Member postings for Nigel Bennett

Stephen Wessel's ENV aero engine. ME 4577, 4579, 4581 refer (2018)

Yes, I agree that there are a lot of people who are selfish enough to ride unlawfully on pavements. And yes, how surprising it is that some people actually break the law. But the statistics show that cyclists are 14 times more likely to be killed on the road than car occupants, so it's perhaps understandable.

It's not like any motorist - ever - exceeded the speed limit and got away with it, is it?

We were all complaining a while back about the ice and snow then prevalent in the UK - and some kind soul posted a photo he'd just taken outside in Oz - reading 49°C... we've a way to go yet.

Just been for a few minutes' coolth in my workshop - 22°C in there still - aaah! 51°C in the greenhouse next door...

Sorry to have kept you in suspenders, Duncan! I've remained silent on my experimentation with Cudyll Bach (Tom Rolt) because after struggling for quite some time I came to the disappointing conclusion that the arrangement I have just doesn't work in small sizes - or it's just too finnicky and sensitive to varying steam demands to control. In the end I abandoned any attempt to run it with GPCS and just ran it conventionally. One of the big reasons for giving up on trials with it is that we no longer have our track at Eggborough so there's no real possibility of popping up to the track when I feel like it for further experimentation. Running on the turbo trainer doesn't really help a lot.

I'm also very much involved with a later build - Ashey, an Isle of Wight 0-4-4T in 5"G which is now nearing completion, and then it's going to be a 5"G Invicta, which will owe absolutely nothing to LBSC! Going back to Ashey, it's taken me about three hours just now to fasten two nuts inside the smokebox to secure the handrail knobs... you get days like that. Ashey has a Rosebud grate and it seems to make steam OK on the turbo trainer. Hopefully I've now sorted out the interference fit of the piston and cylinder at steam temperatures so next time I try it, it might actually move...

My usual procedure is to send two files - one a pdf of the full drawing and a dxf file of the other with a bare outline of the part, including one dimension to check scale. I also append a note with thickness and material on the dxf. I used to add a clue to the size of the drawing - so the filename is eg. XYZ-123 - A4 - Iss 1. This helped back in the day when we updated the drawing so that we got the revisions done and didn't get sent an obsolete part.

This is how I used to deal with it professionally and it worked well.

Many years ago, I used to buy new Campagnolo cups as spares from an outfit called JD Whisker in London. Gone, now, sadly but depending on what hub it is, you may be able to source some NOS ones.

Getting the old ones out of a hub wasn't easy and for Shimano ones later it was virtually impossible - by design, presumably.

Surface finish and the heat-treatment of it is very important as others have said, so it won't be easy to make them. I did find in impecunious times I could just about turn the cones with a round-nosed carbide tool to remove pitting but it was never the best solution.

In SolidWorks, I would simply add a concentric mate of the curved surface on the Part 2 grey tube to the curved surface of part 1. I would then align a plane on both parts to ensure it was vertical and then create a distance mate between a plane on Part 2 and some feature - perhaps the face with a dot on it - to another plane on Part 2.

There was a chap for whom English was not his first language. He asked for clarification of the phrase, “Mary was great with child.” Explanation followed. A little later he asked, not unreasonably, for the meaning behind the phrase “Mr Smith is great with children.”

Worsted. As in trimmings. And to be worsted in battle.

Photo? Good heavens! A photo on a driving licence? What will they think of next? Mine's a piece of paper with green and black printing on it, dating back to 1981... I wonder how many of those are still in use?

Fewer grammar Nazis.... LOL

M6 is the same size and pitch as 0BA; just the thread angles are different.

Oh give it a rest... steady on!

If you want it for setting up work in a 4-jaw, don't get a digital one - buy an analogue one. If you're using it for actual measurement, then a digital one is a good choice.

Well, Jordan, the first thing you need to work out is how big are the bits you want to make? That will determine the size of lathe you need. What kind of bits? Will you need milling facilities as well? That can be obtained by the use of a vertical slide attachment or a rear-mounted milling head. Neither solution is ideal but it can save a lot of space and pennies.

If you're looking at Myfords, they are good machines and tend to hold their prices well - so expect to pay a bit for one in decent nick. There are a lot of clapped-out wrecks available which you should steer clear of unless your interest is in restoring clapped-out old lathes. For which purpose you'll need another lathe...

Myfords have had more written about them and more modifications/attachments/extra bells and whistles made to and for them, so that within their size they can be made to do pretty well anything. Spare parts are available despite them being a fairly old machine.

Boxfords are generally a good buy as they tend to be cheaper and are very capable machines.

If you buy new Chinese equipment you'll have some kind of come-back from the supplier if it's faulty, but they have their limitations and the electrics are often a bit fragile and expensive when you let the magic smoke out of them. Chinese stuff is often very obviously made to a price and so the finish tends to be a bit poor where it doesn't really matter, but generally the important bits like the bed are pretty good and often hardened. Plastic gear wheels can be a bit prone to failure, too.

There are several books available eg Sparey's The Amateur's Lathe which should help.

I disagree; you cannot make a bald statement that you "should not chain dimensions". If you have an important centre-to-centre dimension that must be held to within a tolerance, then using a common datum would double the permissible variation between your important centres.

What is wanted is a copy of the good old BS308, (now sadly obsolete). That tells you all about dimensioning!

I'd create a cross-section and dimension the diameters on that. If they're external turned dimensions, then a side view would be used to put them on. The 7,00 dim you have would be best in the right view as you have it.

Are there any documents with it such as boiler certificates? Having such provenance will make things a lot easier if you want to run it in public. If you run it in public you will need insurance; the only really practical way of getting that is to be a member of a recognised Model Engineering Society. The advantage of that is that you will also be able to tap into expertise and assistance in getting it running.

However, if you're only going to run it in your back garden by yourself, then it's a bit simpler. For your own peace of mind before lighting the fire in it I would advise you to do a hydraulic test on the boiler. This can be done by means of the tender hand pump, assuming there is one. Do not rely on the pressure gauge on the boiler - how do you know it isn't wrecked because it froze up in storage? You should check it against a gauge of known accuracy before you trust it. Cue membership of an ME Society - they have such things.

The reason we test boilers hydraulically is because if it does go bang, you might get a little wet. If you use air or steam and it goes bang, you may need some wings and a harp.

Having satisfied yourself that the boiler will hold pressure, the simplest way of seeing if it's likely to run is to couple it up to an air compressor and see if the wheels go round. No air compressor? What about a type pump - but you'll need some means of connecting either device to the engine. Cue need for a lathe or membership of an ME Society.

Getting it in steam will require an electric "blower" (i.e. sucker!) which draws the air through the fire until the loco's own steam blower can operate. Start the fire with paraffin-soaked charcoal, adding this until you start to see steam and then switch to coal. Charcoal is good enough to try it out if you don't have any coal, but the loco is designed to burn coal, so you won't realise its full potential on charcoal. ME Societies usually have coal available.

Running it jacked up (stationary) with the wheels lifted off terra firma is OK for a moment or two, but it's far from ideal as the motion is not in its normal position and there may be unexpected bangings and such.

You mention "sourcing parts"; well there you may have a problem, because unless you want something like an injector or a simple boiler fitting, you're likely to be out of luck. Macc Models do a range of fittings, as do Blackgates, Reeves 2000 and others who advertise in the ME press. You certainly won't find a ready-to-fit left hand bogie wheel or a cab footstep in a shop, like you might obtain Hornby spares!

Then where are you going to run it? have you got a track in your garden? Cue membership of an ME Society with one.

So no - Don't don't - if you're serious about running it, go and find a local club, join it and seek advice there.

The sign on our bog door is a small version of a Lynton & Barnstaple locomotive nameplate.

LEW .... what else ?

Edited By Nigel Bennett on 04/03/2022 20:11:15

+1 for Steve Cox.