| The Craftmans Shop > New from Old |
| Puma / Dorman 6LE / MacFarlane B46B / 110 kVA Generator Resurrection |
| << < (45/60) > >> |
| mc:
I would have MIG'd that. Lots of spot welds would probably be required, but I've done a few of those flexis with 0.8mm wire, and burning through has never been a problem. |
| awemawson:
And I may well still Morray ! I've had the linear actuator to open and close the radiator louvres for quite some time but needed to forge a lower mounting bracket, and modify the lever on the louvres to take the upper 'eye' of the actuator. Lower bracket was forged yesterday and painted and fitted today. Upper pivot pin on the louvres was modified to suit this afternoon so I've been able to hang the actuator in place, and prove that not only does it have the needed travel, but also adequate 'oomph' to operate the mechanism. Now it's in place I can work out how to mount it's control box in the remaining space. I've decided to use a domestic hot water tank adjustable thermostat strapped to the side of the radiator to give some control of operating point, and to have limit switches for the 'open' and 'closed' positions. The actuator is reversed by reversing it's connections which is a bit of a pain in the switching department (double pole double throw relay contacts). I've worked out a simple control scheme using a four pole change over relay but am experimenting with a slightly more complicated version that will give me manual operation or automatic operation at the flick of a switch - not sure yet which way to jump. Accommodating the limit switches is going to be 'interesting' finding enough real estate to house them ! |
| Sea.dog:
Perhaps you could mount the switch on the outer, or even inner, face of the shutter frame so that it bears against the arm. Obvious a bit of tweaking will be need, but there seems to be plenty of metal on the roller strap to cope with a crank being set in it. Alternatively, how about mounting it inside the front of the cowl so that the top louvre operates it? The roller is adjustable for length and, I assume, can be rotatated on its shaft. |
| awemawson:
Well life seems to have got in the way of progress recently, but I've not been idle! I've managed to get DesignSpark Electrical running on my Win10 workshop PC and have drawn the shutter control circuit out, which was getting out of hand on scraps of paper - quite a learning curve and I don't like their symbols ! I have at long last worked out a way of mounting and actuating the shutter limit switches - this involved adding a second extended crank to the operating arm. And having located the limit switches this let me decided where and how to fix the radiator thermostat - it's a domestic hot water tank stat intended to be pressed against the copper tank, so my bracket presses it against the side of the radiator. I've got the control circuitry working on the bench and made up a box for it - well the box is actually a 6 x 6 x 3 inch conduit box I've pressed into service - it might actually have been easier to make one from scratch, as the knock out 20 mm conduit holes always seem to get in the way of where switch holes need to go. Drilling the four holes in the upper surface (two indicators, a manual / auto switch and a open / close button) was a pain as the knock outs kept detaching - I tried soldering them in place but that didn't work so made a new overlay panel for that face. The next challenge is to get all the bits inside the box, and then wire it up on the machine. The components (a relay, two indicators, two multilevel switches) all fit nicely, but wiring the limit switches and thermostat on the machine will be an issue as access to where they connect on the switches is nigh on impossible. While typing this it occurs to me that plugs and sockets for the actuator drive, the two limit switches and the thermostat would completely solve the issue, and by chance I have several 4 way plugs and sockets of the style beloved of the amateur CNC retro-fitters for stepper motors (previously removed from my CNC Plasma table) I noticed an odd effect in the matt black paint of the thermostat bracket - little spots where the paint wasn't wetting the metal. It had been sand blasted and spirit cleaned but something obviously was contaminating it. I've re-blasted it, given it a thorough clean in acetone and it's second coat is drying as I type this. Meanwhile my friend Johnny delivered the exhaust flexy to flange adaptor that he had tigged up for me - a nice job thank you Johnny - so I can start thinking about exhaust brackets again! |
| RussellT:
Hi Andrew Nice work as usual. :clap: :clap: Do you think the thermostat will respond quickly enough there? In most radiators the side panel doesn't have any water flowing through it. Russell |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |