The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

for a metric adjustable allen key,

Amazon sell adjustable hex sockets, perhaps inflatable Allen keys will be  next?

[BMS]

I got had at Tondu Shed by "get me a smokebox boiler door key", I was suspicious... The foreman happened to over hear the request at the stores and marched me back to turntable and said "which of these apprentices asked you to do this". I replied while staring at the perpetrator " I can't see him here." No more trouble.

[Happy Hippo]

My mother spent a long time looking around the racks at John Hall tools in Cardiff when I asked for a brass magnet as a Christmas present.

 

I've got a 10BA tap with a left handed thread for making turnbuckles although some smart arse throught I was pulling their leg when I mentioned it.

 

'I'm not falling for that one, Don't you know about the right hand screw thread rule?'

 

He must have felt an even bigger tw*t when I produced it and showed him how it did cut a left handed thread.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

I heard a rumour that Dave Hunt was salivating over the Lightning picture when the phone rang.

 

He was out of his dressing gown and half way up the stairs before he remembered he'd retired and it wasn't a scramble.

[Dave Hunt]

The scramble hooter in the Battle Flight shed at Wildenrath was a VW car horn, which sounded a lot like the attention-warning siren on North Sea Ferries. A couple of our guys were on their way to UK one day having come straight off a battle flight turn and were happily dozing in the ferry lounge when the captain gave his pre-flight briefing that included activating the siren to familiarise passengers with its sound. When it went off our heroes were out of their seats and half way across the lounge before they realised that they were no longer on battle flight. Much consternation among other passengers, amusement from the other two aircrew who hadn't gone to sleep and embarrassment for our heroes. 

 

Breaking news - the airbrush has been wielded again and the crane is now crimson lake, the cat is still tabby, I am still a sort of pinkish colour and most of the shed is still not crimson! Result!! Next up is doing the black bits. Hmmm......

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

11 hours ago, BokStein said:

 

Reminds me, are the Long Waits and the left handed screwdriver back in stock yet?

When I worked at BP it was being sent for a box of atomic weights. I didn't fall for that one fortunately.

 

Jamie

Edited October 16, 2020 by jamie92208

[tomparryharry]

Some of the railway-related items, some of which you might know....

 

Red oil for the tail lamp,

White oil for the headl;amps,

The left-handed shovel, if you're firing a non-Western locomotive,

A packet of dust for the vacuum gauge,

Telling a trainee fireman:- 'Whatever you do, make sure the coal goes on the right way up'

[BokStein]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

My mother spent a long time looking around the racks at John Hall tools in Cardiff when I asked for a brass magnet as a Christmas present.

 

I've got a 10BA tap with a left handed thread for making turnbuckles although some smart arse throught I was pulling their leg when I mentioned it.

 

'I'm not falling for that one, Don't you know about the right hand screw thread rule?'

 

He must have felt an even bigger tw*t when I produced it and showed him how it did cut a left handed thread.

 

 

 

Didn't the MG have left handed threads on 50% of its wheel nuts?

 

BTW, when's the net delivery of sky hooks?

[roundhouse]

 

3 hours ago, BokStein said:

BTW, when's the net delivery of sky hooks?

 

Next day by the looks of it

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sky-Hook-Pack-of-10/dp/B01GUXAQ04

[AndrewC]

13 hours ago, BokStein said:

 

Reminds me, are the Long Waits and the left handed screwdriver back in stock yet?

Dunno about left handed screwdrivers, but I do have a left handed can opener, a left handed corkscrew, left biased butcher knives, and Left handed scissors.  That really screws up visitors. <insert evil laugh here>

[Happy Hippo]

19 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Dunno about left handed screwdrivers, but I do have a left handed can opener, a left handed corkscrew, left biased butcher knives, and Left handed scissors.  That really screws up visitors. <insert evil laugh here>

That makes you sound rather sinister.

 

Both Nyda and I are of that elite group.

[Oldddudders]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

That makes you sound rather sinister.

I once attended a meeting, BRB Resources Forum, where four people sitting next to each other on one side of the table were all left-handed. They are among us! 

[tomparryharry]

I have (somewhere) some  left-handed drill bits. They are specifically for drilling tapered holes. The flutes are counter to what we normally see, and still rotate as in a normal drill. 

 

The brass magnets at John Hall tools were on the first floor, on the speciality aisle. On there, you'd find aluminium jack-hammer bits, and starting handles for fire extinguishers. 

 

They also used to stock imperial -sized bubbles for spirit levels, but I haven't bought one of those in a while. 

 

One stockist tried selling black & white  paint, formulated for zebra crossings. The local council tried it on the westbound M4... The same company used to sell Box junctions, but the transport costs from Bath were prohibitive. 

 

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous....

[AndrewC]

11 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I once attended a meeting, BRB Resources Forum, where four people sitting next to each other on one side of the table were all left-handed. They are among us! 

yes we are. Buhahaha. 

[TheQ]

[tomparryharry]

On run up to Christmas, Lidl are having a promotion. 

 

Flat-packed furniture (flat not included). 

 

De-aerated bubbly chocolate

 

Assorted off-set screwdrivers

 

Telephone directories for Bethlehem (2021 edition)

 

Mark One washing machines

 

Feather -edge dusters, for feather-edge cladding. ( a universal model, does both horizontal & vertical). 

[Oldddudders]

29 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Buhahaha. 

I always wondered what demonic laughter sounded like, when written down!

[Dave Hunt]

I don't know whether it's still there but when we lived in San Diego in the 80s there was a shop in Seaport Village called Southpaw that purely sold items for left handers. Things like coffee mugs with the design on the opposite side from usual, knives designed with left hand bias, corkscrews with spirals the opposite way round and lots of other things that you may not immediately think of as handed. Since both my Dad and our younger son are left-handed we often went there for presents.

 

Dave

[AndrewC]

17 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I don't know whether it's still there but when we lived in San Diego in the 80s there was a shop in Seaport Village called Southpaw that purely sold items for left handers. Things like coffee mugs with the design on the opposite side from usual, knives designed with left hand bias, corkscrews with spirals the opposite way round and lots of other things that you may not immediately think of as handed. Since both my Dad and our younger son are left-handed we often went there for presents.

 

Dave

Most of my left handed stuff came from Anything Lefthanded that used to be on Brewer St in Soho. Long gone now as is Vinmag magazine shop a few doors down. At least Anything Lefthanded survives online. 

[bbishop]

So I'm ambidextrous.  I can't do things equally with either hand, but there are some things that I naturally do left handed.  As a child the pencil was put in my right hand, so I write right handed.  But my left hand script is almost exactly the same, only slower.  I bat right handed, only because my left eye is dominant but I can throw equally well with either hand.  When computer mouses were introduced I used them with my left hand until only "right handed mouses" were available, so I swapped over and have never changed back.

 

One big disadvantage, I have absolutely no concept of "left" and "right".  I would be useless as a motocross navigator.  Yet I can read a map.   

 

My girlfriend is very sinister, to the extent of restringing her guitars (as per her hero, Paul McCartney) but she uses a right handed tin opener etc.    Bill

 

 

[tomparryharry]

Do 'Yankee' screwdrivers work south of the Mason-Dixon line? 

Edited October 16, 2020 by tomparryharry
Schpellinge

[petethemole]

A fantasy gamer I knew once asked me in Beatties for advice on painting an angel's wings in a rainbow effect.  I told him to use Humbrol Rainbow paint.  "What number is it?" he asked, heading for the paint rack.

[Happy Hippo]

I serviced 'Fronk'N Stein' this morning.  

 

He is a Dyson vacuum cleaner that is a hybrid of three different machines and various spares off eBay.

 

His previous lacklustre performance has been transformed after the removal of much crud and muck from the various filters and tubes that run through him.

 

I have now started on the task of refilling these tubes and filters with more crud!

 

There is another similar machine that lurks at the back of the garage, purely to provide spare parts for 'Fronk'.

 

I have a reputation in these parts:  If I can't resurrect it, it's beyond hope!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

3 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Do 'Yankee' screwdrivers work south of the Mason-Dixon line? 

Yes. 
 

(Do not, under any circumstances use one anywhere though, they aren’t worth your time in my experience)
 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[tomparryharry]

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Yes. 
 

(Do not, under any circumstances use one anywhere though, they aren’t worth your time in my experience)
 

 

I'm sorry, I can't agree. I've used one twice. Once was to open a tin of paint, and the second occasion to scratch my back.