Member postings for Clive Hartland

On the Emco Maximat 11 that I used the pin was soft Aluminium, it was a plain pin but had a knurled portion at one end to keep it in place by friction.

I only ever snapped one in 10 years use!

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 06/04/2012 14:14:52

I think this is the BBC and its Journos getting the nomenclature confused! The cables that support the roadway are all pre-tensioned by the makers and cut to precise lengths using special measuring devices under the tension load to less than a mm tolerance.

The cables are then terminated in 'Glands' with an eye for fitting to the supports and the cable glands are shaped internally to follow the twist of the cable.

I think there is a conical wedge put into the end of the cable to lock it in place.

This can all be done flat on the ground and the cable then hoisted into position.

There are about 8 nuts and bolts on each gland and the recomended torque for the 39mm bolts would be about 370ftlb, easily done with a big torque wrench. Biggest problem is the nut driver splitting, which was quite common when I was doing 1" bolts to 180 ftlb.

The hub retaining bolts on my Passat front wheels are tightened to a very high figure in the 100's which I do with a piece of ali tube over the wrench.

Overtightening just stretches the bolts and they can increase length by 10%. As they said the new bolts and nuts had smaller profile and were harder materiel and the the loads would increase because of this.

This is really a non story as ongoing maintenance would take care of this and the public would be unaware of it.

Clive

Solve the problem, use a bit of stainless steel.

Clive

Have people forgotten good old Daylight, I often work with the garage door open and enjoy the sunlight and better quality vision from it!

Perhaps you should make provision for light with a 'Northlight' window, all the rage in industry when I worked.

Clive

It is interesting that reflected light is mentioned but sometimes incident light is desirable!

Lights centrally disposed will come over your shoulder but lights in front of you will give incident light.

Spot lighting is needed in certain locations and you may not be able to set these up just by guesswork as you will find the spotlight needs to be moved around for best effect.

Another aspect is full spectrum flourescent tubes should be aquired as they give the nearest to daylight. May cost more but for comfort while working with out squinting they will pay back.

Clive

Hello Len, Roves are used with copper rivets when building clinker type boats and you drill through and put the rivet in and a 'Rove' like a domed copper washer is put over the rivet and the excess is clipped off and the rivet then peened over the rove.

Makes a nice water tight joint, also used to keep the rib work tight against the inside planking.

Clive

The application of heat for soldering large areas is a tricky one, as a torch heats locally but a big copper iron will spread the heat evenly and you can travel it slowly along the job.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 15/03/2012 14:13:55

They might have been used to make nice clean holes for the rivets and roves in clinker boat building.

Splitting wood on a plank is a disaster and these would make clean holes.

Clive

Bob has it, pre-tin all the parts where they will be covered. then you clamp up lightly and heat and run more solder into joints.

Preperation before tinning is important by scratching the surface and maybe chemical cleaning if you have big areas and follow through with the tinning straightaway.

Bare in mind a blow torch heat is very localized and a copper bit is much better for controlling the run of heat and solder.

I would not use multicore solder, use killed spirits (Bakers Fluid) you do not need a black mess floating around and if its catching fire/smoking you are too hot!

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 15/03/2012 08:02:15

Maybe because they have a resistor in them that leaks the chage slowly, my battery drill does the same and in two hours is back up again.

Clive

There is the possibility that there is a loose component inside that moves erratically as you remove and reset its position.

Shake it gently and can you hear any rattle?

If its an old instrument this is a possibility.

The fact it will not recenter by rotation means to me an internal problem as you have eliminated all other possibilities.

I often come across prisms in optical instruments that have shifted and it can take lots of work to find it.

Another possibility is that the graticule itself is not stable due to pressure springs not seating properly, lubricants dry out and they stick.

If you are brave take it to pieces and see what you can find.

Clive

I think the little whiskers are called, 'Dendrites' Ian and are the main failure of an NC battery.

Zapping the battery in the reverse polarity I beleive is the way to burn them off.

Another factor about NC batteries is that the are Finite life, that is they have about 500 charge and discharge cycles before they fail.

They should be charged from a depleted condition of 1.1 Volts per cell for the correct time of 10 xC.

The practice of topping up a charge is fatal to them and is the cause of the memory condition, this can be got over by a full discharge and re-charge 3 or 4 times to rejuvenate them.

The NiMi batteries are different and do not have memory problems.

Storage is another problem with advocates of a full charge and others that they be stored in a depleted condition.

Clive

Dick, hello, I always brush the batteries with a steel brush and the tags if any and just use ordinary flux and lead/tin solder. maybe the tales of woe about battery soldering are with the new type solder?

We make up 7Ah batteries for powering theodolites and lasers underground so we have other criteria to adhere to as well.

Clive

The replacement of cells in a battery is simple, we do it almost every day at work. Regarding the connecting straps, all we do is solder them on. We do not let the soldering iron dwell on the battery too long.

There is a Company called, 'All batteries'. they do re-celling and it might be worth asking them.

They are the people we buy our single cells off to make up our own packs.

If you do it yourself it only needs the casing cutting open and you can do this with one of those 'Razor' saws. Photograph the interior and proceed as per Kieth.

I would definately have a go.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 10/03/2012 19:20:23

Bob, remember the Thymol will not dissolve in water and needs alcohol to dissolve.

You will not need much to do it and suggest say half teaspoonfull to 2oz of alcohol, it can be stored in a sealed container but do not imbibe it yourself.

The application rate is 1 teaspoon to 2 liters, work it out from that and it is also pungent and will smell all around!

Clive

Thymol is what I use to treat my Bees for Varroa, it is mixed with wood alcohol and then put it in a sugar solution and is fed to the bees in the spring and autumn.

I can smell it when working the bees.

It is not used during the honey collecting period as it is possible it could get in the honey.

If you want Thymol crystals they can be bought from Thornes (Beekeeping).

The wood alcohol I cannot say where to get it unless you have a licence, though possibly a phamacist may let you have a few ounces if explained to them.

Clive

Its probably banned under H and S rules now, there are so many chemicals in cutting oil now.

I do remember that smell as i would get soaked in it from the drilling/tapping machine.

Clive

You obviously have not used Army issue toilet roll, you could use it to write letters home on.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 05/03/2012 22:06:49

All old hat now as we use Skt/drive screws but years back I would have a job rejected if my slots were not all inline on an instrument side plates.

It did slowly die out but the habit lingers on still to this day.

I did it by screw selection as the slots were not all oriented the same to the thread. The screws were also sealed with wax to stop water entry.

Now with various types of finish on the screws we have a lot of trouble removing them due to corrosion, interaction between the plating and the castings being the problem.

Another problem with Cupro nickel screws was the heads popping off under tension.

Clive

Is this not called, 'Finesse' doing a job to, the highest degree of excellence and finish?

Clive