Member postings for Howi

DHL are fantastic for fast delivery from anywhere in the world, import charges are a major factor when determining whether to use them or not.

Price you are charged is price of goods + postage. only really worth it if total you pay would be less than uk purchase.

China post is quite quick these days + very little chance of paying import duty/fees, one should always factor it in though, just in case.

language is defined by common usage so will inevitably become corrupted as a lot of common words of today are, simples init like.

I was a delivery lad for the local butcher, 5 of us intotal, not bad for a small shop, my round needed a delivery bike with the basket on front, oh. happy days. Also worked in the shop on school holidays.

I also had two paper rounds, morniung and evening covering two areas, I soon cottoned on to using the butcher delivery bike to carry the poapers on the long round.

and for a short while a grocery delivery round, Alan Sugar in the making - don't know what went wrong!!!!!

Started real work at 17 straight from school as an apprentice for BT, and the rest is all history.

Tell the kids today and they don't believe you, (enter Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch).

leave school, go to Uni, expect a management job on 30K+ that they have been promised, oh! the irony

You are probably at the end of contract, hence the price rise, there should be NO price rises during contract period.

TalkTalk have had plenty of good deals, don't know what package you are on but I am on Faster Fibre @ £23.50 per month, which must be one of the cheapest, current offer is £25.50 but you get Amazon Prime for a year as well.

I have not paid full price since moving onto Fibre when it was first available.

Edited By Howi on 05/09/2020 09:31:18

Grizzly bear, regarding BT stopping the email service, you may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick, a number of providers allowed you to continue using your email address after transfering to another provider. the proposal is to stop that service or charge for it. i have a seperate email account to which i have transfered most of my contacts so that if i decide to change service provider i can ditch the old email.

Not that i am considering moving my internet provider any day soon, despite still being bottom of the league table I personally cannot fault TalkTalk for their prices and service. i have been able to switch contracts to a much cheaper option for the same or bettewr service for the past 5 years.( the latest change was affected by covid19 and had to threaten them with Ofcom to get them moving, they did eventually respond and sorted it out)

Not many TalkTalk customers realise, provided you have been on a contract for at least one month, that you can change to an advertised better/cheaper offer. you get a new cointract start date and no price rises during that new contract period. You might have to be persistant, but if I can do it anyone can.

it all stems from when Dido Harding was in charge when they had two data breaches, it was to stem the tide of customners leaving.

It is like changing your gas/elec supplier, home/car insurance etc on a regular basis to get the best prices (not always the cheapest!!). If you are not proactive it will cost you a lot more for the same.

registering for TPS sorted most scam calls for me, the few that do now get through allow me to vent my spleen in a tirade of expletifs.

don't see the point of spending money oin trying to eliminate them, as BT says, almost impossible to stop completely and usually results in important calls not getting through.

Had a call recently from the hospital that I had been ignoring as no number shown, they were contacting me about a colonoscopy that was due ( actually 6 months late!).

I said "A Colonoscopy? you can stick that where the sun don't shine!"

Yes! she said, that's the general idea..........

Edited By Howi on 27/08/2020 09:29:26

It is likely the first weapon was the club followed by a cutting weapon such as an axe or knife, then the spear, then the bow for greater range and accuracy. Australia is somewhat a special case as they seemed to not get past the spear phase but went on to develop the more sophisticated boomerang.

I have had mabout ity AMADEAL 210 for 8 years now, I wrote an article in Model Engineers Workshop about it (two articles in fact). It was bought at a time when most of the ubiquetous mini lathes needed a lot of fettling to get them up to spec.

The 210 worked straight out of the box and is slightly larger and heavier than the normal 3 1/2 inch mini lathe while still managable in a small workshoip. In my 8 years of ownership I have not had any trouble whatsoever.

As for Amadeal, all I can say as a satisfied customer, I have had no problems at all, I have bought extra bits for the 210 such as steadies, faceplate, quick change tool holder and a rotary table, all from Amadeal and hasve been more than happy with my purchase. Others may have different views, I can only say as I find.

As for other suppliers, Arceuro are up there with the best, I got my SX2P mini mill from them + lots of tooling etc and their service is second to non.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I bought my lathe and most mini lathes and up tend to be of a lot better quality, My 210 came with a quality control spec sheet, how much that can be relied on is anyones guess but I have no reason to doubt it's authenticity.

All I can say is I am more than satisfied with my purchases from AMADEAL, what more can I say.

Edited By Howi on 01/07/2020 09:36:12

have you considered taking up knitting?

The Hemmingway kit is another good design and a nice machining exercise, uses a cone clutch and sliding die holder with interchangable heads for different size dies.

TGA is not uncommon, and while the person suffering the condition has no recollection, it can be quite perplexing to say the least for their nearest and dearest.

My wife and I were on holiday on Majorca (Soller actually) when she had a bit of a melt down. All the symptoms point to a stroke. She was taken to a local clinic who also thought it was a stroke but didn't say, only that she would be transfered to a major hospital in Palma.. Now! bearing in mind that we were due to fly back the next day I was getting just a little worried.The hospitals preliminary diagnosis was a stroke and that we would be going knowhere.To me, watching here reactions, while it looked like a stroke, there were no indications of left/right handed problems usually associated with stroikes, just a loss of short term memory. She had all the tests the hospital could do before they came to the same conclusion as me, Not a stroke but TGA (never heard of it before then). Recovery is very quick and the likelyhood of it ever occuring again is very small. It was probably brought on by heat and dehydration and is the body's defence system protecting the major parts of the brain inc long term memory. Overall , quite an experience for me, not her, as she has no recollection. This is where travel insurance comes in handy, although I had to shout and screem at them to get some action, it all worked out in the end.

She was discharged from the hospital in Palma with a full set of medical notes on a CD (this was a private hospital) to give to her GP.

Certainly made for an interesting holiday.

les, i am the same age as you, got my lathe and mill on retirement, never looked back. I still have other hobies/interests to spend my meagre pension on such as archery (25 years), amateur radio (40+ years), photography (50+ years), electronics from school days and compouters from the begining.

my boys have been promised the house between them, if there is any money left they can share that between them, just don't bank on it. As for my gear/equipment/junk they should have the nouse to know how to get rid of it, it will no longer be my responsibility.

We were spending their inheritance on holidays/cruises etrc which they know about. They are all in good jobs, earning far more than i ever did so they should have no need for it.

why do we get hung up on leaving the kids everything we have worked hard for?

get it spent mate, enjoy yourself whether you create somthing wonderful or just add to the scrap bin, who cares!

Don't put yourself down, 72 isn't old (not in my eyes anyway), you could have 10,20 or even 30 years to go yet, don't sell yourself short.

i intend to draw my pensions as long as i can

it is just a fact of life these days. Nothing is built to last because there is no profit in it.!

BUT! is that because of the customer or the manufacturer???

lets take an iphone, latest model retailing at £1000, how long will it be in service? probably no more than 5 years.

Aren't manufacturers giving consumers what they want?

As for Clive Sinclair, yes! I remember the transistors, MAT100 and MAT101 but they were not cheap compared to OC71 etc but suposedly better spec.

you can see where my pocket money went! We had a local shop in Sheffield called Bardwells selling Army surplus kit and components. Throat mikes and such were cheap and plentiful.

oh! those were the days - long gone now!

i have been buying lots of stuff of fleabay, nothing expensive, mainly small value items because I can't get this stuff locally anymore. I have noiticed a significant delay in receiving items, building up over the last couple of weeks.

Fortunately you get an indication of when items are posted so you can track the delay.

Some items get through faily quickly others are taking a lot more than a week from posting, even stuff from china was getting through quicker than that.

Some suppliers are are having to email customers saying it is not their fault.

I simpathise with Ketan, they do their best to get stuff out in the quickest time possible only to find the postal sytem failing at the seams.

Still! keep your chin up people, this is where those who have built up reasonable stocks of material are finding it has paid off, my meagre stock is dwindling fast.

have a nice day folks.

have a look at Bengs model kits, they have steam, IC and hot air engine kits which make up into very nice models.

If you go for steam, you DO NOT need a boiler, you can run them on compressed air, much cheaper and a lot less mess.

screwfix also have a delivery option, ordered on friday, could have had it delivered on Sat but chose Mon. only added £5 to bill. it was on my doorstep by 0900. well packaged - great service.

DIY is essentiual if it keeps you from going doolally - i needed to get a 2mtr arial up at rooftop level, needed brackets, clamps etc - so! why not? it put no one in harms way (apart from me up a ladder at my age!). it did not involve being near anyone else.

i think some people take the essential/non essential business a little too far? only my opinion though.

it was Barnier wot done it, aided initially by the Chinese of course.

The Americans just didn't get it, (they never do!) but they have it now........

wish Boris well

stay safe folks, especially us old Gits.

have you looked on Bengs website? there are build sequences (with pictures) for most of the models Bengs does.

try this link https://www.bengs-modellbau.de/magazin/ you might need to use google translate.

Buying lots of bits and pieces on ebay, post office delivery seems quicker at the moment, no problems as of now.

As I am now at home 24/7 apart from the daily constitutional in the morning, being in for delivery is no problem.

even had stuff from China!!!!!

put a strap on it and you have the trendiest watch going, plus you will be able to tell the time to the nearest millimeter.