Member postings for D.A.Godley

Duncan, I don’t believe there is a minimum order charge , but don’t hold me to that !

I have recently purchased some coil springs from the company , details below , they were very competitive , and on line there are all the dimensions you will require .

I bought them for the Wolverhampton & District Model Engineering Society, and I have no other connection with this vendor .

Coil Springs Direct

Unit 5
Hale Trading Estate
Lower Church Lane
Tipton
DY4 7PQ
United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)121 557 3081
E: [email protected]

i hope it’s useful to you .

David .

Further to Bazyle’s comments , as I understand it , Train Mountain Miniature Railway operates about 30 miles of 7.5” track , and all of their steam powered locomotives are gas fired ! .

I just do not understand how they have done it safely over many years , yet in the UK , anyone suggesting gas firing is made to feel like a lunatic , a mentally affected moron! , and then you have the insurance brigade ,

There are many benefits to propane firing locomotives , the Model Engineering / Rail fraternity should welcome the system and encourage its application, and the Insurance Industry should drop its objection and be more acceptingof it , even learn from those overseas experiences.

Have a look at Wiseman Threading Tools Ltd . Redditch . You will find all details of available parts and combined with the handbook mentioned in a post above , I am sure clear up any question you may have , as they have in the past for me ! .

I am not sure if he still offers the service , but Bob Dixon , friend of YouTube’s Doubleboost , did an excellent job on a DTI for me .

Rick,

I have , just now , watched your YouTube posting , the running of your Rob Roy , it certainly seems to perform well .

It would be very useful for me to get some information from you regarding the plumbing, what safety features , etc you have employed ? . Many in my club , I think , regard this method as the Black Arts , fearing all sorts of disasters, but I am sure that managed properly , with sensible precautions, it’s as safe as any method .

If it’s not too much of an imposition, could you email me the features you built into your system , Bottle to Burner ? , I would very much appreciate that .

David

Phillip , thank you for joining in on this topic , and the personal experience and knowledge you have .

Do you run your loco at a track where members of the public attend or is it members only ? , what are the Insurance implications ? , is it cost effective , though if you can’t get coal , I guess that’s a stupid question .

There are many more questions I would like to ask , if you have no objections.

David .

Duncan , have responded to your message, many thanks .

Rick , kind of you to join in with your experience.

Some useful pointers have been given by other responders, which will give me leads to chase up , the Marty Burners in particular since drawings are to hand , and I shall definitely watch the Rob Roy on YouTube .

Sweet William is 71/4” by the way .

Best wishes

David

Jeff ;

Many thanks for your input , it sounds most interesting and I shall certainly follow up both of your suggestions.

David

Somewhat disappointed in our Model Engineering brothers from USA, I have not had so much as a “ we have got your message “. And it was on their website ? , I did think talking was one of their strongpoints , and before asking , I visited it again after about a week of no response from the first occasion, guess what , no response this time either? .

As mentioned in another topic thread , Wolverhampton & District MES , is building a “Sweet William “ 0-6-0 loco , partly to perform passenger hauling duties, but primarily to give exposure and hands on experience in workshop practices, to our young and our novice members .

One of our milling machines needed a new collet Chuck , so yesterday at 13:00 hrs , having scoured the vendors of such products , I placed an order with Amadeal Ltd , a company I have not previously dealt with .

Today, I was utterly surprised when the item was delivered at around 11:00 hrs .

I regard that as exceptional service , and I will most certainly look to them in the future .

David .

Bazyle ,

Thank you for your suggestion , I have emailed them and eagerly await a reply .

David

Baz ,

I. see Mr Factotum is overhauling a gas firing arrangement for a Sweet Pea , so I guess it’s not unusual, but I have no idea how the upscaling will effect its performance in regard to Sweet William.

In an effort to bring on youngsters and those with no exposure to the engineering workshop , we at Wolverhampton, are commencing the build of a Sweet William 0-6-0 Locomotive, giving them the hands on and mentored experience.

As a charity , it’s part of our constitution to do so , and it was thought this Loco would give the chance to encounter most of the lessons needed for those wishing to develop.

The suggested use of gas to fire the loco has been made , hence my enquiry , to see if I could gain from others knowledge, MEW , may be the wrong forum to make these enquires, sadly I don’t have access elsewhere , but thank you for responding.

David

Could I ask ; has anyone built a Sweet William fired by gas ?

Jelly , Clearly you know your welding , and are out to have the last word over Luker .

It is my view that your replies have been most educational, but in some ways off the mark from the original question revolving around tig welding of copper boilers .

It must be in the interests , long term , to settle on a simple set of regs which enable a confident , experienced model engineer to construct a Copper Boiler using the most up to date technology available and which performs as well , or better , than the methods currently used .

If this requires higher test pressure test for tig boilers , assuming the design will theoretically cope , then so be it , but I come back to the basic issue , if silver soldered boilers are seen as acceptable when made in the home workshop , then tig should be seen in a similar light since both operate under the same conditions .

Test samples are a wast of time , unless done in the presence of the Club Boiler Tester , but that still would need to be finely examined with almost laboratory standards , which is not done for silver soldered boilers , however , I see no problem with the intended builder producing the materials and some proof of their source / quality for examination by the Tester prior to commencement, and perhaps some form of staged checks .

FMES should be pushing this forward on behalf of the Model Engineering Fraternity.

Did I hear a rumour that some people are using a machine , controlled by a computer , to make parts ? What will the world come too ? .

Please explain, because I am failing to understand the aversion to tig welded boilers .

At the point of hydraulic testing , does a tig welded boiler fail with a bigger bang than that of a silver soldered boiler ?

If not , where is the greater risk , it either satisfies the test requirements, as does a silver soldered boiler , or it does not , and there can not be any greater risk involved since they both fail or pass that particular test before moving on to the next examination under steam .

SOD Dave & Robert G8RPI , thank you both so much for your valued suggestions and directives .

Your input gave me the confidence , regardless of my previously stated fear of anything concerning electrical circuits, to connect up , and hey presto , we have a working compressor.

All that now remains is to plumb it into my present system , so that the pressure switch kicks in for charging the pressure tank , and then switches off both compressors when the desired pressure is reached .

Again , many thanks to you both and also to the other contributors who offered suggestions and advice .

David .

Bill : Thank you for your contribution.

It had not escaped my attention that Robert had included the link which gave valuable detail of the wiring set up for the unit in its original state , however , all that I know of electrics is that it bites if you don’t get the right bits joined up and whilst ok with engineering drawing , electrical schematics are a whole different world ! .

i have taken a look on YouTube , which may have thrown some light on how to proceed so , today , I hope to give that guidance a try , but it does mean modifying the wiring connections , so slowly slowly , and I shall see where that gets me .

David .

Robert : Thanks for clearing that issue up , I would say that the system is sealed and there are no leaks , thus no risk , but I will be mindful when introducing the new lubricant.

What I really need is , as requested initially , how can I wire it up so that it will run ( without the thermostat, door and light switches etc ) . So far only SOD has proffered a suggestion, but he was by no means sure , hence my desire to receive more specific or detailed ideas.

Thank you all for your interest and response .

I intend to use it as a silent compressor in my workshop, I have on at the moment and find it so useful that I wanted to add an additional unit to the supply end .

It will go through a pressure switch , overcoming the start pressure issue ( thanks Costas for that )

Currently , the refrigerant is in the unit , I shall drain it and replace as suggested with a lubricant as in my present set up .

SOD : there was a black wire connected to terminal “C” , will have a go with your suggestion , unless there are other definitive directions given .

Edited By D.A.Godley on 08/09/2022 18:38:04