Member postings for Tony Martyr

Faced with a failing motor on my 1962 Myford lathe I replaced it with a Newton Teslar CL400 variable speed drive and motor. A very easy direct replacement that has transformed my work on the lathe by being able to dial in any chuck speed for tapping, turning and polishing.

My next project is an 'engineer's' set of Chess pieces using various bit of workshop materials. The 'white peices are resonably easy as they are being made mostly of brass (not white!) but Blcak is proving a bit problematic.

Is Carr's blacking liquid a surface treatment, rather than a covering, and does it produce a similar shade to the similar solutions for steel. I once blacked an engine flywheel using a hot mixture of very agresive alkali that I don't think I would be able to buy nowadays.

Tony

I heard all this news on the late BBC news while in bed and was taken by the fact that the radio messages took over 18 hours to traverse the distance between the craft and Earth. Being an insomniac I tried to do a check of that time using 20 billion miles as the distance. I finally failed before falling asleep. In the morning I realise that the calculation was easy enough in ones head if you used scientific notation as it is 2x10^13 over 3x10^8 which is 2/3 x 10^5. Then to get to hours divide 3.6^10^3 which gives 66/3.6 = 18.3....then I could fall asleep without seeing too many zeros.

Other cures for insomnia are available

The winning entry at our town Show in the category of 'Metal or Wooden' objects was a metal plasma cut Dragon that is commercially available on line. It beat some well crafted Black-smithy entries and a remarkable wire sculpture but, since there was no wording in the entry form to disqualify such entries there was no legal grounds for its exclusion. Most of the general public would not have known of its origin. I am proposing to send the following message to the organisers - if any reader has dealt with tis problem I would welcome suggestions of better wording.
"In order to preserve the true meaning of Handicrafts in all sections of the ....Show and in view of the present and increasing availability of items created by CAD/CAM technologies and 3D printing, I suggest the rules of entry should in future contain a clause along the following lines: - All entries must be substantially created by their own hands without the aid of techneques requiring Computer Aided Cesign or Manufacture and/or 3D Printing"

Tony M

Thanks to you all for some very useful insights. I now agree that the exudate (I only knew this as a medical term for pus!) is almost certainly wood resin probably mixed with a small amount of uncured expoxy paste which gives it the black colouration. In which case it is a long term problem, rather like the tar coming out of some railway sleepers I used as a raised bed edge on hot days.

I am a bit reluctant the get the bench back from the wood into my workshop as it is a long carry but I will try the acetone cleaning and physical removal in the hope that eventually the leakage will cease.

The wood was planted on a bit of rough land we own using a grant from the Woodland trust that commemorated all who were involved in the 1st world war and the bench has a plaque that mentions the death of a great uncle of my friend who sent me the pieces - unfortunately he sent two right-hand end castings as can been seen in the photo - however it does not detract from the peace to be gained from sitting and looking at the 650 young harwood trees I planted in 2018. Being stuck to the seat with resin is however not conducive to calm thoughts.

To mark a recent significant birthday (ain't they all?) I received from a frend in Canada beams to incorporate into a cast iron framed bench installed in a wood that I planted some years ago. The maple beams have been milled out in places and sections of small trees have been inserted within a black matrix, which I think is formed by a two part epoxy. The problem is that under bright sunlight the matrix melts, bubbles and becomes soft and very sticky. I don't want to go back to the donor so I need to work out a way of dealing with the problem which is quite local to one part of one beam. Any ideas welcome

Yesterday I caught the end of this program where an 'expert' was examining an old model twin cylinder reversable marine steam engine which he told the owner was a driver's airpump. The dual excentrics and reversing quodrant gear was clearly visable and I could not see how this could be applied to an airpump even if there was such a thing as a steam driven diver's airpump. It was stated that the program had never befor delt with such an article - clearly!

Tony

It works!

This all make sense now as the original owner (my father in law) was involved in the galzanising industry and was sent to the USA after the war to learn of the latest American techneques and this gauge was an item he took with him.

In clearing out my workshop I have found a number of tools and jigs both inherited or made that have been used once i the last 50 years but that I am unale to throw out.

Tony

Thanks John

Does the link say how to operate the device because I can't figure it out in prctice?

Tony

This device was found amongst my later father in laws tools. He was a senior manager in a Birmingham based hot galvanising company and I am wondering if this device measured plating thickness. Yhere is a spring loaded plunger in the lefthand end whose interal end seems to indicate on the scale shown (its very difficult to get out) Amy ideas?

Thanks for the suggestions and much common sense expressed - there is no established market for such rare items but I have decided that £4000 is the value to put into the deed of gift to the University.

I have a (small) issue with the implication that there is some sort of value/content equivalence between the Bolton TEx engine and any size of beam engine - having built and run both I will say that the triple is an order of magnitude more difficult to build and commission than a single cylider beam engine.

I have given up trying to load a photo from my TE album but several photos are available including one called 'engine as run'. I would guess that there are a couple of hundred hours involved in the construction some even at a modest £49 per hour plus materials that would make up an unlikely selling price of circa £9000

I built a Bolton design triple expansion engine together with a (too small) boiler and water feed system. I now intend to gift the engine to the engine test facility of a specific University and need to know the monetary value for insurance purposes. I was surprised to calculate that the materials including castings would now cost close to £1000 but what it would cost to replace as a finished bought item I have no idea.

Your suggestions would help conclete the paperwork!

Tony

Thanks Guys - quite obvious when it's explained isn't it!?

What fooled me is that its been put next to a chaff cutter of similar age and nowhere near water (my excuse)

This hand cranked device is ridgidly installed near a farmhouse near to my house in the Welsh Marches and nobody seems to know what it was used for. Its location may be a false lead as the previous owner was a magpie who collected all sorts of stuff. I will not add my thoughts which maybe totally wrong and mislead. It looks like a pump of some sort but perhaps you have seen one before?

having finished my list of engine and locomotive projects over the years and not having the will to embark on clock making, I thought I would like to make a modern version of a complex lock and key I once saw built into a chest. I'm not entirely sure where to start for design ideas other than those I alreaady have - there doesn't seem to be a lot of literature on the subject.

Can anyone supply me with leads?

Tony

I'm picking up a Stirling Engine project I abandoned 10 years ago when the ptfe displacement diffusor distorted with the heat of the hot bulb. I want to use a 24mm pyrex test tube cut to the correct (not sure what 'correct is in this case) length.

I am anticipating lots of broken glass unless I know how to made a clean cut/break so how is this done?

Tony

I looked at the horizontal steam engine on ebay at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324500791669?hash=item4b8dc12175:g:PT0AAOSwdg1gOnBF

I can't quite work out the auxillary steam/water system - there must be a lot of the original system missing ?

Tony

Thanks Guys - I was trying to find a reason for not dismantling the fountain and getting the pump unit out.

It is installed in a sump below a large stainless steel sump fabrication that supports my collection of geological specimens (which weigh a lot) that the water of the fountain sprays over.

I will strip the whole thing down but after 10 years it may be due for replacement

Happy Easter to all

Tony

I have a submerged fountain pump/motor unit that I clean and remove each winter and reinstall in the spring. The unit is now 10 years old and this year when switched on has developed a repeating pattern of switching off after about 1.5 mins then switching on for the same period, this is repeated until I switch off.

The supply trips are uneffected, I have renewed the 3 pin supply plug and fuse and the unit is submerged in clean water for the whole time. It is probably due for replacement but I am puzzled about what is causing the unit to shut down and start again in a repeating pattern - any ideas?

Tony