Member postings for Nick Clarke 3

Fair comment I only checked on here where it works in posts as well as the emoji pick list.

They do talk in a screen reader in other contexts, but while I often have it enabled it is not 100%, so it is a fair cop. (tried to find emoji of a policeman to increase the irony, but it would not paste in. )

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 18/07/2019 21:01:01

To find the meaning of an emoji hover the mouse over it

I think you left out rickets and transportation for stealing a sheep

Sorry - I didn't mean to be a scaremonger. The thoughts on what might be came after reading some of the posts in the electric car thread and I just wondered whether they resonated with others.

I work with blind and visually impaired children and when these emojis are properly introduced they will be totally accessible by users through a screen reader and provide a useful 'shorthand' to those who use a screen magnifier as well - on phones, tablets and computers. Looking at the full list, manual as well as electric wheelchairs are included.

I don't use emojis much, and social media even less (except this forum!!) but then I did not grow up with access to them.

For those that want to use them fine - it is often only by accident that they are included in posts here and they can be easily edited out if not needed.

Nick

PS the examples shown here are .jpg images and do not register with a screen reader - the real thing, when introduced in the autumn should.

But the power of vacuum cleaners is already limited in comparison to a few years ago - what if all electrical devices needed to be certified as suitable for home use. And before anyone says impractical, business premises have to measure their energy efficiency, all houses energy efficiency and that of all new domestic appliances is measured.

Perhaps in the future if you do not have an energy certificate for each device it cannot be connected to the mains legally?? Where would you get one for a 40 year old Myford with a 3ph drive and invertor you have fitted yourself??

Will propane/acetylene/oxygen be available to the non commercial (ie unlicenced) user? If you think that is impossible try and buy sulfuric acid for pickle other than under the radar as drain cleaner.

I am only speculating on the possible and would be interested in hearing what others feel might be possible - I know we are not a large user of energy as a hobby - but might that mean we are legislated out of existence by accident as a by product of other new rules etc?

If the fossil fuel crisis is as described - and my experience of the predicted decline in coal in the UK and what has actuality happened suggests it could well be correct - then there may be no spare electricity for multiple machine tools in private home use, no affordable heating equipment or fuel for boiler making and no facilities for the production of tools or materials unless essential - and little coal or other fuels to run models either!

This is supposed to be about 30 years away now - I doubt I shall still be here then, but in my club there are members in their teens and twenties.......

Before the 1930's treadle lathes appear to have been very popular and even in the seventies milling machines were not usual, let alone the industrial standard equipment that is not uncommon today - Might we need to see a return to those days?

In the 80's I taught computing in a room full of BBC Micros. These ran on individual 5 1/4" floppy disks. One pupil kept having problems - The disk would not read. Checking carefully we found out that if his partner handled the disk everything went well, but if this guy touched it or took it out of the envelope - no go.

We never did find out the reason, but he was also the only one to get shocks off the nylon carpet tiles as well, so could it have been a static build up?

We changed to Macs with 3 1/2" disks soon after which solved the problem and the issue has presumably faded away with them.

Swearing is interesting because it depends so much on context. When I worked in the motor trade just about everything in the stores or workshop had an *****!! epithet attached to it, but it was meaningless as that was the way that things - and people - were described. No offence was ever taken and not using the words was seen as unusual to say the least. I am sure that many others have seen similar. I suspect, however, that no one would have dreamed of using the same kind of language anywhere nearly as frequently outside work.

My two daughters and very close in age and similarly to the above will have come across most of the words that you can imagine - but I have never heard one use any of them while the other uses them, in appropriate circumstances, as she heard them. Strange???

• If you do have a mill then the size of object you want to bore is virtually limitless
• V bed lathes can be limited for method 2 compared to a gap bed lathe
• T slotted boring tables are not always provided on smaller lathes making method 3 difficult, even though it would be most useful on these machines (but see Neil's article on mini lathe abuse!!)

But there is usually a way as this image from an old Drummond catalogue shows!! (Method 3 taken to an extreme)

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 14/07/2019 10:37:31

Thanks guys for bringing back two memories -

Peter - Only went caving a couple of times but on mountains, being how shall I put it?? more economy sized or family sized shall we say - I always felt more confident abseiling with the multiple bars of the Rappel Rack to slow me down

and

Duncan - Never personally used an acetylene lamp, but they were used to light up the steaming bays and hut at the old Nottingham SMEE track at Valley Road 50+ years ago for the annual night run. I can stlll remember the distinctive smell!

Nick

When I first started teaching nearly 40 years ago we had more time and fewer 'safety recommendations' and two demonstrations were getting a group standing in plastic washing up bowls to hold hands and charging up the line with static electricity before asking the end pupil to touch a water tap and secondly to stand in a bowl oneself and light a Bunsen burner by sparking across to it. Lots of fun, but I suspect today the main objection would be to the expense of keeping 30 plastic washing up bowls for one experiment!

One of the most interesting manifestations of static discharge can still be seen if you still develop your own roll film. Loading a film into a developing spiral in a darkroom, when you get to the end where it is secured to the backing paper you need to tear it off. This usually produces a visible spark, but I have never seen it affect the film, surprisingly.

Sadly, after a lifetime of over indulgence, they do not keep them in my size ………. !

There is a very brief mention of the snifting valve in the additional magazine articles that describe LBSC's own Tich where he describes an issue with the snifting valve on his own loco "There was a blow at the snifting valve that projects through the smokebox so I took it off and found a chip of metal in it." but no drawing of the snifiting valve itself or how to erect it.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 10/07/2019 14:56:46

The problem is that everyone who is satisfied with their AV choice can only recommend that choice from experience, however my two pennorth - I am satisfied with Sophos at work (paid) and the free version of AVG on several machines at home.

Actually the first is quite easy to understand, the second and third are a bit harder to figure out and after that ANYTHING is too complicated to understand

Sorry typo - should read SC3

Terry -

Just had a look at the Columbia drawings and I have to agree with Clive's suggestions. The ashpan is very shallow indeed and the four holes in the front corners may not allow sufficient air through to the front of the fire. I addition the thermic syphon comes very close to the grate at the front of the firebox and as such may allow a hole to develop in the fire around there.

The snifting valve is pointing downwards at the bottom of a pipe from the hot header and without sufficient pressure in the system to hold it tight should leak steam if anything, but it could be water, even with the radiant superheaters the full length of the firebox.

As regards the regulator this appears to be the most complex I have ever seen drawn for a model locomotive - a twin poppet valve arrangement operated by cams. I would certainly be wanting to check that it sealed tight.

Deeply envious Ron -

When I wanted to upgrade my lathe earlier this year the Chester version of the 920 was my first choice, but it was out of stock and no delivery date was set, it was really too big for my workshop and something else I use would have had to go (ditch the drill press and just use the miller for example) and the price premium over the SC2 I finally decided on, which is large enough for my present needs, finally tipped me towards that.

Enjoy,

Nick

As an adopted Brummie, living here for more than 30 years, I would like just like to point out that this reference to inserting screws is not correct - I am not fussy about anything and everything!