Member postings for Peter Bell

Interesting thread with lots of speculation backwards and forwards in time. Certainly think there will be some sort of revolution towards electric propulsion in the future with a fuel source of goodness know what.

However I expect to have to make a decision soon. My 15 year old VW Passat tdi which I've owned for 11 years has now covered 210,000 miles, returning 58mpg over last 2800 miles and passed an mot recently.

Problem is elec ain't here yet at a reasonable price new and second hand is older technology and is it fixable?

Petrol isnt really very clean (and friends with 2L petrol average 35-45mpg) also I far prefer the feel of a diesel under my right foot---what do I replace the Passat with at this moment in time?

Peter

Steve,

Sounds like your doing most things right, presume you mean 24Ahr/day = 24hrs, and dont think there is an issue with sulphation from the voltages shown.

Presume the fridge cannot run on gas otherwise you would have already done this, and is solar an option to help out?

Peter

Steve,

Presume the 85ah batteries are connected in parallel, in which case you have about 200ah of useful capacity which should give about 5 days to get to the 2.03v/cell which you have got to assuming they were fully charged at the start.

Have you tried disconnecting the fridge and other loads with an ammeter in series with the + 12v o/p to check whats using the power? Its also possible for the alternator to develop a fault which can cause an unseen current drain.

The leisure batteries should give you a far longer life than car batteries especially if they are rated for semi traction/deep discharge use. Normally the manufacturers specify the number of cycles for the life but generally the thicker the plates and the heavier the batterys are the better until you end up with fork lift type batteries..

Peter

Have you performed any tests to see how much current is being drawn and what the terminal voltage goes down to after say 24 hr use etc?

Sounds like they are being worked too hard and being over discharged if they are only lasting for 2 years.

Our fridge certainly uses a lot of current but we have solar to help keep it topped up as well as the option to use it on gas.

Peter.

I see there lots of combined ash vacuum cleaners to choose from on fleabay similar to the machine mart offering.

Iv'e used an ashpot with an Earlex for ages and find it really helps with keeping the vacuum filter cleaner for longer also use it running when machining cast iron or milling alloy, great help..

Spot on Ketan, really well put, its so easy to forget the earlier struggles of others who have got us where we are!

Thanks also for your contribution to the "New Railway opens in East Africa" thread, I now understand more of the troubles of the area.

Peter

Interesting subject and also a difficult one really as no matter what what you do it produces pollution and we need transport. We live on a road and the 38t lorries are quieter (road noise and engine) than the average private car and also looking at figures produce less pollution as all seem to comply to Euro6 with Adblue .

This report makes interesting reading especially P7 & 10, perhaps someone can comment on it.

Peter

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/579200/Emissions_airpollutants_statisticalrelease_2016_final.pdf

An extract from it is below.

"Most of the emissions from residential, public, commercial combustion in these last 3 years – 79 per cent for both pollutants - are from the use of wood as a domestic fuel"

Amazing what you can find out by asking--thanks everyone!

We print Edmondson tickets style for various railways and are often asked where to find smaller clippers as the "traditiional" variety are often heavy and out of place in smaller hands especially on miniature railways.

Thanks for the offer Arthur which I'd like to take up, I'll send you a personal message with my address.

Peter

Thanks for the replies and inspiration.

Looked around a bit and they could be ear marking pliers as suggested or leather notching pliers for watch straps, both seem to come in lots of varieties of size and type of notch. Not sure why a notch is needed in a watch strap though.

Peter

I bought these "Ticket Clippers" at the Great Dorset Steam Fair a few years and they've been used ever since on the Amerton Railway for clipping tickets.

I would like another set and I've a vague feeling that the stand I bought them off had various medical instruments for sale but never seem them since.

Can anyone identify what they were originally used for or what they are called?

Thanks

Peter

The dial is for the John Wilding Regulator, its been running nicely now for a couple of year, it really deserves finishing off, only been on with it since 1988.

Seeing other nice examples of this and other clocks on this forum has truly inspired me.

Peter

There are lots of examples of dials on this forum with some very good advice as well so I am sure you will soon find how to do it in a way that suits you.

I use Vcarve pro on my KX3 (trail version is free) and I have drawn the attached dial but havent got round to cutting it yet. Looking forward to having time!

Thanks for the lead. Designed a PCB for an 8M2 Picaxe project, sent it off 2 weeks ago and received today first class job and £17.50 delivered for 10.

Sorry for the shaky pic, board size is 55 x 33mm

Peter

Thanks for the thought. Must confess I didnt contact Ketan direct but I did mail arceuro and they confirmed it was didcontinued with no stock so I thought that was it---unless they have something stashed away?

Hi Doug, That sounds the one! I got the sizes transposed! I'll pm

Peter

Brill, thanks Doug--fingers crossed!

Peter

Thanks everyone. I've looked around again and cannot see a 10mm shaft double ended motor. I rang Zapp and they have confirmed its a none standard motor especially with the shaft size but similar to a nema34.

I planned using a couple of pillar bearing and come out with a 10mm shaft to replace the motor and then just drive the shaft with a standard motor.

Before I do that I just wonderd if someone had bought a arceuro motor which was looking for a new home---you never know unless you ask!

Peter

I need a stepper motor to fit a specific machine and unfortunatly it's been dicontinued by arceurotrade.

Its a model 160-010-00450 from there data sheet and is 75mm square x 85mm (Nema 34?) deep with a 10mm double spindle, 3.5Nm 1.8% step.

I cannot find one the same size anywhere so supect it may have been a special and just wondered if anyone had one laying about they didnt need?

Thanks

Peter

When I was involved with brush painting vehicles, at the time it was common practice to gently abrade the final coat and add a coat of varnish to protect it and retain a shine. However the varnish often didnt adhere properly to the paint and flaked off over time helped by UV from sunshine. To prevent this flaking in later times varnish was added to the paint for the final coat.

However because modern paints are so good especially the oil resistant polyurathane varieties, this practice isnt really needed but as its a tradtional way of finishing some folk still like to use varnish because of personal choice and properly done it looks very nice!

Yes looks really interesting, never seen that before.

Am I right in thinking its using the Hipp Toggle to drop a gravity arm as used in Synchronome and other master clocks?

Thanks Peter