Balancing a coin on your Gardner.

[jenevers 58]

My old ListerJP4 was so smooth that I could balance a 50p coin on the cylinder head covers, when the engine was running. Not so with my 4LW 😐.  What about your engine?

[The Gravy Boater 89]

Probably not a 50p coin, but if you've got a gold bar lying around I could borrow...

[dor 760]

Have you tried superglue?

[dmr 1368]

Any engine is going to have very little vibration if its rigidly bolted to 20 tons of boat. I suppose I should say almost any any engine as big old single cylinder Bollinder (or Kelvin) is a bit different. Vertical forcing is dictated by piston mass and engine plus boat mass so the idea that engines from some manufacturers are extra smooth is a bit of a myth.  I suspect the Lister had heavier pistons than the Gardner so my theoretical explanation has just fallen flat on its face 😀t. Suspect the Lister had a heavier block though. Did you compare at similar engine speeds?

 

.................Dave

[mark99 2018]

2lw .... can put a pound coin on its edge on rocker cover and it does not move. With engine running obvs. Little party trick for gongoozlers.

Edited August 16, 2020 by mark99

[dmr 1368]

13 minutes ago, mark99 said:

2lw .... can put a pound coin on its edge on rocker cover and it does not move. With engine running obvs. Little party trick for gongoozlers.

It even works with a Beta JD3 😀

[Man 'o Kent 47]

A threepenny bit is the denomination of choice on a Moto Rumi.

[dmr 1368]

26 minutes ago, Man 'o Kent said:

A threepenny bit is the denomination of choice on a Moto Rumi.

Surely you can only expect a theepenny bit to stand up on a British engine 😀

[Gardner 1]

I think it all relies on the correct fitting of the engine. Until recently, I had a Gardner 2L2 & a pound coin balanced on the rocker covers would remain perfectly still throughout the entire Rev range, but the boat I had prior to this was fitted with a Kelvin J2 & you wouldn’t have balanced a can of coke on that. I know they were different engines, but one was fitted well, the other wasn’t. 

[Man 'o Kent 47]

13 hours ago, dmr said:

Surely you can only expect a theepenny bit to stand up on a British engine 😀

I seem to remember that the Vincent Comet was described as the "vibrationless single" but I never got around to trying a thrupenny bit on mine

The italians don't do a 12 sided coin as far as I know so it's Hobson's choice!

[dmr 1368]

24 minutes ago, Man 'o Kent said:

I seem to remember that the Vincent Comet was described as the "vibrationless single" but I never got around to trying a thrupenny bit on mine

The italians don't do a 12 sided coin as far as I know so it's Hobson's choice!

Ill have to investigate that, its not easy to make a vibration free single. I watched an old boat with a Bolinder go past and I could see the entire back of the boat bobbing up and down. Ive also driven a boat with a Kelvin K1 and you can just see the boat rock with the torque reaction to the engine firing.

 

..................Dave

[Athy 901]

Do the bearers have an effect? Our engine (2LW) is bolted down on (or perhaps through) solid oak bearers, which the builder (Mel Davis) told us would reduce vibration compared with an engine bolted directly to metal. It looks very firm when running, though I have not yet tried balancing a coin on it.

[koukouvagia 241]

I could certainly do this on my K2 Kelvin.  Mind you, it had some pretty substantial steelwork supporting it.   

It was bolted directly onto the steel bearers.

 

Somewhere I've got a video but I can't for the life of me find it!

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by koukouvagia

[TheBiscuits 3775]

I thought the trouble with old engines was having any coins left after you have had to pay to fix them.

 

Maybe the engine ignores 50p and £1 coins because it's only interested in £20 and £50 notes! 

 

[dmr 1368]

4 hours ago, Athy said:

Do the bearers have an effect? Our engine (2LW) is bolted down on (or perhaps through) solid oak bearers, which the builder (Mel Davis) told us would reduce vibration compared with an engine bolted directly to metal. It looks very firm when running, though I have not yet tried balancing a coin on it.

My educated guess is that if done properly timber bearers might reduce some of the higher frequency vibration but are unlikely to improve the low frequency stuff, and its likely the low frequency stuff that makes the 50p/pound/thrupence fall over.

 

.................Dave

[Nightwatch 1057]

I balanced a pound coin on my Barrus Shire. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it disappeared when i started it.

[PeterG 9]

 

On 17/08/2020 at 11:01, Athy said:

Do the bearers have an effect? Our engine (2LW) is bolted down on (or perhaps through) solid oak bearers, which the builder (Mel Davis) told us would reduce vibration compared with an engine bolted directly to metal. It looks very firm when running, though I have not yet tried balancing a coin on it.

Mine also has solid oak bearers and runs smoothly.  It is worth checking that all of the bolts are still tight of course.  Initally one of my injectors was not 100% but after getting all three reconditioned smoothness returned.

[Dartagnan 71]

When I first bought my boat I was able to balance a coin on the rocker cover of my 3L2 whilst running.  With my memory I can’t remember what coin it was though, probably a 50p😁

[David Mack 1584]

On 17/08/2020 at 10:49, dmr said:

Ill have to investigate that, its not easy to make a vibration free single. I watched an old boat with a Bolinder go past and I could see the entire back of the boat bobbing up and down. Ive also driven a boat with a Kelvin K1 and you can just see the boat rock with the torque reaction to the engine firing.

 

..................Dave

Stand on the back of an unconverted wooden boat with a bolinder and at certain speeds you can see torsional waves running down the length of the boat!

[dmr 1368]

9 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Stand on the back of an unconverted wooden boat with a bolinder and at certain speeds you can see torsional waves running down the length of the boat!

I bet. In engineer speak an unconverted boat is an "open channel" which is famed for torsional weakness, though a closed box like modern narrowboats is not much better. We have the stove, most furniture, the bathroom/holding tank and bed/underbed storage all on the same side of the boat. Trim is restored by having the engine offset to the other side with the battery bank behind it. I do wonder how much static twist this has put into the shell.

 

...............Dave 

[Tracy D'arth 565]

Our gardener drinks scotch and if I tried to balance less than £20 on him he would leave. Oh, wrong again 🤔

[bagginz 72]

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8thTbcDrfA/ 

 

Click the small speaker icon at bottom right of video to turn the sound on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by bagginz

[Bee 2043]

I can balance any number of coins on my Beta. They stay there for ages but when I start the engine they all fall off.

[roland elsdon 980]

I find this all kinds of things in the tray under my engine but never money.

A recent find was a brass perpetual Calendar that expired in 1971...

[PhilR 62]

I can balance a 50p coin on the top of my SR2. It is the only part of the boat that doesn't vibrate when the engine is running! 

Edited October 24, 2020 by PhilR
typo