Old Bill Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Thanks for the link Barry. It is all out there if you know where to look and they look very promising. We haven't decided what we are going to do with our radiator for the time being but this has been a great opportunity to pick everyones brains! Steve 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxy Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Old Bill said: Thanks for the pics Ruxy. Not quite sure what I am looking at though? Steve. It is hardly modern , been around for many years - a pneumatic "thin strip-feeder" for power presses (this will take up to 6" wide stock). You could just lay the strip horizontal or wider stuff (above approx. 2") use a simple axle type de-coiler (the stip coil is vertical). You only need a straightender/feeder on thicker coil, they take up a lot of floor-space , normally have a Kopp variator , two methods of feed , what is known as 'down-loop' or 'top loop' , top-loop is very efficient but needs a in-feed table and the material is set to loop upwards until it hits the clutch limit switch - the loop then forces the material through the tools. In my experience a mechanical feeder is seldom used on a 40 ton press & comes into it's own with 100 tons and above. A pneumatic feeds like this takes up no room and is easily set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 hours ago, Old Bill said: I guess there must be a lead-screw on the far side of the machine to set the pitch. When he loads the tube into the chuck it appears to be free-floating. I think that it must be self-feeding as a result of the fins running up against each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bill Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Thanks Ruxy. Thanks Andy. Steve PS Happy New Year everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruxy Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 On 12/25/2020 at 6:43 PM, Asciidv said: Andy, when through hole PCB soldering was superseded by surface mount technology I couldn’t bare to get rid of our Hollis wave flow soldering machine. It has at least a 50kg solder tank and 3 phase heating. There is a fluxing tank at one end a long conveyor with titanium fingers which passes the boards over pre-heaters and then the wave solder tank at the opposite end. By adjusting the wave height it would probably solder gilled tubes in a longitudinal manner easily. Burroughs Machines @ Cramlington , ISTR they had two HME 100 ton blanking out 'milk-bottle' tops ,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted January 3, 2021 Author Share Posted January 3, 2021 Thanks for all the information, I guess I will punch a couple of hundred out by hand and decide if I would prefer to automate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 The Chinese long series 20mm end mill arrived so I have milled the header tank to length and given it a bit of a clean up with some wet and dry paper. I am not sure how polished the radiator should be. I have done some work on the fittings as well. The overflow pipe needs to be shortened but that will wait until I have fitted the filler cap. The filler cap just pushes into the tapered filler neck and is connected to the overflow pipe with a chain so it does not get lost. I am still trying to purchase 0.25mm tinplate for the gills in sensible quantities. It should cost around £2/kg or around £50 for the whole core. Some negotiation required as I will need to take on many more projects to use up a minimum batch quantity of 350kg. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 1 hour ago, BenHawkins said: Some negotiation required as I will need to take on many more projects to use up a minimum batch quantity of 350kg. At 5p a gill you could probably make money on the deal, there must be literally a couple of people who want some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted January 17, 2021 Author Share Posted January 17, 2021 On 1/10/2021 at 7:49 PM, andypugh said: At 5p a gill you could probably make money on the deal, there must be literally a couple of people who want some. I am sure manufacturing veteran lorry parts is the perfect way to make a small fortune; I just need a large fortune to start with. The punch tool has arrived safely from Andy. Fortunately I have been given a flypress but I need to set it up somewhere. The weather was good this weekend so we have done a bit more work towards building a Smithy at the bottom of the garden. Hopefully we can get the other walls built and a roof on in the spring. When the weather improves it is nice to roll the lorries out into the yard to work on. Linking up the steering and brakes would make this easier to achieve. The original drag link came with the chassis but it had been shortened as part of the trailer conversion. There was a corroded hole just over 6" from one of the joints where it looked hollow so I cut through there. Annoyingly it was in fact a shallow drilled hole. Which means I have shortened that bit by just under 1/4", I might weld it back on but I am certain the remaining 6" length will be fine. At least I could measure the location of the other joint and cut in a more sensible location. I was then able to clean up the centre drilled hole. The hole centres worked well for the faceplate on my little RandA lathe. These lathes were sold through Gamages for motor repair work in the 1920/30s so it is always nice to use it on the vehicle projects. Still more to take off to get back to 1" diameter so we can silver solder into a new length of seamless tube. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 I finished rebuilding the spindle on the Bridgeport milling machine. Some bar ends of aluminium out of the scrap bin have been machined into fixtures for the radiator sides so I can machine the mating surface flat. I sent a pattern for the radiator filler cap to the foundry along with a box of other patterns and was able to pick the castings up whilst passing on Friday. It didn't take long to machine it to size and knurl the edge. The 1/8" hole in the middle is so it can be rivetted to a chain. When I worked out these radiator caps were just a push fit it made sense that CP&Co only fitted the Commercial Motor Users Association mascots to the Leyland radiators; theses caps are probably not secure enough for a mascot. Despite the poor weather forecast for this weekend we were able to do a bit more towards building the smithy. I need to get that built so I have somewhere to install the fly press and can start punching out radiator gills. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 For the drag link I had expected the braze to be holding the tube in place fairly well. However as I machined off the tube it became obvious that there was quite a bit of clearance between the original 1-1/4x10swg tube and the forgings. As I turned down the diameter of the tube it started to tear so I peeled it off. The braze was only at the very end. I believe the first end was as it left the factory, the second end had been repositioned as part of the trailer conversion. For this end I used an angle grinder to thin the tube on both sides and then peeled it back. The braze had penetrated a little deeper on this end. With the tube removed it exposed a series of holes and chisel marks from the last time it was removed. In this photo I have already welded back on the 3/16" thick piece I cut off the end during disassembly. I then filled in the holes and grooves with some more weld. Initially I had just intended to silver solder the ends into some new 1-1/4" x 10swg tube. However the tube I have been able to purchase is on the bottom limit of thickness so the inside diameter measures 1.025" and once I have cleaned the forgings back they are around 0.975" diameter. Such a gap is a bit wide to expect capillary action to draw the alloy into the gap. Something to think about as there are plenty of things to be getting on with before I need steering. Suggestions welcome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted February 21, 2021 Share Posted February 21, 2021 1 hour ago, BenHawkins said: Suggestions welcome. Is thicker-wall tube too obvious a suggestion? I would reckon on boring the tube internal to suit the forgings. A drill or reamer will just follow the existing bore. 31/32" and a bit more turning of the forgings? Ebay 133542817126 might do the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted February 21, 2021 Author Share Posted February 21, 2021 18 minutes ago, andypugh said: Is thicker-wall tube too obvious a suggestion? I would reckon on boring the tube internal to suit the forgings. A drill or reamer will just follow the existing bore. 31/32" and a bit more turning of the forgings? Ebay 133542817126 might do the trick. Sorry, yes 8swg does appear to be available. Not through my usual suppliers so I will have to shop around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 ProFormance Metals have been very helpful and supplied the 8swg tube very quickly at a reasonable price. I have made new bolts and castellated nuts to complete the set for the ball joints. The ball on the drop arm is a good fit in one of the sockets. The other socket is a rattling fit on both balls (slightly worse on the one in the photo which is a little worn). I will check what other balls I have in stock but expect to end up making an oversize ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 27 minutes ago, BenHawkins said: expect to end up making an oversize ball. I can make balls really easily. Just send me a drawing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 On 2/28/2021 at 6:57 PM, andypugh said: I can make balls really easily. Just send me a drawing. Thanks Andy, I will dig out the original factory drawing and annotate it for the new diameter, or is a new fangled step file better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 1 hour ago, BenHawkins said: Thanks Andy, I will dig out the original factory drawing and annotate it for the new diameter, or is a new fangled step file better? Step should work, but a traditional drawing is probably about as easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asciidv Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 Andy, do you have any facility to grind the balls after they have been turned? I noticed that your lathe has variable speed but the sound from it did not seem to be synchronised with ball diameter only to the start and end of each cutting cycle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andypugh Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 36 minutes ago, Asciidv said: Andy, do you have any facility to grind the balls after they have been turned? I noticed that your lathe has variable speed but the sound from it did not seem to be synchronised with ball diameter only to the start and end of each cutting cycle? I have a tool and cutter grinder which is, in theory, capable of grinding spheres. On my particular one (early Alexander) there is no easy way to disable the 90 degree stop. The lathe speed is synchronised to the current working diameter, but the VFD control is slightly laggy so might get left behind on small diameters / short passes. The speed changes are more obvious at the start and end of each pass, but it should be running at constant surface speed. The VFD is controlled by Modbus through a USB interface. I would like to bring that into the realtime layer, but that needs new drivers for the Mesa interface cards. This is not an unsurmountable problem, as I am the guy who writes the LinuxCNC drivers for the Mesa cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 Dennis must still be busy as they cannot supply me a replacement gearbox. Their standard answer is they sold the last one yesterday! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 We have been digging trenches and mixing concrete this week so I have been looking through old magazines when I need a rest. This is a 1906 notice from Carter Paterson advertising their investment in speedy motors. And some Dennis vans in Addlestone, these ones were built in 1911. They still have the horizontal tube radiator but mounted on trunnions rather than shackles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Was flicking through some odd copies of Motor Traction and stumbled across this: Doc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 Thanks Doc, CP&Co bought several batches from Dennis and I think I now have photos of every batch but the one mine was in (end of 1908). They did not have Dennis bodies fitted so there were no factory photos taken, originally I thought the motor vans were used in central London, but the picture of the Addlestone district probably suggests that they were used where properties were further apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHawkins Posted April 25, 2021 Author Share Posted April 25, 2021 After several checks of the dimensions I drilled the radiator side tank castings for the mounting holes and then tried fitting it to the chassis. There is still some adjustment to be done and some more checks before drilling the tube plates. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citroman Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 It's going to be air cooled now 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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