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My grandfather ran his 1923 Harley-Davidson on kerosene when petrol was rationed in Australia during World War 2. The bike had two sections in the gas tank with two petcocks, a main filled with kerosene and a smaller reserve section that was filled with petrol. He used to start it and run on...

The cooling in an open hopper engine comes from the latent heat absorbed when the water changes state to a vapor and boils off. The water in the hopper can not go above a nominal 212 degrees F. Oil will boil at a higher temperature so the engine will run hotter. And it gets smoky and spitty...

A good engineering text book on the thermodynamics of reciprocating steam engines is Reed's Heat and and Heat Engines for Engineers, by William Embleton. It covers thermodynamics in general and has an extensive chapter on steam engines, another on turbines, another on fridge work, boilers etc...

Another factor affecting idle can be port size, more so intake port than exhaust. A large port is great for high rpm but at low rpm gas velocity can drop too low, droplets of fuel fall out and puddle etc etc. In full sized engines at least, engines designed to have better running at lower rpm...

The other thing that may loosen a tapered gib key is to drive the pulley onto the shaft a little further. That will loosen the taper on the key. Of course, grub screw will need removed first. If all else fails, a left hand drill bit is my go-to. You run the drill in reverse and the LH drill bit...

There are screwdriver slots in the ends of those domed screws because they are valve adjuster screws out of a large diesel engine such as a Caterpillar. Common as anything. If you want to make your own jacks like that, you can buy the screws online easily enough. Google Caterpillar valve...

Thanks Jim. Yes I too have a box of SS tube from smaller garden lights, about 5/8 and 3/4" OD, put away for a rainy day/smaller Stirling engine. I had to search a bit to find the bigger light, but there it was! And thanks for the answers to my questions. The 2" square aluminium bar has arrived...

They look like shopmade machinist's screw jacks made using the domed tappet adjuster screws off the rocker arms of a large diesel engine, probably Cat. They would be high tensile, hardened and with a beautifully ground half-ball on the end.

Hi Jim. Just thought I would post a cheap and easy source of very thin walled stainless tube for Moriya II's displacer. For about $5 from our local hardware store I bought a solar powered garden light as pictured below. The stem is stainless tubing OD .960", which is not far from the .983" I...

The item pictured just before the triple expansion engine and stamped with manufacturers code MA 1703/1 is a Myford Dividing Head, Worth quite a bit of money. The full set of four indexing plates, the 4" round discs full of circles of drilled holes, is worth as much again.

British shipping costs are quite reasonable -- way cheaper than US shipping to the rest of the world so it's worth checking it out. I can get stuff shipped cheaper from the UK to regional Australia than from Sydney, Australia. Go figure.

You can buy those gear clusters brand new from Myford in the UK. They have an eBay store too. Not worth messing about with a used gear that could be in similarly abused condition and about to let go. It's a common failure, due usually to locking the spindle and whaling on the chuck key with a...

1972 IIRC.

I'd make the effort to accommodate the longer bed. It's the kind of thing you don't really need, until the day you need it, and then you really need it. Also, on a daily basis it's real handy to be able to park the tailstock well out of the way when out of use.

IC engines will usually have a clearly discernible cross hatch pattern honed onto the bore. If you are using conventional cast iron rings, it will wear in to a smooth surface with remaining fine cross hatching for oil retention. 2" bore is same size as a small motorcycle engine so normal...

Two oft-cited advantages of an inverted parting tool are: 1. Swarf falls out of the groove under gravity so does not get jammed between the sides of the parting tool and the job so readily. 2. Forces on the headstock spindle bearings are downwards, thus against the solid body of the headstock...

Just about every one of the millions of capstan lathes ever made uses inverted parting tool in rear tool post. Never a problem. If you are worried about carriage lifting, apply carriage locking clamp. Standard operating procedure on Myfords and Drummonds for over 100 years now.

Confused between honing and lapping here. Which do you want to do? And brass, is that the material of the job or the proposed lap? What is the application of the 9 bores to be lapped/honed? Radial engine? Material- steel or cast iron? If so, brake hone should do the job. Or is it something...

Get your money back. It is not a T profile tool. Speak to the rep's supervisor if you have to. I bought a T parting tool from Eccentric Engineering and it is very definitely T shaped as shown in your first posted pic. They are commonly used on automated lathes etc in production. Nothing at all...

The only experience I have with Optimum is an Optimum mini/micro lathe I sorted out for a bloke in town here. Was woeful quality. Bend in the bed from new of half a millimeter or more. Woeful fit between saddle and ways. Leadscrew so far out of alignment the carriage jammed mid-travel. Once that...