Member postings for Samsaranda

I still enjoy driving but my annual mileage is only a fraction of what it used to be, I changed to an automatic a number of years ago and that brought a new vision of stress reduction in driving. Unfortunately roads maintenance here in East Sussex is very hit and miss, the roads resemble medieval cart tracks and we are a county with no motorways and very little dual carriageways. I enjoy driving on proper motorways, especially the toll road in the Midlands, but Smart Motorways scare me, they are positively dangerous with no hard shoulders, the toll of those killed in breakdowns on them is steadily rising, when will common sense prevail. Dave W

It was in 1962 and I was going home about 10 o’clock at night on a motorcycle, was pulled by a police van which had followed me for a short distance then pulled me for exceeding the speed limit. It was a week after the law was cleared for one policeman in a vehicle to be able to book you for speeding, previously it needed two. I was only sixteen at the time and had to go to Juvenile Court, three magistrates sitting on the bench and they found me guilty and fined me one pound, licence endorsed for three years, being cheeky I asked for time to pay and was given two weeks! Dave W

Merry Xmas to all, had a nice present from the NHS, Wednesday a phone call asking me to go for a Gastroscopy yesterday morning with a Covid test the day before. Apparently the surgeons wanted to clarify something they could see on a CT scan from two weeks ago, so now have to wait 2 - 3 weeks for results from the biopsies, life is never boring when you get old, determined to get on and enjoy Xmas. Dave W

Like Henry, fitted DRO’s to X & Y on my mill, already had one on the Z from new, it’s great not having to count turns of the handle, I always got lost if there were too many turns to count, and you no longer have to worry about backlash, probably the best investment made since purchasing the machines. I am considering fitting some to my lathe, still working out if there is enough room to do so. Dave W

We recently had problems with deliveries from our local sorting office because half of them went down with Covid, back to normal now but some letters took two weeks to arrive, sign of the times unfortunately. Dave W

Edited By Samsaranda on 21/12/2021 19:22:44

We recently had problems with deliveries from our local sorting office because half of them went down with Covid, back to normal now but some letters took two weeks to arrive, sign of the times unfortunately. Dave W

I have always worked with the practice that if the thin nut is on top it’s because the full torque to stretch the bolt has been applied to the large nut on the bottom then the thin nut is fitted and torqued up against the full nut to prevent it from moving and reducing the torque applied to the bolt, the thin nut is acting as a “locknut”. Worked 22 years on aircraft and then moved into general engineering and only found thin locknuts on top of the standard size nuts, some applications had wire locking as well. Dave W

Dolly Digger mentions scrubbable Matt paint, I used a version of this supplied by Brewers Paints, it was their Albany range of paints and is supposed to be impervious to just about everything. I didn’t use it on the floor but on the walls of the hall, stairs and landing, was fed up trying to remove the greasy marks left in ordinary emulsion paint by our cats who religiously scent mark everything with the scent glands in their heads. Was done 9 months ago and is as good as the day it went on, beauty of it is mixed to order in the shop with pigments and therefore any domestic colour is available, expensive though it cost £50 for 2.5 litres of the special scrubbable paint. Dave W

Nigel,

I f you can find a communication address for Yodel, I fear you will be wasting your time trying to communicate with them, they only communicate with senders of parcels not recipients, they don’t even have the courtesy to reply, don’t ask how I know. Dave W

Posted a card to my cousin in Canada and the cost was also £1.70 so probably a standard charge for letters going overseas from UK. Dave W

In respect of cyclists, there is a set of traffic lights in the next village to us which have been modified with small repeater lights located about four feet off the ground on the supporting column of the traffic lights, similar to those seen on traffic lights in France but these repeaters are not in phase with the main lights at the top of the column. They carry cycle symbols on the lights and are presumably for the benefit of cyclists who take advantage of the red area at the threshold of the lights where cyclists are permitted to wait in front of other vehicles before starting to cross the junction, these repeaters change a matter of a few seconds before the main lights, I presume this is to allow cyclists a head start on crossing the junction, well I haven’t seen any official information regarding these extra lights and wonder how they are viewed in legal issues if an accident was to occur. Has anyone else seen these lights fitted to traffic light columns? Dave W

After reading the moans above about Microsoft I am glad I ditched it 10 years and went Apple with an IMac, fingers crossed not had any problems since, I know that 90% of the world use Microsoft systems, even bank cash point systems run on Microsoft Windows, but I am happy to live in the Apple world, it’s much calmer than Microsoft with all its glitches and problems. Dave W

I would suspect that you are suffering a vibration problem, that could easily be the cause; has the saw started vibrating more than usual and is there evidence of any problems, e.g. bearings worn which could be a source of vibration. Dave W

Mike, like your VFD conversion on your BV20 lathe, I am wanting to go down the same path for my own BV20 lathe and would be grateful for any helpful information that you have.

On a different subject altogether have spent the morning sourcing a replacement battery for my Honda Jazz, it’s been playing dead on a regular basis for about 6 months and been revived by constant recharging. The battery fitted to my Jazz is a nonstandard size, well it would be wouldn’t it, added to that it is a stop/start battery which makes it more expensive than normal batteries. I could only find a replacement from the same maker, that’s Yuasa and Halfords are local agents. Cost £172.99, ouch, but does come with a five year warranty; is a direct replacement for the one I have fitted which coincidentally is 5 1/2 years old! Battery due in Friday, no problem fitting it have got the job down to less than two minutes, plenty of practice over the last six months, not prepared to pay Halfords an extra £25 to fit it. I shall now be able to put away my booster battery pack which I have had to carry with me for starting the car when battery went flat, the booster pack is only small, charges off a USB socket, and starts the car no problem, wouldn’t be without now. Dave W

Go to the Charity Commission website they have various documents that can be downloaded which deal with all the requirements that need to be complied with for Charity Registration, some of these documents are about 50 pages long and not easy to understand, there is no easy way to achieve compliance. They will be required to write a trust document and submit it for approval, I suggest that they look online at other similar organisations who have published their trust documents to help those who are registering their charities. I speak as one who chaired a Village Hall Charity for over 30 years and dealt with the Charity Commission, it ain’t easy, there is no quick way and what ever you put in writing you will be held legally responsible for, I wish them good luck, they will need it. Dave W

My wife and I are both covered for dental work with Denplan, I pay a monthly subscription of £50 which covers us both and includes two inspections and two hygienist visits every twelve months each. Most dental work is carried out for no cost this includes fillings extractions and crowns, I recently broke a tooth and it was repaired with a filling at no cost, current problem is a broken bridge which I am currently considering whether to go for an implant, a denture or part replacement of the bridge which covered 4 teeth by covering just 2, decision day is next Tuesday, an implant is probably out of contention, I don’t fancy someone drilling and tapping my jawbone being a coward where pain is concerned. Previous work carried out on the failed bridge a few years ago, involved drilling through the bridge to carry out a root treatment on one of the supporting teeth, this was not an easy procedure which took three visits and involved about three hours in the chair and cost me nothing, all covered by Denplan. My last crown that was fitted about four years ago was a gold one and the only cost not covered by Denplan was the Dental Technicians fees which I had to pay and as far as I can remember was about £60.

As a cat owner I am well aware of the buying up of veterinary practices by insurance groups, fortunately we have a local vet who is still independent and fighting the insurance companies. I have four cats and two are on regular medication, one has asthma and requires inhalers, if I get these through our vet the cost is £120 each inhaler, if I get a written prescription from our vet he charges £13 and I can then go online and purchase the same inhaler for £60. Our vet has to purchase his items that he dispenses from the suppliers owned by the very insurance companies that are monopolising the industry, they charge him top whack but will sell to customers on the internet at prices which are designed to undermine independent vets, my vet is quite happy to give his customers written prescriptions. As an aside the same inhaler that my cat needs if supplied by the NHS for human patients is costed by the NHS at £60. Unfortunately our society is more and more being governed by profits, not reasonable profits but what I would class unreasonable profits. Dave W

Nigel, I have the same problems with night driving, it seems as though the latest headlamp bulbs are lasers, the light is blinding, I don’t drive at night if there is a choice. I am fortunate in that my Honda Jazz has self dipping headlights, if it perceives a car coming towards you it automatically dips the headlights and likewise if you come up behind a vehicle it senses the taillights and dips, I have had a few problems where on a frosty night until the windscreen warms up it sometimes won’t operate, fails safe to dip though, the sensor for the lights is in the top of the windscreen and frost on the outside can upset it, however once the windscreen warms up and the frost is gone all works ok. Dave W

I am 75 and never been called but then I spent 22 years in the Air Force which apparently made you exempt while serving. My daughter who lives in the same village as us has done a two week stint on a jury, she said it was a pain because she had to travel to the Crown Court in Lewes which is a town where parking is non existant and she had to travel by train, a journey of 20 miles and then a fair old hike from the station. Being 75 I suppose I got away without being called, Ady you must live in a very crime ridden area or it’s sparsely populated if you get called that often. Dave W

When my renewal came due at 70 I don’t recall any information about losing classes of vehicles that I was previously licensed for, maybe I missed it. My days of driving heavy vehicles is gladly in the past, I remember in 70’s when I was in the Air Force, driving old Bedford tankers full of de-icing fluid, in the depths of winter, albeit within the confines of the Station not on public roads, you needed to be Hercules there was no power steering and the gearboxes were awful, definitely don’t miss it. Dave W

Peter, your rant reminded me of the hurricane in 87, we live on the south coast so we were in the eye of the storm so to speak, had just moved into our house and everything was electric excepting our gas central heating. The storm knocked out our electrics for three days, so no heating because the gas relies on electricity for the controls, no cooking because stove was electric and of course no lights after dark. Our house fortunately had a fireplace which I soon resurrected to working status so we had limited heating, ever since that day the fireplace has always been a working one, currently has an inset woodburner which we use all winter. Cooking was achieved by a camping gas stove, a relic of our camping days, surprising how creative camping stove cooking can be. Anyway looking at green credentials I agree with most correspondents that our hobby is not very green. Looking at the long term prospects of our fragile world I fear that the recent climate conference will be as productive as previous ones have been, nothing much will change, those who run the world we live in are too scared to make unpopular changes because effectively they will be voting themselves out of a job. Will be interesting to review progress or lack of when the next climate conference takes place, they will still be wringing their hands saying the world is doomed and I bet nothing changes. Dave W