doing with it's product. Someone mentioned towbars as the previous product the firm supplied, I hope they knew what they were doing then.

Ian S C

So you can put the oil back in you need a drip tray, or it will soak into the floor, well at least you can then get rid of it. Just look at the oil leaks from the average Japanese car.

Ian S C

If the company was interested in it's model engineering customers it would from time to time monitor this and other modeling forums, and even if they didn't join in they would take action on improving customer relations, and the quality of stock. The company is probably too small for the regulatory body to take much interest.

Ian S C

Or you can do it this way with a junior hack saw blade , and if you use something more powerful that a hot air motor with about 5Watts available it will chew through a bit of 1/2/12 mm rebar in less than 5 minutes, takes about 20 minutes with the hot air motor.

I have used it to cut the metal when building another motor, and when repairing the motor it was first designed for.

Ian S C

I bought an Emco Unimat SL 1000 a few weeks back, and it has a scroll saw as part of the kit, it is small to suit the lathe. There were no blades with it, so first I tried a fret saw blade, that didn't last too long, then I took the pins out of a coping saw blade but found the standard blade too wide, so I ground a few thou off the back of the blade and it works well. I did wounder as the blade has no top tension.

I also have an ancient home made one that I bought for the 1/4hp motor, it actually works although I have not set it up.

Ian S C

On another site(The Stirling Engine Forum), we regularly get invaded, and (I think), the site has had to be shut down 3 times over the last 10 years or so I;v been on it. We are lucky here that there is closer control by more moderators.

Ian S C

The drip is a safety feature on old English machinery, when it stops you have run out of oil, and you better get it back in.

Ian S C

A bit of wire from a wire coat hanger would be about right for an eye with a 1/4" hole, and it's easy to bend. I have some copper wire in 8 and 10 SWG, and 3/16", and that would be my choice, but I'm a little far away. I,v got a pair similar size on a model generator.

Ian S C

Might be of interest to Andrew, currently there are a pair of Grob G-109B powered gliders in NZ, piloted by Tim Dews(with his son Ben), and Jonathan Turnbull, they flew a trip from just south of Auckland , to a bit north of Christchurch the other day, escorted by a local DH-1 Chipmunk. One machine is G-DFIX, not sure about the other, it might be G-CIND.

Ian S C

There are some photos taken at RAF Marham of the take off and return of the nine GR-4 Tornados, they are on the Wings over New Zealand web site.

Ian S C

Do you have Mosquito problems, my niece in Townsville(Australia) got a water ornament for Christmas a few years ago, by the next morning there were mosquito larva in the water. Open water maybe not too good.

Ian S C

I think you'll find that the Harvard has a Hamilton Standard prop, it won't get a C of A with anything else,. We used Hartzell, and McCaullay(?spelling) props on our Cessna 180/185/188 and Piper Pawnee and Fletcher aircraft.

Unfortunately they use minimum blade length, and reduced RPM to keep the noise down, it also lowers stress on the engine, and reduces fuel consumption.

Ian S C

I imagine that after the final tooling the bell would be left in the work hardened state as metal in the annealed state has a dull tone. The reference to the cat was a bit tongue in cheek, and not to belittle your efforts.

Ian S C

David, the size is fairly large for putting on a cat's collar, but not much, but a bell that size will tinkle rather than ring, or chime.

Ian S C

David, I think you might need oxy propane set up for that job, it's going to take quite a bit of heat to get it hot enough to silver solder. I think, if it is to be attached to the end of the hex bar I would drill the plate, poke the bar through, then weld it.

Ian S C

The Police will give you a job number so you can claim insurance, then they can forget about it, until maybe some rainy day, when there is nothing to do.

Ian S C

I'v made 3 or 4 little pot boilers, i flattened out a piece of the tube used for the boiler, then formed a flange on that, and silver soldered it into the boiler with a single stay through the centre made of 1/8th inch bronze brazing wire. It all started with the local High School having a night class with a little steam engine as the project (Mamod style).

Ian S C