Member postings for Nigel Graham 2

A beautiful vessel and heartening to see being brought back into active service.

I'd certainly go for gas-firing, so look through what is already commercially available for just such model boilers. These are outside my personal experience but I do know the field is well covered.

Try for a start, Clevedon Steam, who appear to have taken on the Cheddar Steam name, stock and goodwill. Other, similar firms may be available!

I would not try to build my own gas tank, not for running the boat in recognised model-engineering / model boat events. You can, but the test requirements are remarkably stringent. Have a look at the MELG Boiler Test Code 2018 Vol.3 - and try not to be too frightened. Vol.2 deals with testing the boiler itself, in such scales (<3Bar.litre rates, as I imagine your boat's will comfortably be).

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Paul _ I do type with 2 fingers, but one operates the back-space key to correct the mistakes the other makes!

That BTR-10 is Alum then. (Aluminium Sulphate). Well, a third of it is. The rest might include a surfactant to break through grease and minimise bubbles shrouding the metal.

Citric acid: easy enough _ I bought some recently in Wilko's.

Hydrochloric Acid: try a stockist of swimming-pool additives. It's used as a descaler and pH corrector in pools and spas. Nasty stuff though.... it emits a corrosive vapour the moment you take the cap off the container.

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Incidentally, other swimming-pool additives of potential engineering use include "Dry Acid" (granular Sodium Bisulphate), Sodium Carbonate (aka washing soda), and algaecides that are mainly strong Copper Sulphate solutions.. The first two are pH correctors.

Also various water-testing devices ranging from paper test-trips to more sophisticated electronic reagent-colour comparators. These measure Chlorine, pH, Total Dissolved Solids, and Hardness, probably accurately enough for keeping boilers healthy though fairly obviously, none test for tannin % levels. (Easy to make your own sample-colour comparator though: just seal known-concentration samples of the water-treatment compound in suitable vials, read the test sample in a similar vial, against them by eye, in day-light.)

Ah, OK Jason, thank you for that advice.

Sharpness being the key to success here, presumably.

I'd taken my original point either from a model-engineering text-book or a stockist's catalogue. I still don't think I'd risk it if I could avoid it.

Lovely work!

Going back to what Tim Stevens suggests, not using the collet as it will become overheated...

Indeed - but I am not certain what the collet was doing there in the first place. Neither I nor presumably Tim would dream of putting any sort of precision machining collet anywhere near a bar-bending operation anyway, hot or cold!

A point regarding paraffin (neat or in WD-40) is that it is best brushed on to keep the quantity and spread down. These materials will wash the oil out of bearing surfaces like the slides.

WD-40 will lubricate, but only briefly and rather poorly though good for cutting aluminium. Its real purpose is as its name says, "Water Dispersant".

Also, if you use a lathe like mine (Myford ML7), you don't really want the poor motor right by the chuck, swallowing the over-spray. A simple shield will protect it from the worst of that, and of course from flying swarf.

While we are raiding the kitchen...*

Baked-on oil or other carbonaceous residues might respond to oven-cleaner, which is basically a strong (and highly irritant) alkali in a low-viscosity foam gel. Or soaking in strong, hot washing-soda solution.

These might attack paint though, so be careful. Don't use them on aluminium either - they are likely to eat it, even if the surface is plain anodised.

It will leave steel and iron surfaces open to rapid rusting, so dry and protect the clean metal immediately and appropriately. I found clean cast-iron develops rust-spots remarkably rapidly, when I'd inadvertently left an item outdoors and a shower found it first.

'

*If necessary, discreetly, under the guise of coming in from the workshop to make a pot of tea.

Thank you Dave,

for the comprehensive answer.

I used to find all sorts of problems at work that other computers could not refresh, and that on a very tightly-managed, very secure system! Perhaps I ought have a retirement occupation as a test-consultant finding obscure snags the IT professionals need to correct.

I encountered another site giving that unable-to-find message with its recommendation to turn on three settings called "TLS". I found that on my PC they are already ON.

So... now what?

Luckily I found a Microsoft site (No I can't recall its name or location) that explained that as the original "not found" message hints at; fairly recently MS changed Internet Explorer to overcome a flaw in the security method once common in web-sites.

I don't pretend to understand it fully but essentially, the basic message is that IE will block a site still using that security system.

MS does give by-pass instructions, with stark warnings of Armageddon if you make a mistake. They give two alternative processes. The first is a simple settings tick-box called SLS, presumably simple to reverse. The second is for the professional only, with registry back-ups and operating-system changes.

I tried the SLS switch - no change, so I reversed it.

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For the router, I recall its supplied instructions say leave it turned on, but only for unspecified "up-dates". Understandably perhaps, nothing about amnesia and taking days to recover. I could leave it on - moving it from a distribution-board "in the cloud" (of leads!) that also feeds the PC and printers - to see what happens.

I don't like leaving electric / electronic appliances live when I not using them, and indeed have not installed a new caller-ID telephone I'd bought because it too apparently needs mains power all the time.

I did wonder if BTInternet's "cookie" filters were the problem.

When you start it, it usually askes if you want to turn off the Functional then "Targetted" (Urrrghhh!) "Cookies.

I normally leave the Functional ones ON, switch the ad-agencies' ones Off. (Why are they named after biscuits by the way?)

S I tried that now, and the both the router and computer had been switched off all night. I have no idea if it made a difference because this was one occasion when the cookie switch did not appear!

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Typing "traction talk forum" in Search revealed the site on Google's list, complete with its sub-sections, but anything further cannot be found. it's as if the site itself does not exist but its name is still in Google's index.

'

Typing "townsend bearings" revealed www. townsendbridport. co. uk.

This gave a very different result. It opens a rather artistic page divided into 4 business divisions, including the shop (Townsend Bearings itself). Each division has its own contact details.

Significantly the "View Site" button for the shop is green and does not work (it opens Yahoo, which promptly says the address can't be found). The corresponding button for each of the other divisions is yellow and does work.

So it looks as if the business has comprehensively changed its Internet name and possibly ISP, but its own link to the shop on its new site is faulty. Luckily the contact details given are also e-mail and telephone numbers.

'

So that might be the bearings stockist sorted: the site is not readable because it is faulty. Which is a nuisance because it contains (or did contain) loads of long tables of transmission-component specifications.

What of Traction Talk? I think that is lost to me. As a test I tried another voluntary forum - UK Caving, devoted to my other main hobby - and that opened immediately from the Search bar. I can only assume some web-sites are not compatible with all ISPs, operating-system editions and settings, or security software.

I am very reluctant to interfere with computer operating settings because I know very little about them, so am likely to cause more problems and solve none.

I have only a broadband-linked PC, no alternative Internet instruments. My portable 'phone is a basic model and whatever its "3G" appellation means, I don't think it be linked to the Internet...

... Besides, I can't imagine displaying a complicated table of bearing specifications or O-ring fits on a screen smaller than a bank card!

My computer used to find and open Traction Talk and one or two other sites, but no longer, so are perhaps no longer compatible.

No. Just tried it. Same results.

Obviously this PC will find most web-sites I try, but no longer links to others; and there is no pattern or evident reason to it.

I can only assume it's something to do with the way these sites are written, so they are no longer compatible with my computer, as they used to work. (Hence my asking if it might be a WIN 10 - 7 mis-match, without knowing what the sites' writers use.)

Thank you!

Dave:

In fact I do that by default, switching off the power to both the computer and the router when I finish a session (obviously having closed the computer down properly).

The router sits on a shelf well away from any heat source or from the window, which faces North anyway.

Frances:

My PC is not very old, and it's the same one I have viewed both those web-sites on previously, with no problems.

Just a thought... I have been trying these from my main account. I wonder if my secondary one will work.

Of the two Michael gives, the first fails, the second works - but it opens only the bearing catalogue, a pdf file.

The first link opens the list of TT's internal links, but these simply return you to the browser and message that the site cannot be found

Trying to find them by typing the overall web-site name given at the foot of that, fails - the system cannot find it that way either.

Annoyingly, trying to use any link from within a site, such as this one, closes that host, and you have to re-open it!

I tried the Traction Talk forum again from the browser, to be met by this:

Paul M:-

I would not become too hung up on steel grades for the well-established designs most of us work to. By all means use the best you can and indeed the more common grades the professional designer might pick; but it is highly unlikely the majority of the many locos built to designs by LBSC< Evans, etc. have many "special" steels in them, (quite possibly including the designers' original example!); and I have not seen many published model-engineering drawings that actually specify materials to that degree anyway.

Low-carbon (mild) Steel:

EN1A is free-cutting, and suitable for most lightly-stressed components unless having to be hardened. The components in a 3.5"g loco's motion work are small but the forces in them are not all that large either.

Unlikely on a miniature loco but if you fabricate anything by welding, do not use EN1A for it. It will seem to weld all right but the joint is likely to be brittle.

EN3A is a bit stronger but still plain mild-steel - I'd be happy making motion parts from it. And it is weldable.

EN8 is of the medium tensile strength grades - ideal for axles, studs carrying (relatively) heavy loads, etc.

BTW I believe officially the standards have changed from EN-number, but I don't have the equivalents to hand.

Silver-steel -

- (if you can be sure it actually is the precision-ground oil-hardening steel it's meant to be) is for pins etc. that need to be hardened and tempered - and as a tip, lead kept just molten is about right for the tempering colour of blue-purple.

Also used for making small special tools like D-bits for cutting valve seats.

Gauge-plate, or oil-hardening ground flat stock,

- can be thought of as the flat bar version of silver steel and is often recommended for expansion-links as it is hard-wearing. It's often used for making form-tools, especially for turning fancy bits of brass-work like globe-valve bodies.

To get the best out of these alloys they really need to be heat-treated as per the manufacturers' instructions but I am sure most of us get perfectly serviceable results without precision muffle-furnaces and molten-salt baths!

Stainless-steels -

I would respectfully disagree with SillyOldDuffer. There are plenty of applications on an LBSC design for stainless-steel of appropriate type. LBSC, Martin Evans et al tended to call it "rustless steel".

The generic name is of a bewildering range but "our" stockists generally sell the free-cutting (with due care on tooling) varieties, and you use this where rusting would otherwise be a problem: piston and valve rods, screw-down valve spindles, etc.

Chosen with care, it has a higher tensile strength than mild steel, which combined with its corrosion resistance makes it ideal for mounting-studs on boiler fittings and the cylinder and valve-chest covers.

It can be awkward to machine (depending on grade) but if approached with due care can give beautiful results. The golden rule is the tool must cut not rub: abrasion with a mis-set or blunt tool will work-harden the surface of some stainless-steels very rapidly.

Precision-ground stainless-steel is good for bearing pins though it can't be hardened - but as with silver-steel or precision-ground mild-steel, the advantage is lost if you go and turn the stock diameter down to the bearing diameter, as on so many of these old designs!

Brass / Bronze:

For bushes carrying non-hardened steel pins & shafts: gunmetal or leaded bronze (or in fact cast-iron). Them or Phosphor-bronze for hardened ditto.

Boiler bushes must be of gun-metal or phosphor-bronze NOT brass, but brass is OK for fittings like clack-valve bodies. You can use the two bronzes for the fittings too, of course, but plenty of builders do use brass for those, without undue problems.

Boilers:

Again with due respect to Dave, I cannot let his " Steel boilers are difficult to make safely and to the satisfaction of a boiler inspector." go unchallenged, or rather, un-amplified!

It is safe to say we cannot now build steel boilers without being coded welders and using certified materials, with all the entailed rigmarole and costs. We don't want dissatisfied boiler inspectors!

We can build copper boilers - but do NOT use brass even for fittings bushes. Those must be phosphor-bronze or gun-metal. Your club's boiler admirer may wish to view progress to ensure soundness of what will be hidden parts, and ought be able to advise you, too.

NB: if you do build the boiler you must put a lot of heat into the copper, to raise the metal to silver-soldering temperature as quickly as possible, and to complete the joint quickly and smoothly without rushing it. Poor and over-long heating risks ruining the flux and even dissociating the silver solder. The boiler inspector won't be happy - nor will you! (After seeing some forlorn examples, I had cold feet rather than hot metal and contracted my project to Western Steam!)

As SOD (Dave) says, there is plenty of literature available to help you. He cites a few books, also peruse the TEE Publishing catalogue - they sell by post and electronic mail order, and usually have a stand at the major exhibitions. Most of my own model-engineering library is from them.

I hope all that helps - we look forwards to progress reports!

There can be a small but oscillating load on the weigh-shaft and its bearings, so the shaft does need those bearings.

If the shaft is simply held in plain holes in the frame, giving a very narrow bearing surface, it will in time wear the holes oval and cut an eccentric groove in the shaft, worsening the situation and probably losing valve travel and timing accuracy.

You could add small gun-metal bushes in places like the eccentric rods.

I may be wrong but I have an idea phosphor-bronze is inappropriate for unhardened mild-steel pins or shafts: the steel will wear more than the bronze.

In that example, a simple photo of the handle tells us what we need to know to offer help - though there the requestor had managed to add the photo, something that baffles me!

Otherwise, fair guides to the terminology are operating/service manuals, and standard engineering reference books, if not for the actual application then for reasonably close matches. Also of course, perusing other but related posts on here!

Grrr! The whole site won't open on my PC! (See my separate question!)

Goind AWOL? Try Going!

Twice in the last twenty minutes or so, I tried to refer to two separate sites in connection with threads on this site.

For both, the system returned a message saying the site could not be found.

They were the Traction Talk forum, and that for the engineering parts-supplier Townsend Bearings - which is based in Bridport, the town that is also home to the Stuart (and other) castings foundry.

Anyone else found this problem with these or similar sites, or can suggest why they won't work? Anything else I look up seems fine.

I'm a happy Tracy Tools customer too!

I don't know how their prices compare but you could also try JB Cutting Tools for replacement screws.

I don't change tips on the machine, or even in the workshop with its solid floor impervious to all but tiny tool-holder screws, but indoors on a suitable surface on a table. (Keep the tool-holder in the QC block if necessary.)

Please do not machine the bores of Oilite bushes, because that will burnish the material, losing the porosity that is its primary characteristic.

Use gun-metal or buy an Oilite bush already to the correct bore. If you are going for metric, you can also buy thin-walled steel bushes with a PTFE lining, but I think these are made only in millimetre sizes.

An Oilite bush is vey likely to have an oil-hole. I don't know if they do come already soaked in oil, but that oil won't last forever!