Hey thanks Ed and John for those replies & that video.

I think both your comments & the video reinforce my thinking that the end result is "backup" not prime mover . . .

I'm especially sceptical of the longevity of anything with three bearings on a shaft unless mounted/aligned with great care - that may just be me being old-fashioned.

I have the 6/1 and an ST-type alternator for it, plus a pair of 190A Leece-Neville truck alternators, so pretty sorted for AC & DC potentially.  Next up is to pour some concrete lol

And I still can't get past how much I like the slow-speed 650 RPM "thumpers" as opposed to the newer 1500 RPM Listers/Petters etc

Thanks, Guys

Quote from: EdDee on May 19, 2017, 08:23:25 AM

It seems the more warnings and guards we install on things, the more accidents happen....

I fitted some guards around my Bridgeport milling machine (mainly to keep the coolant somewhere near the machine, rather than sprayed all over the place, but I figured a bit of extra safety couldn't go amiss too). Hah! I've injured myself more bumping into the guards than I ever did using the machine! Damn things live on a shelf somewhere now...

I guess really the difference might be between us as responsible(ish) adults taking responsibility for our own actions as against employers having to make safety decisions on behalf of a (very mixed bag of) others?

, then drill to the correct size and retap the holes. The grinding flat and a center punch in the center of the stud is the key to this working.
[/quote]

I'd add a caveat to consider - just based on experience - that drilling and re-tapping original size is potentially fraught . . . .

First you have to dot that centrepunch EXACTLY right

Then there's no guarantee that each thread wont be cut half-and-half between original metal and old stud - with resultant loss of strength

just my $0,02.  Cheers

    +1

I'm very skeptical about clean coal.  But it doesn't matter as it's simply too costly whether it's clean or just plain down and dirty.  And dumping coal into streams is just plain suicidal and is a hint of what's to come.  Why do you believe they have any thought of clean coal?  I don't want a nuclear waste storage vault in my state either.  Norway, yeah Norway is on it's way to sustainable power.  I'd recommend you take a look at articles about them in your favored news system.

But I speak to the yesteryears.  Better stuff costs more! 

Casey
[/quote]

G'day Casey.

Down here in New Zealand - at the other end of the planet from Norway - we have political correctness so bad it hurts . . . .

But we do have almost completely renewable power.

Our Hydro system is largely 40+ years old so it was built in the days before a green lobbying industry made it more difficult to build hydro, but still trickles along and acts as the "battery" to allow domestic solar and large-scale wind farms to operate

We have a few - largely mothballed - coal or gas plants; they're more emergency backup stuff than anything else

There's only four million of us, and our government is almost completely captured by industry . . . if a little country like us can manage it . . .

Hi there fellow Kiwi

I'm in the Manawatu but have an off-grid property in the Bay of Plenty that is under development

Got a 6/1 that is a work in progress and runs OK-ish and a 5kW ST-type head to go with it

Recently bought a 12/2 out of a remote woolshed

I wonder if you know about Rob at Old Timer Engines in Australia?

http://www.oldtimerengines.com.au/

All the parts you'll ever need

Cheers

Quote from: LowGear on February 25, 2017, 06:24:32 PM

OK Guys.

Mr. Cynical writing.

You're blaming the pushers for the junkies decisions.  It's actually called a rule in the world of economics or what I call the science of predicting the past.  "Cheap money will always replace Expensive money."  The reason there is so much crap available for sale today is because it SELLS!  Much like cheap heroin.

I believe there are are few among us that respect nice stuff any more than I whether the badges are made of hand tooled brass or etched into the stainless cover plates.   This "Buy crap and live the short life" philosophy is a world movement.  It started just after the iron age began and people stopped using their bronze swords.  Sometimes a tool that you're going to use three times in you life makes the crap choice the "One" but as a life standard - I don't get it either.

I too love the "No Scavenging" sign next to the metal recycle bin at the transfer station.  I was chased out of the plastic recycle bin for taking 5 gallon buckets.  The other four people at the station booed the attendant.

And this is what makes Barn Finds so much fun and a thrill to be shared with like minded people. 

Casey

Casey, I agree about the throwaway society but I hate it. Make the thing, whether it's a cylinder head or a pipe bender out of quality materials and it will last. This crap is just using valuable resources for a short term quick buck.  In my local recycling center there are guys that act like "recycling police", I know they only work there but they really can be OTT at times looking at cardboard in case a tetra pack has slipped in and removing plastic from the skip and giving it back because it was an empty engine oil can. I tried to tell him the can was actually a by product of the industry but eventually had to tell him to go fcuk himself and take the can back.

My brother is also old school, lives in the shed and he used to make waste oil stoves for sheds. He now makes wood burners as waste oil is very scarce because its valuable. In the local recycling center they weigh the can with the waste oil,  I assume 1 liter weighs 1 kilo and they charge you a Euro  a liter to empty the oil.

I too spend quite a lot of time in the shed and the missus wonders what I'm doing there, then we have a small storm. In 5 minutes I have one generator powering the water pump and the freezer in the shed and another supplying light and power in the house via a UPS. Not quite seamless yet but I'm working on getting a bigger engine and a bigger alternator. I bet loads of you guys have better more integrated systems but mine works for me. Some neighbors don't have a candle or an oil lamp, I have the tilley and a wallback lamp but even if they had a candle they ofter don't have matches or a lighter as nobody smokes or lights a fire. My kids would have to die of cold in the dark but thats modern people, they are like fragile southern belles standing by the Mississippi saying "help"

I'm on your side.

Got a half-built shed/workshop/house in an off-grid site

I have a couple of old enamelled cast-iron fraypans older than me, a wok I have had for over 40 years and a kitchen knife I have had for 30+ 

I guess it's childish, but I get a lot of satisfaction from using these things and others like them every day and enjoying how they were made to just go on working . . .

Like the Listers . . . .

FWIW though, I have a Corolla, a Hilux and a Suzuki DR650 - I'm not a Ludite lol