Hello

[tattoomike68]

Welcome Rick, you will fit right in here.

 

[deere_x475guy]

Welcome to the board Rick. Congrats on making a difference. We are fighting the same battle here also. Most of the high schools here no longer have shop classes.

 

[zeusrekning]

This is going to be one of those long winded post but I'm sure you'll appreciate the info. I live in South Carolina. I graduated high school class of 2000. You were given the option your last year of junior high to choose a "college prep route" or a "technical route" then choose the classes you wanted according to the credits you needed. There were also: regular, academic/advanced , honors, and some courses also had a "bare bones minimal info required by state law to get credit classes" ex: "technical/shop math , and "technical physics". May not be the exact names but close. I chose to do a mixture of college and tech classes b/c of no intent on college ??? but was always an academic student. So I left out the foreign languages and substituted shop classes and all my electives were shop classes. I took building and construction, Mechanical drawing, intro to machining, welding, auto mechanics, and keyboarding was considered tech. We had a "Tech building" which was about 1/6th the size of the school. Other classes in this building were horticulture, ROTC, and tech math, (maybe a couple more).

To the point:


In 1999 there was some "fuss" whether the the state was going to do away with the technical route. Not sure if it was for the whole state or just ours. So what the technical director and Principles did was: They took a selection of tech students including a bunch of the "preppy smart girls in keyboarding", and the academic students who had at least one tech class. These students were asked to take a series of test to show whether or not tech students were lacking the academics needed and only taking the tech route as an easy way out, or if we were up to par with some standard the state set. These students were asked to agree to take the test , we were taken off campus to a church that a principle was a member of, bought breakfast, fed snacks and treated unusually well for two or three days. We were also explained the importance of the test and the future of the shop classes. But, it shows that the schools (or at least ours) were happy to keep the shop classes.

Side note. We got a new machine shop teacher when I was in 11th grade. He started acquiring lots of machinery. I was told the year after I graduated that the he had gotten (along with the standard shop lathes and mills) some grinding equipment , surface, and OD id grinders. He was also doing alot of work for local companies. But instead of pocketing the cash he made, he started a college fund for his students. They received credit for the work they did and if ,after graduating, they decided to go to college they would receive the money they earned in shop class to help with school. I wish I had been there for this b/c it probably would of made me decide to go to school.

Sorry if its too off topic and long winded.

Tim

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM Rick

 

[Brass_Machine]

Welcome home (it will be your internet home) Rick.

Eric

 

[Bernd]

Welcome to a great group mdoelers who think alike.

Bernd

 

[Tin Falcon]

Welcome Rick

 

[rickharris]

Thanks for the welcome guys - Hopefully i'll get something steam oriented finished in the next few weeks and can post some details. - exam preparation permitting.

Current priority at school is to build another electric racing car ready for this seasons races starting in June.

See http://www.greenpower.co.uk/about/ for details of previous entries. (We were 64th last year our first try but at least we finished.)

 

[AllThumbs]

Wow, that thing is really humming. Cool! Welcome.

 

[Powder keg]

Great job!!! I like that it makes electricity)

Wes

 

[Brass_Machine]

Welcome! thats pretty neat.

Eric

 

[Classic]

Thanks all,

Laziness was the inspiration for using the floppy chassis ;D

The only material I could find for a flywheel was a piece of 50mm round steel, and I didn't really feel like hand hacksawing it. My lathe is too small to part it, and I don't have a bandsaw.

Having worked in IT for many years, I knew that a floppy has a flywheel, and I had a few dead floppies that I hadn't got around to throwing out. (Yes, I'm a hoarder) Once I had one apart, I woke up to the fact that the chassis could be adapted as an engine frame. Using the motor coils as a 3 phase alternator was an afterthought.

Peter.

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM Peter

Rick

 

[Classic]

Thanks Rick,

I'l be sitting back and watching for a while, partly because an electronic product I am making is taking off and I don't have time for machining. My other reason for sitting and watching is that I think I have a lot to learn from you all. :bow:

Peter.

 

[gilessim]

Hi there Peter and welcome!, nice work there!, I wanted to say that I don't have a bandsaw either but I use a mini grinder with a 1mm disc on it to cut up to 60mm stock, it saves a lot of elbow grease, you can cut through superhard steel with one, brass ,ali ,stainless, anything!, give it a try but use your goggles!

Giles

 

[Classic]

I use a mini grinder with a 1mm disc on it to cut up to 60mm stock, it saves a lot of elbow grease, you can cut through superhard steel with one, brass ,ali ,stainless, anything!, give it a try but use your goggles!

Thanks Giles, It didn't occur to me to use my grinder to cut round bar :-[

Oh well, if I'd cut a flywheel blank with the grinder, I wouldn't have thought to use the floppy chassis.

Peter.

 

[rangerssteamtoys]

Hi Ian, I want to be a mechanical engineeer, whats it like? I'm only 14, but destined to become a mechanical engineer.

If you want to see a simple setup for a solar steam engine look here. It's not my video but it shows what can be done to run a small wilesco D-10
[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=uJGpbvvJA2I[/ame]

 

[Tin Falcon]

Welcome Ian
sorry for feeling put off . The two gentlemen that rolled out the welcome wagon in the other post are actually very wise knowledgeable and helpful people.
I think if you take the time to hang around here for a while you will find there is much to learn.
As far as solving the energy crisis that is a big task .
If you are looking for help building a model that demonstrates the principles of turning solar energy to heat/steam turning the steam into rotary motion and then turn rotary motion into electricity we can help.
Rest assured we really do want young inquiring minds on this board.
Tin

 

[Brass_Machine]

Hey Ian,

First, welcome to the board.

Second, I also second what Tin has said. Both Bog and Cedge have a ton of knowledge between the two of them. Both of them are very helpful as well. Take some time read, ask questions and contribute some.

Start small. Learn the aspect of steam power first. Maybe make some models of steam engines. Get the basics first.

Solving the energy crisis is a huge but notable thing to try to do.

Anyway, welcome to the club.

Eric

 

[Cedge]

Ian
No personal offense was meant in my earlier response, but if you'll read back over your original post, it really does come across badly. We kind of have to call things according to how you presented them, so while there was no offense meant, there are also no apologies for my comments.

As Tin said, between John and myself, there aren't many souls more willing to assist anyone with a need. An inquiry just has to pass the normal smell test.....nuff said.

Steve