Member postings for Adam Mara

My son tells me materials we got from the continent, that used to take 3 days are now taking at least 12. Our 15 year old fridge is on its last legs, on enquiring at the local dealer for a replacement, he was unable give a delivery date. What a mess!

Even my tomato seeds are Chinese!

Our county health officer commented that a reaction means its working. We had Oxford, both had shivers and slight headache. Our eldest grand daughter is a nurse and had the Pfizer and had a bad reaction and was ill with flu like symptons for 2 days.

Definitely go for the 2.7 from Arc, I got mine from there a couple of years ago. At present I am machining 10mm slots in 25mm aluminium, not sure my old Axminster SX2 would be up to it. The only thing I miss on the 2.7 is the ability to angle the column. After I bought my SX2.7 I was a bit loathe to sell the SX2, and after consulting management kept it, very fortunate as I had a stroke last year, and in now resides inside in the mini-workshop come office. (Ex youngest son's bedroom!)

We ordered a new machine in mid December from a UK company 'should be here before Christmas'. The machine was air freighted from Japan to the distributors in the Netherlands, that took 3 days. It arrived at our works last Wednesday, so about 3 weeks later! We are now struggling for raw materails, most are imported by our suppliers in the UK, usually taking 3 days, now at least 12 days. Its really sad that hardly any of our machinery or materials we use are actually made in the UK.

We are just getting a fourth wheely bin, and there is still a list of banned items you cannot put in any of them. As you go round town you see dumped old settee's, beds and tv's Our business premises are near the town centre, and most of the aforementioned have been dumped in our car park, besides a car, and 2 empty cash boxes from parking ticket machines!

And spare a thought for our wonderful NHS workers, my grand daughter, a 20 year old trainee nurse, working 13 hour shifts in the local hospital. Part of her forthcoming training involves going to a hospital 23 miles away and doing a 14 hour shift!

Much as I try voiding hospital, last year I had an 'eye stroke' in March, and cancer in December, both times, even in these difficult times I recieved excellent service. My treatment for the double vision is ongoing, bigest problem was my driving licence being revoked, and dealing DVLA in attemp to get my licence back. The cancererous patch on my head was diagnosed and treated within a week, and was non agressive.

I found my 1958 copy of the Encyclopaedia of Locksand Builders Hardware Published by Josiah Parkes & Sons Ltd, Union Works, Willenhall, England, and this is how to do it! I don't think I break any copyright laws by pasting a small section for private use, if I do, mods please delete it!

Its many years since I cut keys but first I would take the lock to pieces first and clean it out, do not oil the levers but use graphite to lubricate the lock. The pin of the key come in different gauges, most mortice locks keys are around 5 or 5 1/2 gauge. the first thing we did when cutting keys for locks is to remove the levers (number them in order!) then put the top back on and fit the blank, making sure it shoots the bolt correctly. After that we filed the bit to the correct height, checking for fit.

I was only a 'key cutter' but learnt a few locksmithing skills, last year I master keyed a series of Eurocylinders to fit the house, garage, workshop, potting shed and summer house, keept me amused!

I still have my key cutting manual, if I can find it, there may be a 'proper' description of the proceedure.

There is an interesting article about mica on the British Mica Company website, it will stand up to 900c, and the largest piece found was 330 tons!

Many years ago, as a country ironmonger we used to sell sheet mica for oil heaters and slow combustion stoves, the memory is fading, but I'm pretty sure we used to cut it with normal scissors. Happy days!

A Google search bought up store.lathes.co.uk, Worth a look?

My first thought reading the OP was air driven, which was backed up by the following comments!

Shortly after WW2 I was given a WD surplus Mk XIV Bombsight Computer as a birthday present, and it certainly contained an air driven gyro, and lots of other interesting bits and pieces, and still have a few bits left in my 'might be useful' draws!

If you are an EON customer, your direct debit may have been taken early, ours was taken today instead of January 2nd!

Self adhesive vinyl comes in various guises, with different lifes and adhesives, when I was at work the vinyl was either classed a 2 year, 7 year and 10 year life. The first two were calenered vinyl and the 10 year is cast vinyl which was normally use for bady wrapping. Both my sons are factory trained appliers, but even they chickened out of doing a brand new Alfa Romeo one of our customers wanted wrapping, we got a specialist in!

Did a quick mock-up in Coreldraw. If anyone wants a eletronic copy PM me, Coreldraw supports most vector and raster formats. I have been using it since version 2!

Edited By Adam Mara on 13/11/2020 15:47:33

Be careful what you wish for!

Many, many years ago I was a member of the P&O Cruises forum, run and owned by P&O, it too got a lot of stick.

In the end they took the simple solution, they just closed it down, what's the point in financing something when all you get is critcism.

Lets hope that ME can keep going. Today I had an email from Womans Weekly saying they have ceased publicatiuon, and they are refunding the balance of our pre paid subscription.

Difficult days, take care.

That was my first thought. My father was a keen radio amateur, and in the early 50's he was advising a friend of his who dealt in ex WD equipment. It was a boys delight to look his yard, from memory most of it was of high quality, and probably over engineered.

Here's an imperial chart for text height/cutter size that might help.

http://blog.visionengravers.com/archives/2012/12/selecting-the-right-cutter-size

There is a readabilty chart some where on the internet, listing the font size and distance it can be read at, but don't have a link for it!

There are several type of engraving laminates, including Traffolite, a very hard material normally cut with a tc cutter, I avoided in my day as an engraver. Most of the plastics now are acrylic, as these can be laser engraved, some of the older materials cannot . You also get different surface film thickneses, use a 'micro' surface for small fine lettering, needing around a 0.2mm point, a sharp cutter is essential for good results!

Althouigh I am retired, I still take an interest in engraving, At work we still have a small pantograph engraver, used for silver plates, an A4 size computer controlled rotary engraver, and a Trotec 400 laser engraver. For brass and aluminium signs a 1993 CNC router with Persk high speed motor.

Missing the work, I have a 3020 CNC router which I use occasionally for lettering using a single line font, the only problem is that the film thickness of engraving materials can vary, leading a difference in thickness of the strokes, which is avoided on 'proper' engraving machines with a floating head and nose depth adjustment.

By the way, I just use the 3.17mm cutters used on the small CNC machines

We use Royal Mail for smaller parcels, but for medium to large ones we have used TNT for many years, and we have had the same driver for a long time. We gave up on DHL after an urgent parcel for one of our German customers spend 2 days at East Midlands Airport.