Member postings for Mark Rand

Wasn't there an oil pressure or check engine type warning before the seizure?

I went to the local council tip today with a car completely loaded with scrap wood, cardboard, newspaper soaked in puppy end-product (bagged) etc.

Unfortunately I spotted some scrap alloy wheels that had not been put into the scrap metal skip. After enquiring, and paying £10 to the attached recycling shop, I came home with 40kg of wheelium.

Now I've got to find more things to mould and cast .

If you are using the VFD just to generate 50Hz three phase then JFDI* and feed the suds pumpfrom the VFD as well.

If you are using the VFD for variable speed purposes, then use a capacitor.

* Just Flipping Do It!

Edited By Mark Rand on 08/06/2023 17:28:53

<PEDANT MODE>
A Diesel cycle engine uses constant pressure combustion.
An Otto cycle engine uses constant volume combustion.
</PEDANT MODE>

Modern practical engines use a combination of both.

Don't use anchor oil. It goes gummy in less than 25 years!

On a more serious note, remember that it's a left hand thread!

Make sure you use a 5/16" BSW screw, or it won't fit the spanner.

With Hylomar, it does no harm to allow the solvent to evaporate before closing the joint. Maybe not so good if you're on the clock, but that's how it was meant to be used.

You can do usable macro photos by putting a magnifying glass in front of the camera lens:-

Cherry which has been attacked by spotted wing drosophila. 8 dioptre lens in front of phone camera.

Edited By Mark Rand on 29/10/2022 15:58:19

Well I've used an inverter/VFD to generate my 415V 3phase for a long time now, but there's no point me blathering on about it because the received wisdom seems to say that it's impossible/unsafe/immoral/blasphemous etc.

NO, it's strictly single voltage. See here for details;

Cherry hinds/hill's models were never run on steam.

Aha! Probably a far simpler solution than my one of making a completely new driving sleeve, with its internal splines, external keyways and multiple concentric diameters for my 1960's Beaver milling machine.

It is nice to have a mill that doesn't sound like a Vickers gun when taking interrupted cuts though!

Edited By Mark Rand on 23/10/2022 19:32:42

When I took 30 pieces of silver to leave my employers at the end of 2016, there was an allowance available for 'vocational education'. I took advantage of this to its very limits to pay for City&Guilds level 1 and 2 in arc welding at Northampton College. When I'd finished that I did the same for TIG welding with my own cash. Because my lad was unemployable at the time, I paid for him to attend at the same times. He did MIG and TIG. He got the level 1 courses cheap and full price for the level 2.

That was one full day per week for 10 weeks per course.

I regard it as a very good investment. I'm now confident that I can do good welds with only a little practice for each project to get my eye back in and know how to saction and inspect my practice welds to ensure that they don't just look pretty.

Edited By Mark Rand on 23/10/2022 19:26:43

Been tidying up the Record No25 vice I'd picked up at an auction that I mentioned on the 12th of September. I don't really need a 25, since I've had a good condition 23 for many years, but I've always wanted the bigger one...

The vice was in a rather sorry condition when I got it and I've ground the base ways of the moving part flat, taking out 5 thou of wear, Welding up ghastly hammer marks in the top (Why do idiot's think that vices are anvils?) and milling the top parallel to the base. I've added shims to the supports on the fixed part after grinding them to give a few thou of clearance to the assembled parts. I will be replacing the handle, because it's been hammered and is bent (again why...). The castings were shot blasted and have two coted of primer and the first topcoat. Paragon Paint's roundel blue, which is apparently the right colour. It's a bit ruddy bright . It's not 'prototypicaly correct', but the paint is covering up a lot of abuse on the original machined surfaces.

Not sure why I'm bothering, but it's better than doing the gardening.

Edited By Mark Rand on 21/10/2022 17:14:43

^^^ Which suggests that there might be a whisker of wire shorting out the VFD after the move!

Many years ago I scrounged a part used 15kg reel of MIG wire from a skip when we were cleaning out the Weld Lab at work. The reel wasn't in pristine condition, having been hoyed into a skip and hasn't got any better in the decades since. It was the wrong size for my welder, which only goes up to 5kg reels, meaining that I had to decant wire from it every time I needed to use some:-

In this condition, it could no longer be used because the wire tended to fall off the side and get kinked. I cut some scrap chipboard from a wardrobe build into circles on the bandsaw, used the bolt circle feature of the mill's DRO to stick a dozen holes in them and drilled an axle hole in the middle:-

These cheeks got bolted to the sides of the reel with lengths of M8 studding that I've used when making formwork for concrete walls. Then the assembly was mounted on a bit of bar that was clamped to the milling table (it being in about the right place):-

I'd scrounged some empty 5kg reels from a very helpful local welding shop, the third one that I'd phoned. Mounted on a mandrel on the lathe I could wind them at a leisurly 150rpm, although it did get a bit exciting when I overshot the low-stop-high positions on the lever and went to 600rpm! I ran it through one of those foam cleaner things you can get and also used bits of clean shop rag to guide the wire, tension it and clean it further. It had built up some contamination over the years :-

The end result of all this was a reel and a bit of clean wire which fit the welder and are now stored in zip-lock bags until I next need them:-

Finally, why go to all this faff over a bit of MIG wire. Well, it's Inconel 82. It welds carbon steel, stainless, cast iron and any combination thereof and I've used it for such purposes several times. It also costs about £700 if you need to buy a 15kg reel, when you can find it.

Edited By Mark Rand on 21/10/2022 16:40:25

It is curious that a repair to a load bearing part of a motor car must be welded. Gas brazing and soldering are an MOT failure unless the panel was originally manufactured that way.

To quote the bard:- The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

Certainly Northampton College, where I did my C&G II arc and TIG courses, did 'coding days' with multiple paople as well as individual coding tests.

The X axis tends to wear because it sees the most motion. The Z axis tends to wear less (especially on a J&S, since they're ball ways) and the Y axis usually very little (again, roller ways in J&S land).

Edited By Mark Rand on 19/10/2022 19:36:40