Member postings for Nick Clarke 3

When my dad had a house built in Sherwood, Nottingham in the early 1960s there was a problem - My mum, having grown up in a house with an earth closet outside, had got used to a downstairs loo just outside the back door at our previous Edwardian house at the junction of Arnold and Hucknall roads in Old Basford.

The solution - the architect was asked to include the same in the new bungalow, so I suspect it might be the last outside loo included in a house anywhere in the country! (Although we did have one in the bathroom as well!)

Maybe talk to the poster in this thread? **LINK**

I like search engines.

OK it was not Google but recently I was curious about some colourless/white spots on my skin.

After some reassuring images I looked down the list of results and found:-

eBay Official Site - White Spots Sold Direct - ebay.co.uk

and

White Spots at Argos - Fast Track Same Day Delivery

and

Amazon.co.uk: white spots

As I said I like search engines - they are fun!

If you have the room a larger lathe may quite possibly be no more expensive that an ML7 and probably cheaper than a Super 7 which seem to go for a lot more money.

Unfortunately accessories and tooling follows the original price of an industrial machine, ie can be expensive.

Any used machine is an unknown quantity and need thoroughly checking over I suggest you take (another) knowledgeable person with you - no matter the level of a purchasers experience it is possible to get carried away in front of a machine you want - a calming voice is useful - I know from (bad) experience!!

The sales pages of Lathes.co.uk might be a good place to look for information as well as the lathe itself. **LINK**

Father had a new 1963 Vauxhall Cresta that he drove round his GP practice and across country to visit relatives, but on our annual holiday - Nottingham to Harwich then through Belgium, Holland, Germany and Austria to the Adriatic coast taking about 4 days or so to do it, but even then traffic, even on the autobahnen, did not usually go as fast as it does today.

The Cresta had a ribbon speedometer that changed colour at 30, and 70 miles an hour, but in response to us kids requests to 'see the speedo go red' he took it on a disused airfield in Lincolnshire and caned it down the runway before it changed at 70mph. I don't remember my dad being a slow driver, he was certainly not later on!, but he just kept up with the traffic. So issues with performance, cooling systems or braking efficiency in older cars, even in the sixties, are perhaps different when viewed against today's 80+mph on the motorways and 30+++mph round town?

I remember a trip to the Earls Court Motor show in '71 or '72. The heater in an imp was a water valve type and the controls were on the dashboard with great lengths of rubber pipe hidden under trim etc between there and the engine bay in the rear - and they perished. The first thing we know was that the windows steamed up instantly and boiling water started to drop on the driver and front passenger's feet! First RAC call out and he bodged the system using an old box spanner and a couple of jubilee clips to replace a worn section of hose. Twenty miles further on - repeat. Second RAC callout and he looped the hose within the engine compartment - taking the box spanner to give to his mate - I wonder if he ever did? No heater for the rest of the trip home so we needed to keep both front windows open to demist the windscreen. Freezing!!!

At least it is better than the reputation the estates and vans (Commer Cob) had of bursting into flames!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 02/08/2019 13:14:47

While it may physically fit the two pins it will not have the earth connection to the body of the oven connector, so not recommended.

I like the story in Adam Kay's book 'This is going to hurt' - about the common garden plant so dangerous that to even just sit under it for 10 minutes can be fatal!

The plant - a water lily of course

Hi Keith, Thanks for your reply - My query was a purely intellectual question as any boiler work will be based on modern practise, including that kindly given by yourself here, and also face to face at the last Bristol show where a great deal was explained to me.

My comment on true brazing was based on a mention in one of Tubal Cain's articles and the OED also defines 'braze' as "Form, fix, or join by soldering with an alloy of copper and zinc at high temperature"

There have frequently been published letters and comments regarding the dezincification of Sifbronze in boiler use, so your experience is useful here.

LBSC frequently referred to granulated spelter and free running strip in his writings and my question was 'what are these' - I see from your reply they are not obvious today. The only reason to include the link was because it appeared to be a low temperature strip (not a rod) as a possible explanation. I do not know!

The reference to Silbralloy is after reading the description of the 'Twin Sisters' boiler by J. Austen-Walton in ME Jan 29th 1953 - a published design, of which some may still be running. Interestingly LBSC decried the used of this or similar alloys and non flanged plates in an article that same year.

As someone who enjoys collecting and reading old magazines there are many terms that are no longer in use, and though I hope to take full advantage of modern methods and experience, I would still like to find out what was meant a long time ago.

Thanks,

Nick

Nigel -

It was a duplicate post that I forgot to mark as such, but looking back it was in fact remarkably accurate!!

Will try to do better today.

Nick

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 25/07/2019 13:22:44

While today cadmium free silver solder is the only material advised for boiler making and steel fabrications may, with modern equipment be easily welded or bronzewelded (eg SifBronze) Several other materials were written about in old copies of ME that have aroused my curiosity and any more information on them would interest me.

While true brazing with brass wire is obvious, but what were easy running strip and granulated spelter? Are they still available?

Is this what was meant? **LINK**

Many materials and techniques recommended in the past are not so today. I am thinking of Sifbronzing coal fired boilers and at least one well known design where boiler plates are unflanged and joined with the self fluxing alloy Silbralloy - so this is a request purely out of interest, not for use!

Just a thought - is the oval buffer the same width as a round one or the same height or something in between??

Also why turn it round as none of the round will remain in the finished buffer head? - why not plot some coordinates and rough it out standing on end in the mill, finishing with the file.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 24/07/2019 08:38:31

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 24/07/2019 08:39:06

Arc Eurotrade sell the SX1L. It works well out of the box, but have a look at these preparation notes on their website on how to get the best out of it.

**LINK**

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 24/07/2019 08:32:55

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 23/07/2019 22:15:17

For some reason I am reminded of the old joke about how while I may be in my sixties I have the body of a 21 year old - but it takes up all the room in the freezer.

Sorry!

If Richard Branson felt that he had been given the skills and ability to keep learning through life he may not have needed to remain in school and gain more qualifications if he did not intend to be applying for jobs with other people. If you look at the Stowe school  website (where he studied) you will see that they try to educate in a holistic manner rather than only enable pupils to get numerous qualifications.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 23/07/2019 22:09:39

Possibly more educated than is obvious - For years the English pronounced Latin with soft emphasis. eg sisero for Cicero unlike the Kickero pronunciation when I started to learn Latin in the 1960s. Similarly Caesar's supposed comment weni, weedi, weechi was superceded by veiny, veedi, veechi. (note: intentional phonetic bad spelling!)

One teacher at my school even admitted that he no longer taught Latin (he was a clergyman) because he only knew the old pronunciations.

Another bit of useless information to be forgotten ASAP!

Nick

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 23/07/2019 13:16:27

I am not certain that there are any universally 'surplus' subjects in school.

The only learning that is not appropriate is that which is either unsuitable for a particular student or badly taught.

People learn in different ways and a practical approach my suit some, a written one others, making some subjects more useful than others but only as more or less effective methods of learning to learn. The content of any subject is often secondary.

The whole idea of a successful education is to prepare someone for living and hopefully learning throughout their lives - a task that has probably been successful for everyone here as chatting on the internet was almost certainly not taught when forum members were at school. We have all learnt to do it since!

Latin for example teaches one how to study and learn (common to all subjects) but more particularly how to recognise patterns and structures (conjugations, declensions, sentence structure etc) as well as providing important assistance in grammar generally. Even failing to master a subject can help to develop skills in working round the problem in future.

One could find similar reasons to justify any subject at any level, but I think the only reason for trying to gain so many qualifications today is that if one person or school does it, then the rest need to as well if not to seem out of step. I personally would consider studying fewer subjects but in more depth to be as useful, if not more so.

All have us have continued to learn and gather skills and information throughout our lives and careers - perhaps we have not used the content we learnt at school so much, but the techniques inherent in all learning are essential.

As far as I am aware there is no legal requirement to have insurance to run a live steam device in public, unless you are talking about a road vehicle where the same rules apply as for other road vehicles.

Landowners and event organisers may well require you to have suitable cover, but this is not a prohibition or absolute requirement.

However despite this being the case I am firmly of the opinion that only a fool would not insure themselves against possible risks.

Neil - I appreciate the golden poo has a different significance in other cultures, but seeing your picture I just want to give one to my boss - saying 'Its good luck honest!!'