Member postings for Fowlers Fury

I still have (& must get rid of) all the issues of Motorcycle Scooter & Three-wheeler Mechanics, from No. 1 through to early1966.
At the back of my aged brain was that there had been an article on a strip-down of a James scooter. Having now searched through all those issues, the brain was clearly faulty again.
However there was a road test, just after the scooter's release. Like most magazine road tests in those days, they could find little to criticise - commending the scooter on its effortless hill-climbing ability !!!
Were the mag publishers too frightened then of losing advertising revenue from the manufacturers if they were critical of the machines?

Anyway if the OP wants a pdf of that test - for what it's worth - just PM me.

Credit where it's due..........

The original was from the great John Cleese, back in around 2013, I think.

Re. comments after my earlier posting about solar panels maybe needing an annual clean.
As before, " Depending on your location and therefore amoount of "dust" in the atmosphere".
We live in a rural area and soil erosion in high winds & rain means there is a lot of deposition.

I suppose If your house windows remain clear after 12 months without any cleaning, then don't bother about the panels.

Around here. our (vertical) window glass becomes quite coated in dust, bird cr*p & muck in 6 weeks so an annual clean of the panels seems worthwhile.

Agreed, the FIT and money back is welcome yet there always seems another side to a benefit.

Our builder demanded another few hundred quid for software he was advised to install at the last minute. Apparently if you don't have the s/ware which shows how much each panel is generating then in the event of fall-off in generated power, it costs a substantial amount to find which of the panels is faulty. At least that's what all the new house purchasers were told.
Depending on your location and therefore amoount of "dust" in the atmosphere, you will probably need to have the panels cleaned annually. Rain doesn't seem to be very effective. Our window cleaner does ours - for an extra fee of course !
I'm surprised you were in net profit over the winter quarter. On the principle that all women have faulty thermostats, the heating in our abode is such that we (i.e. me) are net payers by a considerable margin during the winter months and also we have a big air-source heat pump supposedly reducing our power from the grid.

An awful image as it has been scanned from the phone but the aforementioned s/w is "SolarEdge".

To: Dave B.

Should you wish to add to any confusion you still have after your original posting , there were a number of opinions on this website a couple or so years ago. (I'd hesitate to write "all relevant opinons":-

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=130308&p=2

In 2015 there was a short article on Steam Operated Drain Cocks in David Carpenter's Model Engineers Website. I like the design and eventually plan to make a set as described by Peter Squire.

Usual "for personal use only" applies to downloads, so check the website:-
**LINK**

Doubt there's a problem with me showing the article's heading:-

(You could PM me if interested)

The box on the RHS is indeed for watch/clock lathe work (mine has a plate showing "Boley" on the lid).
Can't recognise the item on the bench RHS but from your description "chrome item on left (??)...2 brass wheels etc...." I'm not sure it's clock related.
There's an old hand-held small vice missing its wingnut (replaced by crude nut & bolt).
Next, an Archimedean drill.
Last on left is a hand-held tool for tiny collets.
The wooden box on the left appears to contain hand tools for cutting 'cups' on clock plates where wheel arbours emerge (cups cut for oiling and reducing length of brass for arbour once broached.

They're all pretty much interesting antique items and if your offer to pass them on isn't taken up, such items often appear on Fleabay .

Though not for identical dimensions, when needing similar strips of s/s I've purchased a set of feeler gauges.
Cheap enough and seem pretty tough.

A certain proprietary, jelly-like hand degreaser is a mixture of green soft soap and paraffin (probably refined).

Paraffin aka kerosene is not a defined mixture, its composition will vary according to supplier and how much you pay. It's easy to think paraffin is a benign, safe solvent but it will contain a variety of hydrocarbons, many of which are irritating to the skin. It should never be sprayed.
Paradoxically, straight paraffin as a degreaser is said to promote rust formation.

Jamie,
You don't state what type of paint you've used first.
From bitter experience, I'd advise care and caution about using spray lacquer (varnish). I used one claimed to be suitable over enamel paint. After about 1 month, the clear lacquer 'crazed' on all areas irrespective of whether there was heat below or not. Removing the dried lacquer necessitated reapplication of the enamel followed by use of a brushing varnish which used white spirit as its solvent. After that all was well altho' there was some yellowing of the brushed-on varnish.
As so often advised - try any sprayed paint, lacquer etc over an inconspicuous part first and wait some while to check for a reaction.

IMHO, based on a lot of reading, most new 'passenger' locos were outshopped with a many coats of gloss varnish. But Chistopher Vine's book is probably the definitve source for methodology in our scales.

Yet another plea, as Bruno's above !
I have a Pansy (original builder unknown) and she runs well enough. Notching-up is effective to a degree but the big problem now is wear in the valve gear (e.g. elongated holes in stretchers!).

Anticipating a major rebuild of the valve gear, can we see these mods of Julian Atkins please?

34046 - Have you checked with Malcolm what excess - if any - he requires to be added to your required dimensions? He's done several laser-cut items from my CAD dwgs and he's queried some of my dimensions thankfully !

The laser-cut edges from the company he used for my items were "rough" and hard. They needed draw filing smooth with a diamond file, I accept that techniques may have moved on in the last couple of years but a small dimensional excess was incorporated to allow for the smoothing-off.

'would recommend a look at the website "Who called me?"

**LINK**

And always worth adding the scammer's number to the website.

" no one seems to do powered hacksaws now - that I can find anyway. "
Perhaps not strictly true?

Like "Plasma", I favour a powered hacksaw.
Blackgates offer a machined kit but you will need a motor & a few other bits. I've had mine for years and since it takes standard hacksaw blades, it's quick & easy to change them over when cutting different materials. The capacity isn't huge but it'll cut through 1.5" bar stock if pressed.

" Did I once read somewhere that metallic mercury was used as a treatment for syphilis? Blue Pill? "

Indeed - it was the only treatment from the middle ages, until Salvarsan was discovered in the early 1900s.
This complex molecule contained 3 ARSENIC rings, diamidodioxyarsenobenzol.
Whether the syphilis suffer preferred the toxicity of Hg to disfigurement and early death isn't recorded.

Really getting off-topic now

" wash with a soap containing mercury, it seemed like a good idea "
Almost certainly it would have been PMN - phenyl mercuric nitrate. It was used extensively and effectively as an antiseptic.
Even today it's used in very low concentrations as a preservative in many eye drops.

Clive ~ we used to just squeeze the mercury through a new chamois leather to clean it. I would doubt it'd be cleaned with nitric acid, even if dilute it would form mercuric and mercurous nitrate salts.

In terms of huge volumes of Hg, the Castner-Kelner process for producing chlorine and caustic soda by the electrolysis of brine is worth a mention. The old ICI "cell rooms" in Cheshire were incredible; in each, the amount of Hg could be around 100 tons, the current required upto 200,000 amps at 200V. The gap between the electrodes and the Hg surface was very critical for efficiency - too close and imagine the result !
Hazards of Hg were well known in the 60s and workers were routinely monitored. Mercury vapour was released along with the hydrogen from electrolysis and traps were needed to recover the liquid Hg. When the diaphragm process began to replace the mercury process from the mid 70s those huge volumes of Hg would have had to have been disposed of - maybe sold?

But back to reminiscences of school days in the chemistry lab., as others have mentioned the inevitable little globules of Hg would collect in the benchtop grooves. At my school we were required to use only fountain pens for note taking. The rotten trick was to take someone's pen, with its gold nib when they were not looking and press the nib in to the Hg. The resulting amalgam would to cause the nib to disintegrate and the pen's owner distress.

Not with modern bikes I suppose but with my old Brit bike, when stopped and ticking over you had to blip the throttle once after pulling the clutch lever to free the clutch plates in order to engage 1st.

Irrelevant addition follows:-
Multi-plate clutch with cork inserts running in oil - terrible combination. Adjust clutch push rod when cold & clutch wouldn't release when hot, adjust when hot & it would slip when cold......or was it t'other way round??
I once rebuilt the clutch plates with new cork inserts supplied by spares seller which were composition i.e. like cork table mats. Five miles from home and the plates were seized together necessitating bike rescue. Once home I acquired numerous bottle corks and had to slice them all to fit but no more trouble.

Maybe drifting a bit off topic, but the complete collection of the Meccano Magazine is available on-line.
**LINK**

For anyone unfamiliar with the old magazine, it is not exclusively about Meccano, but contains fascinating articles covering all aspects of engineering.