Member postings for Martin 100

Being brought up locally to Doncaster, with regular visits to family still in the area, but living ten minutes drive from the showground at Harrogate for many years I will throw in my thoughts from half a dozen shows over the past decade and a half.

I walked in on Friday, about a mile from my convenient overnight accommodation, all totally on the flat, compared to parking in the dutch barns at the very bottom of the hill at Harrogate, and slogging up there in the pouring rain a few years ago it was a breeze. Yes Harrogate had car parks next to the halls but not everyone could use them even when arriving early. I've even moved my car in the afternoon and queued for a space in order to shift heavy stuff at Harrogate.

The car parking adjacent to the Doncaster site really shouldn't be a problem, it might be better at the weekend with less park and ride usage to the hospital (the parking issues there are very considerable) No idea of attendence at this show but the site has shows of all descriptions many times a year and also copes with about 30000 on the Saturday at the St Leger without any major problems, some will be on public transport or in coaches but the only additional parking ever used iirc is behind the School for the Deaf over over the road from the venue and that is for half a dozen days a year, maybe all for the racing (Lincoln & St Leger)

There seemed less overall show area than Harrogate, but despite that there was always space to move, with very little waiting . Harrogate was horrendous on the Friday the last I went maybe two or three years ago.

Slightly disappointed at some missing trade stands from major retailers, not that they were ever expected.

Some seating downstairs away from the eating areas would be handy to rest tired legs.

I was in the market place in Doncaster (excellent meat, fish, fruit and veg market btw) very early Friday am, there were lots of promotional posters around, never seen any around Harrogate, just a big sign in a field or two.

The quality of exhibitor models excellent as always, the part completed ones often more interesting, the gas turbine demo great fun, the Bentley engine & grille outstanding as was the horse drawn 'London' coal wagon and the London-Holyhead mail coach.

Some more show space might be useful (marquee?) Better signing of the upstairs area that I discovered by chance wouldn't go amiss either.

I heard the legendary Cherry Hill was also there on Friday.

Edited By Martin 100 on 21/05/2016 13:52:56

Given they are both laptops I'd be tempted to alter the power saving / power down settings, cable it to the net and let it download and install 'everything' it wishes (with the Win 10 exclusions checked in GWX)

I mention this on the basis of similar problems I've had with IBM/Lenovo laptops and Samsung Netbooks in the past when a big backlog has occurred after a few weeks offline or with updates disabled.

Unless you are totally offline then disabling all windows updates 'forever' is the guaranteed route to big problems in the future. The security patches are there for a very good reason.

I know from experience many years ago with a security hole on Windows 2000, the time it took to download a service pack of about 80-100MB over a 64kbps link, was actually less than the time for the machine to be infected by a random attack. That was with a brand new windows 2000 installation, from a sealed CD with no subsequent user activity whatsoever, just an internet connection downloading the service pack from Microsofts own FTP site.

Many thanks Brian, hope that continues to be the case. I need fresh air at lunch rather than one long stretch of four or five hours under artificial light.

I've seen this on a stopcock under the sink in a relatives house although all that happened was internal. I came to do some minor plumbing work but couldn't move the valve one way or the other. Last time it was operated was maybe 20 years earlier with a kitchen refit, the valve maybe predating that by another decade.

I slackened off the gland, introduced some penetrating fluid, still no joy. So I went upstream and then found the water board stopcock at the boundary was also seized. After that was replaced, (it was apparently done 'live', but required a revisit for a leak on a compression joint) I could finally tackle the stopcock in the house. After replacing it. I put the old one in the vice and took it apart with a bit of heat and a birmingham screwdriver. When in bits the threads, the valve faces and all the internals in contact with the water were pink, just like pickled copper. The threads eroding away to nothing. Externally the valve looked perfect and not much metal appeared to have been lost from the valve body.

Recently printed my advance ticket and it says 'this ticket can be used for entry once on the day of your choce'

I'm sure there were pass outs (maybe a wrist stamp?) at Harrogate in previous years.

Does anyone know if this really is a one time entry ticket?

Got a similar 'clark' one secondhand maybe 15 years ago for well under 100 quid. Badly aligned and with numerous missing bolts that had vibrated loose it was a near basket case hence why the previous owner was getting rid. It's proved to be an extremely useful bit of kit and saved many hours at the bench vice over the years.

The stand is very flimsy so mine is bench mounted. Blades made by Lenox in the right length are off the shelf at MSC in a wide range of tpi.

There is a yahoo group with a really useful FAQ with lots of tips on getting this generic type of bandsaw working to its best.

Edited By Martin 100 on 12/05/2016 19:59:43

I'm puzzled why that would be the case.

IMHO it's totally out of order for runs to be unpublished as the restoration was partially funded funded by the national lottery. The NRM are not that keen to run it through or from its birthplace of Doncaster either, the 'London-Edinburgh-London ' trips being diesel hauled to and from York.

Traveling on it is well out of the reach of many, seeing it in a museum is as close as many will get, which only needed a lick of paint and polish not a full engineering restoration taking a decade.

Snatch squads on a service run ahead of the train with huge fines and confiscation of camera equipment only needs to be done once to get the message across.

ACF50 (google it) spray onto paper towel or chamois swab and apply very lightly.

For a long while now there have been forgeries of bankers drafts and bank employees appear to have have no way of distinguishing them from the real thing.

If you go to the other parties bank and see the draft actually being issued, it goes directly from the cashier into your possession and you then credit it to your own bank then it should be risk free. In any other circumstances it might not be.

Not sure why anyone would ever want an old style thermostat. Properly placed, left ot of reach and untouched they can work, but more often than not they are horribile devices that time really should have forgot.

A programmable thermostat that automatically and accurately notches down the temperature at night a degree or two makes a house far more comfortable for sleeping. If you have 24/7 occupancy then slightly lower temperatures throughout the day also become far more tolerable reducing overall heating costs.

No longer will you experience the extremes of a twice daily '1960's' heating timer clunking on at 6am on a cold morning, the house still cold as you get out of bed at 7am for a shower and eat breakfast, with a thermostat that just clicks off as you leave the house at 8am ready to repeat the cycle at 5pm that day and every day. Get a cold night and higher thermal losses and with a programmable stat the heating will come on slightly earlier to ramp the temperature up to ensure say 20 deg C for 7am regardless. A holiday mode that lets you go away for anything from a day to a few weeks and come back to a house warmed up a few hours before you arrive is really useful tool.

Of course some people just like swinging a rotary dial thermostat from 10 deg C to 30 deg C and hearing clicks followed by gugling pipes followed by sweltering temperatures and windows opened a few hours later, followed by more clicking, another layer of clothes donned and more clicking. Then wondering a few weeks later why the fuel bill is huge.

Does that mean you're playing the part of Buzz Aldrin for the weekend?

The electronic meters for domestic installations are OFGEM certified for a life of 20 years. That is some 8 years longer than the recommended service life for an electromechanical meter before they should be returned for overhaul and recalibration (now they just get scrapped) My electronic meter has (touch wood) been in service for iirc 13 years now without issue, and there are thousands more similar ones in service with larger commercial / industrial consumers for a few years longer than that.

The build quality for such a cheap device is IMHO a different league to the consumer grade big display show the customer how much their electricity is costing in realtme gadgets. Add complexity, use components from uncertified sources, build it in a sweatshop, with zero QA and things will fail, years or decades ahead of the stuff that has been installed in the tens if not hundreds of millions across the world.

A modern electronic meter, the exact same specification as now fitted to your main supply point are freely on sale (used) for about £11 plus £4 postage on ebay. No moving parts to wear out unlike mechanical meters that will be approaching end of life and are often more expensive.

Something like this

**LINK**

They will last decades longer than any plug in or clamp on connect to your computer and save the planet eco rubbish sold at a premium price to trendy consumers. The user interface is truly idiot proof, something that could never be said about the plug in or clamp on meters.

Blackgates, I've a set kicking around on my bookshelves from a decade or more ago in an anonymous brown envelope, they were possibly unfolded and viewed on a clean table top, then filed away. They also sell the castings.

If, and it is a very big if, I could find the drawings I'd be happy pass them on as a freebie to someone who could make use of them. All I've turned up so far in a 5 minute search is an SLR camera service manual and a few odd drawings of boxford bits. I know they haven't been thrown out!

use this kind of structure to permit solar gain in winter and reduce it for the rest of the year when you probably don't need it.

**LINK**

Internally line with PIR foam (Celotex/Kingspan) Celiing only if you can't do the walls. While more expensive PIR foam is far more compact than anything else like polystyrene or rockwool or fibreglass. Don't be tempted by thin bubble wrap type insulation, it is crap.

Ventilate the structure separately , both the interior volume you use (fan or windows) and the roofspace with ventilation grilles)

Forget swamp' coolers they dump heaps of moisture in the air and barely work in anything but a low humidity environment like a desert.

SHADE INSULATE VENTILATE

Edited By Martin 100 on 22/04/2016 21:53:05

Edited By Martin 100 on 22/04/2016 21:53:24

That second link led me to here **LINK**

It's pretty scathing of many manufacturers/brands.

I've half a dozen dial / lever mechanical indicators at my disposal, (Mercer, Mitutoyo and Starrett iirc) a couple near untouched from the factory and others that were more beat up cleaned and serviced a decade or more ago by a watchmaker friend, but last I checked quite a few had gone stiff despite being in what I'd call quite reasonable storage conditions - in a toolmakers cabinet, in a centrally heated area with VCI paper in the drawer. There is certainly no rust on anything else in there

I've long lost touch with the watchmaker friend, so this time it's going to be a DIY job with, I suspect, a dab of brake cleaner as my eyes are not up to dismantling,

If they had a keylogger active on the tablet they may now have significant parts of the authentication details to enable access to your bank account. With the randomisation of authentication during login to some banks that might not be enough to gain future access but you have exposed yourself to a very significant breach of your data and almost certainly acted outside the agreement you have with your bank for online access.

If only that were wholly true. Patently unsafe electrical devices continue to flow out of sweatshops in the far east. Spending five quid on a mains powered lamp or a USB power supply to charge your phone could prove to be the very worst decision you ever made, so bad that you may not be around to make another bad decision.

Like the marks of formal approvals bodies or other forms of self certification a CE mark often means nothing, you can easily buy the stickers online in rolls of thousands for a dollar or two delivered. In many cases the CE mark doesn't even conform to the strict form and dimensions specified for its use. From a reputable supplier / importer who actually has the processes in place to perform the necessary checking and has the ability and skill to examine internal construction standards then it certainly carries some weight, from a supplier on ebay or aliexpress or whoever it often means nothing other than a fraction of a cent for the case marking.

The design may be inherently unsafe from the first moment the designer sits down at a keyboard, often it appears the designer takes a datasheet from a manufacturer, they know the envelope the design has to be fitted into, and they will, for unknown reasons, totally ignore really basic design rules. The design then gets farmed out for manufacture to the lowest cost supplier maybe with component substitution or omission.

The result could be internal components may not be rated for use at mains voltages, or adequately protected by fusible elements, mains pins might not be adequately restrained within the plug. Crack the lid open and you might find internal clearances between the mains and low voltage side of the equipment could be sub 1mm, covered in stray microblobs of solder stuck to uncleaned flux residues. The LV side having exposed metal such as a plug or other structure (like the gooseneck on the lamp in the first posting) that may become live at mains potential at any moment. Add coolant, stray bits of swarf etc and it only gets worse.

Maybe you'll get away with it if you have an RCD but in recent days elsewhere on this forum there has been mention of removing earths to avoid nuisance tripping of RCD's For the vast majority of equipment and applications the earth conductor and connections are there for very sound reasons. Removal to prevent nuisance tripping of an RCD falls into the category of insanely stupid.

Large corporations like Apple etc have had issues in the past with electrical safety on many items of kit. one thing for sure is they are certainly more wary now than previously. But it's a fact that large swathes of what should be extremely low risk equipment are potential death traps. There are very few suppliers of USB power supplies that I would ever consider. Those from elsewhere that somehow fall into my possession are sometimes dissected but mainly just destroyed and binned to prevent their use. After a while you get a feeling for knowing what crap lurks inside.

Would I consider using a mains powered lamp, of unknown construction standards with a high possibility of poor isolation between the mains and low voltage sides, with no IP rating, without proper certification, with unearthed exposed metalwork that may rise to mains potential, in an environment with moisture and swarf?

The answer is no.

That might affect the French standard pipe fitting, which curiously is physically the same as BSP albeit designated in metric rather than inches

On the subject of the Daily Mail **LINK**

Edited By Martin 100 on 11/04/2016 15:24:34