Member postings for Mike

We seem to have got a long way from giving up the dreaded weed, but I must again endorse what Clive has written. Not far from here we had a dimwit dog catcher who caught up urban foxes and transported them out into the countryside for release. A farmer friend of mine shot several to put them out of their misery. They were starving and nothing but skin and bone because they had no hunting skills. Otherwise they weren't bothering my friend, who is an arable farmer. I have shot and fished for all of my adult life, but, like the majority of country sportsmen, I have never taken more than I could eat, and even then only when there was a harvestable surplus. I just get fed up with the pronouncements of armchair conservationists.

Clive, yours is one of the most sensible posts I have ever seen on this forum. I'm looking forward to my venison for tonight's dinner. I'll drink a real ale toast to you as I dine!

Agree with NJH. After being a 20-30 a day smoker for 50 years, it took a stroke to convince me to give up. Substitutes never worked for me - just had to grit my teeth and go cold turkey. I haven't had a smoke for over four years now, and do I miss it? Almost every day - tobacco is an incredibly addictive drug.

Michael, It reminds me of the time I put a 1lb jar of honey in the microwave. I meant to heat it for 20 seconds, but accidentally set it to 20 minutes. Result: the house filled with acrid black smoke, the fire alarms went off, and the oven was filled with a black substance not unlike soft charcoal. Ketan, my better half had plenty to say. As Michael says, don't try this at home, kids!

Not far from here a dog catcher trapped urban foxes and let them go out in the countryside. A friend shot quite a lot, just bags of skin and bone because, being used to feeding from dustbins, they did not know how to hunt. There are some idiots in this world!

Dave, If any of those live rounds you lit fires underneath had gone off, you would have been in more danger from the cases than the bullets, as much of the preceding mathematics shows. Well-documented experiments I read of years ago show that it's very difficult to seriously hurt yourself if a rifle or shotgun cartridge goes off outside a barrel.

I know I'm old-fashioned, but I still prefer to do my ballistic maths using grains and feet per second. I'm not even sure what a newton-second is. In the interests of research for the job I do, writing for a shooting magazine, I have just bought the latest edition of Frank C. Barnes's "Cartridges of the World", in which, being an American publication, grains and feet per second are still used. Sorry, Neil, but most shooting men prefer things this way.

Remember there are two elements to the noise of most rifle and shotgun shots. The first is the gas blast as the projectile exits the barrel, and the second is the supersonic "crack" as the bullet, or shot cloud, passes through the air. Only subsonic ammo doesn't generate this second sound element. Fortunately I've never been shot at, but I have been shot uncomfortably close to, with a rifle at long range, and you do hear two quite distinct sounds - crack followed by bang. The old WW1 soldier's saying "You never hear the one that gets you" is almost certainly true. Apologies - we seem to have got a long way from coke-bottle rockets!

To add to the above, clearly the mass and velocity of what's expelled from a rocket determines thrust. Air alone does not have a lot of mass: water does.

Edited By Mike on 08/10/2016 21:33:31

The energy of a bullet in ft/lb can be calculated by using the formula

V² x w

64x7000

​when V= projectile velocity in feet per second and w = projectile weight in grains. 64 is the coefficient for gravity and there are 7000 grains to 1lb. To determine recoil, it's a matter then of comparing bullet energy to gun weight - and this is where I forget the rest of the mathematics. I am sure one of you guys out there will soon put me right!

Ian, another noisy so-and-so we had in this area was the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, based just along the coast at what was RAF Kinloss (now an Army base). In basis it was a 1960s Comet airliner, and the filthy smoke it put out on take-off had to be seen to be believed. Why it was never replaced by a more modern aircraft years ago I will never fathom out, and we are currently without any maritime patrol capability until the new Boeing aircraft arrives at RAF Lossiemouth.

Thanks JA. Both aircraft use reheat for take-off, I believe, but by the time they get within hearing range of my house it will be switched off, I assume.

I live only a few miles from RAF Lossiemouth, so can contrast the noise made by Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons. It's widely believed in our village that one Tornado is as noisy as a squadron of Typhoons. A bit of an exaggeration, I'm sure, but the Typhoon is definitely the very much quieter aircraft of the pair. The noisiest aircraft we've had over the village in recent weeks was a Chinook helicopter. I'm deaf, and it even sent me running outside to see what it was.

John,

I take your point, and maybe I was a little high-handed. Of course, "lending a friendly hand" is what this forum, Model Engineer, and Model Engineer's Workshop are all about. However, as a professional writer myself, I do get annoyed when I find that my work has been copied without my permission. Perhaps I shouldn't get on-line before I've had my breakfast?

From some of the contributions above, anyone would think authors are either some sort of charity, or wrote books for fun. It may surprise some people, but professional writers write for a living. I am sure no-one who contributes to this forum would steal another man's pay packet, yet copying a book, in my mind, is just about as immoral. No, if you need the information contained in a book, then either buy it or borrow it from a library. Grumpy old man's rant over!

If the book you want to copy is yours, I can't see any problem, particularly if you explain the circumstances. If the book belongs to the library, then it is right that they will not allow you to photo-copy it. As a professional writer, I would claim that photo-copying a book or magazine which isn't yours is unethical - basically stealing the writer's intellectual property. If the book is yours, then try your local newspaper office - they often have a photo-copying service. Failing that, do you have a friend with a combined printer and scanner? Personally, I don't want a lot of books I possess to get dirty in the workshop, and I often scan relevant pages.

Hi Joshua, and welcome. I'm about as far as you can get from being an engineer - I'm a semi-retired journalist. I delight in the variety of subjects on this forum: certainly model engineering, but also tool making, motorbikes, aircraft, clock making, and lots more. There's even an active beekeeping thread....

I like Hopper's sentiment. But surely insurance is compulsory?

I enjoyed seeing the wee aircraft, but vintage Piaff was just wonderful! Good job we all have different musical tastes! I was so moved that I got straight on to Amazon and ordered a Piaff DVD.

Edited By Mike on 26/09/2016 11:33:54

You don't tell us the size of the motor, but it sounds like a Telex machine motor I once had. I took off the gearbox, added a pulley, and used it to power a small drill sharpening machine. Could be the basis of a grinder mounted on your lathe's cross slide?

Don't know what the powder was, but the stuff in dry powder fire extinguishers is hardly rocket science - usually either sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate. My chemistry is poor, but I think both release CO2 at elevated temperatures. Whichever, good enough to save my kitchen when the dishwasher burst into flames...