What Did You Do Today (2016)

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Henry Bunn on 15/10/2016 20:31:27:

Put the first model together tonight it runs very nice with little pressure from a foot pump. i dont know how to put a pic of it on the thread though.

 

Looks like a fine piece of work, nice first model.

Edited By V8Eng on 16/10/2016 00:06:09

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by duncan webster on 15/10/2016 22:48:30:

Do we faint hearted sould want reports of bunnycide?

Definitely, providing they end up in a tasty pie!

[OldMetallerParticipant @oldmetaller]

Posted by duncan webster on 15/10/2016 22:48:30:

Do we faint hearted sould want reports of bunnycide? Seriously can you come and sort out the pigeons which delight in ****ing on my car all summer? I've been advised by the local hawk man that dummy hawks are a waste of time.

Not only dummy hawks, but recordings of hawk's calls are a waste of time…

Years ago, I used take my train to the bulk terminal on Liverpool Docks to load up with coal. Once, in the small hours, I was stood underneath the hopper talking to the operator when I heard, from about 100 feet up, a loud hawk call. I must have looked surprised as the guy told me that it was a very expensive box making the noise, to frighten off the pigeons. I looked at the pigeon droppings everywhere and must have shown my puzzlement, as he took me on an exhausting climb up to the top floor of the hopper. Sure enough, there was the expensive box on a shelf, glowing with led's and…covered in sleeping pigeons.

Regards,

John.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

In every area where people feed Pigeons they will settle in anticipation of a feed. Pigeons need a half to one pound of green stuff to survive a Winters night roost. That is why a flock of a 1000 Pigeons do so much damage to crops. I cannot grow greens here as they come and take the lot early in the morning.

There droppings can be very acidic and will burn car paint, I feel for you concern about your car Duncan. They will eat small green plums and also Gooseberries long before they are ripe, reducing the crop for our use. They are a pest. Unfortunately you may not kill them unless they are causing damage in urban gardens as there is always someone who will complain. make your own mind up on that and apply accordingly. Quietly trapping in the early morning is best, no noise and a quick pull of a string on the trap. This year in the Spring I had two Pigeons feeding off the top of my Victoria plum tree, taking the small green plums, they did not get to digest them as I like plums too.

Here is a true story, upon leaving the Army my father worked as Pest Control Officer for Rochester Council. he and his oppo were told to reduce the number of Pigeons around the Rochester castle. They had corn laced with a narcotic (Quite legal) and set out the feed and in came the birds, they fall asleep and can be picked up and bagged. Their idea was to take the birds about 20 miles away and release, Ha Ha, by the time they got back the Pigeons were already there to greet them. Now, the old ladies who come to feed the Pigeon got wind of this and the next morning they were going to repeat the exercise, but were met by the old ladies wielding umbrellas so they had to retreat.

The actual cull was carried out in the Castle later by a silenced .22 rifle at dusk I am told, legally held by one of them. You can get air guns fitted with a silencer for your information.

Now we come to Foxes, wild animal indeed causing untold misery and damage to urban gardens and livestock. wanton killers who kill all stock in a pen but take nothing away. I have seen lambs blinded by Foxes as they are born, the Fox grabs the head of the Lamb and it is blinded.The owner had to kill 11 one year. In that one year in a valley 1 mile long and a half mile wide 117 Foxes were shot or trapped, unfortunately as you kill one, another will take it's place.

I do hope this is posted, Clive

[john carruthersParticipant @johncarruthers46255]

A good friend and small holder was plagued by pigeons.
I went round to give him a lift one day and had to wait, his wife informed me, " as he has a nuisance pigeon in his sights".
A 410 bang shortly anounced the kill, followed by an expletive.
"Did you miss?"
"No, got it when it came down to drink; shot my pond liner too"

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 16/10/2016 08:25:49:

… They had corn laced with a narcotic (Quite legal) and set out the feed … Now, the old ladies who come to feed the Pigeon got wind of this and the next morning they were going to repeat the exercise, but were met by the old ladies wielding umbrellas so they had to retreat

.

I was expecting a different punch-line, Clive … The old ladies eating the nacotic corn.

MichaelG.

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

We are plagued by crows and magpies, they steal the hens eggs. Costs money and time, now have the runs covered in netting, but it takes constant maintenance. They will find any crack in the defences, shooting and trapping only works for a short time. Very little problem with foxes, pet dogs more trouble.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Not far from here a dog catcher trapped urban foxes and let them go out in the countryside. A friend shot quite a lot, just bags of skin and bone because, being used to feeding from dustbins, they did not know how to hunt. There are some idiots in this world!

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I don't know about the UK, but here in NZ rabbit are, and have been for about 150 years a major pest. I was visiting a friend last year, and he said a rabbit has been raiding the veggy garden, I said are you sure it's one bunny, ooh yes. Went back a week later, we'v shot 6 so far, and there's more. I did a bit of a look around, and counted 30, they are gone for now, but they'll be back.

Clive, have a good look around,  rabbits arn't solo opperaters, there will be others.

Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 16/10/2016 10:38:13

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

As an addition to the narcotic corn, I lived in Germany in Dortmund. In a block of flats besieged by Pigeons sitting on the sunny side of the blocks windows at 4 am and 'Cooing'. A handful of corn onto the roof of the elevator engine room where they roosted soon had them falling six floors to the ground and demised! Result, no more 4 am waking.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

There are higher concentrations of foxes in urban areas than the countryside these days.

We are a puny nation that frets about pocket-sized predators. Look at what they have in the USA – they may hunt more than we do, but they also seem to be more accepting that nature needs predators as well as prey.

Neil

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

We have a herd of 10-16 that are around all the time. Cannot have a garden because of them and the raccoons. I don't kill the deer. Raccoons not as lucky. If I wanted to they have been as close as 10' from the garage door. I have been in the middle of the herd going to the truck going to work when it was foggy. Heard coughing all around Me, then tiptoed to the truck. Will post pictures when available.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 15/10/2016 12:55:28:

I've just watched 'Click' on BBC News

… For a change, the whole thing was inspirational.

MichaelG.

 

This programme is on the BBC News Channel at 15.30 today, (Sun 16th) well worth watching, expect it's also on the BBC I player.

Edited By V8Eng on 16/10/2016 14:34:08

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Nothing but admiration for the "Pilots" and the dedication of their Developers.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by KWIL on 16/10/2016 16:25:18:

Nothing but admiration for the "Pilots" and the dedication of their Developers.

 

I was amazed by it,  total brilliance!

Edited By V8Eng on 16/10/2016 18:34:11

[Anonymous]

I have had company in the workshop this weekend; mostly Mr. Fudgeit and Mr. Bodgeit, but also on occasion Mr. S*dit. However, at the end of the weekend a helical gear has appeared:

In retrospect it might have been a bit ambitious cutting a 6DP gear in steel, in one pass, the first time round, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. The cutter was an el cheapo one from a model engineering supplier. It was clearly cutting mostly on one tooth, more so than the commercial gear cutters I've previously used. Despite the mill weighing the best part of 2 tons you could feel the vibration in the concrete floor. However, there was a small plastic eye glass resting on top of the overarm throughout cutting the gear, and it didn't move, so it couldn't have been that bad. The finish on the teeth is reasonable, although visually slightly worse than I'd expect when cutting a spur gear:

Here's a general view of the cutting process:

And a close up:

I would hate to give the impression that I just knocked out a helical gear without breaking sweat, it was nowt of the sort. I started off by making a complete foul up of the mandrel to hold the gear; not enough room for the three SHCS screws seen in the picture above. Despite being a bin job I wasn't overly upset, as it was crap steel that I bought years ago before I knew better and started buying from industrial stockholders.

I then knocked up some parts for the dividing head gear train. I needed a couple of locking collars to keep the gears in place and a keyed sleeve to hold an idler gear when I cut the second gear with the opposite hand. Generally these went well, even the internal and external screwcutting. The thread was non-standard, 7/8" OD and 16 tpi Whitworth. The auto trip on the Ainjest high speed threading unit makes it a doddle to screwcut into a blind hole at 260rpm.

I started gear cutting proper this afternoon. The gear shown is the second gear I made; the less said about the first one the better. I learnt some important lessons; which is political speak for I ****ed up, but at least I didn't make the same mistake twice. The first lesson was – do the bl**dy nut up tight on the end of the milling arbor before cutting. I was also a bit ambitious on cutting parameters. Cutting at 108 rpm and 100mm/min feedrate should have been ok at about 4 thou per tooth, but with the eccentricity of the cutter I suspect the working tooth was cutting far more. I ended up at 117rpm and 50mm/min for about 1.6 thou per tooth. Throughout the cutting the mill didn't cough; nor was there any hint of the motor slowing as the cut came on. I don't think I'm ever going to have nerve to stall this mill by being over-ambitous.

The next problem was with the mandrel, again. I was relying on the grip of the chuck on the dividing head to hold against the cutting forces. It didn't, so I had to machine a collar so that the cutting forces were reacted directly into the dividing head thrust bearing. Having got into a tizzy I then proceeded to cut a few teeth one turn of the handle too deep. If there's a mistake to be made you can be sure I'll make it! On the plus side, once I'd finished the gear, setting a gear vernier to the calculated addendum and normal chordal thickness showed that the final teeth were pretty much on the numbers.

Cutting the second gear went rather better, and I even managed to take a few pictures and a couple of videos.

Once I've finished off the parts for the idler gear, and made some collars, the acid test is to cut another gear of the opposite hand and see if they mesh.

Andrew

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Looks very good so far Anndrew.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Today … I spent longer than usual cleaning the Microwave Oven.

Yesterday … I thought it might be a good [save the planet] idea to melt some Wax in the Microwave, instead of using the regular domestic oven.

Don't try this at home, Kids

MichaelG.

.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2016 12:15:23

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Oh dear Michael !

To paraphrase Jason's comment above " Looks very BAD Michael !"

Norman

[Ketan SwaliParticipant @ketanswali79440]

How long did you have it 'cooking' in the microwave Michael?

What did the better half have to say?

how did you manage to clean it out? had it not dried in the microwave over night?

Ketan.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Michael, It reminds me of the time I put a 1lb jar of honey in the microwave. I meant to heat it for 20 seconds, but accidentally set it to 20 minutes. Result: the house filled with acrid black smoke, the fire alarms went off, and the oven was filled with a black substance not unlike soft charcoal. Ketan, my better half had plenty to say. As Michael says, don't try this at home, kids!

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Oh dear!

Well at least Microwaves seem to be cheap at present, better get one quick before "Brexit" puts the price up!

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Andrew,

That helical gear looks very smart. Could you please show how the dividing head is connected to the table leadscrew. I'm idly wondering how I might connect my Timmins type dividing head to my Sharp mill (in horizontal mode).

Cheers,

Rod

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Re- the honey and heating it. Honey must not be heated above 40C as it form a substance that can cause problems to human stomach. I cannot remember the name given but I advise not to heat honey by the lb for more than 50 seconds in a Microwave. Take the lid off first

Re the wax melting, use a Bain mary system, Hot water in the main pan and wax in the inner pan. Filter wax through a bit of clean toweling for best results, Do not use tap water for cleaning wax, use rain water.

Clive

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

For info.

900W Microwave

Plastic pot is from Morrisons Mushy Peas

Very red wax is from Truckle Brothers' Cheese

Heated for two minutes [which just softened the wax]

Then for another three minutes [which was nearly enough]

Then for another three minutes [which was volcanic]

I had actually forgotten that it was in there, until the good Lady mentioned Jackson Pollock

Most of it scraped off with a wooden lolly-stick, and the rest with cream cleaner on a sponge pad.

… upon reflection, I think the fan-oven is a better idea.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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