Member postings for Sam Stones

Hi Steve,

Judging from the quality and precision of your work and the expertise from others, should have been enough for me to keep my trap shut.

However, back in April 2019, I was the likely cause of ‘much wailing and gnashing of teeth’, mostly my own I suspect.

I’d spent a considerable amount of time in CAD, attempting to discover more about meshing. It was also unfortunate for many that I was only interested in cycloidal tooth profiles. In my wildest dreams, I wouldn’t (couldn’t) have tackled involutes.

When I started my one and only clock, I knew nothing about all this meshing/depthing stuff, and drilled the pivot holes first. Maybe I was lucky but my clock worked in a fashion.

Keep up the good work.

Sam

Still chilly in Melbourne.

There are far too many, and how unfair of me to mention Miniatur Wunderland having only seen it on video …..

However, two models that impressed me the most and remain in my memory were very different from each other. Regrettably, as far as I'm aware, there are no photographs of either.

The first was a railway, modelled on an actual village in Scotland.

It was different to a typical railway model in several ways. The majority of the layout was just the coastline of the village with a single track following the contours and gradient. For portability, the two chaps who built the model had managed to fit all the sections into three banjo cases.

The rolling stock was tiny. With room to spare, an engine would easily fit into a matchbox. The gauge was perhaps even smaller and almost certainly predated N scale. They had to wind their own electric motors too, since nothing that small was available.

Holding an engine in the palm of his hand and peering closely at the detail, my toolmaker friend and mentor Bill asked them, “How did you make the spokes of the driving wheels?”

“Oh! We just made a tool and bashed them out.” came the reply.

The other very different model was of a weaving machine. Built by a dentist to a scale of about 1:6, it measured roughly 12" (30cm) wide, and looked as complex as an old Remington typewriter.

The unique feature was that it actually worked producing a strip of woven cloth some 6" (15cm) wide.

So, what else was unique?

It was c1950 and my first ever visit to a Model Engineer’s exhibition. On that occasion, it was in the Corn Exchange, Manchester.

Edited By Sam Stones on 20/08/2022 03:06:07

Yes Nick, you’re right.

For most, recognising our birth year must be commonplace. Besides the obvious, I’ve found it interesting to learn of special events, none-the-least being certain political signings. It would be advisable to leave those alone.

But Mickey Mouse gets a mention; Amelia Earhart flew solo across part of the Pacific Ocean; a large dam with the name of a vacuum cleaner was completed; and cat’s eyes with a built in `wash and brush up’ were introduced onto British roads.

There’s a bit more traffic now so it’s not safe to try this, but if you stamped on the rubber covered cat’s eyes, you’d likely produce a jet of water up-yer-kilt.

As a 1st year apprentice in about 50-51, a visit to Horwich Loco Works northwest of Bolton was another eye opener.

**LINK**

I can still recall the pleasant(?) smell of the smoke being chuffed owt-ut-th’engin-chim-ly. Was it sulphur combining with steam?

Down the road towards Bolton was de Havilland Propellers.

**LINK**

It was a most interesting place for a young lad. I watched intrigued by the degree of balance of those enormous three-bladed props. They would begin to turn from the weight of a folded visitor’s card, only coming to a standstill once the card fell off.

Times change!

At just over 17 minutes in length, it was the date of this video that caught my attention.

**LINK**

Guess why.

Welcome to you Peter.

Perhaps earlier than your time, my first visit to Holland was for ten days in late ‘62 when the autumn colours were at their best, photographically speaking.

Would KSPLD (Koninklijke/Shell plastics laboratorium delft), ring any bells?

Cheers,

Sam

Here's a couple of penn'orth ...

For the unwary (and I was one), this ME thread goes back to late September 2010 when I was resurrecting my skeleton clock. Look to see what Roy and Norman had to say …

**LINK**

Here is another comment, this time from C S Sparks …

**LINK**

Look for his paragraph commencing …

Most clock repairers have seen the consequences of well-intended sprays of WD-40 on clock movements.

My own clock almost completely finished, sat under the cover of a polyethylene bag for about thirty years. For further protection, I had chosen to spray it with a popular ‘Specialist Long-Term Corrosion Inhibitor’.

What I didn’t know and now discover from the Internet advert;

Quote …

It provides non-drying protection that stays where you spray it.

It has a long-lasting formula to protect metal parts by blocking rust and corrosion for up to 1 year outdoors or 2 years indoors. A must have for corrosion protection.

... end of quote.

Often reaching for the can to liberally spray anything that might 'benefit', had I known about the time limit some forty plus years ago, I might have used something else that wouldn't leave a hard-to-remove coating on the brass frames of my skeleton clock, and didn't protect the steel parts.

Traps for new players I suppose.

Cheers,

Sam

Hi Nick,

I for one am impressed with your latest work and your determination to pursue even better results. For me, the corona(?) movement is blurry as expected and would be - should I say - impossible to capture without synchronised exposures.

Keep up the good work.

Sam

Thanks Michael, I look forward to reading anything you find.

Cheers,

Sam

And in the video (thanks Michael) what about those missing gear teeth from about 4:10?

Ensuring synchronised re-engagement has to be yet another clever piece of the design.

Albeit set by hand, that was a problem I encountered during the design and construction of the mechanism for a popular TV game.

Sam

Thank you, Roy.

As you indicate, ‘blue steel’ (already heat-treated to the desired hardness, toughness, and ready for further shaping), is sold in small diameters. I seem to recall reading nevertheless, that slightly larger diameters (e.g. <10mm) of pre-toughed steel with very similar elemental content and performance characteristics being available for related use. However, although I can now find no such evidence while eager for a speedy exoneration, I feel sure someone (MichaelG perhaps?) will delve into this.

Having a longstanding preference for silver steel, the difficulty I have with heat-treating steel is escaping from the simple image of carbon atoms ‘drifting’ or ‘racing’ out of solution during quenching. Couple this image with something to do with the placement of carbon in the atomic structure of ‘body-centred cubed’ and its return to ‘face-centred cubed’, nicely disclosed at the ‘just visible’ point of recoalescence*, and you’ll get where I’m coming from. I’m again sure someone will come to my rescue as I bury myself even deeper.

*Only observed in a darkened room just before the red glow of the heated steel (cooling in air), disappears completely.

Admitting to occasionally confusing pivots with pinions through paying less attention, apart from its surface finish/quality (and any ability to improve same) the idea of tungsten carbide for pivots makes sense.

This latter variation may tend to aggravate the desires of professional clock repairers (and others), should the carbide pivot break in situ. Would they have to drill from the back or replace the whole item?

Some professional clock repairers also dislike the use of glue of which I’m guilty. At the time of need, Araldite was so convenient and, I imagine, so is Loctite.

Minimising friction/corrosion beyond that of steel, the availability of ceramic ball bearings offers a good alternative.

Sam

From a very chilly Melbourne

Would I be throwing a spanner in the works by mentioning blue steel?

**LINK**

As for which will wear more, here's an old chestnut. Back in the 50’s I removed the substantially worn and scored gudgeon pin from a small 2-stroke petrol engine.

The replacement pin was a near perfect fit in the small end (bronze?) bearing.

In a similar vein, tests on a lawn mower spur gear made from HDPE (high density polyethylene) meshing with a similar steel gear resulted in the steel gear wearing out. Lapping comes to mind.

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 05/06/2022 21:09:23

Ifiggy,

Due in part to declining years, I failed to realise, or even to check that you have been building clocks for many years.

As a one-clock ‘expert’, I relied almost entirely on my engineering background, missing things like ‘shake’ etc. as I progressed.

As revealed via Michael’s (Smith Metal) link, EN8’s key features are …

• Unalloyed medium carbon steel

• Reasonable tensile strength

• Can be flame or induction hardened (well I never)

• Readily machinable

• Moderate wear resistance if heat treated

Sam

I know there'll be others with a more thorough explanation. Meanwhile, might I suggest Ifoggy, that you take a piece of EN8, heat it to bright (cherry) red, and quench it in clean cold water.

A rub with a file should show that it has remained soft.

A quick scan for the carbon content of EN8 describes it as Mild Steel with between 0.35% and 0.45% carbon. Silver steel contains in excess of 1.0% and given the same heat treatment (as above) will be pot hard.

For work pieces, tempering is highly recommended.

Regards,

Sam

Back again, David.

Duncan and John's input, have added more food-for-thought!

Contemplating the effects of shifting the pendulum suspension horizontally in sync with its time constant can, to say the least, be tricky. The conical pendulum system demands even more concentration.

With reference to Michael’s Farcot/Carrier-Belleuse Conical Mystery Clock link …

**LINK**

… although difficult to follow; between 0:56 – 1:00 of the video, and also the wheel and its speed variation briefly visible between 1:10 – 1:14, it appears that the bob of the conical pendulum is tracing an ellipse. Since the contact point of the pendulum tip visibly slides back and forth a short distance along the ‘torque arm’, the effective torque transfer varies.

The suspension of the pendulum appears to be a ‘twin’ gimbal, similar in principle to Hook’s universal joint.

Q1. Does this form of suspension have little x/y influence?

Q2. Would it be safe to assume that the elliptical trace results from not only the varying torque, but also the earth’s rotation?

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 27/05/2022 23:35:48

Hi David,

I just had to turn your pictures around.

Cheers,

Sam

PS I haven't figured out how the impulses are transferred.

Nick said ... it shows up better in the cross view one.

That's curious Nick. I might presume an eye imbalance, which is very likely with my faltering right eye.

Cheers,

Sam

Spot on, Nick.

Although I tried to stay with the current (unwritten) convention seemingly adopted earlier, i.e., parallel at the top and crossed underneath, I was rather mischievous in withholding their identities.

Not knowing if those with a ‘predilection’ for parallel viewing can see in the blink of an eye, which is which, it suggests to me that crossed viewing has a slight edge.

Did you notice the longitudinal split in the plastic? It’s just under the lower loop of the red clip. Beside some dust, there's also a whisker ... top right on the red clip.

Cheers,

Sam

A couple of years ago (22nd May 2020), soon after Raphael’s thread became piggybacked with 3D images, I experimented with views from my skeleton clock CAD files.

For reference, look towards the end of … **LINK**

I noted then that a five-degree rotation of the CAD image seemed to work.

Before my enthusiasm faded, I messed about with a pair of plastic-coated paperclips that I could rotate five degrees. Photographed through a 100mm Macro on my Canon 300D here is the result for parallel and crossed viewing.

It’s quite clear that I could also have skewed the clips themselves to increase the 3D effect. Instead, I gave preference to depth of field.

Clearly, although only one camera is necessary, this (table-top) method is only suitable for static objects. I certainly look forward to your two-camera results Nick. My thoughts about synchronised shutters were more to do with if and when you turn your attention to animated objects.

Cheers,

Sam

So I see Nick ... with eyes crossed.

Thanks for your input and others for a most entertaining thread.

Cheers,

Sam

Spot on for me too Joseph.

‘Locking in’ (cross-eyed) is almost instantaneous and focusing is not a problem.

I’d say (from my perspective), it comes from viewing those “Spot the difference” cartoons and seeing the differences flicker as (I presume) the brain switches between left and right.

If one frame is above the other, it's necessary to turn the pair through 90 degrees.

That kind of gives the game away.

Sam

PS - There is a down side for some. Feeling nauseous. 

Edited By Sam Stones on 24/04/2022 22:47:01