Member postings for Mark Rand

Ah, but they will be familiar with the concept, since they use BSP for their metric standard pipe fittings!

For a 10" swing lathe, without a gap-bed, you are probably looking at a 1 1/2" to the foot scale for most traction British or European engines engines. That's to be able to turn the hind wheels. If they aren't a problem then 2" to the foot should be well within the capability of the lathe,

Note:- I haven't made a model traction engine, even though I've got a set of 1" Minnie castings.

Note 2:- I type too slowly.

Edited By Mark Rand on 12/06/2022 20:30:49

Actually, .The outside diameter of the cladding will be 0.125mm. The fibre itself will be 0.05mm for multimode fibre (good for a few hundred metres) or 0.009mm for single mode fibre (good for kilometres).

As I stated in the fourth post. The ringback code (simple, not the full diagnostic menu) is 1475. That is for BT though...

Edited By Mark Rand on 11/06/2022 19:38:51

Coming a bit late, but I'd suggest the Bosch PBS75A, except that they've cheapened the design slightly over the last 15 years and I don't know it it's as good as the original.

The GBS75AE is the one to go for. Built like a brick outhouse and with easy spares and accessories availability.

1475

The significant thing about the units is that they were the first single shaft combined steam and gas turbines. The gas turbine is at the front and the steam turbine part is in the middle, with the generator and exciter at the back. The heat recovery boilers in the chimney stacks take heat from the gas turbine exhaust to provide low pressure steam for the gas turbine.

There was a bit of a problem during early commissioning. The units had been run for long periods with just the gas turbine providing power and no steam going through the steam turbine.

Even with the condenser air pumps running, there is still some pressure at the condenser end of the steam turbine. With no steam flow, there was no cooling of the last row blades. Some blades left the turbine... The LP cylinder end-bells were a bit of a state when they came to Rugby for repair.

This has been the case for a number of years. In the UK and EU, you'll find PYREX borosilicade kitchenware. In the US you'll find pyrex tempered soda lime kitchenware.

EN16T is the stuff to use but If I made it, it'd come with a 3/4" AF head, because that's what I've got..

Edited By Mark Rand on 06/06/2022 19:14:19

Given the amount of time involved in making the pinions, I'd be tempted to buy a small length of EN24T rather than using EN8 just because I had it.

I now use my wife's pottery kiln for tool steel hardening because it's got a good programmable PID controller and temperature measurement, but that's just because it's there and she lets me use it (if I ask very nicely).

The hardening temperature for EN24 is 830-850°C and this is just a little over the melting temperature of table salt (801°C), so one can use that as the heating medium. Doing so and moving the part directly into an oil quench will also eliminate scaling. The downside is that the fumes from the salt have a tendency to make nearby items go rusty. I used this method to harden all the gears and shafts that I made to rebuild the apron gearbox on my Hardinge HLV

Description and photographs in the relisted item seem reasonable.

PayPal will, actually, reimburse your postage when you return an item. The problem is that the limit is/was £15. This is too little even for a return to Europe, let alone to China. Discovered this when I bought a Roomba replacement battery from Belgium that wasn't accepted by the machine.

I wonder if it fell or was it laid down?

I use my Lidl 'Parkside' tool in preference to my dremel. Half the price and twice the quality!

Big advantage is that you don't end up with a wheel on the bench grinder that's got grooves all over it.

Or using 'leverage' as a verb, with the wrong pronunciation, instead of 'lever' or at all, for that matter.

Edited By Mark Rand on 03/06/2022 19:49:09

I've actually tested Ermeto fittings on 3/8" steel pipe up to 10,000 psi, which is well over what was found in power stations, but the highest we could go with our gear. To be fair, they are designed for that pressure and almost fool proof for certain values of fool. One of their major benefits was that they had a positive stop to the compression, unlike central heating fittings, which can be over tightened.

Curiously, on one job in South Korea, the customer wanted to use ball valves for instrumentation isolation. We were extremely dubious about their suitability. Out came the Dead weight tester and I couldn't get one to leak or split even at 3,000 psi, which was 50% more than they could see on that unit.

I think part of the reason for automotive brake pipes to have flared pipe joints is all to do with cheap. Using something such as the Ermeto or Swagelok fittings would cost a company like Nissan about £30 million per year just for tittings for brake systems in their UK production.

Old Mart's fittings do sound very much like the Ermeto design.

A good reason for using flared fittings on aircraft would be the ever present desire to keep weight to a minimum.

I apologise for dragging the thread way off topic. I'll shut up now!

Edited By Mark Rand on 03/06/2022 14:33:04

Cut the olive off a pipe, you will see that it has cut into the pipe. Failing that, try to remove the olive without utting it off, You cannot.

There is a reason that Ermeto and Swagelok fittings used with stainless pipe require the pipe to be saw cut and not roller cut. It's upsetting to have 2000 psi steam turning a gauge or transducer pipe into a snake because some twit didn't ensure that the olive could bite into the tube. It's even more upsetting having to explain to the Station Manager why you tripped his turbine...

I always sort reviews in worst first order to find which problems the product has. As Robin says, it's usually easy to ignore the 'idiot user' complaints. It's also neccessary to pay attention to the dates of the reviews, since products are (very) occasionally modified due to poor customer reviews.

Mea culpa (what's with all this dead language creeping into the thread). I should have checked the reviews on the company from whom I ordered my solar power system. About 85% of the reviews were poor. They even included reviews from ex and current employees explaining that the company's business practices lead to both dissatisfied customers and staff!

Deleted:- replying to a post over a page ago!

Edited By Mark Rand on 02/06/2022 19:02:34