Member postings for Maurice

Getting sparks suggests that the RPM may be too high. Put the lathe in back-gear and start from there; particularly while getting under the "skin". To avoid a lot of mess on your lathe, position a magnet inside a plastic bag under the tool, to collect the dust. When you are finished, simply turn the bag inside out, trapping the iron dust, and discard.

Due to a medical problem, I am finding it increasingly painful to operate the feed screws on my vertical mill. What I need is power feed. The hand wheels are held on with nuts, 5/8” across the flats.

Grumble about the pain; think; flind a suitable socket, make an adaptor and fit ithe socket to my variable speed power drill. I now have power feed! It ain’t pretty, but solves my problem.

Maurice

Archimedes screws arranged in tandem, pumping to a series of intermediate tanks, to avoid the screws being too long to be practical. The classic wooden version can be made with basic hand tools, or plastic tube wrapped around a drum is an alternative. They can be driven by any means you have including tread mills, they do not easily clog up, and apart from the basic bearings, they is nothing to go wrong. Just a thought.

Maurice.

I have just been given some engineering bits and pieces, which include a couple of three flute drills. In what way would these superior to standard two flute ones, or are they for some special application?

Thanks Jason, I expect that you are right. It would be nice if the instructions didn't just leave you to guess! I will try a brief test to see what happens, if no-one has any more information.

Maurice

I recently purchased a Black and Decker "Mouse" sander. Very useful tool. However, in the pack of shaped sanding sheets supplied, are two sheets that look as if they are made like a plastic pot scourer. One is white the other a dark red/brown colour. I assume that they are for some fine finishing; but there is nothing in the obstructions. Is that what they are, and how are they used please.

Regards Maurice

Thanks for the replies gents. Pumping fuel makes sense. thanks again.

Maurice

I have just seen a close up picture of an engine room telegraph on the net. Two or the commands are "Pump Over" and "Stop Pumping Over". Can anyone explain what they mean please?

Maurice

Referring to your cast iron wheel rims; in the dim and distant past, model traction engine wheel rims were made of malleable iron, not cast, so should be ok to rivet.

Maurice

I recently acquired a part built Fowler showman's engine in 1 1/2" scale. It includes a silver soldered boiler which is complete except for soldering the fire box stays, inside and out. Which would it be best to do first, inside or out? Also, on each side of the fire box are five copper bushes to attach the horn plates, threaded into the inner and outer wrappers, and also wanting soldering. They are of copper, and drilled right through. I was considering making bronze ones with blind holes tapped 4B.A. Is this a reasonable idea please?

Thanks. Maurice

This overheard in Homebase today:-

Member of staff to customer....." If you want it exact; nearly nine centimetres"

Should be promoted!

Hi Bob; welcome! I am another stationary steam engine enthusiast. I built an M.E. beam engine many years ago. Does the set of castings still have the pulley casting for the layshaft, and one for the large gear on the crank shaft? The reason I ask is that I found that with the gear sizes specified, the cotter in the big end hit the layshaft. I increased the tooth count on each gear by five, and all was well. I sold the engine years ago; worst decision I've made. Never mind. Good luck with your project.

Maurice.

For suitable gears for your gas engine, you might look out for unwanted sewing machines. Not too old. My daughter discarded one. Naturally I had it to bits to see if there was anything useful inside. Not really, except for a pair of 2:1 helical gears! One is brass and one steel. They are both a fraction over 3/4” diameter, and 3/4” working centres. The steel one is 13/16”. long with a half inch bore that fits my crankshaft perfectly. The brass one is 3/8” long, and 15/32” bore. I have not yet compared them to the drawings, as this is a “back burner” project that I inherited from an old friend; but they look a better bet than the ones that came with the castings.

The advice always used to be that the D of the D bit should be a couple of thou greater than half the diameter so that it cannot cut on the side and produce an oversize hole.

A. J. Reeves stock it in various gauges, in 24inch lengths. I believe it is the annealed state, and will need to be hardened and tempered.

I bought a set of drills, I believe of Chinese origin, from Tracy tools. All the cutting edges are perfectly sharp and cut well. However some of the larger sizes are slightly bent, and the leading edges of the spiral flutes are as sharp as razors. This gives the the ability to cut sideways like an end mill. this results in the bent ones cutting well oversize. When I say they are sharp, I have on several occasions cut my fingers on them getting them out of the box. To be fair, Tracy tools offered to change them, but I felt that was unfair as It had been a few months since I bought them.

Thanks for all the replies. Most interesting. I don't know the makes of the two that I knew.It's nice to know that the red frames and pink panels is correct, as it really does look good.

Maurice

You could try making the tool a little narrower than the groove that you require, and move it from side to side as the groove deepens. Also, I had a similar problem a while ago on some rather "odd" brass, and found that a little negative rake helped a lot.

Over the years I have seen many fine models of threshing machines, both "in the flesh" and in magazines. They are almost invariably painted pink, with the frames picked out in red. Now when I was a boy there were two such machines near me, full size, one of wooden construction and the other steel; and they were both painted red but the paint had turned pink due the the action of the sun. The original colour could be found on parts that were permanently shaded. My question is, do the modellers paint them to represent the faded colour, or did some makers of the full size machines paint them pink from the start?

Further to the idea of a spring loaded roller pressing on a cam, I have an old bound copy of the engineer which has a report of just such an arrangement on full size single cylinder engines. The engines were fitted to the machines they drove, one engine per machine instead of one very large central engine. There is no arrangement show to lift the roller from the cam once the engine is running! The noise and waste of power must have been horrendous. I think that a small cylinder could be arranged to take steam at the same time as the engine valve is opened, to just lift the roller clear of the cam. It would of course also need some sort of pressure release for when the engine is stopped, to allow the roller to drop onto the cam.