Regretted having started :-(

Having yesterday sorted out my small hand tools drawer, and sorting like-minded tools into chinese take-away plastic containers found this afternoon that the drawer woould not open.

After much cussing and swearing, in the style of M3OSN's email to the BRATS committee members, and hooking with carefully shaped bits of wire, it transpired that when the drawer was shut sharply, the inertia of the plastic trays made them slide forward so the head of a hammer dropped into the space behind, and the handle of the hammer pointed skywards and jammed behind the top lath at the front of the desk.

Moral : if you live in a mess, get use to it!

Reply to
Gareth's Upstairs Computer
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Take the hammer out and give the draw a good bashing, you will then feel better :-)

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Reply to
mick

Or even the drawer.

Reply to
Davey

Knacker of the Yard has been duly informed.

Reply to
Guy G4DWV 4X1LT

Horologising this morning, and even in a clock, the bits are very small to handle. Bought from a junk shop a black "marble" French clock to practice upon. The pendulum is missing and half the suspension spring too. Had to resort to the staking tool to knock out the tiny pin in the Vallet suspension block, which itself has been sitting in a bath of WD40 for a couple of days,

Bring back those body-tip-spot resistors the size of half a cigarette, I say!

Makes me think about the lack of miniaturised tools; consider the billions of atoms present, then by reducing tools such as lathes and mills by a factor of, say, 100, and there should still be sufficient metal remaining to do a good job. Sure, we might need a microscope and a manipulator to use such tools, but the subsequent ease for watchmaking and the like should follow?

The accurate lathes etc of today were themselves brought about through use of their less accurate forefathers, so whereas our first attemots at miniaturisation might be somewaht scabby, now we know the process to follow (which Maudsley et al had no experience of) how quickly could we produce a series of improvements resulting in accurate tools to reproduce with ease the components of watches?

Reply to
Gareth's Upstairs Computer

Diesel oil is better - or, if it's well grunged, soak in paraffin first, then diseasel.

Reply to
RustyHinge

It is a clock, not an engine ;-)

Something like WD40 is more appropriate.

An 'shake' in an ultra sonic cleaner would probably help, assuming there is nothing there which would object. I have a proper ultra sonic cleaner but I understand even the cheap 'not really ultra sonic' ultra sonic cleaners are surprisingly effective- they have a crude off-centre wheel to shake the pot, more of a 'rattle cleaner'. Someone told me they were originally designed for cleaning false teeth- they certainly look about the right size etc. ;-)

Reply to
Brian Reay

I got one of them in Aldi about five years ago,it is still in its box.

Reply to
FMurtz

No chance. The best stuff on the market for cleaning dentures, even metal ones* is Dentural. I have been recommending it for over 35 years and all my patients have found it fantastic.

*The instructions say NOT to use with metal dentures, but if the instructions are followed there will not be any problem.

I also advised the use of kettle descaler for removing hard deposits. Works a treat. Naturally have to be rinsed very well after using it.

Reply to
Guy G4DWV 4X1LT

Should I even need it, I will try to remember the above ;-)

I wasn't aware they make false teeth from metal. I'd never given what they are made of much thought- I supposed I'd assumed plastic (at least these days) and some hard resin (for the teeth).

OK re the cheap (pseudo) ultrasonic cleaners not being for teeth originally. If you look at the size and shape, you can see whoever suggested thought it may be the case.

Reply to
Brian Reay

On the NHS, plastic dentures are supplied unless there is a clinical need for something more expensive. What the patient wants does not come into it. "False teeth made from metal" means the base not the teeth themselves, but it is possible to do that.

The denture base and the teeth themselves are made from the same material, polymethylmethacrylate, aka Perspex. The teeth themselves are the biggest export of Liechtenstein.

The other material from which the teeth themselves are made is porcelain, very expensive and not available on the NHS. There is never a clinical need for these.

The base of the denture (for full dentures) or connectors (partial dentures) can be made of metal. The big advantage is strength so they can be made smaller and more comfortable. The metal used is a chrome/cobalt alloy.

The bill is in the post ;-).

Reply to
Guy G4DWV 4X1LT

Fortunately, all things being equal, I should escape the need for false teeth but the technology is still interesting.

Reply to
Brian Reay

hope nobody smacks you in the face then.......

Reply to
Jimbo

bet you are also interested in hair piece and invisible hearing aid technology ....

Reply to
Jimbo

Only in you imagination Jim. Rather like your not being able to see any street lights etc. or Cummins various fantasies.

Reply to
Brian Reay

That is you kind of social circle behaviour.

Reply to
Brian Reay

I would still use diseasel oil. Immersing the clockwork shouldn't do any harm unless there are rubberbits on it.

I don't agree. WD40 is (generally) the work of Stan

My mother (a physioterrorist) discovered how good ultrasound was for 'cleaning'. She and the manufacturer of her ultrasound therapy apparatus were trying to find a suitable flexible/elastic medium for a working surface which could make an interface between the sound-head and depressions in the body, such as armpits, round the collarbone etc.

She had a director of the London Rubber Co. on treatment who supplied her with a bumper box of condoms. With a tablespoon of water in the thing the lovely idea was destroyed from the inside, rubber or whatever they were made of was just 'peeled' from inside, leading to bursting in very short order. The spectacle drew some surprised looks from patients...

I have one of her old machines, and it works very well if the article to be cleaned is immersed in a fluid and the sound-head is held so that it is it touches the surface of the reservoir (usually a cramic or glass pot or bowl).

I cleaned a *very* grimy old motorcycle crankcase this way.

Reply to
RustyHinge

I dunno - doesn't Coke contain phosphoric acid?

D&RFC

Reply to
RustyHinge

I could do with an implant or two, but pushing 80 as I am, it probably isn't cost-effective.

Reply to
RustyHinge

Why not, you can't take it (the money) with you and you could live another 20 or 30 years.

Certainly should I need one, I wouldn't hesitate.

Reply to
Brian Reay

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