What sort of things inspire you?

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What sort of things inspire you?

Home Forums Miscellaneous models What sort of things inspire you?

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  • #453423
    Neil Wyatt
    Moderator
      @neilwyatt

      Saw this old breech loading coastal gun from Drake Island on the BBC news website today, woudl make a great model:

      What sort of things get you contemplating new models?

      Neil

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      #4316
      Neil Wyatt
      Moderator
        @neilwyatt

        Share your possible model prototypes.

        #453432
        Mick B1
        Participant
          @mickb1

          Looks like an RML (Rifled Muzzle Loader) to me, possibly the 10-inch 18 ton job.

          I've always wondered about the enormously thick reinforce on these pieces. Were they to resist pressure spikes caused by relatively fast-burning blackpowder propellant, when trying for armour-piercing velocities with Palliser-style projectiles far heavier than roundshot?

          A subject like this, or a standard Napoleonic-period ship's gun or carronade (one of each in my album) , has the virtue of simplicity. But more modern pieces are much more interesting from the engineering point of view – for example Mal Webber's 8" howitzer in current build. But drawings of these guns are practically impossible to find, so the model engineer has to be prepared to undertake a formidable scaling and design exercise before cutting any metal, and not all of us have the time and commitment to do that.

          In Churchill's old house at Chartwell, there's a model of the sponson-mounted 6-pounder gun used in early tanks. Looks like an ideal piece of work if the drawings -if any – could only be obtainable.

          Edited By Mick B1 on 21/02/2020 18:21:16

          #453439
          Mike Poole
          Participant
            @mikepoole82104

            I keep mulling over whether to have a go at making a Triumph trident T150 engine, I have the full size version so a ready source of information.

            Mike

            #453440
            Bazyle
            Participant
              @bazyle

              Two posts and both on weapons of destruction, how sad.

              One of our club members gave a talk last week about progress on his Stirling Single which is quite a popular loco but I much prefer the Dean Single and Johnson Spinners.

              #453442
              Former Member
              Participant
                @formermember19781

                [This posting has been removed]

                #453450
                JasonB
                Moderator
                  @jasonb

                  Oh dear where to start? Just looked at the various photos that I have in a file on the 'puter and see that there are 298 images though I do have several photos of some items.

                  These few are probaly towards the top of teh to be done list but the problem is more get added faster than even I can make themblush

                  No apology if a couple of those may cause offence due to their part in history but I just look at them as an interesting engineering itemsmiley

                  18.jpg

                  248172.jpg

                  c7dc9f62254abe8e95bd982cc2e41d57.jpg

                  colonial8.jpg

                  dsc00422.jpg

                  guadeloupemill13075.jpg

                  jewel1.jpg

                  lecky6.jpg

                  martiniquemill13117.jpg

                  thomasrose_vertical_7.jpg

                  #453500
                  Former Member
                  Participant
                    @formermember19781

                    [This posting has been removed]

                    #453504
                    Danny M2Z
                    Participant
                      @dannym2z

                      This bloke inspired me, What a legend! **LINK**

                      #453510
                      Buffer
                      Participant
                        @buffer
                        Posted by Neil Wyatt on 21/02/2020 17:37:27:

                        Saw this old breech loading coastal gun from Drake Island on the BBC news website today, woudl make a great model:

                        What sort of things get you contemplating new models?

                        Neil

                        Neil you will like what's on my drawing board at the moment then.

                        #453513
                        magpie
                        Participant
                          @magpie

                          The TV ads for a model spitfire that will cost £1200.00, and take over 2 years to build. As I am now limited to a max 2 hours a day, if I am lucky, in my workshop, I thought there must be a better way to add movement to the model than the one in question. With that in mind, I have bought a plastic model spitfire, and I will enjoy finding a much better way to add movement to it. It will involve a minimum amount of lathe and mill time, because I can't stand for more than a few minutes at a time, but it will make use of a few of the many hundreds of small motors I have in my stores. Total cost should be no more that £40.00, quite a saving on the cost of the TV advertised one. wink 2

                          #453515
                          James Alford
                          Participant
                            @jamesalford67616

                            The type of things which inspire and fascinate me are machines which are unnecessarily complicated and ridiculously elaborate, yet do very little: the type of contraptions from Heath Robinson and Emmett.

                            There was such a machine shown on Playschool once thorough the "round" window in the late 60s. I cannot remember what it was, but it left a lasting impression of flailing arms,cogs and wheels achieving very little, just because it could.

                            James

                            Edited By James Alford on 22/02/2020 09:22:44

                            #453518
                            Iain Downs
                            Participant
                              @iaindowns78295

                              I like the idea of 'models' that can actually do something. So my current attempts to build a large model / small reality vertical engine.

                              Once that is done (in some decade in the future) I am toying with either a clock or a watchmakers lathe. Which will disappoint the OP of the converse post, no doubt. I had a bit of a flirtation with the idea of a watch, but, having watched (sorry) some You Tube videos, I suspect is beyond my competence – my manual coordination is not the finest.

                              I also want to do some casting at some point, but lack the space and facilties.

                              My final 'inspiration', I suppose, is some jewellery for SWMBO. Perhaps that might soften her heart towards the Art…

                              You will notice a common theme in all of this. I'm inspired by things I've never done, don't have any evidence of the skills required and which are rather hard.

                              Perhaps I'm not alone in that?

                              Iain

                              #453520
                              Mick B1
                              Participant
                                @mickb1
                                Posted by Bazyle on 21/02/2020 19:07:35:

                                Two posts and both on weapons of destruction, how sad.

                                 

                                Ordnance and tooling are twins of the same DNA, working and developing together since they were both flint handaxes.

                                Ya can't have one without the other.

                                Edited By Mick B1 on 22/02/2020 09:40:54

                                #453527
                                Hopper
                                Participant
                                  @hopper

                                  I find myself repeatedly inspired by the model engineers of the first half or so of the 20th Century, from ET Westbury though to GH Thomas. Most inspiring is the way those old boys did everything with almost nothing. Made their own dividing heads and just about all tooling etc.. Made their own racing tether boat engines for goodness sake. Just been reading ETW's build series in ME reprints for the Kiwi Mk2 engine. All done in the Myford lathe.

                                  He describes drilling and boring the two holes in the timing chest for crankshaft and camshaft — requiring a precision location so the drive gears don't bind or rattle around. He does it by marking the hole locations out with a scriber block and steel rule, then prick punching the intersecting lines and then setting up on the face plate with a wobbler to get hole location dead on. Not a DRO in sight. Not even a vertical slide with graduated feedscrew collar. Just careful marking out and workmanship. And it was rated as a beginner's project.

                                  That's inspiring.

                                  So much so I'm seriously looking at spending the stupid money to buy the Hemingway castings and get them shipped halfway round the world.

                                  The other inspiring thing about stuff from that era is its style. That curvaceous art deco look of the 1930s is right there in ETW's KIwi engine, and in GHT's versatile dividing head that I have already made. Matched the style of the lathes of the day. Much more inspiring, to me, than today's piles of square blocks with sharp edges and corners loitering with intent to bust knuckles at first opportunity.

                                   

                                  Edited By Hopper on 22/02/2020 10:10:58

                                  #453533
                                  Ron Laden
                                  Participant
                                    @ronladen17547

                                    No specific subject but seeing good engineering here on the forum, from simple items to more complex things which have a full description and pictures of how they were set up, tooling used and produced. As a relative beginner that inspires me, I have learnt such a lot from it.

                                    Ron

                                    #453534
                                    Neil Wyatt
                                    Moderator
                                      @neilwyatt
                                      Posted by James Alford on 22/02/2020 09:20:17:

                                      The type of things which inspire and fascinate me are machines which are unnecessarily complicated and ridiculously elaborate, yet do very little: the type of contraptions from Heath Robinson and Emmett.

                                      There was such a machine shown on Playschool once thorough the "round" window in the late 60s. I cannot remember what it was, but it left a lasting impression of flailing arms,cogs and wheels achieving very little, just because it could.

                                      James

                                      I remember seeing that, I later discovered it was one of the creations of Bruce Lacey:

                                      Immortalised in song by one of my favourite bands too:

                                      <edit> On reflection it may actually have been one by Wilf Lunn His machines were a bit more 'age appropriate'

                                      Edited By Neil Wyatt on 22/02/2020 10:49:15

                                      #453535
                                      Ron Laden
                                      Participant
                                        @ronladen17547

                                        No specific subject but seeing good engineering here on the forum, from simple items to more complex things which have a full description and pictures of how they were set up, tooling used and produced. As a relative beginner that inspires me, I have learnt such a lot from it.

                                        Ron

                                        #453556
                                        martin perman 1
                                        Participant
                                          @martinperman1

                                          My inspiration came from my Grandfather, for over 60 years he made all sorts of things on his treadle lathe and would never allow my brother and I to put an electric motor on it, as very young boys we made wooden whistles on the lathe or fire up his two coal fired tugs and his 2" free style traction engine. My brother and I both took up engineering and both have workshops to make and tinker what we will because of him.

                                          I'm also inspired by anything mechanical and particularly if it moves, yesterday I watched a Wheeler Dealers program about a Ford Cosworth 4 x 4 Escort they were sorting out, I was amazed to see that one of the drive shafts passed through the engine sump and oil to get to its front wheel, imagine the chap who thought of doing that and then convincing management that was the way to go.

                                          Martin P

                                          #453560
                                          Guy Lamb
                                          Participant
                                            @guylamb68056

                                            Wilf Lunn was probably the 'super predictor' of Steam Punk,

                                            Guy

                                            #453582
                                            Nick Clarke 3
                                            Participant
                                              @nickclarke3

                                              Inspiration has often to be well moderated by reality.

                                              I have been fascinated by locomotives since too young to go to school. Watching what I now believe to be a 9F going through the cutting next to Bulwell Common is perhaps my earliest clear memory.

                                              BUT I am not inspired to build a replica as my club track is ground level and small 7 1/4" is more practical than large 5", let alone 3 1/2"

                                              Could I turn all of those wheels and build a boiler that big in the years remaining to me? – and as I haven't really looked slim since 1968 could I drive it if I did?

                                              Sorry, much as I should love to build a 9F, the 7 1/4" Tich I am building, although progressing far more slowly than I would wish, inspires me because I can see I am likely to finish it and drive it after that!

                                              #453589
                                              not done it yet
                                              Participant
                                                @notdoneityet

                                                I am inspired by things that I could aspire to, given the time, opportunity and funds available.

                                                Enthusiasm wanes if any one of those three are impossible to accommodate.

                                                I might envy or admire other’s work, but an achievable target, and need, is required to follow in the footsteps of those previous inventors, designers or makers.

                                                #453590
                                                Old School
                                                Participant
                                                  @oldschool

                                                  Speed is my inspiration all my life I have built models that are fast, currently I hold five British records and one world record. I am still building and racing them.

                                                  #453593
                                                  Former Member
                                                  Participant
                                                    @formermember19781

                                                    [This posting has been removed]

                                                    #453692
                                                    Michael Gilligan
                                                    Participant
                                                      @michaelgilligan61133

                                                      The CIA inspires me !! … **LINK**

                                                      https://apple.news/AXdfmwS3tS1KXSSLm-rlZhw

                                                      But, nature inspires me and them

                                                      MichaelG.

                                                      .

                                                      Direct link to the Black Vault page:

                                                      https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/insectothopter-cias-uav-from-the-1970s/

                                                      Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/02/2020 08:40:51

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