Member postings for Samsaranda

I have a set of drawings for my Allchin Traction engine that are old drawings published by Percival Marshall Co Ltd, they must be the first drawings that W J Hughes produced, they are of course imperial and use fractions, it’s so long since I used imperial fractions that I find myself so frustrated searching for the decimal equivalents, solved the problem by printing the equivalents chart from my Zeus tables in enlarged format and posted conspicuously over my bench so they are always available. My memory is so shot that fractions are like a foreign language it’s so many years since I used them. Dave W

I fail to understand the American obsession with Imperial measurements, after all they were apparently the first country to adopt The Metre Standard which was sometime in the late 1800’s. The imperial standard that they use isn’t the proper authorised version as they don’t have proper quarts and gallons like the rest of us. 🇺🇸😜. Dave W

Postie delivered yesterday at ten past seven in the evening so I chatted to him why were the deliveries so erratic in our area and he said that they have serious staff shortages so the Post Office expects the posties who are at work to step up and do another round after they have finished their normal rounds, predictably not all are up for two rounds a day. He says that the local postal services in our area are in chaos, drastically short of posties and managers, he is a really laid back guy and is quite happy for the extra overtime, I feel sorry for him though as just lately have been ordering quite a lot of materials for my modelling which all get delivered by the postie, yesterday he delivered three lengths of 5/8” bronze rod, no mean weight that he had to lug around till he got to our house. Hoping that our local postal problems get resolved soon but that’s maybe wishful thinking. Dave W

Perhaps the problem lies in staff recruitment, we are after all in the affluent South East and wages have always been a bone of contention with some businesses able to outwage National rates such as Royal Mail etc. so other employments are more attractive, more research needed to find the source of the deliveries problem. Dave W

Are any readers experiencing significant delays with their daily Post Office deliveries? My daily deliveries have been somewhat erratic, sometimes three or four days without the postman doing his round in our close, last Saturday we received our daily post at 7 o’clock in the evening after a period of three days without deliveries. When we get post there is at least a couple of days worth in each delivery, yesterday I received 5 packages and letters, some of the packages I had expected over a week ago. Rumours circulating via social media is that the Post Office deliveries are undergoing a dramatic reorganisation in order to reduce staff, the majority view is that it isn’t working. If this is true then it looks like the Post Office is breaking its agreement to provide a daily delivery to all customers, is this progress? Would like to hear comments from readers in other areas of the country on their experiences, my local area is he South Coast just outside Eastbourne.

PGK

How about Cider. 😋

Dave W

It looks like another trade ad has appeared in the For Sale Ads, moderator needs to act. Dave W

My wife who is profoundly deaf has a cochlear implant, the sound processing piece of the implant system has rechargeable batteries which can be removed for recharging. The equipment is hard on batteries and each battery lasts about a day before needing recharge, this means the batteries are frequently recharged which means they don’t last long before the charge they will accept diminishes to an unproductive level. This means that under the NHS contract for the equipment she frequently requests replacement batteries.Up until last year all replacement parts, including batteries, came by Royal Mail Special Delivery, mainly because the items are high value. As of last year any batteries requested are sent by a carrier, Royal Mail refuse to handle batteries anymore, all other parts that she needs are still sent RM Special Delivery. I can fully understand the caution now surrounding the transit of batteries, I have seen a NiCad battery self ignite without any exterior influence, to have that happen in the freight hold of an aircraft whilst in flight doesn’t bear thinking about, even in the back of a Royal Mail truck would cause enough problems. So if Royal Mail know there are batteries in a package they now refuse to handle it, most carriers will still handle them. Dave W

The weights for the deadweight tester will be flat discs, if my memory serves me right about 6 - 8 inches diameter, long time since I calibrated any gauges. Dave W

I think the answer lies in the previous industrial use of the building, the telephone wires are for an upgraded telephone connection to the telephone network which probably allows a number of incoming lines operating simultaneously. The other telephone cable junction box is for a single domestic telephone connection. I would be very careful of the two large cables that have connectors wrapped in insulating tape this seems to indicate that they may carry some voltage with possible lethal results. I would follow John’s advice and get a qualified electrician to look at it. Dave W

I use a local tyre garage which is a family owned business, Dad retired and son now manages it, I have been going there for all my tyre requirements for cars and motorcycles ever since I was in college, now in my mid seventies, they have always been scrupulously fair and over the years they were the only establishment that I would trust to carry out proper vulcanised repairs. In respect of car servicing I have a Honda, bought from a family owned franchise and they were always very straight in their dealings and work carried out to high standards. Couple of years ago they were bought out by a national concern who have multiple manufacturers franchises, took the car in for annual service and mot last summer, soon after the service the battery went flat, not using it often enough during the lockdown, when I opened the bonnet to remove the battery for charging found the air cleaner housing completely disconnected, all four clips undone. This year after annual service and collected the car found rear wing had been scraped against something while in their “care”. Pointless trying to argue the toss over both these occurrences it highlights how the high standards had dropped since the sale of the franchise, profits have now replaced customer service. Dave W

RRMBK,

Its quite exhilarating being on the flight deck of a Hercules doing radar avoidance at low level, ranks as one of my most extreme flights to date, beaten only by aerobatics in a two seat trainer aircraft, and no I managed to keep my breakfast down on both occasions. Dave W

PGK, I think the French beat us to it, they have positioned a number of their nuclear plants on the coast of Brittany and with the prevailing wind being a south westerly, where I live in East Sussex is right in the firing line if they happen to have an “accidental” discharge. Dave W

Does that mean we lose the Red Arrows as their display aircraft are Hawk trainers? Dave W

I researched for a decent led light to fix to my lathe and couldn’t find one that I would be happy with. The workshop has five 4 foot led tubes which give a very good light so I was really only looking to illuminate around where the tool was working, I opted for a head torch which is led and rechargeable battery powered, it gives a brilliant area of illumination just where I want it and has the facility that if I need to switch off and conserve battery power I just wave my hand in the beam and it switches itself off, likewise if I want it on again I just wave my hand in front of it and it comes on again. I think I paid about £12 for it and it is certainly well worth the money, to recharge the battery just plug into a USB socket. Dave W

Seems we have another commercial ad that has crept in the for sale column, this one is again for McAfee products, a moderator needs to check. Dave W

This problem makes me very wary of sitting on top of a massive battery pack in an EV, if you count back a hundred years or more I suppose the same could be said of those pioneers who ventured onto the roads with a tank full of highly flammable petroleum spirit, we accept that nowadays without thinking. It will take a long time though for me to be converted to an EV, mid seventies now so perhaps I will be able to see out my driving years with an old fashioned internal combustion engined vehicle, yes I am a dinosaur. Dave W

It happened to me a while ago so I found that if I set up a new registration but used the same details and password it solved the problem. Dave W

My family name is Wragg and my ancestors were Sheffield folk and at least one of them was employed in the cutlery trade so the link made interesting reading. Dave W

Must be about ten years ago I acquired a partial Allchin Traction Engine from a deceased modellers workshop, the horn plates had been made and drilled ready for assembly as had a number of other components there was also quite a few unmachined castings. Unfortunately the boiler was not among the components inherited so I need to tackle that. The parts had lain dormant in my workshop since acquiring them, the wife continually nagged about building it and finishing it so I have now started in earnest on its completion, to convince the wife that I will complete it before age and infirmity prevents me from so doing. The problem that I have is that the remaining castings that need purchasing are not cheap so I have to sneak the orders through when wife is looking the other way. Really enjoying the challenges with some of the machining, but I can understand where Tug is coming from with his models, he has done some excellent work so far. Dave W