openspaceman

a sort of love/hate

Can you weigh a fresh one?

Light pollution here is already so bad I can barely make out the Plough or Orion.

I need to revise that figure as I just measured my log store at 3.4m by 1.6m by 1.6m so 8.7m3 of carefully stacked wood, allowing 30% air space that is 6m3 of solid wood. With an average basic density (hardwood which is the bulk) of 400kg dry wood per m3 that makes it that I burn it to produce 12,000kWh of heat, that is a bit much for a small house but it leaks heat. It would cost me £1750 extra to do it with gas.

I would doubt that. True most green wood hovers around 1m3 to the tonne but cut and split, then jumbled into a 1000 litre container there will be 50% air space which will only weigh about 700 grams.

@lurkalot runs a forum Lawn mowers THEGARDENMACHINERYFORUM.CO.UK This board is for all lawnmowers including ride on mowers. If you're looking for advice on how to fix your lawnmower, or...

I wasn't aware of that, I did read some of the book, mainly about DDT and dieldrin. I was planning a different career path, so took little notice of trees, but was aware of the disease from seeing the trees dying as I drove west through Wiltshire in 1969, by !972 it was over with virtually all mature elms dead. Later we were still felling them in 76, I felt very guilty about felling one that was in rude health, it was isolated and on RAF Kenley. At the time we were told the runway was unused, so guess where we parked the lorry? On the second day and as we arrived to start work a plane landed.

Which is much what I said, there is a big difference between air and seawater. All transmission lines can be modeled as a pair of wires with resistors and inductors along each wire and capacitors between them in a ladder like formation, with AC there is always reactive power involved and that causes increased I2R losses. HVDC only suffers resistance losses but the cost of the equipment for inverting HVDC to HVAC is much greater and was near enough impossible when the grid was built from 1931 onward. Transformers for stepping up and down AC were well understood (as were the losses). It's 55 years since I studied transmission lines and that was mostly to do with high frequency signals transmission. It's a strange thing but before the gas and electricity grids homes had to manage their own energy requirements, with the economies of scale of fossil fueled generation we became dependent on pipes and cables across the country and into our homes. Now with the advent of cheap PV panels and lithium phosphate batteries a high degree of independence is possible.

Good on Pete, I suppose I fit into that age class but half a day wears me out, I find the main problem is keeping the heart rate below 160, but then I was always nerdy rather than athletic.

"Long undersea or underground high-voltage cables have a high electrical capacitance compared with overhead transmission lines since the live conductors within the cable are surrounded by a relatively thin layer of insulation (the dielectric), and a metal sheath. The geometry is that of a long coaxial capacitor. The total capacitance increases with the length of the cable. This capacitance is in a parallel circuit with the load. Where alternating current is used for cable transmission, additional current must flow in the cable to charge this cable capacitance. This extra current flow causes added energy loss via dissipation of heat in the conductors of the cable, raising its temperature. Additional energy losses also occur as a result of dielectric losses in the cable insulation. For a sufficiently long AC cable, the entire current-carrying ability of the conductor would be needed to supply the charging current alone. This cable capacitance issue limits the length and power-carrying ability of AC power cables" Donald G. Fink, H. Wayne Beatty, Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers 11th Edition, McGraw Hill, 1978, ISBN 0-07-020974-X, pages 15-57 and 15-58 via wikipedia

The under sea ones are all HVDC because the capacitance of the water would increase losses for AC. The buzzing from HVAC is worse in wet weather and represents transmission losses. I think AC is cheaper overland up to1000km but because of planning concerns there will be undersea cables to avoid some overland connections from the north.

The beetles carry the fungus, the females lay eggs under the bark and the larva eat their way out, so the phloem layer has to be thick enough. Once hatched out the beetles then eat the leaf stalks and this infects a new part of the elm. The presence of the fungus triggers a response from the tree to block the fungus spreading, If the infection is present throughout the annual ring this response prevents sap flowing, hence the parts of the tree upstream wilt and die.

I don't and cannot because my log store would take up too much of the garden if I attempted it. I chop four solid cubic metres of logs to last me the winter. As long as the store is full by the end of May and I use the first bay loaded in early April first it will all be less than 20% mc when burned.

My father was a RAF radar fitter in Burma so I think he acquired it, probably as a swap on the year long trip home. I also have an SS dress dagger brought home by an uncle, who landed on D day with the pioneer corps, and a Wehrmacht dress bayonet found in the peat after a flash fire. My guess is that was a trophy too and one of the kids took it onto the common for war games. BTW I cannot understand how a kukri was much use as a weapon, more a good general utility knife/slasher/chopper.

My dad said the small blunt one was for cleaning animal skins on his issue one, and the notches near the handle for opening bottles. I wonder what happened to it after he died.

The shaped one, a bit like a pistol grip, the oval section also give one a feel that the orientation of the blade to the target is right.

Second attempt at posting. @organic guy mentioned straps which I think mean two straps of metal on opposite side of the handle, I take a socket to be a frustrum of a cone attached to the blade. Ours were an incomplete socket formed by two cheeks of metal extended from the blade and folded around to form a socket as in the slasher marked 1 in the attached picture. You will see a ring of steel has been driven down this incomplete socket ant then rivets fitted to hold it all in place. Our work ones were the same but the head was a double bladed yorkshire style. You would see these in many agricultural shops until everyone had a chainsaw. Hook 2 is a round handle and you see the tang is peened over a washer to hold it. Hook 3 was my goto billhook given to me for coppice work, when the tang broke I added a bit and it looks like I brazed the nut on. I prefer these caulked handles. Hook 4 was the hook I used when picking up and dressing PSR material that was going to be peeled, it has measurements filed on the back for checking top diameters and a hook filed in the beak so it was used as a pickaroon until the tang broke. After 1987 I never got involved with softwood first thinning and caulked handles are expensive, my carving skills mean this never got repaired. The others are various swap hooks showing the peened tangs and one where the washer has rusted away and the tang is pulling out of the rotten wood.

I have "joined" my two plastic drums for use as butts by filling a hose with water, weighting each end so they drop to the bottom and looping it between both drums while not allowing any air in.

I think the multifuel engines would run on anything from gasoil through kerosene, avtur and low octane petrol. As they depend on compression ignition they will not fire on neat high octane petrol or avgas as that would need a spark. The thing is they run well on gasoil/diesel but white smoke badly on kerosene, at least the K60 in the 432 I tried did.

Yes the few I have the tang pokes through the handle and the tang is either bent or passed through a washer and them peened. I also have two blades where the tang has broken short (one I welded a threaded rod on and secured with a nut. The long handles one have side cheeks and two rivets through the handle. When we used Yorkshire style long handled slashers, before chainsaws became ubiquitous, they also had a collar that was driven down the side cheeks before the rivets were driven IIRC, it was a long time ago. I could take some pictures tomorrow if wanted?

Most tank engines were multi fuel to satisfy NATO requirements but they dropped it in favour of single fuel turbo charged diesels, or gas turbine in the american mbt. All these later opposed piston engines were based on a 1930s Junkers Jumo diesel aero engine which in UK Napier developed into the most efficient engine for maritime patrol aircraft, the napier nomad, a hybrid turbo assisted diesel. It never went into production as jets took over. The deltic was the boat and train engine that came from the same firm. When the requirement for multifuel armoured vehicle engines became a requirement Rolls Royce developer the problematic L60 and K60 engines. The major problem with this type of piston ported engine was excessive lubrication oil consumption. A trade off in war time but an expense and pollution issue nowadays. I wonder how Arcate are addressing this.

Smart but what's to stop the head flying off? Does it look like the tang has bent straight again?

I was given this, and some other stuff, from a house clearance today. It is a Kent style felling axe but the handle was not original and too short. It weighs 0.8kg or short of 2lb. The inscription is: 4 D?. B&Co Ltd ? Warranted Does anyone know this manufacturer?

I still occasionally put food waste out for collection in summer but only for bones, fat or eggshells. In the winter I put them in the wood stove along with any dogshitbags from when out walking dogs.

Brighton streets have bigger bins at the side of the road for use by those in nearby multi occupation houses, I'm sure the system must get abused. Strangely Brighton do not collect segregated food waste from householders.