Member postings for DMB

Went to club's track day, needed to stay to the end to count takings and take them home, ready to bank and got soaked for my trouble! Given that the annual public Liability insurance, monthly electric and water Direct Debits together equal £100 per track day, we made quite a loss on the day. That doesn't include the council's rent and other more minor costs. Teabags, coffee cakes and goodies all supplied free by members. Surprising how many people turned up later in the afternoon when it was getting wetter. Third poor or non existent track day - first it wasn't safe to operate with so few members on site, next track day also cancelled, not safe to run with a broken elm tree branch hanging by a piece of its bark about 12ft above the track. When council contractor's cut it down, I counted 10 rings then estimated total must have been 60+, so you imagine the size of it. Took them 4hours to do. Today, we were on the point of cancelling due to the weather but very young passengers arrived in slowly increasing numbers. Nothing like a normal day of course. Cold, wet and windy, quite a horrible day.

John

I dont think that it stops with buggered bread. I once tried caffeine free coffee. Never again - what muck, in my opinion. Vaguely recall other foods that have been tampered with. "Nowt taken out"?? Ah, but what muck has been put in that has not been mentioned, disguised by bullshit wording? " Hydrolised vegetable fats"? Other dodges like gravy browning to darken a cake because it's a cheaper ingredient than black treacle. Now I wont touch anything like that. Fortunately, I dont have too many health problems. I am pre - diabetic so dont touch iced cakes but very occasionally have a small amount of "marzipan" as I find the flavour irresistible. Go easy on it since its sugar paste with colouring and flavouring. Having had a double bypass some years ago, I'm now on 6 prescriptions for life, in theory, but the aspirin causes internal bleeding, so I very often 'forget' to take it. Some of the other medicines sometimes get forgotten due to their interference with my sense of balance such that biking has ceased as I feel that I'm a danger to myself wobbling about. Not supposed to eat grapefruit, a favourite, as it allegedly interferes with medication. Had one last week and still busy gardening, workshop, walking everyday. I take the view that many things are 'bad' for me but I enjoy them in moderation and stay happy. I feel that my careful behaviour with foods and drink, won't make much difference to my longevity so enjoy life. 'Summat' will get me sooner or later even if I do give up so many of my favourite foods, so why do it and snuff it anyway even after a few remaining years being miserable taking notice of "experts" saying I shouldn't eat this or that. I do realise that some people suffer from various ailments that mean it's imperative that they avoid certain foods and I sympathise. I said pre or borderline diabetic so I counter that with continued gradual weight loss, almost no alcohol, daily walks and try to keep as active as possible. Now mid -70 s so whatever I do now won't make much difference. Would just like to hang around long enough to draw out a darn sight more pension than what I ever paid in for!

Edited By DMB on 20/07/2023 21:59:36

Businesses get charged for industrial waste. Uncertain whether council would accept half a ton of old unsold mags for recycling. Suppose recycling refused because it's from a business which the council could charge for disposal? Could be cheaper to bundle them in with other mags to create interest/desire/action, as the salesmen say. Cheap disposal and cheap scatter - gun type advertising. Possibly more effective than just displaying front covers as customer has hold of a 'strange' mag and natural inquisitiveness would mean it gets opened and even read. Maybe new permanent subscription. Also helps clear space with a steadily increasing backlog of over production clogging valuable space which could be better utilised. Wonder if my speculating is on track? My guess is that only back numbers of certain mags, e.g., ME and MEW, are in 'demand' for reference purposes but not so much for Railway Magazine and even less for some old gardening title. Talking of Railway mag., earlier this year, I saw an offer of £20 for 6 monthly issues which I grabbed. Bear in mind normal WHS cover price is £5.25, this was too good to miss. I will probably take out a permanent subs after the 6 issues.

John

No. 1 SWITCH IT OFF before touching moving work or tools.

One of the clubs I am a member of, has a number of youngsters wanting to use machinery in the club workshop. I try to impress upon them to keep hands, hair and clothing well away from moving items until stopped, either by switch off or operating clutch. Other things as well, e.g., keys out of chucks asap, in case key gets used left in, forgotten until m/c switched on and ejects key.

Splashed trousers?

Cure is to always wear black or navy blue so splashes don't show as well as on light coloured trousers.

If while at the urinal you cannot see what you're holding in your filthy hand, then you have a big problem - either one is too small or the other (beer gut) is too big!

I had an el cheapo phone line and BB contract with Shell giving a crap d/l speed (around 10 or 11mbps?), way below the National average of around 70 megs and dodgy calls and being charged the bulk of £20 monthly for the 'privilege' of having a l/l. Now I only have a BB contract with Onestream, so no more scam calls and at first, the d/l speed was up to scratch with 70+megs and cheaper than Shell. Then they thought that they could sting me for an overall 24.6% mid-contract increase. Contract renewal imminent and Onestream can go to hell for their arrogance.This year, a new supplier, 'Grain' has dug up the pavements and is now offering fibre calls and BB @ a d/l speed of hundreds of megs for a reasonable price. I'll give 'em a try Constant supplier and phone number changes seems to leave the scammers behind, very much like a change of 'puter' password which also happens frequently. 

Had a series of silly emails sometime ago, from a name who was a stranger to me so that rang alarm bells immediately. Emails asking for a quick favour. Alarm bells jangling much louder! Asking if I buy goods on Amazon? If I replied, you can bet that he would be wanting to use my account on some excuse and gain bank details. Nah! Banana boats come to mind! Reported and not had any more dopey messages. I have had some very cunning ones over time but my philosophy of, "if in doubt, chuck it out," still works best. If I want something,  I go to that business' website rather than react to messages just in case.....

John

Edited By DMB on 12/07/2023 09:14:02

Nigel,

Yeah, certainly seems very dodgy.

John

Edited By DMB on 12/07/2023 08:30:33

Many years ago, Chas. Kennion supplied castings and drawings for a similar little drill. Maybe GLR/KENNIONS still do, I don't know.

I believe that the HSE state that only properly trained staff should be allowed to change wheels in a factory. All that can be done about 'men in sheds', is to provide reliable good advice via this forum and the magazines then it's up to the grinder user to take heed for his/her safety.

I have a vague recollection of someone describing how he made Balance disc which I think were fitted behind the grinding wheel. Could have been Harold Hall? or maybe in the SMEE Journal?

For a long time, I have found ordinary mild steel flats cut to length to suit jaw width, have served well enough for me. I used a selection of thicknesses and widths and they seem OK. Yeah, I have been accused of being 'tight'! Recently acquired some 'proper' hardened parallels from a deceased club member's collection. With the home made ones, just careful checking for dents and dings and they seem to give satisfactory service.

My parents had a Smith's mantelpiece clock on mains electric. If juice went off, it stopped and had to be manually restarted. Today's version is self starting but is 'slow' by the length of time juice is off. Progress? - hmff! I don't have a workshop clock - just look at my wristwatch.

John

Yet another silly email from someone brain dead at Mort - ons. Surely, with anything and everything is on 'puter, it can't be that difficult to exclude the email from the 'converted' - existing subscribers. As a life long subscriber I don't need to "pre - order" the 14th July issue.

Come on someone at M wake up!

It all helps fill the mag. Every mag editor and every club newsletter editor is struggling with a lack of 'copy' to publish. Difference is, commercial mag editors have to produce a mag by a fixed regular publication date. I wouldn't like to be one. I belong to 3 model engineering clubs where the newsletter editors are all begging for contributions but do have considerable flexibility, only publishing when they have sufficient. I try to help out with regular contributions to one club but would have difficulty in writing something different for the other 2. I doubt if I can be of much use to Neil, since my old and grey (like me!) Super7 is no different to thousands of others. I have copied accessories already described over the years in ME/MEW/EIM, so nothing new there. Of 2 local clubs, one has a nice green little used Myford and the other club Myford is a ghastly maroon colour. I think it's awful but it doesn't detract from it's usefulness. Let's just say that my purchase of a Super7 was one of life's better decisions and wouldn't be without it.

FWIW, piece of advice picked up from somewhere. Write a letter of wishes e.g., what do you want done with your body, burial (expensive), cremation (bit cheaper) donated to science (free) unless you want some sort of memorial service or ' boil in the bag'. Bugger me, whatever next. A letter of wishes could include things other than funerary wishes but anything of monetary value needs to go in a will setting out disposal and assessment for taxman to have his last greedy bite. The letter could be stored with your will, if you make one, with a copy given to your Executor.

As for flushing the dissolved remains down the drain/ sewage system, yuk!   a bit more for a gobfull when you go swimming, which I dont.

Edited By DMB on 03/07/2023 14:19:26

Doane,

A few decades ago now, I noticed that army radios had plates similar size to your requirements. Marked, "mod. record" seem to recall 1 - 50 and each number was crossed out with a diagonal line stamped, say, 1,2,3 and so on up to say 17, representing the latest modification. They were black background with silvery characters - Ali plates with a black coating, possibly? If you could trace the contractor who made the plates, but could be a challenge due to military secrecy. Maybe pick out of the hat, almost any engineering company, ask if they do plates and if not, could they recommend a company that does. I guess military supply companies would be best bet. Look out for those boasting about '9001' or similar manufacturing standards.

Good luck in your search.

John

What I posted on 20/6 was not intended to be political. I dont give a toss whether some senior judge (or any of the others listed)  is a Labour or Tory supporter, or of any other party. I just keep hoping that they get taken for a small fortune because they will be more able than ordinary Joe Bloggs to get something done about the current situation.

I dont get scam phone calls on my landline because I no longer have one. My mob is normally switched off to conserve battery power but when I do switch it on, I find the logs show a number of mystery nos appearing as missed calls. Couldn't care less whether they're genuine or not, if I dont recognise the number it simply gets deleted. Occasionally get a dodgy looking email just delete. I always approach a business for what I want, never react to unexpected email which could be a fake. Dont touch social media platforms so cant be found by scammers via that route. Dont 'do' porn or dark web stuff so avoid danger from that direction. Security measures frequently altered and passwords never used twice. Make my own rather than using a password manager where all the keys are in the same box as it were.

Edited By DMB on 30/06/2023 22:43:04

My method is to set bar in 3jaw, clamp fixed steady to lathe bed close to the chuck to reduce any possible runout, set fingers ro bar, move and reclamp steady to bed close to tailstock end of bar, reclamp steady on to bar.Tailstock chuck and centre drill end of bar. Release bar and swap around end for end, clamp with 3jaw and steady, centre drill end of bar.Remove steady and use centres to support both ends of bar with a drive dog at the headstock end and proceed with between centres turning. Use of a half centre at the tailstock end, enables facing of the end of the bar.

John

Funeral services? We're all going to need them sooner or later, cos' summat will get yer! Just duck when the axe swings! Sorry, couldn't resist this.

Be interesting what happens and end result!