Feb. 2015
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 30 No.5 February 2015 Editor John Lovegrove
Our next Meeting will be on
Monday March 9th, 2014 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Machine Shop (Rm. 148), Indian Road, Sarnia.
The February Meeting
Seven of us went along to visit Maveric Canada in Wallaceburg. Peter Esser managed to set this up for January 24th and it was very worthwhile. They make a lot of very difficult parts in exotic materials, mainly for the oil industry. Because things in that area fell off a cliff just recently, their business is suffering and so there was no Saturday OT. Therefore, we did not get to see any machining going on, but just looking at the equipment and the parts they make was impressive. The have quite range of different CNC machines, a few conventional ones and a section where they carry out EDM work.
The following Saturday, Tony Koolen’s brother Gerry put on his resin casting demo at his home in Port Franks. One of the things he showed was the use of a silicone rubber mould to cast low melting point metals like lead where the temperatures do not cause the rubber to decompose.
Bruce Mannerow announced that this was the 30th anniversary of the club and that 3 of the original members were in fact present at the meeting (himself, Peter Esser and Nick Jonkman.) A few more either still belong to the club or keep in contact with us. Apparently there were ~50 present at the first meeting.
Bruce also announced that the club website is now up and running. Please check it out:
https://sites.google.com/site/bluewatermes/
Continuing on the high tech theme; he also talked about the "apps" that are now available for Microsoft, Apple and Android devices that enable one to carry out various calculations that are useful in the workshop. (I tried the Microsoft apps store and found a few under "Engineering Calculations.")
Going even further along the high the road; he is also willing to give 3D drafting demos to anyone who is interested. FreeCad was mentioned as a program that is worthwhile looking into.
Another topic was the "monkey" wrench. Germans refer to it as an "Englander" and the French use the term "clé Anglais (English key.) I have spent time working in both countries and the term tends to be used in a derogatory sense (i.e. no self-respecting mechanic would ever use one) rather than giving credit to the nationality of the inventor. However, looking in Wikipedia, different forms of adjustable wrench originated in different countries and in some places the term "Swedish wrench" is used and in others it is called a French wrench!
There was some discussion on the Cabin Fever and NAMES exhibitions. These are on 11th/12th and 18th/19th of April respectively. A few of us will be going to Cabin Fever and presumably a few more to NAMES. As an FYI, I will be giving a seminar on Cam Design and Making them on a CNC Mill at NAMES.
We did have a visitor/potential new member; Alex Herpers from St. Marys. He came along with Ed Spencer and his main interest is in live steam engines
Show and Tell
Nick Jonkman brought along an old record turntable for Stu Brownlow. This is clockwork driven and the speed can be varied. Stu intends to use it as a drive for the carousel he is working on. (He has been looking into how to make the horses etc. for this.)
Record Turntable
Tony Koolen had a series of castings showing the evolution of his lost foam technique. One was from the attempt mentioned last time where the stucco material had not dried properly and the moisture caused a kind of foaming action ((top right.) His most successful job so far involved dissolving the pattern out with acetone so that there was very little plastic left to vapourize when the metal was poured (top left.)
Lost Foam Castings
Murray Bennel had his mainly complete twin cylinder water feed pump. He inherited the castings from someone else who had made a start and given up. I have worked with Murray on this, trying to understand the drawings and changing the design so that it made some sense both from a machining and operating perspective. We seem to get on this topic quite often i.e. how poorly thought out some designs are and how significant changes are required to make the thing work. Anyway … having struggled with this example, Murray now has something that will work as intended and actually pumps water.
Water feed pump
Bruce has managed to do some more work on the breech block for his 18 pounder:
!8 PDR Breech ring and block
Mike Clark has been busy machining some of the parts for his Mastiff, starting with the kit bought from Hemmingway in the UK. This is a 4 cylinder, 30cc, horizontally opposed gas engine and Mike has made significant progress since the kit arrived late last year.
Mastiff engine parts
Rick Nickels had a rotating chimney top device that is designed to point away from the wind and prevent downdrafts. It is suspended from a pivot point on the inside near the top so that it is free to rotate with the wind. (I remember from my early days in England where most people had coal fires that all sorts of devices were used with the same objective and one never really knew how effective they were.)
Rick’s Chimney Cowl
I have made some more progress on my Sealion (also 30cc but an in-line 4.) The cylinder block now has the bores machined, head stud holes drilled/ tapped and water passages drilled/milled. In addition, the cylinder liners have been machined ready to be shrunk in place. The kit was also from Hemmingway and neither Mike nor I are impressed with the quality of their castings. As with the Wyvern, I am starting to run into some significant design issues: Edgar T did not do an outstandingly thorough job with his designs.
Sealion block
The bores in the cylinder block are 0.005" smaller at the bottom and the liners made to suit. This should make fitting them much easier. After some discussion at the meeting the interference has been adjusted to slightly over 0.001" on the nominal 31/32" diameter.
I was given a set of castings and materials for the Stuart "Score" as a Christmas present. This is a twin cylinder steam engine, ¾ bore and stroke. While working on the crankshaft for the Sealion I thought I would make up the crankshaft for this.
Stuart Score Crankshaft
It is built up and silver soldered together. (They suggest Loctiting as an alternative but I did not like the idea.) After cutting out the pieces of shaft between the webs, the run-out was ~0.004" so I set up and ground the crank pins and journals so that everything now runs true.
Wanted
John Sibbick is looking for a trunnion system that will support a model locomotive so that it can be turned over and worked on for maintenance and repairs. Most of his locomotives are ¾" scale.
An interesting website
Bruce sent me the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVuKp5M3de8#t=101
It is amazing what some people manage to produce – this has 24 cylinders. Those of us working on 4 cylinder engines think they are complicated enough but this just blows one away. I guess the only slight consolation is that it does not actually run under its own power. (An ignition system for that number of cylinders would be a nightmare.)
Komoka Steaming Schedule
Ed Spence has supplied this tentative 2015 steaming schedule for the track at the Komoka Railway Museum
Most Saturdays 10 am to 2 pm, weather permitting, dates as follows;
April: 11th and 25th
May: 9th and 23rd
June: 6th and 27th
July: 11th and 25th
August: 8th, 22nd and 29th
September: 12th.
Other dates by prior arrangement through the museum. Birthday parties, car clubs, service club outings etc. are welcome.
For further information or to confirm steaming operation call Ed. Spencer @ 519-488-1622 or cell 226-973-4462.