Member postings for Bill Pudney

I did a college final project in 1991 which ended up being called "Motorcycle Suspension". It required determining what loads are applicable to motorcycles on the road, it ended up demonstrating that braking loads are the major loads in normal use. It also demonstrated that compression of the front forks under braking reduces the stability of a motorcycle at exactly the time that maximum stability is required. To determine what order of magnitude these braking loads were a series of braking tests were performed from 30 up tp 100 kph. These tests established that...1/ The "old Wives tale" about the front brake doing 75% of the braking is about right. 2/ That extreme braking was indeed a tense affair because of reduced stability 3/ That under the right conditions "stoppies" (where the rear wheel comes off the road surface) are feasible on a single disc road bike.

I had felt for some twenty years prior that telescopic forks were somewhat limiting, and ended up proposing a system similar to the Hossack/Fior layout which ultimately was more or less copied by BMW with their Telelever .

The snag seems to be that motorcyclists are very fashion conscious and want something that looks like what the motogp riders use, and motogp manufacturers are hooked into suspension providers, who are mainly interested in selling stuff.

cheers

Bill

For what it's worth my copy of MEW 299 arrived yesterday, this is one of the few problems with living in Australia!!

cheers

Bill

+1 for Tracy Tools. You could also try Drill Service Horley. Once again the postage may surprise you!! If BA taps/dies are hard/difficult/expensive try metric, maybe M1.8 or M2.0.

best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

Cannot emphasise the need for rigidity enough. When I was re-setting up my lathe, initially the set up consisted of a good quality mag base and arm as shown above. It was extraordinarily difficult achieving repeatable results. So I made a rigid DTI holder, which eliminated the mag base and arm. Bingo!! Repeatable results. I'll see if I can find it and get a photo, it wasn't difficult or complicated.

cheers

Bill

Beautiful work Tug!! I would love to have followed the build, but for some reason I have been banned from the MEM site!!

cheers

Bill

Glad that someone likes the reverse cone silencers....I drew them!! I had them on my Honda 500/4, after all the internals had gone away it sounded gorgeous, a bit rorty but not loud. My 500/4 did over 40,000 miles in two years and was in really good nick when I sold it to my brother.

It was replaced by a basket case Norton 650SS. A friend had rebuilt the motor and he told me it was pretty standard apart from the Dunstall racing cam. The bike went well, although I must admit to being a bit disappointed with it when it was being run in, it was as flat as a tack up to 4,500 rpm. Once the rpm "limit" went past 4,500 it changed!! Went like a rocket. In fact I got stopped for doing 126mph on the Andover by pass, yes I know it was irresponsible, illegal, dangerous etc etc, but I was 30 ish and it was 1976ish and there was no traffic about. Didn't get booked, the officers brother liked Nortons!! The 650SS was a great bike, regularly used to leave more modern bikes for dead, it's only real bad point was the front brake, which to be a genuine all round Great Bike needed to be a disc, rather than the drum brake.

Happy days!!

cheers

Bill Pudney

Edited By Bill Pudney on 29/12/2020 01:36:44

I worked in a corner of Peters office at Thruxton in late 69 early 70. He was a genuinely nice, very talented, all round great man. At the time he was working on cam profiles, I vaguely remember a maybe 20x cam profile on his board, he was calculating the offsets, there were heaps of calculations!! He will be sorely missed.

cheers, sadly

Bill

A million years ago....well the early 70s, I used to work at Vosper Thornycrofts shipyard in Southampton. Even in those far off times welding of galvanised steel was a no no. It simply didn't happen. Parts that required galvanising and welding had their manufacturing process arranged so that all welding was complete before galvanising.

cheers

Bill

Being up here in 'straya, where we have a daytime temperature range of (about) 10 degrees C to 45 degrees C. So cold temperatures are not much of an issue. In the Winter I just put on an extra sweatshirt and wear a dustcoat. The big problem is the Summer when the temp in my steel shed can easily get up to 55 degrees C. That's great for carbon/epoxy layups, but not for any machining or fiddly hand work. It gets really unpleasant when sweat starts dripping onto my glasses!! At which point I generally retire indoors and sit in front of the air conditioner for a while!!

cheers

Bill

We arrived in Australia from England in 1980. At one stage the local Government run research establishment advertised for Draughtsmen, so I applied. I didn't get the job, didn't even get an interview. So I phoned up the person concerned and asked him why no interview. His response went along the lines of they didn't recognise my qualifications and experience, a full C & G Mech Tech Cert, and 10 years relevant experience. Fair enough I thought, that's the way the cookie crumbles etc etc. Put it down to experience and so on. Within a month the same organisation advertised for a Trainee draughtsman, so obviously I applied as I was out of work at the time, the advert even had the same contact number as the previous job. Time went by, eventually I got a letter saying my application was unsuccessful, not even an interview. So I phoned up the contact person and politely asked "...why no interview?". I have to admit to laughing out loud when I was told that they didn't want applicants with any experience, and that I was over qualified.

Sometimes you really do just have to laugh!!

cheers

Bill

Edited By Bill Pudney on 27/11/2020 23:29:50

Amongst many other things I build fuel tanks for model aeroplanes. These are tinplate fabrications soft soldered together using 50/50 plumbers solder and Bakers Fluid. The tanks must be pressure tested to ensure there are no leaks, then they are flushed out two or three times with a strong solution of hot water and bi carb soda. Then they are pressure rinsed with clean hot water, then dried as far as possible, obviously drying internally is a bit difficult. At this point the tanks are very clean and susceptible to rust, so the get a light spray with oil, inside and out.

Job done...........finally

cheers

Bill

For what it's worth, I have a 4" Vertex RT, and used it to generate a 360 degree "T" slot in a cross slide I was making. By taking it carefully everything worked out fairly well...see my album "chariot a vis". I would imagine that the 6" RT that the OP is interested in would be even more capable.

cheers

Bill

I am sorry if my comment upset anyone, it was intended as humour. I consider myself both competent ( but not great!) at maths and a pedant.

To avoid upsetting anyone who has a thin skin, or is of a gentile constitution, I shall just offer my best wishes for the upcoming festive season. Stay safe and virus free

cheers

Bill Pudney

If you put your hand to your ear, the rustle of waking pedants can be heard.............

You may find your two requirements mutually excluding. However "Engineering Materials, Properties and Selection" by Kenneth Budinski published by Reston is my main source. Latest editions may be a little pricey, but there seems to be some earlier editions available at a sensible price. You should be aware that this is an American publication, but it's still very usable.

Best of luck!!

cheers

Bill

A long time ago, probably 25 years, my then boss referred to a shovel as a "..hand operated earth moving implement" So they walk amongst us.

In a similar vein and not wishing to upset anyone, in my experience software engineers are the cause of most problems in the modern "connected" world. But I may be wrong, I have been told that I'm a biased. bigoted old barsteward.

cheers

Bill

MichaelG wrote "Although, in practical reality, the more relevant word might be STIFFNESS

Please see my posts here: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=107544&p=2

MichaelG.

Edit: ... noting [of course] that, in some circumstances, the difference between RIGID and VERY STIFF might be considered negligible."

Thanks for that MichaelG. I was aware of the small difference between Rigidity and Stiffness, but as I was quoting it seemed reasonable to quote accurately.

cheers

bp

In 1964 when I was at tech school in the early stages of my apprenticeship, one of the lecturers was talking about basic machine design. On of the things he said remains with me today, "....there are three criteria for good machine design.....RIGIDITY, RIGIDITY and RIGIDITY". Try saying it three times, quickly.

Another thing, talking about the myth of European car manufacture.  I once knew a Senior Engineer (i.e. an ENGINEER not a technician), who said "If you want a new car and you don't buy a Subaru, Toyota, Honda or a Mazda, you are either bonkers, or you just want an ego extension"

cheers

Bill

Edited By Bill Pudney on 20/10/2020 01:47:26

The language is evolving. To stop it evolving would require some sort of committee to keep things on the straight and narrow. I believe France has something which is supposed to stop that language changing. Of course there are some things that are just beyond the pale, for instance, every other word being "like", this is truly appalling in'it.

cheers

Bill

ps Everyone found guilty of the heinous act of language abuse should be subjected to a round of the fish slapping dance.

pps I always thought that ships have boats, but boats don't.

Bearing in mind that most of the stuff I make is small...model aeroplane engines etc.... I use brake cleaner, or shellite. Brake cleaner is more aggressive and can damage some plastics so be careful!!

cheers

Bill