Member postings for mick H

What scale is the loco David ?

Mick

What is the component that you wish to tap?

Mick

That's the sort of stuff John....now to find it in brown plastic to save on painting it. My local builder's merchant no good.

Mick

Any ideas on where to locate 20mm C section plastic extrusion to protect tops of workshop end timbers ?

Mick

Worrying over this very subject, I asked a retired engineer friend how often he cleaned up his lathe and workshop etc. He replied "When it needs it." Try as I might I could not get him to expand on this answer.

Mick

Thanks for that bunch of very interesting posts gents. I shall re-read them all several times and tuck the advice away for future reference. As for my boiler, I seem to have cracked the problem with a bit of comsol and she is holding pressure well. We shall see what occurs when I get it into steam.

Touching again on "chemical sealants" as a solution. Radweld is an obvious lo-tech example. I note though that the same maker markets a product called Wonderweld which purports to seal cracks in motor car cylinder heads and engine blocks. Pretty extreme conditions and pressures there I would have thought.

Mick

I have just completed a vertical boiler build which has a central flue with cross tubes. Aware of the propensity of this design for leaks, the flue and cross tube assembly was silver soldered with SF24 and the whole assembly subjected to a 120psi hydraulic test for several hours. I then silver soldered the flue assembly into the boiler barrel using SF55. On hydraulically testing the whole boiler I noticed a very small drop in pressure of about 5psi over about 20 minutes and on investigation found the tiniest of weeps from one of the cross tube joints. The received wisdom seems to be, scrap it and start again. I will not do that .....yet.

My first thoughts centred around Comsol. Do I need a special flux?

Second thoughts were around a sealant but have things moved on from horse dung and oatmeal? Would it be very wrong to try say Fernox leak sealer provided the boiler was thoroughly washed out after a seal is effected.

This is the first of 8 boilers that has failed on me and although I accept it was my fault, whilst soldering up the flue assembly, the heavens opened and I made the error of trying to get the job done ASAP instead of concentrating more on the quality of the braze. As they say around these parts, you only get wet once.

Mick

Brilliant. Thanks Jason.

Mick

I am building a 3" vertical boiler with a centre flue with cross tubes. When talking with a wise old gent at a show last year he advised me that if I were to build such a boiler that I should do a hydraulic test on the flue and cross tubes before the assembly is silver soldered into the main barrel. The flue is 1"diameter. I am quite familiar with the mechanics of hydraulic testing but how do I go about sealing off the flue tube please. The tube is already cut to the required length.

Mick

Hallo Bazyle. I like the idea of using a regular solenoid. I must confess it had never occurred to me. I have used the push pull solenoid because I already had it for a previous (abortive) experiment. As you suggest, it would allow for a single 6v battery on board.

The motor is still on the bench whilst I get the mechanicals spot on. The remote control, of which I have no experience is yet to be fitted up and will no doubt provide fertile material for another thread when I get stuck. I could see no point in investing time setting up the radio control until I had a reliably working motor which would not get stuck in the middle of the pond.

I think though that the "flip it anyway" approach will be adopted.

Mick

Nearly a year later I think that I have solved the problem with this steam engine........or more accurately I have found a way round the self starting difficulties if the motor stops with the cylinders at BTC and TDC.

This involves the use of a needle roller one way clutch bearing which is fitted on the crankshaft. I have made up a collar with a drop link, which is a close fit over the bearing. The second item required is a miniature push pull solenoid. This is linked to the drop arm of the bearing collar. On application of 12 volts, the solenoid, which has a movement of 10mm, pulls the crankshaft round approximately 50 degrees which is enough to enable self starting when the steam is turned on. With the motor running the crankshaft turns freely inside the bearing. The solenoid and bearing came to about £6 and in this case was money well spent. The requirement for a battery is no problem because the boat needs one anyway for remote control.

If this is of any use to anyone else please feel free to PM me for details.

Mick

Hopper/Bandersnatch. Both right. I also have the habit, my wife tells me, of holding my breath when doing finicky bits. That probably doesn't help.

Mick

I have raised the lathe so that the mandrel is at about 40 inches and this is useful.

That is still about 8 to 10 inches lower than mine, which sits on top of a 40 inch bench, plus two-inch risers. But if you are 5'2" tall it should work

It was a rotten guestimate of mine Hopper. It is my bench that is 40 inches and the lathe mandrel at 50 inches so about the same as yours. I was out and about today in the garden doing allsorts including lifting and some ladderwork without a hint of discomfort. I have an hypothesis forming......I am becoming allergic to model engineering.

Mick

Thank you for your replies gents. Although in no way wishing this discomfort on anyone else, it is good to know that I am not the only one experiencing it. I have raised the lathe so that the mandrel is at about 40 inches and this is useful. The idea of a raised vice (together with the caveats) is also something I will put into use as I seem to spend a lot of time filing etc. Perhaps some specific exercises will also assist.

Mick

For some time I have had a dull ache in my ribs when working in the workshop. Serious causes have been eliminated and it appears to be caused by poor posture. I am naturally a bit round shouldered and standing fettling small items accentuates this stance and brings on, at times, considerable discomfort.. No other activities bring it on. Does anyone else get this and if so what remedies are successful?

Mick

Has anyone built the V4 Oscillator "Simple", originally from a design in a Dutch ME type magazine. The plans I have were drawn up by J.A.M.DeWaal ?

Mick

The last time I was stuck like this I drilled out the centre of the grub with a carbide drill and the resulting "cylinder" with the threads came out easily with a tight fitting screwdriver.

Mick

Oxygen is a catalyst to the reaction and it should speed things up.

Adding Hydrogen Peroxide from the chemist will provide the necessary extra oxygen and it works well.

Mick

Thanks for the interest gents. I do run the exit steam up the chimney and everything goes well when I do so. It is when I stop the motor and there is no exit steam going up the chimney that I have noticed that the fire seems to burn less enthusiastically. On a loco. it is at this point that I use the blower to stimulate the fire until the steam to the pistons is turned on again whereupon the blower is turned off. I only use the steam raising fan when first starting the boiler from cold. Primary air enters through the holes in the No.5 gas jet tube and there is plenty of secondary air available to the burner which burns with a stable blue flame. I am overall very pleased with the situation but just wondered whether results would be worth the effort of including a blower for use when the motor is turned off. It may be that reducing the gas supply when the motor is turned off will achieve the same thing.

Mick

Thanks Fizzy. It is gas fired. It comes up to steam well with an external steam raiser down the smokestack but the fire (ceramic burner) can be a bit sluggish when there is no exhaust from the motor to gee things up a bit. I suspect also that there is incomplete combustion judging by the smell when the motor is not running. When the motor is running I could not ask more from this littIe boiler which is only 2.5 in in diameter. have had the same experience with gas fired loco.

Mick