april 2015
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 30 No.7 April 2015 Editor John Lovegrove
Our next Meeting will be on
Monday May 11th, 2015 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Machine Shop (Rm. 148), Indian Road, Sarnia.
The April Meeting
Again our treasurer was present and gave his report.
The missing (heavy duty) air hoses have now been
found and are in Tony Koolen’s possession. He will
give them to Brian Lawson when an opportunity
arises.
Bruce Mannerow proposed that we purchase two
more folding plastic tables for use at shows - if they
come on special at a reasonable price. The proposal
was approved on the basis that Bruce would also
store the tables.
Bruce then went on to talk about a few other things:
On our website he has now put links to a series of
videos that should be of interest. (Look under Links,
Industrial Revolution Videos.) They are mainly ones
produced by the BBC and there is an excellent series
with Fred Dibnah on “The Age of Steam” – check
them out. I will leave a link to our website towards the
end of each newsletter.
Still on the website theme; Bruce is now considering a
projects page where information can be posted on the
various projects we are working on. We also plan to
post the information I made available on cam design
and machining, following the seminar at NAMES
He talked about Autodesk Fusion 360 which is a
cloud based, 3D drafting program that he has looked
at. It is claimed to be easy to learn and free for
students, enthusiasts, hobbyists and start-ups.
Four of us attended the Cabin Fever exhibition in York
PA, getting back on the Sunday just before our
meeting. It was a good show but there did seem to
be less vendors this year. Perhaps the proximity to
NAMES is having an effect. On this theme, it has
been announced that the show will move back to
January next year and will be in Lebanon PA.
NAMES was the weekend following our meeting and
plans to attend were discussed. The intent was to
have a more significant club presence at the show
this time and several members offered to take models
along to display. My plan was to go on the Friday
which is set aside for exhibitors and vendors to set up
so that I could grab some table space for the club.
More about the shows later.
We talked about shows this summer and Bruce
promised to put together a list. This is appended to
the newsletter. A few dates are missing and it always
seems strange that this close to the show season,
dates do not appear to have been fixed.
Cabin Fever
Bruce, Tony, Murray and I went along. Looking back
this was the 5th year in a row. Bruce took his 18
pounder, Tony took some castings, Murray took his
double Tangye and feed pump, I took the Wyvern and
the completed parts of the Sealion.
They have an auction going on in part of the building,
mainly on the Friday. There was a lot of machinery
being sold and it looked as if there was a lot of stuff
from workshop clearances.
One of the recurrent themes we hear is the difficulty
of getting castings made. In fact Tony was
approached by several people about the possibility of
producing some for them. There was a seminar on
Saturday afternoon about making cores for castings
and some discussion ensued about getting
acceptable quality castings made. Apparently there is
an Amish iron foundry not too far from York that does
a reasonable job in that material.
Although some of the smaller vendors seem to have
decided not to go, three significant CNC machinery
people were there (Tormach, Novacon and Charter
Oak.) None of them put in an appearance at the
Detroit show.
From time to time we get to talking about 3D printing.
Traction engine with 3D parts
Someone at the show had a traction engine where he
seems to have been making trial parts (maybe to act
as patters for castings) using this technique. I did not
get to talking with the owner but we are likely to see
more of this in the future. (Stu Brownlow seems to be
leading the way in our club.)
Show and Tell
We did not have very much for show and tell this time:
Rick Nickels brought along the cylinder head from a
John Deere 1 ½ HP gas engine. He needed another
muffler so he just turned up the body from a piece of
cast iron. One notable feature was the tapered pipe
thread used to attach it to the head. He threaded this
in the lathe, backing off by hand to produce the taper.
(Looking at the size I wonder how much muffling it
actually does!) The engine is hit and miss governed,
has a low tension igniter and suction inlet valve. (One
can see the last two features on the head.)
Ricks cylinder head, muffler is at right side.
I brought along my Sealion. Since the last meeting I
was at I have carried out most of the machining on
the cylinder head. It is in two parts with the top part
carrying the bearings for the overhead camshaft. The
rationale for the 2 parts is that it provides a cooling
water cavity without the need for a difficult coring
operation in the casting. I just hope I can get a good
seal between the two parts to prevent water leaks. I
held off putting in the tappings for the spark plugs until
they were purchased, to make sure the depth was
compatible with the plug reach.
Johns Sealion
(One of the spark
plugs I bought at Cabin Fever is shown at the bottom
of the photograph.)
NAMES
Ten club members were at the show and most of us
had something to display. Brian Lawson had already
staked out some space for the club so I just held on to
it when I got there. From a vendor and exhibitor
count the show seemed to be about the same size as
last year.
Both at Cabin Fever and NAMES the most numerous
models on display seem to be single cylinder (usually
hit and miss) gas engines.
Gas engine at NAMES
Presumably the popularity
has come about because they are relatively simple to
build and get running. There were a few of these
McCormick-Deering engines on display:
Our Website
Notice - 2015 Ontario antique and steam engine show guide is on website under Upcoming Events link.
