Member postings for Brian G

I'm not sure I would call an A1 Pacific "advanced" when it was little different from a locomotive built 100 years before. Larger size, different valve gear, higher pressures, piston valves, injectors and mechanical lubrication were all incremental changes to a basic design that went at least as far back as the Planets, if not Rocket itself. The gas turbine, like the steam turbine before it, was a complete technological leap in performance, materials and manufacture away from the reciprocating engines that it replaced.

As far as "for its time" goes, the interval between the Pen-y-Darren locomotive and the GWR Iron Duke class is similar to that between the Wright Flyer and the DC-3.

Brian

Edited By Brian G on 14/02/2018 17:23:52

Not to mention how Mexicans, Canadians, Argentinians, Chileans and many others feel about being lumped in with citizens of the USA. As far as "in the Empire" is concerned, it depends on the Empire in question. Portugal adopted the metric system before the founding of the Empire of Brazil, whilst the German, Austrian and Ottoman Empires all adopted the metric system in the 19th Century.

Brian

How important are good valve events when notching up on small industrial narrow gauge locomotives that typically worked slowly and over short distances? I suspect that the answer will be as different for the prototype locomotives and for miniatures as the conditions in which they are operated, and that the manufacturers of industrial locomotives knew what their customers needed when they offered Hackworth valve gear.

Brian

Did it use a steam turbine powered fuel pump like the V2 (which used a sodium permanganate catalyst in its steam generator)?

Brian

You could do worse than Tiger Sheds. They offer windowless options on their workshops, and if the pent shed my son bought is anything to go by their quality is pretty good.

**LINK**

Brian

Takes me back, I remember watching Vanishing Point at Santa Pod **LINK**

Brian

The Scots, Welsh and Irish might complain but M&S seem to agree: "Youv'e had your referendum and you're part of England now" **LINK**

Brian

Whatever technique was used, it (unfortunately for us) seems to be too commonplace for the Chief Constructor to mention it in the chapter on iron masts in "Shipbuilding in Iron and Steel" (from page 259 & table 7 on page 522) **LINK**.

Hard to imagine that any kind of dolly or hydraulic rivet press could be inserted from the end to the full length of a section, especially if there was internal bracing as described in the book. Perhaps the back of the mast was supported so that a jam back could be used to snap the rivet?

Brian

I can't get over how similar the 20 year old one looks to my Kennedy (from Cromwell Tools) of similar age. The only visible difference is the name printed on the casing. It seems to be a very good copy of the Mitutoyo. I don't think it has needed more than 3 or 4 batteries in all that time, although it has been asking for another for the last few months.

Brian

Over Christmas we built the "Arduino Rotary Table for Dummies" from HMEM **LINK**. The instructions cover adjusting the contrast and checking the backlight is on before even installing the driver - sounds like the voice of experience

Brian

I was quite happy as a lad with a selection of fixed speeds - there wasn't much other choice. After a 30-year gap, I realised I was turning much too slowly on my son's mini lathe, and it was likely that I would teach him the same bad habits, so a cheap Chinese tacho was an early addition.

It probably only had a couple of month's use, as neither of us tend to look at it often now we have got the feel for the machine, but it was a useful teaching aid and well worth a tenner (including case) and a few minutes installation. If nothing else, its large red display serves as a reminder that the lathe is still plugged in when the lights are turned out

Brian

In my case by a process of elimination

Brian

As I (barely) understand it, ARM processors are also affected, whilst although AMD say "There is a near zero risk to AMD products at this time", they may also be affected. Perhaps I should have kept my old Amiga

Brian

Mine arrived (in Kent) 90 seconds ago, I guess they didn't take priority in the pre-Christmas mail.

Brian

It would be safer if the login page was also through a secure connection, as users might (unwisely) use the same user names and passwords elsewhere.

Brian

I beg to differ.

Without one I would either have to submit readings every month (not easy when you are in a wheelchair and the meters are in a 2' high cupboard under the stairs) or be willing to pay on the basis of wildly inaccurate estimated readings for up to two years between meter readings.

Brian

I think our smart meters use a mobile connection, they certainly aren't on either of my wireless networks, although they must have their own low-power network to provide regular updates to the display. The Hive control box is however on our (wired) network, but communicates with the thermostat and boiler controller using a low-power wireless connection, probably ZigBee.

Brian

To be honest dongles were a pain in the ar5e neck. At one time I had three different parallel port dongles in my desk drawer, and none could be used via a pass-through, which meant pulling the PC out to change programs. It wasn't as if cracked versions of software weren't available, I am pretty sure I was the only person on one course using a licenced version of AutoCAD.

They aren't quite dead yet though, as the software for my vinyl cutter requires a USB dongle.

Brian

I guess you don't drop your 'aitches Dean Try saying "Lickham Hall" it in a Sarf Lun'n accent as "Lick 'em all" (beat them all).

Brian

After hours of searching, here is my AutoCAD R14 Dongle (edited to remove serial numbers). It is a NetSENTINEL manufactured by Rainbow Technologies, supplied to my former employers in 1998 and passed to me when they changed CAD suppliers so that I could maintain their older drawings.

Although it has a parallel pass-through, only the computer end is labelled as such.

Brian

Edit: I could never get the software to run on Vista or later, and kept an old machine running Windows 2000 for AutoCAD until it was no longer needed.

Edited By Brian G on 18/12/2017 21:24:38