What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[reb]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

Have you got a set of technical pens too?

 

The thought hadn't occurred to me! I knew there was something I'd forgotten to buy. Alas I don't think I can afford the £60~ the MarsMatics cost these days so I'll have to do with a cheap set. I wasn't very good at inking lines, often I'd ruin a perfectly good drawing by making a dogs breakfast of inking it. I think I understand a bit better now though!

[myglaren]

3 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Interesting! Are any of them General Arrangement drawings?

Not a clue.   Youngest daughter has snaffled most of them and is having them framed.

[HillmanImp]

I don't think this is suitable for children CBeebies... 

[myglaren]

3 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I was a civil engineer. Started in a drawing office straight from school and worked my way up. That drawing set is similar to the one I had to purchase. Made in Germany, by MARS.

Later the cases were totally plastic rather than the felt used in this one. I stated work in the early 70's. Later branded as Staedtler.

Have you got a set of technical pens too?

 

 

Used to have a load of Rotring technical pens, ostensibly for college but I had a thing for writing almost to small to be legible.

Only one left now, anybody's guess where they went.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

16 minutes ago, myglaren said:

Not a clue.   Youngest daughter has snaffled most of them and is having them framed.

Was interested, as copies of GAs (the entire locomotive) are very very useful for modelmaking....

[myglaren]

I'll have to have a look when I get the chance.

[Rovorsche]

Today a catalogue from Viking-Direct dropped through the door so I flicked through the "Most popular" bit and the sections for handwash and loo roll have been strip-mined

With the exception of this

24 rolls for £5.99, surely a bargain!
48 rolls for £10.99!!11!
Oh Noes it has a one-star review

So the crazy ones ones getting tazered for Charmin do at least have standards and their bung holes, even still suffering involuntary spasms from the taser are worth more than one-star bog roll.

 

★ 1 out of 5 stars.
· 11 months ago  

Would not buy again
It's just cheap and no frills...not anything to suggest a bargain buy by any means.

✘ No, I do not recommend this product.

[gm]

The lad who lives next door to my sister is apparently a mechanic - I'm not entirely convinced by this as he has had a Laguna 2 estate stood immobile in his back yard for at least two years while his daily is a seat Leon? that boldly wears the slogan "dirty diesel" as he drives too fast around the residential streets, clouds of clag belching behind him.

karma has a sense of humour, it would seem - what top quality mechanic-ing has been going on here

[reb]

The thing about things for designers and engineers is they were designed by the very people who use them.

A very nicely built bit of kit, honestly nicer to use than the "proper" drawing boards we had at school.

Bonus points for actually being quite comfortable to use without a table!

[cobblers]

2 hours ago, gm said:

The lad who lives next door to my sister is apparently a mechanic - I'm not entirely convinced by this as he has had a Laguna 2 estate stood immobile in his back yard for at least two years while his daily is a seat Leon? that boldly wears the slogan "dirty diesel" as he drives too fast around the residential streets, clouds of clag belching behind him.

karma has a sense of humour, it would seem - what top quality mechanic-ing has been going on here

 

By the look of the scrape on the bumper I'd say it's been top quality slid into a kerb-ing

[Pete-M]

26 months and 14k miles ago I bought a high mileage Mercedes C32 AMG estate. 

Conventional wisdom suggests that buying high mileage hand built performance cars can be fiscally ruinous. This often creates a strange little dip in value when these cars are around 15 years old as they're too old for regular car folk to risk and not old enough for the "classic" car fraternity to show ant interest (often because classic insurance policies dictate the choices of cars available to the "practical classics" anoraks). I buy cars around 15 years old as they've done their depreciation, aren't sought after by any "scene" characters and parts tend to be plentiful in scrapyards for most 15 yr old cars. It's the final dip in the depreciation curve, and it tends to coincide with cheap parts. Win- win. 

Anyway. I did the maths comparing the costs of running, insuring, tax, servicing the C32 over 10k miles in comparison with the other half who runs a 2019 Aygo 1.0 Auto on a three year lease.

Naturally, I've left the purchase price of the C32 out of my calculations, and the monthly cost of leasing the Aygo has been left in. Mainly because I've paid for the C32 and the Aygo costs money every month. 

The C32 costs less to run. Insanely, the insurance is cheaper than the Aygo, tax is £30/ month rather than £12, and the C32 averages 22 mpg where the Aygo does 50+. 

The fuel cost of the C32 is more than offset by not paying £189/ month the Aygo costs. 

The C32 needs £500/ year in maintenance to keep it running perfectly. The Aygo costs £145 every 9000 miles for a service at Toyota. 

The C32 has stopped depreciating. It's appreciating in value. 

The C32 is much more environmentally friendly, its covered 200+k miles. Keeping it running is far better for the planet than building a new car. 

I don't know what the meaning of this meandering ramble is, but thought I'd share anyway. 

[gm]

16 minutes ago, cobblers said:

By the look of the scrape on the bumper I'd say it's been top quality slid into a kerb-ing

handbrake turn-tastic I suspect  

in other news : this seems unusually cheap, better fill the tank 

 

asda, byker for any local shiters 

[Alex66]

40 minutes ago, gm said:

handbrake turn-tastic I suspect  

in other news : this seems unusually cheap, better fill the tank 

 

asda, byker for any local shiters 

One of the Asda's in Boro is 115.9 or was when the Mrs filled up on Friday, ours is 116.9 (Skelton) so good cheep motoring times well relatively in the North East. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Fuel prices starting to drift downwards in London/Herts; Sainsbury's North Watford is selling diesel at 118.9 and basic unleaded at 116.9. Across the way, Asda is marginally cheaper still.

[Jerzy Woking]

21 hours ago, reb said:

I got them for the grand total of £6.50 posted! They're stamped with "GERMANY" so I think must be prewar. Far far better made than anything I could get new for similar money!

Hopefully I still know how to use them!

Don't you just jab them into the thigh of the kid sitting next to you?

[Kiltox]

?

[Floatylight]

Had a call from the Police earlier with good news, a couple of years ago now I reported some strange goings on in a car parked next to me at a retail park where I was waiting for Mrs FL, people were coming and going, sitting in the back seat and firing many small packages into the back seat, looked like fashion accessories, gave the plod the reg no and they caught them with all the loot in the car

Turns out I helped crack a group of thieving scum who have stolen many thousands of pounds worth stuff and last week they were in court, sadly most of them got suspended sentences and community rehab orders but the surprising bit is thebjudre thought I went above and beyond by helping to bring them to justice and awarded me £150!!

Result!!

Is it bad my first thought was about buying tools?

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

[DSdriver]

Today my new bench drill press arrived and upon assembly I was excited to find that it has a variomatic drive. I always fancied driving a Daf

[Tadhg Tiogar]

58 minutes ago, Floatylight said:

.... the judge thought I went above and beyond by helping to bring them to justice and awarded me £150!!

Result!!

Is it bad my first thought was about buying tools?

Could have been a lot worse; you might have been thinking about acquiring your next piece of prime chod.

[Rovorsche]

A pop up advert in a local online newspaper made me grin.
An online chat filter tool to counter harsh language in social media, no idea how it works and I certainly wont be using it but is the name accidental or intentional.

If you have a problem on-line, and nobody else can help you need to engage the twohat filter

https://www.twohat.com/

How do you pronounce that one ?

[Remspoor]

20 hours ago, reb said:

The thought hadn't occurred to me! I knew there was something I'd forgotten to buy. Alas I don't think I can afford the £60~ the MarsMatics cost these days so I'll have to do with a cheap set. I wasn't very good at inking lines, often I'd ruin a perfectly good drawing by making a dogs breakfast of inking it. I think I understand a bit better now though!

I do not think I have got mine any more either. I had my technical drawing items when I moved to The Netherlands, just in case. But when I moved to Spain I sold a lot of surplus items stencils pens, scale rulers etc all went for a few Euros.

[Remspoor]

19 hours ago, myglaren said:

Used to have a load of Rotring technical pens, ostensibly for college but I had a thing for writing almost to small to be legible.

Only one left now, anybody's guess where they went.

I remember them. I seem to remember a choice of black or red/brown body. Maybe time has played a trick on me.

[myglaren]

The only ones I ever saw were black with the red ring.

The Mars alternatives were multicoloured.

[Roobarb]

I used to have red/brown Rotrings along with black. I inherited an electric pencil rubber from my Dad who was an architect- you don’t see those any more. Or people with razors by their boards for slashing their wrists... um scratching out their inked in Rotring mistakes. 

Probably because it’s easier (I’m dyslexic) but I still write everything in freehand capitals to this day. No, I’m not shouting!

Funnily, no-one has ever suggested that (to my face). Normally it’s ‘Isnt your handwriting so neat!’

Today, I mostly am using... SolidWorks. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

The rich are different to you and me.

Even their speeding offences are committed differently.....

 

[Andyrew]

Finally after years of saying we should go , me and my better half went to London and watched The book of Mormon,  and it was bloody funny. 

 

[wuvvum]

Grump that turned into a grin.  Got home to find a PCN from the Dartford Crossing on the doormat.  Fair cop, I knew I'd forgotten to pay (I did pay, but two days later).  Thought I'd better ring up the automated phone line and pay it straight away, before I forgot again and the charge went up to the higher level.  Went through the menu, entered the PCN number, and the robot woman goes "The amount due is two pounds and fifty pence".  Aye, I'll take that...

[morris_ital_lover]

Watching This Country on the Beeb and there's been some brilliant chod in it including a Volvo 940 and a minty Nissan Bluebird - the latest episode even has an Allegro Vanden Plas in the background. Surely there must be a shiter involved somewhere in the team behind it.

[Spottedlaurel]

11 hours ago, Roobarb said:

I used to have red/brown Rotrings along with black. I inherited an electric pencil rubber from my Dad who was an architect- you don’t see those any more. Or people with razors by their boards for slashing their wrists... um scratching out their inked in Rotring mistakes. 

Probably because it’s easier (I’m dyslexic) but I still write everything in freehand capitals to this day. No, I’m not shouting!

Funnily, no-one has ever suggested that (to my face). Normally it’s ‘Isnt your handwriting so neat!’

Today, I mostly am using... SolidWorks. 

I started off with green Faber Castells but cheapness and availability saw me move over to the red/brown Rotrings.

Took me a while to master use of the razor blade, but as a junior learning the trade it was frequently put into practice.

I also tend to handwrite in capitals nowadays due to years of writing freehand notes on drawings.

I'm now on AutoCAD LT, which is OK for the architectural stuff I do. Did use the adjustable triangle yesterday however, as I found it easier to overmark a drawing by hand. No point trying to use the pens however.....

[myglaren]

All the - graphic artists rather than technical drawists - that I have worked with use scalpels rather than razor blades.  I've used them in print retouching but not in a great many years.  Still have some here.

And I came upon a Rotring pen while searching for something else and it is black with red rings but also brown rings which I think may indicate the diameter of the stylus.

And dentists tools, which was a surprise.