Member postings for Martyn Duncumb

Not sure whether this will be much help but I used to have a set of Percy W Blandford plans for a two seater canoe covered with canvas that looked very much like yours. It also had plans for a small mast , sail and lee boards.

The design of the canoe was called a PBK 17 and was, I think, coincidentally, 17 feet long. I have his book "Canoes and Canoeing" and the plans in there are all called "PBK' with a number. Not sure what the 'K' stood for.

I later regretted giving the plans away to a Sea Scout troop for them to build. You may be able to get more information from the Scouts Association archives as his designs were popular with them.

Martyn

Having had cataracts in both eyes done, with the usual long distance and glasses for near work, I was shocked, 3 years later, to be told I needed glasses to drive. The optician told me that there was nothing wrong with the lenses they had put in or the operation itself, the problem was that the eyeball had changed shape and altered the focusing of the eye. Makes sense but my euphoria with the success of the operations evaporated a bit.

Martyn

Great, thanks everyone, now got Harold Halls site working very well.

Martyn

Oh dear, maybe it is just me, but I have just tried the link to Harold halls website and it keeps dropping the connection. I will try later today and hopefully it will work again. Has anyone else had a problem?

Martyn

For encouragement, I built the Touch DRO circuit on a piece of veroboard about three years ago and it has worked extremely well since. I had to have two attempts on building the electronics as my knowledge is rather basic and I don't suppose the result can be called 'elegant'.

However with three digital readout scales from ArcEurotrade fitted on my SX2P mill I have found it extremely useful and would not like to go back to relying just on the basic readouts as supplied. I bought a cheap(ish) Lenovo tablet £50 for the display. I do not do a massive amount of work but milling now is a joy and far more accurate than I could manage before.

Martyn

I have just looked again and the available issues are back to March 2020 followed by three 2010 issues.

Hopefully they are working on restoring all the missing ones.

Martyn

You may all know this already but just to say I received an email this afternoon from Mortons with my Digital ID.

I have logged in and accessed Magazines and been able to look at the current issue of MEW without any problems. I also accessed a 2010 edition of MEW also with no problems. I have a print subscription.

It only seemed to go back as far as 2010 but I have not done a major investigation and assume that earlier editions will follow later.

Martyn

Jon Lawes gives a very interesting reference.

I have just looked using the OS 25 inch series 1892-1914 and it seems to show the Old Station with all the goods yard track layouts.

A lot to explore.

Martyn

alangodfreymaps.co.uk

list an 1895 map of Godalming, which includes the New Station but without knowing the area it is hard to know if what you are looking for is also there.

http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/sy3115.htm

I hope this link will get you to their catalogue page but this forum software did funny things getting it into this message so I am not so sure. Otherwise work your way through their website.

Martyn

yet another vote for Thunderbird

Martyn

Hope this isn't a duplicate post as my earlier one seems to have disappeared.

Just to say I can access MEW old issues on my iMac and iPad but only by using the Chrome browser. Safari does not work.

Martyn

Another possibility is plain starch and water, nowadays refined starch.

I have worked for quite a time as a volunteer in libraries repairing their books. When I began we were using organic flour and water as the paste. This has since been replaced by a refined starch and water. Basically the same thing. One basic requirement of our work is that repairs are reversible and this paste allows this. The paste is used not only for paper repairs but book cloth repairs to boards and damage to the spines of books. It is certainly flexible enough to repair spines. I have also used it for my own bookbinding.

You would need to experiment yourself to see if it has all the qualities you are seeking.

What impressed me is that a rather old fashioned seeming method still provides us with the solution we need.

Martyn

I have just been through my The Clockmaker magazine and can confirm the drawings are included with the articles on Eliot Isaacs ‘Wheel Cutting Engine’. They were published in Vol 1 issues 7 to 12 and Vol 2 issues 1 to 4. The first article includes an explanation of the history of the design and of Chronos and a rider that the drawings are made available only to make one engine, the copyright being held by Eliot Isaacs.

Martyn Duncumb

Just been looking at the Prusa Research site and there is a notice at head of page saying "Currently we are not accepting UK orders due to Brexit issues".

Amazon are saying they are not currently available.

Hope it all gets sorted. soon.

Martyn

Just for the record, another delivery of post on Monday brought me Issue 300.

Enjoying it now.

Martyn

Sadly no No.300 yet SW Essex. Post received yesterday after 10 day interval but no MEW.

Hopefully, next week will bring it.

Martyn

I have noticed this. A number of sites that have no obvious use for a date of birth ask for it. I nowadays never enter a correct one, if at all.

The latest was a charity, a hospice, where I wanted to donate in memory of a friend. They asked for date of birth so I found another way to donate. I could not understand any reason for them asking. From the comment above, I can see that a separate organisation operating the site for the hospice might be selling on the data in some way.

Martyn

You have all been very helpful. In fact my drill was a brand new split point one so it was 'operator error' that caused the problem, though maybe the 5.5mm size did not help.

I certainly have noted all the points made and will treat cast iron with more respect next time.

Many thanks again,

Martyn

Many thanks for all your helpful replies. I take the points about the drill size, 5.5 may have been a trifle too large for cast iron and I certainly should have been much more careful when actually drilling to ensure I got the size of hole I wanted.

I will concentrate on what I am doing when I next tap cast iron. NDIY was more than half right when he mentioned "operator error".

Martyn

Does the the size of the tapping drill need to be altered because the thread will be in cast iron? I have tried finding the answer by searching but with no luck.

The reason for asking is I have drilled two blind holes 5.5mm (5/8" deep) to tap 1/4" BSF in a small block of cast iron. Before I actually tapped I happened to offer up the 1/4" threaded rod and found it very neatly entered the hole without the thread being cut.

In this case I can solve the problem with Loctite but for the future should I use a smaller drill for cast iron than that shown in the tables?

Thanks

Martyn