Member postings for Mike

Michael: Thanks for the link - I'll study it later as I'm just off to a meeting of the stroke charity. As far as the time scale is concerned, my stroke was in 2012, and our research into stroke-induced deafness was about 18 months ago. Our objective was to put together a short course on the subject for our volunteers.

Fizzy & Bazyle: Did you know that in the Welsh language carrots are called morons? Just about sums up the evil things... And how people can crunch the things raw is just beyond me...

Fifty years in the shooting sports didn't do my hearing much good, but the real cause of my deafness was a stroke. Audiologists hinted that this was impossible, yet when I helped a leading medical charity research stroke-induced deafness, it was easy to find four examples among stroke survivors in my local community. If I might introduce a serious note in an otherwise generally fun series of postings, don't play games with your hearing, and use earing protection when appropriate. Deafness is no fun. And I'm not a spoilsport - I still love the sounds of powerful bikes and sports cars, follow Formula 1 and bike racing, and I'm still proud to be associated with the shooting sports as a technical writer for a leading magazine.

Being deaf myself, I quite agree with Richard. Unwanted so-called music anywhere - in restaurants for instance - is just a pain. Music also ruins many a good documentary. And, while I'm at it, why are so many public buildings nowadays constructed with such dreadful acoustics? Don't misunderstand me - I like good music, but in the right place.

Bill, I agree with your sentiments regarding those that want green energy but at the same time don't want energy from wind, tide, solar, waste, gas, oil, coal, fracking, nuclear and any other innovative way of producing energy.​ I wonder if they would stick to these views if we said: "OK, we'll scrap all these schemes, so in future it's no TV, no computers, no smart phones or tablets, no washing machines, no street lamps, and domestic lights out by 9pm - in fact nothing using electricity that isn't vital to human existence, and the majority of power generated to go to schools, hospitals, industry, and emergency services?

And yes, I am a grumpy old man. Welcome to the club!

I'd ban people who seek to ban the activities that give me pleasure.

Nobody has suggested a practical cure for Bugbear's problem. I'm sure a smear of a grade of a thread-locker which allows disassembly would do the trick.

I know it's an overdone sentiment, but you will wonder how you ever found time to go to work! Enjoy it - it's highly recommended.

It's the same with food: if it's processed in Britain then it's British, although it may have been grown or reared anywhere in the world. Going back to Ady1's contribution, I was in a Scottish wool mill a few weeks ago, and their only modern loom was made in Germany by Dornier - a name which has some bad memories from my very early childhood.

Sam, you didn't tell us what you did with your nodding dog in the back window......

Going back to flat scraping, it reminds me of going into the Mandelli machine tools factory in Piacenza, Italy, several times in the 1980s when my sister was their technical translator. At the time they were one of the world leaders in CNC machine tools, and they were forever boasting that their milling machines were accurate to the odd micron. So were the machine beds fine-finished by one of their own machines? No - they were hand scraped. It seems there is no substitute for craftsmanship, although the situation may be different now.

Agree with KWIL and others.. Had two digital callipers, both wildly inaccurate when checked against Moore & Wright and Mitutoyo micrometers. Have some of us forgotten how to read a vernier scale?

I am as critical of BT as anyone, but in this part of the north of Scotland they have one saving grace, and that is a fast repair service when things go wrong. The local newspaper of which I was editor until retirement ten years ago tried pretty well every cheaper alternative and found them all wanting. One left us with no phones or internet connection for three days. We soon went back to BT.

I remember reading Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring" when it came out in the early 60s, and hoping it would bring the world to its senses. Apparently, it didn't. Later I recall the awful stink of Metasystox spray - you could smell it at least a mile down-wind of the field on to which it had been applied. I also saw the result when a farm worker washed out an apparently-empty Metasystox drum in a stream - dead fish for at least 100 yards. Now we learn that pesticides are lethal to bees, and that a dearth of insects is hitting songbird poulations. Will we ever learn, or is it just me growing into a grumpy old man?

Thanks, Bodge and Clive. I wouldn't kill a bumblebee, and the only bugs I do kill are wasps - and then only if they present a sting hazard to the local kids. I just wonder where the bees in my garage find flowers. Within about 60 yards of the sea on the Moray Firth there only seems to be a little clover and, being an old fishing community, there are very few gardens. They must be quite wide-ranging in their hunt. Ady is right: I can't remember the last time I had to wash squashed bugs off the windscreen, and these days we get hardly any flies in the house. It's also ages since I last saw a butterfly. Sad, really.

Anyone know anything about bumble bees? I always thought they were solitary, but from the numbers coming and going through a ventilator in one of my garages there must be a nest somewhere among the junk. They seem quite friendly and they're quite welcome to stay, but will they die off in the winter?

Back to splinter removal, a pal of mine who owned a bike shop picked up plenty in his hands, and he had medical-quality tweezers with an attached magnifying glass. Does anyone know where I can get one?

Roy and Robin: do go to a proper gunsmith and make sure the brushes are bronze or brass. A lot of brushes from DIY outlets that look like brass are really brass-plated steel.

In the past I've used very fine wet and dry wrapped round a MT reamer and rotated anti-clockwise by hand. Anti-clockwise rotation and VERY light contact means the reamer doesn't cut through the abrasive paper, yet you clean the full length of the taper. Lubricate with thin oil or paraffin. Not saying this procedure is correct, but it has worked for me and helped me restore an Amolco milling attachment stored for 10 years in a damp garage.

Yes, Knights - the handbooks that came with new cars in the 1960s and 70s had circuit diagrams, too. I remember owning a Fiat which had a well-translated handbook, but the circuit diagram was in Italian. However, it was easy to follow if you learned the Italian words for colours. The worst were some BMC wiring looms, because if the workers making them up ran out of one colour they used any other colour that was different to the rest on the particular circuit. However, in that era you didn't have to have a degree in electronics to understand the simple circuits in the average car.