Evening chaps

[RobWilson]

Hi Chaps 

Looks like you lot have been busy wile I have been away  170 pages of unread post 


Rob

[awemawson]

Good to see you back Rob.

Did you get remission for good conduct? 

[Bluechip]

Hi Chaps 

Looks like you lot have been busy wile I have been away  170 pages of unread post 


Rob

Nurse !!....   Nurse!!!! ......   NURSE!!!!!! ........

He's got loose !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     

[vtsteam]

You've got exactly 7 days to make an engine out of old pipe, pipe fittings, nails and a bolt     


 

 

[Joe d]

Hey there Rob, welcome back.

With all that time you didn't spend on the web, you must have finished that
traction engine?

Cheers, Joe

[Will_D]

Welcome back Rob

reminds me of a "Carry On" sketch:

Nurse !!....   Nurse!!!! ......   NURSE!!!!!! ........

I told you to Prick his Boil !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     

[Bluechip]

Yup, I remember that one 'cos we had an actual 'Nurse Duncan' that went in the pub. Someone got the card from Yarmouth IIRC and I got it enlarged and stuck in in the bar ...then ran. She was a hefty girl ... 

This one ....

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=no%20no%20nurse%20duncan&FORM=BILH1#view=detail&id=404E306706009CE366480DBC4CE95A4E2B77781F&selectedIndex=0

Dave

[dsquire]

They said have patience,    he will return. I did, and he has returned.   

Glad to have you back Rob. 

You know the routine, hope you have been taking good care of your camera. 

Cheers 

Don

[Brass_Machine]

Hiya Rob 

Welcome back to the collective

Glad to see you back! 

Eric

[philf]

Welcome back Rob.

How's the CNC conversion going?

Phil

[RobWilson]

Good to see you back Rob.

Did you get remission for good conduct? 

  I did Andrew , I was on the same ward as Dave BC 

Hi Chaps 

Looks like you lot have been busy wile I have been away  170 pages of unread post 


Rob

Nurse !!....   Nurse!!!! ......   NURSE!!!!!! ........

He's got loose !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     

  ,,, hows my capacitor calculations doing  !   or do I go for the Geordie method     

You've got exactly 7 days to make an engine out of old pipe, pipe fittings, nails and a bolt     


 

 

Hi Steve , now thats a challenge    are you building one ?

Hey there Rob, welcome back.

With all that time you didn't spend on the web, you must have finished that
traction engine?

Cheers, Joe

Hi there Joe   , in a word  NOPE ! ,,,,,, arrh  but you MUST have your Minie finished by now       , hows it doing ?

Welcome back Rob

reminds me of a "Carry On" sketch:

Nurse !!....   Nurse!!!! ......   NURSE!!!!!! ........

I told you to Prick his Boil !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     

Thanks Will    ,, please dont encourage Mr BC   

They said have patience,    he will return. I did, and he has returned.   

Glad to have you back Rob. 

You know the routine, hope you have been taking good care of your camera. 

Cheers 

Don

Thanks Don     , I haven't looked after the camera so much, just improved my photoshop skills   

Hiya Rob 

Welcome back to the collective

Glad to see you back! 

Eric

Good to be back Eric  , there is lots to catch up with 

Welcome back Rob.

How's the CNC conversion going?

Phil

Cheers Phil ,,,,,,,,,,,, ist NOT     I have been remodelling the shop  ,since you got that CNC lathe from mine I have been given one of those tool grinders I was after (it was been thrown out at my mate place of work ) and I came across a  Colchester Student lathe  also being scrapped due to broken feed gears , I being me I got distracted with other projects 

Hows the Lathe coming along ?   up and running ? 



Cheers Lads 

[philf]

Hows the Lathe coming along ?   up and running ? 

Rob,

I've made as much progress with the lathe as you have with the mill by the sounds of it. I ripped out most of the control and have bought some microstepping drivers, a breakout board and another 80mm 3-jaw (with both sets of jaws) for it but it's still where I put it in the garage the day I brought it home.

I too am too easily distracted and spend too much time looking after our hydro-electric scheme rather than getting on with jobs at home.

Surely there's no more space in your workshop for a Colchester Student - did something have to go?

 

Phil.

[RobWilson]

Hi Phil


  , I thought as much , I am sure both CNC machines will run G code some day    , I forgot about you Hydro project ,good to here its still going 

The Student lathe is still sitting at work , well I have some of it at home , TTA,4 jaw ,face plate , tail stock , parts that could be  easily remove . Looks like the Boxfrod lathe will be going the journey to make room    , I am also re doing the welding/casting shop  , one day I maybe sorted lol


Rob

PS any good engineering reads ? 

[John Stevenson]

At last.......................

The return of a worthy adversary       .

Welcome back Rob.

[RobWilson]

Cheers John 

The return of a worthy adversary       .

Dominos at fifteen paces 


Rob

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Rob,

Welcome back.  How are you?

SNIP

I too am too easily distracted and spend too much time looking after our hydro-electric scheme rather than getting on with jobs at home.

SNIP

Phil.

Phil, that sounds interesting, have you posted anything on it?  If not, please do!    

[Pete.]

Welcome back Rob. Where you been this past year?

[philf]

I too am too easily distracted and spend too much time looking after our hydro-electric scheme rather than getting on with jobs at home.

Phil.

Phil, that sounds interesting, have you posted anything on it?  If not, please do!

Pete,

I've mentioned our hydro scheme once but have never posted photos or any great detail. For starters have a look at our website: http://www.stockport-hydro.co.uk/

Basically we have a twin Archimedes screw system on the River Goyt near Marple in Cheshire. (If I were being pedantic it's actually in Greater Manchester but historically we were in Cheshire.)

The weir was built in the 19th Century for a mill which was never built. There isn't a huge drop on the weir (typically about 1.2m( but it's very wide and so to maximise output we have two screws running side by side. The EA have specified a minimum level of water over the weir of 6cm.  We can take as much water from the river as we like providing we maintain the 6cm level.

The 2 screws can run independently - when the river is very low we run only one screw as it's more efficient.

Unlike most of the early systems ours is a variable speed system meaning that, even when the screws are running very slowly, we can output energy to the grid. The fixed speed systems are often not running in low water conditions because they take too much water to achieve 50hz output to the grid.

Each screw has it's own sluice gate which isn't a control - they're either open or closed.

Each screw is supported at the top by, we believe, a large spherical roller bearing which is capable of taking axial and radial loads. The bottom bearing is a plain bearing which always runs under water. It's fed with biodegradable grease via a pump. The screw is connected to a 90:1 gearbox which in turn drives a three phase permanent magnet motor/generator. (Of the type used as e.g. spindle motors on large machine tools. The motors are rated at 55KW each.)

The motor/generator is driven by an inverter. The inverter is controlled by a Siemens Sinamics module and a PLC. Depending on the river level the inverter drives the motor at a speed (up to a preset maximum) to try to achieve a 6cm weir level. This speed is much slower than the screw would run if it were just allowed to run free with no load. To hold the speed the inverter is constantly braking the screw to slow it to the required speed and it's the braking that generates power. The inverter input is 600v DC and the power generated from the braking is output into the 600v bus.

A third 'grid-facing' inverter is also connected to the 600v dc bus and this inverter converts the 600v dc into 415v three phase 50hz in sync with the grid which we feed into a transformer on a power pole and then into the grid at 11kv.

We can monitor the control and security cctv cameras from home via the web.

In late November we had a major problem with one screw and have not been able to run it. We need to be able to get at the bottom of the screw which is submerged. When the system was built they were running out of money and omitted fitting some steel channels in the tail races where we could fit stop planks which would isolate us from the river and, after pumping out the water, would give us access to the bottom of the screw. It's now going to be more difficult to fit these channels than it would have been when there was a coffer dam in place. I've drawn up the channels and they're now on order. The fitting of them is going to be fun because we'll have to get some fixings in above water level, fit the stop planks, pump out some water to reveal the next set of fixings (which are then only on one side of the channel) etc. etc.

I don't want to go into any detail about how it failed because we are expecting a battle with with the screw manufacturers and the civils contractor on who's responsible for the problem. With a bit of jiggery pokery (wooden props anda sledge hammer) we managed to get the screw running again a few days ago. With the screw not running for 2 months a huge amount of silt had built up which would have hindered the fitting of the channels and stop planks. Running it slowly should clear the silt.

That's all for now - my tea is on the table.

Cheers.

Phil.

[awemawson]

Phil that's fascinating - I'd like to read more but the various bits of the web site pointing to FAQ's ,Galley, Progress, Invest, News. History etc don't seem to work

[vtsteam]

You've got exactly 7 days to make an engine out of old pipe, pipe fittings, nails and a bolt     


 

 

Hi Steve , now thats a challenge    are you building one ?

Almost done, Rob, and RussellT finished his innovative oscillator, Dwayne is the dark horse, still, I suspect some secret developments, there...:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,10261.0.html

[philf]

Phil that's fascinating - I'd like to read more but the various bits of the web site pointing to FAQ's ,Galley, Progress, Invest, News. History etc don't seem to work

Andrew,

What browser are you using? I only use Chrome now and all the features of the website seem to work OK. If there is a general problem I'll let the guy who looks after the website know.

Phil.

[awemawson]

Google Chrome

[philf]

Google Chrome

Strange - I've tested it using Chrome and IE on my laptop and Safari (on my wife's iPad) and Chrome on my Android tablet - all OK!

Phil.

[awemawson]

I've marked up the bits that aren't active Phil

[DMIOM]

Andrew,

I suspect it maybe something locked on your browser.

I've just tried Phil's site with Chrome (40.0.2214.111m on W7 / 40.0.2214.109 on Android) and IE 11.0.9600.17501 update 11.0.15 on W7, and all perfectly OK for me.

Dave