Amongst My Souveniers

A place to exchanges questions and ideas of a technical / procedural nature. Go ahead, try to stomp us !
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D Winsor
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by D Winsor »

You don't have to go back that far as I remember hearing stories, some maybe slightly exaggerated, of old well past their prime coal burning ships depleted of all furnishings (except the Old Man's & Chief's Bunks), wall panels and anything else that would burn arriving in Halifax, St. John's or Liverpool after a convoy trip across the Atlantic during WW1 & WW2
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JK
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by JK »

You just reminded me that at the end of refit, we used to throw all the old planks, dunnage and garbage in the ashpit doors and burn them. I haven't thought of that in years LOL.
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Merlyn
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

I understand SOLAS played a big part in ensuring very little wood was to be carried on board liners and the like in recent years for fire risks? beautiful ships like Kungsholm (1966 ) used to have fantastic woodwork throught the ship, mahogany etc and a joy to behold, real craftsmanship job. No chrome plated plastic here, Fiat mains. Apparently this went against it cost wise in order to bring her up to SOLAS regs , wood to be ripped out etc etc, now a " hotel " ship alongside . What an end to a proper liner ship versus the blocks of flats on barges we see today. Lovely sea boat too, no modern super ships with flat bottoms, floating taxis between islands here. So not much wood to burn nowadays!
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Big Pete »

I understand that after WW2 there was a big difference in the approach to safety, especially on Passenger ships, across the Atlantic.
In the UK more priority was given to fighting fires and preventing them starting, while in the USA the emphasis was on preventing anything flammable being built into the ship.
I believe they even had to have a special metal piano built for the United States, but of course she was basically a high speed troop ship, with an identical machinery installation to a contemporary Fleet Aircraft Carrier, designed to transport a fully equipped Army Division across the Atlantic to Europe or across the Pacific to Japan as quickly as possible and return without refuelling. Passenger comfort was an afterthought.

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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

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Herewith is a flashback to the early sixties, my first micrometer and my first clockgauge. Still in use but for some reason or other again not used as much as in the past. The micrometer is a Brown and Sharpe, American make, not a Moore and Wright which everyone else and all the firms kit was. Mikes upto 15 inches plus, ID and OD , depth gauges, verniers, caliphers etc etc were all Moore and Wright. You can clearly see that this is a proper Mike and Clockgauge, all in thousands of an inch, not Mickey Mouse talk. ( m m ).The measurements as fractions are clearly shown on both sides of the Mike and I used to know most of them off by heart, still remember a lot even today. Working in lots of different engine rooms someone would shout out five eights and from down in the bilges would come the reply six two five thous. This used to go on all the time and thus it was learnt by all, parrot fashion the imperial fractions in thousands of an inch. Don't forget ,the charge hand would say, this is NOT a drilling clamp. Still use it today but not on a weekly basis. The clock gauge. Once again a proper piece of kit, imperial only. At technical college we would have to make test pieces and herewith are photos of two scribing blocks I turned, milled ground and etched with my name. Apon these would go the clock gauge and piston protrusion heights, liner flame ring heights, flywheel run outs for vibration problems etc etc would be measured, many a smokey engine would display a lower piston height than the rest,slightly S shaped rods thro' hydrostatic locks were easily found this way with the head off. Lots and lots of uses for this bit of kit. I soon discovered that this tool was a source for extra beer money by doing " Homers " in the dinner hours. An old outboard I was doing up had a beat out needle roller big end bearing assembly and although you could strip the journal pin assembly to rebuild it concentrically it had to be sent back to the makers. All of these cranks were not one piece castings and the counter balance weights had to be stripped in order to press a new crank pin in. Hereby lay the problem with concentricity apon reassembly. However I discovered that the crank, together with the journal pin had centres machined in the ends of the shafts. Thus I found by putting the reassembled crank up between centres on a small lathe together with a copper/ hide hammer you could realigned the counterbalance weights using the clockgauge no problem. First time you attempted to do these it was a major problem because when you had the weights spot on with the clockgauge the act of tightening the journal crank pin nuts would cause misalignment and back to square one. But like all learnings practice makes perfect and there was no quick easy way of doing this. However my fame spread and soon I was realigning motorcycles cranks together with other outboards. This was the age of the motorbike big time, it was everyone's goal to have a bigger, faster, more shiny bike than the next apprentice. Bragging about high lift cams, high compression Pistons oversize carb jets was the normal topic of conversation through the day at work. American outboards were coming out carrying upto six cylinders and this was a separate challenge but after doing several my speed increased and soon a lot of dinner hours were taken up with this work, loads of beer money was to be earnt. Incidentally all torque settings for the crank pin nuts were in those days FT. With some of the kits supplied were mains needle roller bearings / big ends together with a sachet of lock tight material. The locking method never ceased to amaze me, a special tool had to be used and without this tool reassembly was impossible. And what was this " special tool ?) The special tool was, believe it or not a centre punch. In equal segments of three the crank pin was centre punched firmly into the locknut, ie half the centre punch into the pin and half into the nut. Peened over indeed. As soon as you unscrewed the nuts to dismantle the crank pin threads would be ripped out and nuts and crank pin damaged. I suppose it didn't really matter as the only reason for dismantling would be new parts anyway but in a piece of precision engineering it always struck me as odd the locking method applied. So if any of you born again bikers are out there and have crankshaft problems bear in mind my proper clock gauge, thousands of an inch makes for better concentricity than wretched metric any day of the week. The " pipe cleaner kit" I leave for you to identify.
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Big Pete »

Oxy acetylene nozzle cleaners
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

Metric or Imperial? If your built in workshop manual can't help don't forget your other angle, the big " S "
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Re: REVENGE -- MARINE ENGINEERING STYLE

Post by Merlyn »

Anchored off in the lee of bum island reflecting of recent happenings at work resurrected perhaps past performances of items still photographed firmly in the back of the old brain. Looking back on it all, so many many engine hours ago on my counter of life this one certainly seems to stand out more than others. The one happening which perhaps made the biggest impression on me as a boy in my second year of a five year apprenticeship occurred in approx 1961 and still stands out as the one that was the most audacious and certainly caused the most trouble of all the five years served amongst us apprentices. It all began with of all things a Weir Pump on a steamship we were at the time doing a complete refit on. One of the senior apprentices was tasked with doing a major stripdown of same and as such it was discovered that the parent bore of the steam cylinder had the usuall barrel effect wear present. Thus the offending part was removed from the ship, craned ashore and back to the fitting shop where alas it was discovered that as it was very old another cylinder assembly was no longer available. Much discussion between the ship owners and our workshop manager followed and the outcome was to bore out the parent diameter and make up and fit a liner. In other words sleeve it. Now this had been done many times before and as such the casting was set up by the apprentice in a lathe and carefully bored out. A close grain seasoned cast iron oversized liner was obtained and subsequently machined by the senior apprentice to be pressed as an interference fit into the original casting of the pump. This operation was carried out but the final fit was to be witnessed by Bill H, the workshop senior machinist who would ensure the OD and the ID had been machined out correctly. When the liner was pressed into the parent bore Bill H was away for the day and rather than wait the apprentice, who had done many of these operations before decided as he knew it all he would finish the job off himself. When Bill H returned to work next day someone ( who had it in for the apprentice who carried out the repairs ) put it about that " you should have seen the centre pop marks on the sleeve as it went in " and to cut a long story short it was decided to turn up a mandrel and a strong back and pull the liner, much to the protests of the apprentice concerned. Sure enough the first few inches of the liner revealed several centre punch marks which had been applied to ensure a "force fit ". In other words, a cock up job. Out came the liner and another liner obtained and machined correctly by Bill H to ensure that no pop marks were necessary to ensure a force fit. A proper job this time. Now the apprentice concerned had to endure much ribbing from other apprentices plus a big bollocking from management over this and as such swore to enact revenge within the three months he had left in order to complete his time. As he could not find out who started the centre pop rumour he decided it was down to Bill H who had pulled the liner. It was yet again the standard old cry, "that old b stards got to be taught a lesson, he's got to be shown who's boss " This saying prevailed throught my five years and was the party piece saying when someone considered that someone else was needed to be taught a lesson. Several weeks passed by and nothing happened until the workshop manager and the workshop charge hand were off together for the day. As this was a very unusual happening full advantage was taken of this by the senior apprentice concerning flywheel bolts locking wire, paint cans and of all things coffee. His parents had a guest house and as such purchased large tins of coffee in bulk and Dennis L had learnt the properties of its high Diuretic content and this fact was to be a major contribution to his plot and as such it was necessary to take full advantage of this new found knowledge. Thus eight am one fateful morning we were all instructed by DL to consume several cups of coffee within the next two hours oand this had to be pumped out into a four pint paint tin placed in our fitting shop toilet and to that effect this was closely monitored by DL and his cronies by virtue of a yellow chalk plimsol mark both running vertically and horizontally around inside the can together with a scriber from a surface plate. As each apprentice attended his contribution " pump out " DL was closely monitoring their performance to ensure as he put it " as everyone was directly involved there could be no one bubbling anyone else for should they do this then they would be bubbling themselves and any abstainers were thus threatened with a promise of what would happen to them should they abstain from their. " contribution " into the plot. We all knew full well what this meant and as such indeed the tin level grew and grew until it was over half full. Now as I have said before our workshop was around sixty feet high and perhaps around two hundred plus feet long. Sixty feet up sat a huge electric motor in its own engineroom and through a large hole in the wall their was a two foot wide flat belt which drove shafting both sides of the workshop for its entire length. Several belts both sides fed several machines, large lathes, drills, shapers, milling machines and power hacksaws, each machine was clutched in and out as necessary throught the day and the clatter of all this belting went on all and every day. Now dear old Bill H the machinist was 74 years old, been round the world one hundred times at sea, seen several torpedoes come through the ships side in the war, and was a very very experienced hand. At his age his sole interest left in life was drinking gallons of Scrumpy, ( rough cider, tried it a few times but continually exhausting to atmosphere after a session decided to move onto beer which was by far a better investment and would stay on board ) His favourite concoction was Scrumpy and black currant which very closely resembled L.F.O and not only looked like it but tasted like it, in my view very similar indeed complete with lumps in suspension just like dirt and bugs in a sight glass on a fuel line. When you cocked up a machining job or was not sure of a problem jobby Bill H was the man to see. I still make use of the many things this man taught me concerning engineering and quick way out situations when encountering problems to this very day. Now old Bill in view of his age only worked 10 am till 4 pm each day and as such would arrive at the workshop at 9. 45 am prompt every day. Dennis L was fully aware of this and running his operation with military precision planned to take full advantage of this. At 9.30 prompt he announced that no more diuretic contributions would be required and as such the can in the toilet was subversely removed from the toilets and taken into the workshop. At this moment in time all would be revealed for at the far end of the flat belting there sat a painters tin securely wire locked onto the belting via holes drilled into the top part of the tin. This was the reason why the flywheel bolts locking wire was on a bench for there was no engines being stripped and overhauled at this time nearby. The contents of about 10 or 12 apprentices contributions were carefully transferred into the wired on tin through the wire belt guard under which the tin sat. Dear old Bills daily start up at work never varied , day by day. On with his overhauls, trilby hat firmly in place, ever present pipe removed from his mouth , a small bearing scraper used to "de coke " the pipe and noisily tap out the pipe on the lathe bed, ram St Bruno tobacco into it, tamp it down and he would then flash up the pipe with the ever present swan vesta matches, the ones with the red tips. At this point I am reminded of many of the workshop and engineroom staff who throught the working day wore trilbys at work, ( haven't seen this for years ) Bent closely over the valve casting/ piston ring, whatever the job was in the chuck to ensure nothing had moved overnight etc he would , without looking reach out for the operating lever alongside the lathe to engage the drive mechanism. This was another highly polished idler pulley ( polished by 30 years plus of use age ) which would be pushed into the already on standby drive belt causing it to go over centre and engage the drive. Unknown to dear old Bill he had invertly started a process from which there was no return. Although he had a dozen pairs of eyes on him apprentices in the know we're trying to miss nothing yet not be seen to be watching him and be any part of the plot. Thus the tin and its contents rapidly began its irreversible rapid travel to the point of the end of the belting run whereby it entered the radii of the end pulley and as such threw the whole contents of the tin squarely over old Bill and although his overhauls and trilby copped a lot some caught one side of his face unprotected. Screams of shock and horror rapidly turned to tears of rage when by licking his lips it became obvious to him exactly what the contents were. Apprentices rushed over to " help " him and the machine still being clutched in now and on every circuit told the tale of what had happened to other fitters in the workshop who were not in on the plan. Whizzing round and round clearly displaying the wired on tin it was a plain to all onlookers not in the know that this was no accident at all. Apprentices who had directly assisted to bring this about vowed that " legs would be broken over this when the person responsible was revealed " and management were duly summoned . Dear old Bill was subsequently sent home, the job he was doing unfinished for the day and each of us was summoned one by one before the Managing Director to be interviewed over a several days period.
Apprentices whom management considered to be more involved than others were told that their interviews would have to be conducted with their parents present and as such this ran on for weeks and weeks during which time Dennis L the main culprit had done his five years and gone to sea. As we all had, how can I say more than a " hand " in it nothing was said and although suspicions were bandied about and all apprentices knew the main culprit was never caught or his I D revealed. Perhaps because of my age at the time of this happening or the sheer audacity of it all this has remainded with me very vividly for some 54 years forever photographed / embellished in the back of my brain and although many many other things of this nature went on for the five years apprenticeship years I think this one really " took the p ss! "
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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JK
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by JK »

A trilby! I have thought about this and have decided I have never actually see one worn. Bill H was not pleased, I'll bet
Good one :)
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Merlyn
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

Thanks JK, poor old Bill H has long gone but Dennis L is still around aged about 75 now and playing bowls which ironically was one of his sneering pet hates " all right for old b stards " he used to say, " old mans game ". Weird how it all turns round. I will know if he has read this as he will be round to " draw me off one " which was another Teddy boy threat of that era. Happy Xmas.
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Merlyn
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

Not necessarily a marine engineering tool but it is a tool? What for? PS it's a gun.
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by JK »

Is that a dead bolt
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

No, but you are getting close. In the plastic bag shown there are two additional formers for various four or six cylinder applications?
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

Some people wear a mask to operate this bit of kit
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Re: Amongst My Souveniers

Post by Merlyn »

It's a pick gun. Used for opening Yale type locks, 4 or 6 cylinder versions in the main. Select the type of former, insert into the gun and setting the knurled brass thumbscrew to its correct torque ( you learn what that is by experience, another knack jobby ) and pull the trigger. Should your torque setting be correct then the plungers in the barrel are fired up to allow the rack bar ( so to speak ) to align themselves in the correct coordination and allow the barrel assembly to turn thus opening the lock. The secret is learning how to set the torque adjuster but by playing with a cylinder barrel on your lap whilst watching the boring soaps you will learn how this can be attained. As usual in life once you know how it's easy. PS The mask does not come with the kit.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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