Member postings for Nick Clarke 3

Have a look at this from Archive.org

I have (for reasons very similar to yours but including a possible temporary downsizing) just succumbed to the temptations of a Unimat 3 with Milling attachment, top slide and fine feed attachment, all in the original box.

Boxhill along with all Martin Evans's designs I can recall does not have backhead cladding as drawn - but this does not mean you can't fit it.

The boiler drawing does not show and thickening pads and I doubt a professional boiler maker would have deviated from the plans without specific instructions and drawings from you.

The only references to the firedoor in the magazine articles I have scanned through this morning is on the cab interior layout. it appears, along with the latch to be fixed by screws. It is not dimensioned.

As the boiler expansion/hold down angles are shown fitted to holes drilled and tapped into the boiler I suspect the firedoor hinge and latch would be similarly attached - but whether you do this is a decision for you to take.

Remember this boiler was designed nearly 60 years ago and as L.P. Hartley said 'The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there' and screwing things directly into a boiler was the normal practice then.

I was asked to try these in my VW Beetle 1500 engine (a daily driver) by the classic car business that looked after it. I was told it was tin, not lead that was in the pellets but who knows?

All I do know is that for several years afterwards it ran on unleaded quite happily and its emissions (which were not necessary for MOT but tested for the sake of the experiment) were drastically reduced.

Only one example but interesting anyway.

36C in Kings Norton and 37C coming home up the 435 just now

I'm ashamed of you Neil - that headline is the sort of thing one expects from the red-topped rags, not the editor of a high class magazine like MEW!

Ditto, ditto, ditto on the cheap ones - but I don't use it much (mainly for glasses as has been noted already) and it is still working after more than 5 years.

Graphite powder as used on locks, sparingly applied perhaps?

I am curious to know how we have gone from numerous suppliers (eg Birmingham Gas) to a National organisation (British Gas) to numerous suppliers with an overarching authority (Ofgem) and far closer government control and intervention.

Isn't that more people and more work?

And while on the subject of electronics v. mechanical I drove several dodgy Minis in the 70's and a 1966 VW Beetle in the 90's that could always be repaired until the tin worm got too much of a hold - but had to drop a 1997 car because the engine warning light came on too often but not because of an engine fault but something in the many interconnected systems that fed it and the main dealer could not locate.

Similarly a couple of cars later on we had one that didn't have a key but a card and starting was unreliable.

We were recommended a new battery by the breakdown service but they gave us some of the money back when it didn't solve the problem. Apparently the starting sequence was to put the card into a reader, check with the body computer that the alarm was not triggered, check the electric power steering was not hard against the kerb and if so disable it to prevent damage, check the electric hand brake was on and then talk to the ABS before going to the engine computer to set that up for starting providing there were no issues. Then the steering lock was released. Only then would the motor turn over and subject to oil pressure and air temperature start.

That one ran perfectly for 6 years but when the trouble started the dealer suggested replacing each component in turn, at my expense, until the fault was fixed. My comment that I could do that so why did I need to pay his labour charges when his 'technicians' were no better than I was did not go down well!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 17/07/2022 11:49:19

Since someone has mentioned cameras and as possibly the only one here who still uses a Hasselblad regularly, we must be careful not to get into an apples/oranges situation. Like my Leicas Rolleis and the 'blad all mechanical cameras demand regular cleaning and lubrication. So too with many bits of engineering equipment.

An electronic device (with a few notable exceptions) does not. So if I wanted to take the Hasselblad out I would need to remember it has not long been cleaned - while the Plaubel Makina, in theory a better camera, has never been serviced since I had it. About 2 feet from me is a 1913 N&G Baby Sibyl which I have just serviced and the first film was great. The comments on Former Soviet Union cameras are interesting as they were often dumped in the west for foreign currency, crude in the extreme. While some never worked well, or at all (a fault found in some american cameras as well to be fair) and the quality depended upon the number of vodkas taken with the assembler's lunch, they can usually be repaired and made to work well (ie clean off the same gun oil they were lubricated with that I remember from Lee Enfields!)

But If I want to take out a camera that I have not used for a while I would take the Nikon f3 or Bronica because as they are electronic they will (subject to the lens being ok) always work with a fresh battery. However if the electronics were ever to go wrong it would be extremely difficult to repair either and far beyond me, even if spare parts are available.

In cameras it was mainly the Japanese who went electronic and european brands went in the direction of increasingly uneconomic low production devices either mechanical or electronic and a meaningful comparison is difficult to impossible.

It is also interesting that Austria remained in the game longer than most with Eumig movie equipment and Emco engineering stuff staying after much other european kit had gone.

Remember that at this time drawings were redrawn by the house draftsperson (at one stage the future Mrs Evans) introducing another opportunity for things to be missed.

The differences between UK and German V4 and V6 Ford engines were many but basically one was a mirror image of the other. Eventually the German V6 took over and V4s were dropped in this country though whether still used in Germany or by Saab I don't recall.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 16/07/2022 18:08:35

This is taken from the original magazine. The bushes are clearly on the drawing although it only says there are two of them, not three and the text does not add more except the drill sizes to get a running fit without reaming - which sounds a bit scary to me!

Without wishing to upset you Peter I feel that in today's worldwide manufacturing culture that the location of manufacture has little impact on the quality of the item with poor quality and excellent items available from most parts of the globe.

Not buying items made in country X or Y will prevent you accessing good quality stuff as well as the rubbish.

Does price enter into your equation - and if it does how does expensive European manufacture stand up to less expensive Pacific rim goods? Particularly when many famous names now import from there anyway.

Possibly linked with the issues mentioned above - what material are you trying to drill? Some steels can be difficult!

But isn't that like having a licence to use a computer program? You have a licence to only do what the software house wants you to do for as long as they want you to do it - provided you keep paying.

Basically BMW are more or less licencing their heated seats for an annual fee.

And while this appears to be novel I suspect there are far fewer BMWs out there than software licences so their new business model is only common practice elsewhere!

As a genuine request for information I have a 300A Jump starter which is a wonder starting traditional (ie less electronic) vehicles with ease. Its star performance was starting a 3.2L diesel minibus that had been in a garage for 18 months over lockdown where there was not enough oomph in the battery even to pop the door locks.

Any suggestions should I ever need to use it on my current stop/start Skoda?

I don't use hacksaw blades as packing on the rare occasions I don't use the QCTP - I use strips of aluminium cut from empty beer cans - and in fact I am about to restock by disposing of the contents of a couple right now!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 12/07/2022 19:01:37

As I only have one QCTP does that mean I only have one character defect? - or is it the number of holders that indicate the number of character defects?

Both the clubs I am a member of have testing and retesting regimes for driving and being a guard when carrying members of the public but when they are not present these are relaxed to allow training and practice to take place.