AndyID

14 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I had an outbreak of weak soldering iron disease a couple of years ago along with slow running trains on the layout.  I eventually traced this back to a faulty inverter that was supposed to be converting three phase current to single phase 230v AC.  This had been installed by a French Sparky.  I eventually found the problem.  The voltage it produced was only 140 volts.  My previous sparky has done a disappearing act so I got another in, a Brit. He sorted the problem and put a new consumer unit in for me.  I now use the old three phase wiring to distribute 230 and my soldeing irons actually solder.  I just need the motivation to use them. 

 

Jamie

If its a four wire system (three phases and one neutral) you should get 230/240 by connecting the load between any one of the phases and neutral. Or maybe I'm missing something.

The discussion on the UK landscape is interesting. Prior to leaving around forty years ago I considered myself a good bit right of center. But now in the US I find myself a good bit left of center.

I suppose it's all relative.

5 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

its actually a frog that was on my front porch!  ( Probably not venomous)

I wouldn't trust it anyway 😂

2 hours ago, pH said:

Perhaps, but the granting of a licence should be a formality. After all, the US constitution guarantees the right to arm bears.

I always thought it was the right to have bare arms.

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

As threatened!

 

The latest artillery piece of my collection.

 

In a break from my usual calibre, this one is in .177 as opposed to . 22.

 

Shouldn't they really be referred to as 4.5 and 5.6?

1 hour ago, Dave John said:

I no longer have any vinyl, but I have just refurbished my ancient technics M02 cassette deck. Strip, deep clean the lot. New rubber parts obtained. In the case of the idler wheel I spent a massive £2.38 to buy 5 O rings and then ground them to the correct section on the lathe. First two were scrap, but the third is perfect. I'll add that to the vaguely pointless skills list. Put back together and since the original tech specs are available I waded in with the oscilloscope and set the whole thing up. Ah, 70s nostalgia. 

 

While I was at it I built a new preamp, lets me switch in main and railway room amps. Also a very linear headphone amp, bought new pads for my old Beyer dynamic cans . I think I'll leave my original Tannoy Eaton speakers alone. 

 

I also managed to score a decent CD player off the bay of fleas for nothing. But thats a private funny story. A very old mac stripped of all else acts as an internet radio tuner . 

 

So thats me set up for music in my retirement. Keeps me happy while I go back to the serious business of building wagons ........ 

Dad bought a Grundig TK 830 two track tape-recorder (with AUTO-REVERSE!) in the late 50's. Allegedly portable but it was a heavy brute. I figured out how to connect it to the pre-amp of his Bush radiogram so I could record the Top Twenty from FM.

I was the the DJ for the DEN Disco in the scout hall run by my scout group. IIRC we had an amplifier that put out 15 watts of raw power. Happy days 😄

2 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Actually it is a platter mat, replacing the stock one.

Ah! Looks pretty convincing 😃

For our hi-fi aficionados:

Who made this circuit up for you, anyway? Bought it in a shop? Oooh, what a horrible shoddy job they fobbed you off with with.

 Surprised they let you have it in this room anyway, the acoustics are all wrong. If you raise the ceiling four feet... put the fireplace from that wall to that wall... you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard.

 I see... I see you've got your negative feedback coupled in with your push-pull-input-output. Take that across through your redded pickup to your tweeter, if you're modding more than eight, you're going to get wow on your top. Try to bring that down through your pre-amp rumble filter to your woofer, what'll you get? Flutter on your bottom!

(Borrowed from Flanders and Swann  "A Song Of Reproduction")

10 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

One of mine:

Erm, why is there a 1/4 inch tape spool on the turntable?

11 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear keeps his commercial quality Bread in the fridge - it takes a while to use a loaf and I never have issues with mould.

Hope you don't store your spuds there.

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 “Errr, Firebird 3 is just nipping into Keflavik for a spot of fuel. See you later.”

 

So not Fireball XL5 then?

Dang polar bears again!

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/estonia-says-chinese-ship-is-main-focus-probe-into-cables-damage-2023-11-10/

5 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Look I told you it's because there's not enough cake to slow it down.

That's just as likely as all the other theories that try to explain it.

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Unless everything goes into reverse and the universe vanishes into a Black Hole...

 

That seems unlikely. The expansion is accelerating. Neither option seems very attractive but it's not something we need worry about.

On 22/04/2024 at 03:56, Compound2632 said:

 

There are really just two rules in physics:

1. What goes up must come down.
2. What goes in must come out.

Experience shows they're of general applicability.

But galaxies are receding from each other and they ain't coming back.

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Yes I understood that was so. Something to do with the fact the atomic clocks are so accurate that they can't since with the ones in orbit. I don't know how they 'record' time on satellites but I assume they do in order to calculate there position etc. Perhaps one of more 'technical' minded ER's could explain it in lay man's terms. 

It's counter to human intuition, but clocks (including atoms) are actually affected by speed and gravity. While it seems obvious that a second is a second everywhere, it really isn't and that has been proved by many experiments.

37 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I went to a grammar school that had a Latin motto but Latin wasn’t taught. Aditi went to a school where Latin replaced any craft or art. The only science at her school was biology and any girl who wanted to study chemistry or physics had to go for lessons at  a nearby independent school.  

My spelling was always very poor but one word I always had a lot of difficulty was "grammar". That wasn't helped by the fact that it was spelled "Gramar" on the badges on my cap and blazer.

21 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I think it means a local landlord*

 

Dave

 

* French letter

First day on the job in the US I asked the department admin Nancy if she had any rubbers.

A lot of the boat docks on the lake are supported on float logs. According to the dock builders the logs can last for a very long time as long as they are always immersed in water. The ones that rot fairly quickly are exposed to the air when the lake level is lowered to accommodate the Spring runoff.

For that reason a lot of the docks are detached from the shore and parked in lake bays from November until May.

9 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from the Grey and overcast Charente. I didn't get chance to visit yesterday so have skipped a page.  However we had fun trying to fit new feet to the four  big pieces of timber that support the verandah at the front. These are 6 to 7 inches square and were rotting at the base. The roof is an extension of the house roof and is heavy.   Acrow props were used to prop each one up at a time. Then the base sawn off and a steel foot inserted. Sounds simple.  

 

First discovery, there was a steel spigot sticking up the centre of each so the cut off piece had to be chiseled apart then the spigot cutoff with a cutting disk. 

 

Problem 2 was that there was rot in three of them and in one this extends over 2 feet up.  All good fun.  3 of the pied de poteaux regulaible, (adjustable pillar feet)  are now in place and the fourth is sitting on a temporary pillar of breeze blocks and timber.  I am going to have to source a suitable piece of timber to replace and splice in the lower metre of that one.  

 

Anyway after that Beth and I went out for a nice meal at some friends.  

 

Jamie

I have to replace some timbers on our deck and I will be using treated timber. I've been experimenting with splices held together with adhesive. Polyurethane seems to work extremely well. Clamped for 24 hours, no screws necessary.

Had my other at eye cataract surgery today. Hopefully no more glasses for me other than reading glasses. I just got the basic lenses and the whole thing is covered by Medicare. They don't cover the more sophisticated corrective lenses which can get rather spendy.

Based on what I had heard I was a bit concerned about healthcare in the US before we came here but our experience has been very positive although health insurance is expensive until you reach retirement age.

4 minutes ago, pH said:

I was actually looking for a GNoSR engine which I seem to remember had been painted in a tartan to pull the royal train, but didn’t find it. IIRC, it was painted in Dress Stewart 😳!

The great thing about tartan is there are so many to choose from and you can double that number if you include both the dress and hunting versions. 😁

21 minutes ago, pH said:

How do you feel about tartan?

 

Sort of depends on which one.

On 10/04/2024 at 23:31, iL Dottore said:

I am glad to read that Mrs br2975 was seen with speed and efficiency.
 

However, I would like to comment that given a choice between a doctor with a curt and abrupt bedside manner with outstanding clinical skills and expertise and a doctor with a smooth and reassuring bedside manner and so-so clinical skills and expertise, I’d take Dr Grumpy any day.

 

Many decades ago, when I was working in the hospital, I noted that some of the very best clinicians were those with the poorest bedside manners. One neurosurgeon in particular had a hair trigger temper in the operating theatre (things had to be “just so” and he did NOT tolerate any sloppiness in technique) and was brutally blunt with the patients (along the lines of “I’ll remove the tumour but you’ll be permanently impaired”j and yet he was the neurosurgeon of choice for incredibly complex procedures.

 

Thinking about the above, I wonder how much was an act?

The surgeon who did my recently cataract op was excellent. MrsID joined me on the follow-up visit with him. She concluded he had had his personality surgically removed.

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Isn’t it (wasn’t it?) against the dentists code of ethics to remove perfectly healthy teeth? I don’t see that as being acceptable dental practice in many other countries.

But what price health? There seems an incredible reluctance to pay for medical & dental care amongst the British, even when they can afford to do so. It seems that many would rather wait in pain, slowly deteriorating rather than fork out for treatment.
 

My maternal grandfather, a grand old chap (definitely traditional working class who, in the 1930s, went down the mines aged 12 to help feed the family), made a very very apposite comment about the NHS and government services in general. He said “appreciate what they give you, but never ever forget that if they give with the one hand they can (and will) take away with the other”. Wise words indeed.

 

There are a lot of myths about the foundation of the NHS one of which was only the Tories voted against it. Nothing further from the truth, many groups and parties such as the LCC, various health charities and working class benevolent societies (such as the one my Grandfather was involved in) were against the NHS as they feared, quite rightly, that the NHS would come in, take over the clinics and cottage hospitals created by the charities and benevolent societies for their members, run everything from Whitehall whilst arrogantly ignoring and marginalising those who knew the local needs and local concerns.

They had a point.

 

But at least it’s free…..

 

 

Here's a sad example of "reluctance to pay". My childhood friend, best man and ski pal lived in Edinburgh. He made a lot of money and had all the toys. Lovely house, expensive cars and a beautiful yacht. He had not been feeling well for about a year and was being treated by a NHS doctor.

He was 56 when died of a heart attack. No heart condition was diagnosed prior to his death.

Had he shelled out for a better private doctor I'm pretty sure his heart condition would have been diagnosed. Of course, even if it had, he might still have succumbed.