The dreaded BLUE Box strikes again

[KennyC]

Bugger...just fitted a BP offside swivel yesterday ( didn't use their seals though . Hopefully the new swivel ( £66 from BP ) will last a weekend, maybe two, if I'm lucky !!!! Does worry me though.

[JeffR]

Bugger...just fitted a BP offside swivel yesterday ( didn't use their seals though . Hopefully the new swivel ( £66 from BP ) will last a weekend, maybe two, if I'm lucky !!!! Does worry me though.

Swivel balls from BP are very good! Got one (might actually be 2, can't remember) fitted to the V8. Been on a couple or three years with no problems at all.

[Simon_CSK]

Swivel balls from BP are very good! Got one (might actually be 2, can't remember) fitted to the V8. Been on a couple or three years with no problems at all.

I have a number of blue boxed parts on my Disco after rebuilding my Chassis. I ran a thread on her about it and decided to avoid BP where ever I was buying however some parts arrived through other routes. I fitted then and have so far covered 3000 miles without any problems.

[Eightpot]

Well we moan and I kick myself sometimes for taking the gamble, but really what can we expect. My shonky brake shoes cost £8.50 for both sets - that's through a retailer who probably paid £5, through britpart who distribute and probably paid £2.50, which were sent halfway round the world for £1, and maybe the factory got less than the price of a Tesco cheese sandwich for manufacturing four brake shoes!

Shame we can't make them here anymore, but by now we've probably lost most of the knowledge, experience and discipline (discipline in particular) of engineering to do any better ourselves. I remember when I started my first job in engineering, and one of my first jobs was to strip out all the lathes, milling machines, drilling machines and plant from the huge Turner Spicer works in Wolverhampton in 1987 - a generations old engineering company making things like helicopter gearboxes - taken over by Dana, then stripped out and outsourced overseas. A very sad experience even for a 17 year old, I still have a few of the hand tools I collected where they had been left as they had been set down at the side of the work areas on the last day, and I knew from that day we were finished as an engineering nation.

on a plus, we still make the best beer in the world

[TheRecklessEngineer]

But if I ask him now if he wants to be an engineer I get the reply, no, I'd rather go into IT as salaries are much much better.

They're much better than IT working offshore. And it's proper engineering too. Got taught how to scrape bearings and everything!

[A Twig]

But if I ask him now if he wants to be an engineer I get the reply, no, I'd rather go into IT as salaries are much much better.

Rant over

In my experience salaries are just as rubbish in both professions now unless you're a contractor...

[simonr]

In my experience salaries are just as rubbish in both professions now unless you're a contractor...

Supply & Demand + competition from overseas!

The UK needs to find something new to be good at as a value-add over the rest of the world. I would say Bio-medical technology, but even this is being legislated out of existance in the EU.

Most areas of 'frontier' science seem to be contentious from a moral / ethical / environmental standpoint which stands in the way of the research. The trouble is, the research just goes on in less scrupulous countries and they reap whatever benefits come from it. Once it becomes commonplace in other countries, the UK / EU will allow it.

I think the research should be allowed in a controlled environment - then we can cherry-pick the bits that are useful. safe, profitable rather than just wait for someone else to do it and pay them for the end result!

Si

[mikec]

Well this is my view on it, if you don't want to buy britpart, don't. If you want to save a few quid, buy britpart, if its crud then get in touch with britpart instead of moaning about it. I contacted them about my calipers and they handled it great, theyve been on a bit now and are fine. If we don't tell them they'll either not know or not do anything!

[JeffR]

Well this is my view on it, if you don't want to buy britpart, don't. If you want to save a few quid, buy britpart, if its crud then get in touch with britpart instead of moaning about it. I contacted them about my calipers and they handled it great, theyve been on a bit now and are fine. If we don't tell them they'll either not know or not do anything!

You are correct of course. We are all guilty of giving them grief on various fora, but how many actually give the grief directly? Perhaps if we complained directly to them then things would improve. Sadly the British are not rely very good at complaining.

I was pleasantly surprised by BRITPARTS reaction to my problem.

[JeffR]

Supply & Demand + competition from overseas!

The UK needs to find something new to be good at as a value-add over the rest of the world. I would say Bio-medical technology, but even this is being legislated out of existance in the EU.

Most areas of 'frontier' science seem to be contentious from a moral / ethical / environmental standpoint which stands in the way of the research. The trouble is, the research just goes on in less scrupulous countries and they reap whatever benefits come from it. Once it becomes commonplace in other countries, the UK / EU will allow it.

I think the research should be allowed in a controlled environment - then we can cherry-pick the bits that are useful. safe, profitable rather than just wait for someone else to do it and pay them for the end result!

Si

Sadly I am a scientist and even more sadly I work in the more esoteric areas of science, freshwater biology, and we simply don't have research budgets any more. The area I work in is more vocational than money making, consequently governments do not see the subject as worthy of investment. We used to be world leaders in freshwater biological research, most of the EU habitat directives/Protected species legislation, Water Framework directives etc are based on research carried out on a shoe string budget in the UK.

In a former life I was a mining engineer, at the time the UK was at the forefront of mining engineering research, but we know what happened to the mining industry, not to mention shipbuilding, railways. We shot ourselves in the foot by allowing those industries to be destroyed, we have, probably irrevocably, lost those skills not for a generation or two, but for ever.

I would love to see a massive increase in small "artisan" workshops (such as yours Si), which would maintain and potentially increase, the British engineering skills base, but I am not convinced that the kids of today would be interested. Most that I speak to want to earn squillions as a football player or singer or games designer.

I have frequently asked myself why this is and my conclusions are that it's down to the p!ss poor education system. My kids are not taught, in history lessons' about the great engineering legacy that the likes of the Stevensons, Brunels, Barnes-Wallaces, Frank Whittles left us. We have very little pride in our industrial heritage. Last year I took my kids to see the Turbinia (the first turbine engined ship) and they were fascinated, BUT they had never been told of it's existence at school. We really do our youth great disservice.

Rant probably over!

[TheRecklessEngineer]

Last year I took my kids to see the Turbinia (the first turbine engined ship) and they were fascinated, BUT they had never been told of it's existence at school.

You know I never knew the vessel still existed - although I have seen the powerplant in the London Science Museum. Just Googled it - definitely on my to see list next time I'm up that way.

[simonr]

That sounds good! I went to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne - so I have a certain fondness for the place! I'll try & visit the next time I'm up there!

Si

[treebloke]

It makes me feel gloomy about the future for UK industry - too many of the companies I deal with have a 'can't be arsed' mentality which not only damages their company, but mine too and the rest of the economy!

Si

It is not confined to industry, we work on trees throughout the country and therefore have to deal with Local Authorities who are definately no better. Even checking if a tree has a Preservation Order or is within a Conservation Area can be a daunting task and to try and acutally speak with a tree officer is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Local authority personel interaction has gone down hill in the last 4/5 years.

[JeffR]

That sounds good! I went to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne - so I have a certain fondness for the place! I'll try & visit the next time I'm up there!

Si

They closed the Science Museum in Exibition Park a good few years ago, The Turbinia now lives in a purpose built Museum, along with a huge collection of the shipyard models of warships built on the Tyne. If you get up, gis a yell and I'll buy you a pint. Got a soft spot for Horsham, still got relatives in Roffey!

It is not confined to industry, we work on trees throughout the country and therefore have to deal with Local Authorities who are definately no better. Even checking if a tree has a Preservation Order or is within a Conservation Area can be a daunting task and to try and acutally speak with a tree officer is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Local authority personel interaction has gone down hill in the last 4/5 years.

Try dealing with county planners with regards to invertebrates! Most of them couldn't find their posteriors with a hunting dog, a map, a guide and a bloody GPS!

[mmgemini]

So where is Turbinia now please ? It's a long time since I saw her at the Science Museum. What struck me at the times weas how small she is.

Am I correct in thinking that she managed to find here way into the fleet at a naval revew ?

There is also Gragside where I think it was Armstrong lived. A couple of superb ship models there. He also had revolving plant pots in the greenhouse.

Shipbuilding is now dead on Tyneside. As a youngster I would wander from Tynemout to North shiels to look at the ships and the busy river. I never managed to get into Smits dock near the ferry landing.

The Tyne also built the battle ships that Japan and Russia in the early 1900's. One side had ships from Armstrongs Elswich works. The other side ships from Hawthorn Lesley at Wallsend....

On a Sunday I would walk to Tynemouth Park to watch the model boats on the park lake. All driven by steam from a modified blowlamp ! Ohh Health and Safety. A blow lamp in a wooden model boat.

My cousin was trying to build me a smal yatch to play with. He found a tube and a large washer that needed "welding" together.

"Give that to your friend at the boat club and ask him to fix it" Which I did.

The next Sunday I was given the bits back.with the words " You cant weld those, here" and I was given a lovely piece of metal just what was needed for the boat. "Give that to your cousin and tell him thats how we work at Wallsend Slipway" My cousin worked at Vickers Armstrongs, Would that sort of inter rivalry happen now ?

[JeffR]

She's in the Museum of Life where the old Marlborough bus station used to be. My dad spent most of his working life in the Wallsend yards, back in the mid 80's I was lucky enough to visit Swan Hunters etc and can in the 70's I can remember going with my dad to watch the launch of one of the first super tankers built on the Tyne (think it was the Esso Northumbria). We did a lot of work in the 80's for Vickers, removing the rubber from Scorpion Tank road wheels and autoclaving new rubber on them. Used to get guys to knock up bits up for my Escorts (strut braces, strengthened pedal boxes and weld on braces for English/Atlas axles) for the princely price of a couple packets of Embassy Regal cancer sticks.

I can remember getting a Mk1 RS1600 jammed in 2nd gear in Hamsterly forest and running every bearing in the engine trying to finish the stage! Engine was rebuilt by heading down to the AE Hepolite works in Sunderland (Uncle was a foreman there) and spending a day working thro there parts books to get the best bits to rebuild it after Cosworth wanted something like £3K, what they didn't have that was an exact fit would go off to the pattern makers who would modify it to the correct spec.

I nearly cried a couple of years ago when I watched the demolition of the last shipyard cranes on the telly, best part of 500 years of shipbuilding prowess gone forever. Various governments really did need taking into the bottom field with a 9mm...

I drove along Sunderland Rd in Gateshead , before I left in 1989 Clark Chapmans engineering employed a couple of thousand folks (mate was a pattern maker there) now it's a housing estate. I think the death knell for engineering in the north was the destruction of the mining and shipbuilding industries, but then again perhaps I'm just remembering a time ...........

[mmgemini]

Thanks Jeff

Yes it was the Esso Nothumbria. I still have, somewhere, the pictures of her coming down the Tyne and out through the piers. There wasn't much room there. Mind you there wasn't much room in the river.

I remember the quayside at Newcastle, where you walk now on nice paving. There were railway lines all along there and big cranes straddleing the rail tracks on there own lines. Lots of rail goods vans as well.

No you're not remembering a time. I remember it too.

We moved to Richmond Yorkshire in 1949. I worked at United Darlingtom after leaving school. BR North Road Workshops were where Morrisons are now.

At the front was the A1 through Darlington. At 5PM North Road works stopped for the night. The workers cycled out of the works entrance STRAIGHT across the A1 stopping all the traffic.

[JeffR]

Back on topic!

Just stripped out the other flexi pipes and tried blowing them thro with an airline. It would appear that out of the 5 lines in the kit, two are blocked and one (the rear one) does allow air thro but not very well. What were the odds of fitting both blocked pipes to same calliper?

One block pipe I am willing to put down to sh!t happens, but two causes me great concern.