Member postings for Neil Wyatt

I've had an email saying "I believe this is something that both you and your readers would be interested in as we draw ever closer to Wimbledon 2023."

I thought it might be worth checking if readers would like to see this in MEW...

Good morning Neil,

In the build up to this year's Wimbledon tournament at the All-English Lawn Club, we pose the question: Is this the most fashion conscious event on the sporting calendar?

In order to find out, here at <redacted>, we take a look at:

• the association with the royal family
• the plethora of a-list attendees
• the collaboration with Ralph Lauren
• and the dress-code traditions that have made this annual event so incredibly unique

I've had a few ups and downs in the last couple of days.

A big positive is my workshop is finally almost fully operative! I ran up the mini-lathe and the SC4 yesterday, no problems, although a few little things to fiddle with here and there. The bandsaw amazed me by having the blade fitted and ready to cut - I could have sworn it fell off last year and I hadn't refitted it!

Resin printing is awesome, I have completed a Stug III at 1:35, based on a 1:56 model off Thingiverse. I designed a lot of upgrade parts (hatch, better spare track links, shurzen, jack, fire extinguisher etc.) and from a couple of feet away it stands up comparison with injection moulded kits.

One issue... don't make the tips of your supports too small, or you will end up having to waste resin running the clean function and peeling a messy layer off the bottom of the print vat with bits of failed print stuck to it

Last night I printed some mesh covers for the air intakes on it and my Tamiya Panzer III. I designed some with a finer mesh than an example of Thingiverse - 0.2mm with 0.5mm spacing and 0.2mm thick. It's printed beautifully in resin, but very flexible!

Also, a replacement battery cover for cheap digital calipers - works great. There are several designs on Thingiverse, select a caliper that looks like yours

The downside, I want to print some speaker surrounds on my Prusa i3 clone. Set it all up with a new nozzle and levelled it nicely.

First time a dodgy SD card and the print hung after about ten minutes.

Second time appeared to print OK, but I couldn't get the 'tree-style' support off without damaging it.

Third attempt and three quarters of the way through, the heater cartridge has gone open circuit.

In this oppressive heat, I really can't focus enough to replace it this afternoon. It will have to be with an old hot end, but I've ordered a couple of spares, at least they are cheap.

Other little stories... where have all my small allen keys gone? Where is my razor saw? Why have I got less room in a bigger workshop!

More news on the way...

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 22/06/2023 17:17:13

He's arranging a cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg.

I'll keep my opinions for a more appropriate social media channel.

Neil

It is strange. But there is something very visceral about being a witness to death even long after the event. Even seeing the skull of an ancient human ancestor is not like seeing an ordinary artefact. I also know people who have been deeply moved, even changed, by the experience of visiting Auschwitz.

Neil

I'm incredulous that there isn't some sort of time-delayed automatic release of ballast weights accompanied by automatic beacons. All with redundancy built in.

Neil

I won't get into a petty exchange, but I thought my post above made it clear I looked at multiple sources; much of my difficulty coming from the fact that they all give different overviews of the same basic story.

Neil

Close to home. My grandfather was a radio operator (and sonar) in the navy and spent some worrying time stuck to the bottom in a K-class sub.

His discharge papers state he came up with some 'useful improvements to sonar' but we can find no trace of what these were, whether technical or technique.

Neil

If is of reasonably modest length, I'd be happy to re-publish it in MEW, with some of the observations made in this thread - there's clearly more than a smidgin of interest!

Neil

Just a thought, but if Julian or another contributor to this thread would like to do a fully researched and referenced article on Artie separating fact, fiction, apocrypha and speculation, then I'd be interested in receiving it as a submission.

Neil

My grandfather was a radio operator in the navy between the wars. He once was assigned to what was effectively a Clyde puffer on the roster of a battleship (Renown, I think). He was on the Caledonian Canal near Loch Ness and needed to signal the ship which was cruising through the Hebrides. He sent out a general call for a relay, as he couldn't get a direct signal, with lots of mountains in the way. He got his relay (in morse) via another British warship, and at the end enquired where the relay ship was stationed - the answer was New Zealand!

It's likely that Artie's and my grandfather's signals were boosted by bouncing around the upper atmosphere, which can allow long distance signals with low-power equipment, especially in days when there was vastly less interference.

Neil

"From Humble Beginnings

Artie Moore was born in 1887. As a child Artie was involved in an accident at the mill, which resulted in the loss of the lower part of one of his legs, and for the rest of his life, he wore a wooden leg. At some point prior to the year 1909, Artie, using a hand made lathe driven by the water-wheel at the mill, built a working model of a horizontal steam engine. He entered the model in a competition in the The Model Engineer magazine, and he received a book by Sir Oliver Lodge entitled Modern Views Of Magnetism And Electricity, and turned his attention from engineering to the new science of those days – wireless. Working at Gelligroes Mill in Pontllanfraith near Blackwood, Gwent, he soon began erecting wire aerials and building his rudimentary radio station, consisting of a coherer-based receiver and a spark-gap transmitter"

Hi Julian,

I spent a lot of time researching Artie, at least in proportion to what would normally go into a single page article.

The main source for the article was the "Artie Moore Amateur Radio Society" mc0mnx.webs.com/ from which the above quote was taken. One has to hope they would be the most reliable source of information. They also say he went to London as a direct result of the Titanic episode.

There is a surprising amount about Artie online and deciphering what is truth and what is embellishment is difficult. Some sources just say 'Marconi visited him' which could have been at Gelligroes or in London; others specify it was at Gelligroes.

I found suggestions his brother also was involved in the hobby radio operation, others mention his father and a friend. I suspect various people had a 'fringe' involvement, if only helping lug gear around and erect antennae!

It's a shame if some of the BBC content around Artie is inaccurate, I hope some readers, at least, can forgive me for not spending days researching original sources for a brief article, even if what I did do appears to have been a little more thorough, or at least sceptical, than the BBC's.

It was very difficult to know what to trust, although the source that said he lived near Cork was rapidly discounted...

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 19/06/2023 17:59:48

Possibly because your renewal hasn't filtered through the system yet.

Neil

Sincere apologies!

For some unfathomable reason the post got reported. I accidentally pressed the wrong button and deleted the post not the report.

I don't know if Hollowpoint could replace the image?

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Neil

I once watched a movie at Warwick University Arts Centre (just to demonstrate that I am cultured) and afterwards returned to my Cortina estate and started it up... I was about to drive off when i realised it was rather tidy inside. I sheepishly got out and found my own, scruffier, example.

Some years earlier, a mate of mine had a Hillman Avenger. I started it by using a dead matchstick to turn the ignition.

Neil

I've found ChatGPT very useful for researching topics. It saves consulting multiple sources when looking at a subject where there is no obvious authority. But you do need to do some poking around of your own to fact check.

Neil

Thanks, it appears to have been dealt with.

Neil

You can't " melt down or break up any metal coin " so presumably the machines which squash coins and emboss the name of a seaside town or other tourist attraction are still legal!

Neil

Just make sure you wear those gloves!

Nickel dermatitis causes all sorts of problems.

Neil

See a video of Matt's device in action here:

www.model-engineer.co.uk/news/article/morphing-of-a-tool/27715

Not withstanding issue numbers (corrected) do people find content of this kind useful?

Neil