Member postings for Mike Poole

Hi Simon, I am happy to email the manual to you, if you use the message member with an email address that you would like me to send it to then that will keep your email out of the public area.

Mike

I mastered swapping from left to right foot gear change but I was also stuffed when I was loaned a 250 Desmo Ducati, the reverse pattern change meant that I nearly came to a standstill thinking about changing gear. I have an automatic car and a manual and now don’t even think about swapping from one to the other. Although the Ducati was an experience I was quite happy when it went back.

Mike

Peek seems to have good high temperature properties but seems to be mostly available in rod section.

Mike

That must be done for economy of manufacture I would think as performance must be compromised to make this work. Not quite sure how the Dolomite Sprint engine achieved its performance if limited by this arrangement.

Mike

Although using a VFD to retain the 3 phase motor on a native 3phase machine is attractive it will require attention to the machine control circuit. The quick and dirty solution of screwing the VFD to the wall and using the service/commissioning panel for control is basic and falls far short of a satisfactory installation in my opinion. A machine like a Myford has no original control system unless the industrial stand is used so the freely available control panels are useful. More industrial lathes often have controls integrated into the headstock and a carriage mounted stop start lever. It is nice to retain these devices if possible but will need redesigning and wiring into the VFD. An industrial lathe may just have a simple 400V starter but will often have more sophisticated controls with guard interlocks and reversing capability incorporated. Control circuits can be implemented entirely using the phase supply or a low voltage circuit, typically 110V ac with a transformer supply or 24V dc with a power supply. These will need redesigning to use with a VFD. The often fitted coolant pump will also need a solution. The Steinmetz circuit will often be a cheap and cheerful solution to a coolant pump, a VFD is a bit of overkill for a coolant pump I think. The LoVo light if fitted will also need attention.

Mike

The major facilities of MINI are body, paint and assembly, between these facilities are large stores to facilitate sequencing the bodies and buffer the facilities in the event of problems. The paint shop prefer to paint batches of the same colour although the equipment can paint smarties if required but paint is expensive and some is wasted with each colour change despite very clever colour changing equipment. Once painted the bodies are stored again to allow final assembly to sequence bodies for their requirements. Engines are built off site but an engine dress line builds the engine and complete front end running gear into an assembly that is stuffed up into the body above, robots with torque controlled nut runners bolt the complete assembly into the body. The running gear for the rear end is also stuffed up into the body in a similar process. I suppose a car is one of the most complex and largest things that are mass produced.

Mike

The MINI plant at Oxford still conduct plant tours for anyone who wants to book a place, safety glasses and sensible foot ware are required and a company coat to identify any strays and protect clothes from any weld expulsion which will burn a hole in clothing. The paint shop is a clean area so not accessible for plant tours, the paint shop manager would have been most upset to have Martha and the Vandellas dancing through his dust free paint shop shedding hair and dust particles. The scheduling of parts is a massive operation in the car industry, the seats for the MINI are scheduled right back to the supplier who makes them and sequenced into the truck that transports them to the final assembly conveyor system. The permutations available when building a car run into many thousands so when you are building a thousand cars a day one mistake is a tiny percentage but the controls and checks mean that this is a rare occurrence. The options available to a customer does mean that they could make an order that may not ever be repeated. Some default orders with popular options are built but every customer could order their ideal car and it is built for them. The build system in the seventies was often a gate line where the body sides were built on jigs that ran on conveyor systems. The two body side conveyors are synchronised to the floor conveyor with the under frame, The conveyor’s were synchronised electronically so a fault could result in a mismatch at the marriage point or if the jigs could build options then a mistake in scheduling or operator error could result in a hybrid. A fully mapped storage system with 400 car bodies in it when the map is lost takes quite a bit of work to recover from. Every car has a type of QR code stamped into it at the point the car is created so the order database of the build control system knows what the body should be, but not where it is necessarily.

Mike

How times change, I doubt that film could be made today, it breaks nearly every rule in the book these days. Great song. I think Heatwave is my favourite though, Linda Ronstadt does a great cover but with her voice she could sing anything well.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 20/01/2023 15:46:09

If getting wet continues to be a risk then maybe K&N do a non paper element filter for that application. I would be more worried about a hydraulic lock but sucking a soggy filter into the engine is not to be recommended, If it got stuck on an exhaust valve seat it could soon wreck the valve.
Mike.

When I make a chuck back plate I aim for a good fit on the register and an easy fit on the thread. I am more likely to plain turn a short parallel register than a thread that fits with any pretence of precision.As they say “your mileage may vary”

Mike

A wide variety of power monitor plugs are available on Amazon.

Mike

My family and I got caught in a hailstorm when visiting Gardaland at Lake Garda in August some years ago, we had to shelter in the lee of a building to avoid golf ball sized hail stones, unfortunately my car had no shelter and acquired some dents in the bonnet.

Mike

It seems we are introduced to spudger when we take on the task of repairing a phone, the tools are also useful for most electronic devices that snap together. Fighting your way into a laptop without a variety of spudger type tools usually results in damage to the joints.

Mike

I would be wary about using a copper washer on one of the register surfaces of the spindle nose, my concern would be whether the accuracy would be compromised as the chuck backplates and faceplate are turned in position and inserting a washer may change that reference. Copper being quite soft does tend to compress and spread although in this application I doubt it will be tight enough to squash the copper. It may be worth doing some checks with and without the washer to see if this is an issue. Copper washers and gaskets certainly spread when used on sump plugs and head gaskets.

Mike

My mother had a rhubarb clump and forced it under a galvanised bath, since she passed away and her bungalow is now sold there is no more rhubarb, I wonder if the new owners enjoy rhubarb but I doubt it.

Mike

The phenomenon of screws loosening is why checking the tightness of terminal screws is a maintenance task in industry, to check a terminal you first loosen the screw which checks the screw is not seized which can be caused by arcing with a loose screw. The screw is then retightened and the cable checked for security. Just trying to give the screw a little bit more can shear the screw or damage the cable. It is possible that the screw was correctly tightened when installed but cycles of heating and cooling and or vibration have loosened it.

Mike

It looks like it will be worth a visit, interesting that it claims to have been running since 1992 so is it a continuation of the Rex organised shows which were very good. I shall plan a visit to Yorkshire and take in the show, a 380 mile round trip is rather a long day trip so I will make a short break of it.

Mike

It is probably worth buying some top quality cutters from a reputable supplier and using them with the correct speed and feed. Manufacturer speed and feeds will apply to industrial machines with professional setup. The hobby workshop will usually not be able to match that performance so less ambitious cuts and feeds will likely be required. You can ruin a cutter if the feed is too slow allowing the cutter to rub rather than cut. Having established that a good quality cutter used correctly gives a satisfactory performance or if it doesn’t then examine your setup. Cutters do not have an infinite life so are your expectations realistic? Once you know what your machine can do with a good cutter then a useful comparison can be made with budget cutters. The direct import sources from China can be anywhere between total junk and very good but how do you know? There is no protection from consumer law in the UK for these sources so you are on your own if the goods are not fit for purpose. Buying from a UK supplier with a reputation to protect that is often hard earned and easily lost is worth paying a little extra for and consumer protection laws are in place. Uk suppliers back their imported products with their reputation so they choose carefully who supplies them and aim to provide a good service. A very cheap price and dissatisfaction often go together but sometimes you can be lucky.

Mike

Hopper, I imagined you eating up those Australian miles on a Captain America chopper not scratching on a featherbed framed Harley. Should be good fun when finished.

Mike

I think CY cable should be used for screening, SY is a mechanical protection braid.

Mike