Member postings for Bill Phinn

Dave, as someone who has done both paid and unpaid Chinese-English translation work and is reasonably well informed, if anyone is, of the general standards in Chinese to English translation even mainstream translation agencies are capable of, trust me, it would.

Dave, I bought the non-belt-drive version of the WM18 earlier this year.

In anticipation of its arrival I made a wheeled dolly out of 4x2 CLS with a big enough gap underneath for my engine hoist's legs to comfortably pass under. It made moving and positioning the mill for the final lift very easy.

When the delivery truck arrived I wheeled the dolly out into the road and the very obliging delivery man (Walker's Transport) offloaded the crate directly on to the dolly. I can't comment on the Warco trolley, but I sensed it wouldn't be adequate for my needs.

The Chinglish in the manuals is there for two reasons:

1. Professional Chinese-English written translation done either by native English speakers with very good Chinese or, second best, by native Chinese with significantly better than very good English [vital when the target language is not your mother tongue] doesn't come cheap. In my experience of travelling etc. to China only the Chinese central government can be consistently relied on to produce accurate and idiomatic English translations, i.e. to hire the very best translators.

2. The machinery manufacturers themselves rarely place much value on [i.e. justify the cost of] good translations for their manuals, even if they understand what it takes to produce one, which is seldom.

But how will you find it, Peter, if the seller of the thing you need doesn't advertise? How will the friends or work colleagues you consult have managed to find it before you? Bear in mind that even an entry in a telephone/business directory is an advert.

On a related note, can I take it your working history does not include much self-employment?

I hope Arc does not make the switch to DPD after my latest experience with them only yesterday.

Many thanks for the further replies.

Sorry to overlook your suggestion about welding, D. A. Godley. I thought you might have been joking, as I assumed such a repair could very probably adversely affect the stylus' ability to transmit reliable readings. I'm glad to hear the stylus isn't so critical as I thought.

Clive, your explanation for Verdict's unwillingness to sell those parts makes sense, yes. I'm certainly glad I didn't need them in this case.

Graham, your experience with Verdict's parts supply service is reassuring. I might need it if I drop the DTI again, assuming a DIY repair is not beyond my skill set and/or tool kit.

On a final note [and in light of the new forum thread on Parcelforce versus DPD] delivery of MSC 's replacement stylus via DPD did not go smoothly. The "guaranteed twenty-four hour" delivery turned out to be 48 hours [not really a problem to me as the replacement wasn't urgent]. Worse was that I received no valid tracking, no updates, and certainly no one hour time slot as others have reported. The tracking number MSC supplied at my request when I felt there surely should be one still draws a complete blank on the DPD site even after delivery.

EtA: David, I forgot to acknowledge your useful posts regarding styli you had made. Working in miniature is something I'm fond of, so I might well be tempted to have a go one day.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 29/10/2020 01:37:29

Thank you for the further replies.

Yes, Bill, those are the pages I viewed. Interesting to note in Verdict's catalogue that some of the parts for various DTIs are described as "not saleable". I'm unsure how to understand that.

Many thanks for the replies, especially to Steve for the suggested extraction method.

Yes, a scriber has done the trick! Took a long while to wind it out enough to get some jewellery pliers on the stub and turn it a bit more quickly. Fortunately it hadn't been screwed in too tight.

For the record, it's a 10BA thread. Now I just need to identify the right stylus to replace it with. I've got all three that go with this model [Metrinch T34] and the broken one is the 0.080" ball tip. MSC Direct's website seems to sell a big range of styli but the descriptions are hopelessly inadequate. Fortunately there's a good guide to the styli on Verdict's/MJ Allen's website so I think I've identified the right one on MSC's site. Buying from Verdict/Allen direct doesn't seem to be an option.

In spite of literally keeping it in cotton wool when not in use, compromised dexterity has led to me dropping my Verdict Metrinch DTI on a concrete floor and snapping the stylus clean off at the base.

I would be grateful for any suggestions on how to remove the remnant of the stylus from the screw hole, or otherwise make good the damage.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 24/10/2020 18:50:03

Thanks for your answer, Mike. I sensed this was the way things were, though I didn't know you could broach Torx slots.

A genuine question, Mike, if a little off-topic:

A large choice of head shape is clearly something any lathe can offer, but what about the "slot"? A simple line slot will surely look wrong in some situations, but what other realistic choices does the lathe owner making fasteners from scratch have? Hex, Torx, Pozi, Philips et al. are surely not practicable.

It looks right, Steve.

I don't think anything better demonstrates the objective superiority of the metric system than the fact that, in order to be functional, the imperial system is, most of the time, a metric system too.

I've got three of the Zoro Japanese types, William. I've also got the Aldi tap set, so I'll tell you the range out of that set each wrench holds.

Order Code: ZT1157490X - 2.0-4.0MM Jis Chuck Type Tap Wrench-slimline

This will hold max. 2.5 in the lower jaws [2.5 not in Aldi set]. I can't tell you min. in lower jaws 'cos I don't own any taps smaller than 2.5. It will hold a min. of 4mm and a max. of 6mm in the upper jaws.

Order Code: ZT1157492X - 3.0-3.9MM Jis Chuck Type Tap Wrench-long

This will comfortably hold 3mm in both upper and lower jaws and hold max. 4mm in upper. Upper jaws will hold much smaller than 3mm if needed.

Order Code: ZT1157488X - 4.0-5.0MM Jis Chuck Type Tap Wrench-standard

This will not hold 3mm or above in lower jaws, and will hold a min. of 4mm and a max. of 6mm in upper jaws.

Bear in mind that the across-the-flats measurements on different brand taps are not necessarily identical in size even if the threads are.

EtA: No idea what all that blank space is doing below my text. I did not consciously insert it, and cannot, for some reason, edit it out.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 20/10/2020 22:08:39

I'm not quite sure what different shade you're seeing, Alan, or where the window dressing is. The information about "production in Yangzhou" on the optimum-machines.com webpage you linked to in your opening post is corroborated by the content of the Toptech "about us" page.

It looks like Optimum have invested quite heavily in the Yangzhou plant and have European personnel onsite [full-time?] assisting with production.

There's a slightly fuller introduction to Optimum/Toptech here:

http://www.toptechmachine.net/gs.asp?bigclassname=%B9%D8%D3%DA%CE%D2%C3%C7

I believe Weiss are based in Nanjing, formerly known in the English-speaking world as Nanking.

Surely not that unpronounceable either way.

This book might be worth a look as well, Michael:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000057652054&view=1up&seq=1

Michael,

I'm not sure it would be easy to establish whether there was any consistent distinction in practice between a founder and a caster, and I don't think etymology is a useful place to start.

To gain some insight into whether there was any distinction, it might be worth searching old dictionaries of trades and commerce, such as the following:

https://archive.org/details/universaldiction01post/page/n839/mode/2up

Just to round the story off, I did request a chargeback for the sum involved and this was granted and credited to my account. Also, because my credit card company took longer than promised to credit the chargeback they voluntarily gave me an additional £35 ex gratia payment for failing to meet their own deadlines.

The lesson seems to be that in cases like mine Ebay are indeed "obstructing buyers from enjoyment of their rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015", but the determined consumer can win out in the end.

I'm not quite sure how to interpret your statement, Nick, but it is my belief that, under the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act 1954,:

"(1) No right of entry to which this Act applies shall be exercisable in respect of any premises except—

(a)with consent given by or on behalf of the occupier of the premises, or

(b)under the authority of a warrant granted under the next following section:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply where entry is required in a case of emergency."

People might be relieved to know that the consensus among today's academic linguists is that the whole idea of there being such a thing as corruption or decay* in language is untenable, and referring to individual instances of usage being correct or incorrect is much less defensible than referring to them as standard or non-standard.

The only trouble of course is that determining what is standard isn't itself always straightforward.

An example that springs to mind is the shift that has taken place from "I'm well" to "I'm good" when people are asked "How are you?". I suspect that a large number [possibly a majority] of under-thirties would prefer "I'm good" whereas most of us on this forum would probably feel uncomfortable saying it in that context.

There's nothing wrong with preferring an older way of saying things, especially if usage supports it. I think we should try to remember, though, that usage is a very fluid thing and standards change, sometimes at a speed and to a degree that can feel disorientating.

*[except when the decay means a language's decline or extinction due to the loss of its native speakers.]