Jan. 2017

The December Meeting

Show and Tell

Once again our treasurer gave his report and we still have money in the bank.

There was further discussion about club T shirts and the direction we are headed is the DIY approach using iron-on transfers, probably from Staples. John Sibbick offered to try it out and Bruce Mannerow sent him the logo to work with. However, John was unable to get to the meeting to report on progress. Bruce asked permission to spend ~$20 of club funds to buy a package of transfer sheets to see how the approach works out. This was approved.

We talked about Stefan Gotteswinter (see the following link.)

https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl

He is a young German guy who does some really remarkable things. He even has a shaper in his collection of machine tools (which should gladden the heart of traditional machinists.) Apparently one factor is that he has no memsaab to put a crimp his spending on "essential" workshop equipment.

We also talked about NYC CNC and their activities;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ_TA5b3nvc

Clearly CNC figures very prominently in their activities and they seem to be very much involved with Tormach who appear to be the leading supplier of hobby and low-end commercial CNC machines in N. America.

Here are a few more links Bruce passed on to me that are well worth checking out:

This one is the Berkley high energy lab machine shop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmmNRaKpBTI

Stepping back in time, a line shaft powered machine shop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnO222giZzc

And how to make a simple engraving attachment for a mill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtX0FM3txCo

We also touched on 3D printing and the extensive use of the technique for making sand cores and moulds for casting. I have thought about 3D printing myself and had a few discussions on what is involved so I have put in a short item later.

The largest and most impressive item was a "monkey" organ brought along by Tony Koolen’s brother Gerry. It was made in Überlingen, Germany in 1996 by Orgelbau (organ builder) Raffin GmBH. It has 31 keys, 103 pipes and the "ranks" are flute, celeste, violin, piccolo and trumpet. I did try to find out some more about the man who made it and this website gives some information including a picture of the "Orgelbaumeister" Unfortunately it is all in German.

http://www.suedkurier.de/region/bodenseekreis-oberschwaben/ueberlingen/Josef-Raffin-81-aus-UEberlingen-ist-Orgelbaumeister;art372495,6484780

The organ is hand cranked and uses rolls of paper with the music "encoded" as a series of punched holes. The crank operates pumps that provide air under pressure to produce the sound in the pipes and a partial vacuum that is used to "read" the holes in the music rolls and operate valves that admit the air to the pipes. There are also a series of "stops" that have to be operated by hand from queues marked on the music rolls. The whole operation is mechanical/ pneumatic with no electrics or electronics.

Gerry Koolen's and his "monkey" organ

adjustments. They can then be mounted individually on the cylinder pairs after being set up correctly. On full size horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engines like those in the old VW Beetle, when carburettors were used the long induction manifold was always cited as a disadvantage. The problem went away when fuel injection became the norm. As far as I know the only present day car engines with this configuration are those used in the Subaru.

Bruce is moving right along with his 4.5" howitzer. Last time he had completed the outer faces for the trails, now he has made the top and bottom parts and silver soldered them together to form "U" sections. (It is interesting that the steel has acquired a coppery colour indicating that there must be quite a lot of copper in his pickling solution.)

4.5" howitzer Trail Frames

For anyone who is not familiar with the Seqwun it operates out of Gravenhurst at the southern end of Lake Muskoka. It is the only coal fired steam ship still operating in Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Segwun

We try to go on a trip once a year and find it really enjoyable. The machinery comprises a twin furnace scotch marine boiler and two, two stage compound condensing engines driving the propellers in opposite directions. Even better, they still allow you to go into the engine room to look at the machinery. Anyway, a nice model Don. Apparently his next project is a lake freighter.

Mike Clark is making more progress with his Mastiff; he has now completed the two carburettors. With a horizontally opposed 2 or 4 cylinder engine one either has to have 2 (maybe 4) carburettors or a long, branched inlet manifold.

Mike Clark's Mastiff carbs

Matt Samco brought along some traction engine parts that his father Paul had made. It is an English style engine "Minnie" by L.C. Mason (the same person who designed the Mastiff gasoline engine that Mike Clark is working on.) The boiler is complete and looks to be well made. The horn plates have been started but probably need more holes for attaching various parts. The perch bracket and front axle + wheels also look to be complete. One of the hind wheels with its building jig is also there.

Matt Samco Minnie Traction Engine

Apparently his father was a member of the club some time ago.

I have managed to make some progress on completing the Wyvern re-build. I started by making a muffler system typical of those used on engines of the time (to replace the Princess Auto small engine muffler used originally.) The exhaust connections are basically 1/8" pipe and I need an elbow between the

The process is analogous to making a component using a CNC machine where you need a CAD drawing of the part then a CAM program to import information from the drawing to generate the code for the CNC mill or lathe. (Unless like me you only make relatively simple parts and write the cutting programs from scratch.)

After attending the seminar another similarity between CNC and 3D printing became apparent: In the professional world you can justify buying professional grade software and going on training courses to learn how to use it all. In the amateur world you try to make do with whatever freeware or cheap software is available. That is what he had us doing during the seminar and most people struggled. If you have to go the cheapie route, unless you are a computer whiz, the learning curve is pretty steep. Even getting up-to-speed with 3D drafting is not easy. Bruce is the only one in the club who is there already and I am still getting there.

Even if you get through all of this the question then is what are you going to make? If 3D printing becomes your hobby then fine; you just make various gismos to admire and show off to your friends. If your hobby remains model engineering then the usefulness is rather more questionable. I can see parts being made for Don Eastman’s railroad set-up or for Kasey’s wagons etc. but if you are making models where only metal will do, the most worthwhile application is probably making patterns for castings.

Again, drawing a parallel with CNC; for me this is a way of making (difficult) parts for my model engineering projects. When one goes to seminars etc., it clear that for many people CNC is the hobby and what they make is really quite secondary. I see the same thing with people who have 3D printers.

One of the things I had not realized is just how difficult it is to get regular 1/8" steel pipe. I tried the normal suppliers in town and no one had any. Eventually I got some at Van Tuyl and Fairbank in Petrolia and they only had one old and somewhat rusty piece left. Digressing a little, if anyone has not been to that store, the next time you need a serious hardware item just go along, it is like stepping back 60 or more years. Thinking of our hobby, they do have quite a good range of steel sections along with square and round tubing.

3D Printing

The TSME Newsletters

We get to discussing this from time to time and I think it is worth putting down some of my thoughts. I am really thinking in terms of what is involved in carrying out the operation in one’s own workshop rather than having someone print items for you. (Or more generally about its many applications in the commercial world.) When I was at a CNC seminar a year or so ago someone was demonstrating a 3D printer and also ran some seminars on programing and operating it - which I went along to. The attraction of course is that nowadays printers are available for a few hundred dollars and one can make some really impressive items with them. However, there are few things one should think about:

(i) These simple, affordable machines only print using plastics (typically ABS.) Printing parts in metal at home is still quite a long way (and many $s) off.

(ii) How do you generate the software that drives the printer to make the parts? You can use programs that someone else has generated to make parts. You can have items scanned, scaled, if necessary, and the driver software prepared. However, if you wish to create an item of your own from scratch you have to start with a 3D CAD drawing of the item, then use suitable programs to generate the driver code.