N.O.S.

I'd like to see Secret Army, repeated. :-)

 

If you have Freeview, you're in luck.

Just caught part of an announcement that it's being run at 5pm, sorry didn't catch the day, starts next week??

Might help if I'd put the channel - UKTVHISTORY :whistle:

Should be 17ft not 27 ft .

 

Oh bother, I'd only just this minute stuck a second rear axle in the post to you :whistle:

Well, if that's the sort of wisdom that age endows you with, "Bring It On" :-D

Probably a stupid answer :whistle: but I got one from the old boy selling poppies outside a supermarket earlier in the week (mind you, first one I've seen selling them).

I am looking at your picture of the whole crane and reckon I may have the answer. Have you connected the electrics up? It will not operate until the electric solenoid valve is activated.

 

Richard

 

Trust you to be first to see the obvious :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And there was me begining to think it might be something simpler, like the strap holding it back :whistle:

the slewing is achieved by a motor and worm gear to rotate a larger gear on the main upright

 

Motors do not like normal spool valves which totally shut off oil when closed - can get a high pressure spike 'cos motor is still turning and trying to overrun. A motor spool is normally open centred (i.e. both lines to return line), but allows creep, so no good for this application. I suspect this shock valve unit is intended to work as a cushion valve for the motor, whilst preventing creep. Cannot think it would serve any useful purpose on the extension rams unless it is to limit max. pressure (why?).

The crane looks good, well worth the cost of a new spool valve if you have to, but lets hope not. A bit of o-ring stuck in a valve might be all it is :whistle: If you cannot move rams, spools themselves should be fine.

If you do need to spec up a new valve, you'll just need to know if spools are 3/8"BSP or 1/2"BSP size (look like 3/8, fair bit cheaper) to enable you to get a quote - my guess new is £150-300 from HES, but they sometimes have really good offers on, which I've taken advantage of in the past. Fingers crossed!

Yes, and don't think for a moment that we don't appreciate how lucky we are!!!

Problem is, especially with larger operations like in your area, the cost of complying with H & S and (more crucially now) environmental regulations is jacking costs of services like this up through the roof :-(

Does anyone remember seeing that documentary on repairing the Superfortress found in Greenland and it catching fire on the ice runway while taxiing for takeoff? That guy sitting in his deck chair watching it burn - :cry: :cry: :cry:

So Ive taken the bold step of ordering a shot blaster this afternoon.

 

I keep looking at this time and time again. Even if it does take a lot longer than a pro, you have control of the job, and you can do it when it suits you, bit at a time even.

If I did not have access to a really good value service I think I'd be ordering one too. But you do need the space to make a g!d almighty mess :shake:

Hi All

 

Where do you get your parts shot blasted, is there a local firm near to you or do you have to take it somewhere? How much are you charged for the following;

 

Jeep tub £60

Wings £20/pr

Chassis £50

Wheels £40 for 5

Doors if any

Panels

etc

 

Can anybody help here please.

 

Many thanks

 

That's what I'd expect to pay my friendly local guy (I'd have to take it all to his yard and be patient). That's a lot of work doing it yoursef. He'll probably prime the lot for an extra £50, tends to fit it in with other jobs.

Cold calling on a new blasting company, I might expect to be quoted 3 times the price! They seem to look after customers they know and fleece others!

A few years back one professional outfit I tried for Militant wheels wanted £25 per wheel :shake: the guy I use now did them, primed, for £10 :-) mind you he did moan about the multi layered paint, said the shot kept bouncing off!

Would really pay to find someone local and get an intro from a good customer if possible, avoids being taken for a ride :dunno:

Optima Red Top -

Length 10"

Width 6 3/4"

Height 6 1/2" case, plus posts

Each battery is 56 Ah, but DO NOT be fooled by that when comparing batteries!

Zero maintenance ;-) but do not crank when nearly flat, or overcharge.

These are British parts

 

But I was just wondering if the gearsets had been made in Britain, Chris? :dunno: I've been very surprised in the past at what is sourced by UK manufacturers of equipment from elsewhere (simply due to ecenomies of scale of manufacture), it's always worth checking, especially if and when parts become difficult in the UK. Some long-obselete stuff is still readily available from the overseas gear and axle makers as it might be fitted in some wierd bit of machinery elsewhere in the world.

Not quite an illustration of this, but we once needed a long, very thin needle roller bearing cage for the mainshaft in a Humber FV1620 gearbox. "Nobody has any, not been made for years" was the bearing people's response.

We then discovered (can't remember how) that a wheelbarrow manufacturer had bought up 20,000 or so of the exact part, and had been using them for years - we got hold of a couple for the cost of the postage!!!

And with regard to the last post, yes if they ain't about you have to pay the going rate, but please just read what I'm saying here - you might just be surprised to discover what was, and still is, made elsewhere and how cheap this stuff can be, but you have to know where to look, which is half the point of this forum isn't it? :dunno:

Pleased you don't have any supply problems at present :-)

BTW under the terms of my will, my collection of British Army technical manuals & documents which is about 5,000 items, is bequeathed to the MVT. Seems a pity to lose the resource & at that stage I won't be needing them any more.

 

I wonder if members could be encouraged to bequeath their manuals & memorabilia as these are things likely to get lost or chucked out, whereas the vehicles are a more tangible asset & likely to be saved & sold on."

 

What a fantastic gesture - most if us have much more modest collections, but amongst the run-of-the-mill stuff we all have the odd one or two unique items which are priceless (in terms of historical value if not monetary anyway).

We never know what is around the corner, and it's a shame to think stuff like this may well be lost. If I knew it would be a permanent available resource I'd be up for making the same arrangements.

A case in point - the post about Nellie the trenching machine, a very substantial leather-bound manual for this (probably the only technical information still in existence) was saved because of the following chain of events:

Widow of retired Ruston design engineer has a bonfire to dispose of her late husband's heaps of stuff > fire gets out of control > she asks neighbour to help > he rushes round and gets it under control > sees what is being burned and says this must be saved > phones his friend who is into Ruston history > result some totally unique items are saved for posterity.

Lucky or what? But what else was lost for ever?

Sorry to see the extent of your problem, however -

Mechanical gore..... :drool: :drool: :drool: it's been a while since such horrific pics were posted, I'm thinking the last few of the planetary will make a great screen saver :banme:

On a serious note, are parts readily available for these? If not -

It would not surprise me if they are a fairly standard planetary gear set, as they tend to be made by just a handfull of specialist manufactureres, e.g. Rockwell or Clark. Yep, good ol' Uncle Sam.

They should have manufacturers numbers stamped on, someone like ETS (transmission repairers) in Humberside are brilliant at importing parts from USA at very modest prices.

Haven't you got a nice simple problem we can help you with? :whistle:

The bypass valve is a bit odd - could be some form of pressure "carryover", used when you need to use full pressure in another valve (e.g. for winch) beyond the spool valve. Trouble is most valves like this are not designed to "carry over" pressure without special adaptors, if you do, a gallery between pressure and return side in the spool valve casting may break resulting in the symptoms your valve is showing. This bypass valve looks like it might be a bodge attempt to do this :shake: Can't think what other purpose it would be for :dunno: On the other hand, connecting these two ports may be the proper way for this make of spool valve :dunno: This bypass valve should most certainly be SHUT when operating the crane. Reckon this might have caused your trouble :-(

If when it is shut (assuming it is not bxxxxxxd up) there is still quite a it of oil in return pipe when you take a pipe off and operate a spool, almost certainly the valve casing is split internally.

The centre spool has an extra block on top -

If this is the slewing spool they are "cross line relief valves", to prevent anything bursting should the crane arm be knocked sideways (by allowing oil to move from one side of slew to the other without going through spool).

Sorry, but can't help much more with info to hand.

Just a thought -

Even if relief valve is u/s, if you take off a ram pipe from the first spool after pressure inlet and work that spool, oil should flow. If it does, then hopefully problem is relief valve. But if nothing at all comes out -

Are you absolutely certain the system is piped up correctly? A lot of spool valves have 1 inlet (marked with a P on casting) but 2 outlets (marked T), one by P end, other at far end. Just a chance you have got pressure going into a T by mistake??

If you need a relief valve cartridge, you will need to know what make/model or even just a part number from the relief valve as a starting point. How old is it?

Try http://www.grouphes.com (Hydraulic Equipmenmt Supermarkets near Stroud) Tel. 01452 730774. Very helpful guys, if you can give them a make or number they should be able to fix you up, cost should be about £20 - 40 plus vat and post for cartridge). Should come pre-set at about 170 bar, which will mean your pump relief valve will be doing all the work - might want to adjust it so spool valve one is the limiter?

Cartridge usually has o-ring seal at base - you removed the cartridge so was o-ring ok?

If you cannot identify valve, you'll just have to take it to someone who can :dunno: local hydraulic supplier?

Do remember the idea is to commemorate ALL who died in service of the country.

 

I was chatting with an old boy who was collecting this afternoon. I asked him what era, in his opinion, was it that people thought of when donating.

He replied that although the majority still talked about WW1, he felt there was a gradually increasing awareness of RBL activities and conflicts associated with more modern times.

To his credit he had a backdrop display of prints depicting not just a WW1 trench scene, but a WW2 battle, a bomber and also a Hercules transport flying over a desert landscape. He said he was really annoyed that he had not brought a picture of a ship, as the Navy was included as well!!

Good on him. If anyone is out there collecting, it would be interesting to know what people's first thought is when donating :dunno:

shouldn't the return flow stop as it is directed to the appropriate ram by the said leaver :dunno:

Yes.

Sounds like you have tested the relief valve built into the pump unit. Often (and almost always on a crane installation) a spool valve block will have a relief valve combined, at the input end - you need to check this. If not, is there another seperate relief valve anywhere?

Is the spool valve housing one casting, or assembled with seperate spools bolted together? Make? (Kontak by any chance?)

....it's funny how they replaced all the British kit with American!

They're entitled to, after all, they did recover an Enigma Machine..... :whistle:

Can you explain the nature of your problem?

(It's a Health and Safety and Lifting Equipment Regs minefield out there :shake: )

I try not to judge someone by their hobby (it's difficult at times though!)

What definitely is nuts is not to have a hobby at all, and it's surprising how many people don't. There's more to life than work and cutting grass.

Must go out now and cut the grass .......

when they are cutting the grass........when they are decorating........when they go on holiday.........

What do you mean - you don't have to do all that AND sort the mv out? :dunno:

It's alright for some :whistle:

The Dam Busters was probably the first war film that this lad saw. Shortly after it came out in 1955 he was to be inspired to squiggle this:

 

That painting says it all! Forget your photo quality paintings - sometimes the simplest things are the best :tup:

It will be interesting to see how much has survived.

The only thing I saw in that area (Angelsey) was a Model T car - only the block was visible at low tide, but it was a :cry: if it caught your windsurfer. Someone later dug it up. It had been there since the early 20's.

The Solway Firth during the war was known by all as "Hudson Bay", as around 70 Hudsons crashed into it (Silloth airfield was the Hudson training base, and it was not a very kind plane to novices). Doubtless many were recovered but there must be a lot of remains still buried.

I had a long meet with the Norwich area WFA Chairman last week, he too regularly assists our history teacher at Thetford in his research pre Armistice Days. Very interested in what the Forum was doing. He has a library of over 300 WW1 books (it's a big house!) and will be pleased to help us by doing a bit of research, but we need to know what to ask him for :dunno:

I've lent him the book of YPRES Before/After postcards (I'd posted a couple of shots last week) - he'd never seen anything like it before - so he can show his committee when they discuss Jackson's stone.

I'm currently waiting to hear back from:

- History teacher re. interest in school project

- Anglians Association Sec. (Norfolk Regiment Museum trustee) re. interest by museum

- Norfolk Regiment Museum curator re. photo of Jackson and trench maps / indexes

- WFA chairman re. suggestions from local WFA committee,

so will report back as and when.