Flashed up the 3D printer over the weekend and had a go at printing a test piece.
It's a squishy-squashy thing and, because of the way it's articulated, I'm not even sure how it was accomplished. I suppose I could use it as a coaster.
I had some difficulty with the filament spooling in clumps, which is a factor of the nozzle's distance from the substrate. I'll get better with practice.
Is cat theft actually a thing?
No-one can be said to own a cat in the same manner one owns a dog. If a cat is pissed off with you, your house or your attitude, it will bugger off and find another home. At best it's a lodger and there's a contract between you and the cat - you provide a comfortable home and regular food, it will stay and give you some psychological benefit, or scratch you.
However, if a pissed off cat finds a new home, the person who offers that home (and a better contract) can be accused of cat theft. That isn't fair, yet the government is set to make cat theft a criminal offence.
Something struck me this week about Brexit which I hadn't twigged before.
After the vote to leave the EU, many EU workers filling jobs in the UK left, either returning to their own countries or, using their Freedom of Movement, moving to another EU country that needs workers.
We ended up with a dearth of workers, exacerbated by a lot of people reasessing their lives after lockdown and opting to retire early.
This necessitated the UK taking in non-EU workers, mostly, but not exclusively, from former colonies, to fill the large number of vacancies - places where the inhabitants are hated by our far right, either because of their colour or their religion. It was, however, a necessity if the economy was to grow. A massive own goal.
Now this much we all know. The thought that hadn't struck me previously was that while the EU workers were highly mobile and would likely leave the UK during a downturn, those we've had to recruit from former colonies aren't highly mobile as they don't have access to FoM and, given their lives are probably a lot better in the UK than their country of origin, are here to stay, regardless of an economic downturn.
Now who was one of the prime drivers behind Brexit over his concern about immigration? Yes, you guessed it, Nigel Fuhrage. If we're having a large influx of people Fuhrage doesn't like, it's the fault of people like Fuhrage and those who believed his populist nonsense.
Back to the GT6 dashboard and another tool. A rabetter - or rebate maker. Old hat to many, but not to me.
I'm not actually sure I'll use rebates for the instruments, as I like the idea of the chrome bezel protruding more and hiding any possible gaps.
A couple of nights ago I had a dream in which I accidentally smashed my Bangers & Cash mug that I bought from Matthewson's on our visit to Thornton-le-Dale last month. When I woke up I remembered the dream and told Hay.
Later that day I nudged a Workmate than my mug of tea was on and if fell to the floor, smashing on the garage floor.
Glad I told Hay about the dream, else I'd think it was post-hoc rationalisation.
Spooky, or what?
For a while now I've been on the lookout for a classic moped to put on the back of the motorhome for shopping trips and the like when camped out; however, all the ones I've seen advertised are sheds that no-one has even bothered to check as to whether they run or not - and they cost well in excess of £800.
I managed to snap this near-perfect example of a 1972 Mobylette pedal-and-pop for £420 on Facebook Market last weekend.
I didn't even bother haggling. It's all totally original, with the V5. Yes, I could probably get one for half the price in France or the Netherlands, but to find one even near this price in the UK is very rare.
Had some trouble starting it when I got it home, but that was down to me ignoring the fact it's French. I initially thought O on the fuel tap stood for zero (and therefore shut) and F stood for Fuel. R wasn't a problem, as that's Reserve. I then realised (after much huffing a puffing and finally detaching the fuel pipe from the carburettor to see what's what) that O stands for Ouvrir - or Open - and F is Fermer.
Now I don't yet know the exact model (it's not on the V5), but at first glance it looked like a 50V by virtue of the shock absorbers on the back end. Some further research on a Facebook Nerd Group revealed that it's possibly a 51V. This was derived from the frame number; however, the frame number, while a stamped tag, is not strictly kosher, so someone may have put a 51V number on it to register it with the DVLA. In any case, the 51V wasn't manufactured till 1980.
It's a single seater, yet there are models with a pillion seat, but in order to put a dual seat on this I'd need to obtain some foot pegs, originals of which are apparently as rare as hens' teeth. Not only that, the ones with a dual seat generally have the rear shockers more vertical and attached further back on the frame to improve support of the passenger. As it is, I think there's too much of an overhang where the pillion passenger would sit and I believe modification would be necessary, such as moving the shocker top support, or welding on an additional stay. That said, I've seen images of Mobys with a dual seat and forward raked shocks, so I heaved my vast bulk on to the luggage rack and it supported me famously.
I may struggle to get it on the motorhome bike carrier, but there's plenty of scope for lightening it - for example I could get rid of the luggage carrier, remove the weighty mudguards, lightweight shock absorbers, racing seat, ensure the tank is empty for transport, etc.. I wouldn't want to remove the chain guards, as my 1970s flares might get caught up in the chain. I guess I could 3D print some plastic mudguards and other bits to lighten it. It would also be nice to design a small, collapsible trailer on which I can put the kayaks when we're camped a mile or so from water.
The bike carrier is more than capable of taking the weight, which is 36kg unladen, but what will be more of a battle is lifting it onto the bike carrier, which will be a 2 person job.
The fuel tank capacity is 3.6L, which should give a range of about 75 miles, if the specs are anything to go by, plus road tax is zero and insurance for Hay and me is only £66 a year.
I'm not going to renovate it as it's got natural patina and the areas of rust are so small they can be eliminated with touch-up paint. I think I've found a match and have ordered a 400ml spray can.
Even if I don't use it, No.2 Son can use it when he comes home from Uni after graduation and until he learns to drive and takes his test. It will extend his range for jobs, which he'll need in order to pay the rent on his room.
This Scorpion bloke - the international people smuggler - how come the bloody BBC can find him but the combined the might of the British law enforcement and intelligence agencies (not to mention the Belgians) couldn't find hide nor hair of him?
Could it be that they weren't looking that hard?
Sirkar Starmer's idea of a new anti-smuggling Command to battle him and his ilk sounds like a good idea, as what's taking place presently ain't working.
Or just give the job to the BBC....
Talking of Starmer, I never realised, but his wife is Jewish. She's not strictly Jewish according to Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, as her mother converted and wasn't born Jewish - the purists believe being Jewish passes down the female line and if your mother wasn't born of a Jewish mother, then you're not really Jewish. Reform Jews are a bit more relaxed on this.
His kids are apparently brought up in the faith, despite him being more sensibly described as atheist. Nevertheless, it's bound to be a factor in his thinking on Gaza. Also, you hardly ever see her and I didn't know either her name or what she looked like before Googling her. Sunak's wife, however, was the subject of a puff-piece in The Times over the weekend - Sunak's preparing for a GE and wants to use his Mrs to his advantage, not that I think having a millionaire wife who was a non-dom is an advantage at the current time.
I asked Google Bard in which areas of the economy the UK is a leader. Here's the result:
The UK is a global leader in a wide range of industries, including:
These are just a few of the many areas in which the UK excels. The UK's strong economy, skilled workforce, and world-class universities all contribute to its success in a wide range of industries.
These are the areas where government should be focussing investment to maintain leadership; however, these are all areas of the economy that require reasonably high levels of educational attainment and are thus open mainly to the middle classes.
I then asked what areas of the UK economy are open to those with low academic attainment:
Notice the mismatch? Not only is there a mismatch between what we're good at and what's open to those with low academic achievement, but the areas open to those of low academic achievement are not, in the main, growth industries.
Building is in the doldrums, being driven by money available for housing. We're no longer a world class manufacturing nation, having shifted to services. Yes, transport and logistics is booming with the shift to on-line purchasing; however, retail is moving to on-line platforms. Having isolated ourselves from the EU has also impacted transport and logistics. Healthcare suffers from very poor wages and most care homes are foreign owned.
I have a conundrum with the colour of the GT6. Not exactly a change of heart, more the fact I've spotted a colour closer to the one I want.
Below is the colour I want the car:
I had thought Jaguar Opalescent Golden Sand was the nearest colour; however, I spotted the exact colour on a VW Golf GTi cabriolet on Bangers & Cash. I looked up the VW colours for the year and, hey presto - VW Burnished Gold Metallic.
The Jaguar Opalescent Golden Sand, while nice, is a touch too light.
Here's another VW Golf in Burnished Gold Metallic.
It's a bit difficult seeing the difference in these photos, but there is one. However, the GT6 was called the poor man's E-Type Jag when it came out. That's because the blokes who bought a GT6 really wanted an E-Type but couldn't afford it, so perhaps it should be a Jaguar colour so that whoever buys it after I've finished with it gets as near to an E-Type without the cost.
However, to get a poor man's E-Type, then the interior has to be the same colour as the interior of an opalescent golden sand E-Type for the full effect - like below.
Thoughts and opinions welcome?
After Much Buggering About in the Garage (that quaint, Cotswold village), I managed to get the bonnet support tube fitted into the bonnet, which pulled the lower wings in nicely.
Gaps are nowhere near correct, but that's because the bonnet isn't yet supported at the front, but raise the front and the gappage is near perfect.
I turned my attention to the engine yesterday and preparing it for removal. Try as I might, I just couldn't free the exhaust manifold from the exhaust. I think I'm going to have to cut the exhaust downpipe, but the intention is to replace it with a stainless one with a modded manifold, so it's no great shakes to cut the downpipe.
The UJ holding the gearbox to the propshaft is proving difficult too - I managed to push one side of the UJ through and remove the opposite roller cap, but pushing it back the other way to remove the other roller cap isn't proving easy and needs some thinking about. Access isn't easy either, which isn't helping.
For a while now I've been contemplating getting a 3D printer. Having a 1973 Triumph GT6 to rebuild has jogged me into action, as there are many plastic parts that are either unavailable or cost an arm and a leg due to their rarity.
It's a 2nd hand Creality Ender 5, which I bought for £95 from a young chap in Tockington who has a print farm business where he 3D prints terrain items for World of Warcraft and similar games, such as the ones below.
He has rows and rows of printers in a unit on a farm that has a number of small industrial units. He occasionally upgrades his printers and sells off the older models.
I know about as much as the next person about 3D printing, but I'm prepared to learn. Thus far I've learned that there are 3 critical elements:
I don't actually watch the EuroVision Song Contest - well, at least not since Terry Wogan stopped doing the UK commentary. His commentary was priceless.
No-one knows the opinions of the Israeli contestant, although the one of the writers of the Israeli entry, Keren Peles, has been critical of the current government.
Before going any further, Israel and Australia are allowed to participate, as is any country in the world. It's not a European contest, it's merely held and organised by the European Broadcasting Union. The only limit is the number of songs you could reasonably get into a single TV show.
EuroVision is meant to celebrate coming together. Why have contestants from countries that are doing the exact opposite?
Why did Ukraine win a few years ago? I would posit that it was mainly a sympathy vote, which is not very fair on the other contestants. Will Israel win this year? I doubt it very much and they may even match the UK's traditional nul points, but is that fair when its entry will be judged politically?
I seriously believe that Israel fielding an entry this year will do them no good - better to quietly withdraw and thereby eliminate any protests.
How about banning any country which is engaged in military operations, whether that be the aggressor or the victim? That would preclude both the political protest vote and the sympathy vote. It's estimated that only 10% of countries are engaged in hostilities at any one time; however, if you add to that the countries arming belligerents I would imaging the percentage swells by quite a bit.
We went to the campsite on the Isle of Purbeck where we stayed 2 weeks ago and where I lost No.1 Son's drone in a tree. I took along several large marquee poles that slot together in order to poke the drone from its nest, as well as my battle rope, which I intended to put round the tree and the Galaxy's tow bar to give the tree a bit of a shake.
I needn't have bothered - someone had found it on the ground a few days ago and it was in their lost property. Why no-one answered my email is a mystery, but all's well that ends well. The finder even refused my £25 reward.
A slight crack on the undercarriage from where it hit the deck when falling out of the tree, but that's eminently fixable with a few dabs of superglue. No other damage.
When I got it home, No.1 Son put it through its paces and it passed with flying colours - if you'll forgive the pun. At least I've managed to save myself having to fork out another £250.
That's any potential water shortage this summer sorted.
Two brand new IBCs with a capacity of a tonne of water in each - well, after they've been connected to the gutter downpipes of the house and filled with rainwater runoff.
They'll primarily be used on the veg garden - and as a reservoir for the patio cleaning.....
The people who go on about No Mow May obviously haven't had to mow a month's worth of grass with a standard lawn mower. Grass can grow by as much as 6 inches during May, sometimes more - it's the month when the grass grows fastest. I have trouble mowing after 2 weeks, and that's with a ride-on-mower. I certainly wouldn't want to tackle it after a month of not mowing.
I'm certain that No Mow May is sponsored by makers of powered garden scythes.
How is it feasibly possible to have low taxation and yet good public services?
Money has to come from somewhere to fund public services, but low taxation reduces the overall tax take by central government. Yes, a burgeoning economy means a larger tax take, from which a good percentage can be allocated to public services, but a continually burgeoning economy is very rare - eventually there will be a recession, or a period of stagnation. Only Australia has had a continually growing economy - 27 years at the last count, but even that was only at 3.3% on average and the tax rate there is only marginally lower than the UK for someone on say £30,000.
One way of a government having low taxation without having to worry about the impact on public services is to sneakily offload public services to local government - low taxation by subterfuge. However, this will lead to an increase in local taxation, as well as huge variations in the quality of those public services, depending on the wealth of the locale.
Imagine a situation where a wealthy borough has excellent medical and education services, while a poor, inner city borough has inadequate health and education services. Not only that, but any benefits of scale are immediately wiped out, resulting in higher overall costs.
I fully expect our Conservative government to announce such a proposition before the GE....
I was at the Gloucester and Cheltenham Mercedes dealership, having taken a Merc that needed a replacement radio unlocking and relocking to the chassis number of the Merc it was to go into, when I spotted this on the wall in the showroom waiting area.
It's an indoor moss garden. I had a closer look. It looked and felt alive.
I enquired of the staff whether it got watered, but no-one seemed to know. Had a closer look at a couple of damaged areas and noted that the moss was stuck to some kind of resin substrate.
Looked it up when I got home and it transpires than the mosses are dried before being put on a resin base, but in such a manner that they retain their live look.
I've never used expanding polyurethane foam before, as you can tell.
I thought I'd apply some to the gaps around the door from the garage into the workshop. Never bargained for an expanded foam doorstop too....
Bloody stuff has a life of its own and goes everywhere. It's impossible to get off your hands if you touch it, unless you have some acetone, which luckily I did. The main problem with the stuff is that you've no idea as to how much it will expand - as you can see.
I did test it for memory in relation to using it instead of foam rubber for the GT6 dashboard top - and it has very little. By memory, I mean whether it rebounds when dented by a finger. It does rebound slightly, but a depression remains and the elasticity is negligible, as you'd expect with something that's meant solely for filling gaps.
It does, however, take well to cutting into shape when cured, not that I have a use for that attribute at the present time - well, certainly not in the Death Star I'm building in the workshop area....
Three things I've been thinking about during the local elections:
Having tried a number of pressure washers on our Indian sandstone patios, I decided to beg, borrow or steal an industrial pressure washer with a good litres per minute delivery. The car dealership where I occasionally help out had one - 45 LPM - perfect.
Now 45 LPM is way beyond the delivery rate of your normal domestic tap, but far in excess of the 4 to 6 LPM of many of the pressure washers you can in Lidl or Aldi. While my garden tap can't deliver 45 LPM, a 45 LPM washer takes advantage of the full delivery rate, whatever that may be.
The delivery rate of a standard UK tap is between 4 and 6 LPM, with some going as high as 10. I measured our garden tap delivery and it filled a 12L bucket in exactly 1 minute - better than the usual domestic delivery. There again, we have a good head of water from our local reservoir.
If you must have a standard pressure washer, get one that's capable of 10 to 12 LPM, hoping your garden tap will deliver that flow rate (or simply measure it with a bucket, as I did). 120 PSI is generally enough pressure. People are seduced by the PSI and end up buying expensive jet sprays with an advertised PSI of 160, only to get 6.5 LPM, which is pitiful and doesn't even take full advantage of what's coming out of the tap.
I went to the dealership at 7am on a Sunday morning and then discovered the pressure washer had a blue, caravan-style hookup connection, rather than a normal 3 pin plug (the yellow, 3 pin caravan style plug is a 110V connector for certain power tools). Not an issue, as we have a hookup 3pin to standard 3 pin converter for the motorhome. It weighed a surprising amount for its size - I could only just lift it into the car.
Having disconnected all the hoses, it took me an hour to reconnect them at home - they obviously hadn't been disconnected for years and I had to do some maintenance on them.
The difference in cleaning power was phenomenal. The commercially available pressure washers just don't touch the algae.
It's not perfect, but after 9 years in situ I can't really expect it to be, but it's a vast improvement.
Given the pressure washer is limited by the tap delivery, I dare say I could get a higher pressure by using a water butt to provide the water, with the pressure washer using suction to deliver the input side at full rate.
To that end I used polyurethane resin and fibreglass to caulk a leak in an old water butt that was destined for the recycling and bought a ball valve for it, adding a push-fit hose connection so I could connect the garden hose to it. The hose will fill the butt and the ball valve will cut off the inflow automatically when it's full, ensuring I have a decent reservoir for the 45LPM pressure washer the next time I use it, although I dare say it will empty the butt quite fast. A standard water butt is 165 litres, which will last no longer than 3.6 minutes - slightly longer as the ball cock opens and starts to fill the butt. An IBC would be a better solution.
No leaks and the ballcock works perfectly.
I still have to do the front patio and will try using a water butt this weekend to see if I can obtain a greater blasting power, but I'll have to be careful not to blast the grout from between the paving slabs.
I thought the water butt might even improve the delivery of my Titan TT2200P pressure washer, but that only has a 500 litres per hour delivery rate, which is 8.33 LPM, so it's not even taking full advantage of the flow coming from the tap and the water butt won't make the slightest difference. I did try it, but it was as suspected. There was also a problem with priming the pump, as it takes a while for the suction to get going - perhaps taking the water from the bottom via the tap, where there's a good head of water, would be better than putting the hose in from the top.
I listen a lot to LBC, specifically the James O'Brien Show (10:00-13:00 weekdays). Every 15 minutes or so there are adverts, some of which amuse me. Some are somewhat incongruous, such as Bet Fred adverts during a phone-in about betting addiction.
There's one for Darwood and Tanner Dentists, the voice-over for which says; "We make teeth great again," but I interpret it as; "We make teeth grate again," which is much funnier.
There's one advert for EDF where the CEO comes on and does a voice-over in heavily accented French. I'm continually surprised that Tory voters don't phone the show and complain about our national infrastructure being in the hands of the bloody French.
Now the solution to this - and it's very patriotic - is to nationalise all the infrastructure where there's a preponderance of foreign ownership. Nationalisation should be seen as a patriotic duty to the right wing, but it's not, and I can't understand why. You'd think they'd be clamouring for it.
On another matter, surely handing £3k and a free ticket to refugees volunteering to go Rwanda is going to encourage a new cohort of people to cross the Channel - those who will take the money and then perform the same trip multiple times. £3k goes a long way when travelling north through Africa. Also, Kemi Badenoch knowing someone who is having 'a lovely Gap Year' there doesn't exactly make it sound like a deterrent. Now I'm not calling Badenoch a liar, but she also said yesterday that Britain is thriving after leaving the EU. OK, yes, I'm calling her a liar.
I wonder of the Gap Year student will be coming back or has a one way ticket.
It seems to me that the Tories are missing a trick with their determination to deport anyone they think will bring them votes from the knuckle draggers and cerebrally challenged who are shifting their allegiance to Reform Ltd. simply because the Tories aren't nasty enough.
They are fond of using their law making prerogative to change things that are obvious to their exact reverse, like declaring Rwanda to be safe. This is rather contentious, as so many international bodies, as well as the UK courts, have declared it unsafe. Legal immigration as a refugee, while internationally legal, they have declared illegal.
What about simply declaring the UK as an unsafe destination for refugees due to the risk, however small, of being deported for merely being a refugee? I don't think anyone could honestly disagree about that. Under the Tories the place is even becoming unsafe for native Brits, for heaven's sake.
