[maccruiskeen]

To follow up what maccruiskeensaid above:

“Something that maybe is a good first step through is to get a little temp and humidity meter.”

You might considerer a dehumidifier too.  If the room gets humid with being at the top of the house, and all the humidity-generating activities, then it might benefit from being dehumified.  Running a dehumidifier will also heat the room.  Think it heats the room more efficiently than a heater (I have the figure four times as much in my mind, but stand to be corrected…)

“Something that maybe is a good first step through is to get a little temp and humidity meter.”

You might considerer a dehumidifier too.  If the room gets humid with being at the top of the house, and all the humidity-generating activities, then it might benefit from being dehumified.  Running a dehumidifier will also heat the room.  Think it heats the room more efficiently than a heater (I have the figure four times as much in my mind, but stand to be corrected…)

Sounds like you might be in a position to look for a different car.

Bizarrely, a Mazda MX-5 might be both lovely enough for your daughter, and still relatively cheap to insure:  https://press.gocompare.com/news/wheely-good-deals-the-10-cheapest-cars-to-insure-in-2023

Guess insurance companies have found that having no rear seats means having less chance of having a car full of  youthful passengers to distract her/egg her on to be silly.

You might enjoy the occasions when you are allowed to drive it too..

I did a Google search for “Instruction manual for scheppach-hp110s-petrol-compactor”.  The manufacturer doesn’t have manuals on their website https://www.scheppach.com/en/service/contact-forms but you can at least contact them if you lose yours.  I found what I think you have on a dodgy-looking website (ManualsLib).

Page 3 has drawings with things numbered, the English language part of the manual starts at page 22.

Page 26 section 10 includes instructions for checking the engine oil.

Page 22 section 2 “Device description”(figure A)” does not seem to include the engine oil dipstick, so I’m afraid that you are on your own to find something that looks like a dipstick.

Page 22 section 3 “Technical data” gives the motoroil volume as max 0,6 litre, which I think is German for 0.6 litres, or 600 millilitres.

Page 29 gives instructions for changing the motor oil – you could use the refilling part of the changing instructions for the first fill.  Doesn’t specifically explain where to put the oil, but it does refer to “the filling cap (measuring stick)”, so it might be a case of using a funnel to pour it down the dipstick tube, which would be awkward, but for 600ml, shouldn’t be the end of the world.  I’m afraid that I couldn’t find a diagram of this part of the engine.

Yes, I know the manual has referred to it as “engine oil”, “motoroil” and “motor oil”.  I think that they all refer to the same thing, and that they are the result of a less-than-perfect translation.

Recommended engine oil is SAE 10W-30 or 10W-40 (depending on the operating temperature).  If you are out buying engine oil, something like Halfords own should do fine.

If you want to be more picky about engine oil, check https://www.opieoils.co.uk/t-api-car-engine-oil-specifications-explained.aspx or https://www.valvolineglobal.com/en-eur/understanding-oil-standards-acea-specifications/ There is a bewildering selection of higher specification that car manufacturers require because car engines are now very advanced.  If I’m reading those websites correctly, might be sensible to look for something like:

• API (stands for American Petroleum Institute) ‘S’ specification of ‘L’ or later:  will say something like “API SM”
• and/or ACEA (stands for European automobile manufacturers association, but in French “Association des Constructeurs Européens d’Automobiles”), grade A/B, probably A3/B3.

Oh, and Page 28, section 13 “Storage” gives instructions for draining the fuel tank completely, starting the engine, and running it until it stops.  DON’T BE LAZY.

You mentioned that you don’t know much about this sort of thing, so with apologies, and at the risk of insulting your intelligence, I will write this:  Do drain the petrol and run the engine.  DO NOT DRAIN THE ENGINE OIL AND RUN THE ENGINE!  Would be a very quick way of making an expensive, useless garden ornament.

People’s experience of Nextbase cameras being unreliable is interesting.  Toyota offer them as an accessory.  This should link to advert from one dealer:

https://www.rrg-group.com/toyota/service-parts-offers/integrated-dash-cam/

I had front and rear cameras fitted when I bought my second-hand Toyota.  They were much more expensive than the ones I bought from Amazon and fitted to my previous car, but I think that they will be covered by the Toyota warranty.  Every annual service extends the warranty by 12 months / 10,000 miles up to 10 years or 100,000 miles (for things that are not considered ‘consumables’, I would expect).

If they keep packing in, could lead to some interesting discussions with the dealer…

They look really useful

Don’t think I need any, but thank you for offering.

Things to do

Whilst you are down here, please say come and hello to Dartington Morris.  Dogs are welcome, though I’m never sure if the woofing is concern, excitement or confusion.  Calendar of events for this year will be out soon:  we normally perform on Friday evenings, but also do fetes and things.

https://dartingtonmorris.uk/

Dog friendly beaches

Torbay council website is helpful.  First result of a Google for “Dog friendly beaches in Torbay” gave:

https://www.torbay.gov.uk/asb-environment-and-nuisance/dogs/dogs-on-the-beach/

Gluten Free Fish & Chips

I recommend David’s Fish and Chips, 64 Bolton Street, Brixham, TQ5 9DH

https://www.davids-chippy.co.uk/

as they say:

“If you can PHONE us, giving us around 30 minutes notice, we can cook our regular Fish and Chips, GLUTEN FREE, in separate pans, well away from our main fryers. Please note that this is cooked to order and therefore 30 minutes notice is appreciated.  We are unable to accept GLUTEN FREE orders online, orders for GLUTEN FREE can ONLY be accepted by telephone, please call us on 01803 855771 option 1 instead. EACH ITEM WILL BE MARKED AS ‘GF’, PLEASE CHECK THIS IS CLEARLY MARKED ON YOUR ORDER, BEFORE CONSUMING PRODUCT, ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CALL US TO CHECK, WE WILL BE HAPPY TO HELP.”

I understand that one of the family is coeliac; they know the attention to detail needed for gluten-free food preparation.

@richardkennerley

If you click on the little box in the bottom right of the video, the sound comes back.

https://www.instagram.com/p/eFuZ9qQoLf/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

#redarrows coming in to land at #blackpool #airport #plane #geek | Instagram

I was quite surprised at how loud the first one was!

I would take it to a garage I trusted.

If I didn’t have a garage I trusted, then I would ask friends and family to recommend one.

Cougar
….
Riddle me this,

Outside of, say, police cars, why do headlights have any settings at all other than “auto” and “on”? There’s a logic to turning off some assist systems in exceptional conditions but under what circumstance might you think “it’s really dark, best turn my lights off”?

Cougar, matt_outandabout, multi21

I found heavy snowfall is one exceptional conditions where having headlight settings other than “auto” and “on” can help safety, if the driver is curious enough to try different settings to see what works best for the conditions, and sensible enough not to accidentally turn the lights off completely by mistake (ask me how I know!).

I’ve had cars with fog lights for years, and they did not seem significantly better than the headlights in fog (I suppose marginally better in heavy fog).  Then one day, I was driving in the dark with heavy snow falling.  I tried turning the fog lights on, and the light switch from ‘headlights and rear lights’ to ‘sidelights and rear lights’.  My goodness:  I could see objects at three times the distance!  It was a massive improvement.

So yes, it is worth having being able to turn headlights off when moving:  I think it reduces the glare reflected from falling snow (and heavy fog).  Even day running lights might give too much reflected glare.

Not a perfect solution.  The advantage of fog lights being low is that most of the light is not bounced back by fog or falling snow; it carries to objects, to reflect back and show you the scenery.  The disadvantage of fog lights being low is that over crests, or if the road is uneven; the road blocks the light, and you can’t see anything lower than the tops of trees!

I remember hearing an edition of the Infinite Monkey Cage with Eric Idle. He said that he worked quite hard updating the lyrics of the Monty Python Galaxy song, to reflect ongoing discoveries.
Galaxy Song on YouTube

I’m a brain injury survivor. Surgery for a brain tumour in 2017 removed the nerve to my right ear and inner ear (so removing half my sense of balance).
After surgery, I fed through a tube, spoke in a hoarse whisper, could happily stare at a blank wall for a couple of hours without getting bored, and couldn’t even stand up.
I’m sure I would have recovered to some degree unaided. I had NHS therapies for over a year: speech therapy, balance clinic, nutritionists teaching me to swallow, and general physiotherapy. In that time, each one taught me about that type of therapy, and how to do the therapy for myself after they had discharged me.
Five years later, I’m not fully recovered, but can talk, sing (badly, but no worse than before), am back working as a metallurgist in a jet engine factory (but only for 16 hours a week), eat fairly normally (slowly and with lots to drink), and can walk, run, and Morris dance. Not back to cycling, but mostly because my neurosurgeon didn’t want me crashing bigtime and undoing all his good work.
It is not a controlled experiment, because there isn’t another me who didn’t do it, but it feels like therapy massively improved my quality of life.

Consultations

Great idea to put together a list of questions. However, the answers will probably lead to further discussion at the meeting.
* I recommend you or the other friend accompany them to the GP and Headway meetings.
I took a friend to all my medical consultations : was a second point of view, and a second memory to recall the responses. I wonder if I should have had an audio recorder too: at the first meeting with the neurosurgeon, his secretary took notes throughout, and gave us a copy: great idea.

Cost of therapy

I’m an engineer, so might be seeing this too simplistically, but it seems just like shopping. I suppose each type of private therapy is just like any other service.
* Can you find reviews of different private therapists, and each specific therapy your friend is buying?
* Could your accompany your friend whilst they try different providers of each service?
* Could you and your friend then carry out some cost/benefit analysis?

* Please explore options for NHS therapy – they are great.

Conclusion

You are a great friend. Sounds like a lot of work.

Your friend may need more help as their cognitive ability decreases: from Wikipedia, Parkinsons’s disease dementia becomes common in the advanced stages of the disease.
* Please discuss power of attorney with your friend.

Duplicate post

Finbar

Eh? If meths is ethanol, how can you spike ethanol with methanol?

Methylated spirits used to be ethanol with methanol added to make it poisonous. The ethanol (or ‘spirit’) was methylated by adding the methanol.
They used to put enough methanol in to make it poisonous, so the manufacturer (and end user) didn’t have to pay the duty that, for example would be paid on a bottle of vodka.
The rate of duty is currently £28.74 per litre of ethanol:
Alcohol duties – Office for Budget Responsibility

However, being poisonous was not always a sufficient deterrent for some people when they hit rock bottom.
My brother used to work for the Department of Social Security – he said that the staff in the benefits office would notice a client’s hair had suddenly turned white, and they looked worse than normal for a few weeks. Then the staff wouldn’t see them any more, and maybe read about their death in the paper.
Very sad.

Hence, as thisisnotaspoon says above, meths now just ethanol, water, bitrex and colouring.
Bitrex: Wikipedia article on Denatonium

Laura Laker wrote a well-researched article for The Guardian in 2018. It includes:

“Simply put, a 1,000kg car moving at 22mph will have 50kJ of energy; a 15kg bike with a 70kg rider at the same speed has less than one-tenth of that. Commuter cyclists tend to ride a lot slower, though, while most drivers travel faster. The likelihood of killing someone is far greater when driving a car than riding a bike.”

Linky (may include a request for donation): Killer cyclists? Let’s not forget the real threat on our roads

I have checked the figures; they seem right to me.
Even if the cyclist was nailing it at 30mph, a 1000kg car at 22mph would still have seven times the energy. A 38 ton lorry at 22mph would have over two hundred.
1000kg is very light for a car these days. VW golfs are 1200 to 1600. Kia e-Niro is 1800 kg.

Harrison Jones wrote an article for the Guardian in 2018. It includes:

“In 2015, two pedestrians were killed and 96 seriously injured after being hit by bicycles. According to the Daily Telegraph, three pedestrians were killed by cyclists in 2016, with its statistics suggesting such collisions were increasing.

More than 100 cyclists are killed and 3,000 seriously injured on British roads each year, according to government statistics.”

Linky (may include a request for donation): Death by dangerous cycling offence to be introduced – reports

I think most can be adjusted, but not all.
Look for a little adjusting wheel next to the viewfinder. You should be able to find a mention in the product description or instructions, but that can take a bit of digging. Given how many people need glasses, I’m surprised that manufacturers don’t make a bigger thing of it.

After the first time I sanded and polished my headlights, I had to re-do them each year.
If you are feeling brave/confident/foolhardy, you could lacquer them after polishing.

Sadly, you can’t just use any old lacquer (think it reacts badly with the polycarbonate), it has to one made for headlights.

I used a kit by SprayMax; primer then a 2-pack top coat. They don’t seem to do that any more, just the top coat. This should link to the product page:
https://www.spraymax.com/en/products/product/clear-coats-and-spot-blender/2k-2in1-headlight-clear/
The video shows the whole sanding/polishing/cleaning/spraying process nicely. You can see at 2:07 he puts the release button on the release pin on the bottom of the can to release the activator into the lacquer.

The instructions say ‘For professional use only’:
https://download.kwasny.com/datasheets/TMB-684068_GB.pdf

I worked outside, on a calm day, wearing a mask for organic solvents, eye protection and overalls. Being 2-pack, it is an Isocyanate, just like Araldite, but rather than just breathing in the fumes, you could end up breathing the aerosol particles, so take the material safety data sheet seriously:
https://download.kwasny.com/datasheets/SDBREZ1163_-_Aerosol_2K_2in1_Headlight_Clear_GB.pdf

It is only a small can (about half normal size), but gave a good coating on headlights, which seem quite large (2004 Toyota Celica). I’m not an expert at spraying, and wasn’t working in a spray booth, so it wasn’t optically perfect, and included the occasional bit of dust. Initially, the headlights looked no worse than in their cloudy state. I let it cure for a week, then carefully sanded and polished, (being careful not to take too much off) and they came up lovely. My headlights looked better than they had for ages, and still do three years on.

I couldn’t find anywhere selling it on Amazon. Only one place on ebay, and that is in Germany, which might involve faff with import duty. Shipping of £17.68 brings the total price up to £34.48:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393024358607?epid=6044090763&hash=item5b8213c8cf:g:JdkAAOSw50dimGBQ
Think I paid about £30 when I did it. It turned out well, so seems worth it to me.

Ebay also shows a set by Wurth that looks similar to the kit I used, and is from a UK seller. It is even more expensive at £45.80, and I don’t know the manufacturer or any technical details:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402744709466?hash=item5dc574915a:g:QdIAAOSwT-RgS2oT

@jamesoz
I think the only Saabs with freewheel were the 93 and early 95 and 96, with a two-stroke engine.
Wikipedia page on Saab 93
I understand that the freewheel was to stop the engine seizing on the overrun (when you lifted you foot off the accelerator, but the car was still moving), like on a long downhill.

Being an early two-stroke, there was no separate oil lubrication system: it relied on the oil mixed in with the petrol for lubrication. If your foot was not on the accelerator, the engine wasn’t taking in any petrol/oil mixture, so it wasn’t getting any lubrication. Soon the oil film between moving parts would gradually get pushed out, and you would be left with metal rubbing on metal. That sort of thing tends to weld itself together, which is bad.

I’m sure someone who knows more about this will be along soon, but understand that best practice for two-stroke motorbike and scooter riders back in the day was: always pull the clutch in on the overrun. Also, always ride with two fingers over the clutch lever: if the engine seized and you were ‘really’ quick, you could pull the clutch in before the seized engine and back wheel caused a crash.

I believe that some commuter two-stroke scooters have a freewheel. Dimly remember something about some modern two-stroke engines have a separate oil pump, too. It doses the correct amount of oil into the petrol for two-stroke, and also pumps oil around the parts that need lubrication.

I drove a friend’s Saab 96 with a freewheel. Could see how it might use less fuel with plenty of practice, but I didn’t get beyond the stage of it feeling very strange.

Edit: just saw that this was covered by gofasterstripes. Oh well…

can’t quite work out how that saves energy

A self-charging hybrid uses a less-powerful, but more-economical petrol engine, with a battery and electric motor to bring the total power back up to what it would have been with a normal petrol or diesel engine.

There is a bit more to it than that if you want to dig. The petrol engine is an Atkinson cycle. The electric motor is used to help the petrol engine run in the most economical load/rev range. Instead of using conventional brakes and wasting energy as heat during gentle braking, the car uses the electric motor to charge the traction battery. The traction battery adds to the weight of the car, so it is like lugging round an extra passenger or two all the time, but it seems to be worth it for the gains using a more efficient type of petrol engine.
Our Yaris also seems to use the petrol engine to just charge the traction battery sometimes, which ought to be less efficient than using it to drive the wheels (electric motor is less than 100% efficient as a motor, and as a generator, so we lose energy both times). Despite this, we seem to get lots of miles per gallon. This is the bit that seems like witchcraft to me.

I find our self-charging hybrid easy and relaxing to drive. Hope you enjoy yours.

Edit: molgrips. You explained whilst I was still typing: well done.
I will leave my attempt at explanation here too: sometimes writing similar things, works for different readers…

escrs

The fact that you have been pleased with other stuff from eletriQ is a good start.

If you are going to use it much for gaming, bear in mind that it is freesync. I could not find anything by eiO on the nvidia G-sync monitor list, so it may not be supported by G-sync.
This should link: nvidia G-sync monitor table
My monitor is freesync, doesn’t seem to be supported for G-sync. I have switched from an AMD to a nvidia graphics card. Nvidia cards give better performance for a given price than AMD cards on my favourite games (only found out after I had bought the monitor). I now have to put up with slightly less smooth graphics, or slightly more tearing, than I would if I had a G-sync monitor.

That first impression report from Jack Woodhams on 29 June 2021 is promising.
He said that he would do a full in one or two weeks.
He replied to a comment four months ago: ‘I decided to do it as a 3 months later video. That way using it for enough time for a proper opinion. A week isn’t enough. So stay tuned for that’
I still can’t find a full report.

A month ago Jack Woodhams replied to a comment:
‘The Entertainment Consultancy …also, I see that Laptops Direct now do two different electriQ 49″ monitors… same price but different specs; which one do you recommend please? I am non-technical!!’
with a link to the monitor you linked to, saying ‘It has a higher pixel resolution and faster response time.’
which suggests to me that he did not do the first impression on the monitor you are looking at.

I have only been able to find one other review of an electriQ monitor from a website I have heard of: eTeknix (and I happen to trust them). A 32 inch 4K monitor (I couldn’t find the model number). The overview starts: ‘The phrase you get what you pay for is easily thrown around. However, while there are signs that this is a cheaper monitor, it still holds up far better than I expected.’
This should link: eTeknix ElectriQ 32″ 4K FreeSync IPS Monitor Review

Please keep us posted.

37.5 inch, 3840 x 1600 pixels, radius 2.3 metres, 75Hz.
It is an Acer XR382CQK.
Worked well when I was working from home: could have three A4-sized sheets open at the same time, or a looong spread sheet, and still be able to read all the cells.
Also great for flying my aeroplane – filling more of my field of view increases the immersion and fun (without feeling airsick).

It is pretty old now: launched in 2017, so I would advise you consider something newer, but have no idea how much technology has advanced. I bought it a couple of years ago (on ebay I think, from Littlewoods for £600 ex-display, or customer return). Certainly, going for a wide monitor is a good idea: I had looked into multiple monitors, but this was no more expensive, and much less faff (and better for gaming). I bought mine because I figured after ten years, the technology would have advanced and it would look better than my previous monitor (it has, it does). Also it seemed to be a good specification, reviewed well and was a good price (full price was about £900 at the time).

Curvature
2.3 metres is only slightly curved. Works for me, but I do wonder if I would have preferred something with more of a curve.
Difficult choice for you to make without an extended test drive.

Resolution
Word of warning: many wide monitors are only 1440 or 1080 pixels high: that will limit resolution. At working distance (and wearing glasses ‘cos I’m old), I can just see the dots.
I’m glad I went for 1600 pixels high (and I was used to it because I had being using a Dell 3007WFP HC monitor with 2560 x 1600 pixels for ten years).
I also do wonder if I should have gone for 4K (3840 x 2160).
That would certainly be the right aspect ratio if you are going to watch videos.
At the time I bought mine, they were much more expensive. Dunno how good a 40+ inch HD monitor you can get for £600.
4K also would need a more expensive graphics to drive games at a reasonable frame rate, or I would have to lower the resolution, which would make me feel sad…

A clever production engineer where I used to work questioned our practice of using a file to roughen the surface we were going to araldite. Trials showed that the bond that stayed strongest for longest, through temperature cycling and damp heat, was on a smooth, clean surface.

Plastics generally need a primer for the best bond, but which one depends on the type of plastic.
If you Google ‘Identify type of plastic’, you should find some good guides, like this one from The Welding Institute:
https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/faq-how-can-i-easily-identify-a-plastic
If you can find out what the plastic is, again Google should help you find the best primer.

Mechanical support as well, like the Jubilee clamp or cable tie suggested above, is a good call.

Sorry it isn’t easier, but that’s plastics for you.

muddyjames

I think Flaperon made a good point, just above your post.

I’m not an electrician, but I worked a couple of years as a manufacturing engineer at a company making fuses for plugs.
It is best to remember that the fuse in the plug is just a thin piece of wire in a ceramic tube: precisely make, but that is all it is.
I think its purpose is mostly to stop fires from overheating of the appliance, its mains cable, extension cables, and the cables in your walls. That is all. It is not to stop people from being electrocuted.

It is designed to carry the rated current (plus a little bit for supply variation and manufacturing tolerance) without getting too hot.
If the current is much higher than rated (like if you clamp a big piece of metal across bare wires), then the fuse will blow, melting the wire inside the ceramic tube, making an open circuit, ever so quickly (milliseconds).
If the current is only slightly higher than rated (like if you add a light bulb to the maximum number of electric heaters already on an extension lead), the fuse in the plug for the extension lead could take much longer (minutes, if I remember correctly, maybe even hours).

Once I learned more about them, I was quite impressed how well they performed for the price!

I would guess (with a bit of relevant knowledge), that despite the impressive spark, your fuse didn’t see a current high enough, for long enough, to melt the wire.

Do remember though – the fuse wouldn’t care if you were electrocuted or not.
A current of as little as 30 milliamps can kill: Wikipedia page on Electrical injury

Jingle.

oikeith – it isn’t safe.

After I did it (d’oh!), there was enough cable left to connect the remaining length directly into the hedge cutter. It was easy enough to open, and the terminals and strain relief clamp were easy to use.

If you haven’t got enough length of cable left, you might consider buying some more – it shouldn’t be too expensive.

Chocolate block and electrical tape would be a bit dodgy. For a kick off, I remember the electrician at work telling me that a lot of electrical tape he tested wasn’t very good at insulating! Also, a chocolate block doesn’t have any strain relief, so over time, the wires will probably work a bit loose, then one day, you might pull the cable more than you intended and have a live wire sticking out.
You can get proper blocks for joining electrical cables (they have strain relief clamps), but they are rather big and heavy. Not ideal for use on the area of cable that waves around when you use the hedge trimmer. Also could be more expensive than replacement cable.

For heaven’s sake, don’t try any of this unless you really know what you are doing.
(Not just think ‘how hard can it be?’)

Jingle

steveb: nice use of the word ‘normal’.

Chapeau!

Many car alarms have a back-up battery, so they can scream and shout if a thief disconnects the main car battery before breaking in. As with any other batteries, they don’t hold charge after a few years. This upset my Audi alarm; it had a mournful weep until I took it to Audi. They fixed it with a new back-up battery.

If you haven’t been using your car much due to lockdown, the main car battery could be getting flatter more often. I think alarms are designed to ignore this gradual voltage drop, but it might work the back-up battery much harder, reducing its life. Through lockdown I have sometimes been locking the car with the key, which doesn’t set the alarm (immobiliser still works), so doesn’t drain the battery so much. Insurance probably didn’t cover theft from the car, though. If I’m not going to use the car for a while, I now disconnect the battery, but beware: I have heard that some modern cars are so clever/stupid, that this confuses them and can need a breakdown service or even a main dealer to coax them into working again.

Second the comment about the Toyota Celica: the transmitter/receiver for the internal sensor (think it is radar) is next to the handbrake lever, under the double cup holder in the centre console thingy. Which is perfect size and place for my favourite driving sunglasses. If I forget to take them out of it at the end of a drive, the alarm thinks there are intruders and gets frightened. It’s the worst internal sensor placement I have heard of, but other cars might have something equally silly.

If your car isn’t too new and too clever/stupid, removing the fuse for the alarm shouldn’t cause any problems that can’t be undone. I think it is a separate system to the immobiliser, but you could always try it and see. If your car should have an alarm as standard, your insurance probably won’t cover you for theft from the car until you get it fixed.

zzjabzz: thank you, I downloaded overnight and am thoroughly enjoying it.

DavidB,

I don’t use Shoalstone pool, because I live Up North (Paignton).
However, talking with friends from Brixham, I do know you are doing a great service for the community – thank you and well done!
You may have been too modest to mention the website, so I will for you: https://shoalstonepool.com/about-us/

Jingle

Sorry about your Mum.

I might be too cynical, but if a house was left in trust for me, I would want to insure it myself to make sure it was adequately covered, and not forgotten one year.

Although it seems harsh, what Rich_s said up there ^ sounds reasonable.
Unfortunately, that leaves an awkward conversation about who should pay the buildings insurance premium.

Mowgli,

Looks tillydog understands behaviour of the precipitates much better than me (thanks tillydog).

Just holding at 551 C should increase the toughness significantly without decreasing the strength too much, but unless you / the heat treatment people can find results from someone who has done it before as a rework procedure, the best time and the effect are a bit of a guess. (Unless there was anything heat treated with your parts that you could use as a test piece, but tensile and impact testing would cost extra, and generally only happens in hindsight – bitter experience going into the heat treatment department when the furnace is up to temperature to see how the run is going, and finding the test pieces left on the desk).

I think your decision between ‘just precipitation’ and ‘re-solution then precipitate’ could depend on the risk of distortion by re-heating to solution temperature (plus your attitude to that risk versus the risk of the parts being too brittle), and I’m afraid I have forgotten that part and don’t have access to the data.

Please let us know how it goes (recently made redundant, and this reminds me of meaningful work).

Mowgli,

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I think I know a bit about this.

No, I wouldn’t advise shrink fitting tomorrow. You are right: any temperature high enough to affect the structure will relieve the stress, so undo all the hard work of the precision machining and shrink fit.

You shouldn’t have to heat it up to 1050 C to make the material tougher. Doing that would be unnecessary and might increase the risk of distorting it (I can’t remember if that is hot enough for transformation to austenite, with the associated volume change). H900 is precipitation hardened for 4 hours at 900 F (482 C), H1025 is precipitation hardened for 4 hours at 1025 F (551 C), so to change the material condition from H900 to H1025, it should just be a matter of heating to 551 C for a while (might have to reduce the time a little bit to allow for the time already at 482 C, the heat treater may already know if and how much).

I think you are right that H1025 is a better balance between strength and toughness than H900: 0.2% yield strength only drops from 198 to 168 ksi, but impact strength rockets from 16 to 40 ft.-lb.

Heat treatment of 17-4 PH isn’t quite like the classic plain carbon steel harden and temper that a lot of people are used to:
Solution annealing: heated to 1900 F (1038 C), held for 1/2 hour after the core reaches temperature (This dissolves the alloying elements in the matrix) then air cooled or oil quenched to 90 F (32 C) or less (this locks everything in place before it has time to move).
Precipitation hardening (hence the PH in the name): heat to 900, 1025, 1075 or 1150 F and hold for 4 hours (this lets mostly the copper, diffuse into clumps that pin grain boundaries and I think dislocations in place, making the material harder. A higher precipitation temperature lets the clumps grow bigger, but there are less of them, so there is less pinning: the material is lower strength, but it can distort around the tip of cracks, spreading the load, giving greater toughness. I think there is also some tempering of the martensite, which increases toughness). Air cool gives a gives a repeatable thermal profile so everything is repeatable.

The Wiki on 17-4 PH links to a wayback machine cached copy of an outokumpu data sheet, and a North American Stainless data sheet: they give some explanation. I think the alloy was invented by an American company, which is why the names for conditions reflect the precipitation temperature in F: I have to make a point of not getting confused between F and C when thinking of the temperatures!

Wikipedia give the initial decomposition as 200 Centigrade:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
although they say that depolymerization doesn’t happen until 650 Centigrade.
When I worked in the electronics industry, we aimed to keep the temperature below 400 Centigrade.

If you are going to make something yourself with paraffin wax and PTFE powder, be really careful that any spills of PTFE or the mixture can’t get heated above 400 C. That also applies to containers that you might use for the next batch, or for heating something else.

When it breaks down, PTFE releases hydrogen fluoride:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_fluoride

The safe time weighted average exposure is 3 ppm. Based on tests on monkeys, 1774 ppm has a 50/50 chance of killing you to death. That really isn’t much.

Hydrogen fluoride forms hydrofluoric acid when it meets water (like the moisture in air):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid
It is very corrosive, used for etching stainless steel, titanium, or glass. You probably don’t want that anywhere near your chain either.

Stay safe, don’t add to the workload on the NHS.

Thanks PJay, I was looking for a good strategy game. Reviews on Steam seem favourable (but then maybe they would be). Review sites mentioned in the Wikipedia entry rate it highly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_War:_Shogun_2

Seems to (mostly) run OK on Windows 10: https://steamcommunity.com/app/34330/discussions/0/133259227518777417/

Downloading now…

Ta11pau1: the Lidl track pump I bought a few years ago started leaking soon after I bought it. There was a collar round the base: took seconds to tighten and it’s been fine ever since. Not sure if the current ones are the same design, but there could still be something that has worked a bit loose – might be worth having a fiddle with it.

Maccruiskeen, thank you so much. You have brightened my morning. I laughed so much, that could probably count as my exercise for the day.

White 101,

What cloudnine said ‘Sounds a lot like Labrynthitis.. IANAD Though’ seems reasonable.

If it doesn’t get better when expected (no I don’t know how much time to give it), don’t just ignore it or live with it. Take personal responsibility for your own body; help the professionals to help you.

Best wishes,
Alan

White101,

I’m reluctant to advise putting more work on the medical services at this time, but persist until you receive a clear diagnosis.

I had ear / neck pains for a couple of years, and kept getting ear infections. I hadn’t noticed, but my balance had deteriorated – I had found excuses for not cycling like ‘too busy at work’. Fortunately, when the ENT consultant asked ‘Have you any other problems, like balance?’ and I replied ‘Don’t think so’, my partner piped up with a very definite ‘Yes’. I was referred to the balance clinic, where the Neurological Physiotherapist spotted my classic signs of vestibular schwannoma. An MRI scan soon confirmed. It wasn’t growing quickly (1 to 2 mm per year) and wasn’t cancerous, so I was booked in as not very urgent and had it removed about 6 months later (operation has a 98% survival rate).

The main point of my reply is, as my partner says: ‘Doctors look for horses, not zebras’. They look for the common things first, and if treatment appears to work, stop looking. Vestibular schwannoma occurs for about 12 people in a million, so it took them a while to find.

I will favourite this topic, so if can I help, please post again. (I will also try to set up my profile with my email, and you are welcome to drop me a line, but I’m a bit of a computer numpty, so it may not work).

Alan

I think all the DIY chains do a kit: a couple of hinges, latch and a pokey-stick.
Have a look at the website of the most convenient for you.

Poopscoop – I think you have the surface area to volume ratio the wrong way round.

Roughly, if you are twice as tall as a child, you have four times the surface area, but eight times the mass. (Yes, I know people aren’t spherical).

When length is twice as big, it is in one dimension…
but area is twice as big in two dimensions. 2 x 2 = 4.
and volume is twice as big in three dimensions. 2 x 2 x 2 = 8.

Thinking about the units might help visualise it:
Length in metres.
Area in square meters.
Volume in cubic metres.

I think small mammals survived the dinosaur extinction because they were mammals. Small dinosaurs didn’t survive it.

My experience with children is they have a faster metabolism when they are running around playing, but can then get chilled through really quick.