Member postings for SillyOldDuffer

I've run out of gun related humour. The whole thing was a flash in the pan.

Thanks Hopper, that makes sense. The owner started work in the dockyard before WW1.

The film I saw included a man catching red-hot rivets with a pair of tongs and popping them straight in the hole. I wonder if that was common practice or just done for the camera.

"Podgy Bar" was new to me too. I wrongly guessed it was a pub for cuddly people. Now I'm doubly educated.

Cheers,

Dave

But be aware that trying to put out a magnesium fire with water will cause an explosion. Burning magnesium + water = burning magnesium + steam + hydrogen + air = whoosh bang!

If I was going to work magnesium on any scale I'd research how to do it first, including what to do with the scrap.

Dave

This hammer is a bit of a family mystery. It was inherited from my father's uncle who worked in Devonport Dockyard so it's probably a ship-building tool. It came with an empty wooden tool chest and an iron bound mallet.

The oddly shaped head weighs about 3kg and the wooden handle is rather slimmer than that of a sledge-hammer. It's punch marked 'G' on one side and 'A' on the other: the initials don't correspond to anyone in the family.

I've used it a couple of times to seat fence posts. In action it feels quite different from a sledge-hammer. The combination of balance and spring in the handle allows a steady rhythm of moderate blows to be delivered.

I'm not sure what needed that kind of action and have no idea what the blunted spike end was used for. I would have guessed rivetting except I've seen film of rivetters in the 1930's who weren't using this type of hammer.

Does anyone know what the tool is called and how exactly the two head ends were used?

Thanks,

Dave

Things get worse. I knew what paronomasia meant yesterday and now I've forgotten.

It's very strange - these days I remember 1958 like it was yesterday and yesterday like it was 1958!

Dave

We should be a comedy duo. Unfortunately "Cannon and Ball" has already been taken...

Thanks Neil. I fixed some minor dimensional errors in the piston valve then spent 15 minutes or so winding the engine round by hand to loosen it up. Applying air still didn't work, but carefully adjusting the lead got it spinning.

Still lots to do, but now I know it works, hurrah!

Cheers,

Dave

Very good Juan. Interesting steam models and with radio control too. Thanks for sharing,

Dave

"I'm a dum dum" the duffer admitted coltishly...

Surely we pedants would have to insist on that being "a double-barrelled paronomasia"?

I'm a little depressed to find that linguistics is yet another subject about which I know nothing.

And there was me hoping to be hunted down by one of those older ladies who find us younger duffers so irresistible!

Hi Bob,

The magic word for this kind of network application is "bridge".

The amazon link for the VAP11 has photos of typical setups and some blurry descriptive text that I read to say "it should work". Slightly better is the quick setup manual. Not enormously clear but it says the device has two modes: the first is as a wifi repeater (not what you want) , the second provides "WiFi intelligent bridge function, wireless to wired, wired to wireless intelligent switching". Apologies if I've misunderstood, but I think you want wired to wireless.

You would need a laptop to initially set up the device's operating mode and SSID etc but thereafter it's just part of your network.

It's so cheap I'm tempted to buy one just to play with.

By the way I think you're right to question whether or not expensive ethernet over power adaptors would always work properly in a 3-phase house. I believe the adaptors start by determining which L, N, E pair provides the best signal path between them. As your shed is on a different phase the L route is effectively missing. This leaves the N,E pair as the only option, and it might not be a good one. So the link might work, not work or work indifferently. If you happen to have a spare pair of adaptors it would be worth trying. If they do happen to work you're saved the bother of installing a cat-5 cable.

Cheers,

Dave

I hope no-one thinks I don't just get this stuff from Wikipedia but the joke is that:

"The common English phrase, "flea market", is a phraseological calque of the French "marché aux puces" ("market with fleas",^[6] as are the Czech "bleší trh", the Dutch "vlooienmarkt", the Finnish "kirpputori", the German "Flohmarkt", the Hungarian "bolhapiac", the Italian "mercatino delle pulci", the Polish "pchli targ", the Serbian "buvlja pijaca", the Spanish "mercado de pulgas", the Turkish "bit pazarı", and so on."

ebay probably loath the people who've dissed their trademark. I used to have a local bus company called 'Badger Line', a name carefully chosen by the promoters to project a cuddly image. Unfortunately ungrateful passengers soon talked of nothing but 'Bodger Line'

I too would ban posts from pedants like myself.

Dave

Hi Greg, worth trying the char I think even if all you do is eliminate one possible cause of grief.

I've just stopped for a coffee having failed all day to get a new model mill engine to rotate on air. As it behaves just like a pneumatic drill I may have to pretend I always meant it to do that.

I enjoy the hobby but sometimes small things cause a lot of frustration.

Cheers,

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 25/08/2016 15:27:00

Ethernet cable from house to shed with something like this plugged into it perhaps?

The wifi network in the shed would be different to the wifi network in your house but I think it should be possible to configure a laptop to connect to either.

Cheers,

Dave

I've read that full size grate design is varied to suit the fuel used, and that not all coal is suitable for use in an locomotive. An loco using the 'wrong' fuel will have trouble maintaining pressure.

Beyond reading about it I'm an ignoramus so please treat this with a pinch of salt.

I'm suspicious of your Briquettes because they are made from Brown Coal, which is the lowest quality coal available. Brown coal is noted for low energy content and it has a high moisture and oily component.

Not all briquettes made from brown coal are equally good. Some are little more than compressed brown coal whilst others are put through a complex process that greatly increases their effectiveness. As you'd expect high-energy briquettes are more expensive than the cheap ones. (Nothing wrong with 'cheap' briquettes used to supplement a wood fire, but not ideal for making steam .)

Is it possible that your club generally uses high-energy briquettes, whilst you've got a bag of the cheaper variety? The way to check would be to run your engine using someone else's briquettes that you know to be good.

Dave

Perhaps we should agree to ban diachronic linguistics. That way 'organic' would remain pure and agricultural workers could be called villains without causing offence.

When it comes to the problem versus issue we may have been guilty of preferring opinion and personal experience to checking the evidence. Whilst visiting me mum today I looked "issue" up in her copy of the Shorter OED. The meaning Michael objects to dates from the 16th century. If it's re-emerged recently as a corporate americanism they got it from us!

Next question: what sort of word is 'flea-bay'. I'll open the bidding by suggesting it's a calque.

No wonder we find the simple pleasures of machining metal so compelling...

Cheers,

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 24/08/2016 19:12:28

In my line of work "problem" and "issue" weren't synonyms. An issue is a particular type of problem, that is one that you have to do something about. The need for some sort of action promotes a problem to an issue, as opposed to the sort of problems that can be tolerated.

I strongly suspect that this is yet another example of a technical expression finding it's way into ordinary language, perhaps because "issue" is useful shorthand for "important problem". In the same way "strategic issue" means a " problem that's more important than an important problem".

Back in the 70's we had to be careful running a monkey up the flag-pole in case it turned into a somebody saluted situation.

You'll have to forgive me - I've had a long hot day in my workshop...

Dave

I'd ban blanket bans. Quite often the circumstances make a difference and for many operations a scalpel is more appropriate than a sledgehammer. For example, based on motor accident statistics:

• All drivers under 25 should be banned from overtaking.
• All drivers between 25 and 65 should be banned from drinking alcohol.
• All drivers over 65 should be banned from turning right or left whilst driving an old banger.

Obviously the last ban wouldn't apply to any user of this forum, especially not me!

Cheers,

Dave

I happened to pick up a couple of second-hand books last week that I think answer the questions, well partly anyway..

Air same as steam? Air will be less effective because the water vapour in the steam jet has more mass. For the same reason Mercury was used in high-vacuum pumps.

Continuous "blast" same as intermittent? Dunno if it makes a difference in a scale model but the GWR experimented with a variable blast intended to accommodate varying engine conditions. Not a success apparently, but drivers seem to have made their own adjustments depending on the road and condition of the engine. Here's the example from Tuplin's 1958 "Great Western Steam": "Before we stopped, Bill had turned the blower on, shut the dampers and had gone ahead on the running-board and was opening the smokebox door. When we stopped I turned on the small ejector and screwed the tender hand-brake on. Then while the banker was coming up behind, I went ahead and helped Bill to knock a wedge under the lift-stop of the jumper-top on the blast-pipe so as to get a sharper blast when running hard."

Cheers

Dave