Member postings for Fowlers Fury

No doubt you'll receive very many suggestions.
Mine is the excellent IrfanView. It has various options for resizing.

IrfanView

If you've been subject to the disheartening request "Would you mind having a look please at my father's/grandfather's old clock, it won't go anymore?" Then had to do a total dismantle followed by putting every part in the ultrasonic bath to try & remove old, caked-on, dust-laden, sticky, cheap, household lubricating oil ~ then you'd appreciate buying the best clock oil is worthwhile.
Otherwise, if you feel the need to lubricate your old bedside Westclox alarm, then use Pound Shop oil.

As for justifying the cost of Moebius oil at equivalent of £8,000 / litre ~~~ as before, I've used about 0.75ml in 30 years on many clocks which works out around £8 divided by 30 or 27p per year.

Re " The Moebius clock oil recommended by Fowlers Fury works out at £1,200 per litre"

Over-oiling is a known cause of clock problems, more so of course with inappropriate oil.
Oil should be applied from a needle just carrying a minute amount to the spindle or oil pit.
In the early 90s I purchased 3 x 1ml of Moebius oil from M & P and after servicing many clocks since then, I have used less than 0.75ml. That part-used bottle shows no crystallisation or gum around the cap after 30 years.
The link I provided earlier to the Fleabay stockist was only to provide information. Other stockists on that site sell Moebius in 1ml bottles for about £8. Scale that up to one litre ............

Re: "PROOPS" image above......... was it any good for hens as well?

Generally recognised as the top clock oil is "Moebius 8030" - a Swiss oil which doesn't oxidise leaving a sticky residue as would 3-In-1 and the like.

Not cheap I'm afraid but worth it if you want the best:-

**LINK**

Martin wrote " The aerospace bloke does good files ". He certainly does good twist drills at very reasonable prices.
I needed a cobalt 1/4" drill for some stainless; got 2 branded ones for £2 each ! (and they worked last night).

Regarding the"show" itself, I found it very disappointing. Several of our usual suppliers absent and comparatively few of the region's ME societies' stands. I could usually fill most of a day at exhibitions, but drove home after a couple of hours.

IMHO (and relatively ignorant opinion), I'd always use square ports.Steam admission & exhaust is sharper. Filing round holes square in liners is easy enough, if tedious.
I'd caution against using "straight" PTFE for rings; much better in terms of resilience to wear if you get the graphite -filled PTFE. There was an excellent article produced by "Artisan" some while ago, extract here.......:-
"Virgin PTFE is too soft and has a very high coefficient of thermal expansion. The material I use was recommended to me by a supplier who I was in contact with when trying to obtain a material called Flouroscint, which is a mica loaded form of PTFE and has been used by a number of model engineers for piston rings. The firm concerned said that they could not understand why model engineers persisted in using this material because it is very expensive and graphite loaded PTFE was not only cheaper but, in their opinion, more suitable for the duty! I therefore followed their advice and have used rings of 25% or 35% graphite loaded PTFE ever since. The material still has a fairly high coefficient of expansion, so rather than have a large gap in the rings my design incorporates an overlapping joint."

I had produced a few pages showing his jig method of making overlapping joints in the rings in more detail & with photographs. PM me if you're interested & I'll email a copy.

Assuming your sulphuric acid was indeed, actually diluted 1 part in 20 parts water then cleaning your boiler would have neutralised some of the acid as it reacted with the carbonates, as hard water scale, in the boiler. The blue colouration at that dilution was due to the reaction between copper oxide residue left during the original brazing and not from a reaction with the metallic copper.
By now, your oriiginal sulphuric acid would be much weaker (in terms of hydrogen ion potential).

Perhaps oddly, mild steel does not react much with concentrated sulphuric since an impervious coating of ferrous sulphate forms on the carbon steel. However, when dilute sulphuric is used, the ferrous sulphate dissolves in the water component and steel corrosion proceeds rapidly.

How does that help you?
Don't use dilute (or concentrated !) sulphuric acid as a pickle after Ag-soldering mild/carbon steel.

The corrosion is much less with dilute hydrochloric acid and I confess to using that sometimes on Ag-soldered steel to soften flux but never leave the item immersed for more than a couple of minutes.

Safest is to use water and pick at the encrusted flux with a sharpened rod followed by a wire brush.

Buy a small tin of black tyre paint from Al Frauds, apply after wiping with white spirit & allowing to dry.

Sympathies to all afflicted by the ineptitude of DVLA but to resurrect the other example of HMG Civil Service's incompetence, I posted here in June (herewith truncated > "HMRC are as bad ...... first time I completed their questionnaire well over 2 years ago for agreement that annual tax returns now unnecessary....got standard "we aim to respond within 5 weeks". .....I keep reminding them every couple of months and get the exact same reply each time."
I now submit exactly the same data with monotonous regularity and receive exactly the same standard response but never an answer.

Mistress Truss will surely sort all this out

"JB Weld"

FWIW - I purchased the white paste to seal a simple joint. All went well until 24h later I immersed the job in some warm, soapy water to clean prior to painting, Most of the JB Weld fell away.
Adverse comments on Amazon will be read in future !

Andy, it's a LONG time since I used the Reliance - now have a Quorn - so I offer that as an excuse if the following is irrelevant.
I've been thinking about this "mark" on the trough and it led me back to the link you were sent in 2018 to the Reliance, 2-sided instruction sheet.
It appears that from the instruction sheet version I have, a reference to "the mark" when first setting the drill to be sharpened is absent. On my sheet, this image below seems to be the scant info on how to set the drill's radial position in the trough once this previous instruction is completed > "PLACE DRILL IN TROUGH AND ROTATE DRILL UNTIL LOWER CUTTING EDGE OF DRILL ASSUMES A VERTICAL POSITION"
Then......

Reference there to "indent" I take to mean - from the photo - the twist drill's spiral. In fact there's no reference to any mark on the front of the trough.
My instruction sheet shows there were 3 sizes of Reliance DGJ marketed 1/8 to 1/2", 1/4 to 1", 1/4 to 2". The images show sharpening a taper drill > 1/2" so it may well be that this infamous mark only appeared on the smallest jig.
If you wish I'll email you a high res copy of my instruction sheet - send me a PM.

Thanks Nigel, I'll remember your suggestion (or try to remember as the brain cells atrophy fast these days).

As for HMRC and their outstretched hand ........ I'm unaware of any magnanimity* from that organisation. In fact I am sure they expect one to notify them of any earned or unearned income during any tax year. I do so with a heavy heart
since I'm told virtue has its own reward.

* "Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty .... and actions for noble purposes. "

Andy,
If the front of your trough is anything like that on mine, then no wonder you can't see it. The Reliance jig I have was purchased 2nd hand and herewith macro of the front of the trough. "Honest, it wasn't me wot did all that !"

I've indicated what remains of what I assume was the line.
In use, I just align the drill points' straight edges with the outer face of the trough. Drills always cut OK.

Give up....a different stupid emoticon has appeared after 1st edit.

FAO: Hopper
True....I wrote "Have you joined ALCS (at no initial cost) to discover what might accrue to you?"

Without joining it seems reasonable that any casual enquirer should not be permitted to search and see payments to any other author. My 2 articles for MEW, under a published pseudonym, show up as part of my annual royalties.
I don't really concern myself with ALCS' procedures, yet I receive from them money I would not otherwise receive or even be aware that it was "due" to me. It's sufficient for me to be aware of ALCS' clear role viz:-
"The contract you hold with your publisher, or the producer of your work, is an agreement that sets out how your work can be distributed to the public (for example, in print or e-book format) and how you’ll be paid for this. These are your ‘primary rights’.

Edit to remove unwanted, stupid emoticon inserted after pressing <Send>

Edited By Fowlers Fury on 07/08/2022 15:17:24

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Depends how you define "worth it" Hopper.

You wrote " I've written quite a few articles for MEW .........." Have you joined ALCS (at no initial cost) to discover what might accrue to you?
I was - and continue to be - surprised how much ALCS send me annually for my past, trivial efforts at writing relatively few published articles for different publishers.
That HMRC demand their slice of the little cake is another issue !!

Anyone who has written, or is contemplating writing, article(s) for magazines or full-length books is an author and as such (if not already a member), should join ALCS - Authors Licensing & Collecting Society.
Their website:- ALCS.

....includes :-

Credentials: I'm well past my allotted three-score-and-ten years and still remain an incompetent model engineer.

I was an avid read of M.E. for very many years but my commitment & therefore my subscriptions to it declined quickly when it was (foolishly IMHO) decided to launch MEW. The consequential "dilution effect" of informative model engineering articles within one magazine ~ leading to uninteresting space-fillers in both publications ~ at twice original cost ~ lost me as a customer. A return to the pre-split format could be welcome.
In my senility, I am therefore aligned with those above who consider function to be more important than appearance (as with wives?).

Re. JA's posting (above), I went for "Artisan's" design of tube bender and have been well pleased with how it works. I also used same procedure as JA proposes to adopt tp make the various formers. Using the mill this way, it is easy to make many in a short time. I recollect making about 20 before giving up and have only ever using about 6 since then ! I think you can still get get a copy of Artisan's article on CD via David Carpenter's website.