tony9f
Involved Member
Posts: 94
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Post by tony9f on Jan 18, 2023 12:42:43 GMT
A great example of the 'can do'attitude that used to exist in this country before fear of liability and the corporate culture stifled everything.
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kipford
Statesman
Building a Don Young 5" Gauge Aspinall Class 27
Posts: 566
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Post by kipford on Jan 18, 2023 14:10:36 GMT
You can still build a car or van from scratch. It just has to pass something called an IVA test, which all kit cars need to go through. Many years ago I used to race Karts and I needed a tow hitch for my car a Triumph Herald. So I fabricated my own bolted structure from Dexion and some old 'L' section from a metal bed, these days tow bars are all homologated. Dave
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Post by Roger on Jan 18, 2023 15:08:10 GMT
Yes, I wondered about the acceptability of the dexion framing even in 1965! The other thing I wondered about was the conversion from 'normal control' with the driver sitting behind the engine, in the original car, to 'forward control' with the driver sitting alongside the engine. Try getting that past an MOT tester today!. I think the MOT test (then known as the '10 year test' had been introduced by then. Roger's dad must have been a very ingenious man! I know the Van did get an MOT over the course of its life. I don't know what the rules are for special vehicles these days, but I'm sure you can still do it. The Dexion was a really convenient section to use, light and durable. It was welded edge to edge to make a box section so it was tremendously strong. The car was scrapped, he only wanted it for the Axles, Leaf Springs and Steering mechanism. The original car chassis was scrapped. We had great fun cutting it all up. It would be seen as a crime now! The original Van used the old Side Valve engine with the three speed gearbox. It was nowhere near powerful enough, and you had to rev it to death to get up to the next gear with enough power to stay there. Many was the time on holiday in Wales that we'd all be asked to get out because the Van wouldn't climb the hill fully loaded. Sometimes we'd see it reversing back down the hill to have another go. If that failed, the procedure was attempted in reverse, because that was a slightly lower ratio. We'd all give it a good push and then watch it wail off into the distance getting ever slower. Happy days. The second engine was from a Vauxhaul Wyvern, again donated as a complete scrap car. That was a much better engine, but the four speed gearbox had a column change. Dad couldn't make a suitable mechanism to get the correct arrangement for a floor change, and he was not about to have a column change on the Van. The arrangement he devised was a reverse version of the conventional 'H' arrangement, so that 1st and 2nd were 3rd and 4th etc. That confused the garage when it went for the MOT! As we grew up, the Van was given an extension in the middle portion of the roof to give more headroom. It was finally scrapped, and the Aluminium was sold for more than the Van cost to build in the first place. The axles were shortend and it morphed into a mini Tractor for use around the moorings where they lived.
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Post by mr swarf on Jan 18, 2023 19:05:07 GMT
I built a crystal radio as a kid as well. Dad wound the ferrite coil on his Faircut lathe. We ran a length of wire from the bedroom to the garage for the aerial & the earth was the water pipe as we still had lead pipes back then. Amazed it worked, happy days. Paul
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Post by chris vine on Jan 18, 2023 22:07:07 GMT
I built a crystal radio at school. Many years ago. It had a diode, a bit of busted ferrite rod, a tiny variable capacitor of the trimmer variety (very little range) and I sort of guessed at the number of turns on the rod, aiming for radio 2 on long wave.
somewhat miraculously, and with a lot of beginners luck, it worked perfectly straightaway. The aerial was my iron bed and the earth was a heating pipe nearby. Maybe that got a particularly good signal...
C
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Post by chris vine on Jan 18, 2023 22:14:38 GMT
Other fun projects when young are in some pictures on our website here petersrailway.com/our-story/If you scroll down to nearly the bottom of the page, there are three coloured blocks with little videos in them. Mini motor bike, small steam engine and a go-kart made from a kit of parts from an old racer. All good fun and suitably dangerous. Just below are two black and white pictures of an electric go-kart which I made. It looks a bit like a normal soap box, but this one had a car battery and starter motor. The gear rubbed on the back wheel for a drive and reduction ratio. Sulphuric Acid, open switch which glowed red hot from the current and charred the wooden frame, exposed gear on end of starter motor, just waiting to catch fingers. The design for this was originally on Blue Peter - you can't imagine them suggesting anything like it today!!! It went about 10 mph and lasted for around 30 minutes. My first EV! I used to carry the battery around, but wasn't strong enough to lift it properly, so I used to sort of hug it to my guts to carry. Result, I had a set of clothes which was known as the Holy Acid Suit! In the left picture I am around 9 years old. The right hand picture shows my mum (long suffering) driving with a friend in the trailer behind. Our drive was very steep and it used to go up it with no trouble at all. Sometimes it would do wheelies which were alarming because only one back wheel was driven so it would rotate and go off in a different direction. All good fun, Chris.
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,906
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Post by JonL on Jan 18, 2023 22:58:54 GMT
Its quite easy to be scathing of "kids these days" but it's a very different environment they are growing up into. All we can do is try to pass on some skills to those receptive to learn, but also admit that a lot of our skills are redundant. How many manual machinists are there in the commercial world these days? It's all CNC. Doesn't make it any less enjoyably for me, but I don't try and kid myself that it's relevant to the current generation.
My boys know about 3D printing and such. Making things using the tools available to them now, just as we all did back in the day.
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Post by Boadicea on Jan 19, 2023 8:40:09 GMT
........................... As for the camper van, built from Dexion... Can you imagine building that today and being allowed to drive it on the roads? Snip Mmm! Would have been better to keep the original car methinks.
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Post by Roger on Jan 19, 2023 11:10:22 GMT
........................... As for the camper van, built from Dexion... Can you imagine building that today and being allowed to drive it on the roads? Snip Mmm! Would have been better to keep the original car methinks. Except you can't sleep a family of four in a banger. Today, we look at an old car like that and want to preserve it. However, there were hundreds of thousands of worn out old cars like that, just like there has always been. You can't keep them all, you have to scrap them.
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choochooenthusiast
Involved Member
Building a 3D printed Crab 13065. A wagon (or a few) in the works.
Posts: 70
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Post by choochooenthusiast on Jan 23, 2023 20:07:29 GMT
My boys know about 3D printing and such. Making things using the tools available to them now, just as we all did back in the day. I agree Jon. I have always loved steam locos because my grandfather is a model engineer(I count myself very lucky for that). For me and my busy young life, running locos and being part of a club is not a possibility right now. So I prefer to use my skills 3d printing static models of locos to the drawings normally used for live steamers. I have a lathe, in the future I fully intend to make running models, but for now I’m happy to just learning to interpret drawings and letting the printer do the work. A lot of people still don’t start in model engineering until later in life, so the kids of today have plenty of time! Connor
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Post by doubletop on Jan 24, 2023 8:36:03 GMT
Most of the above, although my dad didn’t build a Dexion van. In the early 1960s he did rebuild a 1937 Riley Falcon that is still running today. My sister found it on the Riley Register and arranged for the current owner to take it around to show dad on his 90th birthday. I started out with a Trix construction set that I quickly outgrew, it was replaced by a set #6 Meccano. If a problem couldn’t be solved I Meccano it wasn’t worth worrying about. The Meccano was augmented with a Mammod stationary engine. It didn’t stay stationary very long. I could get it around the block of our estates on one fill. Including the (slight) hill back to the house. The Mammod is long gone, but I still have what remains of the Meccano in a very sorry state. Lego was too early for me; I had a Bayko building set. Rods sticking out of a base plate and the bricks slid down the rods. The rods were up to something like 4” so a bed of nails when in the base plate. Lethal without bricks, and slightly less so with them installed. I still have the complete set boxed and an inventory check recently against the manual, it is all there. My sister and I had Raleigh trikes. The front wheel on mine eventually got trashed bumping up and down kerbs so I replaced it with a smaller one from a pram. That did not last long so I tried a whole pram axle that just fitted in the fork opening where the cone nuts went. The trouble was the angle of the head tube affected the steering so dad bent the down tube to make the head tube vertical. I now had a four wheel "quike". Next step was taking the forks out of my sister’s trike and fixing the head tube to the seat down tube with a loop of fence wire. We now had a six wheel tandem that went like hell. Of course no brakes, but a minor problem, what are shoes for? Woodworking started when I was about 5. Dad wasn’t going to get me a kids carpentry set, he went to the local hardware store and bought individual items, hammer, saw, pliers tape measure, and chisel etc. I’ve still got the pliers and the now rather tatty chisel plus a deep 1” scar on my left hand . The first project was a go-kart. Three of us proudly dragged our efforts up the local hill all jumped on and off we went. The whole thing fell apart on the first descent and we all fell off. Lesson #1 in structural integrity and back to the drawing board. Over time the go karts became more and more sophisticated and competitive. Having tools made things possible. The older boys introduced us to “French” arrows. An arrow made of a willow stick, with paper flights and launched by a piece of knotted string wrapped around the shaft. They did not go that well until we added some weight to the nose. A cache of old foreign coins helped by hammering a couple around the tip. We could easily get them down to the end of the street. I’ve just measured the length of the street on Street View it is 110metres. We were only primary school kids but nobody got hurt and nobody complained. (they may have done when we added a nail to the tip!!). Electrics started with the Trix set as that had some rudimentary electrical parts, bulb holder, electro magnet, contactor/switch and a motor. Electronics started with a telephone between my sisters and my room with two electromagnetic speakers. Nothing else was required. That progressed to a crystal set with a three-transistor amp when I discovered that the speakers had come from two radio kits my dad had bought for us kids but hadn’t given to us as he wasn’t happy with them not being a superhet. I got one going briefly but I think my poor soldering and the over heating of the germanium transistors did not do them any good. This was the 50’s so transistors were in their infancy. I later had an electronics set with components on a board with springs on each connection and you joined everything up with jumper wires. I have no idea who made it but I do still have the Plessey electrolytic capacitor that came with the kit. I’ve kept it as a memento because that kit was the start of my career. I don’t think it was this www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/philips-electronic-engineer-kit-1960s-311814986Of course there were the clockwork Hornby 0 gauge train set the 00/H0 train set and Scalextric. Many hours were spent playing with them but nowhere near as much fun was had as making stuff. All this occurred before I was 12 as we moved house and on to a different chapter. Pete (well that was a bit of a flashback! Sorry it turned out so long)
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smallbrother
Elder Statesman
Errors aplenty, progress slow, but progress nonetheless!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by smallbrother on Jan 24, 2023 9:01:19 GMT
I loved Betta Bilda, an early version of Lego. I also liked messing with Dinky/Corgi cars and lorries in the garden and making tracks for them in the mud.
Mostly though I was crazy about rugby and cricket and spent hours bowling, kicking, throwing or whatever.
Not surprisingly I became a civil engineer who could catch just about anything thrown at me, ball shaped or problem shaped!
Pete.
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smallbrother
Elder Statesman
Errors aplenty, progress slow, but progress nonetheless!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by smallbrother on Jan 24, 2023 12:54:56 GMT
Apart from the usual including sharing a pair of roller skates with a board across hurtling down hill and removing some skin off your knuckles trying to steer. I was introduced to lead casting by my engineering father, a small ladle heated over the gas stove was very efficient. The mould was a cardboard box filled with plaster of Paris, this was split to remove the pattern and tied back together with string. The problem was that being impatient and allowing the mould to dry properly occasionally resulted in the molten lead bing ejected from the mould at some speed. I assume this was probably the moisture turning to steam. It's truly amazing that we survived as children in those days, H&S would have a field day now with both the ingredients and methods. Paul Made me laugh that did Paul. Brilliant what went on in all innocence back then. Pete.
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Post by jon38r80 on Jan 24, 2023 13:39:34 GMT
"The problem was that being impatient and allowing the mould to dry properly occasionally resulted in the molten lead bing ejected from the mould at some speed. I assume this was probably the moisture turning to steam"
Funnily enough, the HSE dont care if you maim yourself at home with such activity , only if you were daft enough to do the same thing at work, and then your supervisor gets the blame and potentialy imprisonment for letting you do it even though he had no idea what you were up to.
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uuu
Elder Statesman
your message here...
Posts: 2,807
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Post by uuu on Jan 24, 2023 14:48:45 GMT
Playing with mercury is such fun.
Wilf
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lesstoneuk
Part of the e-furniture
Retired Omnibus navigation & velocity adjustment technician
Posts: 373
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Post by lesstoneuk on Jan 25, 2023 0:12:04 GMT
You could buy fireworks come November time. Bangers actually went "bang" not "pop".
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,906
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Post by JonL on Jan 25, 2023 20:40:24 GMT
I'm maybe a little younger than some here so although I did have a Meccano set it was secondhand as the new ones were a bit plasticky. It was missing quite a few pieces but I loved it. I remember looking at the designs in the book that bent some of the metal spars but I couldn't bear the thought of them being permanently damaged so all my designs had straight edges... Lego Technic was more my thing, building elaborate gearboxes and mechanisms. 11 years ago my son built this (he would have been 7 I think), with a bit of help of course. It's begging to take an eye out but he loved it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYH8DJ2n9sg
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abby
Statesman
Posts: 925
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Post by abby on Jan 25, 2023 22:28:41 GMT
Winter warmers and banger guns! Dan.
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Post by steamer5 on Jan 25, 2023 23:35:59 GMT
For those of you luckily enuff to still have a dad around, have a chat to them & see what they used to get up to when they were young!
Years ago I listened to dad & a couple of his mates talking about what they got up to, today you would be arrested & the key thrown away!
Cheers Kerrin
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jem
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,064
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Post by jem on Jan 27, 2023 18:06:25 GMT
When I was a kid 70 years ago, maccano was number 1 and mini bricks number 2 just after the war, maccano produced pieces to make war planes etc too. soap box carts were a good way of getting rid of the heals of our welly boots , breaks, bangers under man hole covers, or in bottles thrown in the river, skating on thin ice on a pond miles from anywhere with no one to rescue you if you fell through the ice, a bit of electric cable for an over head cable way, to a den high in the trees, walking down the river, crossing it now and again and going for miles in the "bush" on our own with a bottle of pop and a porkpie. how did we survive?? well perhaps some of us didnt, but we lucky suvivers are here to tell the tail/
Jem
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