Member postings for Adam Mara

I had whooping cough in the 70's when I was in my forties, took the doctors ages to sort it out, and I was off work for 2 or 3 months, and I agree, not a pleasant experience. Took me 2 or 3 years to get my health back to normal.

Some idea of the machinery would help, locally we can hire 'Man and Van'. If you drive you can hire pickups or flatbeds with cranes to make lifting easier. When my son bought a clapped out TR6 we just hired a car trailer with winch and towed it behind my car as I had a towball on it.

Yesterday, in urgent need of a 10.1mm drill bit, I ordered one from Tracy along with a few other drills and taps. The acknowledgement was timed at 14.05, arrived this morning in rural Lincolnshire at 8.40 am! Well done to Tracy Tools and Royal Mail!

PC has gone mad! Along with the House of Lords peers deciding pensioners don't deserve free TV licence, free bus travel and the winter fuel payment. Whilst they get £305 a day attendance allowance, free travel and a subsidised restaurant!

Sawdust works even better! I usually find that after 4 or 5 years when there is a management instruction to decorate, any less than 1/2 full tins are pretty solid!

Have a lok at 'JAGETRADE Garden Tools -50~110 °c DC 12v Digital LED Thermometer Car Temperature Monitor Panel Meter Blu' it may be the answer if you don't want to log results. I have a couple of similar Inkbird units that have proved very reliable.

Somewhere in the 60's or 70's, Drapers were selling bulk job lots of assorted surplus taps, a vast assotment right up to 1/2" BSP, many were by made American manufactures. Needless to say my cousin and I, who were running the family ironmongery business, got first pick, the customers got the leftovers!

I would check you updates record in settings, I had 2 updates on the 13th, if thats any help. Never had an email though, usually automatic, slightly worrying!

Gardening is my main love, and a lot of things I make on my lathe and mill are for my irrigation systems. There are various options, including drippers and sprinklers. In the greenhouse I tend to use trays with capillary matting in them, with a timer switching a solenoid valve to gravity feed water from a raised water butt. Pots are checked with a moisture meter, and the valve timing adjusted to suit.

Loads of BSW machine screws at work, at least 25 years old ex B&Q! PM me if don't have any luck, I will be going into work on Monday to collect the rent, and can pinch a few and post them to you!

Just a word of warning! My eldest daughter has a Victorian house with a large cellar, last year there was a cloudburst locally and the drains could not cope, leading to a flooded cellar, ruining the freezer, fortunately my son in law's extensive wine collection was not at affected!

I am 80 in October and this morning i got my annual state pension increase letter, I am informed that I will get an extra 25p a week when I reach 80. If I save it for a year I might be able to buy a bottle of second rate champagne to celebrate!

I agree with Neil, I would not buy anything direct from China I could not afford to lose. With the shipping time being 2 or 3 months, it will arrive after Brexit, and nobody has the fainest idea what will be happening. My SIL is a accountant for a shipping company, and they know no more about it than we do, its driving him mad!

Edited By Adam Mara on 13/02/2019 17:55:03

A trick we used at work for holding small pieces for routing was to cut a hole the size of the plate in a larger piece of scrap material slightly thinner than the workpiece. Both fixed to the sub plate with 3M VHB tape, then clamped to the machine bed. Fairly thin soft aluminium was used as a sub plate, as it was easier to 'peel' off.

JasonB, when I was at work, I used a Gerber Dimension 200 router with a Perske high speed motor, never had a problem with acrytlic melting , we used end mills and slot drills as required. As to acrylic not being flat, we always have a problem laser engraving jobs involving mortice and tenon joints, as they are often to tight, or loose due to variations in thickness.

I have a 1970's workshop with single wall brick , concrete floor and 100mm composite roofing, and have never had a problem with rust on my tools or machinery. My various machines are cover with covers made from a 'retired' caravan awning!

I have had a Chester DB7v metric version since 2012, had a problem with it when it was delivered, which was quickly rectified. It stopped working after about 3 years, and their service department soon got me going again ( a loose connection!). I find a great lathe, although it replaced an ancient worn out Drummond! If I ever changed it, it would be another Chester machine. Usual disclaimer!

Back in 1993, when we closed our ironmongery business in the town centre, our turnover was £300,000 a year, and our rates alone were £30,000 a year. Taking into account buying the stock, rent, wages and all the other expenses, never mind the shop lifting, it really was not worth the hassle. We still in business, but manufacturing now, low rates and no shop lifting! I seldom go into the town centre these days, and definitely not in the evenings.

I have found that the '2000' versions of Excel, Word and Access run happily on my updated last week W10 64bit. I have one or two specialist programs that will only run on W4W, and an old desktop is still used for those!

With my fading I have a 'Orders Pending' directory on my Outlook emails, just save the order confirmation to that, then delete it when the goods arrive.