Member postings for Mike Poole

The expert knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.

Mike

Hi Phil,

Would the eccentricity be due to wear? With the bearing installed in the housing is the hole round? A pair of internal calipers will easily detect an out of round condition. If the shaft is oiled this can flatter how good the fit is.

Mike

Vandervell steel backed white metal bearings are ready to fit in automotive applications, the instructions warn against scraping. I would have thought that if they can make shells that accurately, a split bush for a motor would need no further work after installing. The only precision tasks required would be the hole size and concentricity with the register. My vote goes for them being presized to give the correct clearance after fitting in a correctly toleranced hole. Your new bush may have closed up on being pressed in. Many bearings rely on the fit in the housing to bring them to their designed fit, even ball races can be ruined by too small a housing or too tight on shaft, Torrington needle rollers certainly need a tightly toleranced hole and shaft to achieve the correct running fit.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 03/09/2014 20:42:14

The logo would seem to belong to the Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company so may be part of a train braking system.

Mike

Mechanical protection of the cables in a workshop should be a consideration, the conduit solution covers this nicely with metalclad switches and outlets. Conduit cable should be multistranded for flexability and ease of wiring. If you are proposing putting T&E in conduit you will struggle as it is solid cores and most uncooperative. You maybe be able to buy cable by the metre but other than for very short lengths it soon becomes economical to buy a drum. Maybe an electrical contractor would have some short drums he would sell you for a reasonable price. You could sell on what you have leftover even if you take a hit  at least it won't be in the way doing nothing.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 28/08/2014 11:04:53

Although I am building a 1" Minnie my trade is Maintenance Electrician and my job is Control Engineer. Although my job title is Control Engineer it is a trouble shooting role and yet another abuse of the term engineer as I see it. Awarding ourselves grand titles seems to be a British pastime, technician is another term often abused and where did all the clerks go? They all seem to be office managers now. I tell people my hobby is Model Engineering but does that make me a model engineer? Many of the finest practitioners of model engineering have no formal training or qualifications in engineering yet their work can eclipse that of practicing engineers.

Mike - A sparky with a passion for practical machining and fitting.

It would be nice if a Chartered Engineer were given the same recognition as the Clergy,Medicine,Academia and the nobility, but despite British engineers creating the industrial revolution for the world few could name the men responsible. I would like to see an engineering hall of fame with the fathers of the industrial revolution and the long line of great engineers right up to the present day represented. When I was at school the teachers threat to people who didn't work was that they would finish up in the local car factory (probably meaning on the line). If they understood how much engineering went into the design and manufacture of a car they should have been saying if you work hard you could be an engineer at the car factory. Oh well we will have plenty of media studies, tourism, and psychology graduates to keep the country going.

Mike

The Engineering Council seem to think Chartered Engineer is a title.

Mike

I think Chartered Engineer is the title that should have the respect of most people in engineering. The ones I have dealt with have all been worthy of the title.

Mike

Numerical control was driven by the needs of the aircraft industry after WW II. I think the American military funded much of the original research. The toolroom where I worked as a sparky had some very interesting examples of early numerical control when players like EMI, Ferranti, Olivetti and even a Cincinatti Acramatic 1 grafted on to a massive Hydrotel Mill. These were R&D projects to investigate the viability of making automotive press tools without the use of copy mills which need precision patterns to be made before you can cut the castings.

Mike

CNC can make things impossible to make manually, I watched a Marwin machine a one piece turbine rotor about 2 feet diameter and around 10-12 blades from a solid blank, it took about 6 weeks. I would be amazed if anyone could make that on a manual mill.

Mike

I think Tornado used quit a few modern techniques to manufacture a classic design. I would imagine that if a coal fired steam loco were to be designed today it would not look much like the classic designs. Modern materials and manufacturing methods would probably allow a designer many more possibilites. I doubt that rivets would be used for anything and welded fabrication would prevail, would steam turbines be used instead of piston engines?

Mike

Surely the model engineers of the past would have welcomed laser cut frames and cnc in the workshop, the model engineers workshop will reflect the equipment and practice available to industry but on a small scale.

I went to a lecture at the Midland ME show where a certain Mr Stevenson outlined how CNC could maximise workshop time while you can sit indoors keeping the family happy with your presence while in reality you are on the laptop producing the cad or CNC program for the next precious opportunity in the workshop.

The depth of ones pocket will allow a lucky few to have a Hardinge and Aciera or Deckel and some will make wonderful things with a hacksaw and files.

Mike

I think it is an urban myth about Triumph using Kawasaki parts. John Bloor was wise to drop all the old Triumph models and just keep the best bit which was the name. Myford developed the 254 but the price was way out of reach of most hobby buyers and the asian manufacturers already had their foot well inside the door. Maybe an affordable British made machine is just a dream. Triumph identified markets around the world before they started work. A new British lathe would need to think globally, after all that is what the competition are doing.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 10/08/2014 22:49:08

RDG seem to have stalled after an initial enthusiasm the pictures have been on display for many months now with no change. John Bloor who brought Triumph back to life invested many millions in the design of an up to date range of motorcycles and leading edge manufacturing equipment and processes. The Myford post war lathes took a leap forward compared to the pre war offerings of Myford and other manufacturers of that type of lathe. If a market is out there for high quality small lathe it is probably time to go back to the drawing board and design a lathe for the 21st century. As a large number of the jobs tacled on a myford were too big for the lathe it would perhaps make sense to make a 41/2" or 5" lathe. As most hobbyists have a milling machine of some sort maybe the wide range of accessories offered for the myford could be dropped. But design in easy fitting of a DRO or CNC which are aspired to by many especially the next generation. A simple upgrade kit for a DRO endorsed by the manufacturer or a simple replacement of ballscrews for CNC and ready made locations for stepping motors or servos and encoders would perhaps be attractive to the modern lathe buyer. Boxford chased the market for educational CNC but all but abandoned the manual home user. Maybe there is a market for a machine to cover these niches.

Mike

The key to building a quality product is to use a highly skilled craftsman who is competant, cares what he is making and proud of it or to design the quality into the product and use manufacturing processes that a worker cannot get wrong. The Japanese developed many fool proofing systems to cope with an operator who was not at his best. Now we have vision systems checking parts are fitted before the next process is started also monitoring the application of sealer and adhesive by those robots that contrary to beleif do have off days and they really are stupid, more so than the biggest muppet you ever met. The holy grail is to make every part right first time, but in real life you must monitor the process to stop and correct when out of tolerance and be able to track back to the last good check. These systems do work but an outrageous set of circumstances will always occur to defeat you, so you create another check!

For those who still like to have a pop at the Marina, it was built in the same plant as the Rolls Royce body shell and the Marina was a far more accurately made body. I do not think its contempories were any better, Ford, Vauxhall and Rootes have all but disappeared from the Uk but the Mini is still made in the same plant the Marina was made in.

Mike

I have used a drill chuck on the valve stem in the past, it might speed things to leave the drill on it! Might be a bit quick though.

Mike

I think I would make a Buell if I had a complete Harley available!

Mike

With so many premium brands being manufactured in Asia they are having a perfect training course laid on in their own backyard, the japanese had to visit Europe and the USA to begin with but went away and developed manufacturing and quality control to a fine art. Often the design is still in Europe USA and Japan but looking at the amount of Asian students studying at the worlds top universitys I am sure they will soon have the design and inovation of world beating products sorted out. Neil, that thought of our turn coming round again has crossed my mind, with so many people on the minimum wage already, we are well on our way.

Mike

The Japanese had a pretty poor reputation in the fifties and sixties but they saw that quality was the key to success, with good design, attention to detail and manufacturing processes they very quickly built a formidable reputation for quality and reliability. Using the Japanese manufacturing processes the Chinese worker can match the best in the world, I suspect their home grown brands will quickly match the worlds best but as with Japan the product cost will rise with the quality and then it will be the turn of the next emerging economy to build the poor quality products until they too learn the quality methods.

Mike