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KeithAug

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Everything posted by KeithAug

  1. Yes Eberhard - too much of it driven by politics and parochial thinking. I feel I hear too much about how bad it will be if we do nothing but too little about a global collective will to tackle the issues.
  2. I guess the politicians don't know any engineers!!!!!!! This isn't quite true in the UK because the Conservative Energy Spokesman in the House of Lords is a certain Lord Martin Callahan. In the 1990's he worked in my engineering department. None of my staff were very disappointed when he left to pursue his political ambitions, frankly as an engineer he was as much good as a chocolate teapot. His political rise was somewhat metioric but on energy matters he sill talks out of the wrong end of his digestive tract. God help us.
  3. Dear Ian. And I thought I was a grumpy old man. I have read your missive to my wife and she agrees you win hands down. I was trying to explain it all to my non techy brother in law. Average electric vehicle - 2.5 miles per KWh. Decent range of say 450 miles requires 180 kWh battery. Decent charging time of say 10 minutes requires a 1080 KW charger. That's like plugging in 540 fan heaters! We don't have the grid capacity to feed all those electric cars and won't have for years. I tried self charging hybrids for the first time last Tuesday and loved the "get up and go". I know they don't solve the environmental problem but they are a load of fun. Keith
  4. Im only replacing it because the UK legislation now requires manufacturers to increase their % of electric cars sold by 20% per year. That means that by 2030 you won't be able to buy anything other than electric. I want to get in while I still have some choice left.
  5. Andy - Yes. In the engine room area without the balsa they of course need to be edge glued, elsewhere the glue will be applied to both the edge and back of the planks. I too think she has lovely sleek lines - it was the one of the main reasons I wanted to build her. Thank you all for your comments - much appreciated. I have spent the last week touring round car showrooms in an attempt to find a replacement for my current 10 year old car. Indecision, indecision, indecision.
  6. Andy, Pat, Keith, John, Greg, Hakan, Gary, Thank you all for your encouragement and "Little Ben" comments. Hakan - great news re June - does it have a personal pronoun yet? I am well on with the precision sanding. As previously stated I coloured the frame edges as a sanding guide. The preliminary rough sanding was done with 60 grit aluminium oxide paper held on a 2" x 8" cork block with rounded edges. The surface was reduced until small areas of the frame edges started to lose their colour. I then switched to 80m grit (on the same sanding block) and continued to remove the frame edge colouring. I sanded both sides alternatively while trying to maintain similar frame edge sanding patterns on each side. I proceeded in this way until the majority of the coloured edges were removed. I worked slowly from stern to bow. Gradually producing balsa snow drifts. I am about to switch to 120 grit before progressing with the final sanding / fairing.
  7. Yes - our hobby its incredibly wasteful isn't it. I console myself with the knowledge that in the main I am only wasting renewable materials.
  8. I have just been catching up, the interior detail is impressive. I do like these quirky working boats.
  9. That is wonderful news Keith and getting Maggie home so soon is a miracle. When my mother-in-law had a stroke that affected her swallowing she found rich tea biscuits dunked in malt whiskey stimulated her recovery enormously. In fact, as I recall, she continued with the habit well after her swallowing returned to normal. P.S. I have started being more attentive to my wife since you posted your news. She now thinks I am having an affair!
  10. Thank you for the engineering advice Veszett. Thank you Rick - have they managed to sell her yet? The last 6 months have flashed by but sadly he isn't showing many shipwright skills yet. I have continued with the development of my barrel making skills. The hull with the exception of the engine room is fully barrelled. I have attached formers to get the stern shape accurately established. I have block filled and sanded the stern to shape. I have also commenced sanding the hull but as you can see the frames still have most of their blue sanding guide marks still visible. I foresee a big sanding event coming up but will wait a few days for more eye recovery before I commence. I am looking forward to spring and the end of the incessant rain which seems to have been going on for ever.
  11. Yep - I did the same thing aged 9. Still got the scar to prove it. Great looking frames Andy. They look just like the real thing. P.S. Blood seeping through the bandage would have looked more manly.🙂
  12. Tom - much of it can't be seen through the skylight so I can cheat. Thank you for your comments Andy and Pat. Also thank you to all my previous contributors and visitors.
  13. The lego sorting is finished and the eye is Ok for some low dust workshop activities (I wore a pair of goggles just to be sure). Yesterday and today I recommenced work on the hull. The following three pictures show internal views of Cangarda. In the accommodation spaces the hull frames are hidden behind the internal cladding. I assume that space between the cladding and hull is full of insulation. The only space where the framing is left exposed is in the engine room. In the accommodation spaces I decided to use balsa to create the walls. This was installed in the fashion of barrel making - the balsa only being slightly thicker than the depth off the webs on the frames. An internal view might make this confusing remark clearer. The internal surfaces will be sanded flat and clad internally when Cangarda is removed from the building board. With the circular saw being out of action the cutting of the balsa was done with a razor saw. I was distracted from the balsa work when I realised I had mistakenly made the prop shaft casing 18mm diameter when it should have been 14mm. I started carving it back but decided I needed a guide, so I turned up the guide indicated by the white arrow. Positioning the guide in the casing allowed me to roughly carve the casing to approximately the correct size. I then shaped a sanding block to the correct external diameter and finished the resizing by sanding. It will probably take another week or so to finish the balsa work. The walls of the engine room will be devoid of the balsa filling.
  14. Eberhard - Too true. There are now apparently 3764 different parts . I also remember in my day Lego came in red, white, green and black, today it comes in over 180 colours. I think more is perhaps less in terms of child creativity. It must be a nightmare for the kids to find the parts they need.
  15. Andy - I am still awaiting the CAP delivery from Amazon. It is not a problem because I had my second eye done a few days ago so I am banned from all dust making opportunities at the moment. I am busying myself sorting a huge pile of my kids lego back into its original sets for the benefit of my grandchildren. Presumably this is an exercise that will be repeated until the end of time. Chaos, order, chaos, order etc. etc.
  16. Keith What a difficult time you are both having. However I am thankful Maggie has passed the first critical hurdle. The medics do wonderful things these days so hopefully recovery will go well. My thoughts are with you both.
  17. Brian - prompted by the above I should have been more explicit about the soldering. I solder with a variable temperature iron (typically set to its default setting of 320c) - although in the past I have used a fairly basic Weller single temperature soldering iron. I have never set fire to the jig - just some light charing at worst. I have never tried a torch for soldering brass wire of circa .050" or less diameter because I have found it unnecessary. I tend to solder with lead free solder wire of about 1/32" diameter. It is pre fluxed but just to be sure I always add a dab of plumbers soldering flux. This tends to work well for making guard rails.
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