Tinker

Greetings All, A brief announcement. May be old hat to some, but news to others Within the next two months I'll be packing up my troubles in an old kit bag and setting out on the daftest trip since columbus went looking for India. This is a globe trotting expedition to seek out strange new Smiths, to boldly go where no smith has gone before...hang on thats the wrong show :oops: I'm actually going to travel as much of the world as I can, within my meager resources, and am throwing the door open to you guys and gals for places of interest, or indeed people of interest, (iron pounders preferred, hobby or pro) that I might be able to find along the way. I hope to be able to bring back a little knowledge to show you good folks too, so if you really wanted to see how they do it in Tibet, nows the time to let me know. That way I can figure out the airfares :shock: The Americas will be on the second leg of the trip, so right now we're talking europe, asia and Australasia. Any suggestions? No, the moon is not an option, although I am starting to feel like a space cadet :lol:

Hi Ed thanks for the advice, I had the dimmer laying around, as part of my soldering iron/wax pen set up. I'd read about folks controlling motor speed that way and just wanted to try it. A butterfly or some other kind of choke is a definate possibility, although I'll rig it for the air inlet instead of in the tubes, less work on the motor that way. Its a 240V 50hrz motor and basically just wired to a plug and then into the mains. I'm REALLY not much of a sparky :oops: If overheating the motor is a risk I can use one of the hoses pointed back at the motor to cool it. Anyhow if anyone out there is, any other opinions will also be most welcome. Thanks

Hello there, or 'Ow do?' as we say round here :wink: I recognise a few names, & hope there isn't too much groaning I'm a kind of foundryman, in as much as I cast molten metal. Well, to be honest its silver, although I'm looking at maybe doing some larger sand casted pieces in Aluminium...i've 'found' Gingery. I'm also genuinely interested in blacksmithing (but REALLY haven't the space, for the gear or for peace from the neighbours) and am a bit of a scrap hound in my spare time. Hope I can ask you folks some questions..... I sniffed out an air blower, what I think is a squirrel cage type. The 'cage' is made by Airflow Developements Ltd the motor by Brook Crompton. Both are uk companies, any other brits out here? It came from a kodak processing machine. Thing is I'm not a sparky, but I have jerry rigged a dimmer switch into it and it does control the speed of the 240v motor, but theres a spot just after half way round on the switch where the motor slows right down again then as you go by this 'dead' spot it jumps back up to full tilt. I thought if the motor wasn't compatible with the dimmer type switch it just wouldn't work? As a bonus it also has heater elements in the two 'barrels', it was basically an industrial hair dryer . I want to try and utilise them for preheating but dont want to fry them through ignorance so that'll have to wait Anyhow thanks for letting me ramble on. I look forward to hearing your ideas.