Member postings for Bill Phinn

Thanks for that, Michael.

The second of my mysterious shrinking pots/expanding lids is now in the bin. I have replaced it with something of older vintage.

I minister to the needs of two bed-bound people round the clock. Apparatus that needs to be brought to the person is put on over-bed tables.*

It would simplify the making of the bed frame, I think, and not leave you feeling so boxed in or at risk of being crushed if you used a height-adjustable over-bed table that straddles both sides of the bed. It could be wheeled for convenience.

Will you have someone regularly in attendance who can bring your table to you and take it away again when you’ve finished your work? Or will there not often be anyone there but you, hence the overhead tables on cables idea?

*For the uninitiated, these are typically wheeled and the legs roll/slide under the bed. 

Edited By Bill Phinn on 12/08/2023 01:58:59

Even more on the other hand, whereas the majority of senior politicians in the UK have a Humanities background, the majority of senior politicians in China are STEM trained.

I know which of the two societies I’d rather live in.

It depends what you're paying for your 3 jaw chuck. Bison and Pratt Burnerd have made adjustable 3 jaw chucks for a long time. To be specific, both claim "adjusting accuracy of 0.005mm" and "repeatability 0.015mm" for their adjustable 100mm 3 jaw chucks. I don't know any ER collets on the market that claim greater accuracy than 0.005mm runout [except maybe Regofix?].

It's not impossible to get meaningful apprenticeship schemes started. I played a part in getting the bookbinding apprenticeship scheme off the ground at the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, after I made a direct appeal to the then Prince of Wales.

I pointed out that there was a serious shortage of people with the necessary skills to repair, restore or recreate antiquarian bindings sensitively and competently, and that if places like the Royal Library were serious about conserving their collections in the long term they might consider investing more in keeping alive the skills needed to do so.

I got a very positive response as well an admission that they had not been aware these skills were now such a rarity. The emergence of the apprenticeship scheme means they clearly took my letter seriously.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 10/08/2023 19:04:17

Bridgen’s comments don’t diminish the facts of the Holocaust: they seek to diminish the suffering of its victims and the moral enormity of those responsible for it.

Ultimately, people who make comments like Bridgen’s or endorse them in pursuit of some far right libertarian agenda diminish themselves.

You use an EasyZero collet nut.

Thanks for the links, Michael. Marvellous work.

Almost the list I'd have given.

A bit difficult perhaps to agree on what a hand tool is.

The one thing I'd add to the list is "evidence of high level hand skills". The design might be dazzling, original and all yours, the tools used may have all been made by you, and all materials etc. home grown or prepared, but if the hand skills in evidence aren't up to snuff, none of the other things, however good, can compensate.

Really skilled hand work perfectly conceals the fact that it was even done by hand.

"Industry in art is a necessity—not a virtue—and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work...The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the brow - suggests no effort, and is finished from the beginning."

James McNeill Whistler

I agree entirely, as I do with probably everything else in your post.

What I was chiefly attempting to explain was simply the reason why so many people, acting as individuals, choose certain still perfectly legal solutions to a particular problem [in this case heating their home] that may be worse for the environment than equally legal, but significantly more expensive, alternatives.

When the immediate financial cost to the individual of choosing the environmentally more friendly option is so high, [perhaps in many cases so high as to be unaffordable] surely it's unfair to label everyone who chooses the environmentally less friendly but still perfectly legal option as unsmart denialists etc.

Chuck Taper, Graham has nicely illustrated for us here that, for the individual citizen, an unwillingness to embrace the necessary changes is often based on common-sense economic principles, obedience to which is fundamental to that individual's short- and long-term economic survival.

No politicans I'm aware of, of any political stamp, have provided guarantees that making the necessary changes will actually be affordable for the individual on a limited budget, i.e. 99% of the electorate.

Until the necessary changes are viably affordable alternatives to the way we as individuals do things at present, then those necessary changes will not in most cases be made, and understandably so.

Perhaps you could show us what you have in mind.

Could you clarify what machine your Rage blade was fitted to, Jon? Presumably not an Evolution Rage mitre saw, unless by a "slow cut" you mean a slow rate of downfeed.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 01/08/2023 23:09:32

Thanks for the replies.

Michael, it's Ilocut 154, yes.

I don't know whether the lid has expanded or the pot shrunk, but I assume the latter from that fact that, most of the time, significantly more oil is in contact with the pot than with the lid.

Either way, the pots are now unusable, as two accidental spillages have already attested.

ETA: I don't know whether the two plastics are the same, but the lid is coloured whilst the pot is translucent.

I tried that, Maurice. Access to the oil through a simple hole wasn't quick enough for me, though, even when I bonded an inverted shower cord pull in the lid to guide the brush down into the oil.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 30/07/2023 18:52:43

Six months ago I bought two non-spill pots like this.

When new, their push-on lids were tight-fitting. I put Ilocut cutting oil in one of them and used it for about three months before I noticed that the lid had become very loose, to the point where it could be lifted off the pot with just the weight of the empty pot pulling down on it.

Since this non-spill pot had now become a "spill pot" I deployed the second pot, whose lid was still nice and tight at this point, as it was when originally purchased. Three months later,though, the lid on this second pot is just as loose as the first one was after three months.

I don't understand the chemistry of why putting oil in the pot makes the plastic shrink, but if anyone can recommend a specific non-shrinking non-spill pot I'd appreciate it.

Assuming the originals were M6 and the right length at 10mm, I’d go for these.

What you need to be aware of, however, is that the diameters of the heads of CSK machine screws can vary with the type, so it’s best to check first before buying in case replacements don’t fit down the existing holes.. Kayfast have useful tables of such things.

The three holes on your part look unnecessarily deep for CSK screws - a case of the factory erring exaggeratedly on the side of caution, probably.

I'm not sure what comes under the heading of Easyouts, but I've had consistent success with Dormer M100 extractors.

A transfer punch.

Yes, I'm just rather short on time and material.

This is the way I want to go, Clive, with my 8x16 [M10 toolpost stud] lathe. The only snag is finding someone who actually sells standalone 4 way toolposts. QCTPs, by contrast, can be found everywhere.

If anyone knows a source, please let me know.