My only experience is that I can't cook steak in my kitchen without the smoke alarm in the hall going off.

My thoughts - a smoke alarm connected to an alarm is probably only active when the alarm is set, so there should be no new smoke or temp rise when in use so the cutting oil or brazing ought not be an issue.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 24/03/2019 09:38:24

I bought one of these a couple of months ago - OWON B35T+ Datalogger true RMS Multimeter Temperature Tester Bluetooth 4.0 BT - eBay 223443667199 - 44GBP at present

As well as being a multimeter it comes with a temperature probe (thermocouple) but I also bought a K type thermocouple probe to use with liquids eBay 272654971464 - 3GBP

It will log a series of readings and store them internally or send them via Bluetooth to a computer, tablet or similar.

With many devices it will read out the reading as you take it - very useful if you are poking around in something - you don't need to look away. Works on my android phone and also on iPhone, if not others.

A satisfied customer!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 24/03/2019 09:23:38

I have read on the web that the GPO used odd sized BA screws (3ba, 5ba, 7ba etc) on exchange equipment, supposedly to avoid pilferage.

Just ran it past an ex Garratts Green, Birmingham GPO Phones guy and he said that this was true!

Thank you everyone for all your advice - I will chew over it all.

- and Dave - on your basis, as far as milling machine tooling is concerned I am totally blissful !

Thanks all

Interestingly a Google search brings up references to 1/2" 22tpi used on Model Ts and other old US cars - but even there it is seen as non standard.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 18/03/2019 14:02:08

Looking to buy my first small mill to save using the club workshop machine for larger jobs.

Tooling is an additional cost but I am interested in opinions over er25 collet chuck and collets versus mt2 collets direct in the spindle.

At first glance mt2 collets are cheaper, less likely to be out of centre (unlike an er25 if tightened by a mishandled c spanner), allow more height for a workpiece and are possibly more rigid as they project less.

Yet a couple of opinions I respect suggest the er25 collets are the way to go.

Any thoughts?

Thank you for your links, but neither they or my original assertions affect my argument that Windows is a reliable system and the most popular ba considerable amount - which is why I am unhappy with you describing it as silly - components have no part in what makes something a computer. .

Taking your two points NextStep was based upon BSD which is a POSIX compliant UNIX type operating system. Linux was an original work but still a POSIX compliant UNIX type operating system. Possibly a more accurate statement might have been to say that Linux and MacOS share a common heritage, however my argument regarding Windows remains the same. I did not mention Linux as a third option because the user base is so small, even though I use it and am very happy with it I think it is only just beginning to be a mainstream alternative.

Regarding your link about market share - new purchases of Apple kit are indeed running at between 10% and 12% as they have for some years, however this is not the user base - the only statistic for this I have found easily available is that for web access - ie the number of web access per operating system - not an unreasonable one as use of the web is fairly universal these days - and this lower down the page you have linked to is at present 5.95% for MacOS and has not changed for some years as far as I can recall.

As Chris has suggested Apple v Windows can run and run - but I think my points based upon experience with Windows updates remain valid.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 17/03/2019 12:45:04

Totally agree!

Sorry Mike but this is totally outside my experience as an IT Manager and lecturer/teacher responsible at one stage of my career for nearly 3000 users.

The latest updates have arrived and been applied to all the computers at work automatically and also to the 7 Windows machines I have here at home (a mixture of XP, 7, 10 and server 2012). No problems. The machines are a mixture of commercial systems and home builds.

Our systems where I now teach are not custom but locked down so that users cannot access most of the settings - updates arrive when they want to. This can be a pain if it is when you wish to use a computer, but we put up with it as, with the very rare exception of a dodgy update, it is far more normal for things to stop working without updating than with. We are not running simple systems either as all machines have central software licencing, screen magnification and screen readers available. Many also run our MIS system as well and all are networked with content filtering and input filtering. The lockdown is to make them work in a standard way, and as they are standard a machine can have a total software reinstall 'hands off' if needed. In my present role we have about 100 machines and 3 hours of tech time per week, much of it related to MIS and other systems not PCs.

While Apple equipment is beautifully engineered it is very expensive and non standard - they have never gained more than 6% of the PC market as far as I know. Also if you wish to do things the Apple way, great, but customising a system for your own use is normally very difficult if possible at all. At work Music is taught using iMacs and I have two older Macs here. They both continue to operate as new, but using a 2004 vintage Mac which does not allow newer versions of the operating system and hence newer software is limiting to say the least. The ones at work will need upgrading soon as the latest version of the software has significant benefits but needs more up to date hardware and the current machines won't let you install. A windows system would usually allow updating until the hardware made using it painful. I have a 2005 laptop on the table next to me that, because it has been possible to have its memory upgraded, runs windows 7 fine - an operating system released 4 years after the computer was made. And yes it updates a treat.

You said that 'If operating system designers made cars we would be walking a lot more' Well I don't think either Windows or Linux (including the MacOs derived from it) are perfect, but there are also problems with cars down to design faults or user errors such as crashes, misuse or putting the wrong fuel in. My (recent) car lets me down from time to time. Would you refuse to service a car at the same time as you block updates?

Are cars more reliable per hour's use than computers?

You pays your money ……..

In a previous life I had to set up software so it had a German keyboard layout but as the user was a touch typist the UK keyboard was being kept as they were not looking at it anyway.

The major difference was that Y and Z were interchanged.

I spent a couple of hours trying to configure this software without success until it finally dawned that when it asked 'Do you want to keep this keyboard layout' I needed to press the German Y key that was the one with Z printed on it, and not the one with Y printed on it  ……...

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 16/03/2019 20:51:35

Can I suggest some possible reasons for a supplier NOT correcting errors?

Drawings, including all errors, are copyright for 70 years after the author's death - so Martin Evans, LBSC, Don Young, Keith Wilson are all still in copyright. Even Henry Greenly's drawings have only gone out of copyright a couple of years ago, and if they were redraw by his daughter they are probably still copyright.

An error on a model may be down to the builder, so if only a few people complain a supplier may not be certain whether the error is real.

The supplier may not have the expertise to correct the drawing - eg a classic - LBSC's 'Maid of Kent' valve gear. K.N. Harris and Don Young both published modifications - which to choose??

Also the ignition temperature of aluminium in air is given by an internet source as 550C while the hottest part of a methanol flame is given as 1910C

Internet sources admittedly, but personal experience does suggest aluminium can burn quite easily.

I have seen a bonfire made up of Honda 50 light alloy crankcases - it used to be a 'party piece' at bike rallies.

See http://nuclearpowerradiation.tpub.com/hdbk1081/Table-2-Melting-Boiling-And-Ignition-Temperatures-Of-Pure-Metals-In-Solid-Form-33.htm and http://www.derose.net/steve/resources/engtables/flametemp.html

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 14/03/2019 17:11:51

Natural oils are rarely used today, most enamels are synthetic.

When I worked in car paint it was (S) for synthetic and (C) for cellulose, or 'you can put (S)alt on (C)hips but not (C)hips on (S)alt'

The problem with cellulose (apart from what it does to the environment) is that you never know what is on there already.

Also if you are applying with a spraygun synthetic enamel is a very different technique to using cellulose. Runs are far more likely if you lay it on too heavy. Denibbing files (eg Machine Mart 040811450 or 040811449 for example) are your friends if it happens.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 13/03/2019 14:56:32

My long term restoration project is an early round bed - got a seriously overlarge 1HP 3 phase motor for almost nothing so it will run from that through a vfd/inverter.

Overkill, but what was available at the time.

Scheming out a countershaft. It has already had a v pulley fitted when I got it so the poly vee option is not the first choice unless a flat pulley, or two, turns up.

Late to the party I know but …..

Firstly a nice piece of work you have produced.

Secondly have you considered roughing out the type holder and brazing it together then bolting it flat, not vertically on the miller table and using something like a large woodruffe cutter to finish the slot?

Sort of like this, but with the holder clamped down to the table

Not my image but all rights acknowledged

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 08/03/2019 18:16:41

Elmdon MES **LINK**

Wythall Transport Museum, Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcestershire B47 6JA **LINK**

Easter Sunday and Monday April 21st and 22^nd

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

May Day Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday May 5th and 6^th

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

Spring Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday May 26th and 27th including annual visit from the Model Bus Federation

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

Fathers' Day Out Sunday 16th JUNE

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

August Bank Holiday Sunday & Monday, August 25th/26th

Including Austin J40 Club Gathering on Sunday September 29th

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

Autumn Running Day Sunday October 6th

Public running 12:00 – 3:00, vintage bus rides and transport museum

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

Saturday October 26th End of season twilight running day

Twilight train & bus rides 11:00 - 7.00pm and transport museum.

Contact: Jonathan Hill 07984337004

Elmdon MES **LINK**

Wythall Transport Museum, Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcestershire B47 6JA **LINK**

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 08/03/2019 12:59:29

I once tried to put oil that had dripped onto the floor back in but I couldn't pick it up

Most of them! There is a tub of dripping in the fridge as I speak.

In a similar vein, some advice to anyone visiting the Black Country Living Museum - there are two chip shops - one fries in oil, the other in dripping and is therefore far superior!!

That is the one for 638 which seems OK - it is the one for 648 that I don't get

Nick

Thanks - I was using the information on my supplier's website not the Loctite data sheets.

Where I am still puzzled is that the graph for %strength at 22C for 648 shows this to be more than 100% at 22C?????.

There are lies, damn lies etc etc I think!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 07/03/2019 11:49:18