Member postings for Samsaranda

Currently building a model that has imperial measurements, how I hate imperial fractions, and I was short of a 1” to 2” micrometer so I looked on line for reasonable quality/reasonable price and found a good range at “Allendale”, can’t remember how much I paid but it was very reasonable for the quality. When I came to use it I found that instead of the ratchet being operated by the small thimble at the end of the spindle, the ratchet was operated by the the large knurled barrel on the spindle, it takes some getting used to when every other micrometer that I have used is via the small thimble. Their products are well worth considering. Dave W

John, if you are lucky it might turn up before the next renewal has to be applied for. ❗️Dave W

I had a paper licence when my age 70 renewal came up and I chose to go the online route, at that time I had a valid passport and they used the photo held by the passport office. When my next renewal came at age 73 my passport was expired and I chose not to renew as my globe trotting days were over, however they still used the expired photo held by the passport office and issued the renewed licence. I wonder if it will work the same when my renewal at 76 comes round ? I must say that renewing online was easy and the licence appeared within days, all painless. Dave W

To qualify my post above about waiting two weeks for prescriptions to be actioned the bottleneck in our system always appears to be the Doctors Surgery, it seems to take them forever to authorise electronic prescriptions. Dave W

About the closest I have seen recently is Simple Linctus sold in pharmacies ready made, years ago chemists, they weren’t known as pharmacies then, would mix up the remedy in their premises, a lot to be said for the old fashioned remedies that Chemists use to mix and supply. Progress 👎. Dave W

Because getting prescriptions after they have been sent in electronically is so chaotic at our doctors/pharmacy, yes they are in the same building, I ask for them to be delivered, it costs nothing and saves countless wasted journeys to the pharmacy when the prescriptions are not ready. Currently we have to allow two weeks from when we submit our internet request to actually receiving the items. Telephone calls to the doctors are a marathon event, the number is continually engaged, when you finally get through you get an answer such as “you are number 25 in the queue” very frustrating, I thought technology was supposed to enhance our life experiences. Dave W

Noel, many thanks. Dave w

John towards the end of my ownership of my Ford Pop I did fit a vacuum tank in the wiper plumbing which did help but not much, I would love to have my old Pop back, it was real engineering, Rod operated brakes, non of your servo assist.

Noel, I purchased a Maypole charger at the beginning of lockdown, I wanted a quality unit and I am very pleased with the quality, I only charge using the minimum charge rate so hoping that won’t damage my stop/start battery.

Dave W

Myself and wife use Patientaccess.com for our repeat prescriptions but twice recently my wife’s prescriptions have not been processed and have had to be reposted, Pharmacy blames the Doctors Surgery but wife blames me as I am the one who inputs the requests, she is not very tech savvy, if anything goes wrong in our house it’s always my fault but then that’s part of the job description for Husband isn’t it? Dave W

My first car was a 1954 Ford Popular with the 1172 cc side valve engine, the electrics were 6 volt and the headlights were dire at the best of times. Was glad of the starting handle on many occasions when it was cold and frosty and the battery was sluggish to respond. Because it was 6 volt electrics it lacked electric windscreen wipers, it had vacuum operated wipers, you didn’t put your foot down in heavy rain because the wipers would stop dead no vacuums to run them. For all its faults I loved that old car, when I was overseas the wife sold it to her brother and he blew the engine up on it, I still haven’t forgiven him for that and that was 1967. Dave W

IanT can you elaborate on what your old battery charger did to your start/stop battery? I have a start/stop battery and during lockdowns have not been using the car very often consequently the battery has needed charging at various times, I don’t do much mileage. The battery is about five years old and probably reaching end of reliable life, I have a battery charger which I bought at the start of first lockdown, it has two charging rates and I only use the low rate charge. I am very interested to know what damage a conventional battery charger could do? Dave W

I always buy Bosch mains power drills, I am impressed by the quality, they take a lot of punishment before they let out magic smoke, the one thing that lets the product down are the keyless chucks that are fitted. No matter how tight you do the chuck it invariably allows the drill bits to spin and damage the shanks. Why are the keyless chucks so useless, are they not able to take the torque that the drill can generate? In industry I used to use a lot of pneumatic tools and we always used to hand tighten the chucks on windy drills, we never used chuck keys and the chucks never came undone. My only conclusion is that the keyless chucks fitted to electric drills are not designed to deal with the torque hence they constantly come undone. The keyless chuck on my Champion V20 mill/drill has never given problems but as stated above is a different animal. Dave W

SOD, I remember that during the 1980’s RCA (Radio Corporation of America) were contractors at what was Fylingdales the early warning radar station in Yorkshire. Dave W

Read an article, can’t remember where it was, that an enterprising individual was converting conventional cars to EV’s but each conversion took him a very long time and it was definitely not a cost effective exercise because major engineering involved. My take on EVs is that they will still be scrapped at the end of a short life just like conventional cars today, hopefully they will all be designed so that they are 100% recyclable. Dave W

I always go clay pigeon shooting every Sunday, Remembrance Sunday is no exception but we always cease shooting before 11 o’clock and then observe two minutes silence and stand with our heads bowed. As an ex-Serviceman I feel that is respectful, there are some in this world would have us refrain from doing any activities on Remembrance Sunday, there is one resident of our village complains every year about the fact that we shoot on this particular day. Dave W

Had problems with some of Reeves castings with shrinkage cracks in cast iron and inclusions in gunmetal castings, but any castings can have problems especially model castings as they are so small in comparison to usual engineering size castings. Dave W

I would like to challenge the premise that because vaccines have been through a full and lengthy testing regime then they are considered 100% safe with no risks attached. When my eldest daughter was three months old, and this was in 1967, she had the first of her infant vaccinations, this caused her to have her a series of convulsions and left her partially paralysed. Some time after the event analysis showed that she was not unique, other families had suffered the same events and the “problem” was officially classified as vaccine damage, this was from a proprietary vaccine which I would assume PatJ would accept as fully tested through a lengthy programme and deemed “safe”. There is no such animal as a 100% safe vaccine, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be vaccinated, there is risk in anything that we do in life, the percentage risk in having Covid vaccines has been demonstrated to be such a minuscule percentage of the total number of vaccinations given that it is virtually unrecordable. The risk of problems with a Covid vaccine if displayed alongside other conventional “tried and tested” vaccines would in all probability be no better or no worse. Figures in this country have shown that currently deaths from Covid are much higher from individuals who are unvaccinated against those that have been vaccinated, some would argue that this could be propaganda to coerce doubters to take up vaccines, you have to make your own mind up on that issue. I can understand where PatJ is coming from with his belief in the right to freedom of choice, I have worked briefly in the USA and their culture is very different to ours in the UK, particularly when you consider the difference in Political systems. Despite our family having in the past having had a bad experience with vaccinations we all firmly believe in the Covid vaccinations, I did spend 22 years in the Services where choice in respect of vaccines was not an option and I lived to tell the tale. Dave W

Norm, I hear what you are saying about Covid becoming less lethal with time and the virus evolving, I suppose we can liken it to the influenza virus and it’s devastating impact in 1918, flu has now become commonplace every winter and we vaccinate annually against it, there are many different strains of flu, some more dangerous than others and Covid will probably likewise evolve. Having a flu vaccination doesn’t mean you won’t get flu, if you are unlucky enough to get the flu having had the vaccine will in all probability be less problematic than if you hadn’t had a vaccine. In the January before Covid took off I caught flu, had my vaccination but it caused me to be hospitalised for four days with pneumonia as a consequence, we need to remember that every winter about 20,000 are expected to die from the effects of influenza, so vaccination for us oldies vitally important. Tonight our local beekeeping association is holding its AGM and being a committee member I am expected to attend. Precautions will be taken, everyone will be masked, social distancing will be enforced and the premises will be well ventilated with windows open, I shall still be nervous about being with a number of people indoors. Dave W

Surprised at the responses to my posting but heartened that you are all keeping up your protections. Wife and I haven’t visited a supermarket since the first lockdown began, we get weekly deliveries from the supermarket and if we have to go out always wear masks. I think those in charge are definitely letting the side down by appearing in the press without wearing masks, had to visit the dentist this week for treatment and was happy to see that they take Covid precautions very seriously, their practice waiting area used to be carpeted with good quality carpets but all had been removed and the whole premises now has vinyl flooring so it can all be swabbed down to reduce infection. My local beekeeping association has managed monthly meetings with Zoom to keep us all safe, have had some good online lectures during this time. Let’s hope we all keep safe. Dave W

I would like to urge all to remain vigilant about Covid and not let protection measures slip, it is all to easy to think that because of vaccination that it is conquered. For a few days now we haven’t had any post deliveries, neither has anyone in our close; today our daughter came round, she also lives in our village, she said do we know why there have been no post delivered, she proceeded to say that the postal sorting office in the village has had cases of Covid amongst the Posties so the sorting office is temporarily closed while they all recover. Ever since the start of Covid in our house any incoming letters or parcels are religiously wiped over with germ busting wipes before opening; it might seem a bit over the top to some but wife is in poor health with bad Asthma so we need to take measures to protect everyone in the house. In the light of the outbreak of virus in the sorting office it seems we were right to carry out protective measures, although government information had previously said there were no known cases of transmission by letters or parcels but then how many of us believe assurances given by government departments. We need to be aware that it is still a problem which appears now to be getting more problematic, Europe is again in the grip of a surge and we usually follow them albeit two to three weeks after. Dave W