Member postings for Alistair Robertson 1

I have an Orac with a home built control using a standard break-out board, a SmoothStepper and a Siemens VFD.

It works pretty well on threading using the built in one pulse per rev encoder but it does struggle with a big DOC.

I was going to upgrade to an Acorn CNC system but as I have decided to donate my machines to our local "Mens Shed" I will leave the upgrade to them. A friend has upgraded his old Haas using the Acorn system and after a bit of experiment it seems to work very well.

Thank You All for the extensive advice which I have passed on to my neighbour. Some things she has already tried with no helpful resolution but, the very helpful responses have given her a larger stock of arrows to try when firing at fortress OVO Energy!

Latest update is OVO has just taken over her mum's account at the end of July, it was formerly with SSE, Now she is being told that she has not been a customer for long enough therefore the account cannot be discussed by anyone! until the system generates a "Profile!" You couldn't really make it up could you!

My neighbour is trying to get her mothers energy bill paid for her former home which is now for sale.

The bill is exorbitant and when she asks for an amended bill she is told that her mother must call or email to sanction someone else to deal on her behalf bu because of advanced dementia that cannot happen.

My neighbour has full Power of Attorney for her mother but OVO Energy say that Power of Attorney doesn't apply to them and they must communicate with her directly. My neighbours Solicitor has tried to intervene but they will not speak to him!

Has anyone managed to get sense out of OVO Energy?

I have been trying to list our local Railway Museum and Miniature Railway Maud Railway Museum on Railtracks UK for a few months but I get no response to my Emails.

I found it very useful to check how other Museums and Attractions were advertising themselves but there have been no recent updates. Is the site still being administered or has it fallen by the wayside?

My Father-in-law received a letter from a building society stating that he had £300 in an account that was to be declared "Dormant" He did remember it so he went about retrieving it.

The company had been taken over about 10 years ago by a much larger bank so he was instructed to go to the local branch (60 miles away) with his paperwork. He is 85 but active so he took 3 buses to the city to be met with no branch and locals saying it closed about 2005!

So after a journey home he wrote (he struggles to hear properly on the phone) to the head office and received a letter apologising for the error and to contact the local branch at, you guessed it! The non-existant address he was complaining about!!

His neighbour telephoned on his behalf to be told that was the bank branch address they had on record and they couldn't give him a telephone number for it!

They then said the paperwork could be sent to the head office with all copies of driving licence, bus pass, television licence to be signed by his doctor or a registered Notaries Public or High Court Judge. Two utilities bill (including a mobile phone bill, he has a PAYG phone so no bill!) that had to be original, no copies.

He has reached the stage that he is prepared to tell them to keep the money as he doesn't need the hassle.

We had a smart meter installed in our Railway Museum but as there is no mobile signal around the meter installer said "this thing won't work here but I will phone my boss"

The bass replied "We are paid £45 to fit them, They don't have to work!" Well of course it wouldn't and they said as their meter wouldn't work we would have to pay £28 a month for a meter reader to call! A quick call from our MP soon put a stop to that! We now take a photo of the meter when they ask for it and a correct bill comes by letter. They say they are happy with that and don't intend to examine the meter readings in detail, a digital photo is enough evidence for them!

I had an interesting experience last week while renewing my car insurance. A renewal quote came through the post about 15% higher than last time so I phoned up and try to get some discount.

Not a big reduction was forthcoming so I was able to quote the companies on-line price and the lady said she would meet it, but I countered with less and said "every time you give me a derisory discount I will lower my offer" This threw her completely and she said "OK I will give you £20 off the on-line price"

I of course accepted and considered that it was 10 minutes well spent!

I used to have one of those rocking beam type ironworkers. There was a switch to move between shear and punch which allowed the hydraulics to alter the operation of the directional control valve, shear up and punch down move the switch and vice versa!

I must say we never had a problem but it must be a misplaced or missing wire around that area.

A few years ago I stayed in an old budget but very nice hotel in Edinburgh and Lo and Behold, the rattly old, two person lift was a Bennie very similar to that photo. I did wonder if they were the same Bennie but I didn't chase it up as research wasn't as easy then before the Internet,

Hi, All.

I got a card through my letterbox saying I needed to pay an extra £1.50 to get a small packet delivered as "The sender didn't pay the full postage".

I paid on-line and the packet was delivered with the Post Office generated label showing the correct charge for the weight and size of the package had been paid. Next day I visited my Royal Mail delivery office and asked for an explanation of the extra charge when I was told that, yes the extra charge was wrong but it couldn't be refunded as there was no mechanism to challenge an incorrect postage issued label.

It is only £1.50 but it is MY £1.50 so I am not a very happy person!

The guide should be about the same length as from the last cutting edge to the end of the broach or at least the length of the material with a minimum of 3 cutting edges in the work.

A powered hydraulic press is best as the speed of the stroke is consistent. A hand pump is not the best.

We used these broaches in production work and we "lifed" them for 1000 units but they would do much more than that with no problems if properly lubricated with "broaching oil" the name of which escapes me now!

My experience with smart meters is not positive as the meter had to be replaced in our local museum where I volunteer. The fitter came to install it and said " this meter can't work here there is no radio signal"

He contacted his manager but was told to fit it any way! Well the power company couldn't read the meter and asked us to photograph the meter screen and email it to them. This was OK for about 6 months then we were told that as they could not read the meter remotely they were going to get a company to read the meter every month at a cost of £28.50 a month added to our usually about £20 bill. A word in their ear from our local MP soon produced a letter of apology and we continue to send in photos every month.

Hi,

My good lady has bought a new but second hand Iphone from a reputable seller. She bought her last phone from the same company.

Last time we transferred the data from the old phone to the new with no problem using the Icloud process. I did the same this time and everything seemed fine. But when I tried to download a new NHS app it would not work as it said there was no Apple ID and i noticed that no Emails had been saved over.

I decided to go to an Apple shop with the two phones and the guy said "No Problem" Well 10 minutes later a frowning expert says "this will take about 30 minutes, can you please come back later" 90 minutes later I go back to a shop with 4 staff standing looking at my phones and in deep conversation. They had decided that something had gone wrong with the data transfer and the situation was terminal! The phone will work as a phone but not as a smartphone.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Mike, the thing is my repeat is automatically set for the sixth of the month and cannot be changed or altered only cancelled. I cannot even alter the amounts required as I have one pill that I just take when I require it but the system is locked to the pills and amounts which are set at the initial setup.

A case of someone setting up a system they don't understand.

I live in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and I find that some changes to the Prescription ordering procedure have gone awry. Most medications are packaged in 7, 14 or 28 day packs so they don't last for a full calendar month.

The problem is that my repeat prescription is on a calender month basis i.e. on or near the sixth of the month so the only month I get the correct amount of medication is 3 years out of 4 every February!

I have to contact the chemist to obtain the shortage and they have to phone to get the doctor to raise and sign an extra prescription which covers me for a few months until the whole cycle is repeated.

I contacted the local Health Board and tried to get an answer or maybe a solution from them but they just said that pills are packaged on a weekly basis but prescriptions are issued on a calendar basis and this cannot be changed as the issuing computer software works on a calendar cycle. They understood the problem as they have had 100's of complaints from doctors about the extra manual work involved but they cannot change the system!

I did not realise that Computer Active had looked in to this for me as I have had no correspondance from them since I asked for their advice. I did send them copies af all the emails and bits of paper but I just thought that as it was not directly involved with a computing problem that they did not pursue it. I will have to buy a copy and check it out but I don't think they will get any further than me.

Thanks for all the comments.

Yes the problem is I am not their customer, the seller is, but he doesn't want to get involved as Hermes say the parcel was delivered to me in the first place.

The real problem that every reply I have got from Hermes has been different, "Your Parcel has been delivered" although the attached information showed that it hadn't!. "Your parcel is now moving through our system and will be delivered in two days, NOT! "The parcel number you have supplied is invalid? " The parcel number is not a Hermes number" although it is the number on their label! Paypal will not get involved as the parcel was delivered to me and they are not responsible for a lost return parcel!

Hi, All.

I am having an unbelievable time with Hermes the Courier Company.

The Saga begins, i bought a cheap £20 Smartwatch to measure my daily activity as an aid to keeping or even improving my fitness.

The watch arrived and I charged it up but there was obviously something wrong as the battery went flat in about 8 hours. I contacted the seller who agreed that something wrong and sent me by email a Hermes label to attach to the parcel and take it to my local Hermes Parcelshop. This I did and I got a receipt with the Hermes return code printed upon it.

I waited about a week expecting some contact from the seller but with nothing happening I got in contact with them to be told they hadn't received the watch back. I tried to trace the parcel using the Hermes Tracking Number but the number could not be recognised. I contacted Hermes who said it was not their number even after I emailed them a copy of the label supplied by the seller emblazoned with the Hermes Logo.

They then said the label was a forgery and that the seller had used this invalid label many times. I sent the email to the seller who must have read the riot act as a couple of days later I received an apology from Hermes for being misled and the parcel was on it's way to the seller.

Well the seller never got the parcel although Hermes said he had, then sent me a tracking code that showed it was still in the Hermes system as "unreconciled" !!

I have now been in contact with four seperate Customer Assistants who all ask for full details of the problem even when everything is listed in my email to them! Any return email from me doesn't go to the original "Customer Services Person" but back into the general pool with a reply from someone who asks for full details again although the full email trail is now five pages long. The return email address listed on the Hermes Emails are now listed as "No Longer Used" and the new contact address will only work in Google Chrome which I find very strange.

I only spent £20 on the Smartwatch but it is MY £20 and I intend to pursue it as far as possible. Has anyone had similar problems and did they find a solution?

The way I used to do it was by making a pattern from about 1mm aluminiun and filing it to fit in to the profile so that the top surface is level with the head surface. Drill the two holes through the valve guides. Drop the valves through the pattern and into the guides. Mark the head surface using the outside of the profile and machine/grind the chamber until the pattern is flush with the head surface. Using this method all the chambers can be very accurately ground to the final size. I found over the years that I didn't have to do any more fettling to achieve accurate matching.

I haven't flowed a head for more than 20 years but I have never got all the cast iron dust out of my hands!

An update on my Paypal saga is.

On contacting the original seller I find that my Paypal payment was never in his Paypal account as he cancelled and refunded almost immediately. I queried this with Paypal who agreed that the money had never gone in to his account but to prevent fraud they would now hold on to my money for 14 days and only then would I be credited by Paypal. I think that the sum involved probably triggered some safety mechanism within Paypal. I asked Paypal about this but they refused to discuss it but they quoted "Customer Confidentiality" I thought I was the customer!