Recent content by Anatol

Hello Owen I just discovered this thread - I haven't been on in a long while (pandemic, life, etc). I have a soft spot for weird engine topologies and find the wobble-plate design particularly fascinating. You probably know theses related design history facts. 1.Some automotive AC compressors...

Hi all I'm looking at - considering buying - a Craftsman Commercial 12" (Also called Atlas 3000). This one is pretty clean but has no accessories except a 3jaw and a 4jaw, not even a tailstock center. Does anyone here have experience with them? What are known problems? Popular improvements? How...

ditto packrat. Blondihacks is particularly good imho,and MrPete22. I'd add, for engine builders, Keith Appleton. Regarding books, old standards like the Southbend "Running a lathe' are the best intro for the beginner. But don't imagine that watching videos and reading books will get you more...

evaporative cooling will increase humidity - which is usually pleasant in very dry hot climes. May experience is that evaporative cooling will not work in humid air. So how can ambient moisture from evap cooling be more than, say normal humidity in, say, southern England?

Notharget - and all, I encourage you, as shopshoe and others have, to learn to make stuff. I regularly work with mechanical engineering students who have never hit a nail with a hammer. Their lack of manual 'literacy' is appalling. I'm not being sentimental and old fashioned, I have a good...

why? Iron or O ring? looking forward to hearing about this.

Hello Brian I enjoy your thorough and thoughtful posts. In this case, i'm slightly shocked by the unusual and massive valve 'webs' you've made, fine as they are. I think every valve connecting rod and eccentric I've ever seen has been of the form you originally made. Was the breakage a result of...

> (Anyone understand thermodynamics to help us understand this one?). Don't take my notes as anything but idle speculation over a beer... > I would have GUESSED that injecting water into the combustion chamber part way through the power stroke would lower the pressure by cooling the...

I'm not an applied physics PhD or engineer either, but my intuition (which can often be wrong) is that hot exhaust gas is wasted energy. Using that heat to turn expand atomised water into steam, thus creating extra compression in the cylinder.

Ved when I was a college - in Australia - there was talk of hottrodders using water injection to increase compression, so its a known technology. Seems obvious, I've always wondered why I've never seen it used commercially. Wikipedia - of course - has page on it (this is why I give money to...

thanks Dave My first question is why? Why are the 'in' and 'out' ports not both in the lower block? My second question is - when the valve is all the way up, isn't almost all the out of the valve guide? Or am I (still) missing something? Thx!

Hi Dave thanks for quick reply. Taking the first pic 90/16/20, I see one port (to head) in the side of the cavity in the lower block at at about 9oclock. Where is the other port? Diametrically opposite in the same block?. Or is it in the upper block, ie the brass tube vertical in the left (top)...

Can you say a little more about your valve design, or is it in another thread? Its a reciprocating piston valve (brass?) with spring return. But where is the seal/seat between in and out ports? Presumably, as brass on alu wears, you'll get increased leakage between valve and body. Is that...

Back in the day, I did an awful lot of brazing, I've done a lot of electronics soldering, some copper plumbing and a little silver soldering. I also have a friend who braze-repairs faulty bronze castings. Its my understanding that when brazing iron or steel, the choice of stick alloy depends in...

Earlwb - thanks I know about the desmodromic system. Johwen, thanks also I've read about this technology. Mechatronics will be the answer, I'm watching piezoelectic valve research. regarding the Aspen design - I googled it and got zip relevant hits. I went back through the thread but...