What did you do today (2015)

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Neil, I saw your posting about 'F'numbers, basically the 'F' number is the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the Objective lens. I expect you will now be calculating dia and focal lengths.. The manufacturers polish a lens and often only the middle 25% is usable but with anamorphic lenses they become corrected and the apertures become larger. An example is a Leica Noctilux of 0.95 F. Canon lenses are very good and it is all down to light gathering focusing in the same plane and giving a good image of 100 + lines per mm. The human eye can resolve about 90 lines per mm. I always checked any lens I bought against the wall chart and they all passed, some better than others. Edge to edge definition is another thing.

Clive

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Hi Clive,

I would have thought the variety of blossoms in my garden would have attracted more than a few bees though. Earlier in the year they were about the fruit trees and have done a good jobs, especially with the pear tree though not quite so good with the Plum and Apple trees.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> I always checked any lens I bought against the wall chart and they all passed, some better than others.

I have such a 'Universal lens Testing Wallchart', using it with my Nikon Bridge camera the 4.3 to 180mm zoom lens it walks the tests! I think it's incredible that a 42x zoom can perform that well across its range.

Neil

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Calling in to B+Q to buy some Ali Angle (10% off for us oldies) I was tempted by a Record 100mm vice which had removable jaws – well they were after a far amount of effort having it seemed been locktited into place using 1/4in 20tpi 12mm screws with 10mm pan heads reset into jaws (I’d fondly imagined all would be metric by now).

Since I wanted some mild steel plain jaws and my stock was slightly thinner than the original jaws I needed to remove the junk in the thread but found my 1/4 UNC bottoming tap had such a long unthreaded point as to not reach deep enough – a much older 1/4 BSW tap was however threaded to within 2 threads of the end and also had a 1/8th counterbore at end – anyway this removed sufficient gunk (not metal) to allow the screws to enter 3 or 4 mm further in.

My real surprise was that the UNC tap was pretty useless for bottoming in a blind hole – is this common with such taps and is it easy to face the end on the lathe to remove much of the point?

[IanTParticipant @iant]

You might find the tap a bit hard to turn (without annealing it) Frances

Just grind the point off it's in the way (making sure you do not overheat it preferably).

Regards,

IanT

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Bees again, it seems all my efforts to re-Queen that hive have failed. Having checked she was released on Monday last i waited till today to see if she had laid eggs. Went through the combs but all but 2 had honey in the cells. No eggs to be seen. That does not mean she is lost and maybe she is just waiting. I will, check again come next Monday.

I dont think i will bother re-queening this one again, let them get on with it and see how it goes.

Clive

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Clive,

Could you go into more detail about the problem the U.S. had please.

We interfere with nature at our peril, but seem totally unable to prevent ourselves or rather Govts & big business from doing so.

Geoff – Bees scarce in my garden, compared to a few years ago.

[Anthony KendallParticipant @anthonykendall53479]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 02/07/2015 14:44:50:

I dont think i will bother re-queening this one again, let them get on with it and see how it goes.

Clive

Come on Clive – we are all with you!

Alternatively, you could try the Model Engineering Clearing House Forum – there are probably more than enough queens on there.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Anthony Kendall on 02/07/2015 18:11:04:

Alternatively, you could try the Model Engineering Clearing House Forum – there are probably more than enough queens on there.

.

Bloody hell, that's a handbags at dawn post if ever I saw one.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Possibly libellous as well?

I reckon a Moderator would do well to remove it.

Edited By V8Eng on 02/07/2015 19:29:46

[Steven VineParticipant @stevenvine79904]

Crikey, it's only a joke. If you can't have a joke …..

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Hi Geoff, I presume you know very little about the life cycle of bees? Originally the Nucleus was an overwintered lot, and 1 of 3. I sold 2 and then decide to let the 3rd one expand into a National hive, this I did and when I looked at it the next day I saw a dead queen on the entrance step. I waited for the next swarm, a good one and placed a mesh screen over the hive and added 5 frames of foundation and popped the swarm into the box. and put the lid on. The idea is that the queenless box get the swarms queen pheromone through the mesh and then accept her, within 4 days I could see bees going in both entrances from top to bottom, so i took the mesh off and made up the combs in the lower box. A few days later, thinking the Queen had mated and would be laying eggs. No, nothing and no Queen ! Decide then to buy a Mated queen and off i went and put her in the hive in a cage and the cage is sealed with a block of soft candy which the bees eat away and release the Queen and in that time would again get the Queens scent and accept her. Last Monday she was released from her cage and today I decided to have a look for eggs.. No eggs and no capped brood from earlier. Now I will wait a few days to say Tuesday next week and look again.

A beehive comprises a Queen and anywhere from 5000 to 30000 worker bees and a few Drones in season. The hive is governed by the strength of the Queens Pheromone and this is passed from bee to bee as they feed each other and from the worker attendant bees to the Queen,. If the Queen starts to fail, slowly laying less eggs the bees know this and start making Queen cells. The Queen will be directed towards these cells and she will lay eggs and the bees then feed the ensuing larva with royal jelly which makes them turn into Queens. Ideally, the first Virgin Queen to emerge will either kill the old Queen, or she will depart with a swarm a few days before the new Queen emerges. I can at this point go in and take away any extra Queen cells and let the new Queen mate and the hive continues as before. If I do not do anything its possible that every Queen that emerges will swarm and take bees away until there are not enough bees to keep the hive going and it then fails.

There is another way to prevent swarming which entails putting half the combs in a new hive alongside the old, the old Queen goes in as well. A Virgin Queen emerges and finds herself in charge so gets mated and no swarming, there is a 'But' It puts the hive back about 6 weeks. Later you can kill the older Queen and then re-unite the 2 hives for the winter.

Then in the Spring it all starts again.

So through the winter which was very mild and no great depth of cold the bees were quite active, eating their stored honey and one or two needed extra feeding with candy to get them through, then the Spring was quite cold and a bit wet so the hives did not develop as quickly as normal and the bees did not forage in the cold days. The swarming started later than usual but they made up for it with swarms being reported all over the place. Bee husbandry is forward thinking all the time making sure you have enough hives and frames and foundation to set them going, Starting a swarm in a Nucleus box of 5 or 6 combs so that they establish quickly. Then when the combs are full selling them or increasing ones own stock. Which i ma trying to do now.

Please ask any questions you have and I will be pleased to answer them. Bees are not the only pollinators as there are nearly 300 types of insect that pollinate. Ones you see often like Bumble bees.

To give you an idea about what is happening in The US, Like I said that the business of migratory pollination is a big business. Every year lorries criss cross the US from east to West and West to east as the orchards need pollination. Some of these lorries carry up to a 1000 hives at a go. Now the bees are set up in say a citrus orchard and the only forage is Citrus trees, The only pollen is Citrus sourced including the available nectar.This has affected the bees immune systems and allowed them to be attacked by virus. The bees fly out and die and the hives deplete and then no bees.

Ensuing research determined that this mono culture was what was killing the bees off. As far as I know they sow wild flower seeds around the orchard limits and allow the bees to collect a variety of pollen and nectar. To overcome the loss of bees they imported bee packs from Australia and unbeknowing imported a virus called Israeli Virus which again devastated the bees. The Virus being a 'Vector' virus meant that other viruses appeared as well. 'K' wing virus and Nosema also appeared. The ever present Varroa is also a Virus vector which needs continuous controls and now treatments are available that help this to happen.

Clive

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

It's been too hot over the last few days to do anything in the workshop, however just before I went on holiday to the USA I got round to machining a new throttle barrel in brass for the 200cc flat twin that I built many years ago. I made the original from some black plastic/nylon stuff that never stopped expanding and I was forever taking it apart and turning a bit off it to get it to fit. Then after I very nearly lost my left thumb trying to stop the propellor(Don't ask! it bloody hurt) I put the engine away.

It has stayed in the workshop roof space for the last 8 years or so and now I have joined my local Model Engineering society I thought I should bring it out of hiding and show it to the guys at the club.

I decided, once it was out of hiding, that I should get it back into running order hence the new throttle barrel. This morning I got 40 ft of 1 1/4" angle iron delivered and I set to making a new stand for it. I have had to call a halt tonight because I'm off to my daughters for the weekend tomorrow in Watford but on Monday I shall resume.

When I get the stand finished I will post some pictures. The next thing after getting the stand finished will be to get hold of a decent second hand starter motor and gear it down to about half speed so that it has enough torque to turn the engine over, make a Hucks type starter dog for it and I should be back up and running again. I will try to keep my hands out of the prop this time though.

Here is a picture or two of the beast.

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

The Vernier was put alongside the engine to give some idea of it's size I think it is a 13" vernier.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Bob Rodgerson on 02/07/2015 22:00:25:

The Vernier was put alongside the engine to give some idea of it's size I think it is a 13" vernier.

.

13" to the foot ?

Now that's a 'proper' scale model Bob

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Posted by Bob Rodgerson on 02/07/2015 21:56:36:

It's been too hot over the last few days to do anything in the workshop

My workshop/garage ( north facing) has been the coolest place, and the max/min thermometer only managed to get to 23 C yesterday when outside was 28 + so that 120mm of insulation was not wasted.

Bob

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Hi John,

it must be at least 13" maybe as much as 18" however as you can see from the prop markings it is 36" dia by 18" pitch.

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Bob, I reckon even tonight it must have been about 26 degrees in there tonight and once I started welding it seemed to go up and it got very uncomfortable. My garage is well insulated but it catches the sun in the afternoon and over the last three days the heat has just built and it is slow to drop.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Went to MMC2015 Exhibition in Manchester, and got a brief demo of a desktop Scanning Electron Microscope.

____

Dear Santa …

MichaelG.

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Finally added my X-axis DRO to my small X1 Mill – not quite as planned as having fought the gibs on replacing the table after fixing the brackets didn't fancy repeating it once I'd measured up the position for fixing the head.

I intend to add a small strip of plexiglass flush with table top (allowed for in bracket positions) but needed to restore my old bandsaw which has a low speed ideal for plastics (my woodworking table saw tends to melt some plastics) – wanted to replace or improve the old guides but cannot separate the guide body from the hex bar

the body is I think cast – nominally held by a grub screw at back (removed) – any suggestions as to best method to separate them without destroying the body

[russellParticipant @russell]

have you checked there isnt a second grubscrew inside – sometimes the outer one acts as a lock screw on the inner one.

failing that, a little bit of heat or a little bit of percussion applied by a hammer….

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

thanks Russell applied fair amount of heat from a pre war 150W soldering iron then hit hard with a small chisel + hammer around the join of base + hex bar and worked it free – now to make a better version with ball races

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Went shopping and popped into Lidl to see if there was anything of interest. Found a pile of various shaped mdf pieces with 4 heavy duty (apparently) casters attached to each. Grabbed a couple (approx. 2' x 1' )  for use later, when (if) the workshop is finished. …8-ish quid a piece. Useful for those of us in the 'wrinkly' category for moving heavier things around.

rgds

Bill

Edited By Cornish Jack on 03/07/2015 16:29:37

Edited By Cornish Jack on 03/07/2015 16:30:17

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Anyone else woken up by the sky exploding last night?

This website capture shows the band of lightning moving north, but a local live view showed strikes almost continuously across the midlands. Expanding circles around each strike proved a surprisingly accurate predictor of when we would hear the rumble. There was a delay of several seconds, so close ones we saw the flash/heard the bang before the marker and circle appeared.

Neil

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

My beloved woke me up to tell me its was persisting it down and thundering, Bedfordshire, nice of her I know, it lasted from one ish till four and when I got up at seven thirty the ground was still wet.

Martin P

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