Member postings for John MC

Thanks for the replies, I'll try the 1.5kw VFD.

John

I have a 1100w three phase motor I want to run through a VFD. The last time I set up one of these I recall it was important to match the motor to the VFD. Is this still imortant?

I have a 1500w VFD, would this work with the lower rated motor?

Motor 2.5 amps, VFD rated at 7 amps. I also have a 750w VFD, 4 amps, might this be suitable?

John

Was this (awful) gearbox lubricated with oil? My experience of these boxes was with the Indian built version. These were lubricated with semi-liquid grease and topped up as necessary with engine oil between lubrication changes.

The Indian boxes had a level plug facing rearward on the inner end cover.

Incidentally, the Indian built gearboxes could be adjusted to improve (!) the gear change by attacking the "stop plate", position 17 in the drawing above. This could give an almost acceptable gear selection. I wonder if the UK built version was the same?

Anyone tried using rotary broaches to create external polygons? Common enough in industry for polygons and splines.

I use my rotary broach for heaxagons and squares, <10mm AF. Latest job was 8mm AF square hole in some brass washers for a furniture restorer friend. While doing this I pondered the idea of an external broach. Making the broach would be a challenge, maybe using the head of a cap screw to create the cutting edge?

John

Outside doors in every room? (Sorry, being flippant). I recently helped someone with drawings for a two story extension for an older house. The building regs are quite clear on escape routes in the event of fire, opening windows are a large part of this. I believe new regs have just been introduced.

OP here, thank you to everyone who replied to my query. It has now gone to a new home, sorry to disappoint everyone who expressed interest in taking the device off my hands.

John

I've had this device stored away in my garage for along time. Seems to be a variable speed vee belt drive, expanding pulleys by the look of it.

I acquired it many years ago thinking it may make a variable speed drive for one of my machines, never got around to it. Not likely to now because VFD's make it much easier.

Anyone recognise the device? Anyone want it before I let the scrappy take it away?

John

This topic got me thinking. Does building something bigger than fullsize make the model the biggest?

I friend of my grandfather was a keen horologist, he made number of clocks but the one that has stayed in my memory was a pocket watch. His "model" was about 9" in diameter, that is to say 4 times full size. I recall him saying that the size was determined by two copper cooking pans that formed the case.

I wish I could remember more about the watch (clock?), often wondered what happened to it.

John

Read that before posting here. Still didn't understand the device. The suggestion is that the device is an injector, an expensive one at that, £20 vs £200+.

When I designed my system I made provision to fit an injector(s) along with motorised valve(s), the system works well without so never bothered. Without an injector my system takes longer to heat the hot cylinder when the heating pump is running. But, with an injector fitted the radiators would take longer to warm up.

The emperor's new clothes comes to mind.......

Thanks for the replies guys. I did so want this to be worth doing but my suspicions have been confirmed.

I think it may help in a gravity feed heating system, something from the days when a house had a cellar where the boiler would be sited, with all the radiators above then the water would tend to circulate without the encouragement of a pump. Having said that it would probably be cheaper to fit a pump!

I think pumping water around the (Soild fuel fired) system too quickly would be a bad thing. As has been stated, water needs to spend time in the boiler to pick up heat, passing the water through too quickly will cool the boiler too much. I wonder if the "designer" thinks pressurising the system will mitigate this?

When I installed my system I looked at various devices that would actually improve performance, Laddomat, I think, was one of them.

I fitted an additional thermostat to the boiler that switches the circulating pump off when the water in the boiler drops below a certain temperature. This does two things, allows the water temperature to "catch up", the pump intially cycles on/off a few time before running continuously. It also keeps the boiler hot enough to stop internal condensation. This is the same as devices such as the Laddomat does, more or less. Considerably cheaper, the bits cost a few pounds from RS.

I see that the designer got €60,000 from the the Irish version of Dragons Den. Are the dragons smarter than us, have we missed something?

If the job is a "one off" or very occasional use why not get the local engine reconditioner to do the job. Mine charges ~£30 to hone a bore.

I rebore my own (motorcycle) cylinders and get them to hone the last 2 - 3 thou out.

John

As the cost of heating our homes rises I'm interested in any way I can save some money on, in my circumstance, solid fuel.

I came across this recently, https://heathero.ie/

If it does as claimed then I may well be interested. Thing is, after reading the description, trawling the web etc I'm none the wiser as to how it works!

I watched a YT clip of the device being presented on the Irish version of "dragons den", the inventor didn't seem to really understand how the device worked. That may have been nerves through being on the TV?

So, over to you lot, any ideas?

Interesting place to visit, I've been lucky enough to visit many times with military students so have got to see behind the scenes and listened to some interesting talks by the curators. Many years ago we were allowed to climb inside them.

WW1 tanks, it seems its Bovvys' policy not to run them anymore, they don't want to risk damaging them. Its a good job the preserved railways don't have that attitude!

Not sure that will work, what about the plain diameter further up the spindle?

Has the OP measured the run out of the plain diameter? Not easy to do what with it being "down a hole" and the key in the way.

My partner and I have just sat down for a cup of tea after cleaning our cooker hood. We use "Cillit Bang" kitchen degreaser. Spray it on, leave for a few minutes then wipe off.

Realy tough deposits, the stuff the last clean missed may need a second application.

The mesh bits that hold the filters in place and the frame that supports them go in the dishwasher.

John

The industy I worked in was full of quality standards imposed on us by customers that we (supposedly) needed to comply with. We often found that we did with little or no effort needed to comply because we worked hard to give the best possible product.

Occaisonally a new standard was created that we needed to ensure compliance. One guy took the whole standards thing very seriously and was happy to take care of the paper work.

Some wag came up with the following military standard, MIL TFD 4 1. Our standards guy searched high and low for it in the paperwork. Eventually, we felt sorry for him, so told him what it meant, he took it in good heart!

Something else, what is "systems engineering". Never got an explanation but at one time it was a big "thing". Best explanation I got was that "it was something good engineers have always done".

Another option that may be worth considering is a new spindle with an ER nose, a 40 would be about right.

Although I have various Autolock and ER collet chucks my preference is to use a morse taper collet (ex [Meriden] Triumph toolroom) directly in the spindle nose to improve rigidty of the set up. Also useful to increase vertical capacity. I suppose that depends on what sort of work one does on the machine. Even though the 0V is a substantial machine for its size, especially when compared with modern "hobby" equipment, its capacities are quiet small so anything that can be done to improve this is worthwhile.

I have increased its capacity in the Z axis, worked out a way of incresing the X axis capacity but not done it yet. The Y axis has defeated me.

The real answer would be to buy a larger machine.....

When I bought my Herbert 0V I replaced the spindle taper with a 4MT, the main reason being that I had 4MT tooling from the mill the 0V replaced. I finished the taper exactly as Pete R described. Not that easy to do but well worth the effort.

With hindsight, I would have preferred to use a 30INT taper. The advantage of the International taper is that its not self locking unlike a Morse. Both Morse and International tapers give a far more better location than R8. Also, R8 mountings are known to wear on the parallel diameter with the inevitable affect on accuracy. Providing the mounting is accurate in the first place I don't think that will be a problem with the amount of use our machines get!

Incidentally, I replaced the existing bearing arrangement with tapered rollers for a more ridgid support of the spindle. Doing this enabled me to reduce the overhang of the tooling and gain a little more vertical capacity.

I have an electronic copy of the manual for this machine, if the OP wants a copy let me know.

Up until recently I had access to Solidworks 3D CAD software. I would like to carry on with solid modelling software but cannot justify the cost the cost of a licence.

I've searched the forum for recommendations, seems there are a few free packages that might work for me.

One question I cannot find an answer to is will any of the free packages open Solidworks files, ideally allowing me to edit the files? Probably too much to hope for but worth an ask.

I have a free Solidworks file viewer, this allows me to interrogate the model but not change it.

John

Nigel G2, the council partner is "Solar Together". They seem to have jumped in to bed with a number of councils. looks like this company are facilitators, they will decide on which "reputable" installer will do the work based on the best price for the group buy. They are not the suppliers/installers of the equipment.

When I researched the pros and cons of solar panels I very soon realised that I needed to find reliable sources of information to see if it was worthwhile, turns out it was, that was when the FIT tariff was worth having. I estimated that the panels would pay for themselves, based on FIT payments, in the last quarter of the eighth year, actually happened in the third quarter of that year.

For a battery, finding reliable unbiased information has not been easy. Much of the information seems to come from people with a vested interest. Based on what unbiased information I could find a battery is not for me.at the moment. As you say, too much based on the "spurious average".

Intrigued as to why your roof would need to be rebuilt to support a PV array, not heard that before.