Member postings for Ian S C

For a boiler producing enough steam for a small engine I think the minimum requirement would be 500 to 1000W.

Before I converted my model boat to Stirling Engine it had a small pot boiler and a little V twin wobbler, and when I took it to the local pond I filled a Thermos with hot water, just to get steam up quickly.

Ian S C

By having a use by date the manufacturer can sell much more product, in the past many things stayed on the shelf for many years, now come stock taking time out it goes, expired or not. Time for single use packaging.

Ian S C

I find a bit of candle wax best for lubricant. Sit down and take it slowly.

Ian S C

There are a number of places to get citric acid, garden shops, home brew beer shops, if you really want bulk agricultural animal feed suppliers, or you can just go to the food preparation section of the Super Market. You have to be a bit desperate to go to the Chemist, this stuff is more refined that even the Super Market or Home Brew Citric Acid.

I also get Alum, and Borax from the garden shop.

Ian S C

I see no reason why not, a traction engine with an electric motor, say inside the "boiler", and a battery in the riding trailer.

Ian S C

It might also help if you can try a narrower tool, say 2 mm, my first parting tool was a bit of broked industrial power hack saw blade about 1.5 mm thick, worked well for many years, and while I now have "proper" HSS tools, the old home made tool is still there. One thing about a narrow tool is you don't waste so much material which can add up as on my first big job, 16 bronze nuts for the radiators on a Lanz Bulldog tractor, from the piece of cast bronze bar I ended up with a 1/4" slice x 2" diametre at the end.

Ian S C

I think you may find that the gears in a lot of war time equipment such as bomb sight computers were actually made by Meccano.

Ian S C

I'm getting very hungry, I need cheese.

Ian S C

Chris, you could safely go up to 9 mm for steel, some say 9.2 mm for more difficult steels, that's about 50%.

Ian S C

Out of interest, I had a look on line about tapping drills for 3/8" UNF, the sizes ranged from 8,7 mm to 9.2 for steel and stainless steel, another site said T, 23/64", and U. Another site just said 5/16".

Ian S C

You don't have to be mad to be here, but it helps. Welcome Ian.

Ian S C

If you go up to the black line click on classified, and insert an add, the buy sell adds are on the right hand side of the page.

Ian S C

By about 1943 it was found that the Halifax with Merlin engines was under powered, and the newer ones were fitted with Bristol Hercules engines which bought the performance up to near that of the Lancaster, but they had the problem of a small bomb bay compared to the Lancaster, and could not fit the 4000lb bombs, I think that's why they got jobs like coastal command, glider tug, and dropping SOE agents in France.

Ian S C

I made some coils lately for a little magnetic motor, and used bits salvage from old circuit boards with the copper removed for the cheeks of the bobbins.

Ian S C

I'v got three old Eclipse automatic punches, one has worn out and died, the other two are ok.

Ian S C

You say that your set of taps and dies has UN and metric tools, are you sure you are not trying to put a 10 mm tap through, the thread is nearly 24 tpi, but the diameter is greater.

Ian S C

It shouldn't be too difficult to turn the aluminium spinners by roughing out the taper in steps, then use a hand tool like a wood turning scraper using a bit of bar in the tool post as a tool rest,

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Ian S C

Robin, what then, do you go on a months holiday to get away from the smell of the rotting milk?

When I was a kid in the 1950s, and aerosol fly spray became available there was one brand that our household used, Aeroblast, one squirt and the flies would just drop, buzz for a few seconds, all over, now I'm like Neil, use a fly swat.

Ian S C

Someone mentioned dressing the side of the wheel,ok, BUT remember that there must be the compressable paper disc/washer on each side of the wheel. One store in NZ (Where every one gets a bargain) was, and may still be selling wheels with no paper washer, I did talk to the manager of one store, telling him of the danger of burst wheels, and the liability of the company in the event of the death of one of their customers, I don't think he understood.

Ian S C

ndiy, The Handley Page Hamden had two 980 hp Bristol Pegasus XVIII 9 cylinder radials.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 22/09/2018 14:13:37