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Messages - M61hops

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211
General Discussion / Re: Indian wrench humor?
« on: March 23, 2008, 10:40:50 AM »
I have a tee shirt that says "the Brittish drink warm beer because they have Lucas refrigerators" and I still think it's the funniest shirt I ever saw.  I've had it for more than 20 years because I got tired of people in California asking me if Lucas makes bad refrigerators so I didn't wear it after a short while.  At first I was sort of surprised how few people understood english motor vehicles! ???  I guess I live in a small universe? :o

212
If I was in your position, from the info you've given, I think the best plan might be to use a 'roid to run a compressor with an electric clutch to provide all your shop air and a DC generator with a battery and inverter to provide some of your base loads like lights, computers etc.  This way you could keep your system isolated from the grid while cutting a percentage of KW use off your meter bill, but, depending on how the power company figures things might not lower your cost.  Lots of the time utilities measure the peak current draws of starting your motors and if you do much of that at the wrong time of day you pay extra.  If that is your situation it would probably require a more complicated approach.   You'd need to spin your 3 phase motor fast enough to generate power to help carry your base loads and the starting loads; while providing anti-islanding protection.  I'd be afraid that a 'roid couldn't provide good enough speed regulation for an application like this; you might see flicker in your lights and the motor might slow down and draw power from the grid when you switch on something that has a high starting current.  The combined draw of the machine you want to start and the motor you are using as a generator could be bad for your meter charges; this might be a case where you have to try it and see what happens.   And you would have to have a need for the waste heat or there is no chance of saving any money from this project.   :-\                                  Leland

213
Engines / Re: Would you use this connecting rod?
« on: March 20, 2008, 09:19:03 AM »
Hey Steve please put the photo back up and keep posting more!  It is my sad duty to inform you that people pretty much all stop growing and evolving at about the junior high level.  That is just the way it is and I hope you belive me when I say it's not just the folks here on this forum.  I got stuck between two guys at work yesterday who were acting very juvenile in my office and it was starting to ruin my day until I remembered it's like this any other place I've worked.  And, after my drugs kicked in the day turned out quite well anyway! :o  All you can really do is state your position and let other people think whatever they want and not take things too seriously.  You can be sure that myself and many others value your words and photos no matter what some people post.                       Leland

214
Engines / Re: Removing the camshaft from a 6/1 'roid
« on: March 17, 2008, 09:37:50 AM »
I've heard it said that TRB's will take "quite a bit of misalignment" but I'm not sure what that means.  11 thousandths over the width of the crankcase is only a little out of square if the difference is in the crank bearing holes.  That's probably close enough for long life; at least the Indians would say so.  Maybe you could move the bearings up or down a few thou if they mount in the removeable bearing carrier that holds the seal and used to hold the old style bush type bearings.  I haven't had my 6/1 apart yet but it looks like the bearings mount in holes in the crankcase.  I guess you could call it a feature of these engines in that you can make them run and last at least for a while by folding a gasket over to get the proper fit.  A farmer in India probably wouldn't bother to check if the piston was parallel to the cylinder wall or if the bearings were too tight and yet they must get what they consider an acceptable lifespan from them?  I would think that a listeroid is a big investment for a third world farmer; I wonder how many crops/years they expect to get from an engine that they take out of the crate and run?  I'd think if they didn't get at least a few seasons from a new engine that they would raise hell with the dealer.  I suspect that most of these understressed engines will provide at least a couple thousand hours of service right out of the box.  What ever problems that show up down the road from grit or poor fit must be fixed by the farmer or the local mechanic who knows all the trick fixes.  I wonder if they fix them or junk 'em and buy another if the cam idler gear breaks and wipes out the cam and crank gears and screws up the governer parts?  If I ever get to spend time in India I hope I can talk with some users to find out things like this!  I've worked as both a machinist and a mechanic so I have my own ideas about what is "right" and what is "rinky-dink" about engines.  Like most people on this forum I would prefer my 'roid to be as right as possible but since I bought it used with unknown hours I'm going to run it until it breaks and then go through it to make it "right".  I hope that will be a while yet.  Good luck on yours and keep up the good work!                                          Leland

215
Engines / Re: Removing the camshaft from a 6/1 'roid
« on: March 16, 2008, 10:33:24 PM »
Well, at least the hone was still turning when they pulled it out so the scratches weren't verticle!  Your photos are great, please keep them coming!                                                                   Leland

216
Listeroid Engines / Re: Air Start?
« on: March 16, 2008, 10:20:19 PM »
If you still wanted to use the CS valve to change compression ratios, that gets too complicated.  How about a slide valve gizmo bolted to the intake port between the head and intake elbow?  Pushed in the intake port is normal; pulled out it closes off the intake elbow and air cleaner and gives you a channel to blow high pressure air past the weak intake valve spring resistance and into the cylinder when the piston is a few degrees past TDC on the compression stroke.  Or maybe better yet at the intake stroke position give the motor a shot of air then pull the slide out to the run position as you flip the rack lever also.  I'm thinking listers & 'roids.  I'm going to stick with electric starter but if you got high pressure air anyway...                                         Leland

217
General Discussion / Re: Remember Lee Iacocca?
« on: March 13, 2008, 08:44:33 AM »
Well, I checked out the website for the emporers club where these ladies came from and they are hot!!!  I read in the paper today that Spitzer spent $80,000 on sex with those women over the last several years; I wonder how he could afford that and hide the cost from his wife.  I spent a week in D.C. in about '88 or '89 visiting the Smithsonian everyday.  I was shocked at how many porno shops and massage parlors there were in our nations capatiol, those shops outnumbered any other!  If I was a family man taking my kids to see the place where our glorious leaders make the decisions that rule our lives I might have been a little nervous at what the kids thought.  I wondered why there were so many and who goes to them?  I was walking down a street back to my hotel one night when I happened to glance through a door into a basement and saw several beautiful women walking around and stopped to check this scene out.  A lady saw me staring and waved me to come in so I walked down a long sloping hall into this room with about a dozen beautiful young women wearing bikinis.  I asked one what the deal was and was told that I could pay $175 and go into a small bedroom with the lady of my choice where we would get naked and lay on the bed and watch a porno flick.  I would have the opportunity to purchase options from the naked lady on the bed with me while we enjoyed the movie, if the lady and I were so inclined.  I could use cash, check, money orders or any major credit card.  The credit card recipt would appear on my statement as food and beverages at the restaurant upstairs.  I was beginning to see how lobbyists might be able to entertain our law makers but since I had steam engines to look at the next mourning, I saved myself $600 and made a timely exit back to the sidewalk.  I'm still tempted to run for congress especially since the present guys have sold out the working class.  This Spitzer incident has me thinking about the NSA's wiretaping field of focus and the firing of those federal prosecuters who woulden't follow orders.  Back then I wondered how many public servants might be subject to blackmail.  Yeah, I know, I wonder waaaay too much??                                     Leland

218
General Discussion / Re: Remember Lee Iacocca?
« on: March 12, 2008, 08:48:16 AM »
"Where the hell is the outrage?" is something I've been wondering about for years!  I want to take over a TV station and shout over the airwaves "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!"  It's like somebody like Russia or China has hired the folks in Washington D.C. to destroy our country!  And they are getting their moneys worth!  Why doesn't anybody do anything about this?  I can only assume there is some new kind of mind control machine at work here but I'm not sure why it doesn't work on me and my friends.  Maybe it uses cell phones somehow, I don't have one of those but I have most other modern gizmos.  I'm aware that I'm a little eccentric but there are quite a lot of things that are badly wrong with the way the USA is being run and nobody is being held accountable.  I have trouble beliving that the voters are that stupid but the mainstream media doesn't provide any real information, so I guess it's easy to fool all the people most of the time.  I think it's way past time to re-instate the public good requirements to hold a broadcast license.   Also election results should be tamper proof and transparent and run by a goverment body and not private companies.  So many problems, so little time.                     Leland

219
Listeroid Engines / Re: Overheating
« on: March 04, 2008, 10:54:25 AM »
I'm by no means an expert on listeroids but I don't think 230 degrees F is very hot for a cast iron engine.  I don't think it got hot enough to hurt anything.  If you ran cold water into it when it was that hot and chilled the metal suddenly there is a slight chance it may have cracked something.  More likely you may have a casting flaw somewhere from new.  Maybe it always made bubbles and you didn't notice?  I would inspect the parts very carefully, maybe magnaflux the head, check liner protrusion etc. and put it together with a new head gasket.  Make sure the threads on the head studs and nuts are clean and oiled and put a dab of grease between the nuts and head surface so that all the torque of tightening the head nuts clamps the head down well.  If there is grit or rough surface finish of the threads the specified tightness of the nuts might not give you the proper clamping force.  Poorley made threads on one of the studs or nuts could cause problems like this.  Then again, tiny cracks that open up when the metal gets hot can drive you crazy.  Just 2 cents worth.   Leland

220
I'll take a guess.  The transister?  :-\    I want to guess the VCR because I have a hard time believing they would sell something as fundamental as the transister but the first transister radio I ever saw was a Sony.     Leland

221
General Discussion / Re: Whats your other obsessions/hobbies?
« on: February 24, 2008, 10:13:53 AM »
Yay Stan, Pink Floyd is my favorite too!  I think it was a Who song that me dancing the other night though.  When I suddenly realized what I was doing I was glad no one was likely to be looking in the windows.  And it does seem that everybody is having their own experience of reality.  When the Beatles and the first other bands of "the english invasion" first came to America I remember hearing them on AM radio while reading the stories about Gus at his Model Garage.  I'm sure Gus and John Lennon both helped to get me where I am today!  The music of the late 60's and early 70's was some of the best ever and I found it inspirational.  I'm sorry to say that a lot of the new stuff I hear on the radio today is crap.  Hey, everybody is entilted to an opinion!                                                   Leland

222
General Discussion / Re: Whats your other obsessions/hobbies?
« on: February 24, 2008, 04:56:40 AM »
I like to fix mechanical and electrical things of all kinds.  I've been that way since I was a child.  In fact if you give me some tools and put me in a room with something that doesn't work right I'm just a big kid with a gray beard!  I get a lot of satisfaction and feel good when something starts up and works after I fix it.  Fortuneatly my employer doesn't know how much I like fixing things, I would rather do my job for free instead of sitting in front of the TV!  I do have a TV and a stereo in my shop though, and I find myself dancing around a bit when I'm "working" on something and listening to some clasic rock music!  In general it seems that some people break things and a few people fix things right, I'm a "fixer".  Observing things and trying to understand exactly how things work has seemed to have led me to spiritual matters and I spend a lot of time trying to understand the nature of existance, so I spend a lot of time meditating.  I divide my free time about 50/50 between fixing things and spiritual pursuits.                                   Leland

223
General Discussion / Re: What Kind of Workshop Facilities do we all have??
« on: February 24, 2008, 04:18:55 AM »
I have a 20 X 24 sorta flimsy shop building.  I use the term "building" losely here but it keeps the rain off my stuff.  The walls are wood and the roof is corrogated tin plated steel.  When I got this place only i/4 of the floor was concrete so I poured a thick 10 X 24 slab to hold up my lathes.  I still need to take up a 8 X 12 section of wood floor and pour a concerte one.  I'm tempted to bury an exaust system under that section of floor and am thinking of pouring a thick heavy block to mount my listeroid on.  I'm not sure if I want to sacrifice the space to have the engine inside but the extra heat and ease of keeping an eye on the motor is really tempting.  I was going to build a better shop space but ran into zoning blockades.  In the land of the free you can't just build what you want on your own property.  I am thankful for what I do have though!             Leland

224
This is the machine that the Federal Reserve uses to regulate the banking system in the USA!   :o  I don't know why some people are worried about the economy?                                            Leland

225
Other Slow Speed Diesels / Re: See my dissassembled changfa Style engine
« on: February 09, 2008, 10:43:32 PM »
I have both ChangFa and Listeroid and I like them both!  I started with a Peteroid and it made far too much nois for my neighbors, so I got a ChangFa---same problem with noise level.  Got a Listeroid and now my neighbors don't complain so much!  I think the Chang Fa is the best value by far for the DIY'er, I like everything about it except the noise level.  I have a 175A rated at 6 HP @ 2600RPM.  It radiates noise from several places and would need to be enclosed inside a tripple layer hush box inside a sound proof room for me to use.  The Listeroid is about 1/10 as much noise noise to start with and can barely be heard 50 feet away when the shed door is closed.  With a good muffler on both the exaust and intake the Listeroid makes a dull thump when it fires and the valve train clatters a lot.  I would like to build a hush box around the Listeroid someday if I get some fail safe systems set up for it.  The Petteroid and ChangFa have a very loud bang when they fire and there is an equally loud bang from the camshaft area that I think is the injection pump cam lobe smacking the plunger; there is just no easy way to hide those sounds.  The slower speed of the Listeroid means there is more time to inject the fuel and more time for it to burn which is better for using thicker fuels and reduces the stress on the parts but causes the excessive rotational speed variation through each power cycle.  It seems that life is a compromise most of the time!  Someday I'd like to try and build a good hush box around the ChangFa and use it but it is just soooo LOUD I'm not sure I'll ever be able to use it for a tri-gen project in my neighborhood but I sure do like the design and build quality.             Leland

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