Member postings for Ray Lyons

I was on the top floor of the car park in Tenby and bought a ticket stamped 2.30pm. Then found that the lift was not working. Too engaged blowing my own top to have been influenced by a mere earthquake. Didn't feel a thing.

Thanks for the tip. I assume that the description Traction applies to golf cart or mobility scooter batteries. I'll bear that in mind if I ever get around to installing.

Most suppliers give a discount if you use DD and paperless bills. So far I have been changing almost every year to get the best price but that option must run out eventually.

I have solar panels on the roof which help in reducing costs . The introduction of battery packs should be a real advance but will not apply to existing systems which qualify for the feed in tariff. I would think that for new installations without the feed -in incentive more panels could be fitted and with a reasonable battery pack, the average home would be self sufficient although mains would still be required as a backup.

I have been looking at fitting a stand alone solar panel system of about 400W for the shed. Looking at what is available, using car batteries,this should give enough power, about 1500W to run most if the machines and perhaps a small greenhouse heater to keep the shed dry. At an investment cost of about £500 it could well pay for itself but at this time of the year it is mostly cloudy,misty weather the panel output is very low so I think that idea goes on the back burner until the sun comes out.

I bought a Sealey Mill/Drill fitted with a 1HP motor about 20 years ago and carried out several modifications to achieve a reasonable finish when milling. About 10 years ago, one of my friends was throwing out a 1 1/2 HP 3 ph motor so I took it off his hands and overhauled it stripping down and turning the shaft to fit the motor pulley.

Buying a second hand controller on EBay, the whole thing cost me less than £50. With the extra power and the speed control, I rarely change the belt position which is in the middle range. Now I would not be without it but then I went for the very cheap option. Even if you do decide to buy everything new, I feel sure you will not regret it as the conversion enables speeds to be adjusted for the size of cutter with plenty of power to cope.

It just gets worse. In the Daily Mail this morning, Hardcastle described it as a serious leak. I have the impression that these journalists have never been further than the local duck pond.

In the workshop where I started my apprenticeship , the foreman was an former Petty Officer serving through WW11. , Many times when we had a problem, he would sort it out saying that it was "nothing in a big ship" and the Queen Elizabeth is a very big ship.

This leak is so small that I would suggest that it is hardly worth starting the bilge pumps, a mop and bucket is enough. Mind you tomorrow , the papers may have escalated it to 2000 L/Min . Anything for a sensational report and newspaper sales

I have renewed the blades for my 6x4 bandsaw using a coil and silver soldering the joints for years now but some time back, I bought one of those hobby wood working bandsaws from Aldi and found that the blades supplied were very thin and useless for sawing straight. I then bought an assortment from Silverline which now work OK and come with a life time guarantee.

Have not used the guarantee yet but it must be worth considering if they supply 641/2" blades for the metal cutting bandsaw.

Sorry, I got it wrong about the warrantee period for the Hyundai and Kia. I have owned both makes in recent years,, My latest car is a Peugeot Partner Tepee and because I now only tow a small trailer, the towbar is fitted with a 7 pin plug, total cost £255 fitted in an hour.

One other thing you have to consider is that Hyundai give a 7 year warrantee with their cars. This could well be invalidated if a DIY system is fitted. Make sure that the installer gives you a guarantee as some have a get out clause if the car stops and Hyundai don't accept the wiring.

I bought a can of spray from Wilko which did a great job on metal.

Scrapped a built-in double oven last week. Not much to recover,,only a couple of galvanised panels. Took the doors off and then used the angle grinder to bring the main body down into small chunks to fit into the car for dumping. I did end up with a lot of self tapping screws which may come in handy one day.

I will be first at the door for the Inverter Welder today. Another item worth considering is the small plunge saw. I bought one some time ago and used it when laying 3 solid oak floors and more recently a laminated floor. Much easier to handle than the usual hand held 7" saw.

I have just come onto this subject where I have had some experience which may be of some help to you. Some time ago, before the modern machines, I bought a 3 in 1 welder very heavy and needs a trolley to move about. I will try to take some photos and post them up. In the meantime, I would suggest that you go to your local motor factors and enquire with them about the supply of welding gasses. When I bought my machine and at first hired the small Argon cylinders from BOC but soon found that the hire costs prohibitive. I now have an argon bottle from Barnet Gas Supplies with a one off payment for the cylinder and only paying for the gas as required. I have recently found that my local motor factors are agents for SGS Welding Gasses which work on the same basis as Barnet but because they are local, no carriage charges are involved.

A lot of the older cars with solid blue and red paint suffer from fading, not something easily cured. I recently bought a Silverline 1800 washer, mainly to clean the paved areas around the house but I would not use it for car washing. I have a cheap low power job for that. My procedure for washing the car is to wet it all over with a spray from the garden hose and then using a large soft brush and a bucket of diluted traffic film remover, go all over the car. For the wheels, I use a mild degreaser. this is then followed by a jet wash. I could then use a wax/wash in the jetter but it is difficult to control so this is applied with the brush, then a final spray with the garden hose. Finally drying off with a leather. The whole process takes about an hour but that is a lot safer than having to pay out for a respray. I also know a chap who does the same thing for £4 and only takes about 5 minutes so when in a hurry I go there knowing he does a good job but you have to chose with care, paint casts a lot these days.

Mick, what did you do eventually. I suffered a scrape to the lower edge of the front wing in the supermarket car park. As it was so slight, decided to put the repair off as it did not look so bad but then I turned a bit tight into my local garage car park and made a real mess of things, requiring a new front door. It was recommended that a new plastic sill strip be fitted at a cost of £171 + VAT which I declined. Now deciding if to have a go at removing quite deep scratches or fit new sills with running boards at a cost of £165 for the pair

Ray.

John, thanks for the info on the TUCSON I was looking at the specification which is very similar to the i40. It was the quietest diesel I have ever driven and returned 60 + MPG with only £30 tax.They make a TUCSON model with similar economy.

Getting back to the main topic, transporting models. I recall as a school boy, Sunday afternoon on Putney Heath when some guys would transport their working model ships on old pram frames, then the spitting flames from the burners as they prepared to raise steam and launch. Happy Days.

Earlier this year,I spotted a Citroen Berlingo on a forecourt which impressed with large, wide doors, the rear ones sliding,giving good access to what is really a van with windows. The rear seats fold and I was told could be removed to give a large flat carrying area. This was a high spec model which had lots of extras with bags of storage which I think would appeal to anyone transporting a model loco.

I guess that like many people of my age, I have had many cars but about 4 years ago, I bought a Hyundai i40 estate. What a great car but unfortunately, very low and then my wife hurt her back which made it difficult for access, especially when parking alongside a pavement. We had to replace my wife's car so she could continue to drive but because my car is used mainly for long trips it became a problem. Very reluctantly the Hyundai was exchanged for a KIA Sportage which I have found ok but not anywhere near as good. I now also need a vehicle with good access due to knee problems so the Sportage suits nicely.. That was until I saw a Hyundai Tucson of a similar spec to the i40 so I decided to look around next weekend and before doing so, booked an annual service so that I could present a fully up to date service record. When parking at the garage, I turned into the car park too sharply resulting in a badly dented passanger door which is going to cost upwards of £1000 to repair. I don't really believe in luck but it seems that the Sportage will be in my garage for some time to come.

Funny, thinking about it, when buying a major piece of equipment for the workshop, in my own mind I debate the hell out of it before deciding whether to buy but when a shiny lump of metal passes in the street, the decision is almost instant.,

I once had a Volvo V40 2.0 Litre diesel and usually returned 53 MPG but on one misty, foggy morning, on a 60 mile trip I achieved 68 MPG according to the liar on the dashboard. Recently, in a KIA Sportage, 1.6 Litre diesel, in misty conditions over 30 miles, split about 60/40 A roads and motorway, I got 59 MPG average with a very smooth running engine. On the return journey, the sun was shining and warm but I only got 48 MPG. All figures from the dashboard readout. Apart from proving the beneficial use of water injection, I have often regretted selling my old reliable Volvo but like me it was becoming old and needed to retire.

I've had the same problem which I blamed on Windows 10 updating. My present computer is fairly new and fast so the old one using Vista was set aside for being old and slow. Decided a few weeks ago to buy a 250GB SSD and fitted this to the old machine. Should have done so before and would have saved a pot of money. Fitted the SSD as the primary drive and use the old 500GB drive for storage. Now I have all my old sites back, including Workshop, without the never ending windows updates from Microsoft

I was getting up to 3 cold calls daily and worried about the scammers who are finding new ways to part us from our cash. (mainly the older generation). About 6 months ago, while browsing through my local Tesco store, I came across a BT Guardian phone set and after a bit of on line research bought a system. A bit of a job setting up to establish known contacts in the phone book but so far it has been great. No cold calls at all and as a bonus, the range outside is good, enabling me to keep in touch from the garden or the shed.

I know we have VAT and other costs but if you look at Harbor Freight in USA, their prices for machine tools can be as much as 50% less than ours. I saw a YouTube video where a 6" woodwork lathe was demonstrated. It is the same as that sold by many importers in the Uk and costing about £350. This chap,with discounts bought his for about £100. I guess it is like petrol, we can't compare with USA