Tacho

[SKIPRAT]

Hi All

just thought i would tell you about a bit of kit i recently acquired it is a Smiths Venture mechanical tachometer pretty old the back of it is engraved drawing office November 1953 so it is at least that old it still works OK the only bit missing is the extension spindle and that does not stop it working so now i can find out the RPM of a spindle or using the wheel thingy the surface speed of a belt or rotating cylinder (in FPM!) no it did not come out of a skip i paid good money for it all of £10 !!!

 

[New_Guy]

very cool its good you have the box for it.... how does it work ???

 

[Steelmaster]

Cool tool!

Would hate to think how much that would have cost at the time, probably several weeks average wage.

Now you can buy the electronic equivalent on Ebay for a few dollars!

 

[SKIPRAT]

Hi All
Since you asked i will tell you the bits in the box are the tips a conical point a conical cup and a wheel the selected tip is put on the shaft sticking out of the tacho it just pushes on driven by groove in it's attached sleeve and a pin on the tacho shaft. the conical point is used by pushing it into the centre hole of a shaft at the time centre holes where the norm in shafts and motor spindles.the conical cup was used the same but for small shafts going inside the cup.the wheel is used by pushing it onto a belt or rotating object and by the instructions printed on this wheel you could find out the surface speed at the time this tacho was made in FPM there is two ranges of reading selected by the rotating knob on an unknown speed source it was recommended to use the higher range first and then select the most appropriate range and read directly on the dial the reading could be locked by pushing a plunger. I kind of like the old kit and this one seems still quite accurate when checked against a modern high tech laser unit.
Cheers Paul