Member postings for Russell Eberhardt

I found them easy to remove from vintage cast iron car engine blocks by filing flats on the edges and gripping with a mole wrench to twist them out.

Russell

Yes Pratt's Ethyl fuel became available in early 1930 and the 2.3 litre Talbot 90 was racing reliably with an unheard of 10:1 compression ratio. That enabled them to compete with the Bentleys with their 6 litre engines!

Russell

The only problem I have with varifocals is when working close to something overhear such as when rewiring a ceiling rose. For those occasions I have a pair of prescription reading glasses.

Russell

I use this recipe for cleaning clock parts in my ultrasonic bath. It brings brass parts up to a lovely shine.

**LINK**

For general cleaning I just use a little dishwasher rinse aid in water. It is just detergent but doesnt foam.

Russell

Will it detect and give way to small sailing boats?

Russell

Surely not. Sorry if I have assumed too much.

To simplify things; Q is just a measure of how much energy is lost on each cycle of the pendulum and how much energy must be given back to it on each tick of the clock to maintain it. The higher the Q the smaller the energy is needed to keep it going and the less disturbance that it causes to the regularity of the clock.

Hope that helps.

Russell

I did measure the Q factor of my pendulum with all fittings. I can't find my notes just now but I think it came out at about 6000. Easy enough - set it going and count the number of cycles it takes to decay to 37% of it's starting amplitude. Multiply that number by 2 x Pi to get the Q. The most important factor is the air resistance so best to use lead or even uranium for the bob and an aerodynamic shape. I stuck with steel not having uranium to hand!

Russell

The supplier of the pultruded CF tube I used for my regulator quoted -0.1 to -0.3 ppm/C. I used a threaded bottom fitting for the rod for use with a regulator nut at the bottom of the bob. I calculated that making the transition from CF to steel 30mm below the centre of the bob would compensate for 0.2 ppm/C for the rod with a small positive contribution from the suspension.

Seems to work fine.

Russell

Hello and welcome Peter

I was always interested in clocks having taken old alarm clocks apart as a teenager to see how they worked. Most of them went back together and continued working!

In my retirement my wife bought me a Vienna regulator (American) on Ebay and I restored that and was pleased to get it working. Later, on researching my family tree, I discovered that three generations of my ancestors were watch and clock makers so I took the plunge and started clock making as well as repairing clocks for friends. Making gears (more correctly called wheels and pinions) isn't that tedious.

Your new mill is very good for small items and could be converted for CNC. I have an SX2P which I have converted for CNC and find it very useful for crossing out wheels which is more difficult than cutting the teeth.

Have fun.

Russell

Replacing the floor covering in a camper van is by no means easy. The flooring is usually laid before the installation of the furniture so everything must be removed including the kitchen sink!

A possible alternative is to use floor paint. This is a useful guide: **LINK**

Russell

Try Googling "Plasticiser migration". I think you're stuffed.

When manufacturing electronic products we used to have to be carefull how they were packaged to prevent the plasticiser from the power cable ruining the plastic case of the unit.

Russell

Have a look at MEGAsync. Will automatically sync any folders on your computer with cloud storage. You can also set it up on your mobie phone to automatically upload photos (only when the phone is on charge so as not to flatten the battery). All free of charge for up to 50 Gb IIRC.

Russell

Some other fantastic machines in the Petermann range. Lathes with tool setting thimbles calibrated to one micron diameter!

Russell

Yes, I bought one several years back and it was absolute rubbish. The stepped circles were far from concentric. I stick to single size ones now.

Russell

That is if anyone has the equipment to do pulltruding. A normal lamination will not be stable enough.

Russell

I had the same worry at first but my regulator has the same type of crutch and, after five years of running, I can't see any mark on the CF tube.

Russell

I used a pultruded carbon fibre tube for the pendulum of my regulator. I used 7 mm O.D. and 1 mm wall thickness. It has supported a 5 kg bob for the last five years without problems. I used slow cure Araldite to glue steel fittings to the ends. The fibre tube manufacturer quoted -0.1 to -0.3 ppm/°C and I have no reason to doubt that. You have to remember that the bob, suspension, and rod end fittings will all have a positive expansion coefficient but the threaded end of the rod for the regulating nut, combined with the bob itself can be made to approximately balance the expansion of the suspension.

The only unexpected effect I noticed was that the clock gradually slowed down over the first six months or so as the rod crept under load but it then settled down. I guess that was a result of the stress being redistributed from the epoxy to the carbon.

Hope that helps.

Russell

I would go with the 0.5 kW one. De-rating electronics generally leads to improved reliability.

Russell

Yes. Many years ago I restored a vintage sports racing car that had the OHV push rods originally produced by a knitting needle manufacturer as they were experienced in making fish bellied rods!

Russell

I'm pretty sure that you will find that the 3/4" refers to the OD of the connector and that it will be 1/2" BSP.

Russell