***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 156 *****
In this thread you may ask any question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
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However, as has been said a couple of times, there is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.
This is Volume 155. Previous Volumes will not be deleted,
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PLEASE NOTE:
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I have a Fuji F10 digital camera that allows you to set the ISO rating.
On the Auto setting, it usually selects about ISO 800 with indoor flash. (Which seems to me to be a bit high for top quality)
With film, I usually use ISO 100 or 200.
Should I therefore use this setting on the digital camera, or just leave it on Auto and let the camera do the setting?
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Doc
why not try it and see? It's the results that count. You obviously know your ISO ratings and you're aware that on a digital camera higher ISO = more noise but faster shutter so less likelihood of blur from camera shake. You've nothing to lose, give it a go.
JH
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Is it automatically selecting a fast ISO speed to allow for a relatively low-power built in flash unit?
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SWMBO has been doing some work on an on-line bank account that was "phished" She suggested I posted a warning here about the MO employed, suitably watered down. Basically it's a strong suggestion to all BR's to get shredding anything with personal information, this includes shredding DIRECT ADVERTISING MAILINGS FROM YOUR BANK envelopes and all. Do it.
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My bank - the A&L - insist on sending me a sheet of credit card cheques with my monthly statement - which just adds to the monthly shreddings!
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My bank - the A&L - insist on sending me a sheet of credit card cheques with my monthly statement - which just adds to the monthly shreddings!
I used to get these from my CC. I phoned them up and specifically asked them not to send them anymore as I didn't need them and they posed a pointless security risk.
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I am looking for a new petrol lawnmower with a 40 cm or so wide cut that uses the fan type cutting blades and has a powered rear Roller.
My existing Hayter has a 4-stroke Tecumseh (Fiat) engine that has almost always started first pull, ignoring getting started again after each winter period. Modern Hayters use the Briggs and Stratton 4-stroke engine while Hondas use their own.
The Hayter Spirit 41 mower at about £360, or the Honda HRX 426 QXE at £539, look suitable. The Honda has a 94 dBA noise figure whilst the Hayter does not give one.
Questions: Anyone got any experience of these? Recommendations? What's the B & S engine like for easy starting? Is the Honda really worth the £179 extra money?
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We have four lawnmowers (don't ask...), three with B & S engines, the fourth a Honda.
B & S are no trouble to start after a winter at all. The secret is to run the engine dry at the end of the season. I then remove the plug, put a little sump oil in the cylinder and turn the engine over a few times to distribute it. Then replace the plug and leave on compression stroke. Keep the air filter and plug clean (and changed now and again), new sump oil once a year. No trouble at all.
I also like B & S because there seems to be a lot of pattern part spares e.g. air filters that I buy in France for half the cost in UK.
I would not pay extra just for a Honda. At the end of the day it's just a lawnmower, as long as it starts.
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Unlike looking after a car, I have adopted a minimum effort approach with a lawn mower, apart from making sure the oil is OK etc. -- what I can get away with - WICGAW.
I put it away at end of season with a low level of petrol in the tank but for years have got away without draining it -- I said WICGAW. New season, wheeled out, tank half filled, shake it about to mix, pull air filter off, sprinkle with a few drops of petrol and put it back. Mower then usually starts although it can take up to 10 or so pulls. Some of this is waiting for the mixture sucked through the filter to weaken and become combustible.
After that the mower is wheeled out, tank topped up, choke lever moved to choke, one pull starts it 29 times out of 30 and the lever can be put to normal within 10 seconds. I can't remember taking the plug out apart from a few times when new. Or needing spares except to replace the pull chord. Though I did have to repair the skirt due to inadequate design and fit a piece a aluminium in place of rusted steel. The excellent fiat engine.
Alas, after more than 15 years use, the mower now has rust holes allowing grass onto auto-drive belt and it is more push than drive. Since my post I read a poster elsewhere who said he has to mess about with the B & S engine flooding the carb to get it to start -- - I don't know if it was a modern B&S engine but if the engine is fussy like that I don't want it. Reminds me of two strokes of the past.
Thanks for coming back. I was beginning to think I had been sent to Coventry.
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Due to us having a bark covered front garden and a patio to the rear my knowledge of lawnmowers is nil, but last night our local TV station had a piece on about the warm October. It was from our local agricultural college and they mentioned they were still cutting the grass and showed someone duly doing the task, the machine being used was a Hayter. I'm sure this will get some real hammer so it must be up to the job.
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My 'Hayterette' dates from the sixties,has a B&S 3.5 hp motor,and is reliable with minimum maitenance.The old sidevalve design may not be as efficient as OHV but seems to be robust..
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Are different channels broadcast at different volumes? Not just that thing where the volume goes up at the ad break but the actual programmes themselves - I find I have to turn up ITV all the time whereas Channel 4 is probably the loudest and with BBC in the middle.
Motoring connection is obviously my enjoyment of lovely car ads and motoring programmes {Not enough to warrant a post of it's own, hence why moved here - DD}
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I worked for a cable company and asked this question to a head-end operator.
Apparently adverts are not allowed to be louder than the programs , which he demonstrated with a sound meter.
The reason they sound louder is because they boost the bass content which gives this effect - sneaky but legal!
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We get Winter Hill transmissions. Almost invariably BBC programmes have to be turned down after switching from ITV/C4 channels as the sound level is higher on analogue broadcasts (digital stations have to be turned up a notch over analogue ITV/C4).
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It is a great source of annoyance to me. I have a sound meter and can measure as well as hear sound levels.
What these programme makers and advertising people fail to learn is how quickly we can hit the sound-off button on our hand controls -- we have one each, they are very cheap these days. In this household their razamataz loses them their adverts. But it still annoys.
In the case of one national broadcaster I wrote that their program introduction was so objectionable I do not turn the sound on until I see the broadcasters lips move! (so as to avoid the stupid introduction noise). The standard has just gone through the floor. Music over documentaries where are the coming from.
But sound level setting is not straightforward. A sound level set for speech is usually too loud for a more continuous sound such as music. But there is no excuse for poor sound control. With modern processing it can all be done/processed automatically. But there has to be the will to use it.
There was a time when national broadcasters had people on staff with technical knowhow. I wonder if they do any more.
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I have a friend who works with me, but is a contractor. She recently went for and succeeded at an interview for the company she's currently temping for.
She's had a job offer and signed and returned her contract, but has now been told that they're retracting the offer because they've had some other employees displaced, so are having to give the job to one of them.
Legally speaking, where does she stand? The people from HR who told her this have said that they'll try to consider her for any further jobs, but I'm wondering - since she's got the contract, is she in fact legally counted as a displaced candidate herself, and do they therefore have a legal obligation to place her in a job?
Otherwise, do they owe her compensation for the difference in wage between what she'll be forced to stay on, and what she's promised in that contract?
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Bad luck. They can retract as they wish.
You have no rights at all as an employee in the first six months of a job (save to be paid in exchange for doing the job), and precious few in the next six months. Once you've been there a year however they cannot shift you without a lot of difficulty/expense.
That's why the other 'displaced' employees are being given her job - as they've been there over 12 months, the company cannot get rid of them. They can get rid of your friend, however, very easily.
Unless she's pregnant? In which case the dreadful anti-discrimination laws would allow her to claim huge damages.
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The problem with this is that if she kicks up a fuss now and is in the wrong, they will probably have her down as a troublemaker and not give her work in the future.
If she kicks up a fuss and is right, well she hasn't even started or completed a probationary period and I would think a good employment contract would allow BOTH parties to terminate fairly easily within this period.
Until completing probation successfully I don't think she could be called a permanent employee.
Hope it helps
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Thanks for the replies, it's pretty much what I thought, but I decided to ask, just in case.
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MM you said "Bad luck. They can retract as they wish."
I have had experience of this twice with my teenage daughter being turned down the day before a summer holiday job starts.
She is now finishing Uni and finding the graduate job market a bit tough. She is applying both to jobs she wants and those she doesn't want in the hope of getting ANY job.
Leaving morals and old fashioned values aside, can the potential employee do the same to a potential employer. So, accept any job to keep something in the bag for a bit of security / insurance and then later reject it if something better comes along.
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Yes, unfortunately they can. We recruit graduates and there is some evidence that a few accept more than one job offer and choose later. Infuriating but there's nothing we can do legally.
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My wife keeps hassling for an MP3 player mainly to use while running or in the gym. I've looked around and the choice is mind-boggling. Any suggestions? It needs to be not too dear, fairly rugged and a smallish memory is fine, she won't want tens of thousands of songs on it. Also, is there any free or cheap software for transferring from a CD to MP3 using a PC? And not an iPod, I don't want to be stuck with iTunes.
Something else I'd like to do is transfer vinyl records to CD. I saw a cheapo record deck advertised in the Telegraph magazine a few weeks ago which came with a USB connection and software to copy to CD or MP3 which would do the job at £99, but can i do it with my existing record deck?
I'm afraid I'm a bit out of the loop on this sort of stuff, my only CD player is in thecar, so be gentle with me.
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Saw an MP3 player for 14.99 in Tesco. Get a decent pair of non-hearing aid sized earphones (I run my iPod on a pair of Senheisser PXC 150 Sound reducers which I got from fleabay for 18.oo quid) and for £33.00 you're there. I do rip my vinyl but through a rather torturous route; Technics deck wired into the MD socket of my office hifi (with an inline pre-amp), then record via a product called SuperMP3 recorder downloaded from t'interweb, then drag and drop into iTunes. I'd be interested in an USB equipped deck and would be willing to spend £200 or so to get a decent bit of kit.
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Re MP3 player. I have one of these from 7DayShop:
tinyurl.com/ybot3c
I paid the same price without the 512MB Secure Digital card...:-)
It can also be used as a memory card reader/writer for SD and MMC cards.
Create MP3s (perhaps in in Windows Media Player) and drag and drop them onto the SD card. Sound quality through the supplied headphones proved quite surprising in view of the unit's low cost and it only needs one AAA battery, which lasts around 10 hours.
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PS
A 32MB card holds around 11 MP3s, so 512MB will hold a fair few.
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Oh, forgot to add, O2 upgraded one of the household mobiles foc so we could use hands free bluetooth. The phone is Motorola SLV - a very tidy phone (for a man who has no interest in blingy phones) it has a mini SD card and can be used as an mP3 player. Cracking little phone, better made than my office Blackberry as well.
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Asda are doing 512meg MP3 players for under £30, the other leading supermarkets probably do something similar.
Windows Media player will allow you to 'rip' files from audio cd to mp3 files and you simply drag and drop them to your mp3 player.
As for copying from tape or vinyl to cd, the main issue is that it is 'real time' - it takes you 45 minutes to record a 45 minute album, and I have not found any software that breaks album sides down into tracks effectively - It splits them in the wrong places, or merges tracks together
hth
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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BS,
Not had a problem here, monitor (and enjoy) in real time and pause the recorder as and when required, that a an a still natty "cue" finger does the rest.
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" Asda are doing 512meg MP3 players"
I too have an Asda 512 one called a Venturer --- for about a year. Works off a single AAA for many hours. Excellent sound quality to my aging ears. USB port. The push-in little earphones would not stick in my ears, however, and so I bought a pair of the hook-over type. What I like about Stuartli's version (just ordered one) is the ability to swap the memory card. Thus when playing a bit of background music for a few friends I can take my card out and use one suitable for just for that. I have found my ASDA one drives an amplifier quite nicely when plugged into a mic channel if it is adjusted for a low level output (mics are typically 2 mV).
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>>is the ability to swap the memory card.>>
I use my digital camera's Secure Digital cards - all I need to do afterwards is reformat the card(s) in the camera.
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>>is the ability to swap the memory card.>> I use my digital camera's Secure Digital cards - all I need to do afterwards is reformat the card(s) in the camera. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
Why do you need to reformat?I use a 1gb card with a folder for audio and another for photos,can move between camera and player with no probs.
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>>Why do you need to reformat?>>
Probably because in the back of my mind I've never wanted to miss important photographs because the card was not correctly formatted...:-)
Also my first SD card was just 8MB and the additional MMC card I also bought with the camera (£25 at the time) was only 32MB.
People don't seem to appreciate just how cheap memory is these days compared to three or four years ago or how much hard drive capacities have increased whilst, at the same time, prices are a fraction of what they used to be.
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Nokia N91 - an outstanding bit of kit and the new ones have 8Gb of space. [the older ones have 4Gb]
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www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=prod...p
Fits the bill perfectly, i'm going to have one of them.
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Cheaper on Amazon. Just bought one !
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£20 on Microdirect.co.uk.
www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=1...4
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Thanks for all your replies. Plenty of food for thought.
Here's a link to the USB record deck, what do you think?
tinyurl.com/ydbyqs
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Cheaper on Amazon, which is also cheaper than the buy it now ones on fleabay. I'll report on mine when I get it.
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what do you think?>>
Very, very expensive for what it is - you can buy a top brand turntable these days for a third of the price on e-Bay and other sources.
There are various ways of getting the ouput into your system and digitalising it.
Cheaper way:
tinyurl.com/y6y5dm
tinyurl.com/us8pl
Other ways:
www.ripvinyl.com/faq-connection.shtml
tinyurl.com/y535bn
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I use a cable that has phono on one end (mixer/amp) and a jack plug in the other (PCs mic socket). Record with Audacity. only cost a couple of quid for the cable and nowt for the software.
Quality is pretty good too.
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>>Quality is pretty good too.>>
Might/probably be even better if you use the Line In socket.
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there's no line in on my laptop.
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Cheaper on Amazon. Just bought one !
?? what - mp3 turntable or mp3 player ?
go on then, give us a link to the product.
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Just been in an ASDA and seen that the current Ventura looks like mine but now holds 1 gigabyte, claims over 10 hours on one AAA, (probably always did) has frequency response adjustments and is £30.
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Recording from records
Bear in mind that sound coming off records has the high notes over emphasised until passed through a suitable (RIAA) filter because the high frequencies are boosted before making the recording. They need need to be cut when played back to get the natural sound again. (total process reduces the surface noise)
The old way of playback did this by frequency shaping in the pre-amp -- using resistors and capacitors. I don't know if you are claiming this is now being done after the signal gets into the PC? (enlighten me) But it has to happen somewhere before becoming an MP3.
Pugugly's record player looks like it has it built in to its preamplifier. The description of the others is unclear. They talk about track leveling which may or may not be the same thing.
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I have a pair of decks for DJing, so the decks are plugged into a mixer and then to the amp.
on the output side of the mixer there are two sets of phono sockets, one for the amp, and one for a recording device so the recording is always at one level irrespective of the volume from the speakers.
When I record a set/record the only thing I have to do is cut the resulting file to decide how much silence I want at the start and end.
I do not plug the turntable directly into the PC. Not because I knew about the over emphasis on the highs, just because it is alot easier to plug it into the mixer how it is set up.
Learn summat new every day.
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Yes, buzbee is right, frequencies below 1000Hz are attenuated, and frequencies above 1000Hz are amplified before being cut into the record, and a filter/amplifier with the reverse characteristic is needed to restore the signal to its original form - you could think of it as passing the signal through a graphic equaliser with specific settings for each frequency band, with only the 1000Hz band being at 0dB.
Some Hi-Fi amplifiers have the correction stage built in. This is usually signified by the amplifier having an input labelled as phono.
The way I get the signals off the vinyl is to use a tee connection into the (confusingly named) phono cable between the amplifier and the input to the cassette unit. In this way, the amplifier corrects the RIAA filtering, and amplifies the signal to line level.
The tee connection and the cable with phono at one end, and a jack plug at the other are available from shops like Maplin for little money.
Number_Cruncher
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i was reading this and trying to work out what tye of cartridge was in the usb type record deck as there are three types of cartridges for the stylus
magnetic
moving cartridge
ceramic
they all give a different output and all need to be treat differently
i would rather buy a good s/h deck and as said plum it through a hi fi amplifier
but having read but never heard about mp3 quality it maybe doesnt matter if simon and garfunkel are sounding like they are on smack?
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MP3 Quality: I think you would be quite surprised at just how good the stereo sound is from some of these players. I know I was when I first got mine. MP3 is not low quality, if it has been transposed at a suitable bit rate. Certainly more than good enough quality for old ears.
Pickup cartridges: Ceramic/crystal type are high impedance and have to work into a pre-amp that has a high impedance input first stage, usually (there are some tricks that can be played using capacitors to get that down somewhat). Moving iron/magnetic types are low impedance and not as fussy.
Bit concerned about using a passive T for RIAA correction, without an accompanying amplifier, in case signal/noise ratio suffers too much -- need to go and have a look at what they do.
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Are you thinking of a pre-amplifier?
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Are you thinking of a pre-amplifier?
If that's addressed to me: what is preferred is to amplify the pickup signal somewhat, like in a first stage, such as by 20dB, before doing the processing on it like the RIAA function, so as to minimally degrade the S/N ratio. If a pre-amp(lifier) is being used this is not a problem and is part of the design -- done this many times, though years ago now. My stuff is up in the loft.
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>> Cheaper on Amazon. Just bought one ! ?? what - mp3 turntable or mp3 player ? go on then, give us a link to the product.
pugugly - the above query was aimed at you. any response ?
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Why do many contributors have {P} next to their names? What does it mean?
No doubt something blindingly obvious!
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It was a fad a couple of years ago to indicate that you had a profile. Some of us deleted our profiles
subsequently.
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{p} ? - a fuller reply to your question is this:
you can choose to make your profile visible to other backroomers (via my settings under your user-name on the right hand column).
however, that does not automatically make it obvious to others that you have enabled your profile to be visible.
so a convention developed whereby you have the option to indicate that the profile is visible, if you so wish, by manually altering your login name with the added {P} after it. that shows people that you have made your profile visible.
the absence of {P} does not mean that your profile is not visible.
the presence of {P} means that at some point you had decided to enable your profile.
you may have changed your mind subsequenly but not bothered to amend your user-name to remove the {P} tag.
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.....and that as well... :-o
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I've wondered this too but also thought it must be obvious but could not figure it out. Now we know. Didn't ask because I thought somehow I should now.
Thanks for asking mini owner :-)
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I want to use excel calculate how much a savings account is worth each month of the next twelve months if I deposit a fixed amount at the start of the 12 months.
I know the AER and the Annual gross rate
how do I go about it ?
ta
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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I want to use excel calculate how much a savings account is worth each month
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my suggestion - go to excel help, and look up financial functions "pv present value" and/or "fv future value" and work through the examples.
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Presumably you mean only what the actual value in the account is, rather than what it's 'real' value is (taking into account inflation)? In which case it's pretty easy. I'll knock one up for you, and stick it on the net. Link later.....!
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Download: www.geocities.com/tricky992002/savings.xls
See if this does what you want, otherwise let me know and I can change it to suit.
--
RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Richard - your cheque is in the post !
It was exactly what I needed
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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What a star !
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
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Bit of a long shot I know but there have been some knowledgeable responses to some other mobile queries so here goes. SWMBO's beloved 6210 has packed up. Well I say packed up, but it powers up ok and you can access the phone book, menus etc but it will not find the network and therefore no signal strength bar appears. I have tried manually acquiring the network but still no joy.
Its getting on a bit now so I assume its had it, but I just wondered if anybody thought it might worth taking it apart/ or if there was an easy fix.
PS I've got a newer phone she can use - but she likes this one !
Thanks in advance
P
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Have you checked the secure fitting and cleanliness of the SIM metal contacts ?
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There is something in the back of my mind that one of the Nokia phones used to suffer from a broken internal aerial connection. Whether it was the 6210 or not I am not sure.
Can you try driving to the nearest Mast and see if it gets a signal then, or try in a car kit with external aerial. If it then works it may be a soldering iron job!
Your wife obviously has taste for engineering excellence! Only bettered by the 6310!
--
pmh (was peter)
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If the above doesn't work, you could buy her another one, theres a few going cheap on eBay that claim to be in good condition...
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We have a load of 6310i's which will not stop using for love or money - they are so good. We have them refurbished when they stop working perfectly. It's worth spending the £30 or so, to get a phone that is simple to use and generally reliable. We use www.turnonyourmobile.com I think it is or .co.uk but they give superb service. I have no connection with them as those of you that know me will know.
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We've just replaced my Dad's Nokia nk702 (an Orange-specific 5110) with a 2610 - the interface is remarkably similar and it's about £40 on Orange.
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I believe you are right in saying there is a problem with a broken internal aerial connector on the 6210. I had a 6210 and reception became very poor and so I got a 6310.
A colleague also has a 6210 which has aerial problems. He got hold of the Nokia screwdrivers and opened it up and fixed it himself - proving they can have aerial problems.
Maybe as a poster below says, try getting what is otherwise a good phone fixed.
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Thanks to all for the replies - the aerial does seem like a logical answer . I have opened it up but I cant see anything obviously wrong with the aerial but to be honest I'm not sure I'd know what to look for.
Might consider sending it off or trying to buy one from the sites mentioned.
Thanks again
P
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My bedroom is immediately above our living room. The TV aerial is in the attic immediately above and both rooms have an aerial point directly below the aerial.
A couple of weeks ago we were having reception problems, so having tried mains-powered signal boosters withou success we called out an aerial isntaller last week. We'd initially intended to go with another one but the second could come earlier - but the original one came anyway to the cancelled appointment and slated the aerial isntallation, which had been bent, there were two aerial cables tied together, etc. However desptie being scathing about the quality of the install (probably rightly) he didn't raise any safety implications.
Since then though, my LCD TV has failed - it won't even power on (looks like a power surge but no indication of whether it can be repaired yet), the DVD recorder downstairs has failed completely (returned to the shop and refunded), the living room CRT TV has developed a fault, albeit a common one for that model, my new Fusion PVR has started behaving erratically and the old 14" portable that has temporarily replaced the LCD has gone from working perfectly to being too dark to view.
Even before this spate of failures, a bulb blew in my lamp (plugged into the same power strip) and the TV signal booster that we had downstairs appeared to fail (but that might have been linked to the drop in aerial reception).
Where should we begin looking for a possible fault, or are we simply unlucky, bearing in mind that nothing untoward has happened with any appliances plugged in elsewhere in the house.
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I'm thinking move house or contact the local clergy.
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Hi
I'm wanting help and advice regarding my aerial wiring.
I've bought a Labgear HDU681s distribution amp after I laid the aerial cables in my house, so I want some advice on whether I've messed up. Whatever your comments and responses, it's too late to re-route cables as it's now replastered, so I'll have to live with it and work it the best I can.
The Labgear says I should have run all cables to the loft, including the satellite. Also I should have run two for that, H and V.
I've got the following:
3 cables from the chimney mounted aerials; 2 x UHF TV & 1 x DAB radio.
Cables from the loft to 4 bedrooms, kitchen and dining room.
1 cable from the Sky dish location (not installed yet) to the living room.
2 cables from the living room back to the loft; feed and return.
The thinking behind this was that there will be only one Sky box, located in the living room. The signal from this is returned back to the distribution amp, and pushed to the other locations along with the tv and DAB signals.
Will this set up work?
Can I use a CCTV input for the 2nd UHF TV aerial input?
Thanks in advance.
Simon
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>>Will this set up work?
If my understanding of your description is right then yes, I use pretty much the same setup at home.
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Thinking of getting my dad the attached TV for Xmas. However he has a purpose built unit built into his living room wall and I need toknow whether it would fit.
direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-5007.aspx
By chance, is there anyone out there who has this TV, its a JVC AV28F3SJ 28 inch widescreen tv. I know its width is 80.5cm and its depth is 48.6cm. However due to the unit being "triangular" in shape, I need to know what width the back of the tv is.
Unless there is any mathematicians (and recent threads suggest there are), who can work it our from the above measurements?
(I did go into Tesco but the display model is on a shelf 10 feet up so no chance of getting at it with my measuring tape!)
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>anyone out there who has this TV
I recall TVM (aka RF) saying he had just bought one of these recently. Was in a discussion about Plasma Screens.
Phil I
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Indeed he did.
Front
80cm x 49cm
49.5cm deep
Back
59cm x 38.5cm
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Where can you buy good quality domestic tap washers ~ just the ordinary shape, nothing fancy?
All those I can find now (even those from reputable stores) are too hard and need to be flattened by rubbing on fine glass paper to remove the moulded-in manufacturer's name and/or distortion caused by shrinkage during the manufacturing process. In the recent past I had some which (after fitting) quickly swelled and degraded (became spongy) to the point at which the amount of leakage demanded urgent attention. I've just carried out a week-long water immersion test on some Robiomatic washers (which are widely available) and they have swelled 2 to 4% both on o.d. and thickness.
I can remember 40 years ago that replacement tap washers were perfect. They were not only of softer material but also they were dimensionally accurate. I think they were machined from lenghts of rubber rod rather than being moulded.
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L\'escargot.
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Annoyed by this problem a couple of years ago. I found in one of the DIY stores a 'dripping tap kit' . Consisted of plastic insert for pipe and cone shaped plastic jumper for tap. Was a set of two and very cheap. Does the job - still doing it now..HTH
Phil I
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Thanks Phil I,
I've got an Oracstar kit just as you describe. I'll give it a go. The packaging says it will "stop the drips forever", but I suspect that the "forever" is a bit of an exaggeration. However I've no doubt you can get the insert out if and when necessary.
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L\'escargot.
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For flat washer, in the past, I have used 4 or 5 mm thick Neoprene (sp?) sheet and cut my own. Much, much, better than most bought washer material. Can be a bit of a struggle cutting out, with no suitable punches. Good pair of scissors for cutting round circle followed by a stiff backed razor blade to trim and finish off. Drilling is a bit messy without liquid nitrogen for freezing. Not sure where you would buy a small quantity of sheet these days.
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>get the insert out when necessary.
I think you would probablyhave to drill it out if you wanted to remove it. The insert is a press fit into the pipe and there's no room in the tap body to prise it out. Forever is a long time I will agree but cannot see any wear point with this arrangement. Mine have been in abt 3 years now. I find it also defeats the heavy fisted visitor who delights in turning any tap off so hard you could strain your wrist opening it again.
Phil I
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The best tap washers have always been Vacca. They were the tradesman choice (in fact I can't recall any others) over 50 years ago when I began my apprenticship.
They were still available some ten years ago when I last bought them.
I agree that the hard ones available in Wilkos etc are much too hard.
Whatever washer you use however needs a good seat on the tap and often would need a bit of refacing.
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Just did a google search and indeed vacca are still available.
You learn something every day and I read that "Jenner coined the word vaccine from the Latin word for cow....."
Which reminded me that there used to be leather washers for taps so imagine that the original vacca would perhaps have began with this type.
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The best tap washers have always been Vacca.
I've had Vacca in the past and even if the rubber specification was OK you still had to remove the manuufacturer's name moulded onto one of the faces. PlumbCentre sell Vacca so I'll see if I can find one of their stores.
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L\'escargot.
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Whatever washer you use however needs a good seat on the tap and often would need a bit of refacing.
I have indeed refaced the seat of the problem tap. Incidentally. I found that refacing tools that have radial cutting edges tend to leave radial grooves in the tap seat. In my experience the best refacing tool has parallel cutting edges ~ Draper makes one.
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L\'escargot.
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Good evening - I'm sure there's someone knowledgable can advise me here..
My washing machine failed to agitate / spin this morning. A bit of logical deduction pointed me to the carbon brushes in the motor. I took them out, freed and cleaned them. Put machine back together, worked fine. Result !
However, each brush has two carbon (graphite?) blocks side by side - I noticed one brush had a snapped off block, effectively giving half the contact area of the other brush. Does this matter in the long term if I keep the machine running as it is?
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It will cause longer term unreliability issues. Less contact area, greater chance of poor electrical contact, possibly carry too much current throught the one electrical braid.
The answer tho is simple. You have done the hard work, traced the problem, know how to fix it, get yourself a set of brand new brushes and change them.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Was there a discussion (a few weeks ago) on the goverment claim that 'at 30 mph a pedestrian has an 80% chance of surviving a collision whereas at 40 mph a pedestrian has a 20% chance of survival'?
If so, please could someone post a link to it, as it's come up on another messageboard and I'd be very interested to remind myself of the BR position(s).
I'm not suggesting re-opening that debate (if there was one) on this thread, just want the link, thank you very much.
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Is www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=45467&...f this thread what you mean?
I haven't looked at it properly just saw some stats, while looking for something else.
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Aim low, expect nothing & dont be disappoi
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This is probably of even more interest:
tinyurl.com/y4zbrj
but this is probably what you are referring to:
www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/slowdown/slow...m
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I know a tax question almost caused war to break out last week but here goes....
I have a goodly number of share options in an approved EMI scheme and ecercise date is around the corner.
The options were granted over a year ago so I get 50% relief and I have the full £8.8k CGT threshold available to me but as a 40% tax payer I will still get a hefty CGT bill that I'd like to minimise
I believe that I can transfer shares into a shares ISA (Ihave the full amount available to me) which would significantly reduce my liability.
Can I really do this and how to go about it?
Assume you are dealing with an idiot when replying and you won't be far wrong.
Thanks in advance.
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