raymw

many/most/all of the original Coopercraft moulds were in brass, relatively thin sheets, hand engraved by Strigon pantograph milling machines. The moulds have not been stored well, and are most likely now covered in verdigris as well as well worn. The photos on the 'contact us' page are not a photos taken at Mr. Dunn's site, probably at the previous owner's.

iirc, there was a swap/cash adjustment between Slaters/Paul and Coopercraft 4mm/7mm which seemed to go wrong, at least from Paul's point of view. Nothing has changed for the better in the last year, then, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66297-news-from-cooper-craftblacksmithslaterskirk-lnermailcoach-kits/

These days, such mistakes are more common, but are easily rectified. Literally 5seconds in photoshop (context aware brush) good enough for web. Maybe a bit longer to do the job properly for a print. Half the camera is in the computer.....

Here's a short description/background of the google cultural effort, linked abovehttp://www.ted.com/talks/amit_sood_every_piece_of_art_you_ve_ever_wanted_to_see_up_close_and_searchable

Google doing something useful - https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/home shove in train, railway whatever in the search box, and see what comes up.

better than top gear, at a fraction of the cost . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpvGrkPKrnc

temper, temperhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1295875/M5-drivers-trade-blows-road-rage-fuelled-fist-fight.html

could have been photoshopped better

bit of a fiddle https://www.youtube.com/embed/gKpFhPdyQLM?rel=0

The Aust ferry was interesting. The slipway lived up to its name, for some. It would often get blown back/washed up onto the bank having just departed, and if you opened the car window, normally to pay, you'd get a faceful of Severn estuary mud and water.

They're not cables. They are pipes for pumping curry around to the take-aways above. You get more of 'em where there are more curry houses above. (I can't remember the name of the comedian who explained that many years ago. Maybe Michael Bentine - he made a brilliant model of an underground railway.) Ray

Nempnett Thrubwell was 'part of my patch' near the metropolis of Ubley. Not only did I know how to get there, I also knew how to get back. If you've been there, you'll know what I mean (assuming you got back, of course).

But, it is now the way it is, for good or bad. It may change, or it may not. The user experience is not much different than xp, unless you want it to be. There is stuff there that is not possible in xp, which some folk like, others don't see the point of. I use all my computers in exactly the way I want to, but some of the newer stuff allows me to do things in a better way, sometimes. Like most changes, there will most likely be a few initial setbacks, but once you've solved them, everything runs fine, at least for me, and I guess a few million others out there. There is no need to go to w10, if you don't need to, but sooner or later you will have to do something, when your existing system fails, either in whole or part. My thoughts, last year, was to get it over and done with. I have not regretted that approach. fwiw, I think there are likely to be more gaping security holes in running non maintained outdated systems compared to one that is updated regularly..

Well, at the moment, w10 is the way it's going, like it or not. A few years down the road, newer kit - printers/scanners and the like- will most likely not have full functionality with older os, so you may as well bite the bullet now, while it's free, spend some time,if necessary getting it working the way you want, or update your mindset to work the way it wants, and then you can get on with the rest of your life. Of course, it depends on why you need a pc, most folk could get by with an android tablet, if all you need is web/email stuff.

It seems if you want w10 after end of July, you'll have to pay for it. https://youtu.be/wVo9Vdpk23g edit http://www.winbeta.org/news/get-windows-10-app-will-removed-windows-78-1-july-29th-free-offer-ends to add the good news for the fans of antiquity

get a fish tank and do that thing on stilts at Brighton.

linux is still licensed, afaik. You don't own it, everybody else seems to.

You may own the computer. Read the software licence to see if you own the software. Best set to, and write your own o/s.

Hi Paul, good to see you. I've sent to a pm with some info. Hope it got through OK. Best wishes, Ray

Hi Stubby, dunno what you had as support for outrigger, but it looks as if you have room between wheels of chassis to drill a hole straight through chassis and insert a brass? tube/rod, and solder up a support for outrigger wheel - no machinery needed. Maybe a lump of lead to get the centre of gravity in the right place. The wheels are another problem, maybe solder or araldite? a metal disk/flange to the outside? I would worry about camouflaging the reeds last of all, no point if the thing doesn't work. I suppose, if you really wanted to punish yourself you could take off the wheels from axles, thin 'em down with a bastard file, and araldite them together front face to front face and fix new crank pins, or fabricate new from brass washers/discs. If you had access to a lathe, then it would not be a problem..... perhaps someone should bring a unimat to the pub on Saturday?

Another Parrot story- A magician worked on a cruise ship. The audience was different each week so the magician did the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The magician had a parrot in the act and the parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the magician did every trick. Once the parrot understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show, "Look, it’s not the same hat!" or, "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!” Or "Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?" The magician was furious but couldn't do anything. In fact, the act became a comedy act and the magician was in demand on every cruise ship. Then one stormy night on the Pacific, the ship unfortunately sank, drowning almost all who were on board. The magician, luckily, found himself on a piece of wood floating in the middle of the sea, as fate would have it ... with the parrot. They stared at each other with hatred, but did not utter a word. This went on for a day... and then 2 days. And then 3 days. Finally, on the 4th day, the parrot could not hold back any longer and said... "OK, I give up. Where's the f****n' ship?"

you reverse/mirror your drawing, keep origin the same on machine. I've milled hundreds of ds pcbs using this method, or similar. If your machine does not consistently return to the origin position, then you need to fix that. When you are doing the drawing, use a similar method as for etching, a couple of different coloured layers (red and blue) then, when finished, mirror one layer and change both colours to black, say, if that is what you need. If you are concerned about locating off of burnt rough edges, then drill a couple of holes (with a twist drill) throgh the material and locate on a couple of pins. the 'jig' then consists of a base with two parallel/headless pins, say 3 inches apart, aligned on the x or y axis. When you do your drawings, ensure pin locations are shown,. prior to lasering, drill the holes in the workpiece/waste material. With a bit of thought, you could make the jigs removable, different pin spacing, whatever. It should not be a problem. Not sure about you machine, but I would expect the steppers to mis-step/cogging if driven up to the stops, or there are limit switches or something. You can set the origin off of this position.

Make a simple jig. If panel is more or less rectangular, cut it to size first, then jig can basically an 'L' shape of ply/whatever, on a baseplate, located so that arms of L are // to x/y axis of machine. Set origin of x/y at bottom left corner, say. Engrave one side, and flip over when done for other side. Depending on the direction you flip it, the second side will need the drawing inverted or reversed - reset origin on drawing appropriately. Alternatively, use two locating pins into holes through panel, or waste material, instead of 'L' jig.

HI Simon, this or similar will do http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p14866?table=no They do other versions, including rubber strip. Not expensive.

Hi Keith, just checked mine - far worse than yours... It's on 24/7, backs up at about 3am to home server, often in morning I have to power it up. I have a number of 32 bit progs, simply copied over from old os to this 64 bit system, no proper install procedure was used, I'm not surprised it's a bit flaky. I had problems with the ssd being used as the page file, got a few bsod's, so I changed page file to another hdd, and now is much better. The most prolific error is something to do with Lavasoft - I'll most likely remove that.