Apr. 2019
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 34 No.7 April 2019 Editor John Lovegrove
Our next meeting will be on
May13th, 2019 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Room 125, Indian Road, Sarnia.
The April Meeting
The Treasurer’s report was very simple: bank balance
is the same as last time.
The first item of discussion was an e-mail that some
of us had received from Murray Bennell’s daughter
Sara. Murray gave his body to medical research and
this was subsequently cremated. Sara now has his
ashes and her wish was to fire up one of his
locomotives and give the ashes a last ride around a
train track. The feasibility of doing this was discussed
but with declining club interest in steam locomotives
and several other issues, it really did not seem
feasible. Bruce Mannerow agreed to get back to her
and explain the situation, but Brian Lawson did
undertake to explore some other options that might
enable Sara’s wish to be fulfilled.
Bruce had a workshop tip for us; relating to producing
a thin strip of metal. The real problem is holding and
properly supporting the strip of starting material. If it
is held in a machine vise mounted on a vertical mill,
with the aid of a block of metal (as shown), the side of
a conventional end mill can be used to machine the
strip down to the thickness required. The vise jaw
provides all the support and constraint needed.
other aspect to hit you is that they don’t seem to have
had a clear up during those 130 years! (If you want to
become famous, how about letting your workshop get
like this and get someone in to make a YouTube
video?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mz7OTnuTrg
Bruce also talked about the Soule Steam Feed
Works. This is in Meridian, Mississippi and was
founded in 1891 by George Soulé. There are a
couple of videos and the museum seems to house a
variety of working steam engines and old, mainly lineshaft
driven machinery. This is a much tidier
operation than the other one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdSsmLXDQvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJSREb_EX2A
In the February newsletter there was some discussion
about steam turbines and I added something about
the set-up on the Titanic where they had two triple
expansion reciprocating engines feeding a central
turbine to get additional power by further expanding
the low-pressure steam. I happened to come across
a video that further explains the arrangement used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptDFqY-0Do8
A lot of the video is computer animation but there are
some photographs of the turbine and condensers
being assembled, and one of the stokers at work.
Constructing all of this machinery must have been a
huge undertaking and operating it likewise. They had
29 boilers in total and most of them were the double
ended scotch marine type with 6 furnaces per boiler.
This required about 150 stokers to feed the fires and
between them they shoveled ~600 tons of coal each
day. (The source below mentions 800 tons/day.)
Bruce passed on to me copy of something put
together as the Haynes “Owners’ Workshop Manual”
for the RM Titanic that gives even more detail of boiler
room operation. Firing the boilers and cleaning out
ash and clinker must have been horrible work
especially with the ship pitching and rolling in heavy
seas. Presumably all 150 (or so) of the stokers and
“trimmers” perished when she sank.
I have taken to using O ring seals myself wherever it
makes sense. They have a lot going for them in
terms of effectiveness, ready availability and low cost.
Last time I brought along some of the components for
the ignition system on my Sealion. This time I had the
mainly complete system. It comprises the Hall effect
device and timing disk I brought last time mounted on
the engine, along with a small printed circuit board
with the necessary electronics. The ignition coil is
what Lucas made for motorcycles back in the days
when I rode one of them and a 6V battery supplies
the power. I will probably use a smaller coil for the
final set-up but it is better to use something that will
give a good reliable spark so there is one less doubt
in the mix when trying to get the engine running
initially. (Hence a Lucas coil!)
The basic electronic circuit is fairly simple because it
just takes the signal from the Hall effect device and
uses it to switch the special power transistor that
works like a contact breaker. Most of the complexity
comes from the extra circuitry I built in to turn off the
current to the coil if the engine stops in a position
where the power transistor would otherwise be left
turned on. This avoids running down the battery or
burning out the coil if one forgets to disconnect the
battery.
This is not how it would normally be seen but
arranged like this one can see all the components.
l recently needed some 1/16” square key material and
this is not readily available. I had some 1/8” square
material and did manage to mill some short pieces
down to the right size using a more conventional
approach. However, Bruce’s technique would
probably have worked better.
The next item up was a video about a 130-year-old
machine shop in Mississippi. Just looking at it, they
have some really old and interesting machinery. The
Show and Tell
Bruce had a 5:1 reduction gearbox that he brought
along. It was surplus to his requirements and was
free to a good home. He has also completed a few
more parts for his Howitzer that he brought along to
show us.
Don Hayes continues to buy items to get his home
workshop up and running. The item he brought along
was part of a Burke #4 Milling Machine. He needed a
bushing to go inside the clamping piece so that it
would fit on the column of the other part he has.
Tony Koolen has been making some more parts to go
with the boiler feed pump on his Case Traction
Engine. This time it is the feed line that goes down
into the tender to pick up water. There is a
complication here because of the relative movement
allowed by the rear springs. To accommodate this
the foot valve can slide up and down on the feed pipe
with a seal provided by an O ring. The internal
groove for this required some tricky machining with a
specially ground-up tool.
Kasey politely declined my request to check that the
ignition coil was working OK by holding on to the HT
connection.
Meetings for the Rest of the Season
May 13th
June 10th
Our Website
https://sites.google.com/site/bluewatermes/
John Lovegrove
