forum issues and need for upgrade

[mobile_bob]

as you all probably already know we have had numerous issues with the forum
everything from hosting, to lost posts, to inability to get a recent backup, to name a few

i have made contact with the member of the "simplemachines" forum, those guys live and breathe the
software/platform that our forum is based on.

the version we are using is way past its "sell by" date and it is not an easy task to make the upgrade to
a modern version, also i am told that the host we are using is not well regarded for customer support.

so anyway, i have a couple of folks that relate to me that they would be willing to do the upgrade and migrate
the forum over to a new host server.

i am working to get this resolved, and also am going to see if i can get an archive going as well.

your continued patience is appreciated guys

as most of you also probably have figured out, this forum makes no one a single penny, we don't do advertizing
as i despise pop-ups and banners cluttering things up.

my hope is to get these problems resolved, get things running smoothly again, and maybe after all that we can plot a future
for this forum.

having said that, i am concerned with the state of our political climate, both here in the usa and abroad, where everyone is all nutted up
about carbon and global warming (climate change) and the affect all this has had since '06 with the banning of new engines at least here in the states (maybe elsewhere too?) and the rather short supply of used engine's. 

all this makes for a very difficult hill to climb as a forum trying to attract new guys/gals, as my thinking is reading all this and not being able to find
an engine has to be frustrating as hell.

so maybe we have to rethink the prime mover and figure out how best to work with what we can get our hands on readily?  i don't know!

it might be that we have to redirect our attention toward honda's and the clones? or we sit down and figure out how to build an engine from the ground up, make the patterns, get the pieces cast, machined and then maybe use injection parts, from china/india or where ever?

maybe we can make a work around the epa as these would be viewed as hobby engine's and not finished/manufactured non-compliant engines?

it might be quite a hurdle?  then again with enough folks working on individual bits and pieces, maybe it is doable?

we only need to look back on the wright brothers and them building a 4 cyl aluminum engine for their airplane?  they seemed to pull it off!

maybe we can do a single cylinder? use chinese cyl kits, indian injection systems, and leaving the block and head castings, and flywheels for us to pattern and have cast?

years ago, perhaps 25 now, i was looking to get a small engine lathe bed cast, i went to atlas foundry in tacoma washington, they told me to make a pattern, bring it in and their pattern guy would look it over and make the needed mods, and they would cast it at the end of their regular casting run... it was to be a fairly large casting, nearly as complex as it had an integral head stock, and the cost was 300 dollars for the first one, if i wanted 3 copies they would cast them for 375dollars total,  or 125 dollars each.  oh yes lest i forget they were to be cast from cast steel so they would be tough as hell, much more unbreakable than grey iron and if you needed to weld onto a casting it was a straight forward proposition.

they showed me some casting they had done for other small one off guys, and the quality of work was certainly much higher than indian castings.

something to think about? 

sorry for the digression.  its been a while i guess

[mike90045]

I'm in for sharing some of the forum costs if you need it.   Such a resource to have at hand.


And for castings, is the foundry still in business and willing to do micro runs of jumbo parts ? That would be sweet, to find some common big bore
engine, with a suitable piston and con rod that matches close enough to a 6/1 crank  ( are most of the 6/1 cranks from india serviceable )  and cast something
that emulates the GM90 case that could be sleeved for the final bore.  Are import heads decent enough, or would getting those cast be required ?

Would the foundry do the drilling and machining too, or would that have to be set up locally ?

[mobile_bob]

atlas foundry, at the time, did nothing but the castings, and rough grinding to remove the flashings

but their finished product really looked quite good,

i would assume that one would need to either have the ability to machine or find a shop to do the machining
to finish the castings as needed.

that is where really good quality forms and good castings, on top of excellent design to limit the amount of machining would be really important to keep the costs down.

i have a large old leblond lathe, i think it will swing either 17" or 19" i can't remember, it also came with some large boring bars and the slide has a set of T slots so that a case could be bolted down and the various bores machined.

i also have a brown and sharp horizonal milling machine, large enough to do anything up to the physical size of any of the big changfa's or a 6/1... i have some tooling for the mill, probably enough to do the milling necessary.

my thinking is there are probably many such machines and more that other members either have, know someone who has them, or can get their grubby mitts on them?

it is possible i would think to for instance have a guy do the rough machining, get the things done to maybe 95%
finished.  maybe that is as close of tolerance as he can hold and do well.

then another guy can do part or all of the finish machining to get the thing to spec's.

under no delusions here, i don't think a group of guys could build an engine for less than an indian or chinaman can produce one, hard to build from parts and local made castings a 6-8hp engine for anywhere near the price the 6/1 and the changfa's were selling for when we could get them.... however

maybe it cold be done for around a grand? maybe a bit less depending on how much a group can do themselves?

it would certainly be a labor of love for those that like to get their hands greasy!

or we could try the "shotgun news" approach?

recalling back in the 80's and maybe beyond, i didn't follow the copy after about '85

one could buy individual parts to build any gun he wanted, and there were a lot of illegal guns assembled from parts from
many different sources...  sort of like an AR-15 being available as parts with an 80% machined receiver, which left the builder with having to finish the machine work on the receiver, purchase the barrel, upper, trigger group etc to assemble a functioning AR.

there has to be a way to do what we would like to do, as a hobby engine

how is it that GM, Ford, Dodge can sell crate engines, that have in some cases over 500cu/in displacement, huge carburators, cammed for hp, etc that have no way on earth of every being able to pass emissions?  those engines are viewed as hobby engines, and somehow they are excluded from emission testing, at least federally if not in california.

i know i can order a s-175 or s-195 complete head assembly form china, as well as every other internal and external part
what i don't know is if one could order a crankcase?  my bet is there is a guy or three in china that would be happy to sell finished crankcases.

the epa states that the importation of parts is ok,

and is the epa going to go out and track down every guy in every garage to see if he has assembled an engine?  i doubt it very much, nor are the customs folks going to have any idea what a crankcase is or what it will be used for.

where the epa is concerned (as should the average guy) is with selling engines... i think if you build engines to sell you will likely have issues with epa certification of those engines.

similarly you can build a gun or several guns, and not be at issue with the ATF, it is when you set out to sell one that you get into trouble.  (with certain exceptions like those with the "machine" prefix)

lots to think about, and discuss

bob g

[mobile_bob]

just about the time i start talking about upgrades to the forum it goes down!

got it sorted out again, so maybe it will stay up long enough to get the upgrading done?

we shall see.