What did you do today (2015)

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

In answer to the BSA posts: When young I too begged my dad to sign for an RE 250 Crusader Sports. All I remember him saying was "OK But I'll make sure you pay payments on the HP." Lots of finger wagging.

Biggest mistake of my young life. The bike looked great but was a very nasty lemon. It leaked oil (Typical Enfield) It smoked like a two stroke and of course wouldn't pull your hat off power wise. The chains were worn out. Maintenance of the cables took a couple of days if you did it right ie Disconnect tape them on the end to form a funnel, raise the end as high and as straight as you can, fill with oil. Leave until the oil penetrated the the cable completely.

It was always difficult to get on the stand which was a cast alloy affair. This broke and I was thrown over the bike trying to save it. The tank was dented and badge were smashed. In truth I could write a book. I had mates with C15's and they were just a tad better as they didn't throw as much oil away.

Long story short after about a year buying new clutch pieces and replacing a lot of other consumables, light bulbs were always blowing, I put it on the stand, covered it over and went and bought a Honda CB72 rough finish on frames etc but never missed a beat. Replaced that with another Honda a 500 four. Later I had a couple of VFR 400cc Honda's. Jap Two strokes would walk it in a straight line but Honda's were good all round.

[Jesse Hancock 1Participant @jessehancock1]

Hopper: After writing my little rant on the Enfield / BSA comments I googled Royal Enfield 250 Crusader and wound up reading of one man's experience on the self same bike I owned. If you want search the YEW EM GEE site this guy made me laugh so much it took about five minutes to read the post really very funny. You may get a treat as to C15'S.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

All this talk of motorbikes has taken me back down memory lane! I started out with a little two stroke Royal Enfield 125 with a gear change on the tank ( about 40mph flat out with a following wind) and progressed to a BSA C12 in a fetching shade of maroon. I then met my future wife who lived out in the country so a rapid upgrade to 4 wheels was called for! Still like to look at some of the monsters available today but shudder at the speed and risks taken by some folk riding them.

Edited By NJH on 18/06/2015 09:22:03

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

This morning I received some compressed articles in .7r format.

To open them I downloaded Winzip, which used to be a handy free utility. My advice to anyone thinking of doing this is DON'T!

The 'evaluation version' as well as the 'nag screens' insists on opening their web page and offers a 'PC performance check' when you run it.

What I didn't realise (and I'm sure I didn't see check boxes to opt out of these) is that the scum changed my home page and default search engine to Yahoo.

Well 'Yahoo' in the Jonathan Swift sense is a good description of them

Neil

[Capstan SpeakingParticipant @capstanspeaking95294]

Do you mean .7z Neil?

7-Zip is far friendlier.

Free software is like the phone calls you get from someone with an Indian accent insisting his name is Dave. They won't take no for an answer.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

I use Z-zip and can't recall any nag screens or popups ? Mind you i do have an old copy.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

depends on where you downloaded from – many at one time reputable sites seem to have been taken over by certain USA based companies (eg Sourceforge) who now happily scam the unwary by packaging unwanted ‘help’ bars etc with the wanted software (usually in the slightly more reputable ones there is a well hidden box to just download the single program you want to meet their legal requirements to the software creator) – as for Yahoo well it’s just one level above scammer – my own suggestion is that if the software worked on XP then you have a good chance of it working under Wine on Linux (eg Mint, Debian tho be wary of Ubuntu as Canonical now default to spyware included tho this is easily turned off) and the repository for Debian is free of such scamming techniques

[ASFParticipant @asf]

Another thumbs up for 7 zip here

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Did a talk yestersay on my little CNC'd Unimat SL lathe at the CNC Workshop in Dearborn, Michigan. Lots of questions, all of them intelligent questions. Nice to see people engaging brains, I enjoy that.

Today I get to to a talk on spindle control with LinuxCNC – wish me luck!

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

John, just think of what Henry Ford would have been able to do if he had had CNC tools when he built the Tin Lizzy.

Ian S C

[Another JohnSParticipant @anotherjohns]

Posted by Ian S C on 18/06/2015 13:50:24:

John, just think of what Henry Ford would have been able to do if he had had CNC tools when he built the Tin Lizzy.

Ian, interestingly enough (for me, at least) this CNC Workshop is across the street from the Ford Research place, and, about 3 minutes drive from the Ford Museum.

When I got here, I went to the attached "Springfield Village", which was set up by Henry Ford, and he had Edison's workshops, and so forth. I was incredibly impressed. Tomorrow is a brief visit to the Henry Ford museum; we'll see what that's like.

Never been here in this area of the USA before, and it's been a treat.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Ford did set up a production line much like car factories of today, I suppose he did start the JIT method of manufacture. Also said that you can have any colour car you want as long as its Black!

Clive

[StueeeeParticipant @stueeee]

Today I machined a 1929 Ford model A cylinder head for a mate.

 

It was bought to me because it was warped, I could easily get an .008" feeler under the centre of the head when it was on my surface plate. But it needed .050" off to clean up the corrosion around the waterways on the head face -these motors must have seen years of no or at best minimal maintenance, so antifreeze not being changed (or even used) is bound to have left its mark.

An unlooked for minor drama whilst machining the head was one of the contactors burning out. I had noticed a slight burning Shellac aroma whilst working earlier and had checked that the spindle motor, coolant pump and table power feed motor weren't overheating. A while later a plume of smoke came out of the mill's electrics box, and this was the item responsible for the burnt Shellac smell.

A quick hunt through my "it'll come in useful one day box" turned up a contactor with a 415V coil which had came out of a old Schaublin lathe. Wrestled it into place on the Bridgeport and finished the cylinder head off rather later in the day than planned.

Still, all's well that ends well eh?

Edited By Stueeee on 18/06/2015 22:55:51

[Ed DuffnerParticipant @edduffner79357]

Spent a couple of hours this afternoon working on a tailstock type lever made to fit a boring bar holder. It's been a lovely day in the shed with the door propped open. If anyone's out tonight, Jupiter and Venus are visible to the North-West. I'll have to start getting the scope out soon!

Ed.

 

 

 

Edited By Ed Duffner on 18/06/2015 22:59:33

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 18/06/2015 16:04:39:

Ford did set up a production line much like car factories of today, I suppose he did start the JIT method of manufacture. Also said that you can have any colour car you want as long as its Black!

Clive

Henry only did this after being to the UK and seeing the production line systems already in place in factories.

He did however mechanise the production line which led to the systems we have today.
There is written documentation to this fact.

The UK had production line systems throughout its years of Industrialisation long before Henry was even born..

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Jesse Hancock 1 on 18/06/2015 08:16:37:

Hopper: After writing my little rant on the Enfield / BSA comments I googled Royal Enfield 250 Crusader and wound up reading of one man's experience on the self same bike I owned. If you want search the YEW EM GEE site this guy made me laugh so much it took about five minutes to read the post really very funny. You may get a treat as to C15'S.

Haha, good site. thanks for the tip. Yes, we used to call them Royal Oilfields.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Regarding production lines Garrets Longshop in Leiston Suffolk is generally seen to be the to be the prototype of the production line.

**LINK**

Small parts were assembled as units in the gallery work area and the Traction engine completed in the main floor and rolled out of the doors at the end.

In general most of these developments tended to appear in parallel in many locations and it's not always easy to identify the first instance.

regards Martin

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

There was a series in "Model Engineer" a few years back on the production of wooden blocks for the Navy in the 19th century. Also the production of Rifle stocks in the UK, using machinery that was imported from the USA.

Ian S C

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

The block production was set up by Marc Brunel (Isambard's dad) in Portsmouth but he had spent some time in the USA before pitching his ideas to the Royal Navy. Some of the machines are now in the Science Museum.

As ever, these mass production ideas evolved from many sources and, of course, depended on accurate measurement and standardisation so Maudsley and Whitworth had an enormous effect. I think there was a bigger driver to mass production in the States because there was not the pool of skilled labour in the US that the UK was able to use.

Rod

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Stueeee,

Is the coolant to keep the head temp down while machining?

Geoff – Modified the Skyhooks.

[StueeeeParticipant @stueeee]

Posted by OuBallie on 19/06/2015 12:41:48:

Stueeee,

Is the coolant to keep the head temp down while machining?

I used the pumped coolant to keep the tool tips cool, may not actually be necessary at the relatively low speed I was using, but the multiple 19mm Square carbide tips in that 8.5" facemill are excruciatingly expensive, so I tend to err on the side of caution when using it -The flood coolant does make for plenty of mess on the workshop floor though, even with guards fitted around the cutter and work.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks for reminding me of 7zip – the history tells me I must have had the same advice when I still had the old computer. Downloaded and works, but hard to navigate at first!

 

>Jupiter and Venus are visible to the North-West

Wait for the 30 June and hope for clear skies, they will be so close you will be able to see them both through a  telescope at the same time.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 19/06/2015 15:14:48

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Continued with the Educational model; have assembled parts for trial fittings to see where there needs to be adjustments, have found a few tight spots that need to be sorted, noted a couple of places where parts are not quite square to each other so it looks like a redo of a couple of pieces…

X head view…

May well redo the piston shaft as not happy with the fit of the 7 BA thread… & the con rod is catching on the X head guide, amongst other items, ho hum, slowly slowly catchee monkey… …

George.

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Been a busy week making things foolproof on the flash steamer after last Sundays first 2015 speed trials at Kingsbury Water Park.

The first run recorded 121mph I thought what have I done wrong is it the larger exhaust exit on the new generator case or the repaired Tig welded generator it's my first attempt at reclaiming a burst generator.

Fortunately a 3mm allen screw that adjusts the water and fuel pump strokes had worked loose it's normally locktighted but as it's awkward to adjust thought it would be ok not to bother this time.

Second run was spectacular unfortunately I timed too early as it was taking a long time to build up speed lap after lap was going faster and faster so started the timing.

124mph was recorded but if timed a few laps later would have been 130mph.

The weather was turning cold and rough for the final run and only a few dedicated souls remained under guidance from John-De Mott we waited for the speed to build up and recorded 127.8mph.

When stripping the engine at home found the curved cam follower-retaining pin was missing a part that is diligently checked for tightness the first time over many years this has happened.

So apart from simple fixes have been making a batch of new hairpin valve springs the key to maintaining the high rpm on the two stroke steamer then a friend with a request to make a stainless flower holder for his Fathers grave plus getting the 1990 Renault ready for the MOT it has been a busy week.

A keen photograther friend Roger Walton wanted to take some pictures before I stripped it so here is one.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

You need to keep away from the baked beans, Paul!

Neil

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