Doxford Engine Works

[Punx0r]

Here's a little good old fashioned British industry

http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/guides/Wi ... ng_Process

Fascinating process IMO.

[tompinney]

Now that's a proper workshop

[1234dist]

Its almost to scale in a honda factory

[PJW]

Holy hell that is a real mans engine. Great post.

[paul888]

Great pics the amount of lathes in one photo !

[peteT16]

Good find, I'd say that dates from the 50s or 60s,

Ear defenders, eye protection, nah we don't need any of that nonsense

[Din]

Those are really interesting pictures, right up my street

[Din]

Good find, I'd say that dates from the 50s or 60s,

It says 1957/58

[peteT16]

should have read more carefully

[Pinkie15]

Reminds me of the photos in one of my grandad's school award books; Largest Ships of the World (author F Wilson), written mid to late 20s; places like H&W, the Glasgow shipyards etc...

[Punx0r]

I was surprised how easy they make it look. Like the amazingly neat finish in flame cutting the crank webs.

Bother knows what holds the crank together!

[Quiche81]

Wow... Excellent find, I love pictures of "How we used to do it". Watching old school masters not using
all this CNC stuff we have nowadays !

[stefaclese]

Bother knows what holds the crank together!

My thoughts exactly! Looks like pins in some of the photos, guessing some sort of fitment that stops rotation/keeps it all lined up when slotted together?

[Punx0r]

It turns out all the crank components are an interference fit (heat the crank webs)

An article detailing the repair of a Doxford crank that slipped after hydrolocking:

http://www.dieselduck.ca/historical/01% ... 0Rover.pdf

The summary is 4 tons of liquid nitrogen to cool the crank pin and a 100ton hydraulic jack to push it back into alignment

[mike88]

Looks amazing, I MUCH prefer this method to the modern equivalent.

[stefaclese]

Looks amazing, I MUCH prefer this method to the modern equivalent.

Doesn't work with modern economics though for a start, and then there are the limitations in accuracy...

That said its pretty amazing what can be achieved without modern technology. Concord springs to mind straight away, or to go back even further the SS Great Eastern. Can't beat a bit of Brunel!

Give me wasteful tax payer spending in the name of science and technology on stuff like that over lining the pockets of a select few anyday! The closest we have to a flagship national technology project type thing now is a pair of aircraft carriers that will get Yank planes a decade later and HS2, and even that will probably use German trains! Though thinking about it I saw some documentaries on the new battleships and stealth submarines the Navy are getting and it seemed pretty impressive, even with most of the engineering classified lol.

[Punx0r]

Was that the "How to Build A..." series on the BBC?

Regarding Concorde, everyone knows it cost an inordinate sum, but apparently it was only 50% over budget.

That's bad in terms of counting, but pretty good by the unusual standard of government projects.

[stefaclese]

The Navy stuff? That was channel 4 on 4OD iirc. Certainly the ship one, not sure about the submarine. EDIT: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/buil ... arship/4od but no mention of the submarine one, so that could well have been on the beeb. I'm sure there will be one of the new aircraft carriers when the first one is launched, that should make for quite an interesting documentary. Made in sections in Portsmouth or somewhere on the South Coast, which are floated on a barge and pulled up North to be assembled aren't they?

Indeed that figure would certainly put things like Railtrack/Network Rail to shame!, and more to the point something like that is a good way of showing what Britain (and I suppose France in that particular case) can do in terms of attracting investment if done the right way with the right kinds of projects. Doesn't even have to be something physical to export, making money with licenses can be pretty lucrative especially when the cost of making something is as high as it is here.

Pity Cameron isn't remotely serious about getting high-tech British manufacturing and research up and running on a larger scale. While PFI is still a government favourite I don't see the over-spending on such things getting any better, more so with all the cuts and expensive re-organisations of government agencies and facilities (speaking with direct experience here) wasting funds. I suppose its a throw-back from the Cold War days when Britain was trying to keep up with the Yanks but with nowhere near as much money (and Nazi war criminals) to do it with! Its an unusual standard because its an unusual situation tbh.

[Punx0r]

Aye, that's the program

Concorde was a technological triumph, but not a commercial success, so it depends on your priorities, really. The Americans, showing uncharacteristic conservatism, went for the pedestrian jumbo jets and got minted.

Cameron (and others in the coalition) have made the right noises about manufacturing and technology, but I couldn't name an example of anything significant that has actually been done. Then again, I can't think of many things myself (apart from an overhaul of the education system). Any ideas?

[Pinkie15]

Concorde was a technological triumph, but not a commercial success, so it depends on your priorities, really. The Americans, showing uncharacteristic conservatism, went for the pedestrian jumbo jets and got minted.

Sadly, as with many things, the US airlines, etc.. adopted their partisan "not made here syndrome", so wouldn't touch it, expecting something better to come out of Boeing or McDonnel Douglas.

Concorde was also one of the first victims of the fledgling US environmental movement, vaguely recall they claimed it would destroy the atmosphere and sonic booms would end the world (or some such nonsense).

I think eventually contracts were agreed (maybe even signed) with Pan Am and TWA just months before the oil crisis struck. The rest is history...

[Punx0r]

Yep, a sat twist of fate.

I doubt it would have been much use for domestic US flight. IIRC it was only permitted to engage VTEC over the ocean.

The anecdote about solving the environmental/think-of-the-children issues is a charming one. Supposedly the beauty of the plane literally silenced the objectors who gathered to witness the official noise tests.

IIRC there was a little "creativity" by the crew and it passed the noise tests without problem.

[stefaclese]

I don't think denying Sheffield Forgemasters' loan was the right kind of noise

As for those hypocritical moronic middle class yank hippies and Concorde, they obviously didn't know any simple maths. While waiting for one of 20 Concordes ever built to land/take off, how many gas-guzzling jumbos or DC10's with their black smoke trails would have passed them by?

[Punx0r]

Ah, yes. I remember you mentioning Forgemasters now.