What did you do today? (2014)

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Short length tube, capped one end, drill & tap the wall and a large bolt with tommy bar through the head: nut in tube and crank…

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I was pleased to find Chester Tools were still open this morning. they offered to courier the replcament cabinet for tomorrow but I elected to pop up and swap it to bypass delivery errors and save me parcellig the old one.

Kudos that they spontaneously gave me a few useful items for my trouble – how a business should be run. Cockups are a fact of life – it's how they get sorted that counts.

pgk

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Meanwhile back to the walnuts you may find this amusing. Back in my schooldays I remember watching a schoolfriend trying to crack walnuts in a woodwork lesson. He started off with the mallet but clearly wanted something a little more controlled so the light went on over his head and he decided to try the vice. Said walnut goes in the end of the bench vice and the handle is duly tightened. Twang and the nut sails over his shoulder. Two goes later with the same results he decides to hold the walnut in place with his fingers. Those of us who had already seen the consequences could hardly keep quiet by this time. Nut and fingers in vice handle slowly tightened until the nut gives in whereupon the spring in the vice closed the jaws with a mighty thwack leaving our nut fiend attached to the bench and the rest of us in stitches. Morel of the story, beware of stored energy and only put your nuts in a metalworking vice (which sound like a vice in itself). !!

Happy Christmas

Martin

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Snaked into Sainsbury's before the crush this morning and my wife insisted we pick up a proper nutcracker.

What I want to know is where the old ones go? Are they on the same mysterious planet as all the biros, left socks and trolley tokens?

Neil

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

we used to have a ratchet type nut cracker with a mazack nut crusher which eventually gave up so my wife bought two which turned out to be made of alluminium, a couple of almonds broke both crackers so a search on Amazon found me a stainless one which came from China for £3.00 delivered and so far is unbreakable, did considered making one but for the price there was no argument.

Martin P

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 23/12/2014 10:22:30:

my wife insisted we pick up a proper nutcracker.

Neil

So you bought another Mole grip?

I have a nutcracker in the shape of a wallnut. fairly useless but decorative.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

We always use those adjustable pipe grips / water pump pliers with the stepped adjustment. Quicker than screw type crackers and can be set for small and large nuts so you avoid pulverising the innards. Good engineering solution, yet one that the rest of the family also find easy to use!

My mother who has less strength in her hands uses an ancient, tiny vise mounted on a wooden base with a dished area for the shells. I believe it belonged to my great grandfather who was a journeyman carpenter – family heirloom.

Murray

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Neil,

Snaked! You a changeling by any chance?

Trolley tokens

I got sick and tired of unclipped then clipping the thing back so made this little CTT beauty.

Works a treat.

Geoff – Patched the section of Carport roof blown away

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My grandmother had a magnificent nutcracker on the hearth, cast and enamelled an iridescent gunmetal colour it was a very fine alligator about 16" long!

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Geoff,

A cunning device.

I shall sneak up on you in the supermarket car park, and with one deft movement snatch your trolley then make off with your goodies in your car!

Neil

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Trolley Tokens ?

You must be a thieving lot out there! No tokens necessary at our local supermarket – however there are warnings not to take trolleys beyond the site boundaries. Rumour has it that if you try this the wheels on the trolley lock solid. Quite how this is achieved – some sort of inductive loop coupled to a magnetic brake maybe? Any ideas?

Norman

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Norman,

Yes in areas where tokens are insufficient to deter the trolley-snatchers various types of trolley lock are employed.

Some scoundrels even use forums like this to try and work out how to bypass these security measures, buy asking apparently innocent questions about how they work!

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 23/12/2014 15:44:02:

Some scoundrels even use forums like this to try and work out how to bypass these security measures, buy asking apparently innocent questions about how they work!

.

Pay no attention to him, Norman

Quick overview, here.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. … They do look quite useful for storing chucks and raw materials.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/12/2014 16:08:57

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

£1 coin works for me!

Mike

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Never seen a trolley with any form of interlock. If the token is only 1 pound, it's hard to see why an interlock would be justified. Perhaps if you were talking a tenner or more it might make sense – but what kind of place would require that?

At Aldi the other day and the assistant lent me her key (from a corned beef tin). rather then give me change. Once I'd released the trolley, she got it back.

From a design point of view, if you insist on making something, the token should be oval so that you can get your keys off after releasing the trolley. Especially if you are not obliged to return the trolley to the trolley park.

The simplest solution is to use your car key to release the trolley. Once you have got the knack it takes a split second. No need for anything fancy then!

Merry

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Given the time of year I think these would be more appropriate to release your trollies

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The trolley trap in my local tesco has been tarmaced over and fifty yards down the path over the fence two trollies in the river.

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Sainsbury, Milton Keynes had coin trolleys and also a locking wheel system. You could not get under the underpass with a trolley so it must have been an inductive loop system.

I lived there for 10 years and only moved back to Medway when I retired from LEICA. With the roundabouts it was always the left hand front wheel on the car that wore out quickest, I only had a mile to commute to work from my home.

Clive

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 23/12/2014 16:04:38:

Quick overview, here.

< Ref: electronic wheel-locking >

… and, for your further enlightenment, see here.

MichaelG.

"

P.S.  … if you're not allowed out in the workshop over Christmas; this Patent is probably more interesting than the repeats on T.V.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/12/2014 22:11:00

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

And one more …

This appears to be one of the early patents for a locking system.

[the one mentioned earlier is what we can look forward to]

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 23/12/2014 23:21:55

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

How bizarre. I'm not planning to buy shares in any UK company selling those systems. The cost of wearout must far exceed loss and theft. Which is probably why many supermarkets don't even bother using the coin interlock at all.

Merry

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Turned a bit of 3/4" stainless down to 16mm, added the 1/16" cotter slot and primed, thats the Pump Yoke complete.

[Anonymous]

Good grief, is that a part for a model engine? And there was me thinking that not only had this thread gone to the dogs, but had then gone completely nuts and had finally gone off its trolley.

Andrew

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

How bizarre is all this talk of trolley locks? Apart from having one's 'domestic staff' to deal with this shopping chore, one uses W******e for one's comestibles, which as Alan Coren pointed out, was instituted to allow one to avoid the all the Chavs etc. at Tescos and Sainsburys!! (W******e customers are considered trustworthy enough not to need trolley security!!)

Seasonal Bah, Humbug to one and all!!

Rgds

Bill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Cornish Jack on 24/12/2014 11:24:16:

(W******e customers are considered trustworthy enough not to need trolley security!!)

.

Not around here, Bill

… Ours have the electronic wheel locks.

MichaelG.

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