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Messages - BruceM

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1
Listeroid Engines / Re: Knocking, now what?
« on: February 17, 2024, 03:36:58 AM »
I just got caught up on this thread.  Wow, 38AC sure nailed it.  Bravo on your troubleshooting and persistence, Hugh. So glad it worked out.  I hope you can find a small machine shop nearby who can help with your custom key project.

For Christmas I got myself a cheap TIG torch, filled my former nitrogen bottle with argon and taught myself some beginner level scratch start TIG.  Added a new tap so I could use just 2 batteries plus the sheet metal resistor of my direct battery DC stick welding  TIG likes the lower voltage better.  Tried some silicon bronze brazing with it too- easy and quite fun.  That's what I'd use to build up the top edges of your keys, I think. 

Best Wishes,
Bruce

2
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Bamford in a box
« on: February 11, 2024, 09:21:08 PM »
I've never seen a shrouded, non-rotating intake valve before.  How the heck would you weld a shroud to a valve without warping it?

Thanks for letting us follow along and learn some new things from you!

Bruce

3
Everything else / Re: Bad Solar Panel
« on: February 09, 2024, 12:54:52 AM »
The bypass diodes are to provide a current path when a group of cells are shaded or have otherwise failed.  They allow the current to bypass the bad group.  A failure of a diode will not cause 0V in full sun, and in fact will have no effect unless it failed as a short, in which case voltage will be reduced, not zero.

0v is likely caused by a broken (open circuit) connection in the solar cells series connections. 

4
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Bamford in a box
« on: February 02, 2024, 04:18:00 PM »
 i wouldn't mind a church of Bamford service myself, despite my distaste for organized religion.  I think its great that the Amish found you as the patron Saint of Bamfords!  Seriously, I also have great respect for your skill and craftsmanship with these gems.  Thanks for sharing some of your projects!


5
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: Bamford in a box
« on: February 01, 2024, 05:06:48 AM »
Good luck with that Bamford, 38AC.   Baffling that they would select a classic older engine with few to no parts available for it only to abuse it. 

6
Listeroid Engines / Re: Spun the rod bearing, CRANKSHAFT is FUBAR
« on: January 21, 2024, 11:28:16 PM »
Bravo on the careful file work to remove excess liner protrusion.  i did mine that way also, but had to flatten both head and top of cylinder via the sandpaper glued to plate glass on non-slip shelf liner material  on cast iron saw top method.  Hard work. Both head and top of cylinder were concave from operating with the excess liner protrusion for a year, its another reason to correct it immediately, or at least loosen the head if you can't get to it quickly. 

if you have no micrometer with inside dimension telescoping tool and no Plastiguage, you might try test fitting with foil.
Stack strips of 0.001 inch (heavy) aluminum foil to see how many it takes to have it interfere instead of plastigauge.  Standard typing paper is about 0.006.  If that doesn't bind, you're over spec.  You want 3 mils, I think.

Best




7
Listeroid Engines / Re: How To Choose A Radiator
« on: January 13, 2024, 01:22:29 AM »
Thank you 38AC, that is very illuminating.  Good to know the full story.  Pity you weren't around then; you could have solved it  for us in a snap.  None of us on the forum at that knew about the very relevant Lister CS bearing material history, just that spalling on upper bearings was happening regularly on Rajkot bearing shells.

Knowledge is a wonderful thing, thank you!
Bruce
 

 

8
Listeroid Engines / Re: How To Choose A Radiator
« on: January 12, 2024, 06:10:40 PM »
The early era bearing shell problem was not sand related.  We were seeing surface flaking/failure of the upper bearing shell surface in the top load area- not scratching.   Jack Beck (Hotater) documented this, others confirmed it.  Solid upper bearings with the dipper did seem to solve the flaking failure, but that could also have been getting better bearing shells. I remember that Bob (forum owner) was a technical contributor in the move away from the top hole, to the bottom feed via dipper approach. 

While it did depart from the long and established approach of the original CS design, it did solve a problem seen with the Rajkot Listeroids/clones with Rajkot bearings.




9
Listeroid Engines / Re: How To Choose A Radiator
« on: January 11, 2024, 05:24:11 PM »
Very little radiator is needed if you have forced air of some sort (I use exhaust flow induced draft ala the Rumely tractor).  Or a large radiator oriented for convection air flow works too (ala Dave XYZer's nice mobile setup). 

Cujet's mobile setup is very impressive, and others have used computer muffin fans with a small radiator and thermostat for a nice compact setup.

The big tank method seems best suited to no-freeze areas where long runs will be the norm.  Hugh's method of cast iron radiator is what what I hoped for but in central eastern Arizona I could not find one. 


10
Listeroid Engines / Re: Spun the rod bearing, CRANKSHAFT is FUBAR
« on: January 11, 2024, 05:02:57 PM »
Oh boy, that sucks, Hugh.  Couldn't be worse timing for such a major repair. I hate working in the cold.

Oven heated bearings on chilled crankshaft sounds good to me.  Seal the oiled crankshaft in a trash bag and sit it out overnight.  I wish you a smooth restoration effort and warm hands.

I guess I was lucky to have only wrecked half a dozen sets of journal bearings before I finally found the sand and grease sabotage under my piston crown.  What I worry about is sand pockets behind putty and paint in the crackcase...which might take years and years before finally letting go.  For my neighbors DES 8/1 (converted to spark-propane), I took no chances and had the very rough cranckcase ground smooth with a big carbide burr, and sealed with red electrical varnish per 38AC's recommendation.   

Bruce


11
Generators / Re: ST3 Noise and vibration
« on: December 07, 2023, 01:30:15 AM »
Glad that it was just the usual ST-3 split phase snafu.  They can really moan and groan with sounds that say imminent failure.

You can carry a split phase situation with the ST-3 by adding a transformer with dual 115V windings, or adding two transformers  with 115V secondaries if you need more than 1500W of power.  The load on each 115 split phase must be below the rating for that secondary winding.  Spendy and a bit wasteful (40 watts iclle current for 2- 1500W tranformers) but its the best you can do with an ST-3, typically.

You can drive the Antec primaries with either 115 (primaries in parallel)  or 230V (primaries in series).

Regarding grounding of the neutral.  Sure, its nice to have the neutral grounded in one and only one location- if you ever intend to power the greenhouse from the house service - or someone might do that via extension cord, then making the greenhouse a normal code compliant sub panel with separate neutral and grounds being supplied by a grounded neutral/safety ground generator is probably best- assuming generator unplugged if house power is connected.  If the greenhouse was remote and so the generator is the only potential power source, then it could be set up just like main panel with the grounding rod connecting to the ungrounded generator ground and neutral tied to that at the panel.

Multipoint grounding of the neutral is a no-no as it causes current to flow through the safety ground which can then act as an "alternate neutral".  Bad news as the safety ground is NOT intended to be a current carrying wire within the home, it should be a relatively safe earth ground except only for clearing faults in an emergency.









12
Generators / Re: ST3 Noise and vibration
« on: December 06, 2023, 04:36:56 PM »
The ST-3's that I have experience with all can not tolerate ANY load imbalance.  Nothing to be done except to run either 230 or 120V. If you need both, step up or down via transformer for the smaller load, or step down near point of use if going some distance.  I recommend Antekinc.com for high efficiency toroidal transformers. 

https://www.antekinc.com/an-154115-1500va-115v-transformer/

I have also used smaller transformers in parallel to increase capacity with a suitable fuse for each transformer. The Antek transformers will handle huge surge loads.  A warning-  because of the high efficiency wound silicon steel cores, they do have high inrush current so soft start may be required on something like an inverter.  The ST-3 has no trouble with them.

I will note that I have seen significant variation in ST-3 stators, in particular, along with great differences in harmonic winding and clearance between rotor and stator. These affect waveform distortions, regulation, etc.  A pity no one has yet identified a single source in China that is reliable and has consistent higher quality. 





13
Listeroid Engines / Re: is my water (cooling)tank too high?
« on: October 31, 2023, 05:36:41 AM »
Yes, I think that the diluted Aviation Gasket sealer trick (Hotater?) was originally posted about 18 years ago.  I also tried it and it worked great.

14
Listeroid Engines / Re: Excavating the Pit of Doom
« on: October 12, 2023, 03:07:52 PM »
Plastic concerns me for the area near the hot exhaust inlet.  Also, by price I think Hugh's setup with concrete blocks is likely much cheaper.  I'm just surprised at the amount of carbon black he has collected.  Makes me concerned for the 3 inch  leach field rock approach though it will hold a large amount before being choked off. We  perforated a pipe section about 8 feet long at the inlet.   There is not much coming out of the 4 inch PVC perforated section (standard for leach fields) with riser at the end of the trench- no sound, no pulses of air, and just the smell of earth.

Hugh's pit fuffler has the advantage of being readily serviceable.  We may have to dig up the trench near the inlet perforated pipe at some point for my neighbor's setup, but since its propane, it may be a long time before that is needed.


15
Listeroid Engines / Re: Excavating the Pit of Doom
« on: October 12, 2023, 04:12:43 AM »
Hugh's high soot quantity in his pit type muffler points out the need for an exhaust viewing capability with pit or earth (leach field) type mufflers.

On my neighbor's 8/1 conversion to propane,  we put in a T in the 2 inch pipe leading to the leachfield muffler and put the stock Pot type CS muffler on that  (knee height) while we were working out the bugs on the conversion (which is still running well).  The pot muffler is still useful whenever there is some cocern about engine health.  Normally the Tee is plugged and normal flow is straight through with no restriction or turn.

Bruce






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