Member postings for john fletcher 1

Can you take a picture of the machine and its terminal box and are you certain that it is a generator and not a motor, circuit wise they are the same. Those thin wires are the shunt field pair, one of the thin pair would have been be connected to one of the main terminals and the other to some form of voltage regulator then to the other main terminal, a parallel group. I have seen at a traction engine rally where the operator used a rheostat to control the voltage to the the bulbs around the engine. John.

But surely is all about cutting wood. When I was an apprentice back it the 1950's joiner's spent a lot of time sharpening their saws and plane blades, tools were very expensive compared to men's hourly pay. Now time is expensive and tool cheep. Does anyone sharpen or know how to sharpen a saw any more ?Throw it away and get one from Screwfix or ToolStation or some place similar for a fiver. John

Having read quite a lot engineering books and having a shelf full, mostly second hand from charity shops, I would still recommend Neil's Wyatt's (editor) book, the excellent picture are self explanatory. The book maybe about modern lathes but the principles are just the same, old or new. John

Not sure if this idea is applicable. I was given a really good cordless drill with two good battery packs and a badly damaged chuck. The original owner had made thing worse, as he had mangle up the screw head, so out came the angle grinder. I did a bit of grinding every day for 10 minutes or so for a week, slowly slowly as things get hot. Got there in the end, and bought a new chuck. You might like to try my idea. John

Could short bits of fibre optic cable be useful for cleaning brass and copper electronic bits and pieces prior to soldering. I have seen any fibre optic cable, is it very thin ? i have some fibre glass cleaning sticks bought from Proops at shows years ago and they are still in regular us. John

I took my damaged/worn out one to the local bearing, pulley, you mention it dealer, and they supplied me with one for about £7. Maybe much more now, but worth a try. John.

I've used a 4 micro farad at 400 volts ex 4 foot fluorescent light fitting for my Harrison/Colchester friends, that was 5/10 years ago and they are still working OK. For those who don't know, connect capacitors in parallel to increase capacitance value and in series to decrease. So, two 4 in series equals two micro farad and same pair in parallel equals eight. All capacitors should be tested at their working voltage 400, not the 9 volts of most digital multimeter John

In the pasted 25 years I've made two,Most of the copied the Myford outline details, internally the same as John Baguley. Most of the material was from the tip when recycling was recycling. I was up there recently with garden rubbish and could believe what folk were throwing out, most of it was easily fixable, I'm sure thing will change very soon. John

Many thanks chaps for all the guidance. Don't go away, as I think my friend rotary table has a ratio of 60 and the data Sketch) is for 90 so I could be back. John

Several years ago as I'm sure other readers did, I followed the article on page 64 of issue 249 of MEW and made myself a controller. Recently a friend has asked me to buy the component parts for him as he hasn't a computer and he would also like to make a controller. I can find NEMA 23 steppers motors OK, but when I scroll down and read its specifications I see they have an input voltage of between 24/48. Following the article on page 66 I bought a 12 volt 5 amp power supply and it all works very well and has done for 5 years. I'm confused will 24/48 volt stepper be OK. Will a reader explain to me. John

Strangely enough, I am reading in MEW number 50 May/July 1998 page 27 about a back stop which I intend to make. Look out for a PM from me this evening. John

As Peter above says ALWAYS change the power leads. I've seen so many faults when folk change over at the motor terminal box then can't sort then out, most time it will work , but always will at the supply. I used a 4micro farad at 400 volt capacitor between two of the motor leads. John

Putting a multimeter across the terminals might show 48 volts or close to 48 on no load, doesn't show you much except the meter is working. All batteries eventually build up high internal resistance such that it is unable to deliver the required current, car and torch type are much the same. What you need to do, is the same test on load and for that I suggest you use 4 X 12 volt X 36 watt car head light bulbs connected in series, any type of fitting will do, so long as they are in working order, I got mine from car boot sales. I use RS contact cleaner, certainly systematically go around all possible connections/terminals. Is it possible for testing purposes only, to connect 4 X 12 volt ex alarm batteries in series, by doing so, eliminating the battery failure ?

Our neighbour had to buy a replacement battery for his bike, £600+, the DEALER told him the old one was worn out ???. Incidentally, the very same battery was very much cheaper in Germany but had to be collected. Please keep us posted, as others might have the same problem in the future. John

Have a look on US Grizzly site, Grizzly has some excellent picture on many Rexon type machines, maybe its known under a different name in US. I had a bench type mill given and couldn't find any instruction here in UK, but found it easily on Grizzly. John

I suggest you enrol and join Vintage Radio FOC, where there are some real experts on such matters. better to be safe than sorry John

Well on my Hoover circuit diagram it says you should have a terminal box with terminals marked AZ, C, and B. The run winding which will be the lowest resistance of the two windings (4/7 ohms area) should be connected to AZ & B and the wires should be WHITE and BLACK.. The start winding much thinner wire and much higher resistance should coloured GREEN & RED and they should be connected to C and B. The book says reverse change over BLACK & WHITE Leads. However, there is a second diagram which uses the same colours for the windings but it uses a terminal block with marking of 1,2, 3 and 4. Start winding is connected to 1 & 3 and run to ! & 4 with a link between 1 & 2, in this case exchange White to 4 and Black to 1.The capacitor is connected to 3 & 4 terminals, on older motors they very are susceptible. I hope you have access to an Ohm meter or even a bell set. As others have already said ensure the motor case is definitely earthed before doing any live testing. John

You shouldn't have any trouble obtaining a good second hand replacement motor, as so many people are fitting three phase motors and inverters. But before spent your money, how about finding out what went wrong with the existing motor. There are quite a lot member on here will help you out or have done so in the past. With the motor disconnect from the electrical supply could you send a pictures of the motor with the terminal box open so that the wires and markings can clearly be seen. Have you got a multimeter or have you a friend who has one and will give you some help using it. Did the fuse blow or circuit breaker trip out. Has the motor got a capacitor attached to it, some times a lump on the side or top, these are a weak point and are known to fall. I look forward to your reply. John

My brother in law lives in Canada and in their house each room has a ceiling fan built in, which keep the house cool in summer, the blade can be twisted, such that in the winter the hot air in the ceilings of the rooms is force downwards. I tried a similar idea several years ago using a slow six inch fan and a clear plastic tube, it was very effective but didn't look very good, so out it went. John

I was given a big old battery charger which had a burnt out transformer. I removed all the internals, bought some insulating blocks (can't remember the correct name) from the local builder merchants and cut them to a snug fit inside of the sheet steel cabinet. The box sits on my work bench and I silver solder outside when its not windy. I notice how things get rusty after silver soldering inside the workshop, so outside only. John

Hello Brian can't remember any problems when I changed a broken gear 30 odd years ago. Myford didn't have the gear available any more, I got one from HPC gears at Chesterfield it had all the correct details except the bore, which was to big. I had to sleeve it. John