Member postings for Samsaranda

The Messerschmitt KR 200 three wheeler had to have the engine stopped before reversing as you used a control to slightly alter the ignition timing which when the engine was restarted meant the engine was rotating in reverse. This meant that you had the same number of gears in reverse as you had forwards, I think if I remember correctly it was a three speed gearbox. A simple solution for a two stroke engine. I would very much like to acquire an Old KR 200 but alas I fear its cost would far exceed what I would be able to justify to my financial controller.

Dave W

The mention of Morris J2’s brings back numerous bad memories of how abysmal the gearchange was, remember sitting at a junction in Croydon High Street, back in the early 60’s, and could only get reverse gear no matter how many times we tried to select a forward gear. You can imagine the chaos that caused, had the misfortune to travel many miles in them at the time as I was working on a mobile maintenance unit in the Air Force, in later years the Air Force used a lot of Bedford CF’s, a definite improvement but at speeds around 60 mph the vibration could become unbearable. Those were the days, thankfully long gone.

On my own vehicles, I owned a Triumph Herald Estate in the late 60’s which I fitted out with the latest radial tyres, Michelin ZX radials, I am not sure that it was an improvement road holding wise as I remember one day negotiating a fairly slow corner and all grip on the front end disappeared and I went straight on over the curb and through a fence. Fortunately there was more damage to my pride than to the car.

Dave W

Cheaper source of Citric Acid is the internet, food grade available at very reasonable cost, much less than supermarket prices. Citric Acid works well for me and I wouldn’t contemplate using Sulphuric or Hydrochloric, way too dangerous, Citric takes longer to achieve the same results but we are not working in industry tied to production schedules so a bit extra time doesn’t matter.

Dave W

It’s not that difficult to snap a spanner, recently snapped an 8 mm open end spanner whilst undoing a very tight drawbar, the drawbar had been in place for a long time so was well and truly stuck. The spanner wasn’t a cheapie but definitely went with a bang when it went and I did have some force applied at the time.

Dave W

The issue that bothers me with electric vehicles is the battery life and replacement costs, particularly as they are now talking of fast charging with 120 kw, that will certainly strain household electric supply infrastructure and who knows what it will do to the utilities infrastructure if we all charge at peak times, probably in the evenings. There will probably be solutions but I don’t see it at the moment. Dave W

Like those statistics Vic, my Honda isn’t listed so I must be alright.

Dave W

Peter, my 1954 Ford Popular used to behave in an identical way on corners, also on skinny tyres and with a mechanically operated brake system comprising of just rods and levers. Those were the days of 6 volt electrics and starting handles and heaters were not normal fittings in basic cars. Did some miles in my old Ford Pop and by necessity did all my own maintenance, in those days oil changes were every 1000 miles unless you fitted an auxiliary oil filter to the engine. Dave W

In respect of makes of cars with faults, it seems that a large number of Mercedes, Audi’s and BMWs are delivered without working indicators. !!!

Dave W

I have a Chester Champion V20 mill which stands on the Chester supplied stand, the stand is bolted to the floor and the mill is bolted to the stand, when used for the first time the setup resembled a jelly and wobbled alarmingly, indicating that the stand was really too flimsy. I fitted a bracing strut between the rear of the stand and the wall behind, it certainly improved things but it’s on my list to make a substantial steel framed stand when time permits me. I certainly wouldn’t balance a heavy mill on a narrow cabinet stand unless it was firmly bolted to the stand and the stand to the floor.

Dave W

Dave the problems with his extension are the subject of an insurance claim, the insurers have taken over sorting everything out. So far the insurance claim adds up just over £7000 so the insurance company has a vested interest in investigating the original Part P. It was fortunate in a way that the water leak caused so much damage and the electrical bodge was revealed.

Dave W

I find the training and certification of those who install and service our domestic electrical installations is certainly very lacking, I am horrified that someone with no or very little experience of electrics on payment of the requisite sum of money is then set free to certify installations in accordance with Part P. A friend of ours has had a very close experience of disaster, a recently built extension of their house, containing a shower room, study and lounge area suffered a water leak in the shower/toilet room. Unfortunately the leak had damaged the stud walls and they had to be removed as part of the repairs. The water leak was due to poor soldering on a joint but the builders carrying out repairs found that the electrical supply to the macerator unit for the toilet was not properly carried out, the supply wires had just been twisted together and wrapped in insulating tape, the mind boggles. This is in an area which is legally required to have had a Part P certification carried out!!! I have worked in engineering all my life and received at various times the necessary training to enable me to undertake diagnosis and repair of electrical systems and equipment, so I do have training and experience stretching back over many years but I am not considered competent to carry out basic wiring in my own workshop I have to use some numpty who has probably no experience but does have a certificate which I do not. I for one have no confidence in the current training and certification system, when will those in charge wake up to the potential disasters waiting to happen, how many have to die.

Dave W

I think what we gain from the above is cheap chargers from dubious sources should definitely be avoided, I have a policy in our house that no chargers are left connected and switched on if no one is present, that way safety can be assured. I have seen a charger burst into flames although it was many years ago so hopefully modern technology is now much safer.

Dave W

I use Westfield Fasteners, they have good range and you can order in small quantities, delivery is very prompt. They also stock Brass and High Tensile with a full range of heads and multiple lengths.

Dave W

Guy, I didn’t realise the spire was a 19th century addition, probably explains why it looked ridiculous perched up on the roof, it was totally out of character with the form of the building, hope they choose not to reinstate it but then I suppose they will want to recreate an exact facsimile.

Dave W

Re: the comments regarding WD40 and it’s non performance at a multitude of tasks, I believe that it was originally developed as a protection that was liberally dispensed on both missiles and helicopters, the idea was that if the equipment was liberally doused in WD40 then it would afford protection in the harsh environments that these equipments operated in. If you have ever worked on said equipments then you would find that the WD40 had penetrated to every available crevice which was it was designed to do and thereby thwarted corrosion forming. So it may be mediocre in performing the tasks that it is currently sold for but it was extremely good at the function it was primarily designed for.

Dave W

Sorry to digress briefly on the banks issue mentioned, I am chairman of our local Village Hall, been associated with them for over 30 years now, recently our treasurer went to pay in at our bank, with whom we have been since 1979, and was told that she couldnt’ pay in because she wasn’t the account holder, the account holder was ————— Village Hall and they could only accept payments from the account holder, our very patient treasurer who is an authorised signatory to the account explained in words of very few syllables that the Village Hall was a charity and that the building in question could not attend the bank to transact business as it was firmly fixed to the ground. It required intervention from a member of the banks management to clarify that our treasurer could transact the business, the management person then went on to say that we could no longer pay in cash to our account because of money laundering, our treasurer then suggested that it was perhaps time we changed banks whereupon the management person decreed that perhaps they could make an exception in this case but in future we would have to transact our village hall business either by cheques or online. Still awaiting a reply to our complaint. The bank in question has branches on every high street, well for the moment anyway, and it’s name is compromised of four letters, I will leave you to deduce where the stupidity is residing.

Dave W

Sharp tool and required angular offset on the tool holder, with 5mm brass rod you wouldn’t need any support or steady, I have made fuel control needles in smaller diameter brass without problems, you need a sharp tool and shallow cuts.

Dave W

I would imagine that machining the inconel would be challenging, we used to machine it at one company I worked for and I know that inconel castings were a real pain. We were using machining centres that could use the correct speeds and feeds and had plenty of power.

Dave W

Robjon 44, about ten years ago when I was in Australia for my youngest daughters wedding I purchased a kit of castings for a model horizontal stationary engine, the majority of the castings were aluminium and therefore were stowed in suitcases for the journey home, unfortunately my wife drew the line at stowing the 2 flywheel castings in our suitcases, which were cast iron and at 8 inch diameter consequently very heavy. The solution was to package them up and use Australia Post to forward them to my UK address, the cost was eye wateringly expensive, I never did reveal to the wife exactly how much it cost and the final insult was I had to pay customs duty to release my own possessions from Gatwick Handling Centre. The moral of this is that carriage costs can be very expensive, you are at the mercy of the system.

In respect of our ex colony on the other side of the Atlantic resisting the use of metric measurements I believe that they were the first country in the world to recognise and adopt the Metre Standard, from what I can remember it was sometime in the 1890’s.

Dave W

I think Vista may not allow a previous version of Windows to be installed, just a thought, not an expert on windows since I defected to Apple!

Dave W