Monarch Lathes Forum Proposed Subject Organization

[peterh5322]

I thought I would hoist this flag and see if anyone salutes it:

Class Ia - Electrical

1. AC section

a. Single contactor, as on 10EE, 13EE and EE1000, for example

b. Dual, reversing contactor, as on most other models

2. DC section (EE and derivatives)

a. Round and Square Dial Reliance V-S (Ward-Leonard System)

b. Works in a Drawer drive (10EE)

c. Electronic Field Ward-Leonard System (13EE)

d. Three-phase version of WiaD (EE1000)

e. Modular drive

f. "Monarch Sidney" regenerative braking drive

g. Retrofit dc drives (Imperial, Joliet, etcetera)

h. Factory-made VFD drive

i. Owner-built VFD drive

Class Ib - Mechanical

a. The 10EE, Round Dial, Square Dial and Manufacturing

b. Round Dual Sunstrand drive

c. Round Dial metric conversion

d. Square Dial metric conversion

e. Manufacturing ELS (Electronic Lead Screw) conversion (future)

Class II - Mechanical

The lathes that 'won the war' such as the CK, CW, CY, for example

Class III - Mechanical

The 'cold war' machines of the Series 50, 60, 61, 610, 612, 62, Model K, for example

Class IV - Mechanical

The Mdl M, N, NN and Series 80/90

Class V - Mechanical

13EE, EE1000, EC, and atypical attachments like the variator, air-tracer, Keller, for example

 

[blackboat]

I got no problem with it. Seems the bulk of it would be centered around 10EE, mg,WiaD & modular. The rest will be much less visited sections (assuming your going to break down Monarch Forum int sub-forums, like the main PM page.

Could be helpful for noobies when they're told to read thru older posts if it was grouped by species.

Rob

 

[DaveE907]

Peter, it's not clear to me what your question is. Are you proposing an index to previous posts or a category to go to for a new post? A large number of the legacy posts on this forum have ranged far away from the original post's title but yielded valuable information upon reading through a thread. Would this catagorization lose the free wheeling sharing that has been apparent and useful previously? "Search" well used will find anything relevant.

Seems to me that "Monarch" is already a small specialty subject. Dividing it further doesn't seem constructive.

 

[johnoder]

A first question to answer is does this forum support subs? Not much dividing up can be done without subs.

 

[WILLEO6709]

sounds too complex to me....I like seeing everything, then the choice to read it or not. sometimes reducing traffic via subforums is a bad thing.

 

[Engine Room Artificer]

As an interested nosey parker, where would one post if you didn't know what you had but it just said Monarch on the name plate?

My personal opinion would be to try maintain the widest possible readership for all postings, promote as accurate as possible topic labels and let members decide what interests them. Oh and lots of pictures too!

Possibly my first post on the Monarch area, I don't want to ruffle feathers but I read almost everything on here and thought I'd add my £0.01.

Al

 

[Toms Wheels]

I would think that a small number of stickies with items like wiring diagrams etc. Or an descriptive posts such as installing a AC motor and VFD. If it was broken into sub forums, it be like going to a library for non-fiction, then having to drive to another library for fiction, and another for reference, it would lose the interest of the group.

This is not meant to be only a library, the collective minds of the group far exceeds the sum of the members knowledge by itself.

 

[peterh5322]

Breaking the Forum down into many sub-Forums was not my intent.

The machines in many cases are so similar, although not identical, that what was posted about a model XX could be useful to someone with a model YY. After all, C. Bickel designed several of the machine mechanicals while C. Greene designed several of the machine electricals and drives.

But then one must know one has a model XX, and that's not always clear.

I suppose I was looking for a set of common eye-catchers which could be prefixed to one's title, to more easily catch the eyes of those with an interest in, or experience with, a certain model, without one having to scan the entire message.

 

[dirty old man]

Peter, I gotta say that I like the Monarch forum as it is, only thing is, I have a CW, and tend to read only what is posted about it and the CK&CY machines. I'm sure I miss some good info doing this when a pearl of wisdom about my CW is posted in a thread about EEs.
Sorta wish folks would find a way to seperate the two from the same thread as it's time consuming enough as it is ti read all the interesting stuff on PM evryday!
Dave

 

[jefferts]

My $0.02 worth is that Peter's idea would be very useful. Having spent a considerable amount of time trolling through the old posts looking for a specific piece of information a bit of card-cataloging would have been very useful. OTOH I sure learned a lot of random but useful information in the process. I suppose its a bit like the difference between roaming the stacks in a library and searching for a particular piece of information in a data base. Both are useful (although roaming the stacks is LOTS more fun!). In any case I see Peter's idea as an enhancement of the present forum without subtracting anything from its present highly useful format.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[carla]

Having a sort of 'card catalogue' to the various postings here, by subject, could indeed be useful, but someone would have to invest a lot of time in evaluating the postings for content and arranging them into suitable classifications.

Since the details of subject matter would sometimes change within a 'thread', and since its quite possible that some of the better 'gems of wisdom' here may seem 'concealed' in the various replies as this or that 'thread' evolved, cataloging the useful info here, whilst quite possible, would be quite a job.

Another thought comes to mind. This would be a seriously time-consuming project, to be sure, but what about having a couple of 'e-books' arising out of the material on this forum? I can think of four, as a start.

The idea of these would to 'walk' a 'newbie' through an understanding of the equipment and its function, with an especial emphasis on diagnosis and correction of problems, with full coverage of the safety issues regarding high voltage at various points in the drive components.

A large number of clear photos to identify every component, along with an explanation of the component's function in the operation of the drive, along with a 'translation' so to speak, of the diagrams in the works 'schematic', for those who are not electrical engineers, or electronic technicians, would do wonders to help EE owners understand their machines, and help enable them to correctly diagnose problems.

'EE motor-generator drives'

'Early EE vacuum-tube drives (WiaD)'

'EE module drives'

A general interest e-book for Monarch owners could be an explanation of the actual differences in dimensions and original equipment of the 'lettered' models, as denoted by the model letters (CK or CY, for example)

cheers

Carla

 

[beckley23]

Peter,
Are you thinking of "stickies"?
Harry

 

[peterh5322]

"Are you thinking of 'stickies'?"

My thinking was if the post could somehow be self-identifying as to topic, sub-topic, etcetera, it could be more easily seen by its first readers, and then moved to an appropriate "stickey" later on.

So, my thinking was two-fold: first, to reduce the "noise" for the focused reader, and second, to facilitate classifying/cataloging for the more general reader.

 

[BryanA]

Sounds good peter, like I said on another post I'd be happy to help where I can be helpful. Another site I look at "snipers hide" has an excellent sticky about long range shooting and is broken down into many subcategories with links such as optics, ammo, reading wind, range estimation, how to use a mil scope to estimate range, etc. That is the thread I had in mind when I mentioned a sticky message about lathes and think it is a good format. One thing that needs to be done with a sticky like that is it needs to be "locked" by a moderator so everyone isn't on there saying how great it is and braking it up.

Bryan

 

[blackboat]

OK, I get it a little better now. If the post icons could be changed or added to for this one particular forum, then that would give the tags to at least some general classes along the lines of the OP.

Trying to weed through the entire archive and classifying stuff gives me the willies just thinking about it.

Looks like we need a vbulletin expert to see what is actually possible.

Rob

PS I think the sticky idea has a lot of merit. I've been here fort a long time, had my CK for years, but with a new 10EE in hand I'm asking some questions like a noobie in my haste. I've refrained from asking a bunch more I until I search some, but it sure would be nice right now to have a sticky on the "Care and Feeding of Your MG Set".

 

[Steve in SoCal]

I was going to respond to this last night and I am glad I waited to see an explanation of the concept. I think the idea has merit however; as we all know a thread can and does take a winding road quite often. Some of the most interesting post here and on other forums are these topics that morph into something else. While not staying on topic they open up avenues of communication that jar the recollection or add insight to an issue or item. Quite often an unintended gem come from these posts. Having to maintain rigid standards of content would stifle this IMHO. I do think there are perhaps 25 or more threads that deserve status as classics; that is to say they could be sub-categorized in a sticky for reference.

Creating too rigid an environment is counter productive in my view. Having to decide on the correct slot to enter a topic can pigeon hole something in an area that was incorrect to begin with or change over the life of the thread due to unforeseen events. Categorizing topics after they have run there course is another thing entirely and would likely have the topic in more that one area. Using the search on the forums both old and new have been very productive for me in my quest to learn about XYZ system or find a common issue. Perhaps having a keyword glossary for searches is all that is needed. I am not against change but I want to change for the better and not just to carve up the forum into little fifedoms. I don't have a need for a model 62 or 1000EE but I do enjoy reading about them.

This is one of the most active forums here and we have done a remarkable job in being civil and providing information to novice and old hands alike. The wealth of knowledge and insight about these fine machines is amazing, I am afraid that the spontaneity will diminish if this become a dry clinical forum.

Steve.

 

[MEF]

I like any idea that would make this space easier to use.

I don't know if these type of forums allow you to add subject tags when you post like I see on a lot of blogs, but it does make for easier searching.

The trick may be on how to make the tags short and sweet. Easy to remember, easy to type.
You don't want to take up the whole subject line with the descriptive tag.

I like the idea - it just depends on how you are able to implement it.

Mark

 

[j king]

sounds good to me Peter.

 

[single phase]

Class III is the best!

 

[peterh5322]

After reading the responses to this thread, and the few which were sent by PM, is seems that the best approach would be to encourage the use of the "Search" facility, especially including the "Advanced Search" facility, and wherever possible including in our posts keywords upon which the search can key.

Identifying and using a uniform set of keywords, wherever possible, will greatly facilitate the use of these already available searching facilities.

In that specific respect, perhaps what we need is a "Stickey" of keywords, expanded as necessary.

For example, keywords which may apply to a 10EE drive system could include:

Sunstrand, Reliance, Reliance V-S, M-G [ same as Reliance and Reliance V-S ] , WiaD, Works in a Drawer, Modular, Module, JIC Cabinet, Tube, C16J, 5665, 3C23, EL1C, C3J, Grid Transformer, Anode Transformer, Filament Transformer, Regenerative, SCR, Monarch VFD and User VFD,

and possibly others.

When a search is successful, the selected keyword(s) will be highlighted in the referenced posts, as, for example:

Reliance V-S and M-G.

Comments?