What Did You Do Today (2017)

[Anonymous]

I'm in a rural village, no idea where the cabinet is, I have FTTP. It's supposed to be 76Mb/s. I run Ethernet from the router to the computer. This morning it measured 13.8Mb/s download and 19.1Mb/s upload. Mind you it is an old computer (>10 years) running XP and distinctly creaky.

I just tried the same speed test on my new computer, W7 and also an Ethernet cable to the router. Very different results; 90.3Mb/s download and 23.7Mb/s upload.

Darn well ought to be fast for the money I am paying.

Andrew

FTTP = fibre to the premises

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Slow start to the year, no progress on my engine but, I decided that I NEEDED a scriber. The bent one is a little large but it was what I had. I will sound daft to a proper engineer but I'm quite pleased especially with the hot oil blue using recycled vegetable cooking oil. The straight one was made with my Unimat4, now under the bench some time ago. Week-end sadly busy with 'domestics' Roll on Monday when I shall get on with Brian Rupnow's beam engine.

Edited By John Gardener on 13/01/2017 11:12:56

Edited By John Gardener on 13/01/2017 11:56:31

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

All this talk of internet access in terms of megabits has made me envious. I live a fairly large town where the fibre is allegedly installed, according to BT. I can, on occasions, achieve the dizzy heights of 500Kbps when watching youtube videos of my favourite machinists. The spinning ring of dots is commonplace. I live in hope of a better connection.

John

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Here in N Scotland internet via BT is hopeless. Now got a dish, great improvement and cheaper. We are 6 miles as the crow flies from the exchange, but about 13 miles of wire to connect all the new houses.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

When domestic cable modems were first rolled out in the UK 15 years ago100k was considered broadband and people were over the moon to get it. We ran an office of 200 people on 500k. How many modems and computers have gone to the dustbin since then but my 50yr old lathe is still going strong and will do well after I am long gone. Good investment is old iron.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Oh well, back in the early '70s, when we used the acoustic coupler, we got 150 baud (bits per second) and on a good day even 300 which was nearly 40 characters per second !! And then the FAX machine came into popular use after TELEX became "Old Hat".
BobH

[JAParticipant @ja]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 13/01/2017 11:10:12:

I'm in a rural village, no idea where the cabinet is, I have FTTP. It's supposed to be 76Mb/s. I run Ethernet from the router to the computer. This morning it measured 13.8Mb/s download and 19.1Mb/s upload. Mind you it is an old computer (>10 years) running XP and distinctly creaky.

I just tried the same speed test on my new computer, W7 and also an Ethernet cable to the router. Very different results; 90.3Mb/s download and 23.7Mb/s upload.

Darn well ought to be fast for the money I am paying.

Andrew

FTTP = fibre to the premises

I am right on the edge of a large conurbation and have download and upload speeds of 4.8Mb/s and 1.5Mb/s.

Up until I checked the speed a few minutes ago I was happy!

JA

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

You've got no business living in a semi suburban area and putting up with that. Try one of the broadband speed checkers to see what you should be able to get. There is not usually a charge for an up to date modem and there seems to be quite a range of offers depending on how much speed and data you actually need. Stuff like movies and sport cost extra if you like that sort of thing.

I pay a bit over the odds for Zen Internet at £47 all in per month for unlimited data up to 76Mbps. Their service has always been rated excellent and our kids hammer the internet, so it's not as bad a deal as it sounds…..

Edited By Muzzer on 13/01/2017 16:50:42

[JAParticipant @ja]

Muzzer

Thanks. I have just looked at the speed I should be able to get – 3 to 8Mb/s standard and 67 to 80Mb/s for fibre.

The question I ask myself – is really worth up-grading? I don't play games or watch films, TV etc on the computer. I look at U-tube every so often. It is really not a high priority.

Now to get the Riesling out of the fridge.

JA

[Steven VineParticipant @stevenvine79904]

I'm around two miles from the exchange. There is fibre from the exchange to the green cabinet. The green cabinet is about 200m down the road. It is copper from the green cabinet to the house.

The computers are connected to the router/hub via Lan cabling, and I get 76mb download and around 16mb upload. I connect MY computer to the GigaBit socket on the router/hub, for max speed.

The wireless connection to the router is crap, and is around 3.5mb download and 4.5mb upload. It is usable at those speeds, but I do notice the lag.

Yeah, I'm paying BT about £45 for unlimited broadband and unlimited phone calls. I've had one problem in 20 years … the Broadband went down one night, which was a nightmare; it was the worst night of my life!

I use the 'BT Wholsale Speed Test' checker

Steve

(Perhaps we need a broadband speed thread, because the only thing I did today was check my speeds)

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

I was around 3miles from the exchange and was on something around 1Mb, eventually Infinity came to the village and the Fibre Cabinet is around 150 yards away. Now on download of 72Mb and upload of around 9Mb. Significant improvement.

Colin

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Not today, but yesterday, did a 'post surge' survey of the house and workshop. Both reasonably intact but the gardens on the seaward side totally trashed, coping stones all gone and the greenhouse bodily washed across the lawn.. We sat inside, 'battened down' through some 4 hours of high tide mayhem not very reassured by the Env. Agency's utterances that it was all much less than forecast! The noise of the arrival of a large portion of the North Sea, all at once, concentrated the mind somewhat. The good news is that the window shutters and, particularly, the flood boards seem to be very effective so a couple more are probably worthwhile.

Lessons learned? – Don't leave loose items in the vulnerable areas – at one point, the gardens were floating seas of assorted debris.

Hey Ho! for life in North Norfolk … eyes down for the next lot!!

#rgds

Bill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Glad to know you survived it, Bill

It must be incredibly frustrating for you, to have this happening all over again.

MichaelG.

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Thank you, Michael.

Slightly frustrating, but much more reassuring, in that the house remained structurally intact this time and we had an opportunity to see which remedial measures worked and which could be 'beefed up'. Less reassuring was the constant presence of our emergency services, all 'twos and blues' and NOT ONE bothered to knock on the door to see if we were alright. As an ex long time S&R operator myself, I find that a little strange. Maybe different priorities nowadays??

rgds

Bill

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Apparently they Knocked on 15,000 doors! However with all the communication, radio, TV, internet etc, I can't believe that one wouldn't know what was happening. I bet they didn't knock on doors in 1953.
BobH

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

SB5 – Thanks for the statistics – I'm sure they are accurate but having difficulty finding relevance. Over the 4 hours high tide period at least 3 emergency vehicles arrived at our location, one parked across our drive gateway in an increasing pool of sea water coming over the sea wall. Another sat, engine running, at our other gate from where the damage to the walls was visible with not a single enquiry as to "y'alright, mate? Need any help?"

As I said, I find that odd. Even they were there specifically to check the tide state, a quick check on the locality (only 8 houses) wouldn't have been too distracting. When we were called out on that sort of job, in those sorts of conditions, we would have done that as a matter of course – not least in self-interest! Sod's Law said that if you left an incident area without checking, you would just have the bacon sizzling in the pan back at base when the bell would go for a return to the problem area. So, maybe there are different priorities?

rgds

Bill

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Have to phone the ward today at 9am for when a bed is vacant I had to do that before theres a lot of serious sick people about and limited resources. My Coal Miner sparring partner might still be in so let battle commence if he is. Probably another competitor for the bog will be in a few days later as I was a day in front of him and we are having similar chemo. I hope I can connect to the internet as it was iffy in my ward. Got plenty of stuff loaded on my friends laptop so will have something constructive to do. If no WiFi. Will be about two weeks away getting well fed and watered and staff looking after me it's good meeting people there and blowing the wind better than feeling sorry for yourself'
Signing of from an old fart in more ways than one

Edited By Windy on 16/01/2017 08:48:53

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Bill,

Glad to hear you got through with minimal damage this time.

Neil

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

My wife Deborah says she saw this and thought of me. Oh, it's so me!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/ng-interactive/2017/jan/15/simone-lia-on-the-drawer-of-old-technology

Geoff

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

In our house my wife calls them "man drawers." Well, it started off as a couple of drawers in a cabinet, then spread to a chest of drawers, then the loft, and finally to one of our two garages. I could declutter, but rubbish skips are so expensive I think I'll leave it to a future generation…

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Ancient milling machine improvements.

Made a new downfeed handle inspired by my bench drill and vise handle inspired by Kurt.

Don't know why I didn't do it ages ago!

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

'Scoop' Theasby's lair/mancave/publishing empire hub/ all tidy (Well, three days ago it was…)

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

One of those happy days where the post man arrives with new kit. I got my 4" zither slim four jaw chuck.

This seems like a more unusual purchase for me considering I already have two four jaw chucks, but this photo will hopefully explain the situation better than I can.

To the first on the left, and the last on the right, are my two old ones. Theres a project coming up (stuart v10) that has a lot of small castings to machine on the 4 jaw, and the largest Clarke one (7.5".) feels too heavy handed for smaller scale work, especially when there could be many change overs.

The last is the wee sherline one (Just under 2" ), again, feels too small on the opposite end of the spectrum. So zither comes to the rescue with the goldilocks chuck, which is neither a bother to change over, and just the right size for the job.

The little twist of fate is that I must use a backplate to fit it, so it wont be exactly quite as slim as just the chuck itself, or else it will never get on my lathe.

I also experimented on a few of the iron castings to see if I can stress relieve/anneal the iron castings in my muffle furnace:

So that's the door open, standing back a little distance, at over 700 degrees Celsius. I will leave it in there over night and when it's cooled off the following day I shall see if it has worked at all.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 17/01/2017 19:27:32

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Just an update on my casting annealing experiment on a Stuart V10 casting.

So it's been roughly 12 hours since I left it in there at 700C. I checked the temperature gauge on the furnace to make sure it was safe to remove before I touched it. It was at 15C so it was safe to open it and take it out.

It has taken on a slightly dusty rust coating, all thanks to the cold night we've just had. But I think it has done something to the metal, because it has noticeably dulled in colour. and takes a cut very readily from a file. It no longer has the glossy coating.

Another interesting thing…

The sand that was sitting just beneath the glossy coating has separated and completely dried out, revealing it's true colour and it rubs away too. So with a quick once over with a wire brush before cutting it will save my tools needing to go through the excess.

The real test of course, will be in the cutting.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 18/01/2017 10:09:09

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

 

Posted by Michael-w on 18/01/2017 10:07:42:

Just an update on my casting annealing experiment on a Stuart V10 casting.

< etc. >

.

A very encouraging start, Michael

… Please keep us informed.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. … Your practical results are obviously what matters … but I was pleased to find this:

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/osu1364310320/inline

Obviously: I have only skimmed through it, but it does appear to be worth reading.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/01/2017 11:06:37

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