Member postings for Mike

Come to my village in North-east Scotland: the nearest motorway is 130 miles away, and I haven't driven on it for ten years, thank goodness!

Not as you describe, but if you Google for ring terminals you get lots of hits. Most are meant to be crimped on to the wire, but they can be soldered for extra security.

It's a wonder some of us survived out childhoods, isn't it? We used to explode home-made gunpowder in golden syrup or Andrews Liver Salts tins, using Jetex fuse from the local model aircraft shop.

I think I'd rather have the Triumph in the background.............

I've always used centre drills rather than spot drills. When both ends are no longer capable of being sharpened, you are left with a useful cylindrical bit of HSS which can be ground into other tools. Yes, I am stingy! My chart lists 12 drills, from sizes 00 to 10 (0.125 to 1 inch, although sizes 0 to 4 will perform most tasks in my workshop.

Thanks for the explanation, Joseph. My dear old dad must be turning in his grave over my lack of knowledge - he was an electrical engineer. The cables will make a landfall just west of our village, and run underground for about 10 miles to the small town of Keith. Can you tell me how they will get rid of the heat? Just out of curiosity I have asked the contractors, but haven't had an understandable explanation. Your mention of the effect on the aviation industry is interesting, too - we are just a few miles from RAF Lossiemouth, one of the biggest fighter stations in Europe.

I've just noticed that one of the most powerful tugs/anchor handlers in the world has moved very close in to our village on the Moray Firth. She's the Norwegian-registered Siem Ruby - 300 feet long and 28,000 horsepower. She's been around for the past week or so, but never this close. She's clearing rocks and ploughing a trench for an undersea cable which will bring wind farm power from Caithness and points north, and feed it into the grid via a sub-station about ten miles inland from here. Sorry, guys - I don't know much about electricity, but this electricity is transmitted as DC - apparently less voltage drop over long distances.

And, going back to old weights and measures, a pyramid inch was one 25th of a cubit...............

Those of us interested in ballistics weigh our bullets in grains, and speeds are in feet per second. V8Eng, let's have a night on the town! Wenches to serve the trenchers and grog, I hope!

Edited By Mike on 14/06/2017 12:33:24

Jon: When I was a newspaper design sub-editor years ago we used ems for horizontal measurement and inches for vertical. The size of type was measured in points.The British-American points system (72 points to an inch) survives with type fonts in the computer age. Amazing that nobody has changed this to a metric measurement. When metrication first came to the printing industry I recall going into a supplier's shop and asking for a metric steel ruler. "How long", asked the assistant. "Oh, about two feet", I replied automatically. Sorry, but to this day I still think in Imperial weights and measures.

My favourite (mythical) punk band was Pete Pimple and the Pustules..........

Martin: One of my father's duties during the 1950s involved planning power lines to take electricity to rural villages. In school holidays I went around with him and helped him carry his kit. This comprised a theodolite, sighting rods, a surveyor's chain, and a leather-cased 50ft tape by Chesterman. Yes, we used what my mother always referred to as 'God's measurements' rather than this modern metric rubbish. After father's retirement I acquired the tape, and for years a pal and I used it for marking out circles for control-line model aircraft flying. I must still have it stashed away somewhere...

I've always used this method to get a chuck off a Jacobs taper: Before first fitting the chuck, drill and tap a central hole in the back of the chuck, any convenient thread, and, to remove, open the jaws wide and screw in a long Allen screw. If the metal is thin at the back of the chuck, drill a clearance hole for any convenient thread. To remove, clamp a nut firmly in the jaws, and screw in a long bold. Might not be the "proper" way of doing the job, but it does work. This works best, and may prevent undue strain on a precision chuck, if you make a very deep nut out of a bit of mild steel hex.

I get these jokers all the time, as well as the crooks pretending to be representatives of Microsoft and wanting to "talk to me about my computer." My stock reply is "f..... off!", in the hope they leave a note on their database "do not phone this man, he is incredibly rude." The tactic doesn't seem to work......

Hang on to that weather, please, Speedy Builder5. My wife and I are holidaying in your area in early September.

Too hot for the workshop today - bright sunshine and 28 degrees this morning here on the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. Can anyone beat that?

Gunsmiths traditionally use a smoke lamp to deposit a very thin layer of carbon on the surface to be checked. It's nothing more than a small paraffin lamp with the wick turned up to give a smoky flame, although a candle will do.

William, enjoy your eccentricity and don't ever let people persuade you to change. I'm still enjoying mine at the age of 76, in spite of the fact I don't have your talents. Anyway, being known as the village eccentric is much better than being the village idiot!

Norfolk Boy, you had the posh one - I had the 1300 Triumph Toledo, which was a conventional rear wheel drive. I thought I was a hell of a guy because it was the first new car I bought which cost more than £1,000! Drove it from my home in Lincolnshire to Trieste on one hideously hot weekend, and I lost count of the time it boiled. Got talking to an English bloke I met, and he suggested stopping over a gutter and draining out the anti-freeze and refilling with plain water. End of trouble because, apparently (he said), plain water conducts heat better than water/antifreeze mixture.

I recall two years in Africa in the early 1960s, where British cars were sometimes a joke because they were always boiling because of too-small radiators - a problem not found with American cars. I suppose that when Americans bought a car they expected it to work anywhere between Alaska and Mexico. The get-you-home trick with British cars was to strip down to your shorts, open all the windows, and turn the heater on full blast.

According to the Science Museum the heater is most likely a safety heater or lamp patented by W.E. Bladon and G.R. Neale, Jan. 26.1927. As it is in their road transport category, it seems it was for preventing vehicle radiators from freezing. I recall that in the 1950s the consequence of freezing was much feared - a burst radiator or even a cracked cylinder block. My dad had a little paraffin heater he placed under the car at night in winter. He daren't use anti-freeze, because it was a solvent for Radweld, which held the radiator of our 1937 Austin 7 together. Several people we knew at the time used to drain the cooling system of their ancient cars every evening, and refill it in the morning.