Member postings for RJW

Michael, I've taken a look at a few images of the Solex crank, and although the web is similar, the mainshaft is much longer than that on yours,
The style of the crank is definitely vintage, modern stuff tends to have machined full disk webs, and often pressed construction, may be worth thinking along the lines of old moped engines, I had a shuftie at Lambretta, Vespa, Villiers and JAP cranks, but nothing that looks like yours, not checked out the NSU Quickly and similar types yet, or 4 stroke singles.

John.

Michael, does that rectangular stub on the end of the crankpin screw out by any chance?

It looks very much like a Velo-Solex crankshaft, the big end on those is held in place by a bolt screwed into the end of the crankpin,
The con-rod is a one piece alloy casting with pressed in needle roller bearings for both the big and small ends, the big end needle roller has an inner race which is a polished steel tube and a light push fit on the crankpin, this is then locked by a bolt and washer. 

If it is a Solex, the centre waisted section carries the driving hub which rubs on the tyre and has another bearing near the taper which is located in the other half of the crankcase,

I've got one of those engines stripped down but it's in France, so can't offer any photo's unfortunately.
Solex engines are French and fitted to bikes mounted to drive the front wheel, there's also an active web forum for them.

John.

Edited By RJW on 03/08/2016 13:55:13

j.o., the inner ring marked 'IL' is the inner race of the bearing, the shaft that protrudes through it will be a press fit into that race,
Is there a circlip or snap ring on the other end of the body? if there is remove it,
If not, I'd say that the shaft just presses through the body, you'll need to support the outer edge of the larger 'tube' of the quill and press out the inner shaft - or give it a whack with a copper mallet, or a hammer with some softer material over the end of the shaft to protect it, press would be best if you've got access to one.

My guess is that the bearing inner race on the other end will come out with the shaft,

John.

Standard flat bottom lifters are relatively cheap as chips, but Roller cam followers used in American V8 and other engines are 'generally' an aftermarket racing or high performance road application, you may be able to buy followers individually, but I suspect they won't be cheap, they cost a small fortune during my F5000 Chev and Ford big block engine building days, the main producers being specialist companies such as Crane Cam's,

Rover V8's in standard form use flat bottom cam followers, roller cam follower and roller rocker kits are produced for them, but again, they're an aftermarket product and likely to be in fairly expensive engine sets rather than individual items.

Cracking deal on a good quality Sandisk SSD for anyone wanting one in their Xmas stocking, have to be quick though, only 2 left in stock last time I looked, too bad I bought mine a few weeks ago

Usual disclaimer: No connection to Aria other than a satisfied customer.

**LINK**

John.

I can fully endorse the SSD, fitted a Samsung 850EVO to my Vaio a few weeks back, and it absolutely flies, 5 sec's from boot to login screen, and programmes which used to take an age to load (Paintshop Pro etc) load almost instantaneously, cooling fan is having a much easier time of it too, which means SWMBO gives me an easier time because the fan isn't howling all the time.

Thanks Jason, some nice machining on there, should be a great help,

John.

Thanks David, never thought of checking the mag' indexes, will have a trawl through them,

John.

I've just picked up what appears to be a full set of castings and drawings for the Brunell Grasshopper Beam, can anyone point me in the direction of any build threads, notes or books if they exist please?

I've done a fair bit of search engine trawling and come up with a Youtube video of one running on air, a couple of old threads commenting on it, plus Brunell's casting list and not much else,

I've had a brief scan over the plans which consist of 3x sheets, and there seems to be a lack of detail, some components are drawn with no indication of what they are or where they go, and some without dimensions,
I do need to dig more deeply into the plans yet because stuff seems to be all over the place,

Many thanks in advance,

John.

Sounds like a similar reaction to brass left in Horolene and similar brass cleaners containing ammonia where the ammonia strips the zinc out of the surface of the metal, if the fittings have been left in the acid for that period, personally I'd bin them and replace.
I've no experience with boiler fittings at all, so other more knowledgeable people may advise differently, but there are cases where a similar reaction with ammonia based cleaners have caused microscopic cracks in the metal and subsequent fatigue failure.

John.

James, I've used a 90W sewing machine motor to drive a Boley watchmaker's lathe for some years now and it's still going strong, mine is rigged up to a lighting dimmer switch for speed control rather than the foot pedal.

John.

The chap that owned it was an engineer and ran a lawnmower repair business, the whole lot including a bucket load of other tooling was from his estate, the lathe has been well used, but also superbly maintained, not a shred of slop in any of the gibs or handles, everything works silky smooth and the motor is sweet as sweet, just need to get it cleaned up because it's very grubby and oily, will get some pic's in my album at some point.

I can see now why people rave over these, the quality of everything is superb.

John.

Edited By RJW on 02/10/2015 19:47:29

Thank you Michael, it's a beautiful piece of kit and definitely a keeper, I'm like a kid that won the toyshop at the moment and still pinching myself at my luck, wanted one of these for years but were always way too much money even without all the gear,
The underbidder said pretty much the same thing as you too, then slapped me on the back and actually apologised for bidding me up, didn't mind too much because it was worth way more really, I'm just surprised he didn't go higher being a tool dealer.

John.

Finally bagged a very nicely maintained Cowells 90 lathe at auction today,
Complete with power feed attachment, Changewheels, 4x Toolposts, Faceplate, 1x4 Jaw chuck, 2x3 Jaw chucks, Revolving centre, Jacobs chuck, Collet attachment & 8 collets, Dividing head+ 4x Index plates, Indexing unit, Vertical slide, Tapping unit with boxes of BA taps & dies, Fixed & Travelling steadies, plus a deep 'lin-bin' type drawer unit stuffed with lathe cutting and boring tools, milling cutters, small taper & expanding reamers, micrometers, dividers, pin chucks, wobbler set etc etc, plus a big cardboard box full of sundry kit including a Clockmaker's Depthing tool, a couple of articulated bench vices and a huge beautifully made and scraped V block affair that I've not quite sussed the use of as it has several bolts into one side plus a central hole bored through it, still wading through it all yet and all for a shade under £600 including fees,
Very happy bunny indeed.

Edited By RJW on 02/07/2015 14:39:21