Recent posts

#1

Off Topic / Re: YET *EVEN* MORE things tha...

Last post by von Corax - Today at 06:53:48 PM

It was actually yesterday, but I cut my new lawn for the first time with my new lawnmower.

I am now officially a suburbanite homeowner!

#2

Off Topic / Re: GAAAAAHHHHHH Mk.VI: The Re...

Last post by SeVeNeVeS - Today at 08:49:16 AM

My wife has cataracts in both eyes and can hardly see any more. When she got the initial diagnosis for one eye but they have deteriorated so fast that by the time of her appointment with the specialist six weeks later, he looked at the second eye and said "Oh wow!" (never a good thing to hear from a clinical specialist in my experience).
So they gave her an urgent appointment for surgery on both eyes in 3 weeks time - this week, as it now is.

So guess who, after avoiding it for all this time, has finally tested positive for covid?

So no operation and a wait for at least another 3 weeks of increasing blindness before she can have another.

Both my parents had the operation done, inconvenient but worth the wait.

As for the  "Oh wow!" I have had two times in my life when health professionals have said "OOPS!"......

Dentist, four hands in your gob along with machinery.... Last thing you want to hear is "oops" and you can't really ask what has happened.

Eye surgery, head strapped into a clamp with a dremel drill thing grinding away to remove a shard of metal..... "ooops!"

Not exactly reassuring at the time 

#3

Off Topic / Re: GAAAAAHHHHHH Mk.VI: The Re...

Last post by Synistor 303 - Today at 07:12:41 AM

My wife has cataracts in both eyes and can hardly see any more. When she got the initial diagnosis for one eye but they have deteriorated so fast that by the time of her appointment with the specialist six weeks later, he looked at the second eye and said "Oh wow!" (never a good thing to hear from a clinical specialist in my experience).
So they gave her an urgent appointment for surgery on both eyes in 3 weeks time - this week, as it now is.

So guess who, after avoiding it for all this time, has finally tested positive for covid?

So no operation and a wait for at least another 3 weeks of increasing blindness before she can have another.

Isn't it always the way! Hopefully she will be amazed when she gets her cataracts done. It is nice to be able to see properly...

#4

Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...

Last post by James Harrison - Yesterday at 06:30:44 PM

All useful information to remember for next time - and there will be a next time, there are three more rooms after this one to do up, after all. 

So, now that I actually do have all of the flooring that I ordered, I need to get it ready.  I'm still aiming at an early - mid July tradesperson week, roughly thinking that the plumbers can come in and do their strip-out and pipework, then the floor goes down, the tiler comes in and does their bit, then the plumber comes back and actually puts the new suite in.  So maybe three to four days for the plumber, say two for the tiler, say two for me to get the floor down... 

So between now and then - say six weeks - I need to get the remaining walls painted, the new flooring stained and varnished, and the remaining outstanding materials and components sourced.  Luckily we've had a really warm weekend and therefore I've been able to at least stain all of the floorboards... hopefully I'll have opportunity to get them varnished too if the weather holds.

#5

Off Topic / Re: GAAAAAHHHHHH Mk.VI: The Re...

Last post by Sir Henry - Yesterday at 06:01:45 PM

My wife has cataracts in both eyes and can hardly see any more. When she got the initial diagnosis for one eye but they have deteriorated so fast that by the time of her appointment with the specialist six weeks later, he looked at the second eye and said "Oh wow!" (never a good thing to hear from a clinical specialist in my experience).
So they gave her an urgent appointment for surgery on both eyes in 3 weeks time - this week, as it now is.

So guess who, after avoiding it for all this time, has finally tested positive for covid?

So no operation and a wait for at least another 3 weeks of increasing blindness before she can have another.

#6

Anatomical / History of Wire Flight on Stag...

Last post by RJBowman - Yesterday at 04:33:52 PM

A while back I read somewhere about a performer at Moulin Rouge who flew on wires circe 1900, and today I searched the web to see it anyone had written a history of this aspect of theater. I didn't find much, but I found a photo of the flight harness worn by actress Nina Boucicault when she originated the role of Peter Pan at the Duke of York Theatre in London, on 27 December 1904.

Does anyone know a source for more information on this subject?

#7

Tactile / Re: Victorian Boombox Mark IV

Last post by J. Wilhelm - Yesterday at 04:27:26 PM

I can't help with design matters or Designers' Block.

I have suffered from a lack of enthusiasm and a block in making for a while.

This is a great project, don't give up mate, take your time and the creative juices will flow once again.

Thank you, mate.I have lots of materials but little patience and imagination to put it together.  There's this fantastic black rain gutter mesh that I showed before in the thread, but it's more akin to the 1989s styling rather than the 1920s radios, plus there's something that bothers me a bit about the mesh: it's steel and it's pulled in by the magnets in the drivers. 

The easiest solution would be to make a 1/2 inch wood frame with metal standoffs and insert the steel mesh. The other easy thing would be to pull black cloth over the frame. But aesthetically either method pulls away from the Art Deco style.  And grills made from rods and dowels, while more akin to 1920s tech, do affect the diffraction of the sound.  So it's a balance of form and function.

My latest idea is to make wooden fascia that literally has holes open wide enough to show the speaker drives.  Sort of like horns built into the front of the box, and the drivers are recessed.  It would not be too detrimental to the sound and a bezel surrounding the cone could even be engineered as a dispersion waveguide for the sound.  Only one or two decorative wooden bars would protect the cardboard cones of the drivers.

A little bit like this Volkswagen sedan instrument fascia with the recessed driver's cone instead of the speedometer:

[doesn't]

#8

Tactile / Re: That 'big project' I've be...

Last post by J. Wilhelm - Yesterday at 03:15:02 PM

My husband has been known to spend what seems like hours in the big DIY chains just looking for a piece of wood that doesn't resemble a banana!

I will admit that most general construction lumber/timber and especially plywood panels can be rubbish at DIY stores.  For quality dimensional lumber other than knotty pine (yes that's a technical term) you have to go to a mill for it. And I work at a major DIY store!  But luckily we do have quality solid hardwood "craft boards" and fine sanded plywood made from tropical woods at stratospheric prices

The incomplete delivery of external vendor sources seems to be universal problem, caused by incomplete information on the third party vendor's inventory.  That's one of the reasons why online orders require very long processing times. One way to get around that, as someone else pointed out is to go directly to the vendor, but I don't know that the DIY store will always provide that information, or they only sell through stores and not the public.

The larger stores, at least in the US and I believe Australia will have "in-store brands" that are warehoused in separate networks with their own dedicated trucks, and which that only sell items from said DIY store (think of a shipping company and warehouse rolled into a single subsidiary business that only sells through the DIY online portal).  You're more likely to not run into trouble with the later method, because they're independent from generic shipping companies and independent from vendors who may not share their stock regularly with the DIY store.

[alot]

#9

Aural-Ocular / Re: The Fourth Doctor Who Thre...

Last post by SeVeNeVeS - Yesterday at 02:47:49 PM

Episode 3...... Not great but alot better, at least it was kinda sci-fi and the plus point there was no dancing. No ABBA the musical. I would say let it carry on, if not then, Mamma Mia! I'm gonna give up........

I'm starting to think it depends on who wrote it, this one was Moffat.

#10

Photography / Re: Wildlife

Last post by SeVeNeVeS - Yesterday at 10:09:20 AM

Lots of birds in our small garden - we don't feed them, just make sure there's water. Id love to see dragonflies there .....

If you got room a small water feature like an old butler sink, planted could be enough, I've got a very small pond and I get Dragon and Damsel flies visit every year. I live bang in the centre of a city and they always seem to find their way, I would say if you got time and space give it a go.