Member postings for fizzy

Help needed with gear choice and configuration in otder to cut a 1/2" bsp thread on my harrison - not threadcutting gearbox - L5. Charts are on the machine but have worn away. Thanks

With a bore of 1" and a stroke of 2" you will need a lot of steam. A customer bought two of our 5" diameter boilers to run a ham radio generating set running twin Victoria engines which worked well. **LINK**

A very basic rule I adopt when selecting dies which applies to tap and die sets is that if the die is split it is likely to be better quality than onw which isnt. No proff other than buying them for over forty years I have found this to be the case.

You need the same pitch as your bolts - modt likely coarse

William, if your not intending to go for bigger valves then you are over thinking this. The modded chamber in the above photo has beed achieved using a high speed die grinder, ive done dozens of them and thats what they all look like. If all you are modding is the chambre you wont see much gain - the inlet throat is a nightmare design and requires extensive work. Get yourself the DV bible and all will be revealed. I can only assume you are turbocharging it as thats the only reason to open just the chamber and have such a low cr. Please do tell us what its for (sorry if you already have and ive missed it). Nostalgic stuff this is !

**LINK**

Thirty years ago I made good money modding 12G295 and 240 heads.Im assuming your increasing valve size? Cutter is easy to make if youve got a lathe - 120rpm. If your wanting high compression (13 to1 is as high as you go for normal fuel) then the chamber surfaces need to be ground smooth otherwise you will get detonation. Pillar drill - not a chance. An easier way to increase the seat size is with a conical grinder. If its just to lower the compression then die grinder - still got my Bosch die grinder somewhere - and wear goggles, forgot how many times I went to a and e with cast iton in my eye!

Duncan - I opted for no.1 as it has a much lower surface area when closed so whould require less pressure to hold it shut, but either way should work.....I think

1. drain in

2. drain out

3. valve head

4. O ring

5. Gland nut

6. ferrule

7. Out of shot - live steam line

Simples - perhaps all that time spent trying to get them to work wasnt a complete waste! Whats not shown is that you will also need a steam relief valve to release pressure to operate the valve.

Agreeing with Andrew, we use nothing but carbide tips - you need the correct tip for the job but anyone who telly you they have to be deep fast cuts clearly doesnt know what they are talking about! No problem taking cuts of 0.0002"

Andrew - have you spotted your deliberate error? LOL

I got a mixed box containing several hundred for under a tenner so im good for a while. What are these people on?

As an ex coded welder .....150 amps will struggle with 6mm plate even if its set up well and you are a very competent welder . Needs to be about 300 amps, spray not drip and 1.2 wire. What you are describing is what I would expect given equipment, material and experience

Could be yours for only £38 ish - have I missed something?

**LINK**

If soldered correctly in the first place there is no problem in machining stays flat to the surface, the solder between the stay and the plate does all the work.

Whilst the regulations may require a permanent mark on the pressure gauge face plate, on smaller older gauges it is very unwise to attempt this as the retaining screws tend to corrode and snap off. New gauges come apart easily but must be handled with great care.

If your safety is unscrewing itself then something is badly wrong. As Nigel says, the spring should hold it plenty tight enough in place.

For most fittings I use fibre washers, but for brass plugs I use PTFE tape, and sometimes both if the direction of the fitting doesnt fall quire right. What a lot of people dont realise is that PTFE tape made for water pipes shouldnt be used for gas pipes. There are two types, one specifically for each application.

hdd backup has had its day, and im glad to be rid of them after so many fails. Everything on my pc is automatically backed up to the ms cloud so i can access everything anywhere. Will the cloud fail - unlikely given who runs mine.

Could you please provide an explanation of how stiffness (which is a function of Young's modulus and geometry) correlates to hardness. Thanks.

Lifted from the net - a bit vague but copvers the basics

The hardness (H) of a material tends to increase with an increase in the elastic modulus (E), yield strength (σ_y) and the strain-hardening exponent (n). Several materials with different combinations of elastic and plastic properties can exhibit identical true hardness (for a particular indenter geometry/apex angle). In general, combinations of materials that exhibit relatively low elastic modulus and high yield strength or strain-hardening exponents and those that exhibit relatively high elastic modulus and low yield strength or strain-hardening exponents exhibit similar hardness properties. Depending on the strain-hardening characteristics of the indented material, (i.e. n = 0 or ), the ratio H/σ_y ranges, respectively, from 2.2 to 2.6 or 2 to 20 (for indentations with a cone angle of 70.3°. The materials that have lower σ_y/E and higher n exhibit higher H/σ_y ratios. The commonly invoked relationship between hardness and the yield strength, i.e. H ≈ 3σ_y, is not generally valid or applicable for all power-law hardening materials. The indentation hardness of a power law hardening material can be taken as following the relationship H ≈ (2.1–2.8)σ_r where σ_r is the representative stress based on Tabor’s representative strain for a wide range of materials.

As far as im aware amazon dont operate a courier service unless you are buying an item from them - I wish they did!

Pleased to report that a boiler which we shipped to Belguim last November arrived safely at its destination yesterday. Thats after writing it off as lost and sending the customer a free replacement item. I am still being hounded for Import Duty on my own item which was not delivered but was sent back to me. So much BS and stress!

As someone who buys their silver solder by the kilo (from the cup twins no less) take it from me that if you get your copper bright red there will be no flux left to flux. An easy way to ensure you dont over do the heat is to apply flux - HT5 is more forgiving - then cut off a snippet of solder from your rod and place it in the joint area. Evenly heat the job and at the point the snippet starts to turn liquidus apply flux rod. You may find it easier using 1mm or 1.5mm rod. And the super clean part - maybe years ago but technology has moved on since thene. It just needs to be free from surface debris, the flux does the job of cleaning far better that we can. And on a small item, dont be tempted to try to make a gap for the solder to run in to. capillary action and ipmerfect metal finish will ensure it finds its way everywhere it needs to. Wont be long before you crack it.

Oops - not sure how that happened!