It's amazing what you find

We live in North Wales ,ten miles from the border. Our son and family live 80 miles away in England. We have two granddaughters, one 5 years and the other 6 months. We haven't seen them since 15 March.
 If we lived across the border we could go to them or they could come to us or anywhere in-between. We, in Wales we cannot go further than 5 miles and they, in England cannot come into Wales (I assume that rule hasn't changed). How fair is this! 


Without this going political, I do wonder if Wales (and Scotland) had conservative governments, would they have made different rules to England. 

Probably not Paul, but if you devolve power it's presumably on the basis it will be used to better fit the needs of the relevant people. The fact that the progress of the virus was different in Wales, Scotland, London and northern England shows that a one size fits all could have had, or may indeed have had severe consequences.

Paulmold wrote:

Without this going political, I do wonder if Wales (and Scotland) had conservative governments, would they have made different rules to England. 

Equally Paul with a R value still  perilously close to 1 in some areas , would lockdown have  been  eased so hastily if not for the actions of 1 man and the need to appease the growing number of serfs sharpening their pitchforks after a frustrating 10 weeks of obeying the rules .   

I'm afraid that's the one group of things I sold off when moving from farm to town, my dad's huge collection of pitchforks, and sharpening stone come to that..
However I do still have his scythe just in case the grass gets too long for my mower..
Al.

They do say you can't use a scythe until you have cut yourself with one. I have cut myself, and I still wouldn't say I can use one proficiently.

Dad could make a cut as even as you like with minimal effort... I always ended up sweating like a pig, and it looked like I'd used a fork!

Ha, like that. I cut myself sharpening it once, but still useless with it!
Like your dad, mine was ace at it, he could scythe right up to the stone walls in the meadows, when I tried I invariably ended attempting to cut limestone...
Al.

Wow Andy, you have something to answer for with this thread, I'm finding all sorts of stuff to either flog on ebay or take to charity shops once they open.
This is the latest, I have no idea where I got it from, I do know I've had it since I was a boy, maybe swapped it for something at school.
 Many years ago I mounted it on a brass base I turned up, and had it on display, then that sort of thing went out of fashion, and it's been in the attic for the last 25 years until I rummaged it out and cleaned it this morning.
I imagine it's a car bonnet insignia, about 3 inches across and very heavy, but what make of car I have no idea, any vintage car experts out there? Poor man's Spirit of Ecstasy...
Al.

That's an intriguing find AL, let's hope someone can identify it. I've been down the opposite end of he market. I turned out my box of replaced electrical items. All worki g fine, in white plastic. 8x3 pin sockets half single, half double, a similar number of switches single, double and triple, plus a selection of blanking plates, two dimmer switches and a couple of boxes for the wall. I put them on Facebook for peanuts. Not a glimmer of interest.

Gunson's Colortune and Gunson's Dwell meter, remember them? I've got both (somewhere). Plus timing light (mains operated) and compression gauge, all from my days of diy maintenance. Never to be used again.

bikeralw wrote:Wow Andy, you have something to answer for with this thread, I'm finding all sorts of stuff to either flog on ebay or take to charity shops once they open.
This is the latest, I have no idea where I got it from, I do know I've had it since I was a boy, maybe swapped it for something at school.
 Many years ago I mounted it on a brass base I turned up, and had it on display, then that sort of thing went out of fashion, and it's been in the attic for the last 25 years until I rummaged it out and cleaned it this morning.
I imagine it's a car bonnet insignia, about 3 inches across and very heavy, but what make of car I have no idea, any vintage car experts out there? Poor man's Spirit of Ecstasy...
Al.

Al,  that's  quite rare and worth a few Bob, I won't say what it is yet so others can have a ponder but don't give it away for a fiver.

Mrgeoffrey

bikeralw wrote:Wow Andy, you have something to answer for with this thread, I'm finding all sorts of stuff to either flog on ebay or take to charity shops once they open.
This is the latest, I have no idea where I got it from, I do know I've had it since I was a boy, maybe swapped it for something at school.
 Many years ago I mounted it on a brass base I turned up, and had it on display, then that sort of thing went out of fashion, and it's been in the attic for the last 25 years until I rummaged it out and cleaned it this morning.
I imagine it's a car bonnet insignia, about 3 inches across and very heavy, but what make of car I have no idea, any vintage car experts out there? Poor man's Spirit of Ecstasy...
Al.

Sold at Tennant's Auction for £180 and was on the auction catalogue cover....
https://bid.tennants.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/306/lot/142337?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F306%3Fview%3Dgrid%26page%3D3

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Star_Engineering_Co

The above link gives a bit of history.

Star Motors of Wolverhampton.

Paulmold wrote:Gunson's Colortune and Gunson's Dwell meter, remember them? I've got both (somewhere). Plus timing light (mains operated) and compression gauge, all from my days of diy maintenance. Never to be used again.

Well I'm amazed!
Thanks Paul, Mrgeoffrey and SDAndy, I'll keep that quiet from Mrs Al or it'll be turned into several pairs of shoes!

Paul, we've led parallel lives at some point, all the above present and correct in my garage.. And equally unused for years..
Al.

Used all of them in the past, not even sure where they went but know I haven't got them any more

Several years ago I was called out by my father. His mates car had conked out on the road and could I at least get it going enough to get home.

Opened the bonnet to find a distributor, hadn't worked on one of those for a decade or more. Couldn't even find my feeler gauges but a thumbnail is close enough to 25 thou' but it looked like the condenser had failed. Backed off the timing until it started and sent him on his way.

Nowadays my son's Mini keeps going into limp home mode. Different errors every time and now in the hands of BMW Germany trying to find out why . It's called progress.

Apparently the Charity Shops are dreading being inundated when they can open again.

Yep, we have 5 large bags of clothing for charity shops and a load of books too. As we're shielding Mrs SDA, I doubt if we're allowed to even take it to a charity shop.

Thumbnail on a dissy! Of course, most of us don't smoke any more.... Got nowhere to write useful phone numbers either.

I have a gunsons dwellmeter/voltmeter and the instructions squirreled away too... The one with the handy slot that you could rest on the door glass.

Huh. You lot must be old, forgetting basic stuff. Distributor points are 15 thou, not 25. It's spark plug gaps that are 25 thou. Which may well be a thumbnail thickness if you don't bite your nails. 15 thou is a fag packet. Or was, when they made fag packets properly.
I used to be setting points several times a day and I would just set them by eye having removed and ground off the high spots, and then check with a feeler gauge. I usually got it right.
did you know that HT coils gradually burnt out over time? If you measure the HT coil resistance when a decent one is new it will read 30k. Then over time the thin wires gradually lose their insulation, shorting out to each other. When the resistance reduces to 12k or so, it stops sparking. I got many a car going by measuring the DC resistance of th HT coil.
The one thing that stops me buying  a new motorhome is not money, it is all this computerisation of everything. It is obviously OK when it is all working but what really gets my goat is that the computer tells lies. My daughter's car said the cam position sensor was faulty so I changed it: £90. It wasn't the cam position sensor it was the chain/belt tensioner that had got stuck. Oh for a Mini - (I mean a proper mini of course, not these new plastic computer versions) which you can fix. And indeed doesn't need fixing if you maintain it. The cam chain can be as sloppy as you like, but it won't thow a hissy fit and refuse to take you home.

By the way all that Gunsons stuff is worth putting on ebay if you don't want it. I got £35 for the non-mains timing gun. Mind you, you don't need one if you know how to set up the timing properly. Though I do remember one car with a worn distributor drive shaft that had four different points gaps depending which lobe was working the points, consequently four different spark timing positions as well.

You'd have fun setting the two sets of points on my Moto Guzzi gassygassy. This is the only machine I still use the timing light and dwell meter for! Set one cylinder right and it invariably alters the other one!
I had fun a few years ago in Baden Baden trying to find out why the bike wouldn't go faster than 30mph.. Two hours at the side of the road stripping it down in baking heat before diagnosing one of the two condensers had failed! Luckily I carry spares of such things so managed to complete the trip back home.

[quote="steamdrivenandy"]Yep, we have 5 large bags of clothing for charity shops and a load of books too. As we're shielding Mrs SDA, I doubt if we're allowed to even take it to a charity shop.[/quote]

SDA I expect you have seen that from tomorrow Shielders can go out once a day together for exercise [guess does not have to be together if someone needs some space!] but still can not meet anyone else from another household, unless you live alone.  It does not say Shielders can drive but that might be more clear in tonights Briefing. I would imagine anyway that no Shielder would want to take the risk of driving/breaking down/accident anyway...."not allowed" but would you want to risk a car journey anyway....

I wonder how many shielded will find their car battery is flat if they do seek to use it? I still can't work out how the government generated the letters in the first place. Mrs SDA got one and rang our GP who had no idea, they certainly hadn't suggested her and the only illness that could potentially qualify occurred 15 years ago, under a GP surgery 120 miles away. So where did whoever produced the letters get their info from? 
Arguably, having had one kidney removed for cancer 6 years ago and with the remaining one none too hot and with the virus putting kidneys under pressure, you'd possibly consider that I was more at risk than Mrs SDA. Though as she's shielding, so am I, so it makes little difference. 
It strikes me that the whole reaction to this virus has been driven by a clumsy and to some extent, secretive bureaucracy, when more openness and flexibility is what's actually needed.

set the gap a bit bigger with a duff condenser to ensure the arc breaks down. As it was just to get him home it was all a bit guesswork and good enough.