Member postings for Malc

The Body of Opinion?

Three graduate engineers were discussing who might have been responsible for the design of the human body. The first one said "Think of all the joints etc. it must have been a mechanical engineer". The second one said "No no, what about all the electrical impulses and nerves etc? It must have been an electrical engineer". The third graduate was shaking his head, "You are both wrong, the human body was designed by a civil engineer - who else would run a waste pipe through a recreational area"?

A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed: "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in: "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude!" The pastor said: "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him."

"Hi, George. Say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied: "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The group was silent for a moment.

The pastor said: "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."
The doctor said: "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist friend and see if there's anything he can do for them."

Hi all, many thanks for the replies. You have confirmed my suspicions about using Nylon. I only plan to run the engine on air (assuming it runs at all of course)! I rather like the idea of an Aluminium piston. Thanks again.

Is Nylon a suitable material for the piston in a beam engine? The piston is approx. 30 mm dia. and 6mm thick. PTFE is the reccomended material but not so available locally.

Does anyone know what this is? Seems to be home made, the threads on the thumbscrew are very fine, I would estimate 42 ish TPI. Initially thought it was a handle for a scraper blade, maybe? A few pence from the car boot, I thought it was worth that if only for the interest.

Edited By Malc on 28/08/2017 14:24:16

Hi folks,

Many thanks for the advice.

Malc.

Hi folks,

I am in the process of building my first engine ( the Julian De Waal beam engine) and am about to start the cylinder and valve chamber. I am wondering how to finish the bores of the cylinder and valve chambers. I suspect that internal boring will not leave the surface smooth enough. Will I need to buy a “Cylinder Hone” to get a decent finish, and if so how much metal do I leave for the Hone to remove? Any info. would be appreciated.

Thanks, Malc.

Hi Jason, Thanks for that, after weeks of looking at the drawing it has just dawned on me that the outer rim is in fact 5mm thick. I really must learn how to count! 5mm will certainly be easier to handle.

Hi folks I'm after some opinions. I am in the process of building the Beam Engine from the drawings by Julius de Waal. The flywheel has a double thickness rim. I have built the hub, spokes and inner rim up to form the flywheel and am now faced with the task of making the outer rim. This is 15mm wide, 10mm thick mild steel and needs to be formed into a ring with an inside diameter of 200mm to be a tight fit over the existing inner rim. Would it be possible to form this thickness of mild steel using bending rollers? I also thought it might be possible to heat the 15 x 10mm strip and hammer it to shape around a former but as this is the outer rim it needs to be tidy looking when finished. I wondered how you chaps would tackle the job? Thanks in anticipation!! Malc.

Hi Folks, many thanks for the great response. My wife (super shopper) came back with a 500g box for £1.99 from a local cheapie tool shop. However having looked at the box again it does say "Borax substitute" so I will have to give it a try. Thanks again all, an interesting set of replies.

Thanks all for the input. The wife is currently looking round town for me, will let you know !

Hi all, I would like to try some borax for a small brazing job. Does anyone know where it can be bought locally (Leics.) without having to buy from the Internet?

Hi all, I have found the drawings etc on this website for the above beam engine by Julius de Waal. It is built from stock rather than castings and I fancied having a go. Has anyone built this? There is no mention of it being run but it certainly looks as though it was built to run. Any info. / opinions would be appreciated.

Edited By Malc on 11/05/2016 19:04:09

Hi Bandersnatch, I mounted the cross slide end casting on a vertical slide and used an end mill to cut the recesses. To enable the cross slide to be positioned I borrowed the top slide leadscrew and end casting and fitted on the cross slide using an intermediate "conversion" plate so the smaller end casting could be screwed to the cross slide. This was a rather crude temporary measure but I only needed to move the cross slide into position to centre the vertical slide holding the work. I used the leadscrew set in the chuck to centralise the hole in the end casting then locked both the cross slide and vertical slide before machining. Malc.

Hi Clive, These are news to me. I'll have a search around the net. Thanks, Malc.

Hi all, I have just fitted the Arceurotrade thrust bearing set to the cross slide of my ML7 and am really pleased with the job. I am so pleased with it that I am considering doing the same to the top slide. However the top slide end casting is smaller than the cross slide one and I am concerned that there will be very little thickness of casting left around the edges after boring out to accept the diameter of the thrust bearing. I just wondered, has anyone out there done this mod to the top slide? I have only heard of it being carried out to the cross slide.

Malcolm,

I have sent you a PM re: the ML7 wiring.

Malc.

If you find a suitable method of extending the leg let me know, both mine need extending! Actually it's my own fault, when I built the shed I built the floor far too near my ar........

Hi Michael,

I was considering it as a volunteer, but have had a lukewarm response from charities in the past.

Malc.

Just wondered whether any of you chaps have had any dealings with Remap? Would be grateful of any comments / opinions.Thanks, Malc.