Member postings for Nigel Bennett

I was much saddened to hear of Ted's passing. I met him a couple of times; on the first occasion he - well, more accurately son John - was trying to photograph a very nice 3" Allchin at a track in Lancashire. I rather got in the way of things - unintentionally - and it having eventually penetrated my thick skull what was going on, I stood back and had a very pleasant conversation with Ted as John got busy. I took a photo of the scene. John's photo eventually graced the front cover of ME - as many of his photos did.

I wrote to Ted shortly after, and enclosed a copy of my photo, showing John crouching down at a very uncomfortable angle to get his photo of the Allchin. Ted duly published my "Photo of a photographer" in one of his Smoke Rings to illustrate how cover photos were obtained.

Ted also worked like a Trojan to boost the ME Exhibitions (sigh.. remember them...?) and drove up and down the country to collect and subsequently return models and exhibits from model engineering clubs. Usually in appalling weather... We got to see a lot of exhibits that would otherwise have stayed in the far reaches of the country.

Ted was very helpful when I ran my Clayton steam wagon at one of the exhibitions - another of his excellent ideas was the "Clayton Driver of the Year" competition.

Great idea to write your own obituary, though; at least there's nobody to blame if it's incorrect!

RIP.

Machine Mart do a set of miniature Allen keys Product Code 040215196 which are small metric and Imperial.

Going back to the original theme, the one that annoyed me most was the "Sky at Night". When Patrick Moore was in charge, he wouldn't tolerate any music at all apart from the opening and closing credits. Excellent. Especially when somebody without English as a first language came on to explain or describe something.

But now some dipstick with a third-class degree in applied toilet paper or something has decreed that they have to have music to drown out the boring technical stuff being talked about. Why do we have to pay for some blithering idiot's sixteenth-rate irrelevant squawking in the background when somebody's talking about black holes or dark energy? How does that help understanding or improve clarity of diction?

Grr! Grrr! GRRRRR! etc...

I can't help with suppliers, Bill, but I've certainly used them when I was working. For the uninitiated, they are a set of two serrated washers that are fitted underneath bolt heads or nuts and they resist loosening to an amazing extent. Far superior to any kind of locknuts, Nylocs, torqued-up nuts, spring washers... They use them on those pavement whackers and if they stand that sort of vibration, they'll take anything. We had a rep come in to demonstrate them and he had a little vibration rig; it was amazing to see locknuts unscrewing by themselves under vibration. Nord-lock washers, of course, just sat there and laughed at the vibration. Usual disclaimer.

You have to assemble then correctly, too, with the larger serrations facing each other. Anyway, good luck in finding a source of supply, Bill; I can't recall where we got them from but probably just a local fastener supplier.

Edited By Nigel Bennett on 12/11/2021 17:03:17

Looks like ivy to me.

Vice it is. If you speak English. No censor needed. But if you speak American, then it's vise. Why that should be just makes me - um - "tyred..."

Bolt Hole A is for a screwcutting dial indicator. Hole B is for a travelling steady. and holes C are for the screwcutting gearbox. Google the above for photos of them. If you're going to be doing any screwcutting you'll need the indicator.

Yes, there is generally a little play in the toggle link. It shouldn't be of concern.

Hope that helps!

I'm sure there must be a much simpler expression for the 9 o'clock position, but I can't imagine what...

It's not the best material, because 1/16" copper isn't the strongest of metals, especially when annealed. But it takes paint slightly better than brass, and it won't rust!

It will dent or distort very easily, though; if you're forever loading it and unloading it into a small car to run it at a local track every week, then it may well get rather doleful and sad quite quickly - especially if somebody else helpfully grabs the chimney to move it and you get a Leaning Tower of Pisa effect...

But there's no real reason that you shouldn't use it. Good luck with it!

And if you put a pair of Stillsons on to the barrel so you can get a bit more grip, you can accurately measure at what size Brazil nuts crack. Obviously you have to use a metric one for metric nuts.

I had one and tried to braze a boiler with it. I found that the flame (despite the thing being fully warmed up) still contained unburned paraffin and tended to cover the job with a film of oil - hardly conducive to good joints.

If you opened the throttle with it before it was vaporising properly, you would get a jet of burning paraffin shooting several yards, which was - erm - interesting. I did manage to braze up a bike frame with it, but when the vaporiser burst, thankfully with no fatal consequences, I bought a Sievert torch and since then I have used no other, as they say.

Horrendous things, 5 pint blowlamps - and as Martin says, it was bloody heavy. Glad it's gone!

Good luck with your wagons... but why is it that so many people think there's a place called "Barnstable"? It's Barnstaple! If ever I do a Google search for something associated with the L&B I generally do two searches with one mis-spelled...

Close examination of one of Peco's 009 wagons may well explain the odd mystery you may still have.

The current UK regs don't insist on it. Can you actually get to it when the loco is fully assembled and running to change it? I haven't come across one yet and I wouldn't fit one myself unless I had to.

One thing that did please me in his very interesting YouTube video - his use of Sheffield-made Eclipse Vee blocks when drilling a hole at one point.

Amazing vice, though - and a lot of precision needed to make it in 1913. What would it cost to make it today?

My first question is what speed are you parting off at? Are you using any kind of coolant or cutting oil?

Parting off is generally undertaken at lower speeds than normal turning, and the important thing is to keep the tool cutting and not rubbing. Some kind of cutting oil should help too.

I found that Hammerite's Smoothrite was a reasonable enough match; the cream is quite close. The yellow isn't 100% but quite near enough. It's all a question of whether you just want to look at it, or actually use it to make things with... The amount of oil-staining on the chip tray on mine after a couple of years makes colour matching irrelevant. (Unless turning cast iron, I use a lot of lubricating oil on my lathes.)

They look like Fairey Fireflies to me - Royal Navy, not RAF. Google images of the FF any there are a lot of variants with different engines - so I suppose comparison with Spitfire Mk 1 and Mk 24.

You IDIOT! You've glued that nail on in the wrong place!! You'll be in bother now with your grandson!

Of course I'm joking... great to see interest in our hobby from the younger element, so keep up the good work and keep on encouraging him - and more to the point, chivvy up any female siblings of his...

I believe that most of the hydrogen made today is by splitting up fossil fuels, the residue of which process is - erm - carbon dioxide.

So assuming that we change this to electrolysing sea-water via renewables, we're still going to burn the stuff one way or another, which is going to heat up the planet as well... We're all doomed.

Serves us bloody right as a human race for producing so many children.

Why not shrink on some steel tyres? Getting blanks flame or laser cut isn’t expensive, and easier than making and fitting new wheels.