The sneering detractors

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

A while back, a guy who used to post on this site, wanted to buy something from me I was selling on ebay, he kept sending msgs asking to buy it at half the price listed, I refused, so he knew I also used this site, he sent a msg threw ebay basically saying he was going to stalk me, and posted threads on this site making subtle jabs at what I selling.

The guy was like maybe twice my age, probably late 60's, and was behaving like a childish troll because he couldn't get what he wanted, you just need to accept some people are unpleasant and were not lucky enough to have parents that taught them manners.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Pete. on 22/05/2020 01:18:41:

[…]

you just need to accept some people are unpleasant and were not lucky enough to have parents that taught them manners.

.

Well-said, Pete

That gets my vote as “Thought for the Day”

MichaelG.

[Anonymous]

Posted by Mike Joseph on 21/05/2020 19:23:35:

A good mate said to me once about the carpers: 'Just ask them what they have made recently'

Here's what I did recently, a completely new design of regulator based on fullsize rather than the drawings:

How about you Mike, what did you do?

Andrew

[Mike JosephParticipant @mikejoseph75242]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 22/05/2020 09:14:29:

Posted by Mike Joseph on 21/05/2020 19:23:35:

A good mate said to me once about the carpers: 'Just ask them what they have made recently'

Here's what I did recently, a completely new design of regulator based on fullsize rather than the drawings:

How about you Mike, what did you do?

Andrew

Have replaced a split pin(!) on my Kennedy saw frame with turned pin, then repaired it when crank fell off(!!), added a no volt release switch and microswitch to turn it off when the cut finishes. Then made a sort of horizontal drill fixture for a model boat I am building, re-arranged workshop, turned and fitted registers for my telescope (small cups fixed to patio for the legs) and started to learn Latin for the first time since school 50 years ago. Sorted out a glory-hole of bits.

Next?

Mike

[Mike JosephParticipant @mikejoseph75242]

Oh, and I forgot to say that I have also fitted a new geared motor drive to the traverser of my model railway (Sarum Road) ready for a now cancelled exhibition.

Mike

[Anonymous]

No pictures?

Andrew

[Mike JosephParticipant @mikejoseph75242]

Ok – some piccies:

New Kennedy pivot spindle

Kennedy micrswitch and actuating arm

(I use a large pet litter tray – previously unused(!) as a suds tray).

Drilling propshaft hole

Latin lesson

…TBC

[Mike JosephParticipant @mikejoseph75242]

and now for something completely different:

New traverser power on Sarum Road

Clearish work bench

Finally new vice jaws.

And, of course, finally, the gardening, DIY jobs and so on…

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I like the workbench. I'm pretty sure that I had one like that once.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Pete. on 22/05/2020 01:18:41:

A while back, a guy who used to post on this site, wanted to buy something from me I was selling on ebay, he kept sending msgs asking to buy it at half the price listed, I refused, so he knew I also used this site, he sent a msg threw ebay basically saying he was going to stalk me, and posted threads on this site making subtle jabs at what I selling.

The guy was like maybe twice my age, probably late 60's, and was behaving like a childish troll because he couldn't get what he wanted, you just need to accept some people are unpleasant and were not lucky enough to have parents that taught them manners.

You should have reported him to a moderator, on face value that would have led to a ban.

Neil

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Daniel on 21/05/2020 17:35:11:

A phrase has evolved into common parlance, in our household, of late.

"I saw it on the internet, so it must be true."

Attributed,to any piece of information of doubtful veracity and/or origin.

ATB,

Daniel

Hi Daniel, well I'm a Farr out guy, pleeeeease! believe me.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 22/05/2020 08:17:10:

Posted by Pete. on 22/05/2020 01:18:41:

[…]

you just need to accept some people are unpleasant and were not lucky enough to have parents that taught them manners.

.

Well-said, Pete

That gets my vote as “Thought for the Day”

MichaelG.

Hi, plus one for both.

Regards Nick.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Andrew Johnston –

Fine work, it quality giving me a certain tinge of the green I've just painted my new workshop hoist frame.

Good to see that extra point of making a detail fitting true to original – though I am a bit puzzled by the bronze fitting in the middle. Whistle or simpling-valve control?

However, my point is that your engine reminds me of my examining a 3 or 4 -inch scale traction-engine at a major exhibition a few years ago. Some bloke alongside me complained to his mate, who agreed with him, that some detail was all wrong, etc. etc. Now, I was not familiar with the particular engine so would not have spotted that, and it was likely to a published design anyway.

Instead, what I did spot was a machine very much faithful to its original even if with the odd detail ' wrong '; and not in show-room condition but carrying the soot-lined chimney and patina of an engine clearly well-built, well-loved and well-used. Proof to me that the engine was well enough made to look right and work properly.

I did wonder what either of those critics had on display….

[Anonymous]

Posted by Mike Joseph on 22/05/2020 16:15:47:

Ok – some piccies:

…………..

Latin lesson

Thanks for the pictures; that's a fair range of activities, but you can keep the Latin! Whatever else I may be good at I have zero ability for languages.

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 22/05/2020 22:35:13:

….though I am a bit puzzled by the bronze fitting in the middle. Whistle or simpling-valve control?

Neither; it's what I call a 'singling' button. It operates a valve that lets steam from the regulator pass directly to the low pressure valve chest. It's not a simpling valve as the valve is external to the cylinder and does not divert the HP exhaust to the chimney. But neither is it a starting valve as the engine is a single crank compound so both pistons are on dead centre at the same time. It allows the engine to operate as a single, but using the low pressure cylinder with high pressure steam. So in theory the engine should produce more torque.

I've got no time for rivet counters. On the plus side it seems like every engine that Burrell made is different so it's difficult to say what was original and what wasn't.

Andrew

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I expect the traction’s engines running today are a bit like Triggers broom.

Mike

[RobinParticipant @robin]

I was thinking to post here but now I am terrified someone might ask me what I have made recently

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Don't worry, I go for months without any doing any "engineering" and then a burst of activity. I work when I feel well enough to do things!

As for photos, I still have not got the hang of putting them on the forum. I don't do smartphones, so lugging out my camera and then downloading to the PC is a bit of a pain. So if Andrew wants photographic proof then I am in trouble!

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 23/05/2020 10:33:59

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Robin on 23/05/2020 09:48:00:

I was thinking to post here but now I am terrified someone might ask me what I have made recently

Here, I've mostly made a mess of things! Painful slow progress and not much in return. Several stalled projects and dead ends. Don't care though, Model Engineering caters for all tastes and it keeps me interested! Fantastic hobby, whether chewing metal, thinking about design, or following Bumblebees.

Don't always agree with forum engineering or opinions but the entertainment value is top notch! Keep it coming chaps.

Dave

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

I made a cup of tea this morning. Does that count?

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Hopper on 23/05/2020 11:37:25:

I made a cup of tea this morning. Does that count?

Depends on the cup of tea …………..

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Andrew Tinsley on 23/05/2020 10:33:17:

Don't worry, I go for months without any doing any "engineering" and then a burst of activity. I work when I feel well enough to do things!

Then they are the 'consequential' jobs –

I need to replace both tyres and tubes on my old Raleigh RSW bike. I have them cluttering up the living room because before I can replace them I need to fit a new drain valve on the compressor which is on order as we speak. after that I can install the wall hooks to suit the bike and get it off the floor in front of the shelves which means I can get a ladder near enough the shelves to raise the hooks holding the car top box to the ceiling to give me space on top of the shelves for storing the tools and materials that are cluttering up half of the bench so I can fit the horn-blocks to the frames on Big Tich. And Breathe!

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Well I am proud to say that I have made quite a lot. The list ranges from piles of swarf, discarded items that just didn't turn out correctly, a complete mess in the shed and the obligatory unfinished projects. I have toyed with the idea of making a small stationary steam engine but that is about as far as it has got.

That said I do make bits and bobs for friends and family where the bits can't be sourced or are too expensive but model engineering it isn't. Does that matter to me, 'NO' because I have the satisfaction of solving a problem, the enjoyment of doing the task and developing my limited skills; when I was working many years ago, no engineering training etc, they used to call it 'Job Satisfaction' and that is all that matters. My shed has a notice on it that reads something like 'This may only be a shed to you but to me it's a SANCTUARY'.

Most contributors on this site are always willing to help when asked and for those few that deride/mock other members equipment, tools and/or efforts speaks more about them and their shortcomings. We all have had to start somewhere and ask for help or advice and that needs to be remembered.

Ramble over for now. Just enjoy what you are doing and the fun of learning new skills.

Martin

 

PS

Made my wife a cup of tea this morning and took it up to her in bed, hope to have earned a few brownie points to exchange for shed/sanctuary time.

Edited By Martin W on 23/05/2020 11:58:21

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Andrew –

Thank you explaining it.

The photo doesn't reveal the general engine type but I know various forms of steam admission were fitted by different makers.

At least one Overtype wagon engine (Foden's?) had a complicated "three-way valve" allowing three different modes.

I have been trying against all odds for far too long to build a 4-inch scale Hindley wagon, unusually with an enclosed, inverted-vertical engine. My source material being no more than 100+ year old advertising photos and texts, one of the first things I discovered was that E.S. Hindley & Sons didn't like too much standardising, to the extent of noticeably different details between the photographed examples in the same trade-magazine review!

Indeed my first attempts at GA drawings came out all wonky because as I realised from further material some three years later, the reviewed lorry was not that photographed for the article. Despite being fully-broadside the picture I used for the scale-data wheelbase and wheel diameters, did not match the quoted dimensions.

I do not claim mine to be any more than a representative model, as true outwardly as possible to the spirit of the variegated examples that emerged in 1908 from the factory in Bourton (near Gillingham, in North Dorset). Indeed, to overcome some of the problems in the most efficient way, I need resort to some non-prototypical practice below the superstructure that will (I hope) hide it from any but the most determined rivet-counters. Still, do you know of many full-size Britannia- or King- class locos with copper boilers and brass tenders, as necessitated in miniature?

=

Why did I choose such a seemingly-hopeless task – and oft did think thus?

I was going to build a Foden C-type, and I like the look of them; but they be common creatures! Then I was inspired as a Dorset resident by an article about the Gillingham' trades and industries, in the historical-magazine Dorset Year Book 1977, illustrated by a photograph of a locally-owned Hindley steam-wagon dressed for Gllingham Carnival c.1908-1910.

Various Hindley plant-engines exist in preservation but no model-engineers and few preservation-engineers seemed to have heard of the Hindley wagon, whose three classes are all extinct, until Richard 'Turbo' Vincent built a full-size replica to commission. Appropriately his engineering works are not far from Gillingham, too.

That rarity further inspired me.

Though I believe mine would have been first in model form had I managed to build it years ago, I know definitely on one finished example also to 4-inch scale. There is another, possibly – I do not know if actually a second vehicle or the same under new ownership.

'

There was incidentally a ' Mendip ' Steam-wagon built by C.W.Harris, in Chewton Mendip. I do know from vehicle registration records and contemporary photos that Harris' bought a Hindley, and the Mendip looks so like the Hindley I suspect pirating despite Hindley having patented its distinctive boiler. Harris later built motor-cars, Mendip-badged – I don't know if any survive.

The patent boiler has a cylindrical (can be rectangular) firebox with a high top, to obviate water-level problems on steep hills; but a very similar pattern was used on the Shay locomotives and a French-made Portable Engine.

(Hindley also took out a rather cheeky patent on a wagon-wheel design. None of the steam-wagons photographed had that pattern, but mine does. So there!)

I know this is not really a competition but I could console myself by claiming mine unique by badging it ' Mendip ', and the Mendip Hills themselves mean very much to me…. Nah, that's cheating! I bain't be Dorset-born but I be Dorset-bred (since 7) and I am staying loyal to E.S. Hindley & Sons of Dorset, not their copy-cats in Somerset.

And if mine is not exactly true to the last rivet… tough!.

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 23/05/2020 07:01:00:

Posted by Mike Joseph on 22/05/2020 16:15:47:

Ok – some piccies:

…………..

Latin lesson

Thanks for the pictures; that's a fair range of activities, but you can keep the Latin! Whatever else I may be good at I have zero ability for languages.

Andrew

Andrew, I find Lingua Latina occasionibus omnibus Henricus Barbus scripsit (Latin for All occasions by Henry Beard) valuable for social occasions.

I'm currently looking for a bumper sticker that says SI HOC ADFIXUM IN OBICE LEGERE POTES, ET LIBERALITER EDUCATUS ET NIMIS PROPINQUUS ADES. (If you can read this bumper sticker, you are both very well educated and much too close).

George B.

[Author]

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