Feb. 2018
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 33 No.4 January 2018 Editor John Lovegrove
Our next meeting will be on
February 12th, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Room 128, Indian Road, Sarnia.
The January Meeting
Our meeting was better attended this time, the weather had improved and some members who were not too well last month seem to have shaken off their colds etc. None of our members from the London area was able to come, it seems that the 402 was still not in very good condition. Our Treasurer was present this time so we did have a report on our finances (still healthy.)
Keith Orr was able to come to the meeting, his first for several months. He is recovering well from his stroke and is able to get around with the help of a cane.
Brian Lawson had made come copies of the CD Bruce Mannerow put together. This has collection of items from old books on subjects such as lathe operation. The source of the information is Internet Archives (which means that it is all fairly old.) Several members borrowed copies to peruse at their leisure.
We talked about the up-coming Cabin Fever Exhibition. Bruce and I were planning to go and there was room in the car for two more. However, no one else took up the offer. We did go and there will be a little more about the show later on.
There was some discussion about Paul Hamler who makes miniature woodworking tools and also flintlock guns etc. He has been an exhibitor at NAMES
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=mbB7_IKgCJM&list=PLbGC44mjwqrc2Paqxo
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtoxVdModgI&list=PLbGC44mjwqrc2PaqxoT
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjI9SohNa6M&list=PLbGC44mjwqrc2PaqxoTU
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There was also some discussion about the feasibility of making iron castings in a home foundry. A few people have done this and in his book Foundrywork for the Amateur, Terry Aspin discusses a couple of methods. (I am going from memory here because I am sure I have a copy somewhere but cannot find it.) As I recall, for small jobs his preferred method was to melt the iron in a crucible using a coke furnace. For larger jobs one really needs to make a miniature
piece and when they wear they are just re-machined to restore the correct profile. Eventually the rim gets down to the minimum allowable thickness and the wheel then has to be scrapped.
Aside from normal, fairly even wear, one problem that occurs fairly commonly on rolling stock is that of flats being worn on wheels when they lock up during braking. When this occurs, there is quite a clatter as the railcar goes along.
The profile of the wheel rim is fairly critical if it is to run properly on the rail. A special lathe is used for this and a profile plate + hydraulic follower system has been used many years. I also remember being at a seminar given by Ron Ginger where he talked about putting a CNC attachment on a 100yr old lathe to do the job the high-tech way.
cupola (again using coke.) The problem nowadays is that coke is difficult to obtain (unless you want it by the railcar.) With gas or oil firing it seems very difficult to get a high enough temperature to melt iron and it is normally necessary to pre-heat the air to increase the
combustion temperature. People have made air pre-heaters using a simple heat exchanger, taking heat from the hot gasses leaving the furnace. To a first approximation the temperature achieved in the furnace should be increased by the same amount that the air is pre-heated. I have often wondered whether there is much difference between the temperatures achieved by different fuels. The main difference seems to be that heavier fuels like fuel oil give a slightly higher (~1000C) flame temperature. However, the differences are marginal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiabatic_flame_temperature#
Common_flame_temperatures
It is also interesting that the temperatures achieved by gaseous and liquid fuels are similar to those achieved by solid fuels and they should all be capable of melting iron. However, solid fuels seem to be more effective, probably because of the better heat transfer characteristics.
If anyone is interested in Terry Aspin’s books; Busy Bee appear to sell them (at least they are on their website.)
Another factor discussed is whether cast iron is really necessary for many model applications. It was and still is used for full size engines because it is relatively cheap as well as having some other good properties. For models cost is not really an issue and in many cases easier-to-cast aluminum is just as satisfactory. Cast iron is definitely needed for things like cylinder liners but buying a piece of continuously cast Meehanite bar and machining from solid means that one is guaranteed freedom from blow holes or hard spots that can be found in castings.
The last topic of discussion was all about railways. As I recall, it started with wheel construction. At one time wheels (thinking particularly the main drives on steam locomotives) were made with shrunk-on tires so that when the outside became worn it could be replaced rather than having to scrap the whole (and very expensive) wheel. Nowadays wheels are one-
He now has some proper chucks to do the job.
Show and Tell
Tom Dunn is still working on his muzzle break to reduce recoil and muzzle lift. This is what he brought along:
Peter Esser brought along a miniature press he had acquired. His thinking was that it must have been a high school project and that was confirmed by Matt Samko.
Two aspects were fairly strange;
firstly, it was set up for left handed operation, secondly there was no provision to stop the operating lever and pinion falling out. Another slightly strange thing was that there was a dished piece on the anvil part. One thought was that it was really made as a nut cracker (for a left-handed person?) and not a small press.
I have been getting a few more parts made for my Sealion. All the components for holding the oil and getting it to the oil pump have been completed along with the oil pump itself.
Bruce Mannerow brought along a tailstock turret he has been using to make some components for his howitzer. The main problem has been properly holding drills in the simple holders he made (a set screw being used to retain the drill.)
are largely eliminated. Here is the machined component before removing from the mounting plate (which has been re-cycled from a few earlier jobs.)
Cabin Fever
No one from the club went last year but Bruce and I decided to see if we could get there this time. With the weather being so unpredictable in January the approach we have taken is to leave it until a few days before the show to see how the weather forecast looks. If it is OK we just make hotel bookings and go.
Compared with two years ago the show does seem to have shrunk a little. Some of the exhibitors we have seen there before were absent and the same thing applied to vendors. It is possible that the bad weather prior to the show, particularly in the New England area, might have kept people away. Anyway, it was a bit disappointing and one wonders whether the 10- hour trip to get there is really worthwhile. Having said that the attendance seemed to be good and we talked to people from the London and Toronto areas who had travelled there.
This is our "stand" with Bruce and his artillery pieces along with my Wyvern set up to run on propane.
They try to have a theme at shows and this time it was Stuart (and Stuart Turner) models. They did have some nice examples there. The first picture is a twin cylinder marine engine; the Stuart Turner Swan. Apparently, it was made in the Henley-on-Thames factory, it has never been steamed or used in a boat and is still screwed to the pieces of wood used to secure it in its shipping case. It is complete with
I have also made a discharge manifold for the pump. The next thing is some kind of pressure relief valve, then making all the connections required. I am still pondering how to do this. What I have also incorporated is a strainer screen that will filter out any debris from the oil before it enters the oil pan. In the mean time I have made a start on the water pump.
My technique is to solder the blank piece to a much larger steel mounting plate then do some preliminary machining in the mill. This includes facing the top, putting in the threads to hold on the cover plate and centre drilling the centres needed for the two gear cavities and radiussing the ends. The whole thing is then transferred to a large 4 jaw chuck in the lathe to carry out the main machining. By using the large back plate, errors due to tilting of the component when it is moved to machine the different features,
boiler feed pump and what are presumably condensate and vacuum
pumps to enable it to operate with a condenser.
This is a Stuart Turner 800 gas engine. It, along with the Swan, disappeared from their range a long time ago.
The village where I spent my early years was only about 20 km from Henley on Thames and I remember going there and seeing their finished models on display in the store next to the Stuart Turner factory. Later, Stuart Models was separated from the main company and has since gone through a number of changes:
Meetings for the rest of the Season
2018
February 12th
March 19th (12th is March Break)
April 9th
May 14th
June 11th
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John Lovegrove