Member postings for mike T

Oliver

Unfortunately, unable to help you at the moment. However, I will be very interested to hear of your experiences with nitriding your new crankshaft as I intend to follow your lead in a the near future. Therefore I would be pleased to learn, who are prepared to do the nitriding, the cost and any special preparation that is necessary such as dimentional considerations.

Good luck

Mike

Shame on you JasonB; there is absolutely no need to be so negative and critical. The model is still en route to it's new owner, who has yet to inspect his pride and joy. Your comments could have been better timed or not written at all.

The howitzer looks to be a very fine work of model making. The builder is very talented and has done a good job to satisfy Bobs requirements.

Mike T

I am sure that loctite shelf life is an invention of Quality Control engineers and the manufactures. The only good thing about shelf life is that it can provide a ready source of free loctite if you are in the right place at the right time. One of my bottles of 648 is about 20 years old and will still create immovable bonded joints.

Hello Niel,

The compression ratio for a model engine depends on which fuel you intend to use. For spark ingnition and petrol; a compression ratio of 6:1 will give good results with a "mild" engine. For a methonol burner; the compression ratio needs to be about 8:1 especially if you are using glow ignition. The engine will probably run on a lower compression ratio but you may need to keep the battery connected to keep the glow plug alive with a lower compression ratio.

As for how much nitro in the fuel, that depends somewhat on engine capacity. Larger engines will run well on little or no nitro. Your 5cc engine may require more than 5% nitro. As with everything to do with model engines, give it a try and see how it works. If it works, then you have found the answer. if it does not work, then you will need to experiment some more.

Mike

How long will it be before they insist we all use a metric protractor with 400 graduations instead of 360 degrees?

**LINK**

Mike

Snap-on Tools and Sealey Tools (and others) sell pairs of crocodile teeth spanner storage racks. These are ideal for storing both your spanner sets and your engineering files in a convenient and orderly fashion.

Search your friendly e-auction site for 'Spanner rack'. There are a number of sizes to chose from. They do not cost a fortune and a perfect for the job. Just stick them to the bottom of an empty drawer.

Mike

I used to have  four small leather pouches filled with lead shot to hold the corners flat on the board. Curled up paper/ film drawings are a fact of life I am afraid, Rolling them in the opposite direction helps, sometimes!! Storing them flat is much better, as there is less risk of damaging the old prints as you access them.

Edited By mike T on 24/07/2012 19:45:41

Question:

Surely "I am not overstretched, there just is not enough time to do everything" is just the same as saying "I am not out of my depth, it's me legs that are too short"??

MAT

The purpose of a FUSE in an electrical power distribution network is to protect the wire conductors i.e. to prevent fires, not to protect the appliance. That is why you should fit 3 or 5 amp fuses in plugs with thin wires such as used for phone chargers and 13 amp fuses ONLY to plugs with thicker wire, such as for the kettle. The same logic applies to the incoming power to your house or workshop. The cross section area of the house wiring determines the fuse size and not what you connect to it.

Hello Jason and Russell,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Brockmetals have a minimum order quantity of 1000Kg. That should last a while!!!!

The Thompson Local Directory was delivered yesterday, so I will try to contact the local??? die casters. Fingers crossed.

Mike

Hello John,

I am not sure that is the answer. Mazac (Zamak) is an alloy of Al, Cu, Mg, Pb, Cd, Sn, Fe,with a trace of Ni and Si. As an alloy, Zamac 2 melts at about 385 degrees C which can be reached electrically. So if I could find ingots of all the components, instead of a ingot of the Mazac, I would not be able to melt some of the elements and some i would not want to touch.

No, I will continue my search for some Mazac (Zamac) ingots. The problem seems to be that Zinc alloy casting is another skill that has been lost in Great Britain

Mike

Mazak (Zamak) or monkey metal is used extensively in the auto and other industries to make small accurate castings, including spin casting into silicone moulds.

Does anyone know where I can buy a small quantity of Mazak (Zamak) ingots? I do not want to start with scrap material. I will probably make enough of that anyway.

Thanks

Mike

Beware of bits of aluminium found laying around. Some bits may machine well or just stick to the cutting tool.

I machine lots and lots of aluminium and I have no problems with HSS or tipped tools on the mill or lathe. I machine dry, without any coolant or lubricant, provided I use the right grade of aluminium alloy

I ALWAYS buy a known grade of aluminium. My material of choice is HE 30 TF............ 6082 T6 or T4.It machines beautifully. Do not buy anything that is "good for bending" as it will be too soft and will just weld itself to the cutting tools

Hello Mark,

It is happening again; Adverts over the text and extra wide pages. Not on all topics, but certainly on the scale figures topic. I thought you had fixed this problem.

Mike

David, Another source of 1/6 scale figures can be found in Artist Supply Shops. They have little wooden mannequin figures with movable, joints which are about 12 inches tall. They are not expensive (if you shop around, try e-bay). They give a sense of scale and probably look best if you leave then in the raw.

Mike

Hello Mark Web Tech,

Curently, and things do change, I have adverts down the centre of the page and text that is wider than my screen. I am a model engineer not a computer fanatic, so browsers and firefoxes and Scayt spell checkers mean little to me. I have Widows XP and Windows Internet Explorer, Please do not even think about advising me to change these just to see this forum

Mike

Dear Mr Moderator,

Why do you insist on saying it is our computer settings which are at fault? Have you considered that you may have replaced a less than perfect Editor with this one which is, to say the least, even further than perfect. Do you think it is time to ask for your money back?