Member postings for RMA

As I said before it's all very confusing. My car club has lobbied MP's, many of whom run classic cars, and they are assured the fuel will be available.....but where and what cost is never mentioned.

I run my old sports car on Esso Supreme and this is a quote from Esso

“Although our pumps have E5 labels on them, our Synergy Supreme⁺ 99 is actually ethanol free (except, due to technical supply reasons, in Devon, Cornwall, the Teesside area, Scotland and NW England)."

This is fine unless you want to do much touring!

Getting back to the OP's rant. It seems we're stuck with what the manufacturers want us to have. Some technology emerges as a result of fulfilling a need, some emerges first and a use for it found afterwards. I have a fairly recent BMW with all the options and I find many of them useful, those that I don't, I simply don't use. My son has a new BMW M350 X-drive with all the bits and pieces, a cockpit that puts an airliner to shame. Again, he doesn't use all of them and I doubt he knows all of them anyway, but it's a great piece of engineering.

The problem I have with it is the voice recognition. If you happen to say BMW in any sentence this well mannered lady asks if she can help me....to date she hasn't met any of my requests!!

It isn't just cars though, why does everything have to be described as 'digital' these days....can someone explain what a digital toaster is?

Interesting, but I don't think the forecourt attendant would think much of that! Too late when you've already filled up. Clear messaging and labeling should be the answer.

Yes, high ethanol content will attract water but it can wreck a lot of components in an older car, which on a classic can cost a fortune to replace. 10% ethanol will become the norm soon (EU pressure I think) but we are assured that ethanol free fuel will still be provided and fuel suppliers have said they will provide a certain amount of pumps around the country (UK). I do use it in one of my cars and ignore the high cost as the miles per year are very low.

Typically in this country confusion reigns! All pumps have to display at least 5% ethanol even if the fuel coming out of the spout is ethanol free. If, like me you need to use it, get in touch with the supplier for the location of the pumps because from experience, staff at the filling stations haven't got a clue!

A lot of cars do give you that opportunity to disable them. Some of them come back on by default when you restart, so you have to be aware of that. BMW's were slagged off earlier in this thread, but they have some great technology which is usually later copied by other manufacturers, you can it use or not, that is your choice. Unfortunately as with all cars, you don't get much choice when buying it, the packages are cleverly put together to suit the revenue flow. All that aside there are still some great cars around today designed for a 'driver' who likes to drive. One day, probably sooner than we realise, that will no longer be an option. Rent an electric scooter maybe?

Someone mentioned speed limiters earlier and I agree at normal speeds could be dangerous, I believe it can be overridden though at the moment. I have a car which limits it to 155mph, needless to say I haven't tried it!

Very interesting topic Kiwi Bloke and very true!

During the last twenty years or so we have seen a rapid evolution of cars. I can remember my parents old Ford with only one rear light, it took a long time to progress to something better, and about 50 years before heaters became standard! Nowadays electronics move so rapidly it's difficult to keep up with them, but in my opinion, it's all heading towards the driverless car whether we like it or not. The same goes for which method of propulsion we have. The consumer will have very little say in it! The problem is, in a crowded world, something has to change.

I note it didn't take long for the usual BMW quotes to arrive!

Would it be possible to send a link/photo or anything visual of the product you found? I've been looking, having rejected the NHS ones for the same reason. There are so many types available and it would be good to have a recommended one. Thank you

I can't help you with the specs of the bearings, but it would appear that the premature failure is due to poor seals and I would suggest putting an additional seal to prevent the dust getting to the normal seal. A seal to protect a seal in effect.

Many years ago when I worked for Timken Bearings we specified metal seals which cut into the edge of the bearing. I can't remember the trade name now but they were very thin, so didn't take up much room in the assembly. They proved very effective in hostile environments.

Having done a quick search I found Nilos rings, which appear to do the same thing. I hope that has been of some help.

I've never had a problem with the Lidl warranty whatever length the product carried. I always email Lidl customer service and they have contacted the supplier direct on my behalf and a replacement is sent. The 3 year warranty is what it says and replacements are in my experience always sent direct from the manufacturer and they've never asked for the original item to be returned. Too expensive to make it worthwhile I guess.

Products are in the main of Chinese origin, but the supplier, who offers the warranty is German.

It looks as though from the photo, you're only missing the vacuum pipe and front coupling. The vacuum stand and pipe are easily made. I couldn't find any commercial ones when I looked a while ago, and you can buy the correct coupling from Bruce Engineering (maybe others as well). The rear coupling has been made for connecting a trolley so you don't need a scale one, unless you're only displaying the model.

As said before, you only need four lamps and these are available commercially. Look up head codes on the internet and you'll see where they go.

Hope that helps

Well said.

Mental health problems are as individual as people. The original poster is, by his own admission, happy with his lot and clearly the Covid situation hasn't affected his lifestyle and I hope that continues, but many people are affected in various ways by this year's events, some very seriously.

The thread/conversation has as always, diverted 'off track' and I don't understand what IQ has to do with mental health. Where did that come from? Some of the greatest brains around have suffered from mental health, depression isn't selective!

I have found with all utilities I can get deals on my terms if I tell them I'm leaving. BT always gets a bashing, and a few comments on here refer to individual assessment of the company, and of course everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However some research into the facts might be a good idea. The company might not have been the best when it was Nationalised, and it did have a monopoly (except for Hull), prior to Thatcher's intervention! I remember when goodwill and customer service was a priority. Unfortunately Thatcherism was all about making a profit and to hell with anything else. PO telephones became BT via a few name changes, a private company with many government strings attached. For example, the 'phone box network had to be kept and maintained by BT after privatisation, a massive loss for the company, and proved when Mercury was set up thinking it would be a money spinner.....how long did that last? The BT infrastructure also had to be made available to any new kid on the block.

The communications industry in this country is not straight forward nowadays, most new companies are foreign owned and OFCOM is pretty pathetic. From my experience it's best to shop around as soon as an increase is announced by your current supplier, it's surprising how good a deal you can get!

Edited By RMA on 14/08/2020 10:59:09

Thanks for the link. It didn't come up when I did a search initially. My post can now be cancelled rather than duplicate.

Good morning all.

Just a quick survey of members of Model Engineering clubs (or any club) with regard to the crisis 'lockdown'.

Has your club locked up and virtually disappeared, or have they come up with any creative ideas to keep in touch or use some of the out side facilities, keeping withing the social distance rules of course? I'm thinking mainly of track use, but it could be anything.

Social contact is vital for any prolonged period and clubs can play a vital role in this. Maybe your club has come up with something special, if so, please share it on here.

Thank you

Thanks for the update since the '80's. I lost track of the company, and a few colleagues when they shut down in England. I know a fellow apprentice who ended up being the works engineer and went to India to set up the factory there, and then was no longer needed!

When I started in the '60's, production at Northampton was mainly for automotive and machine tools. Business boomed when the Vietnam war was on, a whole production facility for fighting vehicles, and we had many car plants around the country then.  Larger bearings and railway axle boxes were produced at the Daventry factory. Large bearings used on radar installations and larger machine tools, even the BT tower in London. As a rep, I visited many customers making cars; trucks; planes; machine tools and ships, in fact anything that required bearings. What industry we had then!

It was a great place to work, they relocated from Birmingham during the war into a brand new factory which at the time was the largest factory in Europe. The only reminders now are a couple of road names on the new housing estates.....how times change!

Edited By RMA on 11/05/2020 18:00:36

Real feeling of nostalgia here reading this post. Sadly Timken (British Timken) no longer exists as they transferred operations from the UK to India and the two factories I spent my apprenticeship at are now housing estates!

I spent a while as a technical rep for the company before moving on to new pastures and I would advise anyone who has doubts about fitting bearings on a machine tool to ask the bearing company for advice. No point in trying to re-invent the wheel as it's old technology and all the info is readily available.

Yes that's quite true. In the main, the Police have to deal with the scum of society and a lot of the rebels of social distancing fall into this category I'm afraid. Experienced Police officers will think more than twice before taking action. They, like those poor health workers have unsuitable protection (if any), so why would they risk getting infected and taking it back to their family.

If you've eliminated all the possible causes mentioned by other's and still have the problem, it could well be the bearings after this time in service. High speed use and then a long 'lay up' would have a detrimental effect on the bearings.

Taper roller bearings are very easy to maintain. I would suggest you ascertain that the cones aren't 'stuck' on the shaft. If they are free you can adjust the preload to the recommended amount by the manufacturer. The bearing set must be preloaded. When adjusting, always keep the bearing moving. Forwards and backwards by hand will do. This ensures the roller moves to the correct position and seats on the thrust end of the cone.

If you have any doubt about the condition and you want to keep the machine it often pays to replace with good quality bearings such as Timken. They are not cheap though!

It probably doesn't apply in this case as your's is oil lubricated, but where the bearings are lubricated with grease, do not over fill. A common cause of failure is too much grease, it heats up and will wreck a bearing very quickly.

I hope you get get it sorted soon, it's very satisfying solving problems like this.

Chinese 777 cargo flew into Stansted from China this morning. The heavies still arrive as normal, but it's a bit worrying that Wizz Air are starting passenger flights from Luton with Spain and Portugal on their destination list.

I did ask RVL about their survey flights and they said they were classified, but they did say they're taking advantage of the clear skies. The drone out of Lydd is busy as well.

With clear skies, the sound of a 747 Cargo throttling back getting established onto the ILS to Stansted yesterday, made me go outside to look at it. Very reminiscent of the days when aircraft were a rare sight! Inbound from Moscow, so cargo would be? Very interesting.

Still amazed by the amount of passenger flights into our country.....utter madness!

I'm sorry, but I don't think we had a plan! Enabling the NHS to cope is obviously necessary, but why were they so unprepared? The lack of basics such as PPE is unacceptable. When China released footage to the world of the desperate building of those hospitals in January, the rest of the world should have realised that this was serious.

As I said before, to keep reinfecting doesn't help at all. South Korea got back to normal very quickly, and now flights are again being allowed, they will have to be careful, to my knowledge they are testing at airports but my contact there hasn't reported lately.

Had the world sat up and taken measures at roughly the same time, we would all get over this a lot quicker. As it is, we will more than likely be staying in until the last country catches up. Try telling those who've lost loved ones that 'herd immunity' is a good thing!