Superpants

The last lot I bought were take-offs on wheels which came from Craddocks. Witham have sometimes had them, so they would be worth a try. Witham linky

Acorn is what I was thinking of- Nice bits of kit, but they are definately pricy!

I've seen a fab table in the US that had a grid of square holes about 25mm square on a grid of about 100mm in a plate about 40mm thick. There were then clamps that sat into the holes and locked in (something like carver clamps). I'll have to have a dig and see if I can find out who made it (was a commercial bit of kit).

Have a look at this guy on the 'bay: Ebay barrels Cheap prices!

Webasto who make the heater for the Freelander do a unit called the telestart- the website seems to suggest it can be retrofitted to an existing installation. Have a look at:Webasto Might be what you are after!

I'd seriously avoid doing it this way unless you have a suitably rated relay as you could potentially pull the full starting current for the vehicle through the relay, which would then overheat, or even weld contacts. You would need a relay capable of handling several hundred amps which is going to be pricey and large. The isolator switch will be rated appropriately and is likely to be a cheaper option.

The oily-ness of this has been debated thoroughly already: Browns Gas

Thanks for the links! There are some good photos there- looks very enjoyable. The socialising looks good too- my mouth is watering at the pictures of the BBQ!!!!!

That sounds like it was a great trip, and some really nice photos. Been wanting to get back to South America and see Patagonia for years- The image of the Andes from the air is indelibly etched in my mind from when I visited Chile and flew across to Buenos Aires. I'm reading a book about Patagonia at the moment (Where the earth ends- I can thoroughly recommend it), which has been giving me itchy feet- this has just reinforced it!! Do you have any links to the land rover club you went with or photos from anyone else who went?

Thought I'd leave my feedback, just like on the 'bay! Sellers communication was great, arrived well packaged and quickly...... Onto the DVDS themselves- watched both disks the other night- Although I speak no Russian, the whole Russian disk was fascinating and well shot. There did seem to be a lot of talk about snorkies which made me chuckle. The effort the HOFS team have put into their DVD is great, it made for a really intersting and entertaining watch- very inspiring and makes me want to be out off-roading right now!!! Well done! Looking forward to the next one.......

One set for me too please

That appears to be a link to a relay- I agree we can be a sad bunch, but looking at pictures of relays in my lunch hour has to take the biscuit ;o)

They are all very positive.....

That type of torch will only fit on the bottles they supply- it won't fif on a bigger bottle! Could get expensive in gas....

I have just recently come back from the states- one day whilst travelling with a couple of guys from the US, we got onto discussing the whole suing culture, and it became clear to me that although there seems to be a trend in the UK towards it, It seems unlikely that it will become as prevalent in the UK (or Europe) as it is over there for two separate, but connected reasons- The lack of a national health service and the ‘Hire and fire at will’ employment policies (with no contract of employment; The story related to me was that someone had had a relatively minor industrial accident, which required medical treatment and a few weeks off work (I forget what the actual injury was). There was no suggestion that the employee had been negligent to have the accident. The man involved had medical insurance that would cover the injury, provided by his employer (a common arrangement I’m led to believe). Because the employee was unable to work, he was fired, and so lost the medical insurance. He was therefore left with no way of paying for the medical treatment and no job- not unsurprisingly he took the employer to court to claim the medical fees. I was led to believe that this sort of occurrence is commonplace, but would be unlikely here as the employee would have had his medical needs met by the NHS, and so wouldn’t have been out of pocket. He would also have had his employment protected (especially as this only stopped him working for a few weeks), and so would have a job to return to. This has changed my view of the ‘compensation culture’, and I personally don’t think we will ever get to the level it does in the US. I am happy to help people in an emergency- but be it first aid, recovering a vehicle or changing a wheel the first thing you are taught in first aid is to assess the situation before making a decision of what to do, which is what I will do!

Compressed air has been used for locomotives in places where fire is an issue- paper mills and mines. They solve a lot of the problems of trying to make an electric motor operate in an explosive atmosphere. Not sure if they are still built for these purposes. They are effectively the same as a steam engine, rather than a diesel engine (as a steam engine is basically working on an expanding fluid where energy has been given to it outside of the engine). Some museums (eg science museum) run their steam engines on compressed air for demonstration.

There is a type commonly known as a high flow fitting where the coupling is shorter, but with a significantly bigger bore through it- which may be what you have. IIRC it is more common in Europe. It may therefore be a metric thread?

The woman from make I spoke to suggested Berlin is currently the favourite, but that If there was enough interest for the UK, that it may be possible

I liked the Bus-cycle too. No idea what would happen with only one passanger- I guess it would go as all the bikes appeared to connect to a layshaft, but you would have to have very strong legs!!! I doub't i'd move it! As for the Dutch event- I thought the robot performance bits looked like they could be quite spectacular... Just got to try and persuade make magazine to run a Maker Faire in the UK!

I thought it might be up your street Si! A lot of what was there was a lot more dangerous than they would give people instructions for in the magazine, but the magazine has resulted in the event- so it has it's uses!!!!! I haven't got back from the US yet, so I probably won't start thinking about coming back just yet. There is however something in amsterdam that I am contemplating going to later this year that you would probably be interested in; Robodock

For the past month I have been living in San Francisco, volunteering in the workshops of the Exploratorium- the museum of Science and Human Perception, which has proven to be an interesting and enlightening experience, and has given me plenty of oppurtunity to play with big machine tools in a well equipped workshop. Anyway, one of the highlights of my trip was the chance to go to the 'Maker Faire' in San Mateo this weekend. It's the sort of event that I'm sure would appeal to many of you.... For those that don't know, for a few years there has been a quarterly magazine called 'Make' produced in the US, recently joined by 'Craft' magazine. Both of these have gained quite a following of 'Tinkerers', sufficient to warrant having it's own event (now in two venues). I know of nothing in the UK quite like it- it is part festival, part art exhibition, part workshop, part convention- it sort of defies description, but I'll try.... The event is held in a big event centre, not far from San Francisco. It has a number of large halls, each with a number of things in, including a couple of stages for talks and demonstrations. One hall is full of small stands of stuff (the only description that works!), largely from individuals and clubs (although there are a few trade stands interspersed)- this hall included a 3D printer using sugar, various robot stands, a giant giaraffe, electric cars, furniture and art exhibits, RC cars, planes, animatronic puppets and all manner of other exhibits. A seperate building housed a similar range of craft type stalls- knitting, weaving, printing etc- although I didn't stay long in there. Another building was the 'Dark Room' housing stuff that didn't want too much light- lig ht up bicycle wheels, tesla coils, glowing orbs, shadow puppetry and the suchlike There was a hall called the 'Bizarre Bazaar' which housed lots of stalls selling handmade crafts, much like the craft building. Yet another a hall housed 'TechShop'- this is a group based in the Bay Area, where for an annual subscription of $800 you can have access to a wide range of tools, machinery and classes. They brought much of this with them- In no particular order there were Mills, laser cutters, CNC routers, Vinyl cutters, vacuum former, CNC hot wire cutters and a whole host of other pieces of tooling being demonstrated. Outside there were loads of large things happening; A number of 'Art Cars' were scattered around the grounds, the most popular seemed to be the Lego one, where kids and their parents were busy building sculptures onto the car. There were plenty of pedal powered devices- hacked bicycles, and ones with wooden frames, but the most impressive was the Buscycle- one where multiple people pedalled together to move it around. Quite a lot of robots were around, including some very large impressive beasts, many breathing fire from somewhere on them, or being demonstrated destroying shop dummies. Powertool drag racing was definitely one of the highlights- Circular saws, chainsaws, sanders etc, tarted up with riders (dolls/ stuffed toys) and set off against each other. There were a couple of stages with various bands, conventional and playing home-made instruments were performing, giving quite a festival atmosphere. There were loads of fire sculptures, which really came to life after the sun went down- everywhere you turned there seemed to be fireballs going off... These were joined later on by a 1.39MV Tesla coil being run up- pretty impressive to watch from a few tens of feet away (until it stopped working!!!). (see the video at the linke below) There were quite a few Steampunk goings on including a Jules Verne inspired land ship- the Neverwas Haul, which was very impressive in it's size and decoration. This was joined by a steam car, whistles and various paraphernalia. After all that- my favourite (helped in no way by the mice, honest ;o) ) was the giant mousetrap. This is a construction using bowling balls of the mousetrap board game, extending over an area of something like 50 x 150ft and up to about 20ft high. It evidently needs a complete artic trailer to transport and is largely made of steel scrap. A truly impressive feat. The photos below will give a taste of what was going on, but for more, have a look at my Flickr page or at make magazine's website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsuperpants/...57604886899392/ http://makezine.com/ I would thoroughly recommend a trip to this it if you ever get the chance, although I am reliably informed that thought is being given to starting one in Europe in the future. I certainly will be coming back with a lot of ideas! Monster robot- just finished a demonstration of ripping mannequins to pieces Hacked wooden bicycle One of the many fire displays as the sun was setting Robot Giraffe that was wandering round the site pumping out 'Banging Tunes' Lego Art Car- need I say more? The Buscycle- bicycle based bus as the name suggests Cool fire breathing buggy

Si- I have found Aquarius plastics in Guildford pretty helpful in the past- You may want to give them a call (if you haven't already). Aquarius Plastics

I have something like steve has drawn up with an 8mm stud (designed for high currents!) in the garage if that helps? (same as the power feed through the bulkhead on the disco). It hasn't got an o-ring, I'm sure a suitable rubber washer or o-ring could be made attached. Might be a bit too big but can probably send you a couple if you want? Off to the pub shortly so will have to dig them out later if you are interested......

Found the details: Ricardo Mesh Seat It does have some form to it and is remarkably comfortable (at least when stationary!)

Some of the finest snake oil i've seen for a while..... The manufacturer will have sized the wire to be appropriate to the load being fitted to it, be that a fuel pump, a head light or whatever- this will be one of the fundamental design tasks carried out in the design of the electrical system. "If your engine does not receive enough fuel at high-rpm, it can melt pistons and destroy your engine in seconds. Protect yourself now!" How many destroyed engines are you aware of because the fuel pump didn't deliver flow? Personally I have never heard of it. The fuel systems on modern diesels usually puts far more flow out than the injector system needs and ends up bleeding back fuel to the tank. The quality of the kit looks poor to my eyes... Unsealed crimps to join the fuse to the main wire, and scotchlock connectors- hardly suitable to handle high currents under the bonnet reliably.