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Member postings for Eric Lougheed

Here is a list of all the postings Eric Lougheed has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.

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Thread: lost password
19/10/2014 21:03:03

I subscribed two months ago for a digital MEW ~ I have yet to find my way into the pages!

What do I do now, please?

Eric Lougheed

Thread: Free Plastic
08/10/2014 12:29:08

Graham,

I've just seen this post. Rather than Paypal, would a grubby fiver and self-addressed label be acceptable, please?

Eric Lougheed

aka [email protected] if you don't want to spread your personal details too widely.

Thread: Silver solder or copper rod?
13/11/2011 19:31:40
MGJ
What sort of car did you have? 8lbs chassis weight? even 40lbs sounds a bit formula 1
Eric Lougheed
13/11/2011 07:06:02
Back in the 60's I used to attend a 'free-for-all' evening class that included gas and electric welding, investment casting and many other 'metal-working' activities. There was even a well-equipped blacksmith's forge.
We used a lot of 'bronze' welding rods for joining steel tubing and were told that it was the best process for fabricating or adapting car chassis. In later years I've learned that vehicle inspectors are not allowed to accept such joints and must require fusion welds.
When investment casting, with a home-made centrifugal machine, the instructor had a precious store of very brittle stuff he called 'Phosphor/copper': when working with silver or nickel=silver (welding rods) to make jewellery or other small components we would be allowed to chip a fragment off the phosphor-copper and add it to the melt immediately before releasing the centrifuge and making the cast. It was said to act as a de-gassing agent and had been made up for the instructor by a metallurgist friend in his laboratory.
Not sure that this adds a lot to the boiler issue, but if Vehicles Inspectorate don't allow it in cars because of brittle failure it might be inadvisable to use it in the vibrating stresses of a miniature railway engine.
Eric Lougheed
Thread: metel supermarket takeover
01/11/2011 22:57:13
Moderator,
how can we follow this thread when there is no initiating comment, query or statement?
Eric Lougheed
Thread: Drill Sharpening Jigs - Advice please.
26/10/2011 23:13:27
But I haven't found the gauge this sid eof the duck pond!
Eric Lougheed
Thread: Slot drills
19/07/2011 22:10:52
How about 'cost'?
Much of what we do in modelling seems to be 'work-around', and if it takes an hour to make and 2hrs to use a home=made cutter, when a commercial cutter would cost a lot more money and do it in half the time, so what? The job satisfaction lies surely in making something work to achieve something that works.
Eric Lougheed
Thread: What happened to the Myford sale thread?
19/07/2011 20:23:02
Just watched that video - I'm gob-smacked! Admittedly there were many time-jumps, but it's still amazing that it can be done at all.
However, that's not at all helpful to those subscribers who are struggling just to develop the most basic engineering skills - often later in life, since only after retirement may we have the resources to devote to any sort of workshop.
The exotic and highly refined engineering shewn in the magazines is impressive, but can be discouraging . Often the amateur newcomer wants much more basic advice, demonstration and instruction.
Eric Lougheed
Thread: Current Issue
16/07/2011 14:57:40
One hopes that an editor is truly independent from 'management' - at least, that is currently what Newscorp would like us to believe.
 
Surely a magazine produced for, and financed by, amateur mechanics can have a little more integrity than just 'doing what the accountants want'. And MEW suffered the same space-wasting intervention, did it not?
 
(Or, nastily, who in management has got a nice new electronic power system for free or below commercial cost?)
 
Eric Lougheed
Thread: What happened to the Myford sale thread?
16/07/2011 12:16:43
Is my name Rip van Winkle?
I've not looked at the ME site for a couple of weeks_ do I understand correctly that:
1 Myford has 'gone under'?
2 The web adverts for a sale this weekend are spurious?
Eric Lougheed
Thread: Chinese lathes
16/01/2011 08:17:04
Why not come to UK with a van for a short holiday and check out all the used machinery suppliers that seem to throng the South?
You might end up fully-equipped, but if not you'll have had an educative holiday.
Eric Lougheed 
04/01/2011 23:17:02
I've responded to John directly (couldn't get the thread message panel to respond), but the number is PL-918, NOT 916!
Speed control is by simple belt-changing.
There is no wiring diagram, only directions for running on 240v or 110v. (changing links on the drum switch )
I've bought spare nylon drive train gears from Chester's before, but no response yet to my technical enquiry. 
Eric Lougheed 
03/01/2011 23:45:38
Thanks to John Swift - it is an Excel PL-916.
The control box includes a low voltage transformer and an 11-pin relay. The transformer seems to give almost 40v, and an 18v battery makes the relay click most convincingly.
But following through the wiring (the lathe manual electrical information amounts to a joke in very bad taste) I find only about 4v flowing through the micro-switch fuse & circuit. 
AND, it looks as though I'll have to dismantle most of the drive system to inspect brushes! 
 
Has anyone met this problem before, please? 
 
Eric Lougheed 
01/01/2011 22:52:32
May I ask another question, please?
I've fabricated a 4" square x 3/8" hold-down plate for the top-slide. Not quite as per the drawings proffered earlier, but very similar.
However, when I switched on, no response!
Previously there had been intermittent difficulty in starting - motor starts, lathe runs, lathe stopped (for check measurement etc.) , lathe refuses to re-start. After some time, and turning the machine by hand, it would re-start - but not predictably.
I had wondered whether something was over-heating in the motor, or some safety element was being over-sensitive. But it had been getting progressively worse - and now 'dead'.
(When first in use I could stop and start very frequently with no trace of difficulty.) 
I've checked wiring, switches, etc. as best I can and found no obvious fault. 
But inside the wiring system is a 12-pin relay, powered by a low voltage transformer (which shews no open-circuit faults in the windings).
Could any kind soul suggest ways of testing the relay, please? I have only a pocket meter for resistance, continuity, voiltages, etc.
Eric Lougheed 
 
 
29/12/2010 15:53:45
Ray,
I would only remind you of comments made by an American several years ago, anent Chinese Lathes: his machine needed a complete strip, degrease, re-assemble and adjust; but then became a good machine.
He said that the original grease looked like refinery floor-scrapings!
That said, perhaps the heavy mark-up covers the cost  of preparing machines for re-sale (or placating those clients who actually complain!).
Eric Lougheed 
27/12/2010 21:19:41
This thread started on the subject of CHINESE LATHES ETC. and shortcomings therein.
Mine has a wobbly top-slide: take it off, clean everything carefully, re-assemble and start cutting again - within a few minutes there is discernible deflection at the tool tip!
 
I saw an advert in an American magazine (American Machinist ?) for a 4-bolt anchor plate for the top-slide (replacing the 'as issued' 2-bolt system. Allegedly this obviates tool-tip deflection, but at some cost! 
 
Has anyone experience of this? Or comment to offer, please?
Eric Lougheed 
Strathclyde 
Thread: travel to ME exhibition
27/10/2010 08:36:01
An enterprising outfit is offering coach access to Sandown Park from the West Country. But in spite of the preponderence of modelling activity in the South East of England, no-one seems to be considering the large numbers of us outwith the favoured areas.
Has anyone considered - or is anyone considering - organising coach travel from anywhere North of Watford?
I''m in Inverclyde and most exhibitions are too remote for access since I do not enjoy a luxury pension that could include hotels etc. 
Thread: Drill Sharpening Jigs - Advice please.
27/09/2010 10:57:16
Clive's narrative is most helpful - especially the conclusion at '4': I shall now try 'leaning back a little' on my el cheapo jig. Incidentally I've used that to sharpen 20mm drills - setting the rotation of the drill by eye.
Eric L 
Thread: A strange fluid
19/09/2010 15:46:26
Who'd be an editor!
Apply the Sherlock Holmes principle and settle for one word in EDM and the other for hot air ballooning.
Eric Lougheed 
Thread: Stuart Vertical Engines - The real history ?
15/09/2010 16:27:57
Would someone please advise this novice on how to set-up the Stuart 10H soleplate for machining its base?
The current articles in ME are very lagardly in getting to 'horizontal' issues, and the Stuart book 'constructing.....' makes only scarce mention of the horizontal model.
Eric Lougheed
Greenock 
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