What did you do today? (2014)

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Just found a half-hour break, so I oil-blacked a couple of fitted bolts I made for my driving truck. Nothing special about them and not particularly well finished. Just heated to just past dark blue and dropped into a golden syrup tin 1/3 full of rapeseed oil. The oil is now as thick as molasses, but 'melts' rapidly when hot metal hits it. The finish is super, so I keep using it.

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Saturday afternoon, went out and watched the model aeroplane club fly in, they were mainly using air tow for launching gliders, two Pawnees, and an Agwagon, about 2meter span. Some good flying on a cool overcast day.

Ian S C

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 29/09/2014 13:05:58:

Just heated to just past dark blue and dropped into a golden syrup tin 1/3 full of rapeseed oil.

.

Neil,

Is the residual quantity of Golden Syrup sognificant ?

MichaelG.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Bees never cease to amaze me, I went back to that little swarm to give them more comb with honey in them and as I opened up, a large piece of free built comb fell off the underside of the lid. They had hardly touched the comb that i gave them last Tuesday and had opted to draw out the free comb. I placed 2 more combs in the box and retrieved the free drawn comb as it had honey in it, a bit thin but edible. All the other hives had bees hanging about outside as it was a bit wet today.

Clive

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by JasonB on 28/09/2014 17:11:50:

After a few promising pops last weekend today I altered the valve timing slightly on the Nemett OceloT and managed to get it to run under its own steam (fuel). Still needs some tweaking here and there and I may also try it on pump fuel rather than the lower octane Colmans that I was using but quite chuffed that its a runner.

Very nice, sounds great!

Rod

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Clamped one of my bench grinders (the one that sports a whetstone) to the workmate outside for another session of kitchen knife sharpening.

This is something I normally only do when the sun shines and I am always puzzled why flying insects are attracted to the operation. Is it something to do with the frequency (buzzing) of the blade on the whetstone or are they scouting for bloody meat? What do you reckon Clive?

Rik (sometimes with flies ON!)

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

What did I do today? What a sweet topic…..

So today I organised a few photos taken from around the house and the antipodean garden. Absolutely nothing to do with model engineering except that in times of stress it is nice to relax and ponder on the wonders of nature that give one but a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful world.

If somebody, somewhere enjoys them then I shall sleep soundly.

Regards * Danny M *

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Interesting stuff! What's the 3rd one down? Some form of juvenile bird of prey or just a close-up of a sparrow? And what's that funny mutant piebald crow? We don't see beasts like that in the UK (or Canada).

Murray

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

Well done Danny….sleeping soundly zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

cheers

Bill

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Hi Ric, i do know that when I go to the Apiary in the orchard that mossys hang about me! There is standing water as the bees need water all the time and I have 2 tubs with absorbent materiel that I top up every day. I do have bees, both Honey and Bumble that hang about my garage after the smell of honey in storage there. They often come in while i work on frames and settle on the boxes hoping for a free feed.

News on that small swarm I took, it has eggs, I checked yesterday and they are very busy drawing comb. I did not have time to search it for the Queen but will do that next time I am there. Unfortunately I have another hive that is failing, again a swarm that did not start of too well and it is now dwindling and one of the workers is laying eggs so I will wait and see if dies off.

Clive

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Blue mountain area Danny?

That Preying Mantis looks like it could do with a nosh up.

Brilliant colours those birds have.

Geoff – FeedRodMotor nearly done.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, yesterday I had a day out in London along with my brother and some of his students, part of the day included a Thames river trip, where upon I was fasinated by how neatly a boat was towing three barges, two of which were side by side and the third one following behind. The front two were attached to the boat by a rope in a V formation. The whole issue just sailing along nicely as we slowly passed it by.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 03/10/2014 11:46:14

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Ruth and David Archer to leave Ambridge? AAARGH!

Neil

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Neil,

Youv'e ruined my weekend now, I usually listen to all of the programme's on Sunday morning, I suppose there heading north to her Mum.

Martin P

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by martin perman on 03/10/2014 19:51:20:

Neil,

Youv'e ruined my weekend now, I usually listen to all of the programme's on Sunday morning, I suppose there heading north to her Mum.

 

Martin P

Its a good job we are all individuals, Neil has made my weekend.

I'm waiting for the Archers to leave the BBC!

 

only edited for typos

Edited By Ian Phillips on 03/10/2014 19:55:16

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by Nicholas Farr on 03/10/2014 11:45:00:

Hi, yesterday I had a day out in London along with my brother and some of his students, part of the day included a Thames river trip, where upon I was fasinated by how neatly a boat was towing three barges, two of which were side by side and the third one following behind. The front two were attached to the boat by a rope in a V formation. The whole issue just sailing along nicely as we slowly passed it by.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 03/10/2014 11:46:14

That would be a tricky configuration to get into a parking space! (Or if the skipper needed to do a three point turn)

Ian P

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Posted by OuBallie on 03/10/2014 09:27:33:

Blue mountain area Danny?

Mt Bogong is in Victoria. I live on the NSW-Vic border. It was a cold clear morning. The snow topped mountain is actually 70km away.

The clear air and lowish humidity here has the benefit that workshop rust is not a problem. Just a light spray with Inox is all that's required to keep the lathe bed shiny.

The bird on the weather-vane is a magpie. I feed them so they leave me alone, but woe-betide anybody passing on a bicycle – they are swooping at the moment.

A family of swallows has moved in, they are fascinating to watch.

* Danny M *

[Johnboy25Participant @johnboy25]

Today I continued levelling my Bridgeport milling machine. (I had it a while and thought I'd better do this as I only roughly levelled it when I installed it sometime ago!) I been using a Starrett machine level – that needed a bit of tweeting to ensure it was reading correctly. That in itself took some fiddling to get it sorted. The mill has a base casting which is about 1/2" thick with no obvious points to sit it down on. But there is a notch in centre at the front where you can put a lever bar to assist raising it to get some packing under… After several attempts of raising and lowering and finally chasing my tail a few times, using the machine level and several pieces of packing used as shims, I manage to get as close as I could to level in both axises. Now that I've got it level I'll grout it using two part epoxy filler. This whole exercise has lead me to wonder if there is a better way to do this. Perhaps acquiring some suitable machine feet (the non compressible versions – if they exist!) with some jacking arrangement. I've got some ideas to be getting on with.

John

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

Posted by Danny M2Z on 03/10/2014 06:07:29:

What did I do today? What a sweet topic…..

So today I organised a few photos taken from around the house and the antipodean garden. Absolutely nothing to do with model engineering except that in times of stress it is nice to relax and ponder on the wonders of nature that give one but a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful world.

If somebody, somewhere enjoys them then I shall sleep soundly.

Regards * Danny M *

Danny would that be Mount Feathertop? A beautiful area down there Kiewa Valley, Bright. I have driven a number of Coach tours through there during Autumn when the colours are out and Spring, the drive up to Mnt Beauty etc glorious.

That Tawny Frog Mouth must be friendly uncle used to be able to hand feed one up round Tea Gardens.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Johnboy

This is what I did with my BP clone. My garage floor is neither flat nor horizontal, so each time I move it I have to re-level it. I like to move my stuff around periodically as my focus flits to my latest fad. I bought 4 resilient mounts for about a tenner (UK) each. Fitting them wasn't completely straightforward but hardly a challenge.

The 4 holes in the base don't extend down to floor level in mine and I'm guessing that's typical for most BPs and clones. So I had to machine up 4 spacers about 4" long to transfer the weight of the machine from the feet to the underside of the base casting, then make some female locking bolts to hold the feet in place from above. Works nicely and you can easily access the adjuster nuts. Now you just loosen off the locking bolt, hold the nut and bolt from turning and spin the foot up or down, then lock again.

Once again we can marvel at super lovin' Windows 8.1. No matter what I do with the photos here, W8 knows better in the end, so they are stuck in what I'm guessing is the original orientation of the iPhone that took them. W7 works fine but I only have access to a W8 machine. I recently paid $70 extra to get W7 on a recent laptop purchase for one of the boys in preference to the default W8.

Murray

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Muzzer on 04/10/2014 04:44:24:

Once again we can marvel at super lovin' Windows 8.1. No matter what I do with the photos here, W8 knows better in the end, so they are stuck in what I'm guessing is the original orientation of the iPhone that took them. W7 works fine but I only have access to a W8 machine. I recently paid $70 extra to get W7 on a recent laptop purchase for one of the boys in preference to the default W8.

.

Never mind, Murray … Windoze 10 is on its way.

MichaelG.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Wondos 10?.

….I guess w9 will go the way od windows 2.

.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Well

As a loyal user of Windows PC's since version 3 the time has come to upgrade my Win 7 machine. ( I had the "blue screen of death" a couple of weeks ago – thankfully fixed by a useful engineer who warned that he thought the hard drive was probably on the way out ) .

All my kids are dedicated veggies ( ie they like Apples!) and they are always saying " For goodness sake Dad – get a Mac." ) This time I think I will take their advice.

Norman

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by jason udall on 04/10/2014 09:15:49:

Wondos 10?.

.

Yes, it's confirmed in the article I linked.

… I think they were worried that there might be some misunderstanding amongst German-speakers

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/10/2014 10:53:04

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> That Tawny Frog Mouth must be friendly uncle used to be able to hand feed one up round Tea Gardens.

Looks very much like a nightjar aka goatsucker or caprimulgus.

Murray-

If you rotate photos in the Windows photo viewer it doesn't rotate them, as this reduces (for jpegs) the quality. Instead a file in the same directory called thumbs.db remembers the orientation. If you want permanent rotation, use a proper editor!

Neil

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