Picture Question from Chat 8:-

"What is this used for?  A bit of a fishy question." ............ etc.

Answer: - Fly Fishing Clippers, Quick Knot Tying Tool, Line Cutter, Fast Hook Nail Knotter.

Several people got were on the right lines but well-done Richard Earp for being first past the post. ✔

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John Goodall posted 06/04/2020 :-

Part 4 Of My Story.

In 1993 I was made redundant from my position as Strategic Services Engineer running a site for the National Grid Company, where I finished almost thirty years of work in the Power Industry. Quite a change in lifestyle was required and an activity to help fill in my time and hopefully assist with finances. As a first step I joined a Government sponsored course on running your own business held in Burton. One of the first things we had to do was list things we enjoyed doing allied experience and abilities etc., this enabled me to decide I would take the step into publishing a magazine on Model Engines and collecting them. Something started when I was given the remains of an engine called a “3.5cc BMP diesel” which stood for Bijou Model Products made in Bournemouth about 1949. I called the magazine “Model Engine World” after my preferred title Model Engine Enthusiast was found to be in use in USA. It would cover the history, construction and collecting aspects of the hobby.

I used a young local journalist who went to school with my son Paul, but that did not last long as he wanted to go where I didn’t and so luckily I found another local guy in Barton who was willing to show me all the ins and outs and so I soon picked it up myself and after 12 months or so carried on myself. Parker and Son Printers in Burton printed the magazine which was first published in May1994. It became reasonably successful with a distribution agent in both USA and Australia, so it went worldwide. It proved very useful in making contacts and getting to know other collectors, engine manufacturers and other interested parties. I was getting offered many engines and so started trading in them setting up a side business called Barton Model Products after the BMP, which it now also stood for. A web site was set up at www.bamopro.co.uk and it became a consuming but demanding occupation my son Paul now continues this business. After about six years when I was working about 14 hours each day either writing, communicating or trading engines, packing, and posting magazines, I realised I would have to slow down and reduced the publishing frequency from 12 to 6 and then 4 issues each year increasing the content each time. Eventually I sold for a very small sum to the Curator of Aircraft Exhibits at the Science Museum after I published seventy issues in seven years. The new owner published five issues and the sixth is still at Parkers awaiting his go ahead since 2002??

I now had a little more time on hand, but was still trading collectable and useable model engines and one engine which I had intended to cover in MEW was the Oliver Tiger initially made by father and son J.A. Oliver and J.S. Oliver both John, a damn good name!! They had all their initial success with their engines used in Tethered Model Cars which run around a concrete circle held by a wire to a central post. They were invincible and were soon asked to produce aircraft versions which took all the wins in racing and combat control line events not just in the UK, but worldwide. It became the most widely used and successful model racing engine ever made in this country in fact the world. Many replicas were produced because this two-man concern could not cope with the demand, but they did make over 500 one year!! Two men in a garage workshop with the quality and precision they never faltered from which is to microns in the piston to cylinder fits. The picture of Burton MFC members shown, all used 2.5cc Oliver Tiger engines in their models.

I had met John S. Oliver at Old Warden Airfield home of the Shuttleworth Collection and we immediately got on well and he was surprised anyone was still interested in his engines, he was a true gentleman. I told him I wished to write a book on the Marque, and he agreed to help with family photographs and access to his own original and many prototype engines. The book was printed again by Parker and Son Printers, Charles Parker being a VMCC Member and fellow vintage motorcycle enthusiast. It was published in both hard back and softback covers appearing in 2004 and getting good reviews in the model press. An enthusiast in Sweden approached me with a request to visit a Tether Model car meeting which included Old Timers held at Orebro south of Stockholm. I accepted and was picked up from Vasteras Airport taken down to Orebro had my accommodation provided for three nights and was delivered back to Vasteras. Kjell Erik Odelius became a very good friend needless to say. Kjell Erik asked if John Oliver would come out next year and so John duly joined me the next year and enjoyed the celebrity and ability to run his cars again after many dormant years. He became almost a father figure to me and a great mentor.

John joined me again two more times the last after a new owner had been found by me for the Oliver model engine business a company owner in Hinkley named Tom Ridley then owner of Clint Hill Engineering. Tom was an ex Coventry Bees Speedway rider, who I watched back in the late 1950’s. He retired after a bad accident and concentrated on engineering. He took over developed and successfully produced the Oliver range for a few years before succumbing to cancer two years ago. Tom’s widow is trying to pass the Oliver name to another maker as I write this.

To get back to where this all started which is Tether Model cars and panel beating bodies, through my visits to Sweden and writing the book I became interesting in building and making these models. It requires good engineering and many other skills and satisfies my need to be constructive and to use engines. When forming aluminium into these bodies you are stretching or compressing metal and aluminium tends to work harden, so the first thing needed is some means of annealing the alloy and I mark with soap and heat with a butane torch and when the soap goes black it is hot enough to soften and cool. There is also a slight colour change to pinkish red at this temperature with butane as well, so another sign. A buck or former is needed to form the metal over and a clamp to prevent unwanted movement. Then with the head of your hammer polished to remove blemishes you hammer lightly at the outer edges gradually working inwards annealing as you feel the metal getting less malleable and making sure you do not get excessive ruckles. If you do, remove from the buck and hammer inside to flatten the hump and then carry on again. It is best to start with something simple like the LE Velocette panel I showed earlier. That way you will soon get the hang of it and things only get better?

Most of you will be able to pick this up and I will extend this offer to any club member who wishes to have a go when this nasty epidemic is over.  To visit my workshop and I will show you how I do it but try yourself first you could be a natural and if you have a project in mind so much the better.  (Some examples of the bucks and

John Goodall

Two cars, my 100MPH car on LHS with a similar car made by John Oliver

 
 Sports car body showing gears for drive to axle , the engine mount carries axle and its bearings

  
Car showing bucks for chassis and top

A twin shaft engine I made to power red car which follows

Streamlined body made in two halves showing buck and pad

Cars in red one at RHS has home-made engine

 Pat Davey posted 06/04/2020:-

A Bike for The Time of Life

Part 1.

Barry Sheen's teammate Steve Parrish once said 'growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional, something he demonstrates admirably, and I attempt to mimic. Back last summer the first part of this quote came home to me as I had to admit that my then 'go to' solo the 500cc Morini Strada was, combined with saddle height, getting too heavy especially two up. Looking around for a low bike I thought that something with 17” or even 16” wheels would be good starting point but would have to have enough power for a pillion, a generously large dual seat for comfort and electric start was high on the list.

For many years now Ann & I have been doing The Breckland Touring Week in Norfolk organised by Paul Fletcher. We got chatting to Lynn Hutton and Bob from The West Kent Section, Lynn was riding a V50 Guzzi and Bob a Velo, I was drawn to the V50 as it was obviously lower but turned out to be only 20lbs lighter than the Morini and Bob put me off by telling of reliability issues and poor spare parts availability. Lynn then changed the train of thought by announcing that she had a little Honda CD250U back at the campsite for when the Guzzi broke down!

Back at the campsite it only took me one lap walking round the Honda to see it ticked a lot of the boxes including 17” wheels. I called Ann over to have a look and the dual seat was the first thing she spotted and gave it approval, it looked as inviting as a Chesterfield sofa. We were offered a shot on it and it certainly coped with two up despite being only a 233cc twin. Let's face it on these Touring Section events of which we do quite a few and at this time of life we rarely exceed 60mph and the little Honda is well up to that and more.

A suitable target had been identified but now it was time for reflection. I have a 1959 Triumph 5TA, the first year of the 'Bathtub' Speedtwin. It has 17” wheels and a dual seat that Ann likes so why not ride that. Well I stopped using it about five years ago for two main reasons. Firstly, it was using a lot, and I mean a lot, of oil. Any trip demanded one carried spare plugs and plug cleaning kit because an oiled plug or two was guaranteed. Secondly the kick start lever was too short such that towards the bottom of the swing one's big toe smashed up against the footrest not being able to swing underneath it. This often engendered a kick back as the second cylinder was now approaching the firing point. Twice the pain and the reason I got the electric start Morini. The first of these maladies is clearly solved by a top end overhaul, the second would have been solved had Edward Turner been born with bigger feet. The top end overhaul was put in hand.

Whilst the overhaul was going on, (it turned out to be valves, guides and badly worn rings in the useable standard bores that just needed glaze busting) I started scanning the 'For Sale' columns for a Honda. Remember that the Triumph still had a cruel kickstarter. What I discovered however was that Honda GB did not import the CD250U in anything like the numbers of other Twin Cylinder 250's models. DVLA statistics showed that at the end of last year only 52 were licensed for the road with a further 127 on SORN. The internet and e-bay were not proving to be any help on this occasion so 2 months of 'Wanted' ad's in the VMCC Journal were tried.

 

The first month brought forward two offers, the first one was far too cheap to be suitable and, on the vendors admission, was rough. The second vendor was flying a kite with a price tag in the clouds. The following month proved more fruitful, a member in Preston was advertising a 1988 model, the first year of production with 14,500 miles on the clock which is nothing for a Honda if it is fed clean oil at regular intervals. So jump in the Transit and up the M6 to Preston we went.

The garage door was opened on our arrival to reveal not 1 but 3 Honda CD250U's The man was a bit of a specialist in them it appeared. One was bog standard with trimmings, screen, top box etc and the other he had customised into a bit of a 'show' bike, these two were not for sale. The third had been 'done up' for sale to fund the other two. This bike was very clean and presentable and appeared to my unpractised eye quite original, the motor was an instant starter on first touch of the button and mechanically very quiet, the exhaust in excellent condition, the oil when dipped had obviously just been changed being absolutely clean. I was satisfied that this one was for me, a price of £1,000.00 plus another £20.00 for a new battery just fitted was agreed, hands were shaken, monies exchanged, and bike loaded into the van job done.

MZ - just an update on my MZ carb issues - as you know I’d ordered a new float, valve and various seals and things to hopefully sort out my flooding MZ 251 BVF carburettor.

All the bits turned up as promised a few days later.

Because it’s such a pain to remove the carb (and turned out an even bigger pain to refit) I decided to test it all out in my shed beforehand.

So, armed with Haynes manual and new bits I measured the distance from the bottom of the float to the lip on the float chamber casting - as the book tells you and bent the brass tab ever so slightly to get this correct.

Then I had to invert the carb so the float was now hanging down and take a second measurement, mine was way different to the Haynes book.

So, after bending the second inner brass tab, a bit at a time, eventually both measurements were the same as the data given in the Haynes book.

I replaced the float bowl with a new seal and set if upright in my vice with the overflow drainpipe in an old (washed out) mint sauce jar underneath.

I attached a piece of fuel pipe to the carb and the other end to an oil can spout I was using as a temporary fuel tank.

I poured some petrol into the clean oil can and watched it travel down into the carb.  It took what seemed like ages to keep topping up the oil can, waiting for the level to stabilise, then horror, petrol started running from the overflow into the jar beneath.

Never mind ……. or something like that!!

 

I drained the carb, removed the float bowl checked all my measurements again, removed and checked the new valve was cutting off, it was, everything was spot on so tried again with the same result!

So after draining the carb a second time and removing the float bowl I had a proper look at the float and what was happening - and to my untrained eye the float seemed to me to be able to move too high before cutting off the fuel.

To test this out I reconnected my fuel supply with the float bowl removed and over a suitable container I let some fuel into the carb and even when moving the floats up as far as I could fuel kept on coming .

 

Not the first time Mr Haynes has got it wrong I thought - but I did a double check as through the years and models there are different float settings for different bikes and carbs.  Yes, I was using the right information, so I altered the tab so that it stopped the fuel before the floats were right up and made sure in the lower position the valve was fully open.

I refitted the float bowl put the carb back in my vice and re connected my temporary fuel supply and waited for fuel to gush out the overflow - but it didn’t.

Answers to by email to:  edgrew@virginmedia.com