On that subject, did anyone see the program about sperm last week?

Spoiler alert: Tobacco & caffeine are bad for you.  Who knew? 

But I was genuine shocked by the damage caused by plastic food packaging.  Easily visible on a microscope slide.  Apparently we're eating the equivalent of one credit card per week!

3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

... Apparently we're eating the equivalent of one credit card per week!

Is there a 'limit' on that card? (Could do with another one LOL)

If its not the plastic its the 9 metres of wiring inside

On 7/18/2023 at 9:55 PM, StephenFord said:

Anyone catch a new TV show on 'Yesterday' channel (No. 155 on Sky) called, "Retro Electro Workshop"? It's like the BBC Repair Shop

At last a programme where the artisan is shown actually doing and explaining the repair and restoration rather than most of the show being taken up with the backstory (are you reading this, Repair Shop?).

I've just finished watching that first show and I must say I was not impressed with his soldering on that Veroboard unit he made for the Atari.

12 hours ago, mjt said:

I've just finished watching that first show and I must say I was not impressed with his soldering on that Veroboard unit he made for the Atari.

I suppose it's all relative, my soldering has always been atrocious, so I thought he was good (compared to me LOL)

Just seen a new car programme advertised on Dave at 6pm Sunday evening.  Spotted a Nile blue GTi-6 on the advert, same colour as my old one.   

46 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I suppose it's all relative, my soldering has always been atrocious, so I thought he was good (compared to me LOL)

Did you do it for a living, though? He's supposedly a professional and I'd expect better. I started my career as an apprentice at W.G.Pye Scientific Instruments and was taught how to solder by the foreman on the production line. Like riding a bike once you've learned how to do it properly the skill never leaves you.

Just watched the second episode of Retro Electro Workshop and I must say the attraction of it is already beginning to pall a bit. Some of it seems a bit contrived and trivial. I'll probably stick with it for a few more episodes to see if it gets into it's stride, though.

If that's the C5 episode, an old mate of mine was in it.  I haven't got round to watching it yet though.

I've been immersed in Lego Masters NZ this week instead.

Mate of mine was on ch5 last night. Surgeons , a matter of life or death. His daughter was poorly. 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

If that's the C5 episode, an old mate of mine was in it

That's the one. The C5 bit was quite interesting although I'd be interested to see what you think about his gearbox lubrication, also the fact that he had a fairly specialised replacement part already to hand.

I won't spoil the other bits but would like to know what you think of them.

On 7/28/2023 at 8:09 PM, mjt said:

That's the one. The C5 bit was quite interesting although I'd be interested to see what you think about his gearbox lubrication, also the fact that he had a fairly specialised replacement part already to hand.

I won't spoil the other bits but would like to know what you think of them.

Got round to watching this last night.  The gearbox grease seemed to be applied with the same lack of finesse as the solder...though I did wonder if that was caused by trying not to obscure the camera's line of sight while working.

Sam also supplies parts for C5's, so I suspect he sold them the parts when they collected it.  Must admit, I didn't realise he was going to feature so heavily in the program, he's definitely outdone my Antiques Roadshow appearance!  

I also agree that the program didn't really hold my interest for the whole hour.  The radio Caroline ship was quite interesting but probably more so for me than most people because I used to live near it.

The Radio Caroline ship didn't make much sense to me. Having found a spare cart drive he takes it all the way back to his workshop and starts swapping parts. Why didn't he try the spare out on the ship first? And he said he couldn't do anything on the ship but everything he did back at the workshop could easily have been done on site.

As for "overhauling the historic equipment" that seemed to amount to cleaning the drive roller on a single turntable. What??

13 minutes ago, mjt said:

The Radio Caroline ship didn't make much sense to me. Having found a spare cart drive he takes it all the way back to his workshop and starts swapping parts. Why didn't he try the spare out on the ship first? And he said he couldn't do anything on the ship but everything he did back at the workshop could easily have been done on site.

As for "overhauling the historic equipment" that seemed to amount to cleaning the drive roller on a single turntable. What??

I can only assume the ship rocked too much to start poking screwdrivers around small sensitive components?  I didn't understand why the ship tech hadn't just swapped the drive for the working one they had onboard though. 

We might be overthinking this, I suppose they have to fill the whole 45 minutes somehow.  

The cleaning did give me a chuckle.  It was a similar story with the 'Repair Lot' that I mentioned earlier in this thread.  (Guess no-one else watched it so no harm in spoilers now).  The 306 episode did bring back a lot of memories for me and it was nice to see one of them being driven...but the repairs it needed were a little basic and could mostly have been completed by a 5 year old, and they kept getting different 'specialists' from their team to sort them.  They also tried to increase the drama at the end, including referring to a slightly damp light cluster as a 'really disgusting' job to sort...  I'm pretty squeamish, but even I don't mind a little rain water.   

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

They also tried to increase the drama at the end, including referring to a slightly damp light cluster as a 'really disgusting' job to sort...  I'm pretty squeamish, but even I don't mind a little rain water.   

Was that the Pug with the swimming pool in the rear cluster ? - i did watch it but wasnt impressed and wont watch anymore

3 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

Was that the Pug with the swimming pool in the rear cluster ? - i did watch it but wasnt impressed and wont watch anymore

That's the one.  The common faults with them were valve tap, clutch cable drying out, rear torsion beam bearings failing and the top engine mount rotting out leaving the engine loose...yet they resealed the roof aerial and changed a door mirror motor on this one.    I've seen Stephen do both of those things without referring to himself as a bodywork and electronics specialist.  

In fairness, the upholstery repair on the drivers seat was done well, and that part was worth watching.

Also just remembered they 'revealed' the car from under a cloth at the end of the show...despite not having made any external aesthetic changes that a cloth would hide.  

I've just caught up with Retro Electro Workshop. Now I know some on here are critical of the methodology the guy uses, but as a sheer layman, I still find it really entertaining to watch. The repair of the Casiotone keyboard was nostalgic, I remember selling them along with the 1st Casio calculator watch. The fact that it could be unscrewed, and the circuit boards were etched with loads of info, and that you could actually repair it, as opposed to modern crap which you throw into the bin, no wonder the planet is is a mess!

Like many here, I couldn't understand why he took a perfectly working cart machine for Radio Caroline, and canobolised it to fix the broken one LOL Still, it made the show interesting, and I remember cleaning the heads of my old cassette player using a Q Tip too!

I remember the launch of the Sinclair C5, now, that was rubbish even when launched!

My expertise runs to helping a friend build a Sinclair ZX80 (young folk may have to google LOL) I think that why I love shows like Wheeler Dealers, were you can often see 'non serviceable' parts actually going through a repair process, rather than thrown in the bin!

Also loved the upcycle of that jukebox!

 

 

 

My first was a ZX81, you had to manually key in programs that NEVER ran as there were coding errors that you didnt know about till next months magazine. Then you had games on cassettes that also never ran. From that a VIC 20.

5 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

My first was a ZX81, you had to manually key in programs that NEVER ran as there were coding errors that you didnt know about till next months magazine. Then you had games on cassettes that also never ran. From that a VIC 20.

Aahhh yes, the cassettes, my Sinclair 48ZX use to take ages to load a program onto it, then you wouldn't know for 10 minutes that it hadn't loaded properly, kids these days, don't know they're born LOL

On 8/2/2023 at 4:46 PM, StephenFord said:

Also loved the upcycle of that jukebox

I didn't. I'm not particularly a fan of "upcycling". If something is really beyond repair recycle it. Don't use some cheap Chinese tat to turn it into something it isn't.

I agree with you regarding the Casiotone, though. That just shows how much greedy manufacturers have turned us into a throwaway society.

I never had a ZX81, preferring to wait until I could afford a BBC Micro, which I still have. That was a pretty good machine for it's time, very flexible and adaptable due to being specifically designed as an educational tool. I always thought the ZX80 processor in the Sinclair was a better architecture than the 6502 used in the BBC though.

I though this week's Repair Lot was better than last week's. The refurb of the Charger was pretty well covered. They do seem a bit prone to throwing in new parts rather than repairing the old ones though. The Charger fuel pump probably only needed a new diaphagm. Similarly the Baha VW distributor may only have needed a new rotor arm and set of points. Nothing was said about re-timing the ignition when they fitted the new one. I did think they could have mentioned the wire added to the rotor arm was bridging the suppression resistor. They never say anything about servicing the vehicles before handing them back either.

I reckon a lot of it is staged anyway rather than 'fly on the wall' and the luvvies who make the programmes don't have any real interest in the engineering.

On 8/2/2023 at 4:46 PM, StephenFord said:

 

Also loved the upcycle of that jukebox!

 

 

 

I love old juke boxes, have a CD box in the garage, but wasn't a fan of that! 

I think he overpaid by about £600 for what was basically a pretty(ish) box! 

Would have much preferred to see it restored to actually playing 45s again , would have maybe got his money back as opposed to waiting to get £1500 for a Bluetooth speaker 🤷

On the plus side I've now got UKTVplay on the TV and I'm sure I'll find some more interesting stuff to watch 😎

 

 

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Turvey said:

Would have much preferred to see it restored to actually playing 45s again , would have maybe got his money back as opposed to waiting to get £1500 for a Bluetooth speaker

Spot on!!

It's telling that they hadn't had any takers.

2 hours ago, mjt said:

I didn't. I'm not particularly a fan of "upcycling".

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one LOL My Focus has DAB+, TPMS, SatNav, reversing camera etc etc. None of which it had when built 18 years ago in 2005 😂

 

Ah, but they're just add-ons. It's still doing the job for which it was originally built, with it's original engine and transmission.

Now, if you had it converted to EV . . . . .