Member postings for Chris Crew

I had second thoughts about the comment I made, so deleted it.

Edited By Chris Crew on 14/09/2022 08:38:44

Modern car electronics are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma to me. I had, apparently, one LED fail in a rear light cluster on a Volvo V90 which brought up all sorts of intermittent and contradictory fault indications on the dashboard. The local Volvo specialist (after many years no longer an authorised Volvo dealer) had it in the workshop for a week before they found the fault and charged me £675. Obviously, I had no choice other than to smile through gritted teeth and cough up.

I have the electrical diagram that is in the Operating and Maintenance Manual but I don't know what year of machine this would relate to. If you message me with an email address I will try to send a scanned copy over to you.

I had an electrical issue with my machine a few years ago and as far as I can recall the wiring is all pretty simple as will be seen in the diagram. A cheap AVO meter used for continuity testing found my fault, but you are welcome to a copy of the diagram for what it's worth.

I agree with all of the above, but one thing that I found when cutting the four internal splines of the 'carden' shaft of the Radford worm-wheel hobbing attachment was that the first tool I made, admittedly only in mild steel, to hold the cutter tended to flex. I made another tool to the same diameter as the bore and advanced the cutter by slackening the end retaining screw and putting on another 0.005" cut. You can do this by feel/guesswork or with a micrometer. It actually didn't matter in this case how deep, within reason, the splines were cut because the external diameter of the male part did not require to be in contact with the end face of the internal spline. The bore holds the cutter in contact with the spline/keyway being cut so no flexing of the tool shaft can occur.

"Building a Quorn is useful beginners project."

John, I admire and respect anyone who has more skill and craftsmanship than myself but I would not class the Quorn as a beginner's project by a country mile. Just the graduating, let alone some of the machining requires workshop accessories which those just starting out would probably not possess. A great project for advancing and testing established skills but not definitely not for a beginner, IMO.

It was this component that brought my 50% completed Quorn project to a halt and it has languished under the bench for a few years now. As if a recessed taper on the underside of a one-piece component was not difficult enough to machine and effect a reasonable fit, or at least it was in my case, I made the spindle as a separate component and used Loctite to fix it in the main body, the upper mounting lug is also awaiting a solution on my example. Without being able to refer to the book, which is out in the workshop, I believe Prof C. modified this part because many people were having difficulty in holding the work-piece to machine it. In any event I didn't have this casting in the un-machined kit of castings I bought via a classified ad. and was fabricating the part. As I recall, I found machining the circular tee-slot another nightmare. Obviously, I had to machine a groove and then make two cranked tools, RH & LH, small enough to enter but big enough to make the annular slots to form the tee (I may have just made one tool, inverted it and ran the lathe in reverse to machine the opposite groove, I can't recall now). That's how I did it although other higher skilled machinists may have done it differently. I toyed with the idea of welding a lump of steel on to the top to hold the work-head as against bolting it on but moved on to other projects in the meantime and have not yet gone back to the Quorn. Perhaps you have just inspired me to do so.

I don't know if this qualifies for inclusion on a 'scam' thread, but I have just discovered Google's Adblock Ultra. Free and appears to work perfectly. Local newspaper sites now work faster without all the nonsense they try to download and it states that it also blocks YouTube ads, so may maybe I can cancel my £11.99 subscription to YouTube premium. At least I hope I can.

"When you do, the line is held open, so he can send you the recording of a dial tone, then ringing, and then he's back. Works because most people don't know how the phone system works, have hazy notions of banking methods in general, and probably no experience of bank security processes. Wait 10 minutes and then call someone else before dialling"

Dave, I stand to be corrected because I have been out of the telecoms industry for a few years now, but it is my recollection that forward call holding, which was a throwback to the old electro-mechanical exchanges, was eliminated several years ago. I think I know this because, although I had taken a voluntary redundancy from my employer of 38 years, I was requested to assist with the loading of a new build of software on to the exchanges of some OLO's (other licensed operators). I can't comment on the BT build uplift because I was not involved with that program. Although I was not privy to all the details of the uplift, it was my understanding that one of the issues the new build dealt with was that of the bank scam that relied, as you rightly point out, the line being held open by the caller for fake dial tone to be sent to the called party. I don't think this was ever any longer than 20 seconds in the case of System X switches but in any event it was eliminated around 6 or 7 years ago. As I say, I do stand to be corrected on this if someone is still in the industry and if the old narrow-band digital switches even exist anymore.

Paul, Yes, a fair cop, I hold my hands up! There was some useful practical advice provided initially, it's just that it seemed to drift into a very technical and controversial debate later on. I did actually find it all very interesting.

Well, I thought I was because I would like to think that with the amount of 'grey matter' that exists in the model engineering fraternity no one would ever be taken in by this nonsense and I thought I might have raised a wry smile along the way. But you are right, maybe I should leave comedy to the professionals. I really must investigate the possibility of getting a humour by-pass operation on the NHS!

As regards topic drift, I don't think this comes anywhere near the course navigated by a previous post of mine regarding how much it would be costing me to operate in the workshop. I think we entered the realms of coal versus nuclear versus the environment with some very long treatises on the pros and cons by some obviously well informed and technically well-educated people. All very interesting reading but most of it didn't come close to answering the question.

I received an email informing me that some beautiful Ukranian girls were just waiting to meet me and make my life even more wonderful than it ever could be with SWMBO. As I was going to be attending the Huddersfield Jazz Guitar Festival, which co-incidentally was being held at the Ukranian Centre in the town, I thought that I might just meet a couple of these beauties there and that they would be all over me like a rash. Unfortunately it didn't happen and I had to be satisfied by listening to some incredibly talented musicians and a jazz rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem. Sometimes I think that these emails may just be a scam although I am sure that in my case the beauties must have been delayed at the airport due to a shortage of baggage handlers. Of course, that must have been the reason, I should have thought about it at the time!

Edited By Chris Crew on 24/08/2022 22:09:43

With all respect to Dave Wooton's advice, because we all have differing opinions and experiences, personally I dislike the GHT rear tool post because I view it as being un-necessarily complex, not easy to make due to the accuracy required to get the inclined blades anywhere centre height with a sensible protrusion and I also think it is 'flimsy'. GHT was a great craftsman and deservedly commands a respectful following, myself included, so I cannot be too dismissive of his musings on the subject of parting-off which are well worth reading. I would suggest that you should look to the online auction site or contact one of the several Myford parts dealers. The 'new' Myford itself may be able to assist in supplying an OEM accessory but either way it will cost you. For someone in your position, because we all had to start somewhere and I was as impecunious as the next man in my younger days, I would be thinking of a noggin of 2" x 2" MS drilled through the centre for a tee-bolt with a simple slot milled in the side. You can mill the slot in the lathe itself with an end-mill held in the 3-jaw chuck if you don't have a collet. A piece of newspaper wrapped round the mill will help prevent it creeping out. Drill and tap for a couple of clamping screws to hold an inverted J&S type, Eclipse blade parting tool-holder in the slot. Make sure that the blade has a few degrees of rake ground into it and set it a fraction above centre-height. Use a moderate speed for the material you are parting and if it is steel get as much coolant/lubricant into the parting slot as you can (I nearly always pump it). Once the tool starts to cut be bold and keep it cutting. If it is a particularly deep parting cut you can quickly retract the blade and increase the speed as the diameter of the work-piece reduces. This goes towards prevent any 'graunching' as the diameter of the cut reduces to zero. Rigidity is the 'secret' of successful parting IMO, and that includes the holding of the work-piece, so part-off as close to the chuck as you can and remember a 4-jaw chuck grips better than a scroll 3-jaw. I know some people will disagree with a lot, if not all of this, but I can say that it works for me and I hope it will work for you.

Stuart, yes I suppose I could do that but I will probably just renew the next railcard on the old account. It really doesn't matter that it is under the step-daughter's name because I pay for it and all the cards I have ordered through it have always arrived with the correct names on them. It just seems odd that I can neither delete the account or change it to my name, or at least I couldn't the last time I tried. I will be renewing the wife's card next pension day so I will try again to update or remove the account.

I started buying Railcards when my step-daughter began university so that I could pay for all her rail travel at the Student Railcard discounted rate. For some reason, I can't recall why, I opened the account in her name but with my email address and bank details. When I all but gave up driving anywhere of any distance I wanted to buy Senior Railcards for myself and my wife but for some reason the online site will not let me open an account in my own name because my email address has already been used on another account. I have tried to delete the previous account without success, even though it was me who set it up, so I have had to continue purchasing and renewing our Railcards in my step-daughter's account name although I pay for everything directly from my bank account. I find it a little odd and frustrating that I can't dispense with an account that I set up with all my details but in another person'e name and open account in my own name.

I stayed at the Howard Johnson motel in Titusville which is about three miles away on the opposite bank of the Indian River. The motel has (or had if it is still there) a bar with large panoramic windows that faced the Cape. I was told that when one of these things launched every window was rattled nearly to breaking point even at that distance. I have never witnessed a launch but I can well believe all the stories they told me about them over a few beers in the bar. It must be one heck of an experience to see it close up.

I was a visitor at the Lincoln rally today and a grand day out it was indeed. May I express my appreciation of the organisers, all the exhibitors and the traders who attended in the face of obviously rising costs. However, the field seemed to be somewhat less densely populated than pre-Covid events but I hope that this first post-Covid event is financially successful enough for the organisers to consider staging it again next year. There were plenty of fine examples of transport heritage to admire but the market was notably smaller, although at least four 'model engineer' type stalls in attendance, and there were a few vacant areas on the showground which I had not noticed at previous events. Also, there seemed to be a little less 'buzz and bustle' about the field but nevertheless it was well worth taking the trip over and we should hopefully look forward to next year.

The true value of anything is only that which someone is prepared to pay whatever the seller may think something  it is worth. I have put items on eBay in the past at what I considered to be a fair 'buy it now' price with no takers. I have subsequently made a much lower offer to the 'watchers' and the item has been snapped up. I shouldn't be so surprised at this, really. Not so long ago, and I am still crying myself to sleep over this, I was persuaded by my wife to part with a beautiful Boxford 240 CNC lathe which, being an ex-university machine, was in superb condition although still driven by the original Boxford software running on a BBC Master with 5 1/2" floppies but working perfectly. Given that some, IMO, Boxford junk is advertised at mega bucks I certainly thought there would be at least some interest in my offering. Not so, there was only one bidder and it went for the starting price. With the advertising and commission costs that eBay charge I was very disappointed. SWMBO will never get me to part with another machine under similar circumstances however much she needs the space for a new freezer!

Edited By Chris Crew on 18/08/2022 08:59:02

Edited By Chris Crew on 18/08/2022 08:59:47

Edited By Chris Crew on 18/08/2022 09:01:24

Mick, I agree with you 100%. A full day's activities, large displays of all modes of vintage transport, various indoor exhibitions, a large outdoor market for the ladies plus ample free parking thrown in and all for a tenner!

Has the Pickering rally been resurrected, even if it was subsequently cancelled? Before it ceased they always used to have posters up in local shops at least as far south as here in Lincolnshire and gave the shopkeepers a couple of free tickets to display them. I know this because a local fish and chip owner who had no interest in the rally himself used to give them to me.

It was my understanding that the Pickering Rally ceased several or more years ago when the company that promoted it suffered some business difficulties. It is also my understanding that this resulted in two separate, but smaller, competing rallies being organised in the North Yorkshire district. I do stand to be corrected on this and would try to attend the Pickering Rally if has been resurrected. It did used to be a great rally but, like Topsy, just growed and growed over the years until, IMO, it became unwieldy which I can imagine caused some security issues which may have contributed to its demise. Good while it lasted though.

Edited By Chris Crew on 17/08/2022 22:52:17