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Post by Jim Woods on Apr 22, 2024 22:51:58 GMT
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Post by Jim Woods on Nov 8, 2023 19:37:54 GMT
Hi Millman, yes, sheet is best. the stuff we used was inch thick I think (was 40 years ago!!!) you need to have good dust extraction too. Still use it today for high temp induction coil mounts. we use it to wrap square section 1/4 copper tube around. Turn a sort of cotton reel then layer down coils of the copper. each layer is glued with hi temp resin. we use the tube so we can watercool the coil when the hi volts and amps are past through. awful messy job on the lathe. the stuff is now known as Micarta. all different grades and reinforcing materials too. lep.co.nz/shop/industrial-plastics-rod-sheet-tube/sheets/micarta-sheets/usual disclaimers :-)
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Post by Jim Woods on Nov 6, 2023 10:07:26 GMT
As an apprentice, I use to make "Tufnol" gears for a ropewalk that was still in every day use here. Steel on this fiber reinforced material was very quiet and lasted quite a while in heavy usage.
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Oct 15, 2023 19:26:45 GMT
Excellent work that. looking forward to more great pictures. Keep it up Old bikes and model engineering seem to go together. AJS man myself.
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radweld?
Jul 15, 2023 22:43:03 GMT
via mobile
Post by Jim Woods on Jul 15, 2023 22:43:03 GMT
Ground white pepper works well too.
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Nov 29, 2022 23:49:25 GMT
My Isle of Man loco has the cage type as shown in Tony's post. works well as long as you keep it out of the oily exhaust, which it will be, and the coal is not to sooty, no trouble with the Welsh stuff. Some NZ coals are rubbish. I used stainless expanded mesh, about 2 x 4 diamond hole shape. gets blown out every 3 or 4 running days. a sharpened up exhaust helps. I run at IMLEC 2000 and came 6th while others with very fine mesh arrestors failed to finish. make it as big as you can. the bigger the surface area the less chance of clogging up I believe
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Jul 15, 2021 0:26:45 GMT
Hi Hayden,
I'd put it on a bench say 850mm to 900mm tall. but your a wee shorty so maybe 800. as above, you can put it on anti vibration feet that are adjustable. too low is hard on the back after a while, :-)
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Mar 14, 2021 21:44:11 GMT
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Post by Jim Woods on Dec 3, 2020 20:38:27 GMT
Hello,
Don't use grub screws. as Malcolm says, taper pins are best. I have done this with both the IOM loco's I have built. I have send you a PM regarding this valve gear
regards
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Oct 24, 2020 6:38:48 GMT
Hello. Mike Casey's design is 5 inch gauge. Mike told me many years ago now he gave his patterns to Ashdown models. There was a fire at the foundry and the patterns where lost. When i built my version (number5 Mona) I had to get my father to make new patterns. Mikes design makes a very good model that goes really well. Regards Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Mar 11, 2020 19:21:03 GMT
I am sure if the modern technology and materials of today was available to Greenly and LBSC they would have used it. But surely we are living in the past as we continue to build obsolete model and miniature steam loco's and other items that past in to the history books many years ago?
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Jan 23, 2017 21:15:39 GMT
yeap. my locos sound like Shirley Bassey or Bryn Turfel on the stuff :-)
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Post by Jim Woods on Jan 17, 2017 23:57:58 GMT
like Hayden and a few others, I have been following this thread with interest. I am, for my sins, both a boiler inspector and convenor of the boiler committee for my club. under the AMBSC code all clubs run with in OZ and NZ, the qualifications needed to inspect new build or retest boilers is clear. having said that, we have a somewhat over zealous secretary, ex "government employee" who latched onto one clause that said we had to have tertiary/ university education to be an inspector and had us all fired for a while till they figured out all the boilers would stop running soon and thus no income for the club outside of subs. So it only takes one "sad and misinformed individual", as pete says to cock it up. In NZ, some clubs are getting quite small now with many loco's being bought in or not built by the owner. Finding people with the required hands-on quals is getting hard. since the 70's, engineering has been hard hit buy the neo-liberal economic thinking that has infested the western world and this has indirectly lead to a drop off in the trades being in model engineering. some might argue too, that this also leads to a leadership vacuum within the hobby with those at the top making the rules having no regard to "real Life" or empathy for the builder of a work of art. So what do we do? I would think that what Simon is doing could be an answer and fully support this kind of thinking. let's keep the cowboys and bureaucrats out of the boiler side of things and try to let common sense and sound engineering lead.
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Sept 5, 2016 7:14:51 GMT
According to the 2012 AMBSC we use in NZ, you must now use the compressed air/fan auxiliary blower you use to steam up with at full chat. This is to make sure you don't bleed off steam as mentioned above. I find all my loco's own blowers makes steam better than the auxiliary blower but as some would say, "them's the rules" This has cause some discontent with our boiler inspectors. One of them feels even just using the steam blower flat out is terrible as you will melt the end off the superheater's. He decided that the safety valve accumulation test should be done by running the loco around the track with the blower hard on so as to admit steam through the superheater's. This has since been over ruled and as per the AMBSC now stands. Under the old code, it said that a loco could be set up on blocks and the regulator "cracked" to allow steam through the super heaters.
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Jul 22, 2016 0:19:09 GMT
We are lucky that a few small traders in NZ still have the personal touch.Not so much what you know, but who you know. We also tend to be a bit mean in NZ at throwing stuff away so there are plenty of things here still imperial. working for a University we get equipment from all over the world, some of it is even Japanese supplied to the American market and is US imperial sizes, UNF and UNC threads etc. still plenty of old British Leyland Cars on the road here too.
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Feb 28, 2016 21:42:34 GMT
Hi Pete,
how much adjustment do you have in your springs. maybe all you need to do is drop the front down abit and wind/shim the tail up. getting the springing right can be tricky. I built a weighing bridge for the IOM loco as they tend to be nose heavy over the pony truck. Being leaf springs and compensated didn't help. I ended up having it softly sprung on the drivers and stiff springs on the pony truck. I got the driving axles within a few grams. took a few attemps as you almost work diagonally the wheel base I found. the weigh bridge was just a length of track with a short bit hacked out in the middle. like a wheel drop in full size. Anyway, I used a set of bathroom scales with a lenght of threaded rod so as the screw the moving bit of rail up to rail height and took the reading off the scales. that make sence?
regards
Jim
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"bare"
Feb 3, 2016 2:13:10 GMT
Jim likes this
Post by Jim Woods on Feb 3, 2016 2:13:10 GMT
My father was a carpenter and used "Bare" and "Full" measurements. as those above have said, Bare is an Infinitely varible amount short or under the given size and Full being the same amount over the given size. As a toolmaker I used them to confuse the drawing office lot when updating the drawings they did after the tool or machine was finished. Graduate "engineers" are easily confused with old fashioned terms and bad spelling like I use :-)
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Sept 7, 2015 0:52:15 GMT
Hi guys,
The Bar grate Hayden showed I made for my Isle of Man loco. it is to the oridgional Mike Casey Drawings and Mikes Peveril is now 30+ years old and steams like a witch still burning what ever you throw at it. I run it last year at IMLEC. The rough air % is 60. I have looked at grate designs by LBSC, Evans, Young, Greenley and others over the last 90 years and this seems to be the favored sizes for 5 inch gauge and an amount I hear quoted quite abit. I works for me on my IOM loco Mona and I find with the welsh coal you need to rake out the ashpan every now and then, just like the big loco's to keep them clear. with "soft" coals you seem to be able to run a 50% air gap. I also believe that a good gap is important to allow the ash to drop through and stop clinkering. the stainless strip was cut from 3mm 316 sheet in a big guillotine. the cross ties are 3.2mm (1/8) stainless welding rod, threaded on the endeds and stainless nuts. spacers are 1/4 stainless superheater tubes off cuts cut to suit the air gap required. I think every loco is different, wide fireboxes vs Narrow, long vs short and so on. the ashpan plays a lot too with how the fire reacts. where the air comes in, the amount of air, like a carburator I guess. And of course the heating area and front end design. many people have worked all this stuff out, but no one formular will suit every loco, big or small it seems. I use to look after 2 New Zealand Ab class steam loco's. these where 4-6-2 tender loco's running what was called the "Kingston Flyer" only a few numbers apart and should have been the same in performance, nope! 778 was happy with 4 or 5 cars pulling up the grade while 795 would sulk with a light load and you had to chase it along with the blower all the time. however 8 cars full regulator, about 50% cutoff, steamed great while 778 would lie down and have a snooze while having a boil up. go figure. the only thing I found was that 778 had a liner in the chimney so mabe it was too choked. The owner wouldn't let us remove it to find out. I think this is where IMLEC is great to find the optimum settings to get the best out of your loco. be nice to see if Lional Flippance ever builds his other boilers for the 2-8-2 to see what he can do.
thanks
Jim
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Post by Jim Woods on Aug 26, 2015 6:18:48 GMT
Hi Nonort, It was a great weekend all those years ago. I was really happy with my 6th place. Completed 3 times since with Other loco's. Last year at Bournemouth I came 8th in the end. 2004 at Kinver, I was almost disqualified for drinking and driving the Merchant Navy with a miniature bottle of rum or two ?. 2007 at Llanelli was a hoot. I really enjoy the social side of it. Hacking, eating and seeing how others do it is great. I hope to be back again with a new loco of my own in the next few years.
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Post by Jim Woods on Aug 20, 2015 3:31:49 GMT
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