What Did You Do Today 2019

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Today, we outward bound to a grey, bleak but magnificent Dungeness. After a brief stop we returned to Hythe station behind this gleaming beauty.

Rik

[john brown 17Participant @johnbrown17]

Got fed up with the vice ,the jaws were worn and was never happy with using copper or lead sheet so they did not mark the work ,so cut the lot of and made new jaws out of nylon type stuff ,as had no alloy that size,well not without loads of milling,but it worked out great so with a new coat of paint in the morning it will be ready to work again,l do not know but this last few weeks all l seem to be doing is repairs on my tools an machines.

john

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Mick B1 on 11/09/2019 15:31:05:

Yet another racing car, ultimately for the grandkids. Generic sort of 1920s shape, OAL approx. 78mm., wheel track at Brio gauge.

Brass/Delrin/PB102/Titanium – the Ti hubcaps were torch-blued in the lathe before parting off.

All machining was in the WM250V, with vertical slide for milling and drilling.

More sophisticated than my attempt (which I won't photograph).

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/09/2019 20:04:50:

Posted by Mick B1 on 11/09/2019 15:31:05:

Yet another racing car, ultimately for the grandkids. Generic sort of 1920s shape, OAL approx. 78mm., wheel track at Brio gauge.

Brass/Delrin/PB102/Titanium – the Ti hubcaps were torch-blued in the lathe before parting off.

…

More sophisticated than my attempt (which I won't photograph).

But I ain't tellin' yer how many hours it took …

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Continued machining the crankshaft, having found I can use a hefty parting-tool and holder with a slightly unusual tool-holding arrangement to reach the crank-pins.

With a shallow cut, very low-ratio change-wheel set, back-gear engaged and the 3ph motor happy at about 1200 rpm (says the label on the controls), it takes a while or six to face each inside web-face, but slow and steady does it. I placed a stool by the tail end of the lathe so I can sit and watch progress, occasionally getting up to brush some cutting-fluid on the work. The lubricant is soluble oil but I've made it to low dilution so more of it stays on the steel for longer.

The stool is also by the workshop door so I can break the hypnotic effect of watching big, angular lumps of metal revolving at about 60rpm for some 20 minutes a cut, by intermittently watching the antics of the sparrows in the garden – with an ear open to any change in the monotonous "whirr-clonk-tink" from the lathe. I ought add the self-acting feed trigger, and the motor controls, are only just beyond arm's length from the seat: the controller is above the tail end of the lathe, well away from big angular lumps of metal revolving….

Now reached a stage where I've started turning the pin to size. Once that's done… repeat with the other crank!.

'

Than after dinner…. visited an acquaintance to see his newly acquired Foden undertype lorry with twin rear axle, in about 3" or 4" scale; bought from a dealer. He'd removed the platform and cab, to reveal what seems to be been a very well-built vehicle that had later suffered from enthusiastic but less caring hands with a rather free-and-easy approach to modifying the quite complicated plumbing.

Not sure which is the more appropriate, "spaghetti" or "dog's dinner", but I've never seen such a tangled mess of bent and twisted, over-length, copper pipes so interwoven with everything else they are very hard to trace. It certainly does not reach the standard of the rest of the workmanship. And quite what some of the pipes do is anyone's guess. The new owner and I agreed the best approach is a cautious steaming (the lorry has a boiler ticket, albeit a photocopy of the original for an unknown reason), test of hand-pump, injector and safety-valves, and twiddle things to see what operates, and what doesn't but should!

'

Thence an evening free of oily swarf and pipe-work that fits where it landed. Hied hence I unto Dorchester 10 miles up the road (handy, the bus pass-age) to a geological lecture whose dry and somewhat cumbersome title belied a thought-provoking talk that showed it's not only Oxygen that life like our own needed to evolve, but also lots of Phosphorous. (It's one of the 4 elements in the DNA compound.)

Followed by relaxing couple of pints with two friends of similar interests and fellow lecture attendees, in The Blue Raddle – a very pleasant town pub with that slightly old-style club-like ambience, lots of references to sheep as you might expect, and of course as a CAMRA-listed free house a selection of excellent ales on pump, plus the usual keg fountains, etc.

Only… had to pay for the last 2 miles home (separate bus) as the pass ends at 11pm cocoa-and-slippers time.

[Bruce EdneyParticipant @bruceedney59949]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 11/09/2019 17:04:58:

I've been getting on with my Farm Boy. These are some of the governor bits:

Rod

Hi Rod

Are you doing a build thread on any forum?

I have the plans and have been redrawing them in metric

Cheers

Bruce

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Hi Bruce.

I've been logging all my mistakes and cock-ups over on ModelEngineMaker under the Tangler pseudonym.

Cheers,

Rod

[Bruce EdneyParticipant @bruceedney59949]

Posted by Roderick Jenkins on 12/09/2019 08:39:57:

Hi Bruce.

I've been logging all my mistakes and cock-ups over on ModelEngineMaker under the Tangler pseudonym.

Cheers,

Rod

Ah yes we have already been chatting

Thanks Rod

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Regarding the driving licence posts.

Firstly accidents in which health was a contributing factor is a small proportion of all accidents.

**LINK**

this makes interesting reading.

By far at 42,189 failure to look properly is the highest cause compared with 2,240 attributed to illness or disability.

Only a fraction of the 2,230 will be down to pre-existing vision impairment. Not based on data but on the logic that at least some of the 2,230 will be heart attacks, strokes colds, flu etc.

With draconian heath check policies the maximum number of accidents that could be eliminated is something less than 2,230. The drink drive accident figures are twice this.

Anyone having an accident where impared vision is a contributing cause will likely not drive again due to perminant revokation of licence. The vast majority of the 42,189 will drive again and some will go on to commit the same mistake again, along with those drivers who are in a hurry, don't manouver well, fail to obey road signs etc.

Any policy encouraging better driving would have a vastly better result.

regards Martin

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Mark Rand on 17/09/2019 22:10:52:

…

As far as reporting any health related issues to DVLC/DVLA are concerned, it is an absolute requirement for a number of conditions:-

diabetes or taking insulin
syncope (fainting)
heart conditions (including atrial fibrillation and pacemakers)
sleep apnoea
epilepsy
strokes
glaucoma

…

'Ang on. It's a requirement for a subset of at least some of those, not absolute.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Mick B1 on 18/09/2019 09:38:56:

'Ang on. It's a requirement for a subset of at least some of those, not absolute.

.

Exactly so, Mick

Anyone with Diabetes, but not using Insulin, needs to study this: **LINK**

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/795538/inf188x2-information-for-drivers-with-diabetes-treated-by-non-insulin.pdf

MichaelG.

.

There are similarly informative documents available for other conditions.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/09/2019 10:12:31

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Interesting how small the direct speeding blob is, even when failure to assess speed correctly is added it is still a small number of speed incidents. Why the draconian focus on speeding? Would I be cynical of me to think it’s a nice little earner dressed up as road safety improvement? The vast amount of the accidents seem to be driver error so the sooner the nut behind the wheel is removed the safer we will be. I am a firm believer in defensive driving and feel this should be practiced by all, most people will slowly learn it but may die before they master it. Some people drive because they want to get from A to B and are not interested in the activity but others understand the vehicle and fully engage in the activity of driving. I suspect the latter group have less accidents.

Mike

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

When I became a Diabetic I was tablet controlled and was advised by my doctor to inform the DVLA which I did.

Martin P

[Roger ClarkParticipant @rogerclark]

As was I, and need to declare it and any other issues to your insurers.

Edited By Rockingdodge on 18/09/2019 10:40:26

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, yesterday I was looking for eight solder ringlets only to find I had none of a suitable size in stock. I really wanted to get on with the job, so I thought I'd have to faff about and make some. I have enough oddments of brass sheet that would have done the job, but didn't fancy the job of drilling and cutting eight fiddly tags out, so looked around my box of scrapped populated electronic PCB's and found some of these old logic control boards.

Eight ringlets pre made for me, OK they are a bit OTT as far as thickness is concerned and being square didn't matter, in fact, it will help stop them from turning during assembling on the connector block as they only carrying a 1mm enamelled coper wire. so I removed the remaining two screws and drilled out all the holes to size for the connector block that I'm using and then drilled a clearance hole close to the board for the copper wire to fit through. Once all drilled and de-burred while still attached to the board, which made handling these tags so much easier, I turn the board over and snipped them all off with a pair of side-cutters.

How very considerate that the manufacturers made these tags with slots in them for me, made it much quicker and simple to remove them.

Having got them removed it was a straight forward job to just dress them up with a file and solder the copper wires onto them.

They won't win any prizes for elegance or being precisely the same shape or size, but they fit nicely and were easy enough to solder by not having a too bigger hole in them and will do the job and no one will see them anyway once they are inside a loudspeaker cabinet.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 18/09/2019 10:56:53

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by martin perman on 18/09/2019 10:19:35:

When I became a Diabetic I was tablet controlled and was advised by my doctor to inform the DVLA which I did.

Martin P

.

Advice given by your Doctor, and followed by you … No problem

But that's not what DVLA requires [see my earlier link]

MichaelG.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

That looks like it was an MTE SSR logic module Nick, we had a few small machines with that system but then PLCs took over with a vengeance. Why was the module you needed to test or replace always on the bottom of the stack?

Mike

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Mike, it may well have been the type you say, MTE certainly sounds familiar, but fitting these were not part of my job, I just salvaged many of them when the system was scrapped and removed from the plant it was running for many years, They were all housed in light blue plastic boxes and were stackable, I just opened them up and discarded the boxes and or any boards that I didn't find had any use at the time, kept a few of the long 5mm snap off screws also.

The system got replaced by a dedicated programmable computer, that and the plant no longer exists now either.

Regards Nick.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Mike Poole on 18/09/2019 10:17:44:

Why the draconian focus on speeding? …

Mike

It's because the amount of energy in an accident rises exponentially with the square of the vehicles velocity. A pedestrian has a good chance of surviving a collision with a car travelling below 30mph, but above that the chance of life-changing injuries and fatalities rises rapidly. Even if no-one is injured, the amount of vehicle damage done rises disproportionally with speed as well.

It's fast accidents that involve Air Ambulances, closed roads, inquests and massive insurance claims. Speed would be a much more obvious problem if the graph highlighted the cost of accidents rather than the count.

I agree with Martin's point though. What needs checking should be evidence based, not founded on assumptions. Statistically elderly drivers aren't unsafe. I'd say their chief fault is excessive caution, not smacking into other people! Most older drivers of my acquaintance stop driving before they have a serious accident.

I don't think there's much to be gained from double-checking older drivers. Illnesses like diabetes yes, age no.

Just a suggestion – there's a damn good case for banning menopausal men from returning to powerful motorbikes after 25 years driving the family car!

Dave

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 18/09/2019 10:10:31:

Posted by Mick B1 on 18/09/2019 09:38:56:

'Ang on. It's a requirement for a subset of at least some of those, not absolute.

.

Exactly so, Mick

Anyone with Diabetes, but not using Insulin, needs to study this: **LINK**

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/795538/inf188x2-information-for-drivers-with-diabetes-treated-by-non-insulin.pdf

MichaelG.

.

There are similarly informative documents available for other conditions.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/09/2019 10:12:31

If you are a type 2 and are taking medication that could lead to hypoglycaemia, you are required to inform Swansea and your insurers. Blood glucose testing after significant accidents is standard policy with the ambulance service these days.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Mark Rand on 18/09/2019 14:29:48:

If you are a type 2 and are taking medication that could lead to hypoglycaemia, you are required to inform Swansea and your insurers. Blood glucose testing after significant accidents is standard policy with the ambulance service these days.

Glicazide, which I take, for instance.

Martin P

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

Just to put the record a little bit straighter, the doctor or other clinical staff do not have to inform DVLA about anything. On finding a medical condition which might impair that persons ability to drive, they SHOULD inform the patient that if they drive a vehicle, they should contact the dvla and tell the dvla exactly what medical conditions they have been diagnosed with, the dvla will then take ownership of the situation.

Edited By Ian Skeldon 2 on 18/09/2019 17:47:34

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

There is a dual carriageway road near me with a ridiculous 40 limit on it, lots of people ignore it, and so the police regularly have a speed camera van parked just where you can't spot it soon enough. They've even built a hard standing on the central reservation to park on. Next thing will be a portaloo. If lots of people (non locals presumably) ignore it is there a case for saying it should be reviewed and increased to 50? As far as I know there has only been one accident in recent times, and by the look of the wreckage he was going a lot faster than 40. I should mention that the limit on this stretch goes from 70 (dual carriageway), then 40 (still dual), then 50 (single), then 40 (dual) before going to 30 as it approaches a built up area

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by martin perman on 18/09/2019 17:36:08:

Posted by Mark Rand on 18/09/2019 14:29:48:

If you are a type 2 and are taking medication that could lead to hypoglycaemia, you are required to inform Swansea and your insurers. Blood glucose testing after significant accidents is standard policy with the ambulance service these days.

Glicazide, which I take, for instance.

Martin P

.

Has anyone actually read the document that I linked ?

… "could" doesn't come into the requirement to inform

MichaelG.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 18/09/2019 18:32:00:

Posted by martin perman on 18/09/2019 17:36:08:

Posted by Mark Rand on 18/09/2019 14:29:48:

 

If you are a type 2 and are taking medication that could lead to hypoglycaemia, you are required to inform Swansea and your insurers. Blood glucose testing after significant accidents is standard policy with the ambulance service these days.

Glicazide, which I take, for instance.

Martin P

.

Has anyone actually read the document that I linked ?

… "could" doesn't come into the requirement to inform

MichaelG.

I've read it three times and I find it contradictory, its title states that if you dont inject you dont need to report it and then goes onto tell you about the effects of Hypo's and the fact that you have to report this. Ive been type 2 diabetic since I was 45, I'm now 65 and can say i've only suffered a serious hypo twice in those years, once was when on tablets only and once not long after going onto insulin as well, on both occasions I was busy working at home doing physical work, I know the signs and took the actions required, I dont think a court of law would let me off if I had had a hypo whilst driving because the DVLA said I didnt have to. My job and now my current part time job require me to drive and if my doctor advised me to report it I did and will because I value my license and its something I dont want taken away. If the medical profession tell me to do A and B and not C I do it as they know better than I and so far its kept me alive and well.

Martin P

 

Edited By martin perman on 18/09/2019 18:53:03

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