Member postings for Samsaranda

Have recently returned from 4 days in hospital with flu and pneumonia, the treatment was excellent and the hospital very clean, I reflected on the changes in attitude in hospitals over the years. I remember many years ago the attitude of consultants and senior medics was at times very abrasive and condescending, some treated their patients very badly, I remember many years ago being a patient in a Naval hospital, didn’t help that I was Air Force, the surgeons there didn’t speak to their patients, communication was via the nursing staff, most bizarre. I for one am very thankful for our health service, especially as now most of the arrogant doctors are very definitely in the minority.
Dave W

Glad your back Ian, wondered why we hadn’t heard from you for a while, last week spent four days in hospital myself with flu and pneumonia, nothing compared to what you have endured, just make sure you take it easy.
Dave W

It frightens me when those with little or no knowledge state that they are going to embark on using acetylene gas for heating/brazing or whatever. Acetylene is a potentially very dangerous substance if handled incorrectly, the reason that numerous regulations exist about its control and usage and suppliers have in recent times tightened the supply of same. I have no issue with those who use it in industry and follow all the special precautions, I feel that it’s use by amateurs, as proposed on this column, should be strongly dissuaded, if you have ever had to organise the cooling of an overheated acetylene cylinder then you realise how close safe and disaster with acetylene can be.
Dave W

Material certification is no guarantee that the material is what it purports to be, aircraft manufacturers have been scammed with substandard material submitted by so called preferred suppliers. You have to rely on instinct, if a material comes from a source that you have had no problems with in the past and it machines as you would expect it to do, then that is really all you can hope for.
Dave W

Purchased a mechanical self winding Seiko watch when I was in the Middle East in the mid sixties, it is still working but relegated to a drawer as the case is now battered and worn. Have had a succession of Seiko and Pulsar watches over the years, none stopped working but also became battered and worn so relegated to the drawer, all these watches kept immaculate time, definitely value for money. Current watch is a Citizen Eco Drive which sets its time from a radio signal, don’t envisage any problems with it, timekeeping is as accurate as you could expect with radio signal regulation and will probably only be relegated to the drawer if and when it also becomes battered. I am very hard on my watches they suffer physically but all soldier on, my experience is you can’t beat Japanese timepieces for value, Rolex and Omega etc. probably have the edge on quality of cases but are they worth the exorbitant prices charged nowadays.
Dave W

I have a similar set but made in China and of excellent quality, mine appears to be nickel plated and the base metals of the instruments are steel and brass. Somewhat redundant now with CAD systems but a nice memento of bygone days.
Dave W

I think vellum with a quill pen, if it’s good enough for Parliament. 😇

Dave W

I would like to be present, but at a suitable distance, if it is welded and found to be magnesium !
Dave W

Hi Graham, sorry if I confused you but the 0843 calls that I receive are not connected with Amazon, I was referring to a problem not connected with my initial subject, I do tend to wander onto different subjects, comes with age I suppose.
Dave W

Les, I fell into the same trap with Amazon Prime this week; I tried to cancel the Prime delivery but it wouldn’t play ball so I went into my account and you can cancel the Prime free trial there, the bonus was I managed to cancel, and it is recorded in my account details, but I still received the free next day delivery. Recently received a call about my BT account and problems with my broadband service, soon sorted, I replied that I am not with BT and I don’t have broadband, I do but it’s with Sky. These scam calls are a real pain, especially the 0843 numbers that keep calling, no use blocking the numbers as they change to a different number each time but always with 0843 prefix.
Dave W

You might have a problem mating 4 holes to 3 holes, you need to select the flange size and pcd of mounting holes appropriate to your lathe flange, they are out there but you need to know what your looking for.
Dave W

The Village Hall I am chairman of recently received as a donation an outside, stand-alone notice board, we were able to choose the one that suited us, the only proviso must not exceed £1,000. We found a good sturdy enclosed notice board on galvanised steel legs for about £940 and it looks very smart, you would be surprised at the range of products online, you need to be very analytical in your search but there are good products out there at very reasonable costs.
Dave W

I wear two NHS hearing aids to compensate for serious hearing loss gained whilst serving my country, have pondered getting private aids but investigated the costs and found that there are huge markups on private aids, so kicked that idea into touch, the £3,000 quoted is not the most expensive by a long way. My wife unfortunately lost all her hearing resulting from Meningitis which also left her with epilepsy, she had a cochlear implant fitted ten years ago, the cost then with all the pre and post checks including the surgical bit came to about £36,000, lucky we have the NHS in this country. The NHS will only fund a single implant in adults but two in children. The wife’s processor, the bit on the outside of her head, developed a fault last week and was exchanged for a serviceable unit, a hi value item which according to the manufacturers costs about the same as a small family car, again supplied under NHS contract. I would advise anyone contemplating purchasing hearing aids to consider whether the NHS supplied items can cover their needs, they are not perfect for every situation but certainly in most cases are more than adequate. In respect of the cost of hearing aids, the cost that the NHS is charged under contract from the manufacturers, the same manufacturers that supply “private” aids, is displayed on websites that display the NHS costings, the aids cost the NHS little more than £100 each. Bulk purchasing contracts do bring prices down to reasonable levels but there is a hell of a lot of difference between that and the costs charged for private aids.
Dave W

Over thirty years ago, during a moment of madness when we were bored, a colleague and I decided to see how explosive aerosol cans could be. The cans were filled with a powder held in a butane propellant but were deemed life-ex so had to disposed off. We lit a fire in a dustbin type incinerator, and when hot enough we dropped cans in and retreated to a safe distance; after a short wait the cans performed with a loud noise and were propelled to about fifty feet high when they ruptured. It was fortunate we were a safe distance away because they certainly went with some Force. Any cans with butane as the propellant should be kept well away from heat and flames, also the stunt we performed should not be repeated it was very dangerous and we were lucky not to get injured,

Dave W

I drive a Honda Jazz with auto gearbox, it’s a dream to drive and with the paddles I can select any gear that seems necessary. The comments in this thread have made me think back to my time in the services when I used to have to drive ancient Bedford de-icer tankers that had awful gearboxes and the steering wheel was about the size of a railway turntable, no power steering in those days just huge biceps.
Dave W

Martin C, are you saying you recognise the bang of an ejection seat because you exited an aircraft using one?
Dave W

Neil’s Hum that he suggested may not be so ridiculous as it sounds, excuse the pun, are you anywhere near any high voltage overhead cables, they have a field of influence that can be detected many metres away and have been attributed as the cause of numerous strange phenomena. I am immune to any strange humming or vibrations as I suffer with noise induced tinnitus, my tinnitus sounds as though I am stood next to a gas turbine engine screaming away so In away I would be grateful to hear an annoying 50 HZ hum.
Dave W

Using Gas Oil for heating at 8p per Kw hour seems remarkably cheap, I currently heat my workshop with an oil filled radiator set low on a thermostat and it keeps the workshop warm and condensation free, the workshop is well insulated, however the electricity is currently costing me 18p per Kw hour on full rate and 11p per Kw hour on off peak. I do have solar panels generating 4Kw hours max when the sun is shining, have a 4.8 Kw hours battery so can save some surplus solar and top up at night with the cheaper off peak to use during the day, we are however heavy users of electricity in our household running pumps etc 24 hours a day on koi ponds. I wish I could get energy to heat the workshop for the equivalent of 8p per Kw hour.
Dave W

Back in the early 60’s went on a college visit to a local foundry that did ferrous and non ferrous, the foundry was the Phoenix Foundry in Lewes in East Sussex. I remember being told by one of the staff there that casting of large items was dependent on the state of the tide, only carried out I believe if the tide was out, the foundry was situated on the banks of the river Ouse, which at Lewes is tidal, foundry now long gone. I am afraid I have long since forgotten the reason why the tidal influence was important to the casting process.
Dave W

Had problems with a delivery of logs that were booked to arrive on a day of our choice, when there was no sign of the delivery by 5 o’clock I phoned the company that I was purchasing from and they said hang on and we will check with the delivery company where the load was. Came back to me in a few minutes and said the delivery couldn’t get through because the road was blocked by Police !!! Turned out to be an outright lie there hadn’t been any road problems, obviously the driver had got fed up and just went back to his depot. The next day the delivery arrived and the driver was the most obnoxious that I have ever had, probably got a roasting for his antics the day before, anyway his attitude was that his company made only kerbside delivery so he was going to just dump the pallet, weighing about 400 kilos, in the road, not even on the footpath. I proposed phoning the company who supplied the logs and cancelling the order and he could take it back to his depot and explain why, soon changed his tune and reluctantly placed the load on the footpath near my property. A problem that I have had in the past is that you order an item and the supplier charges you for the delivery, and when things go wrong, the item gets lost or misdelivered, then you cannot speak to the couriers they refuse to communicate with the customer they will only deal with the vendor, very frustrating because the customer is the one who has paid for the service but contractually you can only deal with the vendor, this can make sorting out the problems a long and difficult process.
Dave W