Gyn_Paul

..... and squirt a bit of oil on the blade from time to time. Lubricating something which is cutting always seems a bit counter-intuitive, but where it's metal-against-metal you maintain the edge on the blade's teeth for much longer that way. And thank you nomoss... I was musing in the shower as to how I was going to make a rain cap for a external chimney I'm building for two flues, and you've reminded me I have a sheet of zinc in the barn (somewhere.... along with much else. I mean, how can you lose half of a airconditioining split-pack? I mean the box is h-u-g-e !). p

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]They need to be increasing it, not decreasing it.[/quote] I was just wondering if you already have unlimited download how could you increase it? [8-)] [/quote] (tee hee hee hee [:D])

no, can't seem to find them in the catalogue. Isn't Radiospares now Maplins in the UK? Haven't seen Radiospares (or RSComponents as it became) since I left local radio back in the dark ages.  A real blast from the past ! p

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Thanks Pierre, I have to hack up to Chateauroux to Brico Depot sometime this week, I'll pop next door to Auchan and see if that branch has them. cheer p

This is the Humax with the single tuner right? If so, then - yes - a straight swop.  All the free-to-air: that is anything you can currently receive on your Sky box, without the card in the slot will be receivable on the Humax. p

Has anyone come across a cheap source of coupler/decouplers in France? I need pairs of FM+UHF to UHF, and UHF+SAT to SAT. I can find them on Ebay for £4.00 ish but won't deliver to France. The only place I can find them on line here is Conrad, where - predictably - they're €14.50 a piece. I know the insertion loss would be biggish, but we are in a strong TNT signal area, and the sat feed it to my dedicated R4 receiver, and I shall tweek the dish to favour that transponder. p

[quote user="Mr Wiggy"]Finally! All is now quiet again, it certainly doen't get hot as it has plenty of space around it. It may well have stopped after I spend the morning anticipating a failure, I spent several hours searching for a new monitor, Jay they are even cheaper at cdiscount!!   Lets' just hope that it's now going to behave. [/quote] I'd leave the CDiscount page up there as a screen saver, just to show it you mean business! p

JJ you say the ceiling follows the roof line.... could you not tackle the problem from the outside, and life a few tiles to access the topside of the insulation? you could apply the deadly drops from above that way. p

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="milkeybar kid"]For our cooker it has to be Butane. Why I remember easily is last week we went to buy the gas, was in a rush came away with Propane . We noticed when we arrived home and went back to the garage where we bought it and the proprietor nearly had kittens as she said we could have blown up the kitchen using the Propane instead of Butane!!!!!![/quote] Er a slight exaggeration me thinks. [/quote] Er yea.. Propane is illegal to be used indoors (that is, the bottle mustn't be in the house: the gas itself they don't care about so long as it's in a pipe still in its 'best before date'!), but blowing you and your kitchen to kingdom come? less likely. . In fact both gasses will burn using the wrong regulator, just not very efficiently. If you have a safety 'detente'  (one of those spring-loaded 1/4-turn wall-mounted taps) which I think is now a legal requirement if the bottle is outside, and certainly something should have unless absolutely everything which uses gas has a flame-failure device fitted, they are gas-specific, and one certainly won't work with the wrong gas. Can't remember which way round it is.... probably propane detente fed by a butane regulator.

[quote user="Quillan"]Are you using the correct bottled gas? I always get this the wrong way round but one is for inside use and the other outside because it 'gas's' at a lower temp than the other. I also believe that these two have different jets and that the regulator is different (pressure) as well.[/quote] No, Q. The jets are for a band of pressure - something like 28 to34 from memory, but don't quote me - this being butane at one end, and propane at the other. The regulators are different for the different gasses which is because they each have a different calorific value, so for the same heat output, mix with more or less oxygen. But - provided the right regulator is on the bottle, the mix arriving at the jet should burn identically, butane or propane. joidevie  -   If the burner is smoky then either it's the wrong jet, there's a blockage in the pipework, or you've reassembled the burner components wrongly thus upsetting the airflow (I had a caravan stove which blackened the bottom of pans for years until I dismantled it to clean it properly, and discovered the previous owner had screwed the top back on the burner 90 degrees too far round, thus the little top plate was sitting on a location lug and was 2 or 3 mms higher than it should have been). The jets should have a number stamped in the brass. I'd check to see if they are the same - it would't be too hard for the factory to supply the 2 the same instead of one G. de V. and the other gaz en bouteille. If you remove the control knob, there is usually a small grub screw which controls the flow (it's to set the level for the low flame without it going out) adjusting this can sometimes be a partial remedy, but it's a bit clutching at straws. p

[quote user="Quillan"]Are you using the correct bottled gas? I always get this the wrong way round but one is for inside use and the other outside because it 'gas's' at a lower temp than the other. I also believe that these two have different jets and that the regulator is different (pressure) as well.[/quote] No, Q. The jets are for a band of pressure - something like 28 to34 from memory, but don't quote me - this being butane at one end, and propane at the other. The regulators are different for the different gasses which is because they each have a different calorific value, so for the same heat output, mix with more or less oxygen. But - provided the right regulator is on the bottle, the mix arriving at the jet should burn identically, butane or propane. joidevie  -   If the burner is smoky then either it's the wrong jet, there's a blockage in the pipework, or you've reassembled the burner components wrongly thus upsetting the airflow (I had a caravan stove which blackened the bottom of pans for years until I dismantled it to clean it properly, and discovered the previous owner had screwed the top back on the burner 90 degrees too far round, thus the little top plate was sitting on a location lug and was 2 or 3 mms higher than it should have been). The jets should have a number stamped in the brass. I'd check to see if they are the same - it would't be too hard for the factory to supply the 2 the same instead of one G. de V. and the other gaz en bouteille. If you remove the control knob, there is usually a small grub screw which controls the flow (it's to set the level for the low flame without it going out) adjusting this can sometimes be a partial remedy, but it's a bit clutching at straws. p

Not much use with cats I know, but with dogs it's a good idea - if you're lucky enough to have one as a puppy - to take it to your local fete and feu d'artifice to get it used to sudden loud noises. I took my spaniel to our fete when she was about 8 months old. Frankly she was more excited by the strange smells and all the new people to get to know as we all milled around.  When the fireworks started with the usual huge air-bomb, she looked at me as if to say, "is this anything I should be worried about?" and when it was clear that I was not only not concerned, but actually enjoying all this noise and bright coloured flashing lights, she just curled up on the steps by my feet and dozed off with that, 'I never cease to be amazed at the odd things that 2-legs find interesting'  look on her face. The only downside is that she now thinks that any loud bang (hunters, aircraft, firworks, thunder) is a signal for a walk! p

Just as a side issue, the 'Donation Entre Epouse' works for childless couples by cutting off the Napolionic code routes whereby members of the family beyond ordinary issue (brothers, sisters, parents) would otherwise inherit portions of the estate. This way, the surviving partner inherits solely and completely (subject, of course, to provisions of the will). p 

No. You can use any color you like for live EXCEPT green/yellow, and BLUE. Blue is always neutral. If you are signed  up for HP/HC  then, at the given hour, the meter receives a signal superimposed on the incoming 50Hz and switches to charge any and all electricity flowing through the meter on the appropriate scale. what you do with the two wires has absolutely no effect on this, they are simply the wires going to and from an internal switch which makes or breaks on the EDF signal.

.... and if the wires are either side of the EDF switch, then they certainly shouldn't be in blue as they will both be live! But then if the installation pre-dates about 1975, then they could be any colour, really (any colour originally, that is - the effect of sunlight on the dyes used in cables before the '70's seems to render just about everything either blue-grey, or redish-brown), as - despite what the regulations might say, I fancy most electricians invented and observed their own 'code'. And EDF seemed equally happy to connect up a supply just as long as it didn't go 'BANG' when they put the main breaker fuse back! Not so today, thank God. p

Like a number of things in our modern over-technical world, I file it under the general heading of 'smart-arze technology'  Like car engine management systems which can't tell the difference between an actual fault, and a faulty sensor. Or hyper-secure online banking systems which won't let you effect a transaction without a one-time passcode, which HAS to be sent via a mobile. Great except when you live in an area outside of the mobile phone service area (thanks, Santander!) p

Somewhere in the Panasonic controls (something like Menu/Setup/Viera Link) will be an option to turn linking functions on and off which *might* work: although probably not. In my case I have a Panasonic TV, a Panasonic Bluray, and a Panasonic A/V receiver (all inter-connected with HDMI cables), and despite turning all Viera Link functions off on both the TV and the individual peripherals, the TV still manages to default to the bluray play every time I turn it on. Equally annoying, every time I cut away from a DVD. (to check - say -  if a satellite programme is recording, or if something has started yet) when I go back, the Bluuray player has turned itself off, and usually lost it's chapter mark as well. As the Americans would say, "Go figure !" paul

This is true.  Since I last looked the TV licence web site has had a make-over, and now says : Watching TV on the internet You need to be covered by a licence if you watch TV online at the same time as it's being broadcast on conventional TV in the UK or the Channel Islands.Video recorders and digital recorders like Sky+You need a licence if you record TV as it's broadcast, whether that's on a conventional video recorder or digital box.Mobile phonesA licence covers you to watch TV as it's broadcast on a mobile phone, whether you're at home or out and about. Which is all well and good, but in the olden days, when detector vans could roam the streets with their revolving roof-racks it was relatively easy for them to detect the working of the local oscillator in the tv's tuner (I believe). Now we have flatscreen TVs and iplayer ??? Not so much, I suspect. I can't see how the man knocking on your door these days would be able to prove you were watching TV off the internet (£££), or TV recorded on your computer's HDD (£££) as opposed to - say - You Tube (free). paul  

The UK argument has always been that if you own the 'capability' to receive transmissions, then you are liable to pay the licence, not just if you turn the set on. If - having once paid a licence fee - you decide one year to disconnect your telly and put it in a cupboard for 12 months,  you'd have a pretty slim chance of getting a refund. However, all this is drifting from the point.. I will be surprised and astonished if the Redevance people are sufficiently, technically clued up to make the distinction between a digital tuner and an analogue one, at least on the first pass, but we'll see p

....Or you could type it into google translate.. it won't be syntactically perfect but you will glean the important bits.

Did anyone buy the recent offer of 'Velux' ** - type roof windows from Brico Depot (the offer was window, blind, and universal flashing kit all in one), by any chance? If so, do you still have the fitting instruction booklet I might borrow and photocopy? I installed the window in the framing, but then had to stop (visitors !) and now that I come to install the flashing I can't for the life of me find the booklet again, and having  emptied the box of flashing bits, I can't make head nor tail of what goes where and in what order. Bloody tiresome, I can tell you ! No point in going back to Brico, as it was one of their "when it's gone: it;s gone" offers. (** they weren't actually Velux make. In fact they are Chinese I think, I used the term generically) paul

Meanwhile, back at the floor tiles...... 50:50 boiling water + HCl mopped on, then the most intransigent (sp?) bits scrubbed with one of those green 3M scotch pan-scrubbers, and then lots of rinsing and mopping and rinsing mopping. Seems to have got most of it off. But clearly it all needs sealing PDQ. I've tried a test piece 50:50 with Linseed oil + White Spirit, but I'm rather afraid that after 2 coats it will end up v.slippy. What have the rest of you used? For info, the tiles are black mock slate, rough textureed, and with a more-or-less matt finish, which is not quite as absorbent as tomettes. The object is to seal the surface and make it (relatively) stain-proof. I really don't want it to end up glossy or slippy. Thoughts, anyone?  p

[quote user="smiley"]Bricodepot Bricoman and others have an economy range of woodburners which offer a considerable saving on the 'big name' makes. Does anyone have any experience of a budget insert and would they recommend one? How reliable are the rated output figures? I do wonder whether these are actual measured outputs or simply a formula based on the parameters of the burner.[/quote] Guesstimates at best I would suggest. I suppose you could say that an insert of these dimentions, under the best possible conditions, burning seasoned hornbeam, might possibly produce this amount of heat.  However - in reality - it means about as much as the stated mpg of a car doing a steady 56mph on a rolling road. In other words, it probably bears little relationship to the real world. As to whether the cheap stoves represent good value for money... I have an expensive cast stove which is over 25 years old, and the only problems we have had with it in that time have been cracked glasses, replacement rope seals, and a twist thumb-screw which held the door closed eventually rusted tight and then sheared off. We also have a cheap Italian stove (roughly 1/3rd the price) of roughly the same dimentions made of 1/4" plate. Only 5 or 6 years old but so far no problems. Heats up quicker than the cast, but shows no sign of bowing, cracking or deteriorating wealds which I though might be the case, so - from my perspective - there seems little point in paying over the odds. I should point out these are both free-standing stoves rather than inserts (can't see the point in them myself: I like the stove to radiate heat from 5 sides rather than 1), maybe others have different experiences. p

[quote user="pachapapa"]A good thixotrope used by mining engineers....(Na,Ca)0.33(Al,Mg)2Si4O10(OH)2·(H2O)n.[I][/quote] I never realised mining engineers were so fond of custard.