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Member postings for wotsit

Here is a list of all the postings wotsit has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.

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Thread: im a beginner but i am in my 80s
09/03/2011 20:00:16
Posted by william wiggins on 08/03/2011 23:09:35:
HI Guys Thank you all for your replies to my first thread.I will take note of advice offered,even the very critical one from Keith.Note the use of capital letters Regard Bill
Hi, William,
 
Sorry that you took my comment as 'very critical', as did several other contributors - some very sensitive people around, it seems. Good luck with your lathe and the Mill engine.
 
To Martin: I too am in my eighties like WIlliam - why should that make computer use difficult?

To Patrick: How do you know what my nationality is?
 
Regards.
Keith.
 
08/03/2011 17:28:12
What's wrong with Capital Letters and punctuation these days? - they were invented to make text more legible. The lack of these features just makes posts harder to read, so I just don't bother now when I see the mass of small gray text - e.e. cummings (and probably phone texting) has a lot to answer for.
 
 
Thread: casting small parts
08/03/2011 17:21:07
Thanks a lot for the info, Les. There may be still a problem, because I didn't mention that I live in Romania. I didn't really go into on the last post as it was a bit off thread, but I have also gone through the internet to find some flux (don't remember your link though, so maybe I'll try them) - the problem is one I have moaned about on the forum previously - the postal charges of companies shipping UK - Romania are nothing less than downright theft, or they don't want to ship here anyway. The postal thing is the companies, not the Post Office (or whatever it is these days). I have been quoted postal charges for small packages of over 40 pounds, then found out that they could be sent privately (also by post) for only a fiver - so who is doing the ripping-off?
 
Shipping prices from Germany are very low in comparison - I got a complete tower PC shipped here from Germany, insured, for 9 Euros - problem is that I can't find a German company that will ship me only a (relatively) small amount of flux. I guess maybe I will find somewhere here in Romania eventually - there are small foundries around.
 
Thanks again,
Keith
07/03/2011 14:19:29
Hi, Richard,
 
I have been making my own small ally castings for years now - much faster than fabricating. As you may have already found out, there is tons of stuff on the Web. For what you need, lost-foam is probably the best. Hardest thing to make is the patterns. Don't use standard 'closed cell' white foam, like the stuff used for packaging or ceiling tiles, etc. It is very hard to shape accurately and smoothly - use the hard foam sold for things like house wall insulation - it is usually coloured some pale pastel colour, and is cheap by the sheet (comes in very thick sheets too). This stuff can be cut easily with a fine saw blade, sharp knife or hot wire, and can be sanded very smooth with fine sandpaper. With care, it can even be turned.
 
When I have made the pattern, I usually give it a coat of (builders) finishing plaster, mixed about as thick as cream, or two or three thick coats of latex paint. This allows you to use almost any fine, dry sand to contain the pattern - simply fill an old bucket with the sand, and bury the pattern in it, tapping the container to help the sand fill all the voids. Almost any sand can be used - I usually get a bag of quartz sand, used for swimming pool filters because its fine and consistant, but I have used builders sand, and even dust swept up from a footpath - just make sure it is dry. The latex coat prevents it collapsing into the pattern when you do the casting, and gives a much smoother finish to the casting.
 
Biggest problem I have had is small voids and inclusions in the casting metal. Inclusions are cause by not skimming the dross from the top of the molten metal (carefully!), but I have never really found an answer to the voids. It doesn't always happen - I have been told that flux should be added to the molter metal (never been able to find what, or where to get it), or that the melt should be left to stand for a short while, or that it was too hot - you get a different opinion from everyone consulted. I posted on this forum some time ago to see if anything useful was forthcoming, but got no answers, so I carry on my own way - Best way is to to try it and see - Don't let the H&S crowd put you off too much - of course you need to take care, but then you have to with anything in the modern world.
 
The following links show what is possible, and give lots of useful advice.
 
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/
http://www.metalwebnews.com/fd.html
http://www.nucleus.com/~harlan/castings.html
http://members.optushome.com.au/terrybrown/welcome.html
 
Keith
 
Thread: steam turbine and generator
14/01/2011 18:18:16
Hi, Paul,
 
I can scan the Chaddock Turbine articles in the next few days - the easiest way would be to e-mail them to you as PDF files - I am not sure if I can add them as attachments via the 'Message Member' facility of this thread - if not, you could send me an e-mail address via the MM facility, and I can reply privately.
 
Keith

13/01/2011 18:12:58
Hi, Paul,
 
Richard Parsons comments are very relevant - you need to sort out the turbine before even thinking about the generator. I have the original series of articles by Prof. Chaddock to which Richard refers, I think. (published in 1951 - sorry, Richard) - these detail all his experiences with all the aspects of turbine design, including how he cut the rotor, gearing, lubrication and (flash) steam generation. Despite the improvements in material technology since then, it makes for interesting reading. I could copy and e-mail them to you if you are interested.
 
Keith
Thread: New Year's Resolutions
02/01/2011 20:09:39
Hi, David,
 
We will have to agree to disagree about the range of maerial in ME  - a quick look at any of the MEs from the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's will show a much wider range of subjects than todays issues - of course, in those days ME was almost the only magazine which dealt with engineering issues in all fields (and sometimes not only model engineering), Unfortunately (IMO) since then, disciplines such as aircraft, boats, cars, some electronics, tools and other subjects have been spun off into their own magazines, which leaves a narrower field to ME. As JasonB comments in this thread  - 'it would be nice to see some road steam...'. (Martin Wallis' write-ups excepted). I also seem to remember (maybe before your time, David), a discussion about no longer printing articles on model weapons, apparently due to worries about Health and Safety, although there does seem to be the possibilty of getting something about Dougie Swanns Rail Gun - a very nice piece of work.
 
I realise that my tastes may not correspond to other readers - like everyone else, I have my per hates - but I miss the wide ranging content of earlier years, and the cross-fertilisation of ideas this encouraged - I for one will never part with my old copies of ME. 
 
 Regards, KeithW
Thread: Diamond tool holder.
01/01/2011 19:09:56
The following link has some useful info on tangential tools and toolholders - may be of interest (whole site is pretty good IMO)
 

KeithW
Thread: New Year's Resolutions
01/01/2011 19:03:18
Magpie (Derek) partly beat me to the punch - I would like to see some kind of ideas forum in ME, (not only machines) but I guess this forum has taken the place of a published ideas page. IMO it is not easy to pursue creative ideas in the electronic forum, as things so often seem to go off topic.
 
I'm afraid I don't take MEW (not interested in making tools, only using tools to make models), so I would also like to see ME revert to its content  of some years ago, when it contained a much more varied mix of material than is now the case. Unfortunately, I suppose we all know that profit rules all, and the publishers can (probably) make more money from spreading subject matter over two magazines. I still can't help thinking (and some of David C's posts seem to confirm it), that submitted material is spread very thinly when it is split between two magazines.
 
No personal NY resolutions - I never stick to them anyway - expediency rules!
 
KeithW
Thread: Using Butane
01/01/2011 18:43:35
I hope this is considered on Topic - it does concern Butane.
 
Up to maybe three years ago I sucessfully used propane for a large burner to melt aluminium in a homebuilt forge for making castings - I never really did any calculations, just found out empirically that there was more than enough heat from my home built burner (based on the published designs from Ron Reil)

However, I now live in Romania, and there ain't no propane to be had, but butane is easy to get. (I think this is a safety issue - many households here use 11 kg bottle (butane) gas for cooking, which is low pressure, compared to high pressure propane, so probably less risky.)
 
My question is: how does butane compare to propane for use in my forge? After some experimenting, I was able to adjust the burner to get a good 'blue' flame, with no noxious smells, etc. However, as yet, I have not had chance to try any serious smelting (outside temperature is down to about -12°C, and I am not going to do this indoors or in winter), so this thread prompted me to ask if anyone had any views on this.
 
Please don't suggest a change to electrical heating - Romanian house electrical supplies will never stand the required current! (without major repair!)
 
Re Peters question about operating time after overnight warming in the house - I tried this (with a heater), and as you might expect, the answer depends on the temperature in the shed - the colder it was, the faster the butane 'shut down' - but during this time, the workshop had also warmed up to some extent, so the butane bottle had not got as cold as the 'starting temperature' (hope that makes sense). I would say that (roughly) I got about 2 hours before the butane flow became too slow to be useful, starting with a workshop temperature of 0°C, and the bottle had been in a room heated to about 21°C overnight. The workshop temp at the end of a couple of hours was about 4°C - so not really very effective.  My workshop is about 65 cubic metres, well-insulated, but normally unheated, so over time it drops to outside ambient temperature.
 
Thread: myford super 7 mk1
31/12/2010 15:52:20
Hi, Daniel,
 
Its an odd way to buy a lathe, but good luck - a good start would be to use Google and search for Myford Super 7. The Myford site (www.myford.com) has a parts number and price list for the later Super 7, so you can get an idea what the new price for a part is (If you can identify it) - but there are many other sites with information.
 
http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/page2.html also has a great deal of information for these lathes.
 
Good Luck - Keith

Edited By Katy Purvis on 01/06/2015 11:53:58

Thread: Horses for Courses
13/12/2010 18:34:20
Ian SC -
I guess the Mafia can find (or create) a bigger market for counterfeit Ferraris than for model locos or TEs.  (Shame) There is one Ferrari here in Arad (its a well-known sight in the city - most cars here are recycled German cars or old Dacias) - must have a close look and see if it is counterfeit, and see if the owner(?) will tell me how much he paid
 
Wolfie -
last time I looked, the lathe no longer had a price on it, but I seem to remember a few months ago it was around  2000 Lei (Say 400 Pounds Sterling) - if you want it, let me know, and I'll go get it and send it from Romania, if you pay the postage (See earlier posts regarding postage ripoffs)
 
 

12/12/2010 19:09:03
Jeff - No you aren't asking dumb questions - it is interesting to get the chance to explain that not everyone has the facilities available in Western Europe and America - there is no concept of 'model engineering' in Romania, so there is literally no support - a large contributory factor is things like salaries. In the area I live (Romania) typical salaries are between 400 to 1000 Lei (1 Euro = 4.45 Lei) - no-one (apart from the usual black market Mafia) has money for luxuries like modelling, and the Mafia have no interest.
 
Scrap is valuable here, rarely a day goes past without someone banging on our door asking for any scrap metal - copper used to be impossible (electrical cable was all aluminium until recently), but is now appearing in DIY places as cable/pipe.
 
That said, there is quite a steady business investment going on in our area - several large new modern shopping malls have been built which compare with any I have seen in Western Europe. (Tesco has a big presence in Hungary). There are several large (German) DIY supermarkets around  such as Praktiker, OBI, Bauhaus, Dedemann etc all like B & Q, but with a better range of stock - but all aimed at the house /garden renovator. It is all aimed at the consumer, not at the hobbyist.  We have the same DIY supermarket feature as Richard - an OBI store opened in Arad two years ago, and on the shelves was one 7x12 chinese mini lathe (same as Clarke CM300) - its still there!.
 
Best feature is cheap property and land in lovely countryside, and excellent Romanian wine at throw-away prices.
 
Richard - It would be good to meet you if you make it. - No free travel as far as I know - I have just had to buy a new car - the old one was suffering from the effects of bad country roads. Air travel is good/cheap - Arad and Timisoara have good small airports - Google Whizzair, Carpat Airlines, Blue Air. I hope to make a goody-gathering road run via Germany to England and back sometime in Summer, so I could get across to you then (heavy snow at the moment) - I'll keep in touch.
 
Sorry about going off-thread, everyone - it was just convenient to anwer the questions in this thread.

11/12/2010 21:00:37
Some interesting things in this thread -
There are plans around (By Richard Tingey) for a traction engine using duralumin for cylinders - I assume the hardness of dural offsets the wear problems of aluminium.
 
Re obtaining metals (Richard Parsons) - I live in Romania, and have similar problems, so I can understand why he is considering other metals for Minnie. I have a metal dealer in our local city who occasionally seems to have the unobtainable in stock - the problem is that he won't take orders, so its a case of 'yer takes yer chance' with what is on the shelves. I tend to just go browsing occasionally, and if ther eis something that may be useful, I buy it. (prices seem to good - but I haven't seen and gentlemen with case of money ).
 
The comment by JasonB is a good one - I lived in Germany for over 25 years, and nowadays I sometimes order stuff that way.  The kicker for mail order is cost - from Germany it is not so bad, but anything from Britain is a total 'no-no' - the carriage charges are outrageous, often running to two or three times the cost of the material.
I have noted once before in another thread that someone in Britain is making a very high profit out of postage charges - I have experience of suppliers quoting 'approximately 45 pounds' to send me a metals order of about 35 pounds (to Romania). I had the parcel sent to a friend in England, which cost about 5 pounds, and he then sent it on ( Post Office) at an additional charge of 5 pounds - so who was trying to rip me off?.
 
 Jeff Dayman asks why it is not possible to buy bars of cast iron and mild steel off the shelf in Hungary - I guess Richard will also reply to this, but my opinion is that model engineering in both these countries is very rare, so the sale of metals in the volume/quantity we need is virtually non-existant - you may be able to buy it in industrial quantities, but I for one don't know how I can handle several hundred kilograms of cast iron.
 
 
 
 

Thread: home castings / metal alloys
30/11/2010 19:30:38
I don't know about melting down scrap water fittings (copper? brass?) - I have tried copper without conspicuous success: it is liquid at around 1000°c, which is not easy to achieve in a simple home built forge. Brass can be cast, but de-zincifies when liquid, so the final product is a bit unpredictable. Another point is that you cannot always be sure of the quality of the material you start with.
 
I have successfully done quite a bit of aluminium casting using the lost foam process, and made parts ranging from lathe wheels, to pulley wheels, and mountings for motors. Probably the biggest problem I have had was inclusions and small holes in the casting. Inclusions (carbon, dross etc), were probably my own fault for not skimming it off properly, but I have had cases of small (~1mm) holes in the metal. A finished casting looks fine, then on machining the holes are uncovered. Various causes are possible (I am told), ranging from a need to use a flux of some kind, to the melt temperature, or to leave the molten metal to stand to allow it to gas. I am too impecunious (tight?) to have tried flux yet. The other two suggestions seem inconsistant - sometimes the result is good, sometimes not.
 
Another thing I tried was dropping a small amount of copper into the melt. I was told this results in a harder metal (as in Dougies case), but I had no idea of quantities. I simply chopped off a couple of cms of copper water pipe, and dropped it in the molten ally (carefully!). I was a bit dubious that it would even melt, because ally is liquid at a lower temperature, but after pouring there was no lump of copper in the ally. 
The resulting alloy did seem a bit harder than ally, but was not brittle as Dougie describes - when turned in the lathe, it did not have the soft feel characteristic of ally - it turned OK, and is still in use (3 years on) as a pulley wheel on a circular saw.
 
There is reams of info in the Internet on aluminium casting - try the following as a start.
 
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/
http://members.optushome.com.au/terrybrown/welcome.html
 
I now prefer to cast parts wherever I can, rather than prefabricate them, because it is so much easier once you have the set up. Sorry I cannot add any 'hard' metallurgical advice, only my experience.

 
Thread: Cutting steel plate
30/11/2010 18:55:49
Maybe my experience cutting steel might raise a laugh - I don't want to go into the Health and Safety lunacy (doesn't apply anyway in Romania), but not so long ago I needed some 3mm steel plate, so I went into town (Arad) to see what our local supplier had. He is usually excellent - I can buy all sorts of material which I would have no idea where to obtain in England (or Germany, where we used to live).
 
He had several sheets in stock, but they were 220cms x 120 cms - rather more than I wanted (or could carry in or on my car!), very heavy,  and he had no means to cut it (I later found out that people were expected to buy the whole piece), but he agreed that if I could get it cut, I could buy half a sheet - he suggested I use what he called a 'Flex cutter'. (Angle-grinder to you or me).
 
To keep a long story short, I returned next day with a hand-held 2500W angle grinder fitted with a 25cm metal cutting disk, a pair of heavy welding gloves, and a pair of safety glasses, and gave them to the metal-man, expecting (hoping!) he would cut the metal. He looked surprised, gave me them back, and told me I had to do it myself. So I did - it only took about 10 minutes, and I had to say it was much easier than I expected but a bit nerve-racking and noisy. I don't really want to do it again, but I got my half-sheet of steel, cut with no distortion along the edge.
 
So now I have enough 3mm steel for no end of loco frames, manhole covers, etc.
 
On the serious side, I have done lots of cutting with small (15cm) metal cutting discs in an angle grinder, and it is possible to work quite accurately with them, leaving only minor finishing needed. Aside from my story above, I agree with the precautions, and fully endorse Gordon W's comments. I would also note that these disks are very thin - I have had occasions where the edge of the disk has chipped for some reason, and this has led to almost instant destruction of the disk, with bits flying far and wide. At the very least, the edge of the disk has 'shredded', and in those circumstances, I always scrap the disk, rather than take a chance - needless to say, safety glasses are essential.

Edited By Keith Wardill on 30/11/2010 18:58:02

Thread: Setting Piston Valves
23/11/2010 15:44:15
Hi Robert,
Several people have mentioned LBSC's pressure setting method - this is described in ME for August 1950, Volume 103 number 2568, in an article called LBSCs Beginners Corner - he described how to set the valves for 'Pamela'.  (the article is actually about building a boiler for Tich, and he describes the valve setting for Pamela more or less in passing).

Basically, he attached a small low pressure container (he describes a soldered-up cocoa or coffee can to a Tyre pump. The can is then attached to each steam chest with rubber pipe. Open the cylinder drain cocks, set the die-blocks in the middle of their travel in the expansion links, then turn the wheels by hand. If the gear is set up correctly, then neither die block should move (If they do, then, as LBSC says, 'you have apple-pied the job ..... of fixing the weighbar shaft').
 
If all isOK so far, pump up the canister and turn the wheels again - in LBSCs words ' Air should hiss from the front draincock as the crank arrives at front dead-centre, and from the back cock when the crank arrives at back dead-centre'. If one end blows before the other, the valve needs adjusting on the spindle. As he says, 'it is a matter of trial and error. If you get a hiss at one end at dead centre, and nothing at the other end until the crank has passed dead centre, then the bobbin is too long, and must be shortened, keeping both bobbins the same length.
 
Hope this is some help.
Thread: Chinese lathes
22/11/2010 19:22:40
There seems to a big difference between retailers of these machines - in these threads there are people strongly supporting Warco, and others condemning them. I have an identical machine to the one shown at the head of this thread right down to the colour, but it was bought from RC Machines in Trier, Luxembourg. The machine was in perfect condition when I bought it about 4 years ago - it was clean, no trace of sand, swarf etc - I don't know if that was how it was supplied by the factory, or if RC had prepared it pre-sale, but I mention just to show that however these machines leave the factory, some suppliers do provide a good service.
 
I also have a version of the minilathe sold in England by Clarke (CM300), only I bought mine from Rotwerk in Stuttgart - again nothing but satisfaction - and it did run 'straight from the box' - I even got a calibration certificate with it.
 
So it seems to me that as someone here said - Let the buyer beware. It must be very confusing for beginners particularly when they ask for recommendations in these forums, and they end up with a long string of contradictory views - it seems to me that the only reliable way to make an assessment of these machines is to personally inspect the machine before buying, which is not always possible.
 
I hope John Stevensons earlier comments are not going to be the norm - some of the American engineering forums have been destroyed by abusive comments, bad language and off-thread content - Jens and others are entitled to their opinions, and if you don't agree, by all means point them out - don't start a fight.
Thread: Edgar Westbury powered hacksaw castings.
14/11/2010 19:49:25
I've got to agree that a bandsaw is better than a reciprocating saw, and much easier to build. (I have both) - the only advantages I can see with the reciprocating saw is that they can use standard blades - it seems to be very difficult to obtain good quality bandsaw blades (metal cutting), and the reciprocator can generally be left to itself to make a cut. (on second thoughts, most hacksaw blades these days seem to be made of Woods metal.....)
 
My dad built a bandsaw (for metal cutting) many years ago, using bits and pieces from a scrapyard. Might not be so easy in these days of of the Health and Safety Terrorists, because they won't let you browse around scrapyards like you used to be able to do, to see if there is anything useable.
 
There are a couple of small reciprocating metal saws in some early copies of ME that I have (circa 1950) - from memory, one uses a 1/8 HP motor through gearing.
Thread: Smileys
09/11/2010 19:02:37
Alll a bit odd - why are people so proud of being grumpy old gits? - I think Martin W has a good point about 'Smiley Qualification' .
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