The good morning thread

Felonious Crud

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“a bit of artinasal”
A consonant out of place there and you’d have had some explaining to do!

Don't tell me you don't believe that artisanal pain, Wattie? Although I did see a shop in Antibes with a sign above it saying "Artisanal chocolat". I didn't enter, either through the front or back door. It seems more of a Dem kind of thing.

Anyway, bottom gags aside, good morning all. After a rainy night it's a sunny day, and I'm happy to be working at home. The sun through the windows tells me that a) they need cleaning, and b) some of the double glazing has blown and I need to find a handy chippie who can knock up some decent backdoors for me. A comment which, I should point out, is entirely unrelated to any artisanal activities.

Have a good Thursday, Forum.

PS- Newton, stop teasing and tell all!
 

2b1ask1

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20,220
Brand new tools (wholesaler in liquidation I believe), total auction spend £750 retail value well north of £3k!! The best of the bunch: Kennedy-Pro for £85 - not sure if I'll keep it for those drive shafts etc. or move it on. I'm a sucker for shiney things!
 

philw696

Member
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25,113
Brand new tools (wholesaler in liquidation I believe), total auction spend £750 retail value well north of £3k!! The best of the bunch: Kennedy-Pro for £85 - not sure if I'll keep it for those drive shafts etc. or move it on. I'm a sucker for shiney things!
Wow even I haven't got anything bigger than 3/4 and an 80mm socket what are you planning on working on ?
 

philw696

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25,113
Some of the 40 year old roundabouts in playgrounds take a heck of a lot of shifting! to get apart!
Are any of them surviving from when were kids back in the 60'S and 70'S as we certainly have the gear a hard time especially the roundabout and the horse ;)
 

2b1ask1

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Amazingly Phil loads do still survive, I regularly get asked if I can 'service' them which equates to breaking the corroded steel bolts out of the cast iron parts to access the bearings then try to pull the bearings off the spindles and out of the housings! I do tackle them but on a purely no-guarantee/best endeavours basis. The classic roundabouts (spiders web, Catherine wheels and traditional box sided type) remain in places mostly because the centre spindle is turned down from a 3" bar so never rust through. The old frames like swings are almost all gone now as they rusted out from the inside, it took 40 years though! The big killer for them is bi-metallic corrosion (galvanic) where the cast explodes the mild steel! Now we get thin wall stuff, plastics and crummy imports that are lucky to do 5 years let alone the expected 15-20.

I mostly use Alldrives in Harlow where they are used to me rocking up with a bag of bits of bearing houses and trying to identify suitable replacements. Actually I can often replace them with sealed ones if I can get them apart.

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This is only a youngster (about 2004) but no less a challenge; you can see on the last one I ended up cutting the big lower outer shell into three to free it.
 

Vampyrebat

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3,117
I can remember swinging on swings bolted onto a 'tamped' concrete base!!...............Plenty of war wounds from them!
 

2b1ask1

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I can remember swinging on swings bolted onto a 'tamped' concrete base!!...............Plenty of war wounds from them!

I too grew up with 30'slides and witches hats, iron swing boats and 16' swings over concrete and have the scares to prove it.

My life's work has been making play areas safer; thankfully we mostly survived! Believe me I'm not a killjoy and none of my lot could ever be described as snowflakes! I have whilst making them safer places also been improving the challenges and fun to be had. I see equipment I have designed in parks every day, I don't seek recognition for the designs but get a pleasure knowing others enjoy them. To be honest I'm enjoying work more than ever these days doing all the custom rope work.
 

Vampyrebat

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3,117
I too grew up with 30'slides and witches hats, iron swing boats and 16' swings over concrete and have the scares to prove it.

My life's work has been making play areas safer; thankfully we mostly survived! Believe me I'm not a killjoy and none of my lot could ever be described as snowflakes! I have whilst making them safer places also been improving the challenges and fun to be had. I see equipment I have designed in parks every day, I don't seek recognition for the designs but get a pleasure knowing others enjoy them. To be honest I'm enjoying work more than ever these days doing all the custom rope work.
As a project Manager for a University I have also designed and specified children's play areas for our Nurseries etc and is good fun and also quite an eye opener for some of the gear they have now-a-days compared to what we had. A good comparison would be X Boxes and PS's compared to the Binatone B&W tennis game that you plugged into the TV.............God I feel old!
 

CatmanV2

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48,541
Morning. Quick run up to Luton today before steak and bubbly with Mrs C this evening.

Have a great day, everyone

C