What did you do Today 2024

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

In the context of the phone in your pocket, whilst in Belguim, having agreed to pay £4 for ROAMING so my phone would work OVER THERE, I found that I had to add 44 to most of the numbers in my phone ! On return I then found that some I had to remove the 44 from before it would connect others I did not. All very strange ! Noel.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Nigel Graham 2, if you sign up for Amazon Prime, you don’t pay delivery costs as an extra. This can be an advantage to those that use Amazon very often, as over the long term, delivery costs will be very much reduced, even if you are having items delivered to someone else. I don’t have Amazon Prime myself, as I don’t use Amazon enough to make it a viable option, and I don’t find it hard to ignore the sign up for their Prime service.

Regards Nick.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

 

…..

Well, bolstered by Duncan’s warning of its ‘Prime’ trickery, I am now more certain I should refuse to have any dealings with this dodgy, American outfit.

Agreed. But but before you get too harsh on our colonial cousins, just remember that if it was not for the Americans, you would be speaking German right now. And also remember that capitalism, of which Amazon is merely the latest iteration, was invented in England.  🙂

They are a dreadful mob though, Amazon. And they seem to be taking over the world, unfortunately. Like you, I avoid them. But then they keep buying out my favourite suppliers (ABE Books and BookDepositiory) so there seems to be no getting away from the !@#$%^&ers.

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

What did I do today – leave hospital after having Prostate removed yesterday. Will not be in workshop for some time.
Colin

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Ouch. Get well soon.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Bit more progress on the Moriya II Stirling engine fan, after a hiatus to get my 1977 Harley started for the riding season. Tossing up which is the more modern engine, the 19th century concept Stirling with its aluminium cooling fins, or the 1977 Harley still baking its heads with cast iron.

Got the Moriya legs painted and they came up looking good despite all the ironmongering involved in bending that angle iron in the vice and the pigeons that roost in my workshop every time I get the welder out.

And got the displacer, connecting rod and cross-head assemblies all done. Needs a bit of fettling to get absolute friction free running, but onward through the fog. And now on to turning the 1″ diameter round “cold end” from a bit of 1.5 inch square steel bar so it can have a nice integral square flange on the mounting end. More chips than job by the time the 1″ round bit is bored out to .950″. The trickiest but most satisfying bit of machining in the project. I hope! We’ll see tomorrow.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Realised I’d “designed” myself into a corner… of a cramped smokebox.

Taking a lot of advice on this forum I started to design the superheater for my steam-wagon… then realised it cannot be installed or removed!

Not without potentially a lot of modifying of the existing smokebox.

One reason for the lack of space is that unlike in a conventional locomotive-type boiler the superheater flues are close to the top of the barrel, not something like a third to half way down.

Another is the smokebox is quite short with the chimney entry occupying most of the length.

The simplest, I have decided, is to make the door ring removable, by replacing all 24 of the 3/16″ rivets that hold the door ring with slot-less round-head screws and nuts; and this evening, experimentally replacing just one proved hopeful.

 

Eeh, it’s not one thing it’s another!

The partial drawing shows the problem. The two outer concentric circles are the smokebox shell, the inner one represents the door opening and boiler barrel (same diameter). The pipe entries not shown are through the intervening ring, on the left, roughly where the tube centre-lines cross it.

So the superheater assembly could not be inserted or removed through the door aperture. It might have to be built on the rear ring of the box, then that lot put on the boiler and the barrel assembled onto it: a difficult and delicate process risking serious damage to the elements.

The rectangle was a trial location for one of the headers, and it does show the snag.

Ignore the strange purple square too: I have no idea what it means, and it cannot be deleted, but I think was due to my inadvertently selecting some tool (in TurboCAD) unknown to me!

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Noel,

Ref your post #737656.

What you should have done was entered +44 (and drop the leading zero in the Uk number).  That way, your address book numbers will all work wherever you dial them from.  I have both Spanish and British numbers in my phonebook and all work without any further fiddling.

Regards Tom

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Tom –

I could not locate that message but did you mean Noel or Nigel? I ask because I’d reported how Amazon rejected my portable ‘phone number for having no “area code” – which it won’t have, of course. It should not need an overseas code!

””

Today –

Not much I’m afraid apart from helping my neighbour remove a mass of ivy from her fence between us. I wonder what inspired John Wyndham to write The Day Of The Triffids?

.

Fought off a cowardly phishing attempt that was using a fellow club-member’s e-post address and a tale about someone dying of cancer.

…

Mended the lawn-mover. It had somehow lost one of the free-wheel pawls, merely a dowel made a rattling good fit in a hole through the cutter shaft. A few minutes’ work with an oddment of mild-steel rod sorted that.

;;;

Discovered it is feasible to turn a 3/16″ steel rivet into an M5 slot-less bolt.

That size because it is relatively easy to cut on a rivet shank about 0.012″ under-diameter for M5 (not critical for the intended use) and allows using readily-obtainable stainless-steel nuts – a more important point.

I held the rivet in a simple split clamp comprising two holes and a saw-cut in a strip of 6mm mild-steel plate, closed by gripping the plate in the bench-vice.

The thread is a rather wonky so I’d need improve the manufacturing method if I go ahead to make two dozen as needed.

(You can buy 2BA slot-less round-head screws but not in the length I want…  though I could easily trim the longer ones. Maybe using stainless-steel nuts is not essential, inside a smoke-box!)

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

It would be qiuck and easy with a lantern chuck or if not for only two dozen use a split sleeve with the back hollowed out for the head.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Nigel,

My post referenced Noel’s posting – the one at the top of this page.

Regards Tom

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

Tom –

I could not locate that message but did you mean Noel or Nigel? I ask because I’d reported how Amazon rejected my portable ‘phone number for having no “area code” – which it won’t have, of course. It should not need an overseas code!

””

[…]

24-June … on the previous page of this very Topic

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ Posted before I sawTom’s clarification

… but still valid as a pointer for you, Nigel.

 

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Interesting LITTLE turning job today.

[brickyParticipant @bricky]

Just finished the valves and valve cages ,fitted the springs and valve caps fo the 3 con rods and 2 piston engine by Wolfgang Tepper .The valve stems are 3mm which I turned in 5mm steps,to ensure a true stem I had to make a stop to fit the lathe cross slide and finish the stems by lapping.I am going to leave the springs on the strong side and reduce as needed.I will soon have the cylinder head complete.

Frank

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Bernard, what are those?

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

Interesting LITTLE turning job today.

Gorgeous!

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

They are parts for Smiths Chronometric Speedos/Rev counters. I rivet them to a gear wheel and the pin then transmits movement to another train. The largest dia is 0.079″and the smallest is 0.027″

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Those parts are impressive Bernard. What lathe do you use for parts that small and how do you grind the toolbits?

Ian P

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

I have a couple of Peatols with various mods to make life easier, they have quite high spindle speeds available (9000) which gives a good finish on small dia’s with a mixture of digital readouts and strategically placed dial gauges. Tool bits are a mixture of hand ground and t&c ground but polished up by hand. They are nothing fancy just the old fashioned LH/RH, V ,Parting and boring. I do have a boring tool that will go into a 1.5mm hole thats when it gets exciting. It really is standard turning but a bit smaller and you of course need a good pair of magnifiers which changes everything as then everything then looks the right size!!

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Thanks for explaining Bernard. I once bored a 3mm hole 7mm deep (in stainless steel on a Boxford) and I probably could not even do that nowadays (eyesight and old age!).

Ian P

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

Just to echo what the others have said Bernard, some nice work.

This evening I have made a new bolt that retains the float bowl on the carburetor of my dad’s lawn mower. I have omitted the hole as I can’t see a reason for it to be there and it played a part in the failure of the original. If for some reason it gives problems it can be added later.

The M8 x 1mm thread was screwcut for lack of a die.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Nice job.

In a lot of similar carburettors the recess is usually there because the main jet is located immediately above it in the same vertical gallery.

[Craig BrownParticipant @craigbrown60096]

The bolt does indeed share the hole with a jet and like I said to my dad, I can’t imagine Dellorto would have put the hole in the bolt if it didn’t need to be there, but we will try it later and see

[Nigel Graham 2]

On Nigel Graham 2 Said:

… I ask because I’d reported how Amazon rejected my portable ‘phone number for having no “area code” – which it won’t have, of course. It should not need an overseas code!

…

I’ve made this point before, but perhaps Nigel missed it!

Nigel’s posts often chronicle some awful battle with technology.  Whether it be CAD or setting up an Amazon account, Nigel is almost always roughed up by these encounters.   I think I know why!   It’s because Nigel has exceptionally strong expectations as to how things should be done, and gets stuck when his approach doesn’t work out.

Problem is that software developers don’t think like Nigel!  Their software implements their ideas, and users have to follow their rules.   As software is extremely stupid it’s unlikely to be clever enough to recognise what an original thinker like Nigel is attempting.  An intelligent human is unlikely to make any headway by disagreeing with software because programs are infinitely patient, tirelessly rejecting everything that doesn’t meet the program’s rules.  The only thing that works is for the user to find out what the software needs and provide it.   Once the software is understood, it’s usually fairly logical, even if the logic isn’t how you or I would do it.

Amazon requiring an area code sounds like an example:  Nigel strongly believes an area code unnecessary, and starts a time-wasting fight by reporting it as a fault.  But Amazon isn’t a local shop for local people, it’s a multinational.   No surprise that a multinational with a global customer base might require customers to provide their full phone number, not just the short national version.

Even if Amazon agree with Nigel, and they might, it’s unlikely that the necessary change will be made quickly.   Nigel could be in for a very long wait before this little bit of Amazon works as Nigel wants.   Also possible Amazon might decide the number of customers who can’t cope with providing an area code is so small that the issue isn’t worth fixing.

In the meantime, if Nigel wants to do business with Amazon, his best tactic is simply to provide his area code, which isn’t difficult!    Same principle applies to the rest of the information needed by Amazon to set up an account.  Failing to play by Amazon’s rules is unlikely to end well.   More fruitful I suggest for Nigel to change.

Hope this doesn’t sound unsympathetic because I hit the same problem earlier in the week.   I decided to learn LibreDraw, and wasted 40 minutes fighting the way it selects multiple objects.   The main issue is Select doesn’t work in the way I expected, and it blew my mind.  At one point I was convinced the software was buggy.  Not so, actually a simple thing, but to solve the puzzle I had to read the manual, find a tutorial, and then experiment until I finally sussed what the software was actually doing, which wasn’t quite what I expected!   Point is I had to understand the software and change my way of working:  it’s extremely unlikely LibreDraw will ever be rewritten to suit little me.

Nor is having to unlearn previous expectations before moving on isn’t unique to software.   Many folk believe Imperial to be simpler than Metric when the opposite is true.   Imperial only seems simple to those who’ve used it for a lifetime, usually in a narrow field.   And  Metric seems super-complicated to them because anyone brought up on Imperial tends to convert between the two, which is highly confusing.    Metric shines when learned and used from scratch, by folk who aren’t confused by previous Imperial baggage, because they don’t have to unlearn anything.    Unlearning is probably the most difficult challenge humans face.

Dave

 

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Dave

That is a well measured response to Nigel’s outlook on ‘modern’ technology.

I am well aware of all the dangers, traps and scams when working online but sometimes one has go with the flow, millions of Amazon (other companies are available) users can’t be wrong

New to me were the terms ‘Portable’ phone and ‘E-post’ address.

Ian P

[Author]

Posts