Member postings for Fowlers Fury

Though not for identical dimensions, when needing similar strips of s/s I've purchased a set of feeler gauges.
Cheap enough and seem pretty tough.

A certain proprietary, jelly-like hand degreaser is a mixture of green soft soap and paraffin (probably refined).

Paraffin aka kerosene is not a defined mixture, its composition will vary according to supplier and how much you pay. It's easy to think paraffin is a benign, safe solvent but it will contain a variety of hydrocarbons, many of which are irritating to the skin. It should never be sprayed.
Paradoxically, straight paraffin as a degreaser is said to promote rust formation.

Jamie,
You don't state what type of paint you've used first.
From bitter experience, I'd advise care and caution about using spray lacquer (varnish). I used one claimed to be suitable over enamel paint. After about 1 month, the clear lacquer 'crazed' on all areas irrespective of whether there was heat below or not. Removing the dried lacquer necessitated reapplication of the enamel followed by use of a brushing varnish which used white spirit as its solvent. After that all was well altho' there was some yellowing of the brushed-on varnish.
As so often advised - try any sprayed paint, lacquer etc over an inconspicuous part first and wait some while to check for a reaction.

IMHO, based on a lot of reading, most new 'passenger' locos were outshopped with a many coats of gloss varnish. But Chistopher Vine's book is probably the definitve source for methodology in our scales.

Yet another plea, as Bruno's above !
I have a Pansy (original builder unknown) and she runs well enough. Notching-up is effective to a degree but the big problem now is wear in the valve gear (e.g. elongated holes in stretchers!).

Anticipating a major rebuild of the valve gear, can we see these mods of Julian Atkins please?

34046 - Have you checked with Malcolm what excess - if any - he requires to be added to your required dimensions? He's done several laser-cut items from my CAD dwgs and he's queried some of my dimensions thankfully !

The laser-cut edges from the company he used for my items were "rough" and hard. They needed draw filing smooth with a diamond file, I accept that techniques may have moved on in the last couple of years but a small dimensional excess was incorporated to allow for the smoothing-off.

'would recommend a look at the website "Who called me?"

**LINK**

And always worth adding the scammer's number to the website.

" no one seems to do powered hacksaws now - that I can find anyway. "
Perhaps not strictly true?

Like "Plasma", I favour a powered hacksaw.
Blackgates offer a machined kit but you will need a motor & a few other bits. I've had mine for years and since it takes standard hacksaw blades, it's quick & easy to change them over when cutting different materials. The capacity isn't huge but it'll cut through 1.5" bar stock if pressed.

" Did I once read somewhere that metallic mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis? Blue Pill? "

Indeed - it was the only treatment from the middle ages, until Salvarsan was discovered in the early 1900s.
This complex molecule contained 3 ARSENIC rings, diamidodioxyarsenobenzol.
Whether the syphilis suffer preferred the toxicity of Hg to disfigurement and early death isn't recorded.

Really getting off-topic now

" wash with a soap containing mercury, it seemed like a good idea "
Almost certainly it would have been PMN - phenyl mercuric nitrate. It was used extensively and effectively as an antiseptic.
Even today it's used in very low concentrations as a preservative in many eye drops.

Clive ~ we used to just squeeze the mercury through a new chamois leather to clean it. I would doubt it'd be cleaned with nitric acid, even if dilute it would form mercuric and mercurous nitrate salts.

In terms of huge volumes of Hg, the Castner-Kelner process for producing chlorine and caustic soda by the electrolysis of brine is worth a mention. The old ICI "cell rooms" in Cheshire were incredible; in each, the amount of Hg could be around 100 tons, the current required upto 200,000 amps at 200V. The gap between the electrodes and the Hg surface was very critical for efficiency - too close and imagine the result !
Hazards of Hg were well known in the 60s and workers were routinely monitored. Mercury vapour was released along with the hydrogen from electrolysis and traps were needed to recover the liquid Hg. When the diaphragm process began to replace the mercury process from the mid 70s those huge volumes of Hg would have had to have been disposed of - maybe sold?

But back to reminiscences of school days in the chemistry lab., as others have mentioned the inevitable little globules of Hg would collect in the benchtop grooves. At my school we were required to use only fountain pens for note taking. The rotten trick was to take someone's pen, with its gold nib when they were not looking and press the nib in to the Hg. The resulting amalgam would to cause the nib to disintegrate and the pen's owner distress.

Not with modern bikes I suppose but with my old Brit bike, when stopped and ticking over you had to blip the throttle once after pulling the clutch lever to free the clutch plates in order to engage 1st.

Irrelevant addition follows:-
Multi-plate clutch with cork inserts running in oil - terrible combination. Adjust clutch push rod when cold & clutch wouldn't release when hot, adjust when hot & it would slip when cold......or was it t'other way round??
I once rebuilt the clutch plates with new cork inserts supplied by spares seller which were composition i.e. like cork table mats. Five miles from home and the plates were seized together necessitating bike rescue. Once home I acquired numerous bottle corks and had to slice them all to fit but no more trouble.

Maybe drifting a bit off topic, but the complete collection of the Meccano Magazine is available on-line.
**LINK**

For anyone unfamiliar with the old magazine, it is not exclusively about Meccano, but contains fascinating articles covering all aspects of engineering.

Escaping

Nice job Russell, looks magnificent ! I kept my steel plated m/cycle bits well waxed. The bike was only taken out in good weather so didn't experience your " it is not weather resistant unless you plate with copper first."
It'd be interesting to read about how you did the plating.

The topic was discussed on here before - just over a year ago.
I've tried b4 to insert a link back to postings without success, so trying again.....
**LINK**

Forgive the repeat, but to anyone "contemplating plating" at home, this was my posting then (truncated):-
".... kit was 'Dynic Sales' (no longer exist).......But - and it was a big but - you had also to purchase:-
An aquarium heater / aquarium aerator / amp meter / stabilised power supply or 12v battery / accurate current controller as well as being prepared to construct various non ferrous rods from which to suspend anode & cathode on top of a plastic container. Effective plating required control of temperature, current, agitation and a perfectly smooth surface on the steel item otherwise corrosion pitting would show up badly after plating.Eventually results were consistently good. (I did a petrol tank filler cap, shrouds for rear shocks, lamp bezels, Cu oil pipes and numerous steel bolts and nuts).
Bottom line? It is possible to Ni plate at home but requires one hell of a lot of aggravation and preparation."

(Edit for typo)

Edited By Fowlers Fury on 18/05/2019 11:35:38

My understanding is that if Cu and Zn are present in either the electrolyte or anode they will also get deposited on the item to be Ni plated.
However that understanding is not based on practical experience.
On some of those aforementioned m/cycle parts, I first Cu plated the item as it was said to produce a better base for the later Ni plate. This was definately not the case with my amatuerish methodology. The subsequent Ni plating was patchy & discoloured. In contrast, using a pure Ni anode and plating onto scrupulously cleaned steel, adhesion & finish was excellent.
My comment " Not so sure I'd want to risk Ni plated stuff " (as an anode) was to imply a risk of poor adhesion of the Ni in presence of any Zn and Cu ions. The low cost of a pure Ni anode didn't seem worth the risk.

The book cited by Russell is an interesting & comprehensive read. Therein the only statements relevant to anode purity I found on a quick scan were:-
"Primary nickel for plating has high purity of 99.95% Ni + Co."
".....could lead to contamination by anodic dissolution of copper ions into the solution".
"Copper, cadmium, lead, tin and zinc: These metals tend to preferentially deposit in low current density areas, causing haze and dark or black deposits."

Not so sure I'd want to risk Ni plated stuff.
When I was Ni plating old motorcycle parts (of steel) using a Dynic Sales kit, I purchased a pure Ni crucible.
They're cheap enough when purchased singly and "you know what you're getting".
For example a Ni crucible lid here is GBP7.26p:-
**LINK**

"......... - how do I calculate my exposure and associated risk ? "

VERY unreliably ! There are too many unknowns with respect to your actual exposure and translating that to the more important index of dose received. (dose received and exposure are not the same).
Risk = hazard x exposure
Plenty of data on the hazards (toxicity) of Cd once absorbed but without knowing your exposure, true determination of risk is not possible. Cd exposure in industry is normally assessed by area or personal monitoring. Actual dose received by bio-monitoring of workers.

But Cd is a relatively ubiquitous metal and we are exposed to it & its salts in vegetables, cereals and seafood.
So we're then in the sphere of risk assessment.
Given your exposure frequency in "well ventilated space" and the quantities of Ag solder employed, an assessment might be that your risk (of toxic effects) is minimal.

Pat, how did you measure with the dtiI that the tailstock was higher?
If the dti was mounted on the top slide and then the saddle traversed over the 8" there could surely be other explanations for the apparent rise of 0.18mm.
For example, unless you first had the talistock set perfectly aligned in the horizontal plane. you might have been running the dti plunger "off the line" (although that maybe would show a drop rather than rise).
Have you tried with the tailstock barrel extended (and locked) by different amounts?
From all the published methods of checking tailstock alignment in the home workshop, I believe taking cuts at both ends of a test bar is usually considered the favourite.

Adam, I don't disagree in principle about holding two of the axes steady but I didn't do so for 2 reasons.

• Wanting to 'wiggle & turn' the DBG around in the cylinder bore to ensure a minimum reading was showing.
• There was no provision on the DBG to support it by a dead centre in the tailstock and I wasn't confident - at the accuracy needed - that a light grip in my 2MT Jacobs chuck was precise enough.

For reasons to do with the special piston rings that were to be used, the bore had to be 1.500 + or - 0.001" throughout the length. I was using a between centres boring bar and that had to keep being removed & replaced for the DBG as the required ID got closer - a PITA.
There are numerous YouTube vids on using DBGs. As usual, some very useful others not so.
Machine-DRO offer clear, illustrated instructions:-
**LINK**