Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

Oops!!!

For 'described', please read 'description'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good morning, all,

Thank you, everyone who has replied/contributed to this thread.

I hadn't realised that there were so many different brands of hearing aid approved and supplied by the NHS. Mine are Danalogic GN, via Scrivens Opticians.

The TV accessory mentioned in my instruction book is called the 'TV Streamer 2' and its described says it 'wirelessly connects your hearing aids to your television'. I am awaiting a reply from Scrivens to my request for more detailed information on this device. I assume that it is connected to the TV (or computer sound bar? ) via cable and to the hearing aids via Bluetooth. My audiologist said that if I required induction loop functionality, I was to 'come back and we'll programme it in'.

Regarding the given vs loaned aspect, my audiologist left my old hearing aids with me 'as spares'.  I do remember mention on a previous occasion of a £100 fee to replace a lost or damaged aid.  My house contents insurers refused to cover that fee as part of the accidental damage section of the policy.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 25/10/2022 11:39:33

I have, today, taken delivery of my latest NHS hearing aids. (For readers outside the UK, such appliances are 'free at the point of need'. )

I got a book of driving instructions this time. Inside the back cover there is a list of accessories for which one has to pay.

The accessory that most takes my fancy is a device that (wirelessly? ) routes the audio from one's television receiver to one's hearing aids. Neither my wife nor I watch any television these days but I do spend a lot of time in front of the computer wearing headphones. Yes, YouTube.

Does anyone here use one of these devices? Is the interfacing procedure complicated? Would it work with the computer (sound bar) rather than the television receiver?

Needless to say, this device is the most expensive accessory on the list!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I think I'll just sit quietly for a while and see what happens next.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Ian,

I ever so don't know what you mean?!?!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Michael,

I welcome your comment, thank you.

I was just 'thinking aloud', that's why I started a new thread.

I have to confess that some of my posts are sometimes/often/too often a little wide of the thread topic! So, perhaps, I was 'special pleading'.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Here's what Michael G. posted on another thread (my italics) :

Welcome aboard, Jack

Here’s the list of available topics for you to choose from: **LINK**

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/

… ‘though you might notice that we are not very well disciplined in their use !!

MichaelG.

A respected colleague told me many years ago that the 'mainline mechanical engineering profession had determined the rotational speed limits at which slender shafts could safely be operated. Then, surprise surprise, someone looked next door and discovered that the textile industry (think spinning jennies) had been safely exceeding those RPM limits for generations!

It's worth having a look into the shop next door every so often in case they have discovered something useful that we could use.

Also, a touch of random noise can be useful - one of my Open University courses taught that the portals that transfer substances into or out of living cells depend upon Brownian Motion to get a relevant molecule properly aligned with the 'trapdoor' so that a useful transfer occurs. For 'substances', read 'information' and for 'cells' read 'threads' perhaps?

Bottom line: while topic creep does need to be limited it can often be useful/constructive in the right dose.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

P.S.: are inter-thread quotes possible here?
 

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 18/10/2022 10:34:07

Good afternoon,

Several years ago, a work colleague had a problem with, if I remember correctly, oil getting into his car cooling system and pressurising the radiator. I don't remember the make of car. He was in dispute with the local dealers.

Using my workshop facilities, I was able to make him a fitting that would allow the (removed) cylinder head oil ways to be pressurised with a foot-pump while the head was immersed in a tank of water. This revealed that the various compartments of the head had illicit connections. On the strength of this evidence, the dealers had to repair the vehicle at their expense.

There was speculation as to the cause. One theory was that as the molten aluminium flowed into the mould, the flow via two or more paths met without coalescing, the two fronts had already cooled too much. We never got to perform a post-mortem - the dealers hastily confiscated the rogue head!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Jelly, good afternoon,

Thank you for your contribution, I think the points you make are fair and reasonable.

I confess that the points I made relate to just a few crystallised cherries in large slice of cake! Some were prompted by memories which are still painful or uncomfortable despite my having 'retired' some quarter of a century ago.  And I certainly wouldn't claim that I cruised through those years getting everything right!

Regarding my points about the military, maybe I wasn't entirely fair. They are no more clairvoyant than the other sectors of society, even though they do have departments whose entire raison d'etre is to identify how things are changing. And it is fair when they say 'no plan survives contact with the enemy!'.

Just to get things straight about one aspect of my career in the defence industry: I never ever met any member of the UK armed forces who could be described as a 'war monger'. The people I met were determined to be so well trained and exercised and hence so good at their job that potentially hostile forces would be reluctant to take them on. At the same time they appreciated that their side of the social contract committed them, if needs must, to go out there and do the job. That certainly inspired me and, I hope, my colleagues in Industry, to do our best to ensure that they had absolutely the best kit we could contrive. The only 'warmongers' I did meet along the way were arms salesmen! One exception was a salesman I met who changed jobs because he said he couldn't stomach selling weapons to countries that should have been buying hospitals!

Edit to add an afterthought about 'design authority': The Beck company, makers of microscopes and other scientific instruments, used to have a clause on the back page of their catalogue.  It stated that they guaranteed the performance of their own proprietary items.  If a customer submitted a set of drawings of the customer's own design, Beck would guarantee to supply an item that conformed to those drawings but in no way would they accept any responsibility for its performance.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/10/2022 13:31:02

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 10/10/2022 13:39:32

John,

It seems that if you ask this question to, say, a dozen different companies or organisations, you'll get at least fourteen different answers.

Here's what I used to answer when I was asked the question:

If, as the (development) project progresses, either the hardware development engineers or the software writers suffer a moving goalpost, then the Systems Department haven't done their job properly in drafting the design specifications. You don't start the development until the customer has read and signed those design specifications.

There was a guy called Clauswitz back in Napoleon & Wellington's time who wrote 'the Rules of war'. Rule #1 reads "Select and Maintain The Aim". Why confine that rule to war? In my opinion, much of Industry would benefit from it too.

I worked in the Defence sector. A colleague of mine used to insist that the military's job was to 'define the operational requirement' and, having done so, to leave the design to the engineers.

I was also witness of (but not party to) a project where the customer was allowed to, in effect, become the design authority - utter disaster!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 09/10/2022 20:08:05

Good morning, Ian,

I fear that I can't give you the link to the web-site of the manufacturers of Oilite bearings but you should be able to find it easily.

That web-site used to have a section on fitting the bushes. If I remember correctly, they advocated the use of a mandrel of the same diameter (or plus a running clearance? ) as the shaft that was eventually to run in them. This ensures that the bushes contract to the right extent.

I hope that helps.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good morning, Mick,

How about this: eBay Spindle

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I have an observation and a query:

The State Pension is paid evey four weeks. If your designated payday is three (four? ) weeks after the date of the annual pension increase, it seems to me that you get your first weeks of the year at the old rate and miss up to three (four? ) weeks of the new rate.

My question is: is the State Pension paid in advance or in arrears? In other words, if I fall off my twig the day after payday, does my executor have to pay that payment back?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Nigel,

One make of the material you mentioned is/was called 'Rembroplast'.

I received an 'Allbrit' drawing board when my then employers closed a drawing office. It had that parallelogram rise & fall mechanism. I had dismantled the board and base for carriage but, on reassembly, fitted the large sector-shaped cast iron weights the wrong way round. When I first depressed the foot pedal, the board flew upwards, narrowly missing my chin. Had I been standing a few millimetres further forward, I'd have been eligble (except for gender ) to perform the actions for that well-known song about 'walking the Bloody Tower'!

In case any reader is thinking of making their own drawing board (seems unlikely in this CAD age ), do take note of the need to slot the screw-holes in the rear battens and to use brass washers under the heads of the round-head brass screws. Failure to do this has resulted in two of the joints opening in our solid teak refectory-style dining table because of shrinkage while parked too close to a central heating radiator. The table was made by my late father - he was a skilled cabinet maker but even he missed it! In this case, lateral shrinkage was too strong, even for Cascamite One-Shot!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

What I think is the tail-stock looks odd to me - has this photo been flipped left-to-right?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Might that be because their flag (and the halliard ) have the wrong hardware? I seem to remember there should be a toggle and an eye but I can't remember which is top and which is bottom.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Bob,

Please could you clarify?

Is your 'old' Myford oil gun the small Tecalemit gun?

If so, does it leak from the nozzle to oil nipple junction or from the filler cap end or both?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good afternoon, Neil,

Just in case it might help:

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Good afternoon, Ian,

Thank you for your post. (Thank you to all other posters as well but I want to reply particularly to Ian. )

I started this thread with some trepidation because I do appreciate that 'feel' is not easy to communicate using the written word. For that reason, I am grateful to everyone who has bravely made a contribution.

However, my opening post does contain three specific questions. #1 is a matter of interest but is a side issue from my main enquiry. Several contributors have answered #2 but nobody has addressed #3. The task I have before me does involve a recess that is too shallow to permit 'rocking ' of the telescopic gauge.

Thank you again to everyone who has commented and I look forward to still more contributions.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

A bit of a personal history for starters:

My sandwich course, 1954-1958, included twelve months factory attachment of which the first few months were spent in the Trainee Modelshop. (Question #1: why was it called a 'modelshop' ? ) I made some BA spanners and a Browne & Sharpe toolpost spanner, some toolmakers' clamps and a scriber and centre punch or two. They can't have turned out too badly - one of the toolmakers' clamps was nicked!

Subsequently, such workshop skills as I have, have been built up, patchwork fashion, relying on books, live examples and, recently, YouTube videos and lots of trial and error along the way.

One blank area in the patchwork has been hands-on experience with using the telescopic gauge to measure bores. I've never tried it.

I've watched the famous YouTube gurus inserting the telescopic gauge into the bore with a forward lean, pulling it past 'top dead centre' and then measuring it with a micrometer. I presume that the gauge is set with just sufficient tightness to hold the moving arm still but not too much to prevent the arm moving within its mate to adopt the diameter of the bore.

But, question #2, do they then tighten the handle to prevent the closing force of the micrometer from altering the reading?

Question #3, how is tthe technique altered if the depth of the bore is, say, only just sufficient to admit the head of the gauge?

I know that attaining this sort of skill is best achieved with the hands-on aid of a mentor; mentor performs operation, learner performs operation, sequence repeats until both achieve the same reading. I don't have that opportunity but I do have to machine a spigot to fit a recess (think chuck + backplate) and there'll be no second chance. I have mounted chucks on backplates in the past by just very carefully taking off less and less until they fit. I'd like to have a bit more control this time.

I look forward to members' comments. How do you do it?

Bestt regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

P.S.: I do have a digital caliper gauge.