July 2018
Bluewater Bulletin
Bluewater Model Engineering Society Sarnia, Ontario
Vol. 33 No.9 June 2018 Editor John Lovegrove
Our first meeting of the new season will probably be on
October 1st, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
Northern Collegiate Room 128, Indian Road, Sarnia.
The June Meeting
As we often do, we started with the treasurer’s report and again we are OK financially. Bruce Mannerow reminded us about the reduction in our annual subscription from $20 to $10, starting next season, so that we do not go on increasing our surplus.
The next item he discussed was Hobbyfest: This used to be the third Sunday in July but has now been moved to the last Saturday in August, the 25th. It has also been moved from Centennial Park to Germain Park and the hours are shorter (10:00 to 3:00.) There has been no explanation for the changes but at least the city has appointed someone to organize the show and information has arrived in good time. Several members indicated that they would be willing to bring models along and so we decided to accept the invitation to exhibit.
We talked about shows this summer: In the last newsletter I mentioned that Bruce was working on a list of these and that I would put it in this newsletter. Bruce has prepared the list and had some paper copies to hand out to those without internet access. The list is also on our website and instead of appending it to this newsletter, a link to it is given below.
https://sites.google.com/site/bluewatermes/ontario-antique-equipment-shows
There was some discussion about shows generally and the observation was that many seem to be struggling. Blyth always seemed to be a good show but Nick Jonkman feels that Paisley is even better.
Bruce has been looking at a few YouTube videos and one has been produced by Joe "Pi" on using a specially prepared "emergency" collet to make a small crankshaft. Basically, the soft collet is bored eccentrically by mounting it in a collet block on the mill. The amount of eccentricity has to correspond to the throw of the crank pins. Starting with a piece of round bar stock, the main bearing journals can then be machined using a standard collet and the crank pins using the special collet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sQzedI_Cw4
It is an interesting technique but is confined to very small crankshafts and where high accuracy is not
solder and he had some problems with joints made early on in the process melting and coming apart when later pieces were being added.
required. The piece of bar-stock may be straight initially but with both residual and then machining stresses, after taking away all the metal one has to, it will not be straight afterwards. When I made the crankshaft for my 4-cylinder Sealion, I rough turned the crank pins and main bearing journals and at this point the centre main was running true to the ends. I then removed all of the other material from the webs and having done this there was then significant run-out of the centre main when the crankshaft was set-up for final grinding.
Another item discussed was Trainman 4602: The link below brings up a whole series of YouTube videos, mainly about trains, but there are some other topics as well. One video is about a visit to the B & O museum in Baltimore.
https://www.youtube.com/user/trainman4602/videos
Back in the day when the publishers of the Model Engineer ran a really extensive operation, they had a drafting office and offered drawings for the projects featured in the journal. Now it is a very stripped-down operation and that service is no longer available, but, Sarik Hobbies now offers many of the drawings (for £s of course).
https://www.sarikhobbies.com/model-engineer-builder/
There was some discussion about Stellite hard facing material. This is a cobalt based alloy and typically comes in welding rods that are used to apply a layer of the material to steel components that are subject to severe abrasive service. However, it can also be used to produce cutting tools that are equivalent to carbide for many purposes. Three grades are commonly available 1, 6 & 12, #1 being the hardest and most brittle.
There was discussion about the BMES summer party. It will be at my home and I will send out a separate notice but August 22nd, 23rd or 30th look the best.
Show and Tell
Bruce has been making a few more parts for the carriage on his artillery piece. One part had to be dished and a special forming piece was made for this. The trunnion pieces have been put together using soft
exercise to write the programs to produce those parts on a CNC mill.)
The following is not a show and tell item in our normal sense but Don Hayes has just had an
This is the set of parts, the light coloured aluminium part is the former for the dished component:
Here they are temporarily assembled:
operation to correct a problem in his right ankle so he will not be able to put any weight on that foot for some time. The picture shows the kind of four wheeled scooter device that now seems to be the preferred means of getting around under these circumstances. It seems to be quite a well thought out piece of engineering and you can even mount a curb using it.
Meetings Next Season
We will maintain the same approach as before, so that meetings will normally be the second Monday in the month. We used to have the first meeting of the season in September but the way the school booking system now works, I cannot start making bookings until some time into September. We also found that attendance is not very good if we have a meeting that month because some members are still away on vacation. I will therefore aim for October 1st as the date for our first meeting. The following Monday is Thanksgiving so the school will be closed and the third Monday is leaving it rather late to start the season.
I will confirm this and the dates for the rest of the meetings when my booking application has been approved – hopefully mid September.
Mike Clark seems to get a lot more done than most of us and here is his latest project; a Steampunk Impulse Engine designed by Clayton Boyer. Most parts are machined from a piece of aluminum plate (1/2" thick I believe.) It is driven by a kind of clockwork system and one winds up a spring to make it all work. This YouTube video shows one in operation.
Our Website
Everything has been made using conventional machining with extensive use of a rotary table to mill all of those curved pieces. (It would be an interesting
https://sites.google.com/site/bluewatermes/
TSME Newsletters
https://sites.google.com/site/tsmeweb/the-modeller
John Lovegrove