Member postings for File Handle

I have seen brick walls built following the slope of the ground rather than horizontaly, especially in farm buildings.One I remember only looked odd after it was pierced with a vertical doorway, or rather the doorway looked odd.

.

But most people measure weight rather than Mass because it is easier to measure, even though they then use the wrong SI units.

I use both systems, whichever is best for what I am doing. Sometimes both on the same job.
As an ex teacher and examiner, I was amased how poor a typical GCSE student was at manipulating metric units. It may be easier, but beyond the average student.

You could argue the same about putting solar farms on good agricultural land. The big problem is continually ignored: the human population size has become greater than the earth can support in the long term.

I hope that I am wrong, but I suspect that the expensive electric cars will begin an end for cars for the masses. In principle it should be easy to produce a cheap electric run about. But they seem to be aiming the products at boy racers.

I don't think that we do enough recycling / repurposing of "waste" materials. I do miss the scrap yards of my youth were you could wander round with your tools, remove part from an old car and not pay very much for it.

For some time I have been paying a lot less at a local garage, 1-39. I have tended to think that the big supplier and supermarkets have been keeping it artifically high.

During my teaching career, I remember seeing an old seeing an old cobbled together piece of kit to demonstrate that glass when heated will conduct electricity. Basically a mains circuit that had a lass link that you heated with bunsen burners until it started to become molten at which point the circuit conducted electricity.. Nobody was brave enough to use it, but it obviously had been in the past.

The biggest change causing the rise is the cost of energy. May go down long term, but with the push to make it greener , possibly unlikely. Whenever I buy anything I tend to buy in bulk as a future buffer against rising costs. It does mean that I have much that I will never use, but it has saved me money overall.

I tend to just rub a screw against an old wax candle. Using a power drill and self drilling screws does mean that it tends to be lost knowledge..

Does it mean that the windfarms and solarfarms are in the wrong place.
I was told years ago by someone who worked on the national grid that there was no spare capacity and that outages could bring down the whole grid as parts of the grid were byepassed adding strain elsewhere.

Lubricating any wood screw makes insertion easier. Wax is another lubricant, some do come prewaxed.

This was to avoid the blue stains from steel ones that react with the tannin in oak creating a blue stain.

During recent discussions on different steels, repurposing steel bolts was mentioned.
Does a particular grade of steel bolt e.g. 8.8 correspond to a particular steel, or do different manufacturers use different steels and treatments to meet the grade requirements. I remember some years ago being offered some approx 12" bolts at a steam rally for a low price, and was told that many bought them to repurpose. I have often regretted not buying some, but at the time had no use for them.e
Is there a difference betwween old and newer bolts
I have also aquired a large collection of brass bolts nuts and screws. Is a particular grade of brass used for these? How does their strength compare with steel?
Thanks
Happy New year to everyone
Keith

Curious of its intended use?

Best wishes to you Neil, and everyone else.

Or rather it is not purified so contains metanol as a contaminant, hence cheaper than when more highly purified, hence dyed to deter drinking.

Most of my (tap) die holders are old ones that I have aquired secondhand, they are much better than any I have bought new. Years ago I used a water pipe thread cutter (a bit like a Coventry diehead). this had 3 pins that you forced in to centre the pipe (and lock in place). It was heavy being turned by a 2' /3' handle. I have often wondered why noone makes a die holder with a similar guide. This would be 40 years ago now (at least), I think it was an old piece of kit then. It took a bit of setting up, but did a good job.

It does look impressive and expensive. Over what time period will it return your initial outlay?

The heating system in them was a bit prone to rust however. But I also liked mine.