Member postings for Samsaranda

I don’t get this problem because I have told the wife I no longer do decorating, joking aside I avoid decorating like the plague, my back doesn’t like any decorating so it gets subbed out. In respect of models I usually use pre packaged aerosols so no skinning problem with left over paint, and nowadays the quality of aerosol paints is extremely good. Dave W

12 gauge shotgun choke thread size is 13/16” x 32. Dave W

Mike

Similar situation to your friends welding experience, must be nearly 40 years ago and soon after the BAE Hawk came into RAF service, there were problems with the trailing edges of compressor blades in the engines, this necessitated an NDT eddy current check at I think every 20 flying hours. This check was carried out with the engine in situ, this meant access was via the aircraft air intakes, if you look at a Hawk aircraft the intakes are very small, and quite long, it fell to the thinnest NDT team members to be fed up the intakes, rather like a pipe cleaner, and was best achieved with two people lifting and feeding the designated technician up the intake. Quite often we were required to carry out the checks not long after the aircraft had landed, jet engines get quite hot when operating and take a while to cool down so ok during the winter but not nice on a hot summers day. Once inside the intake you were laying half on your back and working with your arms fully outstretched over your head and feeding the eddy current probe through to the trailing edge of the second stage blades, and yes every blade on that disc had to be examined, all this in pitch darkness. Not a job for those who suffer from claustrophobia. You have to have complete faith on those who fed you into the intake because getting out was the reverse process and you couldn’t get out without assistance from those outside. My stature has changed greatly during the intervening years, my weight having gone from less than 10 stone to 15 stone so no chance of ever doing that procedure or any like it ever again, thankfully. Dave W

Hopper’s posting about the abundance of gas produced by Australia and it being exported by ship is perhaps of little relevance to us on this side of the world at the moment because the majority of Australian gas is sold into the Asian market, with China being by far the biggest customer. Australia still produces huge amounts of coal, I remember 12 years ago when I was in Oz for my daughters wedding, seeing coal trains shuttling into Newcastle, fully loaded with coal for export, these trains were well over a kilometre long and hauled by three or four massive locomotives, and were discharged into gigantic bulk carriers on its way to China. Australia is a huge exporter of energy producing coal and gas, comments in this posting referred to the fact that we have no active coal mines left in the UK, if we had the need for it we could always import coal, I am sure Australia would only be too glad of extra business, the distance shouldn’t be a problem we bring oil from halfway round the world, we are after all part of a global market, of course a source of coal much nearer is Poland who produce substantial amounts. SOD seems to think that I am advocating abandoning our efforts towards Climate Change mitigation by perhaps using redundant coal powered generating stations, far from it I was only in favour of suspending it if and when war conditions prevailed and we had to resort to other means to keep the lights on and survive industrially. Dave W

With the very real threat of a war in Eastern Europe and much of Europe dependent on Russian Gas for their energy requirements, and yes we also depend on some Russian gas too, keeping the lights on might be a bit difficult now, if Russia decides to turn off the gas, now that we have demolished a lot of our perfectly serviceable coal fired power stations. I realise that we have to plan for reducing our carbon output but I think keeping our people warm and our economy functioning takes precedence as far as I am concerned. Let’s get over any impending military action then refocus on Climate Change, or am I being too simplistic. Dave W

I would suggest that the specimen is definitely two stroke with the flat cylinder heads with no valve gear and unlikely to be side valve because although the picture is poor there doesn’t appear to anywhere for side mounted valves. Dave W

Duncan some pre war two strokes had a magneto in the same position as in the photo. Dave W

Pre war two stroke Triumph. Dave W

Martin

It wasn’t a smart meter that was involved in my daughters problem with BG, it happened about 12 years ago so was a bog standard meter, the confusion had arisen from when the houses were built, the developers plot numbers were not used for numbering the houses, different numbers were applied but BG were using the original plot numbers and were ignoring house numbers, therefore houses were getting bills for properties that weren’t theirs. BG should have checked the meter serial numbers but didn’t. Dave W

Bill

My daughter had a similar experience with BG, she started receiving letters threatening court action because her bill was unpaid, at that time she was with a completely different supplier, and had been since she moved into the house two years previously. BG wouldn’t listen to the fact that she wasn’t even a customer of theirs, it got to the stage where bailiffs were instructed to break into her property and this was only averted when the ombudsman intervened. It transpired that BG were reading a meter at another property in the same Close and the meter serial number on their paperwork wasn’t the one on my daughters meter. It took a long time to resolve and BG didn’t even apologise for any of the months of hassle they caused, my thoughts are if the same scenario were to happen again with smart meters fitted then they would just remotely disconnect the customer and good luck trying to talk to BG, when I was a customer of theirs, a long time ago, I found them to be arrogant with customers and impossible to reason with. Dave W

Peter inside the smart meter is a solenoid and a pair of large electrical contacts specifically for disconnecting and restoring power. Enter the question “can a smart meter disconnect power supplies” into your internet search engine and it’s confirmed in numerous postings. Dave

That’s so true Duncan.

BR

My wife at this time won’t allow me to put a wind turbine in our garden what chance would I have trying to get a tractor in there, just joking but there’s always a way to beat a crisis. Dave W

I think the posting by BR reinforces my cynical view, the current smart meters have the ability to disconnect the consumer but as yet the meters do not have the facility to disconnect EV chargers and individual electric heating systems but the will to do so exists within the future plans of the energy suppliers. Dave W

Clive

I think the problem of acceptance of smart meters is the future intended use by suppliers, firstly a smart meter can disconnect the customer any time that the supplier wishes to reduce the loading on the supply circuit to balance the usage against energy fed into the supply system, one can speculate that suppliers will delay the capital costs of upgrading supply by limiting how much power a circuit will supply, a benefit for the supplier and definitely not a customer benefit.

Secondly the intention is already stated and the meters have the technology to vary the price being charged at any time when the supplier sees that there is a high demand for power, conversely when demand is low then the supplier will reduce the pricing to encourage more usage, a big advantage for the supplier and only a limited advantage for customers.

Smart meters are great for displaying how much energy is being consumed at any one time but that is incidental to their real purpose which is the benefit for suppliers in manipulating supply and maximising their income, we haven’t seen smart meters being used in that way yet, but it is coming, sorry for being so cynical but you are at the mercy of big business, and they take no prisoners. As customers we have no effective representation against the energy businesses, the current statutory body is a sham and has no real teeth, I won’t mention any government responsibilities to customers as I don’t want this posting being classed as political and being taken down. The energy market is going through major changes with the advent of electric home heating and electric vehicles and energy suppliers will become very powerful businesses, how will they be regulated?

In respect of smart meters, I feel particularly aggrieved that as a consumer I am expected to fund the provision of meters that are for the benefit of the energy suppliers, they should be funding the roll out of this technology from the huge profits that they have made in the past by overcharging customers in times gone by. I am glad that I took the plunge a few years ago to install solar panels and batteries, if I could, I would supplement that with a wind turbine in my garden, any means to reduce how much electricity I have to purchase is welcome, as electricity prices continue to rise then solar generation will make more financial sense. Dave W

Clive

The solar batteries that I purchased are made by Sofar Solar Technology, Chinese of course, I fitted three batteries that give me 7.4 kWh storage capacity, you need an inverter with them as the batteries are DC, my PV panels are fitted with individual microinverters so their output is AC but they feed into the distribution board so any energy fed to the batteries will need an inverter. The Sofar Technology Inverter is rated highly in tests and is one of the most efficient with an efficiency rating of 98.7%. The most efficient solar battery systems are made by Tesla but the prices are very high, I researched before buying mine and my criteria was a balance between price and effiency, there are so many to choose from and some of the cheaper ones you need to steer clear of. I only have the three batteries at the moment until I can afford to expand, I started with two and added another one after 12 months, ideally I would like to expand to five. With electricity costs rising there isn’t much prospect of it ever coming down in the future so any power that you can store rather than sending it to the grid is a definite bonus. Dave W

Chris

you don’t only have to fit solar panels to a roof, plenty of people have ground level installations. Dave W

Kwil

It is coming here, the busiest times of the day when you can’t dodge using electricity will be charged at very high premium rates, offset by very low charges when virtually no one is using energy. I have solar panels and batteries, during the winter when there will be very little sun to charge my batteries I set them to charge up during the economy seven period in the early hours, this means that I can use energy at off peak prices during the day, every little helps as they say. Dave W

Michael

I downloaded the calculator app and it’s just what I need, thanks for the information. Dave W

I found that I was struggling to see fine detail, especially when turning with the lathe, my first thought was increase the available light, I did this by purchasing an led head torch, I was amazed at how much easier it was to see detail work with the extra illumination. I would suggest that a head torch is sometimes more suitable for certain operations than a headband magnifier which might get in the way. It’s worth a try and I was surprised how much difference it makes, the torch I purchased is rechargeable from a usb source. Dave W