What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Metal Guru]

  On 21/04/2023 at 05:03, warch said:

TBH I’m 17 stone and I’ve been using an old milk crate of uncertain provenance as a handy foot stool for years now. I expect I’m rather heavier than that engine.

Not sure I’d want an engine landing on my face though if there was a sudden crate related failure.

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Individually they are pretty strong in compression but any bending in that bar could push them sideways and they’ll part company. 

[omegod]

As some may know I used to be the North Wests leading purveyor of Vauxhall Omega parts, in particular manual gearbox models, I've not done any for a couple of years as they are pretty much extinct .

Whilst siting at my desk this afternoon I looked wistfully through the window at the park opposite and was greeted by the rather unusual sight of 2 policeman and a small elderly woman pushing an Omega down the street, seems they had a flat battery so obviously I didn't hesitate at the offer jump start and had a chat about Omegas. 

She left with a smile and my number for when it is ready for scrapping   It's a manual too !!

 

[wuvvum]

  On 21/04/2023 at 00:08, 808 Estate said:

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@catsinthewelder take note - that's how you do it!

[Andyrew]

Nothing worse Badly rattle canned bumper. Just use trim gels FFS 

 Thinners and scotch bright. *scrub scrub scrub*

 

 

 

 

Okay fine, that didnt work so i cheated aswell.

 

[808 Estate]

[808 Estate]

[Metal Guru]

  On 22/04/2023 at 08:57, 808 Estate said:

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Just out for a spin!

[vulgalour]

Have to be careful they don't go for a tumble on that.

[Andyrew]

Rummaging out back at work and i found this forgotten at the back of the safe with an accident book from 2002! 

[MikeR]

bumped into this on the web ....

spot the show off ...

 

[hairnet]

Oops

Od"d

[Metal Guru]

  On 22/04/2023 at 11:52, vulgalour said:

Have to be careful they don't go for a tumble on that.

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I’ll give you that. It does look more like a tumble dryer, ( fewer controls).

[morrisoxide]

[808 Estate]

[EyesWeldedShut]

Not my picture but - first Cuckoo of the year this morning - Spring is sprung  

Guess that's why it's 6 degree outside right now and zero expected overnight?

[dome]

  On 23/04/2023 at 09:20, EyesWeldedShut said:

Not my picture but - first Cuckoo of the year this morning - Spring is sprung  

Guess that's why it's 6 degree outside right now and zero expected overnight?

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Funny enough, was riding up the Kilpatrick Hills outside Glasgow this morning and heard one. No pics though 

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 23/04/2023 at 13:28, dome said:

Funny enough, was riding up the Kilpatrick Hills outside Glasgow this morning and heard one. No pics though 

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We get them all around here for about the next 6 weeks before they and the missus(es) all leg it and leave the youngsters with the child minders. No idea how that evolutionary step occurred but it's absolutely brilliant. 

[Wack]

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

[fairkens]

Tbf you don't need to be a local to see that is quite clearly a spud wrapped in tin foil.

Why isn't it at least on a plinth or something?

[cobblers]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:13, Wack said:

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

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Next week we find out that a councillors wife has an unsurprisingly failing vanity business making and selling massive replica jacket potatoes

[cobblers]

  On 23/04/2023 at 09:20, EyesWeldedShut said:

Not my picture but - first Cuckoo of the year this morning - Spring is sprung  

Guess that's why it's 6 degree outside right now and zero expected overnight?

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Up until the age of 32 I was like "FUCKING BIRDS THEY CAN ALL FUCKING GET FUCKED, WAKING ME UP AT BASTARD 5AM, SHITTING ALL OVER THE PLACE, I'LL HAPPILY SHOOT THE LOT OF THE NOISY FILTHY BASTARDS!" and 5 years later I have 3 different apps on my phone to identify them from their noises and a pair of binoculars on my bedroom windowsill so I can get a better look at them because now I'm a soft twat.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:51, cobblers said:

now I'm a soft twat

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naah - it's called maturity/growing old(er)  

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:34, fairkens said:

Tbf you don't need to be a local to see that is quite clearly a spud wrapped in tin foil.

Why isn't it at least on a plinth or something?

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Cost of Living Crisis - the spud took up all of the £6K budget?

[richardmorris]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:51, cobblers said:

Up until the age of 32 I was like "FUCKING BIRDS THEY CAN ALL FUCKING GET FUCKED, WAKING ME UP AT BASTARD 5AM, SHITTING ALL OVER THE PLACE, I'LL HAPPILY SHOOT THE LOT OF THE NOISY FILTHY BASTARDS!" and 5 years later I have 3 different apps on my phone to identify them from their noises and a pair of binoculars on my bedroom windowsill so I can get a better look at them because now I'm a soft twat.

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I’ve got the Cornell labs Merlin app for birds, which is very good.

[EyesWeldedShut]

  On 23/04/2023 at 19:28, richardmorris said:

I’ve got the Cornell labs Merlin app for birds, which is very good.

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Thank you - that's a good looking app - grabbing a copy now (I was going to josh and say that I have the Tinder app for birds but then I remembered I'm not 21 any more....)

[richardmorris]

  On 23/04/2023 at 19:39, EyesWeldedShut said:

Thank you - that's a good looking app - grabbing a copy now (I was going to josh and say that I have the Tinder app for birds but then I remembered I'm not 21 any more....)

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It was recommended by a local walking / rspb website guy. It’s a large file. But I’ve been happy with it. Identified a lark and Siskin on my last ramble.

[Metal Guru]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:13, Wack said:

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

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More importantly, how do you get the council to pay you money for a sculpture?

[Remspoor]

  On 23/04/2023 at 15:13, Wack said:

A Welsh council has spent £6000 on a sculpture to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a coastal path 

Locals say it looks like a baked potato in tin foil 

Where do they get the people that make these decisions, the country is falling apart and they're buying £6000 spuds 

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[LightBulbFun]

had a fun one a couple days ago doing an experiment with a couple of my lightbulbs, ballasting a 400W Metal halide HID lamp with a 1500W tungsten  filament GLS lamp, (that is using a regular lightbulb in series with a discharge lamp, where the tungsten lamp acts as the main current limiter and no normal inductive choke is used) I did the calculations a while back and figured it would work and thus finally got round to trying it out, where it does indeed work quite nicely  

but what really makes me grin, is during this, fucking around with using a CD thats shiny and blank on both sides as DIY ND filter as I often do when photographing bright discharge lamps, I managed to grab some photos that I think at least look really quite awesome  

first up is this one, which I think is my favourite of the bunch, I only wish I had managed to get the arc (tube) of the discharge lamp better centralised within the tungsten  filament

I did play around with trying to centralise it, but I could not quite pull off the same ring of light in the glass bulb effect, I think just due to the physical positioning of everything

and then finally, I took the exposure all way down and took this photo which I think looks pretty neat in its own right, especially 

I think if I was to crop it down a bit? it certainly would make for a good profile picture or something such  

but yeah I am really quite pleased with these photos, I quite like the juxtaposition of the metal halide arc in the background with the tungsten filament in the foreground 

 

it has finally inspired me to get a proper ND filter to fuck about with, because the ol CD routine is a right old faff, and is hard to get decent/reproducable results from since I am litreally mushing a CD up against my iPad's camera lens

so I have this thing arriving later today hopefully https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09BKVT4CF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

cheap n nasty, but will be interesting to see how it compares! id hope it works better then a CD at least LOL, but I really do need and want to pick up an actual proper camera to do some actual decent photgraphy with

but I really am not sure what to get, most Camera reviews dont have a section on which is best for lightbulb photography LOL 

[motorpunk]

Haven’t driven this in, sorry to say… maybe 6 months. Battery on, fires up, quick charge around the lanes and home before it rains because I’m terrified of rust. Great little car. No tax, no MOT, £90 insurance and worth easily double what I paid for it. My kinda motoring.