Mike Macartney

Thank you guys, your comments are very much appreciated, I am more frustrated than anything else. Not being able to accomplish anything that uses any physical work is so annoying. At least I still enjoy reading all your posts. Mike

Terry, enjoyed reading the above and seeing the photos. As I am unable now, to do anything in the workshop, I am trying to learn Fusion 360, trying being the operative word! They say 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' I think they might be correct. 🙂 Sorry Harm, for going 'off piste', but I could not resist it. Mike

Jan, I enjoyed and learnt a lot from the video you posted. This 3D printing seems to have come a long way in short time. Mike

I have been plucking up courage to write this post for a week now. I have been told that I now have months, rather than years left, before I pass away, due to my breathing difficulties. After chatting it over with Jane, we would like to find somebody to buy the Humberette who will continue the restoration and enjoy the car when it is finished. I have spent far more on the Humberette than it is worth and would be contented to sell the Humberette to a suitable person at a realist price. Of course all the details and photos of the restoration are documented here. I would like to thank all on this forum who have helped me. I could post a copy of spend spreadsheet if anybody would like to see it. Cheers for now, Mike.

They are traditional wooden patterns made by a retired pattern maker. He liked to bet on the horse racing that was televised on Saturday afternoons. To give him money to bet with, he did some pattern making for a few vehicle enthusiasts. I presume his gambling was not as successful as his pattern making!

Have I been stupid with my having castings made for my early Perks & Birch and Singer Motor wheels? On the very early 1899 design, the barrel was actually missing, so I had no choice but to have one cast. The pattern making, for both barrels, was the most expensive part (I seem to remember about £900). The actual casting of the barrels was around £100 (it may have been less). Should I have had more castings cast at the time and had them crack tested? To date, most of the machining has been completed on the early barrel (right in the photo) before I got waylaid by restoring some cars that just happened to turn up. The patterns and castings for my early motor wheel engines.

Plus, the chance of the parcel going missing, which is sometimes a possibility. I look forward to reading about and seeing photos of the process.

Roger, I have tried looking up what size a quarter dollar is, with no success, please can you let me know the diameter to give me some idea of the size of the chassis? I am still finding your work amazing and enjoyable to read your progress. Mike

You have just solved the mystery for me as well! As my Mitchell & Woodhouse lathe does not have 'tumble gears', one of the many levers must make the must saddle movement change direction. Your ACME thread looks absolutely brilliant.

Ted, it is great to read something like your act of kindness in these days of what, sometimes seems like worldwide doom and despondency.

Harm, My father-in-law had a specialist welding and hard facing company. When I had a car with a cracked cast iron engine block, he gave me some arc welding rods that were, I believe, phosphor bronze, he sold them mainly for building up ships propeller blades. They worked a treat on my cracked 4-cylinder engine block, without any preheating. That was a long time ago in the 1970's. I will be interested to read suggestions by other followers of your post. Mike

Thank you Joe for explaining all that. I keep learning a lot from your posts. Masonite is another word I had not come across before. In the UK, Masonite seems to be known as 'hardboard' which know about. Since joining this forum, I have been amazed how many different words there are in American English for items and materials that I know in UK English. Since not being able to get to do any actual 'hands on' work in the workshop, I am attempting to learn 3D drawing on the computer with Fusion 360. At least it is keeping me amused and out of mischief.

Joe, just a question on the pattern making for your bracket. You do not mention anything about shrinkage? I had always assumed that when you made patterns for casting you have to use a pattern makers ruler, for the metal you are going to cast, to allow for the shrinkage. Is this only necessary on large castings?

Thanks John. Jane says "No problem".

As it is now June and I have not posted anything since 20th May, I thought it was about time to add a little about what I have. or have not, managed to do. No progress on the Humberette, I am sad to say, but I have cheered up no end and have been selling a few bits and bobs on eBay, but also buying a few, what I think, are bargains. Now that we have some warmer weather here in the UK I have been testing myself with short walks up the vegetable garden. Jane and Fay put one of our garden benches up the end so I can sit and rest, to get my breath back before I venture back to the house. Early last week I could only get a third of the way before having to lean against the greenhouse water butt to regain my breath. This week I am actually managing to to get to the bench, at least that's a bit of progress. If I progress a bit further, I may even manage to do a little in the workshop, but I am not going to push it at present as it is rather depressing when you try and find you can't.

At least, with all the rust blasted away, you can now see the areas of bodywork that you need to repair. Great to see you are moving forward fairly quickly.

Very impressive work on the body and interesting to see the progress you have made.

Maybe he got too Old! 😉

Roger, do you mind letting us know the other forums you publish on? Best regards Mike

Joe, a few years ago I bought a small set of 3/8" drive sockets that have square ends and magnets inside to hold threading taps. I am not sure of the make that I bought, but I must have thought they were a reasonable price, or I would not have bought them! Mike

r1lark and Jeff, I really loved your posts, they made me laugh and cheered me up no end. Jane and I don't think her sister would do the 'mechanical stuff' - Sorry 😊 Jane's mum was an artist and her dad an engineer. He had a small engineering company specialising in selling welding equipment and hard facing with Colmonoy and Stellite. During WWII they hard faced the arrester hooks for carrier borne aircraft. I am sure I have mentioned this before, Jane and I were in the same class at school from the age of 12 and started going out together when we were 16, we have known each other rather a long time.

Hi Mike, I'm still here! At last, I seem to be getting some help from the medical people rather than just issuing me with antibiotics and steroids. I got a phone call on Friday requesting the pleasure of my company at the Doctors surgery for an 'inspection'. This was the first time away from the house since 23rd May when the 'lock down' in the UK started.The Dr thought maybe my very bad breathing maybe caused by a heart problem. Yesterday, I had a 45-minute 'video call' from the community Matron, which was a new experience! The most annoying thing about it all is that I feel perfectly 'normal' when I am sitting down, but as soon as I get up and walk to the other side of the room I am fighting for breath. Since my last post, with photos, on the 2nd May, over 2-weeks ago, I do have a few photos that I have not posted. Not very interesting I'm sorry to say. They are of the handle I was making, which is still not finished! Drilled and tapped for the drive pegs. Note the Albrecht keyless drill chuck which I picked up on eBay. I am really pleased with it. To hold the steel plate horizontal in the milling vice I needed 2-sides to be parallel. I set the plate up to machine the 'lumpy bit' off. To the left of the vice is my new machinists level another eBay purchase. I then sold my old one on eBay and got more for it than I paid for the new one! Probably, not the easiest way to cut the plate, but at least it gives me a bit more practise with the Bridgeport milling machine. That will do. When it came to the drilling and tapping, I was not able to do this myself, Jane helped me with the drilling tapping and screwing in the bolts. It's not much fun feeling useless! Normally, I would have used a 1.00 mm cutting disc on an angle grinder to cut the shape out of the steel plate. As using the milling machine controls was something I could do, I used the bolts to hold the plate up from vice, and milled around the cardboard template. Drilled holes for bolting the plate to a 3/4" square steel handle . . . . . . . . and tapped them. Not a pretty sight! Needs a lot more work. Coated it in marking out blue and marked around the cardboard template with a scriber. I could not see the scribe marks so I needed a plan B. Plan B was using a white pen around the template. I now have to wait until I have enough 'puff' to enable me to grind off the excess metal. Dr phoned just now and told me that there is no problem with my heart, it is just my worn out lungs.

Jeff, my post "I think 46169 is nicer!?! 😀", was typed out rather 'tongue in cheek'. I am sure that whatever shade of green you choose it will look great. Excellent job with the bodywork.

That will be a long journey for you Harm! I believe that spraying the epoxy primer on my Humberette body, last year, was the 'last straw' for my lungs, even though I wore an inline air fed hood/mask. My breathing got a lot worse after that. Let that be a warning for others!

I think 46169 is nicer!?! 😀