Christmas comes early.

[Bogstandard]

Over the last few weeks I have been ordering bits from a few places.
This morning a few of the choice ones turned up.

Here they are together.
On the left back are some laser cut parts for a steam engine that I ordered from a chap in New Zealand. Front left are some bearings I ordered from Hong Kong after Peter (HS93) gave me a bearing lead on ebay. The bits on the right hand side are self explanatory, they are the marbles (some people say I have already lost them) that were recommended for me to try, and as you can see, I have tried a few out and the results look VERY promising.

Here are the laser cut bits. Unbelievable clean cut except for a few 'spatter' blobs, that just knock off. These really are a time saver for me. I could have made them myself, but because they were available I thought I would try them, and just by first impressions, they were a good purchase.
Except for one thing. These arrived in this country 8 days ago, and customs hit me with an import duty of £15 ($30).
I am sure that the customs people would, if they could, fit us all with a meter on our noses, just so they could charge us for the air that is blowing in from the Atlantic and we are breathing it.

This is a project for the future.

These last bits are really what I was waiting for. 1.5mm and 2mm bore ballraces. Except for a bit of clear acrylic tube, I am now geared up for my onslaught on stirling engines. Once I have cleared my backlog.
The first will be modifying the egg cup engines, as I have found that the bearings as designed are a bit finicky, and hopefully when these have been washed out of lube, they will do a much better job. £12 ($24) for the lot incl. postage from Hong Kong.

Ho! Ho! Ho! John

 

[Circlip]

As a matter of interest John, Have you any idea how much it would have cost on our side of the pond to have had the bits Lasered or waterjet cut? Most time consuming part is drawing into Autocad and nesting, but our lot will take customer disks and run them. Regards Ian.

 

[andrewh]

John,

Evidently you HAVE been a good boy!

I worked in HK, and came back with a very large supply of these bearings - they were used for their little racing cars (2 AA cells, mabuchi 120 size motor and indecent speeds either free or round a trachk with low side-walls)

I still have a small handful of them - very useful for making aircraft gearboxes.

The laser cut parts look very interesting, I have lasing friends who do a lot of model work in YAG and CO2 lasers, and work direct from a DWG file. The YAG laser is used to cut small gears from flat springsteel sheet which is then deeply offended to form a contrate gear!

If lasercutting might be of interest I can put people in touch with the experts

andrew

 

[Bogstandard]

Ian,

The only reason I bought these was because some time last year I saw a small slide valve engine that appealed to me. But he didn't have the laser cut parts in stock.

He contacted me last month to tell me he had a limited supply in, so I duly got them in for stock. He sent me all the plans for free.

One day I might get around to building it.

If not, they will most probably end up in the trashcan when I snuff it, along with all the other projects hidden away in boxes.



John

 

[Circlip]

Yep John, I read your post on another forum about them, just wondered if you'd ever priced them over here, And ditch the fatalistic approach, I used to think that way after my MI's but remember, only the GOOD die young :big: :big: :big: Ian.

 

[Bogstandard]

Ian,

As always, I try to take the easy way out. For me to get the items made elsewhere, I would have to draw them all out, then get someone to turn them into a cad drawing.

My time is worth to me, just sitting on my backside at least £10 per hour. So if it takes longer than five hours, it is not worth doing. Workshop time is worth more than double that.

Not a fatalistic approach at all. The amount of little projects that I have stashed away, I would have to live two lifetimes to make them all.
I suppose I should be offloading some of the more expensive ones. So I can buy more stuff for projects I will never finish. It is all a vicious circle.

John

 

[cfellows]

Not a fatalistic approach at all. The amount of little projects that I have stashed away, I would have to live two lifetimes to make them all.
I suppose I should be offloading some of the more expensive ones. So I can buy more stuff for projects I will never finish. It is all a vicious circle.

John

I know what you mean, John. I've started being more critical of projects that I want to do, realizing that I have a limited amount of time left in this lifetime and there are those things that I will just never get around to. I'm starting to prioritize projects that I want to do and take those things off the list that would be fun, but just take too much time to finish. I also find that even though I'm in good health at 64, I just can't spend as much time on my feet and I can't get near as much done in day as I used to. Seems like I spend a lot more time thinking and a lot less time doing!

Chuck

 

[rickharris]

http://www.mutr.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_427&products_id=1273 The nice people at www.mutr.co.uk will sell you bearings at
ID OD Price
3mm 10mm £0.37
5mm 16mm £0.46
6mm 19mm £0.42
8mm 22mm £0.40

UK postage. Although a school based organisation (Middlesex university - Part of the Technology Enhancement programme (TEP.org) they will deal with anyone who has a credit or debit card and post overseas. Their site has lots of unusual items that are of interest such as petrobond sand by the Kg.

 

[Bogstandard]

Thanks for that Rick,

I was only short of the tiny ones, but there is a lot on there that I can look at.
In fact they sell the Tensol cement that I was looking for only a few months back.

This is where I got the bearings from

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Dinball_RC...lZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ7867793QQftidZ2QQlnsZ1QQtZkm


John

 

[Paolo]

Yesterday I received the PDF format drawings of that nice engine....and I'm thinking to buy also the laser cut bits for that steam engine.
TY John