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I was briefly on the myford group, but there was a lot of back-biting, and it seemed a bad atmosphere, so I concentrated on a very different group... [email protected]. A fundamental problem is that everyone who knows nothing about model engineering knows they must have a myford, so there...

Soft solder always contains tin, usually with lead, though not always, and a whole range of other metals. Silver soldering (brazing, hard soldering) employs a filler material that always comprises copper and zinc, and various other metals, notably silver. (I used to regard brazing as a distinct...

Like Dan said! But you can bet your boots that the solder is carefully selected- there are many different flavours from the classic 60/40 tinman's solder to the domestic plumbing stuff which is 99% tin, with the remainder of copper - and everything in between. I watched the video, and it's...

I am new to this thread, so I'm probably only repeating what someone else will have already written. True diesel engines inject fuel into a compressed charge of air. Compression ignition engines use a very different fuel, and rely on compression to ignite a ready mixed charge instead. Hence the...

Well done!!! Very satisfying, isn't it! Did you get it right in one go? Andrew UK

Photos of the float bowl clip, courtesy of mater. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite grasp what I wanted, so whilst they're not as good as I hoped, you should be able to get the idea. Send me an address to [email protected] and I'll forward them. I can never work out how to upload photos...

Spiral flutes are great for most materials, but experience has shown that they tend not to like the stainless steels too much. -Andrew UK

Re- the above photograph... God bless America, but they do manage to get engineering nomenclature wrong! For everywhere else in the world (from bottom to top) it's taper, second, plug. Bottoming and plug are interchangeable terms for the same tap, over here. *sigh* -Andrew UK

Check out the books "milling in the lathe" by E T Westbury, or "milling operations in the lathe" by Tubal Cain (Tom Walshaw). They're actually two re-writes of an earlier book- Tubal Cain's is the most recent. That will open your eyes to the possibilities. Whereas we think of the lathe as the...

Absolutely. Mk I, I'd say. The casting for the spindle/motor mount is missing, but is possibly identical to the Mk III. Hemingway kits will likely be glad to sell someone that piece on its own. If that part is not the same, a replacement column mount will need to be bought as well. Hemingway...

I never thought of using feeler stock! You used to be able to buy it by the roll... How easy is it to shape? The Kiwi ended up getting dyno tested by Prof. Chaddock, and he managed to wring 0.64hp out of his example- at 8000rpm! Do you experience any point bounce? Although I expect ANY...

I omitted to mention (as if you hadn't realised) that I key my cams to their shafts on all my engines. Unfortunately my camera is defunct, so no photos, yet. My Mum wants to visit me next week, and she's got one of those fancy telephones that can take good photos - I'll ask her to help. I did...

Tungsten (W) actually machines quite readily. Tungsten carbide (WC) is a different animal. It's a tungsten-carbon alloy. It's produced in powder form, and tool manufacturers add a binding agent and sinter the stuff into the cutters we use. The main problem with tungsten is the cost of the damn...

Cams for engines come in two flavours, tangential and harmonic. Tangential cams have straight sides, and a radius on the lobe- the ramp is vicious! I think the first incarnation of the Kiwi used them; they were common in motorbikes of the period. Harmonic cams have curved flanks, and the ramp to...

Reeves 2000 sell spring steel by the foot. Not much of a selection, but you'll need some for the float bowl cover clip, regardless of making points. It's inexpensive... But getting the bends in the right place for the carb clip is tricky. I made up a simple bending fixture for mine. I punched...

Any temperature measurement requires a base point and a cross point. Danny Fahrenheit found a self-stabilising brine/ammonium chloride (eutectic) mixture, which was the base point, and used human body temperature for his cross point- it may be apocryphal, but I've heard said that it was the...

As far as points go, Kirk at Hemingway has a stock of the ones ETW specified, but you might not like the price... He also has a stock of tungsten discs if you want to do a home brew. He doesn't advertise these on the website. If you want to go down the ready-made route, you'll find that Ford...

I have a "brick" of low melting point alloy, which I have used on occasion. When I say "low" m.p. I mean you can melt it back out with boiling water in an old saucepan. However, my stuff contains bismuth, and EXPANDS (a lot) on cooling- its use is carefully considered before each job. Has...

Whilst at the University, each year we built a racing car- the series was called Formula Student. We would on occasion have guests from other countries. One year, we played host to the Indian contingent, and they needed a track rod made up. They gave me their own taps. Those taps were going to...

Sparking plugs have always been difficult. Westbury's 1930s design, which was later to become the Kiwi II, originally specified an M12 special. The plugs were probably cheap enough, but the taps? After Pacy and Champion stopped making 3/8" plugs, we were stuck with M10 x 1mm (that's actually...