Troddenmasses

Completely agree, but the idea would be to put this on top of the company car - which doesn't have a towbar. One upside is that the resale value for roof tents is nutty high, so in a couple of years I could afford a nice 90, plus a caravan to put behind it.

We have been doing more and more camping as a family, and I have been thinking about using a tent when I stay away with work (it works well financially). We camp regularly, but would like to pack up and go much faster in the morning with less fuss, so have been thinking about roof tents - in particular the Maggiolina airlander - the type where you crank a handle to raise the fibreglass roof. This would mainly be UK camping, all year around and I was looking for any real-life experiences/advice. The only thing that is stopping me from going ahead right now is the worry that there isn't much additional room inside the tent, so getting in with wet gear on could present a problem. They do a 'changing room' addition to clip onto the side of the tent, but at £600, in addition to the £1845 of the tent - it's all getting a little bit spendy. Any advice gratefully received. https://www.boab.biz/acatalog/AUTOHOME_MAGGIOLINA_ROOF_TOP_TENTS.html

I work with this industry and there really is no easy answer to that question. The best thing to do is to give your local place a call and ask to speak to a technical specialist or laboratory manager - they are the people who actually know about the process, rather than being the bloke who sticks metal into furnace trays. If you can remind me where in the UK you are, I can probably point you in the direction of a good heat treatment place, and if you are in the Midlands or South West, will be able to tell you the best person to speak to. TM.

This clip kind of demonstrates your original post. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26090057

It's pretty terrible though, especially since the difference between grades of steel is tiny. The only way to be sure is to use a Leco analyser. If anybody knows what i'm talking about, you probably know me in real life :-)

Thankyou very much for your replies - I contacted the company in Cannock and will pick some up next time i'm up there. Phillis - Deep Bronze Green is simply the 'correct' colour for series Land Rovers. Toylander coming along well. I primed the front end tonight, the rest will be done by the end of the weekend. Motor test fit next week, then hopefully back to painting next weekend.

I'm in the process of building a Toylander series 1 (for my sons, honest) as they are the only type of Land Rover that I can afford at the moment. The time has come to paint it, and naturally it will be going Deep Bronze Green - the same as my Series 3 was. I'm a bit stuck for paint, though. I want to roller or brush it on - the boy will undoubtedly run it into a wall at some point and I want repairs to be quick and easy, so some sort of gloss paint would be great. Can anybody help me with paint suppliers? I rang Pete at Christian Autos in Bristol and he can't get it since the local paint company closed, and Paddocks don't seem to sell it any more according to their website. Any suggestions please?

It depends why you want it - the original number will be on the V5. If you want to fake it for the MOT man, there is no point - they won't even bother looking for it as it could easily be covered in paint, rust or waxoyl. If you want it to help with identification after a theft, any thief worth their salt will weld over it immediately. If you want it for the SVA man, so long as you have the receipt you will be fine.

I used to use one of those temperature controlled irons for work and it was a fantastic bit of kit. As I started working at customer's sites more and more, I moved over to gas - the Portasol one from RS is brilliant and goes everywhere with me. It was much lighter, and didn't need to be PAT tested by each different customer in turn. For bigger stuff, I still have one of http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=113213 these, but it's a bit chunky for PCB work

Does silicone sealant count as welding filler material? My old S3 was about 50:50 silicone:metal at one point.

I think that the issue is that the force is proportional to the angle between the ram and the linkage (constant of proportionality being sin). In the down position where greatest force is required, the least is available. As the angle rises and the mass decreases, the force increases. Unless you are trying to make a robot wars style 'flipper', I think that a slight redesign is in order.

This is kind of in my line of work - we make laboratory instrumentation for amongst others the metal producing and heat treating sectors - things like fully automatic micro-hardness testers, and as such I spend a lot of time researching and speaking to heat treatment companies. There are a couple of issues with DIY cryo treatment - it is usually done either to stress relieve a part (after the rough cut, before the final cut) - to reduce creep - although it would always then be annealed, or it is used to get better surface wear properties without increasing the hardness. You have to choose the material very carefully in order to get maximum advantage, and keep the part at low temperature for quite a long time. Nobody 'really' knows why it works - there are plenty of very good theories, the best current one being that it works in 2 ways - convering any remaining austenite to martensite (the majority of which is done in the standard heat treatment phase). The second way is that at very low temperatures, free carbon atoms precipitate into eta-carbides which show significantly better wear resistance. The major problem that you will have doing it in your back garden will be keeping it cold for long enough and preventing any warping. If it is a cheap part that can easily be replaced, give it a go (remember to take pictures) and let us know. I'm all for trying things out - I cast a cannon in the back garden last year, much to the displeasure of my next door neighbours.

I have a piece of ceramic tube that you can have, but it might be a bit delicate for your needs. - ID 3mm, OD 6mm, length 260mm. I'll be travelling down the M5 past Western on Monday mid-day ish, or can drop it off at 'Turbocharger's house, if you ever get up that way.

That's the difficult bit. The yield strength of possible materials is so incredibly different. At work (industrial instrumentation - properties of inorganic materials) we deal with gear teeth made of everything from grey cast iron, through lots of different grades of stainless, to titanium. The strength (and cost) between them differs hugely.

Or go for a second battery with a very simple split charge system - useful for running extra lights / winch etc. If you include an over-ride switch, you can self jump-start. I have done this lots of times with a 200tdi when I have left the main lights on accidentally, no problems. Cheap, simple, useful.