Member postings for Samsaranda

Just had a regular eye test, have been wearing bifocals for a number of years and find they are suitable for my sight requirements. The eye test showed that all items checked were ok, no macular degeneration or retinal damage but apparently I now have cataracts to contend with. I regularly go clay pigeon shooting and for the last 12 months I have noticed a slow but steady decline in my scores, I wondered why it was happening but now I have been diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes that may explain my not being able to see the clays clearly at a distance. Reading fine print close up is no problem but I have found that I have been having trouble in focussing on small objects at distance in bright sunlight. My cataracts are nowhere near ready to remove but probably enough to start impacting on my shooting scores, no fun growing old. Dave W

Remember when I was at Tech College we had to make various tools, toolmakers clamp, punch, scriber, cold chisel all come to mind although that was 60 years ago, time flies. Dave W

Not strictly relevant but a work colleague of mine about 40 years ago decided to install an electric shower in his house. Found a convenient cable in the loft and joined his electric shower to it, couldn’t understand why the lights in the house dimmed when the shower was operated, the fusing arrangement consisted of rewritable fuses which were notorious for allowing very large current flow before they blew. I think a classic example of Darwin’s theory of evolution although he survived any catastrophic consequences. Dave W

All I can say Andrew is Wow that is some gliding, I am in awe. Dave W

I see from Andrews post that he keeps the oxygen cylinder from his glider in the house when at home, I wasn’t aware that gliders could reach altitudes where oxygen would be required, it’s 50 years since I did any gliding, things must have come a long way since then if gliders now go that high. Dave W

I am having problems with Amazon at the moment, three times in two weeks items were indicated as delivered handed to the customer, definitely not handed to this customer. It appears one item was left on a neighbours doorstep in pouring rain and not found for three days, another was tossed into another’s garden some way from their house and again not found for a few days. The third item disappeared and has not been found. Anyone tried speaking with Amazon about a problem, good luck with that, you get put through to centres located in the US, Africa and India, communication can be extremely difficult if you have hearing problems and find accent’s difficult to deal with. Dave W

One wonders if the lightweight aerated thermalite concrete blocks with a high insulation value, that replaced the concrete breeze blocks in house building, will suffer the same problems with water causing structural degradation. The internal side of cavity construction, where they are used, takes all the stresses in the construction, the outer brick is just mainly decorative. Is this another time bomb waiting to happen. Dave W

I had a steady but slow oil leak on my Warco BV20, also a geared head lathe, finally solved the problem I had filled the gearbox with fresh oil and topped it up till the level was at the top of the sight glass, when the oil level dropped to the middle of the sight glass the leaking stopped, it appeared it was only due to over filling. Dave W

We used to use 2BA bolts, only joking.. Dave W

I have a geared head lathe, a Warco BV20, had it about 14 years now, went for a geared head lathe because I didn’t trust the electrics that were being used at that time, things are much better now. It has served me well and survived a few mishaps along the way, the only problem I have had was a replacement for the NVR switch. Although it is noisy I would still go for a geared head lathe, I just turn the radio up and it doesn’t worry me. Dave W

Have been machining the aluminium rear wheel rims for my 1 1/2 scale Allchin traction engine. Had a bit of a problem because they are 9 inches diameter and my lathe won’t turn anything bigger than 8 inches. Solved the problem with lateral thinking, made a fixture out of cast iron to bolt on my rotary table and then mill the various diameters on my vertical mill. It has worked well but arm aching turning the table to make the cuts, below in the photos you can see the 9 inch cast iron plate that is bolted to the rotary table.

Andy, Ega and Bob, many thanks for your responses about James Carson, it is all helping to build a picture.

Dave W

Peter, the 60/hour cost that you mentioned is probably a bit shy of the real costs, my granddaughter was recently quoted £220 per hour for repairing a BMW at a main agents. Dave W

I have no doubt that the quality of items supplied under “British” Heritage brands is good, I am just sad to see our proud manufacturing heritage being sold off to the highest bidder or maybe the lowest bidder when supplying products. My belief that this process of cashing in on selling the family silver has been a steady process but seemed to accelerate during the 80’s and early 90’s when it was deemed politically expedient to abandon manufacturing industries and replace with Service Industries, I.e. financial products. Dave W

A manometer would not be any use in the situation of measuring steam pressures as it consists of a tube that is open to atmosphere at one end, you definitely need a pressure gauge, please be aware of the correct way to connect the gauge to your boiler system. Dave W

Wife decided that our mugs we use for tea and coffee were getting decidedly scruffy so we chose new ones, she chose from the range of Royal Worcester porcelain ones featuring animals. They are very good and because they were on offer, good value for money. When I unpacked them each one had a small tag attached by ribbon tied to the handle clearly stating “Made in India”.

I became aware some while ago that our tool industries such as Moore and Wright are now manufactured abroad; being patriotic I felt that our flagship Heritage industries from the dawn of the Industrial Age would be preserved as British taking pride in British Craftmanship, it appears not so. Dave W

Michael

Many thanks for your reply to the James Carson appeal, I wasn’t aware of the link that you sent me and my colleague will no doubt be very pleased to read it, there is every possibility that as his Grandfather was foreman at James Carson , who were engaged to build the Great Bear for Bassett Lowke, that he had a hand in its construction. Dave W

My workshop is a combination of concrete block and timber frame with weatherboarding, inside the weatherboarding is 100 mm Celotex and in the roof is 50 mm cellotex under sterling board with two layers of torch on felt, I found Celotex so easy to cut and fit between frames. I also run a dehumidifier which drains to outside, during the winter months I run an oil filled radiator on low setting to keep the temperature above 0 degrees. If I built another workshop I would use the same format again. Dave W

I am researching for a friend who has inherited a number of steam models from his Grandfather, his grandfather worked for a model making and engineering firm called James Carson they were based in Cricklewood and grandfather was a foreman there. He left the company in 1913 and moved to Coventry and then worked for Armstrong Siddeley, he was quite an accomplished engineer and spent the rest of his working life in the Coventry area, about this time it is understood that James Carson were taken over by Basset Lowke who were created in 1899 in Northampton, it is unclear what happened to the models in James Carson’s catalogue, did Basset Lowke keep them in their portfolio, does anyone have knowledge of any of their products after this period, my colleague would be interested to know.

The engines that I have photos of were received as basket cases and my colleague put them together using the pictures in their catalogue as a guide, the major parts are there but some of the fasteners are missing, these are mainly 1/8 and 7/64 Whitworth. The engines are a single cylinder marine, a double cylinder compound marine and a hefty three cylinder marine, for which I have no photos, the engineering of them is as you would expect first class from the pre First World War era.

The single cylinder marine engine has the supporting structure fabricated from aluminium which has a weld incorporated in it, I would have thought that was pretty unusual for the early 20th century.

We would be interested in any comments that anyone can make concerning James Carson’s products and also if anyone has any of their models. Apologies for the quality of the photos , I am not very accomplished in photography .

I have a photocopied James Carson catalogue, the quality is not good but it is readable on most pages. Dave W

As far as I am aware there were no frames or fittings inside the old fashioned hives known as Skeps, the bees once inside stayed because their Queen was in there and they would build comb on any surface that they chose. The combs whether in frames in modern hives or freehand will all encompass the same dimensions for the cells built. The combs will always be parallel to each other and the same set distance apart so that the bees can service the comb, the distance is commonly referred to as bee space. Dave W