Superpants
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Posts posted by Superpants
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Ed- If you do go about playing round with higher DC voltages- be very careful. HV DC is dangerous, both if you shock yourself and in switching/ fusing. It can strike an arc which means you can carry on conducting current even with blown fuses and open relays if you use parts designed for low voltage DC or AC system. There are correctly rated parts out there which are expensive at present but work reliably and safely.
If you want to go down this route there are many other factors to consider to ensure the system is safe- I'd have a close look at http://www.diyelectriccar.com/ for a heads up as well as UNECE Reg 100.
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http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/headlights/model-8700-7-round.pdf
The manufacturer has a fair bit of data on their site. From the quality of some of their othe products I've seen these aren't cheap chinese tat..
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The 64 thousand dollar question has got to be how easy is it to clean off a cat ;o)
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This seems to be one of the most perpetual snake oil myths. Plenty of science here:
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On most alternators you will find a big difference in the output at idle and at a 'high idle'- the curve usually gives a much better output at around 1200 RPM.
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Sheet of Hardboard- Cheap, easily available and easily replaced when it gets too manky
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As far as I know, UK (and other European) brake cleaners haven't contained trichloroethylene for a pretty long time and in general you'd be hard pressed to find products with it in for home or light industrial use.
A typical commercial brake cleaner Wurth Brake cleaner certainly doesn't contain it.
Whilst we should be careful of what we subject ourselves to in our workshops, I wouldn't unduly worry either!!
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The one I've had to pieces in the past was a wabco defender unit and was definately a pump. The displacement was very small as it is really designed to top up the pressure lost when activating the ABS, not provide the full pressure to run the brake system.
The way I understood it was it could get to full pressure to apply the brakes, but this may take a bit of time to do- certainly wouldn't be instantaneous.
IIRC correctly you will only get a fault on the warning lights if you unplug the ECU for the time it is unplugged. The fault will clear when plugged back in.
There was some good PDF info on the wabco website about how all of this worked and how to wire it up.
The same basic block is used in a number of applications- there are a number of different ECU part numbers for different vehicles, and I too remember being told that traction control is implemented in some.
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If you like that, you'll probably like this too!!!
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Not got round to sorting it out for mine yet, but my dad had a cross drilling attachment (he built) that replaced the toolpost- This got used a suprising amount.
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For those of you who haven't already seen it, 'The Towing Code' gives a lot of useful information and is jointly published by the National Caravan Council, the Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club. It is a bit of a shameless plug as I was one of the authors on the previous issue, in a previous job.
The scientific basis for this was a series of studies and a couple of PHDs on towing dynamics from the University of Bath
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Although I haven't used the I-phone mounts, I have been very pleased with ram mounts parts, both in my own car and holding GPS and test kit in miltary vehicles.
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I realise that this may not be helpful to Ross, but if you need 2D CAD solidworks- DraftSight is a free download of software similar to Autocad, but seems to be very competant if you only need 2D requirements.
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The main fastener distributors in UK that I have check (Fabory, bossard) don't stock them- Your favourite fastener distributor generally uses Fabory...
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How did you find these??? If they can be done with the normal crimp tool then they have got to be a winner!
Whilst they might not be classed as conventional automotive suppliers, Both Farnell and RS carry a lot of very useful parts. I work in automotive electrical design and find if I only want a small quantity of parts they are often a good place to start looking. Both are also expanding their ranges of specific automotive connectors such as econoseals. The prices aren't necessairly keen, but with no minimum order(if you have an account), free next day delivery & online ordering they get used an awful lot.
Most of the retail automotive electrical suppliers are buying most of their stock (Rash generalisation of course) of these sorts of parts from one of three main trade suppliers. We have the catalogues for these at work, so if I can't find the part in one of these then it's time to look elsewhere...
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The right sort of tool for flags, is something like this;
When you have got back up off the floor, terminals like:
Can be crimped in a normal insulated crimp tool as they have the barrel out of the side.
What wire size is it you need to crimp- the uninsulated flags are available in larger sizes than those listed in VWP;
You can request samples from the tyco website
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G&M tools had full reels of raychem stuff very cheaply recently- the cheapest I have seen for a long time. Worth giving them a call.
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Much as it looks like a good solid & reliable tool, £350 sounds a bit steep- G&M are showing similar tools for quite a lot less (Assuming it's 3 phase).
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I have used cutting technologies A link For equipment front panels. They could do this with stainless. They have an £80 MOQ.
I have been looking for somewhere that can do similar but for aluminium- cut and engrave on sheet ally, but have been struggling. You generally need two different machines- the small machines engravers use generally can't cope with cutting metals, and the industrial cutting machines can't engrave, so to achieve this you need two machines. Problem is most companies specialise in one or the other techniques and not both.
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Whilst it sounds good on paper, their patent shows a similar level of protection after 500 hours salts spray test (which is a harsh test) to a range of other paints. I'd therefore be happy enough to use it, but wouldn't expect better results than another quality paint on a well prepared surface...
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I've used that tool as well- pretty good for the price- You will have to spend a lot more to get something significantly better.
And as Fridge says- VWP is a good source of terminals. They aren't necessarily cheap, but the quality is reliable.
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G&M are worth looking at as they do have some good machines, and compared to some of the other dealers aren't looking massively expensive. Si is however right about the service- I have had days when they are downright grumpy/ unhelpful, but conversley went down just before Christmas for some stuff and they were releatively friendly.
Home and workshop machinery are also worth looking at (sidcup way), but I believe are pricey for what they have.
I'd also call Leeside Tools in Yapton- they don't usually have anything big (mainly dealing in hand tools), but they are helpful, and generally service anything they get, so worth calling on the offchance.
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Whilst the Myford sevens are nice lathes, and there are plenty of parts, tools and books available about them they can be expensive compared to other options.
I have an ex college Viceroy which does the job nicely, for significantly less investment than a 7. Likewise the boxfords are pretty good machines. I'd take a close look at the machine though- some were well abused in schools and colleges, whilst others were hardly ever used.
If you have the space (and especially a 3 phase supply or invereter), I'd go for the biggest lathe you can fit- The bigger the lathe, the less desirable it is to model engineers, and conversley it should be relatively cheaper. Having something nice and solid can make a difference too. (That is unless you only ever want to turn very small things, but i'd guess that's not the case if you own a landrover
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The saws you see on Scrapheap challange are specific bits of kit and use an abrasive disk (much like an angle grinder). I have an aluminium blade that I have used in a wood saw before, but never been very keen on it as it sends swarf everywhere, and as the chop saw i have is not very well sealed I am concerned about causing the motor to fail by taking in chunks of swarf. Mine doesn't give a very tidy cut either.
You can get a cheapish abrasive cut off from clarkes, something like this;
I was lucky enough to pick up a 'non working' cold saw at last years capel 4x4 autojumble, like this:
They are fab! Great if you can find one.
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faster winch options
in International Forum
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Ed- Didn't want to do the provierbial teaching granny to suck eggs, so glad to hear that you have the appropriate skills and appreciation to work with these safely.
In a public forum anyone might be looking for ideas and not have your level of skill, so I thought a warning was pertinent. My day job is designing HV systems for production cars, so am exposed to these issues daily and hence am sensitive to the risks.