Member postings for Nigel Bennett

"An Adjustable index dial for the ML7" LC Mason ME3632 2 May 1980 p554/555.

“Bro. Tail Lamp” was just LBSC whimsy for the extra e on the end, like a tail lamp on the end of a train... He could be pretty cruel sometimes, especially making snide remarks about Henry Greenly or KN Harris, but he was very generous to those who agreed with everything he said! Despite his faults he did more than anyone to promote small locomotive building. We all need oddballs like him to make life interesting... who else do you know who would extract their own teeth because his dentist had retired?

Yes, well done, Tony and thanks for sharing.

I was intrigued by your spelling of Tubal Caine (with an extra "e" ). Tom Walshaw apparently had a letter published in ME in his early days, perhaps even pre-war; it was signed "Tubal Caine", it being then a very common practice to use a pen name. Whether or not it was an Editorial typo I don't know, but LBSC picked up on it in one of his weekly outbursts, bestowing on him the soubriquet "Bro. Tail-Lamp" for the extra "e"... All Tom's later articles and books are by "Tubal Cain".

Edited By Nigel Bennett on 15/01/2021 20:20:40

"Yes, I'm happy with that."

It's a phrase that seems to crop up half-a-dozen times in any given episode of the Repair Shop TV programme.

Has anybody else noticed a sudden increase in the self-satisfied employment of the self-same phrase, which you mutter to yourself as you examine your latest achievement in the workshop - when, amazingly, it looks vaguely like the drawing?

Guilty as charged... but in my case, sadly, not much decrease in my workshop in the use of less friendly language when Things Go Wrong...

H'mmm... We never get to see those parts of the TV show, do we? When will we get to see one of the Experts, uttering fearful imprecations, hurling a mangled piece of work into the bin or jumping up and down on it in a temper? (Or has Spitting Image already done it?)

B Kemp Grinders of Liversedge West Yorkshire (01924 408832 [email protected] ) did my Boxford tailstock last year for me - 3MT. They struck me as extremely competent and it wasn't a bad price - about a hundred quid. Cheaper than a new barrel! They had test gauges to confirm the sizing. You aren't likely to get anything for less than that - it's setting up that takes most of the time, along with the specialist grinding equipment and the knowledge of how to use it.

Usual disclaimer.

Terence Holland wrote in ME about scraping off soft-solder from sweated stay holes in his loco firebox and re-soldering new stays with silver-solder a little while ago in his Barclay articles. It worked for him, too...

So just file it all off and go for it is my advice.

Go on then...

Two Eskimos in a canoe. They lit a fire in it to cook their lunch.

The canoe caught fire and sank.

Because you can't have your kayak and heat it.

(I'm sorry I'll Read That Again)

Yes you can; it's a very common method. 2.5/8" x 14SWG might be obtainable...

I've never had any bother with fully-threaded bronze bushes (DON'T USE BRASS!!) but Tipp-Ex on the threads would be an idea if you're worried. Mind you, I only use propane, not having oxy-anything, so that may be an issue.

It hardly helps "Us Lot" with threading, but I was amazed to find that at work they used to thread mill M2 holes; if the cutter broke, the job could generally be rescued; blow out the bits of broken cutter with a blow gun, and tap it out manually later. But those M2 cutters were unbelievably tiny!

We have a system where if we're just about to fall asleep at night, one of us will say, "Oh, yes, remind me to mow the kittens in the morning" or whatever, and one of us will reach out and chuck a coaster from the bedside cabinet on to the floor.

Then in the morning, we can both spend a happy hour or two wondering what the blazes it was that the coaster was supposed to remind us to do...

"An engineer is someone who can make for five bob what any bloody fool can make for a quid."

Not a bad definition, really. It appears in Neville Shute's Trustee from the Toolroom. With regard to University education, we had a chap who spent a short period of time with us in the Engineering Office. He had a Masters Degree in Engineering from, I think, Huddersfield University. He didn't have a clue. He claimed to be competent in SolidWorks, but he was absolutely useless. He didn't even know what a countersunk screw was. We were glad to throw him out after a week of his supposedly fortnight's work experience.

So University education sometimes means very little.

Possibly the best qualification you can get is CDTE. Competent Due To Experience.

I had a near similar experience once when I casually picked up a 4-way adaptor and the outer plastic shell crumbled in my hand. How I didn't short two contacts I know not - but I checked all the others in the house immediately after. I literally crushed the adaptor into hundreds of pieces with my hands as I threw it away. It hadn't been out in the sun or anything - it was tucked away behind the PC.

Some Chinese rubbish we'd got from a cheapie shop somewhere.

If you are thinking of doing the crush test on one, do unplug it first...

I seem to recall that Tony Walshaw (Son of Tom, Tubal Cain) also built one about his size.

What are we going to use to generate the massive increase in electricity required and what will they use to distribute it all around the country? Does the National Grid really have the capacity? Where is all the expensive minerals going to come from for the batteries and high tech motors in the vehicles? What is the carbon footprint going to be making it all?

Colin Abrey described one in ME 4253 (2005) v195 p162 if that's any help.

For a rack and pinion to give 9mm travel per one revolution of the gear means that the PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter) of the gear is 9/pi = 2.86mm. That is a very small gear! Because you need 9mm of rack movement per revolution, it also means that the gear is not standard, so you would have to make the gear yourself, or pay a lot of money for somebody to make it for you.

You are looking at something like 0,2 Module (or 120DP Imperial) gears, with a non-standard PCD.

Good luck!

We used to call it Traffolite at work. Traffolyte comes up on Google.

Thanks, Russell; that was extremely helpful. I wasn't expecting to find anything on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9nI7oYQ2x8 is the one about Invicta.

Yes, I realise that building a model of an unsuccessful prototype is not the best way of guaranteeing success in miniature. However I hope that I can size the cylinders to the boiler size and get something that will pull me. At least I will have more boiler pressure to work with than the original at 40psi. Will I succeed? That’s the fun of model engineering!

Brian, yours looks like a workmanlike job, but really, Canterbury Lamb by LBSC is essentially a Tich with slip eccentric valve gear, and the whole mangled about to look like Invicta from a distance. For obvious reasons; to make it work!

Edited By Nigel Bennett on 20/10/2020 08:26:52