july 2017

The June Meeting

Finally the embroidered hats and T-shirts saga has drawn to a close. Bruce Mannerow brought along the items that members had ordered, money came out of wallets and everything was taken care of. Now that the supplier has generated the required software, more things can be embroidered if needed but the cost will be greater (no bulk purchase) and Bruce will have to give permission to use the logo. Our thanks go to Bruce for all the effort that was involved.

Brian Lawson talked about IMTS 2018 (International Manufacturing Technology Show) in Chicago next year. There is a (smaller) Canadian equivalent (CMTS) held in Toronto later this year.

Brian has also offered to host this year’s BMES picnic. The date has been set for August 12th, this is the same day as the Old Autos Car Show and flea market being held in Bothwell. Please mark your calendars and I will send out a reminder with more details closer to the date.

Hobbyfest was also discussed: This will be on July 16th in Centennial Park (near Sarnia Bay) and we will be exhibiting as usual. Again, I will send out a reminder but please be prepared to come along with your models ready to exhibit. Compressed air will be available to run "steam" engines.

Ed Spencer brought along another partly completed boiler; this time a proper locomotive boiler for Sweet Pea. He believes in fluxing-up parts as he goes along.

Ed's boiler

Bruce talked about an Antikythera mechanism. This was made by the ancient Greeks to calculate astronomical positions. It contains at least 30 meshing gears, the largest of which has 223 teeth (a prime number!) It is just amazing what people were able to do back then (it is believed that the gears were made using chisels.) .

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

We had a visitor at the meeting; Bob Slack. He has a collection of small (Wilesco) steam engines. He would like to be able to run them on compressed air rather than raising steam each time and was asking about making or buying adaptors that would screw into the boiler filler opening to supply the air. These engines are German made so it is likely a metric thread. Some suggestions were made about where he could source an adaptor.

John's engine parts

He also brought along the formers used to produce the end and tube plates and talked about making the different parts. Copper work-hardens quite badly and the end plates have to be annealed a couple of times during the forming process.

As before I have not managed to get very much done in my shop. I did start to re-make the oil pump inlet manifold for my Sealion. The photo shows the earlier one I made next to the new one with one side machined. The piece of aluminum plate will be turned over to complete the other side (which also results in the component being separated from the plate.)

Another reason for taking the engines apart was to see if the ignition coils could be re-used in a model engine. The only easy option is to use the flywheel (with built in magnets) as well. Unfortunately this would result in a rather bulky arrangement.

Sale Items

Stu Brownlow brought along an old drill press that he no longer needed to see if anyone was interested. Apparently Brian Lawson is now the proud (?) owner. (I did not get to hear if money changed hands but I did promise Stu that I would not make too many derogatory remarks about it.)

One of the jobs I did get done was scrapping an old weed whacker and a Sears leaf blower. Out of interest I dismantled the engines to look at their construction. I have taken 2-stroke motorcycle engines apart in the dim and distant past but did not realize the steps they have taken to cheapen these small engines: First of all the cylinders are just die cast light alloy with no liner. (The piston appears to have a plated surface to ensure that one of the rubbing surfaces is hard.) Transfer passages are completely open rather than just having openings top and bottom with a continuous cylinder section between. In one case the piston only had one ring. In both cases the connecting rods are stamped out of steel plate and both the big and small end bearings are just caged needle roller bearings pressed in.

Bruce reminded us that his part-complete Raritan locomotive is still for sale

Meetings Next Season

It has generally worked out best to delay the first meeting until October since some people are still on vacation in early September. I will try to book the first meeting for October 2nd (the second Monday [9th] is Thanksgiving and the school is closed.) I will send out a first meeting notice when dates have been confirmed through the school booking system.

Our Website

https://sites.google.com/site/bluewatermes/

The TSME Newsletters

https://sites.google.com/site/tsmeweb/the-modeller

John Lovegrove

I guess they go to extreme lengths to make these things as cheap as possible but it also helps explain why they do not last very long.