Member postings for Kiwi Bloke

I believe the linear and rotational 'dashpots', so common now on so many things, use high-viscosity silicone grease. I have a tube of Molycote silicone grease, which, apart from its usual use on O rings and seals, has worked well in similar applications to the OP's, and it's plastic-safe.

Forgive me for poking my nose in when I know little about the subject... My limited understanding of electrolytic rust removal suggests that the rust has to be able to "see" the electrode, rather like electroplating, where shrouded surfaces tend to build up a much thinner plating than those near to the electrode. So, if this is correct, I'd think that getting the electrode into the tank(s) might be more trouble than it's worth. Phosphoric acid should be safe. You can help it along by adding gravel to the tank and shaking.

Gray, I didn't mean to imply that evaporation and condensation were a mystery to you. Perhaps I should have written "If you want further examples of counter-intuitive, somewhat similar phenomena, look up 'solar still' on Wikipedia". I, at least, find the fact that the water condenses on the sun-facing, transparent surface of some of these stills, rather surprising. It seems that cooling by radiation has a lot to do with it, probably also in your case. No doubt the interior of your kitchen is rather warmer than deep space... (yes, I know that cloudy UK skies are 'warmer' than deep space, but the principle still stands...). I'm not suggesting that is the whole story; the previously-mentioned optical and convection effects, draughts and who knows what else will have their part to play. It's complicated...

I'll try to remember to see whether similar effects happen with beer bottles. Hopefully, it will take a lot of experiments.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 19/11/2022 21:58:49

Look up 'solar still' on Wikipedia.

I suppose it depends on whether your political ideology considers the purpose of prison is to punish the offenders, to provide a deterrent to potential offenders or to protect the rest of the population from the incarcerated. 'Political ideology' rather than 'the evidence suggests' because the law-makers seem uninterested in rational arguments based on evidence.

Are you thinking of Galileo Galilei? Clever bloke. His development of the idea of the helicocentric universe, proposed by Copernicus, was considered heresy, leading to his last few years being spent under house arrest. At least he avoided the torture with which he was threatened. A mere 350 years later, the pope officially pardoned him. So that's alright then...

Really useful info, thanks. I hadn't appreciated the importance of a bit of appropriate friction in these things.

You've really started something. Everywhere I look, there is an infinite number of S7 gaps, filling every previously empty space. I'm sure it didn't use to be like this. What's going on?

It depends where the pennies are added. The effective length of the pendulum will be changed, by moving the C of G of the pendulum.

+1 for a request to let us all know where to look for Graham Meek's article. Why the secrecy?

I think I remember (memory not always reliable...) that it has been suggested that soldering irons should not have their tips connected to earth, or should have a switched earth, so that there's no risk of shorting a voltage-carrying conductor to earth, when soldering. Even if not working on 'live' circuitry, it would still be possible to get a surprise by shorting a still-charged power supply capacitor to earth. I don't remember ever having checked whether my irons had earthed tips, but have just checked, and they have. So they're safe, from a mains-shock point of view, but the circuitry on which they're used may not be.

Perhaps someone who really knows what they're talking about could clarify?

The oil originally specified was Shell Vitrea 69. This pre-ISO number became Vitrea 150, post-ISO standardisation. Current equivalent seems to be Shell Morina S1 (or S2) B 150, available in small quantities here:

**LINK** (no connection with the firm, and not a customer)

It's not going to be a critical choice, however, there's a large gear in the gearbox that is Tufnol, or a different, grey plastic that swells with age. So, perhaps, one should avoid lubricants stuffed with additives, or 'synthetics'. Mine piddled oil out from the gear-change lever's bore, but it's a simple O ring seal.

That's frightening, Michael! Imagine how difficult it would be to clear your 'name' if this outfit, with ever-further-reaching tentacles, blacklisted you. Nowadays, it seems that you are blacklisted by default, until some 'security' outfit deems otherwise.

For those who think that worrying about this sort of thing is only for the conspiracy theorists and tin-foil hat wearers, remember the Crypto scandal. This was a Swiss firm that for decades after WWII supplied encryption machines to many governments across the globe. Eventually, it was discovered that the CIA owned and controlled the firm, and that machines supplied to over 100 countries were compromised, allowing the CIA to read their output. Now, it's been reported that another, smaller, similar company, Omnisec, is also a CIA operation. Constant vigilance! Trust no-one!

If you were a well-resourced organisation (or unfriendly country), intent on gathering as much personal data as possible, on as many people as possible, where would you direct your efforts? Wouldn't HooYu be a prime target? Let's hope their security defences are impregnable. What's the chance of that?

SOD/Dave, I was hoping for your input. Thanks, always interesting to read your contributions.

I chose my words carefully, when I called the bank 'stupid'. Stupid in the sense of unintelligent. Unintelligent enough to realise that a 'one size fits all' approach isn't appropriate. There are many alternative ways of 'proving' identity, which are acceptable in UK law, but NatWest has devolved this task to HooYu, which requires it to be done live, on the 'net or by cell-phone. There is no alternative. Is this not stupid? (Cynically, I suppose that, from the bank's perspective, this is pretty smart, but you know what I mean.)

Also, this is the bank which didn't raise an eyebrow when bin-bags of millions of pounds of cash were deposited nefariously. So yeah, stupid!

Can anyone please explain to me how going through a process of sending a live photo of eg a passport (which I don't have), followed by a live 'selfie' establishes me as who I claim to be? In other words, does this reassure NatWest that it is in fact me, to whom it has been sending statements, cards, etc. for over 50 years? Surely it's only useful if the photos are 'validated' against a database of existing photos. I assume that part of the purpose of this exercise is the building of such a database. Big Brother is alive and well, and working for HooYu, and any other data-gathering outfit you care to think about.

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 19/10/2022 10:57:30 (typos and brain-fade)

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 19/10/2022 10:58:59 (finger stumbles...)

Edited By Kiwi Bloke on 19/10/2022 11:00:38

Oldiron provides yet more evidence that the machinery of the modern world has been designed by, and is being operated by, idiots.

NatWest has devolved the ID 'verification' to HooYu, and presumably thereby hopes to insulate itself from responsibility when HooYu gets hacked. (Note 'when' not 'if''. Previous posters, and the bank's 'phone script-readers have suggested that I use someone else's 'phone or web-cam-equipped laptop to complete HooYu's ID 'verification' (pause for laughter) process.This is completely missing the point, which I thought I made clearly enough at the beginning of this sad little thread. The process is flawed.

What mechanism do money launderers frequently use for their nefarious purposes? They pretend to be someone else. This is facilitated by their stealing or buying someone else's identity. What information is required by someone intent on stealing your identity? Let me think. Oh yes, information about your identity, the more detailed and 'official' the better. Therefore the transmission of detailed identity information, such as passport info, etc. should be by an as secure as possible process.

Is the internet or the mobile 'phone network an inherently secure system? I don't think so. One can take steps to reduce risk, by taking care that your device is not compromised. You could be hard-nosed about this, and say that security is therefore your responsibility. But we ordinary mortals don't know enough to ensure security, and crooks are clever. It has recently been reported that perhaps 40% of Australians have had their identity information compromised by a single attack.

Thus, the suggestion to use someone else's, or a publically-accessible device is preposterously stupid. There is no way to have any confidence that the unknown device had not been compromised. 'Man in the mobile' and 'man in the browser' exploits are said to be undetectable by the user at either end of the link, and this type of exploit is considered the greatest risk to internet banking. Using a possibly compromised device lays one open to identity theft by 'man in the middle'-type exploits. Thus the stupid bank is suggesting something that increases the risk of identity theft, and thus facilitates money laundering!

Someone please tell me I'm wrong!

Update, and apologies for flogging a moribund donkey.

The bank's 'one size fits all' approach to ID verification isn't fit for purpose in all cases. Not surprising, but there seems to be no flexibility and no interest in retaining account-holders (50 years, in my case) who are in any way out of the 'ordinary' (which means easy to deal with). The only way to establish communication, having exhausted the script-reading waffle of the 'phone 'advisors' is to raise a complaint. I wrote (snail mail) on 24 Sept. I'm told that my file shows no record of any letter having been received.

This UK account is valuable to me because Premium Bond wins can't be paid into overseas accounts any more (why the hell not?), and NZ banks have declared cheques obsolete. I have a full holding of Premium Bonds, so can't use the 're-invest' option. I suppose I could try to redeem a chunk, and re-invest future wins, but how would I deal with the million pound prize that's coming soon?

The problem is that it's too easy for bureaucrats to fiddle with things, and then hide behind the barricades that organisations erect against being made to take responsibility for their actions. Grrr!

Glad to see that rest & recuperation time helped. Scraping can seem rather soul-destroying, can't it?

I'm not sure exactly what you're doing, so can't answer your question, however, some observations...

I think that it would be time well spent to make up some dovetail spotting masters. And you'll need some rollers.

Scraping overhanging angled surfaces of dovetails is awkward at best, and miserable at worst. Do make sure there's a suitably large 'run-out' groove as there seems to be under the horizontal ways' dovetails. Not so sure about the vertical ones. A small Eclipse scraper, with the end thinned down, comes in useful here.

The knee's vertical ways are likely to be worn significantly. I think I'd start scraping these surfaces, and only then correct the knee's right-angled geometry by scraping the horizontal surfaces - it would be easier, particularly the dovetails. You should consider making the relationship between horizontal and vertical ways a tad obtuse, to compensate for the droop that will occur when the saddle and table load the knee.

It's probably a good idea to finish the vertical surfaces of the knee with a little central relief. I think Connelly explains the whys and wherefores. However, for the amount of wear that's likely to occur during your use of the grinder, this refinement is optional - however, avoid a convex surface at all costs. (Folk may argue that, since the knee is so heavily loaded, it's likely to be stable, almost regardless of its geometry, but we're trying to do things properly, aren't we?

Good luck, you're probably about 20% of the way there...

It's a safe bet that no housewife was involved in the design of any cooker hood. If one had been, some consideration would have been given to ease of cleaning of the wretched things! Apologies for 'sexist' comment, but if you take offence, that's entirely your problem.