Member postings for Samsaranda

Mike your photo of the bikes reminded me of the Dockyard in Portsmouth, in the 60’s a large number of Dockyard Maties rode pushbikes. I had the misfortune to take my driving test, passing the Dockyard gates, when they were leaving work, it was chaos and intimidating but I passed the driving test, I think the examiner took pity on me. Dave W

We have in our front garden a hedgehog house that I knocked up because I found a visiting hedgehog late one evening. Put out a wildlife camera trained on the house and placed hedgehog food and water every night, we have not one but four hedgehogs visiting for food and yes all four were there together at one time so definitely four, we also get a visit from a fox at about three in the morning and the hedgehogs are not fazed by the fox as they are rubbing shoulders eating from the same food bowl, also get visiting cats but they seem suitably unimpressed with hedgehog food so they don’t partake. One of the hogs, a small one probably female has taken to sleeping in the house during the day, so hopefully she will use it to hibernate in. Quite a few years ago our vets asked us to release an injured but convalescing hedgehog in our garden, I built her a house and in the run up to winter supplied plenty of food and hay for her house, she hibernated and the following year presented five baby hoglets, so hopefully a repeat with our current visitor. Have a number of infra red monochrome videos of our visitors but still working out how to transfer so that I could post them on the website, probably have to resort to getting my grandson involved, as usual the younger generation are way ahead of me with technology. We need to give our wildlife as much help as we can in these challenging times, if anybody wants to encourage hedgehogs then please use commercially available foods, they are a balanced formula and feeding the wrong foods can easily damage hedgehog health if they don’t get the right vitamins, never give them milk because I understand that hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and can suffer greatly if fed milk. Hedgehog foods are easily available from garden centres and Amazon. Dave W

Duncan, just over three years ago my fixed term energy contract was up for renewal with Shell Energy, when I looked at the 3 year fixed term contracts on offer, bearing in mind I have an Economy Seven tariff, there was only one that was available for me because I didn’t have a Smart Meter fitted, if I had a Smart Meter there were I think four different Economy Seven tariffs that I could have and all had a cheaper unit price than the one that I was forced to choose. I am resolutely against Smart Meters for all the devious arrangements that they will bring forth, none of them to the advantage of the customer so I opted for the tariff without Smart Metering. The three year tariff that I chose expired at the end of June and now because of the turmoil in the energy markets Shell Energy only offer one Economy Seven tariff and that is regardless of whatever metering you have, so the same price for all customers because of the Offgem price cap, suffice to say that I still resist having a Smart Meter, despite receiving constant emails to try and persuade me otherwise. I felt that when I was restricted to be able to choose only one of five tariffs on offer three years ago that the supplier was acting in a bullying and immoral way trying to blackmail loyal customers, I do realise that nowadays loyalty counts for nothing it’s balance sheets are the only issue that matters to them and they don’t give a damn how they achieve their financial targets. The manipulation via Smart Meters regarding pricing and times that you mentioned will be coming only too soon. Dave W

I changed 6 four foot fluorescent tubes in my workshop for 6 four foot led “tubes”, to me the difference in light output was amazing, I can work in their during the day with the blinds pulled down over the windows to shut out the sun in the hot weather, I know that the rated consumption of the led tubes was considerably less than the fluorescents although I haven’t measured the consumption for comparison so I am happy that I am using far less electricity to light the workshop, it’s got to be the way to go. Dave W

In respect of solar panels and batteries, I have solar panels capable of delivering 4kwh, I live on the South Coast and therefore placed to gain maximum gain from solar, on a sunny day such as we are currently having my panels generate about 25 - 26 kWh per day. I have installed batteries with 12 kWh of storage capacity, we are big users of electricity I have two large ponds in the garden with pumps and uv lights going 24/7. During June this year we used a total of 38 units of electricity drawn from the grid, the rest was down to solar, on many days we were totally self sufficient on solar, such that early morning just after the sun has come up we still had about 1/4 of the battery power left from the previous days generating. I calculated that our background usage of power with house and ponds together is about 400 - 500 watts per hour, every hour, so we use a lot of energy. The figures quoted above include the usage of dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier all used during the day when the solar is producing at peak.I don’t worry about how much my workshop uses because in the summer it’s all covered by the solar generated power. When winter comes I will set the inverter on the batteries to charge them from the off peak electricity, we have an economy 7 tariff, so cheap rate currently costs us 18p per unit and full rate is 38p, so in winter during the daytime I will be able to use up to 12kwh at the cheaper rate of 18p per unit. Dave W

Chris,

I used to have lots of problems when parting off, I tried carbide and HSS but had some expensive foul ups, my conclusion was that model engineers lathes are inherently unstable because they flex too easily when under pressure such as parting off. My approach to reduce the problems that I was having was to check that everything on the lathe was adjusted correctly, that means making sure the gibs are adjusted nice and snug, when you are making the cut make sure you have locked the top slide and the carriage, my carriage lock was useless so l made a new lock which firmly clamps the carriage to the bed. My next idea was to always use lubrication when parting off, it’s surprising how much difference that can make, when cutting make sure that you advance the tool at a constant rate, be sure and firm with your movements. I still have problems if I use carbide tips, it is as though I am not running the lathe fast enough, I chicken out on running fast on parting off so for now the carbide tips are put to one side and I only use HSS, I am surprised at how much easier that the operations are now that I have incorporated the ideas mentioned above, I used to dread parting off and would in preference reach for the hacksaw but now my confidence has been rebuilt and I am using my parting tools again. One point I use as thin an HSS parting tool as I can, I find it is easier and more forgiving. Dave W

Using “market forces” is the standard excuse for ripping off customers and taking huge profits, there is no need to charge insane prices for fuel at the pumps, big companies like Exxon, Mobil and Chevron are the fuel producers, nothing has changed much in the production processes, and yet they raise the end prices because they can get away with it. This insane chasing ever higher prices will only bring about a catastrophe to peoples living standards and severely affect businesses world wide, in all probability it will culminate in a very deep worldwide recession that will take years to recover from, using the Ukraine/Russia war is a smokescreen for the unscrupulous profiteers to hide behind. Dave W

Martin

It looks like we are being screwed by the Sheiks again, apparently they have been asked to release more oil into the market to bring the price down but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon, I fear for this winter and the crippling prices that people will have to pay for energy. Dave W

Was on holiday on the Isle of Wight a few years ago and we were walking through one town, can’t remember which one, and a motor cycle came down the street with a sidecar on it and sitting bolt upright in the sidecar was a dog, complete with leather helmet and goggles, it looked so funny and the dog was obviously enjoying himself, was too engrossed watching to get the phone and take a picture. Dave W

Pat J,

You are my kind of guy, I often aspire to many of the things you do, my daughters are always accusing me of being a hoarder and I tackle most jobs like you do, plumbing, electrics and in my younger days bricklaying, carpentry and plastering, must admit I hated the plastering only did it of necessity to save money. Dave W

Pat J, you may be right there are all the signs of an impeding Great Depression. Dave W

I briefly belonged to a model engineering club that’s main focus was steam railways, they had a permanent track area leased to them on which during summer they ran trains for members and the public. They also committed the club to portable track events at many local events during the weekends in summer. At meetings they were constantly asking for volunteers for portable track, public running and working parties to maintain their permanent track area, I always felt awkward at meetings because I didn’t put my hand up and volunteer for two reasons, one my interest lays in traction engines and internal combustion engines not steam locomotives, and secondly I have a physical disability which limits how much physical work that I can do. Club nights were filled with speakers and videos, the main emphasis was on steam locomotives, in which I only have a passing interest and obscure video subjects that included such subjects as trams in Romania, which was a pictorial inventory of all the country’s trams, so boring. I decided that my evenings could be better spent in my workshop so didn’t renew my membership, the only model engineering club that I belong to now is SMEE. Dave W

Nigel,

A few years ago I had a generator that I was going to use to power my gas central heating during power cuts, I was able to isolate the electrical supply to the boiler and fed it via a 13 amp socket which meant that in the event of a power cut I could unplug the boiler supply from the mains and plug the boiler into the output from my small generator, the theory seemed so simple but it didn’t work because the output from my generator was too coarse, it needed a generator with an inverter output in order for the circuits in the boiler to work, I didn’t progress that idea any further. Your comment about sleeping in the workshop struck a cord with me, my workshop is infinitely better insulated than my house, although the house has cavity and roof insulation with all windows double glazed. Dave W

In respect of Shell Energy, I am a customer of theirs for gas and electricity, their propaganda proudly displays that the electricity they supply to their customers is all 100% renewable, if that’s the case, as Emgee has stated, why has the price been jacked up alongside other suppliers who are sourcing their energy from non-sustainable sources, wind and solar are cost free except for the necessary infrastructure that’s used for collecting and distribution, their distribution costs have not suddenly gone through the roof. Dave W

We consumers are being ripped off in a huge way, why has the cost of electricity and gas had to rise in this country to the levels it has and in so doing generated obscene profits for the energy companies, their excuse of market forces will not wash. There is a so called independent watchdog who is supposed to be overseeing the situation in respect of customers, but we are being fleeced by the energy companies, things have got to change, we the consumers have got to have a bigger say and a much stronger voice if this pantomime called “free enterprise” is to continue. The privatisation of energy supply was supposed to give the customers choice but we have ended up with a regulator, that’s Offgem, setting a retail price that generates the obscene profits for energy companies and leaves the customers now in dire financial circumstances. Now could be the right time for energy to come back under government control to stabilise the situation and bring the prices down to acceptable levels. Re Nationalising energy supply would rationalise the process and stabilise prices by removing the step in the process where our energy suppliers buy their “product” from a supplier then generate prices to sell on to us the consumer that give their shareholders the vast profits that we are seeing now. I am hoping that the moderators will not class this as political because it is looking at a commercial issue and a way in which it could be controlled. Dave W

Tug

Thanks for the photo of Sharjah, needless to say I recognise the sand. Dave W. 🤪

In the early 60’s I joined the Air Force and in 1967 was posted to Sharjah, a desert airfield in what has now become the UAE. I was at lunch in the airman’s mess one day and an army lance corporal sat down opposite me and when I looked up it was a school friend of mine that had been in my class and we hadn’t seen each other since leaving school five years previously, strange coincidence. Dave W

Bazyle have sent you a PM.

Dave W

Nigel B ,

We have a woodburner that gives about 5 kw of heat located in our lounge and being more or less central in the house tends to warm the rooms above as well. My wife and I were only talking this morning about how we will manage if we have to reduce our gas and electricity consumption this winter, we came to the conclusion that if necessary we can shut down the gas central heating and rely on heat produced from the woodburner in the lounge, on reflection it is no different than what our parents did when we were younger, most houses heated only the one room, the living room, and the rest of the house had no heating, there were very few houses with central heating in the 50’s and 60’s and the coal fired back boiler was lit at least once a week for our weekly bath night, brings back memories of ice on the inside of the bedroom windows, we all survived, we wrapped up to keep warm, it looks as though we are going to have to alter out lifestyles if we are to remain comfortable. Dave W

I was in the Air Force and in 1967 we acquired Hercules transport aircraft from the US. All seemed to be going well until the mid 70’s when a lot of defects started to appear in the wings of the Hercules, not individual aircraft but the whole fleet. The defects were cracks emanating from countersunk fastener holes that ultimately held the outer skin on the wings, there were a serious amount of defects. At this time I was employed as an NDT Technician and we were tasked to monitor every aircraft and in critical areas on the wings to scan the fastener holes using Ultrasound, the technique we used was very sensitive and could detect cracks in the fasteners hole when they were only about a third of the way up the countersinks of the fastener holes. There were many areas that were scanned ultrasonically and I remember one area required the scanning of 2,000 underwing fastener holes, each hole required 6 scans from different points, a very demanding job. Once defects were identified then repair schemes were drawn up for individual aircraft, which mainly involved removing the fasteners and opening out the hole until the crack was eliminated and replacing with an oversize fastener.

The origins of these defects were the use of mass production, the aircraft were built in Lockheeds Georgia factory when they were at their peak output for the Vietnam war. This meant that they inducted a large amount of unskilled labour to build the aircraft on production lines, the workers were given instructions how to use power tools that set the fasteners used to hold the wing skins on the main planes. The theory was that everything had been produced on jigs that meant when it came to assembly all the holes lined up and the unskilled workers just fired the fasteners that held it all together, only the reality was that a lot of holes didn’t align correctly so the workers just got a drill and ran through the problem holes to line everything up.Being unskilled they did not realise the consequences of making the holes in some cases figure of eight, the stresses of the wings would be concentrated on these irregular shaped holes and hence the defects of cracks forming from these stress raisers. It was an extremely costly exercise to monitor and rectify all these man made defects, however a subsequent problem put this problem in the shade. It became apparent that inside the integral fuel tanks within the wings there was large amounts of corrosion eating away the structures. Apparently it was caused by the products of bacteria living in the fuel in the tanks, it was very corrosive and was eating away the structures. The story goes that that the Americans had warned the British of this problem and it could be avoided by using an additive in the fuel which inhibited the bacterial growth, the Air Force apparently disregarded this advice and used fuel without the additive, the saying goes we couldn’t afford the additive.

Subsequent repair of the wings was deemed not viable and each Hercules had to have new wings fitted at a civilian contractors, the wings were shipped over from the US and because of their size they travelled by ship as deck cargo suitably cocooned from the elements, a very very costly exercise.

At the time that the Hercules were built in the US using contract unskilled labour on their production lines, our aircraft industry was still using time served appropriately trained skilled tradesmen so in all probability the fastener hole problem would never have occurred in British made aircraft.

Mass production can save on labour costs but potentially at what cost eventually.

Dave W