Member postings for SteveM

You are welcome Roy, and I couldn't agree more.

There are several others worth a look on his channel. I particularly liked his Sopwith Camel Vickers machine gun. Here's a link...

VickersMovie

I recently stumbled across this astonishingly beautiful animation of a Gnome 9-B2 Monosoupape Assembly. I think anyone with even a passing interest in engineering will find it absolutely fascinating.
It's a YouTube video posted by a Dutch guy called Pierre Jansen, who should be encouraged to create many more such videos.

Monosoupape Assembly

Many thanks John, that was just what I needed. The job was done and the rotation reversed. Made me ridiculously happy!

Just to explain fully in case anybody else has a similar motor, this is what I found when I removed the back end.

The yellow and blue wires from the start capacitor were traced to the posts subtly red arrowed in the picture.
All I did was swap these two cables, carefully reassemble and nervously power up. Nothing went bang and the motor direction was reversed. It's running beautifully.

Many thanks to all who chipped in with advice!

Cheers,
Steve

Thanks for the replies, and sorry, perhaps I should have added some more information in the original post.

It's a 4-pole induction motor so circa 1450 rpm. 1000w. Single phase. Sadly there is no handy wiring diagram anywhere, but at least the wires are different colours! I'm pretty sure the start capacitor is the black 100 μF and the run is the white 10 μF.
The motor will be housed in a filtered enclosure.
It's from a floor polishing machine, and when fitted with a 2 inch pulley will rotate the drum at 24rpm.

I know it will work beautifully because my last mixer was an identical Benford. It worked just fine with a similar setup for more than a decade and I would have it still but some passing vermin took a fancy to it while I was at work.

I was really hoping that somebody would have encountered the same wiring arrangement and the solution would be as simple as 'swap the black wire with the yellow'!

Edited By SteveM on 09/08/2018 14:11:30

Hi all,
Sorry if an identical question has already been posted and answered - if it has I cannot find it, so please point me in the right direction.

I want to use this ex floor polisher motor for my concrete mixer, an old Benford. The motor would be perfect if only it could be made to turn in the right direction.

Before I am tempted to switch some connections on the start circuit that could kill me or the motor, can anyone tell me if the direction of rotation can be changed easily - or has it been fiendishly designed to make it difficult?
The black cable is live in.

There are some more pictures in an album which may help.

Edited By SteveM on 09/08/2018 11:39:31

There are a number of brazing videos on on YouTube posted by a guy who calls his channel 'Xynudu' (AKA Rob) He uses and recommends a Bullfinch 4100 and this is one of his videos:

Bullfinch Brazing Torch

The torch looks like a good piece of kit and I've promised myself one for this years birthday present

Edited By SteveM on 03/02/2018 00:29:52

Hi John,
Stefan Gotteswinter has a very interesting series of videos on an identical table which should be linked below. Although to be fair pretty much everything he outputs is interesting.

Improving the vertex rotary table

Hope that helps
Steve

Another positive vote for the powerfile from me. Useful for so many things I wouldn't be without it now.

Mine is the B&D 900E model from Amazon, used often and no belt problems. That Silverline is less powerful than the B&D but a lot smaller and more versatile, and with a good level of feedback. For £30 I reckon it doesn't have to be useful very often to be worth it.

The Downham (AKA Elliott or Gate) Jig Borer Miller is a brilliant workshop milling machine with a tiny footprint. I think it's often disregarded as a serious milling machine just because of it's jig boring capability. But it was designed to be capable of milling and indeed it mills beautifully, being capable of ploughing some deep furrows in steel if needs be. And the handwheels on the Mark 3 are a joy to use.
Quillstar have a couple for sale here Quillstar

Stefan Gotteswinter shared an excellent video on YouTube about the design and construction of an optical microscope. Like all his videos it's very interesting and well worth watching.
Centering Microscope

Interesting job indeed John. I've no doubt that your welded solution will have the strength to last the course, but I wonder if the shape of the vanes may cause a problem. It's looks from your picture as if the original impeller has hydrodynamically shaped vanes with rounded ends which will shift the fluid efficiently. Having said that it also looks as if the surfaces have been left rough from the casting.
The regular shape and square ends of the new vanes may cause turbulence and/or cavitation which would reduce performance, but the surface finish looks much smoother.
It'll be very interesting to see how it works out.

A guy called Gavin Oseman regularly advertises on the Home Workshop site. He sells a lot of inverters and sometimes inverter/motor packages. He only has inverters advertised at the moment but it could be worth a call to see if he has any motors.
Usual disclaimer applies - I've no attachment to him, just a satisfied customer.

This link will bring up his ads: Gavin Oseman Ads

Hi Mark,
I've long thought your own suggestion of a lathe headstock would provide the basis of a robust and capable dividing head.
A quick look on ebay and this Myford ML8 headstock came up. It's less than ideal in that it's from - dare I say it? - a WOOD lathe... but it's well built and has a centre height of 4" (though that starts from the top of the through hole rather than the base).
Some interesting (challenging?) fettling could make something of it. Two of them are for sale now for less than £50 each. And no - it's not me that's selling them...

The spindle is a bit small with only MT1. But it comes with a built in 24-hole indexing function!

The tailstock is also for sale...

Steve

Thanks for posting that Michael. They certainly didn't go overboard with instruction manuals in those days!

Steve

Peter - I like that one too!

Builder - I haven't got anything in particular to measure and I know that one of the dinky digital devices will do all the measuring and fit everywhere I need. I want something that'll be useful for a number of things occasionally, but in particular I want one of these because it's a beautiful tool. Sad but true.

Michael - thanks for the tip, I hadn't seen one of those. Now it is also on the list!

Hacksaw - PM sent. Also nice username.

Rik - I agree almost word for word with both paragraphs!

Steve

No problem Rik. I missed the first tip, perhaps just as wel from your comment. But I've looked at the programme info from the BBC site and they make it sound quite interesting, so you have to be forgiven for that

Haven't yet seen the Precision programmes, but I will soon. Unless you warn me off them!

Steve

I quite fancy putting a clinometer on my 'crikey I need one of those' list. Not one of the new fangled digital things (yet) but one of the qualty instruments from yesteryear. I've narrowed it down to two models like the ones pictured, both made by Watts/Hilger Watts/Hall Watts or even Taylor Hobson.

Do any of you have any interesting experience with these devices? Which would be the most accurate of the two? And what are the pros and cons of each?

Edited By SteveM on 06/11/2016 00:40:53

It seems they (can) make nice little grinders. This is one of many on YouTube: Grinder

I think this is one of the motor controllers: Controller which somehow they can make and deliver to you from halfway around the world for less than a quid.

Add any 12v(ish) DC power cource and you're away!

Steve

Thanks for the tip Rik, it looks interesting.
Tonight's episode is the second of three, but the first can still be viewed on the BBC iPlayer.

Have a question though... what was the last programme you tipped?

Steve