Member postings for Nigel Graham 2

Weymouth - lost access to the club-room and tracks because they are in the grounds of a school that has decided to lock its gates at the end of the school day - we normally meet on Tuesday evenings and Saturdays.

We hope to be able to retrieve the boiler test-pump and certificates to at least be able to offer that service to members.

Our first task when we can return is going to be a scaled version of the Lost Gardens of Heligan: the track site was an massive thicket of brambles before we started on it; and it now boasts a lawn interspersed with raised pant beds (some planted by teachers) and shrubs. That's going to take some restoring if my lawn is any comparison!

'

The lock-out also denies access to public sports facilities in the same grounds.

'

One of the bright lights in the WADMES year is now the Chickerell vintage rally, held only a couple of miles or so away from our base, but this year's has already been cancelled.

The club was "homeless" for a while in the past, but kept together partly by the hospitality of one member and his wife, inviting us to meet for tea and biccies on Club Nights in his own workshop. No actual metalworking took place, but it was of considerable social value to the Society. Whether anyone in any club in such a position in the present circumstances would feel able to follow suit, is debateable to say the least.

I've two I bought a few weeks ago after hearing them read as Book of the Week on Radio Four - but missing odd episodes. They are:

The Second Sleep - far-future dystopiae are everywhere but Robert Harris' novel is an unusual take on the theme .

Firstly, this is about a young priest being sent to investigate the death of a fellow clergyman in the fictitious but credibly-named village of Axford, evidently near the real Exeter in which some of the events occur.

Further, although this takes place 800 years hence, it is in a post-apocalypse English society that has become a Christian theocracy that has recovered in anything technical only about as far as perhaps the early-18C. We "see" artefacts from the late-20 to early-21C through puzzled 29C eyes - a neat touch that reinforces the drama. Why has that society stopped there, by what means, with what effects? How did the cleric die? What was the purpose of a massive, sealed concrete structure from ancient times, on what is now the local manor's land?

You will have to read it, won't you?

'

And...

'

The other book is very different, and factual.

Scientist and science journalist Adam Rutherford explores the nature of bigotry in his How To Argue With A Racist, showing the stereotypes and myths, of which not all are necessarily nasty, but which back up the false idea of races having specific characteristics that do not exist in reality.

For example, the idea that because many Indians are superb mathematicians or many Africans excel at athletics, they must have some genetic reason for it - no, he says, examine cultures, not biology.

He also shows how science, particularly modern developments in DNA testing and genetics, is being misused to bolster racism, such as on self-gratification web-sites devoted to the attitude.

As for those DNA testing companies that purport to tell you your geographical and racial origins... he exposes their reasoning as deeply flawed, by simple arithmetic that to be honest I find somewhat counter-intuitive. It goes like this:

Each organism takes half of its DNA information from one parent, half from the other. Each of them in turn... only a few generations shows the startling effect of that 1/2-exponent. As I understand it, even if any of us can trace our documented marital lineage over several 100 years, we cannot be anywhere near as sure of our biological hence ethnic origins. Rutherford goes on to explain how the DNA companies arrive at their results - basically, by bad statistics and generalising.

Why counter-intuitive? It made me think of a population decreasing by about [1 / ( 2^4) ] per century, not growing rapidly, but of course that forgets that most couples who have children, produce two or more; and the generations in each family overlap. (He types, having just learnt of becoming a great-uncle yet again!)

This is an interesting and more, a thought-provoking, work that ought be set in every school in the land - every land.

And next time I am faced with a tick-box list on an official form, asking my ' Ethnicity ' usually concatenated with nationality, I will tick the box labelled ' Errr.... '

The WI Hall next-door-but-four has Cancelled or Postponed stickers on practically everything on its notice-board - including the next monthly coffee-morning which is open to the public - the lathe as well as distaff side. (I can vouch for the home-made cakes and my neighbour's home-made marmalade!)

Today's local by-election has been postponed of course... the decision didn't reach the local officials until yesterday evening, by when the local paper had said it is going ahead and if you are worried, you can bring your own pencil. (Errr, what about the polling-station's door-handle, or the lights push-button on the nearby pedestrian crossing?).

===

As for model-engineering....

My club has had to suspend everything as its club-room and tracks are within the grounds of a school that has started locking its gates after the now-limited school hours.

We meet of course well outside school hours, and in our own building. The grounds also hold a public sports-centre and pitches which will be just as unavailable to their own out-of-school-hours users, too. Hard to see what the ' lock-out ' policy will, or is meant to, achieve given that we external users do not enter any part of the school itself; other than perhaps reassuring parents and County officials. (I wonder who would be the more anxious?)

NAME is establishing whether to hold its forthcoming AGM - I've said I am prepared still to attend but also for it being put off.

+++

Still, my local pub is open for business. My caving-club in Somerset seems still available to members (though my other, in Yorkshire, is presently day-use only, having suspended overnight accommodation even for members).

The "huge pile of washers" is not "wrong" functionally so much as untidy. Yes, some neat new spacers would be welcome there.

I am pretty sure you can service that detent without removing more than the handle.

That gearbox can trip you up. It drives both the feed-shaft and lead-screw and whilst it can help extend the possible thread range, the one you cut will agree with the change-wheels alone only if the gearbox is in the 1:1 ratio.

(What do you mean, how do I know?)

On the other hand, you can use it to co-operate with suitable change-wheels to set a super-fine self-acting feed for finishing cuts.

Verify the actual spindle pinion tooth-count agrees with that given on any screw-cutting tables you have for the machine. On my Harrison it seems fixed and not changeable, and is not the one quoted so I have to calculate the wheel-train each time.

;;

A tip to help you keep the lathe clean. Obtain an oddment of standard, round PVC rainwater down-pipe, cut two pieces; one the full length of the headstock, the other ditto the box part of the bed at the tail end. Cut them lengthwise to form two "gutters" slightly under their radius, in depth, to a gentle push-fit under the shears below the two stocks. They stop the huge voids in the bed from filling with oily swarf, and direct any oil leaking from the headstock into the chip-tray.

For sweeping out the chip-tray on both the Harrison and the Myford lathes, I use old paint-brushes, with a child's plastic toy beach-spade about 8" long as a "dustpan".

(Oh, and I tend to use the tail-end PVC "gutter" on the L5 as a handy little temporary tool-shelf, too! 

I did have a "Henry" but not the space for it (him?). I gave it to a friend for his own workshop.

Recently I bought a small, hand-held rechargeable vacuum-cleaner from Aldi or Lidl, with workshop use in mind, but it will probably be more use in the house, such as on the stairs, or the computer's ventilation grilles.

To be honest I have never found it a great chore to clean the machines and workshop floor manually. Takes a bit longer perhaps, but not that much, to extract a nice clean lathe from a heap of swarf!

I bought a cheap polythene toy spade - useful, is living in a seaside resort - to use as a very effective dustpan on the lathe chip-trays. It just fits sideways on between the tray side and the raising-blocks, on the Myford cabinet.

I've also a standard floor-brush whose shim-thin steel tube handle I managed to break at half-height. I think I accidentally stood on it!. Surprisingly that proves very useful for cleaning in cramped areas.

To help with cleaning the Harrison L5, having discovered the swarf's favourite hiding-places, I cut two left-overs of standard white PVC rainwater down-pipe lengthways at slightly below centre-height to form gutters. These simply lodge by their own springiness on the bed under the shears, below the headstock and tailstock, preventing the large voids below from swallowing the debris. That under the full length of the headstock also directs oil seeping from the gearbox, into the chip-tray. A by-product is that the tailstock gutter often temporarily holds small tools or work-pieces out of harm's way!

+++

Years ago I was the materials store-keeper in a factory making printing-machines. The millers had a horrible habit of using air-lines to clean their machine tables, squirting fountains of swarf and suds for some distance across the machine-shop floor.

I need to mount a copper boiler in a steel chassis, for a 4"-scale steam-wagon I am building from archive photos, so no detail drawings. I have to design it as I go along... 3 steps in full forward gear, 2 to 5 back..

'

The boiler is of an unusual pattern, externally a T-piece on its side. It has three plate lugs on the outer firebox to sit on chassis parts, and the barrel rests directly in the smoke-box and via spacers, on a cross-member.

My thought is to fit supporting / insulating pads of Synthetic Resin-Bonded Fabric (SRBF) or Paper (SRBP), e.g. from the Tufnol range, PTFE or indeed hardwood, between the lugs and shell, and the chassis components.

Further, to use similar material for the cladding crinolines, possibly as blocks screwed to bands of thin brass strip rather than using a lot of material for trepanned rings.

'

Working temperature:

The standard steam-tables show 338ºF / 170º C, at 100psi gauge, slightly above the designed 90psi.

[Fingers crossed that those degree signs don't bring up stupid face symbols!]

'

Any particular pros, cons, problems etc, of these materials for this, please?. Would timber need some suitable preservative, given that the manufacturers of wood-preservatives tend not to consider such high operating temperatures?

Those brass "needles" can be a curse, and no mistake, finding their way around the house if you are not careful.

My worry with cast-iron is not so much the mess - unpleasant but something you tolerate for the finished result - but all that graphite (the black dust) near the motor. I am not sure I really want conductive dust floating about near the lathe motor's cooling intakes, just behind the headstock on a Myford. I use a sheet of insulation board as a shield but it doesn't keep all the muck away.

(My Harrison lathe's motor is in the open air too, but up on a frame above the headstock, some way from the chuck.)

Weymouth has cancelled / postponed its planned evening events in our physically compact club-house, but the room and tracks are still available informally at members' risk on our regular Tuesday evenings and Saturdays...

... however...

We live in the grounds of a school accessible outside of school hours thanks to a public sports-centre and pitches within the campus. If these are closed the gates may well be locked, so we are waiting to establish what will happen.

Ah well , as JC54 says, there are the other halves of all those projects...

+++

Many clubs - and not just in our hobby - will face significant loss of income from day-fees, sales to members and public events; whilst still having to maintain premises with rates and other running costs. I wonder if the Government advice to avoid "pubs and clubs" is based on knowing of only those "clubs" that are really versions of pubs.

I've been pondering the likely effect on our valued suppliers. They of course have to consider closing to protect the health of their own staff, but if their wholesalers can still operate, being mainly mail-order retailers in a specialist trade they may be all right. Let us all hope so, for their sake as well as ours!

+++

As an example of that general point, a round-robin arrived today from my caving-club on Mendip, advising members that the pub not far from its self-catering HQ, will be closed for the duration. No news yet about the other local pub and the farm-shop café, also frequented by club members and guests. The club-house is still open, so far anyway, obviously at own risk; but I imagine will see less use, and cancellations of visitor-bookings.

Adding to Speedy Builder's observation, Beryllium Copper alloy was once a common type of bronze used for spring contacts due to its elasticity. It is poisonous and I think has largely been phased out.

I don't know what is used in modern electrical work - phosphor-bronze?

===

As for What I Did Today....

A little more work on the steam-wagon.

I discovered a fabricated chassis cross-member that dips below the boiler-barrel was fouling the ball-joint on the steering drag-link. After considering modifying its outline, I plumped for moving it forwards and beefing up its connections to the chassis to:-

- strengthen the area above the axle,

- support the barrel nearer the smoke-box (neither imparts structural strength) , and

- remove the original snag.

Ball-joints were used on Ackermann steering in the 1900s, though possibly not on the Hindley wagons; so whilst not strictly prototypical are still in spirit as well as more reliable than the wriggly series of clevis joints I'd first made, based on the archive photographs.

I have kept the track-rod correctly clevis-ended, as that is very prominent in front of the axle. The drag-link and drop-arm are nearly hidden by the superstructure and wheel. This works because the king-pin bearing pillars and spring-pads are joined rigidly by a hefty I-beam axle, keeping the rod and radius-arms in one plane.

I made the axle years ago, by welding two lengths of folded channel together back-to-back and trimming flush, to imitate the probably-forged original. I similarly fabricated the pillars to represent what were probably castings.

("Drawings?" I hear you ask. There are none, just a few grainy old publicity photos from 112 years ago!)

...

I was hoping to get this ridiculously belated project to a running state for a show this Summer, though have still entered it as "U/C"... . Not even sure yet if we will have access to our club-room, due to its location, until the present problem is over.

Just had two e-post round-robins...

The model-engineering club Committee has decided to suspend formal activities in the small, enclosed club-room; but it and the tracks are still available for members at own risk. The post also mentions the "demographic" which is a polite way of saying many of us are of the more distinguished years*

The other circular is from one of my caving-clubs, saying the pub many members frequent has closed following the Govt.'s latest advice.

(There is another pub, and a farm-shop café, in the village but they were not mentioned, so I don't know their position. The club's self-catering HQ has not closed, but as with the model-engineering society, I presume it's use at your own risk.)

====

+ "distinguished years...

I overheard this dialogue at an Exhibition -

"That chap over there. Him with the grey hair."

"Which one? They've all got grey hair!"

Thanks Nigel!

Yes- I know the cause but I'd forgotten!

It would be beyond my computing knowledge but I do wonder if forum moderators are able to turn them off.

In that case too the drawing given is in inches so replying in inches was appropriate.

Thank you Bill!

It does work as the rubric in " - better-English-than-my-Mandarin - " promises, I take it?

'

What did I do today?

| had a rest from smothering the Harrison L5 lathe in oily swarf, by going caving.

'

Why oily swarf in lathe-burying heaps? I'd spent much of the week making the boiler / smokebox ring for my steam-wagon. I think there was more metalwork in setting it up than making it, by trepanning it from a piece of well-weathered 15mm steel plate.

It is a ring 8" od X 6.4" id, with most of it turned away to form an annular channel :

Take one such plate, some 16" square; verify that a central recess already faced in it would not foul the intended bore. Wire-brush in angle-grinder to remove the worst "weathering". Oh, first - see my post above - find an old angle-grinder spanner, un-pin it and file it to fit the brush-nut.

Decided on the threaded plugs for 4 holes already in the stock plate, and slap on the centre-circle of the channel. They had been 1/2" dia clamping-holes for turning that recess. The bushes, intended as permanent, could only be 9/16" dia over threads, and a fine thread at that. Luckily I have a 9/16" UNF tap and die. Also tapped them M6 right through.

Screwed them in, with Loctite.

Worked out the order: trepan outside off first, then the channel, then the ring from the centre disc. Measured face-plate (<<16" dia.). Removed "splash-back" from the shelf above and behind the lathe, as it fouled the plate.

Assessed potential disasters if the appropriate bits are not secured when cut through... A 16" square of 15mm plate on a 9" faceplate revolving at perhaps 60rpm, is rather alarming!

I had thought to put the lathe motor controller above the tail, well away from the moving parts. The L5 has a clutch lever over the headstock but I was NOT going anywhere near a revolving work-piece like that, so left the clutch engaged and turned the machine on with the tool well clear. (In lowest gear.)

Machined (on the Myford) a bush to fit the spindle-nose and the plate's central hole. This was sort of helped by some philistine in the past having bored out the first inch of spindle taper to summat around 1.3"-ish with a rough finish, but cylindrical. Ish.

Cut some M6 studding pieces - fitted these to the UNF plugs. (Also permanent but yet to be trimmed flush.)

Cut 4 pieces of 3/8"BSW studding (compatible with my commercially-made clamping-sets); to fit holes already near the plate corners, to take angle-steel clamping-bars. Drill & tap the plate just shy of the faceplate rim for M8 set-screws and large washers as further restraints.

More tea.

More studs and tappings for the inner disc.

Assembled all, using plastic building shims as sacrificial spacers between work-piece and faceplate. Removed gap-filler. Assembled to lathe, with the spindle bush as locator to ensure the plugs' pitch-circle and the channel would match correctly. Secure this bush (too large to pass through the faceplate) with long studs and joiners from the clamping-set, right through the spindle.

Discovered the saddle would not approach the work without running off the rack! Ho-hum. Pushed it into place, tested top-fee range, stud clearances &c. Used tailstock as back-stop. Ground a trepanning cutter.

More tea. Used the Radio Times to select suitable background soothing from the workshop wireless.

Cut off the outer. That alone took well over two hours! Back-gear, lowest range-gear, motor happy at about 900 rpm in the green sector on the Newton-Tesla 3ph controller. Lots of brushed-on suds.

Oh the relief when rust-dust and blue plastic finally emerged from the cut, and nothing moved as shouldn't!

'

Switched all off and went indoors for tea... rather late tea.

Friday afternoon: unscrewed the newly-made steel commode-seat from face-plate, put it to one side. Re-fitted the gap-piece.

'

Mug of tea? No: a pleasant half-hour of tea and cake in a nearby café run by a former soldier as a mutual-support place for ex-Services personnel, but with opening-hours for all, including we civvies, too. One day and one evening are for veterans only, as are a private garden and gym out the back.

'

Back to it. Had to renew the tool again (dig-in, BANG! "Bother", or words to that effect). Carved out the channel. I'd made the plugs and their studs full-depth to minimise the interrupted cut, but there was still some thumpety-thump.

Finally parted the channel from the central disc; each still held by their respective M6 and 3/8BSW studs and nuts.

Quick test: yes the ring fits both boiler and smokebox! Rather freely but not excessively: not bad considering I have no Vernier or digital calipers to this size so had to use the traditional firm-joint calipers and steel rule.

Rang down "All Stop". Mid-gear, brakes on...

Retired for tea, 9pm.

In fact we saw two kites: one over the motorway, the other over our hosts' home, both near Oxford.

I've often wondered about introduced / re-introduced animals' risk of inbreeding. We must assume the naturalists concerned do strive to minimise the problem.

++++

Not much engineering today unfortunately - sometimes I take hours to get started but do usually then stick at it for a good few hours - but I fitted two bars to the workshop ceiling. These are for temporary suspension / safety hangers to aid assembling the travelling-hoist's cross-beam.

Missive to self - try to find a thin spanner that actually both reaches and fits the hexagon on the back of the wire cup-brush, so I can remove it from the angle-grinder without having to struggle, as I did this afternoon, with a strap-wrench!

Incidentally I bought just such a thing in Aldi or Lidl recently - sold as an oil-filter wrench, but I bought it as a kitchen utensil. I do like home-made jams and preserves but by 'eck, the lids can be tight when new and I don't really want to loosen them with a strap-wrench that's been around a grubby angle-grinder and cup-brush. Oh all right, I am being fussy...

Dave and Lainchy -

Re the LBSC 'Juliet'.

Though you could build it with slip-eccentric gear (no reversing-lever), the standard design has Stephenson's Link Motion, with proper reversing-lever. More bits to make, but the reward is a more satisfying loco to drive.

The smaller "Tich" by the same designer had the option of slip-eccentric or much better, proper outside valve-gear (Walschaert's?).

It is perhaps worth mentioning that I am afraid LBSC did skimp on the link-motion detail design on both Juliet and Maid of Kent (presumably others), by hanging the expansion-link off one side only and providing a poor or non-existent valve-spindle crosshead. Put the expansion-link between a pair of lifting-links, and a decent valve-spindle guide, as all present and correct; and you make the loco a lot more reliable with little extra work!

(My own club built a 7-1/4"g version of 'Juliet' for heavy portable-track use, and modified it in that way.)

I think you can still buy flexi-drives for electric drills. One of those might be suitable, with appropriate adaptors.

Aaaarrrghh! Those blasted silly faces!

I thought I'd given the spaces necessary to prevent them, and I cannot edit them out!

The angle of advance is set by the designed lead (usually a tiny bit > 0 " as well as lap, so varies from engine to engine, but a bit over 30º seems quite typical for Stephenson's Link-Motion, full admission port openings and fairly late full-gear cut-off.

In fact your drawing gives what appears to be the lap (7/32 " and lead (that ' +1/64'. Which is quite possible as a traction-engine's engine itself, is designed to run fairly fast.

If I recall aright, the angle of advance on LBSC's Maid of Kent with Ken Harris' version of its Stephenson's Gear is around 35º. A loco is designed to be driven at speed on a very early cut-off, and the effect of that link motion is to increase the lead with notching-up, especially beyond what appears typical for a traction-engine.

The usual plots for eccentric / crank geometry are the Zeuner or the Reauleaux Diagrams, or simplified versions, both quite easy to draw. They simply relate valve-travel to crank and eccentric positions at dead-centre, but not the port openings themselves, nor the full effects of all the bits of steel in between.

The matter of materials certificates is only really for steel boilers built under and not before, the Pressure Equipment Regulations, but what does count is the completed boiler's hydraulic and steam-accumulation test certificates. Provided these do exist they do not need still to be valid if you are prepared for the possibility of some fault having developed since, that would mean a re-test failing. That could be why the engine is up for sale!

There is no technical or legal reason under the MELG scheme which most model-engineers follow, for not buying an uncertificated boiler... BUT...

It would be a gamble because it would need to be inspected and tested as if "new", possibly with all lagging removed (at the tester's discretion). ... AND

Testing the thing at all would very much be at the inspector's discretion, especially if it is to an unpublished design. He or she might also decline a boiler of a type personally unfamiliar, although I do not see that a valid reason because the test is of a pressure-vessel, not a tester's knowledge of umpteen different designs.

At the very least I would request witnessing a basic hydraulic test to working-pressure only, to ascertain no structural leaks, to guide buying it. That could use the loco's own hand-pump, if fitted. It will also show minor, curable leaks within the fittings.

As a first step, examine the complete engine carefully: does it look well-built and looked-after, even if well-used, or is the overall workmanship clearly poor? You won't be able to see much of the boiler itself, but if the surrounding metalwork looks decent the boiler could be, too.

However...

Even that can be problematical. I was once personally involved in telling an unfortunate builder his new boiler, apparently to an LNER pattern, was scrap before we put a drop of water in it, despite his obvious craftsmanship. He was a retired coppersmith, though with no previous experience of miniature steam locomotives. He had faithfully followed the drawings he showed us, unaware of their very serious fault - almost no stays. The poor chap assured us he'd tested the boiler only to working pressure; but he had not noticed as we did, that it had collapsed the arched inner firebox. The poorly-printed drawings also bore no designer's and publisher's names, either, but he would not reveal their source..... We never saw him again.

On the other hand, if the loco appears generally good but at low price you might consider being prepared to re-boiler it if necessary; either building the boiler yourself or buying it from one of the professionals advertising in ME and MEW.

First step - find someone whose advice you can trust, to go along and examine the goods with you! If the dealer is reputable he should not object, provided of course you don't give him the impression of you thinking him guilty unless proven innocent!

Just to make it more fun is if you need cut a thread unknown to any reputable publisher of thread-tables...

As when making a spare pub-trade standard, CO2 cartridge connector for the heat-exchanger at the heart of a breathing-air heater used for warding off hypothermia in the casualty, in a cave rescue.

Nothing published matched what was clearly a Metric thread, and calculating the wheels for a lathe having an 8TPI lead-screw, only one intermediate stud and change-wheels of 25 to 65 X 5, was a challenge....

As for Foots Royal, French, Stubbs or otherwise, some years ago I chanced upon a souvenir programme from a recital celebrating the complete overhaul of Oslo Cathedral organ. I do not know when Norway adopted these new-fangled Metres, nor what the country had used previously, but the instrument's voices were all given in "fus" , as in Diapason 16 fus or Viola 4-2/3 fus. Well, naturally! How can Widor, Bach or Ligeti possibly sound right on Diapason 4.877... ?

Today - three us on an expedition to collect a Warco milling-machine one of the others had bought from t'other's brother.

As we were securing it to the trailer, we spotted a distinctive, large fork-tailed hawk fly over the neighbouring houses. The sister-in-law told us it was a Red Kite, recently introduced (or re-introduced?) to the UK and now common in some areas.

Yesterday - some Urban Engineering....

The front roof down-spout of my Edwardian end-of-terrace discharges into a concrete invert to the gate-post, thence a rectangular-section, concrete duct sunk into the pavement, to the road gutter.

Or thence, if not choked solidly with earth. I resolved to un-choke it.

The three cast-iron cover sections were each held with a central M8 hex-headed mild-steel set-screw that, predictably, had rusted into whatever it engaged beneath. Despite optimistic Plus-Gassing, the first screw simply sheared, but that allowed me to lift the lid to reveal a simple but ingenious arrangement.

The "nut" was a tapping through a pressed-steel channel cross-bar resting in two plastic pockets in the duct walls. One end of the pocket is square, the other arcuate, further, the pockets are in diagonal opposition; so the engaged screws turns the cross-bar turns clockwise until it stops at the square ends, then allowing the screw to be tightened.

Needless to say, the remaining two screws and cross-bars were corroded palimpsests, but I salvaged enough to measure.

A little band-sawing, bench-drilling and hand-tapping turned a bit of hot-rolled m.s. bar (some scrap bar-rail) into three new cross-bars.

Ferreting in the unsorted come-in-handy deposits found three M8 hex-headed screws, and in stainless-steel.

With the duct all nice and clean, it was easy to complete the work with lashings of anti-seize grease on the new cross-bars and screws.

The finishing-touch was a simple strainer on the inlet - cut from a piece of Packaging, Plastic Plate, Perforated, Pliers for the Presentation of, from Aldi or Lidl

Can I claim a Council Tax rebate - or will They query my lack of hard-hat, shiny jacket and project-managerial meetings?