Member postings for Mike Poole

I think you should discuss your specification with an electrician who is fully up to date with the regulations and capable of electrical design, a wireman or even someone who has the testing qualification may not be fit to advise.

Mike

Ohms law is the basis of everything, when you understand Ohms law and I don't mean able to use it as a mathematical formula. When you have understood this law the modifications for the effects of inductance,capacitance and frequency begin to make sense.

Mike

If you intentend to use any VFD inverters these can be a bit of a nuisance on RCD protected circuits. It may be worth having spur outlets to supply any devices of this nature not protected by the RCD.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 30/01/2015 10:41:46

Many Dickson toolposts have a pin fitted in the hole, I suspect it may be dowel to locate the toolpost on the top slide.

Mike

follow this Link for a selection of solutions.

Mike

I am impressed with my Sonos playbar, a definte upgrade on whats Samsung could squeeze into a 40mm thick TV also has the added advantage of wireless connection to my Nas drive and so can play my music collection which is now stored on it. The wireless connection also connects to the internet and so you have access to more radio stations than you could ever need and you can play music from any cloud storage you may have. Control from any tablet or smart phone.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 26/01/2015 15:32:13

I think most rewind shops paint motors after assembly, it would be a nightmare to mask and spray before.

Mike

Andrew, with my geek hat on I read through the specification on the Southbend lathes and noticed it mentions the country of origin, the 8k says China and the 10k says Taiwan, also says the factories are not iso9001 certified.

Mike

Some epic discussions have taken place on the ME letters page and once printed are there for ever, a forum such as this could be gone in a flash. Lets hope MEW will host some classic discussions.

Mike

I have noticed that some people use Allen type grub screws on their Dickson type tool holders, I have changed some of mine and this does tidy up the tool holder, I think it is worth using screws of a length so that the socket is supported by the toolholder and hopefully stop the socket breaking if over tightened.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 24/01/2015 13:21:24

When I was a maintenance electrician on the shop floor I had to buy and use my own tools, this was normal then. Now all the skilled men in our plant are not allowed to use their own tools and were instructed to take their own tools home. If this common practice now then skilled men will not be shopping locally for their tools and large business will have an account at major distributors. Oxford had one toolshop where you could buy toolmaking equipment but they are long gone, the surviving tool merchant leans more to the building and mechanic type tools, they are willing to order more exotic stuff but you fall back to the see and feel problem. Oxford is not an industrial town as anyone who has visited will know. The car factory had to be quite self sufficient compared to the midland plants which had the workshop to the world on their doorstep. Shopping in Oxford is a wretched experience as the car is seen as a cash cow, city centre parking is at Dick Turpin rates and even a visit by park and ride will cost £4.70 plus fuel for the round trip. I don't think local shopping has a future except for clothes and restaurants, on a rare clothes shopping trip the lady on the till asked me if I had enjoyed my shop? I had to say no but it was unavoidable as sons graduation meant I needed a new suit and the internet is not the best place to buy a suit. Despite postage costs I think the internet has local shopping beaten hands down, wide choice, keen prices, no parking or fuel cost and open 24/7, what is not to like? With many suppliers able to get your purchase to you in a couple of days this is often quicker and more convenient than trying to fit in a shopping trip.

Mike - totally sold on the internet!

Having earned a good living from the Cowley car plant for the last 43 years I shall leap to the defence of the british car industry. In 1972 Cowley employed 28,000 people to produce around 300,000 cars a year we now have about 4,500 people and 1,100 robots to produce about the same number of cars. Many brands have been built at Cowley which was originally a Morris plant. Since I have worked there we have built Austin, Morris, Triumph, Rover, Hillman, MG and even Rolls Royce body shells. Much innovative design and engineering came from the companies that formed the ill fated British Leyland conglomerate. Huge strides were made in bringing the company up to date with the best manufacturing methods but as fast as we moved the goalposts also moved. Investors were reluctant to put their money into factories with the appalling industrial relations record of the 60/70s by the 80s the bad old days were behind us but the memories were still strong. The MINI that we started building in 2001 with the backing of BMW shows that with proper investment and a well designed and engineered product brings success. Lord Nuffield is widley revered as a philanthropist but maybe if more of the money had been reinvested in the products Cowley could have kept up with the Japanese invasion. BMW just didn't have deep enough pockets to save the english patient and chose to keep Cowley and make it a success. Jaguar Landrover are building some very desirable cars with the most up to date manufacturing methods and some very heavy investment from their new owners. John Bloor has shown that with the right vision and investment a successful Uk built motorcycle can be built, wisely the only bit of the old brand he kept was the name, TRIUMPH Is a great brand name on some great motorcycles.

Mike

Edited By Michael Poole on 23/01/2015 23:11:20

The days of the local tool merchant are pretty much behind us. I think a good relationship can be made with online suppliers, both from item quality and the service given i.e. speed of delivery and a reasonable returns policy. I think some of the disappointment with online purchases comes from hunting down the cheapest price rather than the best combination of quality and price. I have my preferred online suppliers and am rarely disappointed. For some items I stick to reliable brands but pay a premium for this choice, an illustration of this is I buy Dormer drills which I doubt anyone would be disappointed with the performance of but the price is a bit steep.this maybe be an example where looking and feeling may not be helpful as a drill can look the part but not perform. I feel that some online dealers do their best to supply items that are fit for purpose and not just cheap and offer their backing to what they sell. I suspect that with so much of what we buy being imported with no brand or recognisable name to rely on we are in the hands of the dealer and his good name. Already some of the suppliers are building positive reputations and being confident to put their names on their products. I think some of the old established brands are playing a dangerous game by putting their name on items made abroad which as long as the quality they built their reputations with is still there it's OK but I feel that sometimes it is not.

Mike

A new built to order Myford can be bought now, I saw one at Sandown and it looked very good indeed. They are also making the old accessories like taper turning,dividing head and vertical slide etc.

Mike

A perspex screen fitted to one of the cheap magnetic bases make a useful screen for the lathe or mill to control nuisance chips.

Mike

I drove the length of France a couple of years ago and must have passed 600 or more wind generators, I didn't see one turning.

Mike

I believe an MOT has to take a certain time now that they are computerised, from logging on to start the test until the certificate is printed can not be rushed.

Mike

Good plug for show on 'The One' Show earlier. Now on iplayer last 5 minutes.

Mike

Type spark test into youtube, plenty of real life demo's, better than any picture or description.

Mike

The HSE use the blunt weapon of inflicting their rules on people who know what they are doing, not just the idiots who don't. A proper apprenticeship should produce a competant responsible person. Unfortunately there are many people with no training at all able to call themselves anything they want and do a shoddy job. The HSE answer is to hit everybody with another layer of regulations not hit the cowboys. I accept that there are idiots who hold indentures but I think this should be addressed during their training making it more rigorous and protecting the function they train for from cowboys.

Mike