april 2017
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 32 No.6 March 2017 Editor John Lovegrove
Our next Meeting will be on
Monday April 10th, 2017 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Machine Shop (Rm. 148), Indian Road, Sarnia.
The March Meeting
Attendance at this meeting was even better than last month with barely any seats left in the room. Our treasurer was present this time so we had an update on our finances. He also reminded some members that their subscriptions were overdue. (This quickly produced a flurry of $20 bills.)
The proposal made by our Librarian, Keith Orr, to take out a subscription for the Model Engineer and Model Engineering Workshop, was re-visited. The vote taken last time suggested that several people were not very happy about going ahead. This time we took another vote on a modified proposal to just get a one year subscription to Model Engineering Workshop – on a trial basis. A proper count was taken of votes and it was approved 14 to 2. Keith can therefore get the order placed and we can see how it works out.
I had asked Bruce to raise the question of paper copies of the newsletter being sent out by normal mail. Although Brian Lawson now handles this, we are still sending out about 8 copies this way and the cost is significant. If anyone currently receiving the newsletter by normal mail is now able to accept the e-mail version please let us know.
NAMES was discussed: This is on 22nd & 23rd of April so we can finalize arrangements at the next meeting. 8 members indicated that they planned to go and several of us plan to take models. Bruce will go along on the Friday (21st) to grab some table space. There was some discussion about recent reports of problems crossing the border but the feeling was that this has been over-blown. See the link for NAMES:
slightly undersize and with oil based lubricant it will cut oversize. Comments anyone?
There was further discussion about using hypodermic syringes to fill cracks in wood etc. with cyanoacrylates (but don’t leave the stuff in the needle if you want to use it again.) Some other websites were mentioned: Keith Rucker is into all sorts of vintage machinery:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ksruckerowwm
One of his friends; Paul Hamler is into making miniature tools and guns.
http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/hamler.htm
There was some discussion about a Chinese organization, Banggood that will mail order a wide variety of stuff directly to Canada. Dale Masters has bought things from them and Nick Jonkman has looked at them also. In particular, sets of cutters to make standard involute gears were mentioned. They are fairly cheap and apparently the quality is OK for our type of application. Only metric modular cutters seem to be available ranging from M0.5 to M4 with prices in the $Cdn10-20 range per cutter. I have not come across these people before, finding stuff on their website needs a little patience and interpreting the information they give is a challenge but they have some amazing stuff.
http://www.banggood.com/search/gear-cutters-set.html
Larry Stevens asked me about a list of club members. I have not distributed anything for a while so attached is a list of current members and their phone numbers.
http://www.namesexposition.com/expo.htm
As usual we got into some discussion about workshop hints and tips. With the aid of some chalk board drawings, Bruce went over Joe "Pie’s" opposite-way-around (upside down, inside out) screw cutting system, described briefly in last month’s newsletter. There was some discussion about the merits of this approach and a warning not to try it if you have an older type lathe with a screw-on chuck.
One other tip that Bruce mentioned was that when using a reamer; with water based lubricant it will cut
used to ensure that equal braking force is applied to all of the brake shoes – it gets quite complicated. He is about 3 years into the project so he manages to make way more progress than most of us.
Bruce’s Howitzer Parts
Show and Tell
As we saw last month; more people at the meeting does seem to translate into more show and tell:
Bruce has continued with the trails for his howitzer; each month significant progress is made. The picture shows the trails and the riveting devices he has made (he is still waiting for the rivets ordered from the UK.)
Dale Masters brought along the items he has so far completed on his 3½" gauge Rio Grande K27 locomotive. The boiler looks essentially finished and the chassis together with cylinders is well on the way. I was particularly interested in the system of levers
Mike’s Mastiff
Dale’s 3½" Gauge Locomotive Parts
Kasey Schuilenberg has made another magnetizer/ demagnetizer coil, this time for Tony Koolen. It is based on an old microwave transformer and housed in a very nice wooden casing.
Kasey’s very elegant Coil
Todd Michel brought along some more parts for Jeff Searson’s traction engine. This time they were for the governor. There was some discussion about the problems of making a working governor for small engines and how there seem to be almost as many parts in them as there are in the rest of the engine.
Don Eastman has now finished his model of the lake freighter the Kaye E Barker. At 13 ft long it was too big to bring to the meeting (getting it out of his basement must also be a challenge) but he did have some pictures to show us. He forwarded some to me and one of them is shown below.
Mike Clark has essentially finished his Mastiff 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engine. It is basically able to run but there is a problem with the lubrication system; primarily an oil leak.
Nick Jonkman had a Swedish made power filing system, the DISPROFIL. The main part converts rotary motion from a motor etc. into reciprocating motion. A wide variety of files can be fitted in the reciprocating head and presumably used to file various parts to shape, doing what could be done by hand but with less effort and more precision.
have already machined the cross bore in the timing case along with the mounting faces for the pumps.
It may seem like a continuing bitch with the kit I bought for the engine but basically you cannot make anything to drawing and expect it to be right. The main timing gears seem to be OK but the worm and wheel for the cross shaft drive need a C/L slightly less than shown on the drawing and the gears for the oil pump need a C/L distance 0.016" greater than specified. I basically end up re-drawing everything before doing any machining.
Martin Beales brought along a steam engine he had bought. This was of German origin, judging by the instruction sheet, and has the same general appearance as some others that come from that country. The engine itself is twin cylinder with something similar to piston valves and can be reversed using a valve that switches the steam supply and exhaust connections. He believes it was made for powering boats (there is a gear driven shaft near the middle of the engine that could connect to a propeller with the engine mounted transversely in the hull.)
Club T Shirts
The way forward seemed to be set using the approach worked out by John Sibbick; printing the club logo on to iron-on transfer sheets from Staples then applying them to whatever item you wished. However, at the meeting Ed Spencer expressed bitter disappointment that we were going this way as opposed to having the logo embroidered onto a shirt. Bruce is therefore back to pursuing this approach.
This whole thing seems to have been going on for ever and illustrates the difficulty of getting anything significant done in almost any club. My own view is that if anyone proposes we embark on something of this kind they should also be prepared to personally do the leg-work involved to see it through to completion.
After painting and generally finishing off my Wyvern I have got back to working on the 4 cylinder Sealion. The timing gear train has been finished with some pieces added to funnel oil into the idler gear bearings. A keyway has been cut and a key made in the pinion so that it can be driven from the crankshaft. I have also put together an extractor system so that gears can be pulled off the shafts without resorting to more brutal techniques. (One always seems to have things together and apart multiple times before the job is finished.) Next up are the oil and water pumps. The worm wheel to drive the cross shaft that in turn drives the gear pumps can be seen on the crankshaft and I
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Meeting Schedule for the remaining 2016-2017 Season
2017
April 10th
May 8th
June 12th
John Lovegrove.