Member postings for Samsaranda

I had problems with a Warco lathe gearbox, I bought a new Warco BV20 lathe some years ago now, no longer a current model, I purchased a geared lathe because at the time of purchase the electronic boards that governed speeds on non gear head lathes were considered to be somewhat prone to premature failure. My problem was excessive noise from the gears, on investigation I found that the running clearances of the gears was excessive leading to backlash noise from the gears. I mentioned the problem to Warco when on a visit to one of their open days and with no argument they exchanged the lathe. Unfortunately this did not cure the problem, the exchanged lathe was just as noisy, I checked the backlash of the gears and it was the same as the first lathe. Fortunately everything appeared to be in line so no problems there, I accepted that the gearbox was noisy due to backlash between the gears and that it was going to be noisy, Wearing ear defenders became the norm when the noise irritated me. I worked out that the cause of the backlash was due to the gears being cut undersize, it doesn’t take much of an error to make a significant difference to the mesh of the gears. Being that the lathe is a budget model intended for occasional use for hobby work the gears are basic and cut from inexpensive material, had it been an expensive lathe I would have expected ground and hardened gears with minimal backlash, the lathe has continued to function for many years now and the only other problem that has happened has been the failure of the NVR switch, easily rectified. All in all I consider that although my lathe was noisy it was fit for the purpose that I purchased it for and I am still glad that I chose a geared lathe rather than an electronic one.
Dave W

Andy

I was at Stanley Jan 85, left the Air Force in 86.
Dave W

The workshops shown in Jann West’s link are far more sophisticated than those we had at RAF Stanley, I would certainly have one of those in my garden..

Dave W

We operated out of converted steel ISO containers and portakabins at RAF Stanley in the Falklands. The ISO containers were wood lined and had windows, they made good workshops, power was supplied by generating sets. The weather in the Falklands could be pretty severe and the containers withstood everything thrown at them, not aware of any problems with condensation but the wood lining prevented the moist air contacting the cold steel. I would have no reservations in using one for a home workshop although senior management would probably have serious objections on aesthetic grounds.
Dave W

You need to go from site to site on the net and see who is the most reasonable. Recently wanted some one inch square mild steel, nothing special, to make a special tool for dismantling a stationary engine, some sites wanted £45 plus for a metre of 1 inch square bar, found one site that supplied me 1/2 a metre for £8.50 plus carriage.
Dave W

I needed some material for a small solid flywheel, it was either going to be brass or stainless; my brother in law worked at a local engineering company before he retired and they used the full spectrum of stainless alloys from 316 to hastelloy and inconel. He said he would get me a bar end of 316 from one of the autos, he duly arrived with a 3 inch diameter blank about 3 inches in length, just what I needed. When I came to machine it I couldn’t touch it with a HSS tool I had to use carbide tooling and wind the speed up to remove any material, the finish I got was good. I think the reason that it was so hard to machine was because it was a bar end from an auto which obviously cuts at high speed generating a lot of heat subsequently work hardening the material adjacent to the cut area. The provenance of the bar end was not clear, it had no material ident, it could have been some other stainless alloy which might have been a difficult proposition for machining anyway. I think the moral is try to obtain materials with a known provenance, it can make life easier.
Dave W

Rob, I have found that a lot of the horticultural treatments that are available now have much reduced efficacy, due to the fact that the beaurocrats have decreed that the compounds should be much less toxic to people and the environment. This has happened across the board, wood treatments are a prime example with treated wood rotting nearly as fast as if it hadn’t been treated.
Dave W

XD 351, I see you are building a Rosebery engine, I presume the ball was for the governor located in the flywheel, I am building the Roseberry stationary engine, I bought the castings for it when I was in Oz for my daughters wedding. Unfortunately progress has been slow on the project, for the governor ball I was able to get a stainless ball bearing of the correct size, I thought it might be difficult to drill but was surprised that it drilled easily. Apologies for diverting this thread.
Dave W

Ok Burnley not known for its sunshine but if you used a solar unit as background heating it would then reduce the amount of electric used, even on a cloudy day solar units do heat the water albeit not as efficient as if you lived in Malta etc. I think there would be a useful heat gain from the solar and it would work all the time, except at night of course, therefore keeping the mass of water at a steady temperature thereby making a significant reduction in electric costs.
Dave W

Nice one Speedy,

Dave W

I am chair of trustees for our local village hall and sometime ago had an enquiry from TV licensing as to how many TVs we had on the premises of the village hall, we have none, but the tone of the enquiry was aggressive and went into details of how I would be punished if I didn’t comply or was using equipment without the relevant licence. Their attitude was almost as aggressive as the Performing Rights Society who tax venues that use radios or recorded music, I have had dealings with them and they can be so obnoxious, I throw any correspondence from them straight in the bin.
Dave W

My wife has a cochlear implant, she is profoundly deaf having progressively lost her hearing due to meningitis which also left her with epilepsy. She lost her hearing over a period of 30 years with gradual deterioration until finally waking up one day with no hearing at all. During the progressive loss of her hearing she attended lip reading classes so that was some compensation for the loss. She had her implant fitted 11 years ago at St. Thomas’s Hospital London, the team there are fantastic, she had to have numerous tests completed before the go ahead was given for the operation. In adults the NHS will only fund one implant whereas children can have both left and right at the same time, this is due to the expense of the procedure, I think the total costs when my wife had hers fitted was in the region of £36,000. The operation has transformed her life and she says if anyone is offered the operation then go ahead with it , they will not regret it. I have a moderate to severe hearing loss caused by exposure to gas turbine engine noise without hearing protection when in the Air Force, I wear two strong hearing aids but still struggle with hearing, particularly high frequencies, women’s voices are generally high frequencies, but we won’t go there. In the evenings my wife is always complaining that I have the volume on the tv too loud, this is from someone who is profoundly deaf with zero hearing without the cochlear implant, I think that demonstrates how successful cochlear implants can be. If I can be of any further help then pm me.
Dave W

We always inflated aircraft tyres with nitrogen, the reason quoted was that nitrogen was relatively inert and excluded the oxygen that is present in ordinary air, oxygen causes rubber compounds to degrade. It was also apparently safer to have nitrogen in your tyres if the aircraft suffered a brake fire, not unknown on aircraft if they land too far down the runway and have to brake excessively.
Dave W

Doug,

Thanks for your post it gives me hope that my two relays ordered from China two months ago may still make it here, though not holding my breath.
Dave W

Not related to Hermes but relevant to deliveries; have been waiting for an item to be delivered that was ordered from Amazon, was due by 26th May but failed to arrive, tried more than once communicating with the seller but was ignored so requested a refund, Amazon emailed today that they were refunding the cost of the order.
Dave W

I thought the object of the process was to produce drills that were fit for purpose not to meet a spec that was precisely to size , within micron tolerances. 🤔.
Dave W

As an airframe tradesman in the Air Force in the 60’s we were expected to learn freehand drill sharpening, we didn’t have access to fancy drill sharpening equipment, we soon acquired the necessary skills and this was mostly on 1/8 drills. We had to produce accurate size holes for riveting in aircraft structures, oversize holes were definitely out. I have tried various gadgets for drill sharpening since then but can’t get on with them, once you have taught yourself to sharpen drills freehand it stays with you, although in my 70’s now and eyesight is definitely a problem with small drills.
Dave W

Hermes in the past was very poor in this area, East Sussex, I had complained about them on this site but recently there has been a marked improvement. Received a parcel recently that was damaged externally, the operative delivering it wanted me to open it and check for damage before he left, fortunately the contents were intact. I am currently awaiting two items from China, the sender has confirmed that they have arrived in UK and are probably with customs awaiting collection and delivery by the UK carrier, at this time I don’t know who the carrier is so trying to track it down is not possible. Then again even if I knew the carrier, being able to communicate with them will be nigh on impossible, they don’t talk with customers only the senders. A lot of us have had to rely on internet delivery since the virus crisis and the system seems to have at times been overloaded making delivery times much longer.
Dave W

I like to keep my workshop reasonably clean and tidy but get so frustrated with my vacuum, it is a Karcher industrial cleaner, the problem is blockages in the hose. It has very strong suction but the design of the hose appears to be sadly lacking, the hose is corrugated plastic but the end fittings have a solid shoulder and reduction of diameter, consequently sawdust ,swarf etc builds up against the shoulder and then blocks the hose. Surely it is not impossible to design an end fitting that gives a constant diameter matching the internal dimension of the hose thereby ensuring free passage of the debris without building up on a shoulder and clogging. Dave W

Arceurotrade used to sell diamond core drills, not sure if they are still available, they perform really well and are not expensive.
Dave W