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Post by andyhigham on Jan 27, 2023 19:22:32 GMT
In summer we used to slide down a grassy hill on pieces of cardboard. The hill was about 45 degrees then a flat bit about 2M then a 3-4M drop to the stream. If we were going fast, we needed to jump off before the drop
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2023 19:24:25 GMT
For my 10th birthday (50 years ago) my dad bought me a knackered Land Rover and between us we stripped it right down and rebuilt it over a period of years, I eventually past my driving test in it and drove it for many years. It was a great bonding exercise but sadly a difficult thing to do today.
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lesstoneuk
Part of the e-furniture
Retired Omnibus navigation & velocity adjustment technician
Posts: 373
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Post by lesstoneuk on Jan 28, 2023 1:39:58 GMT
When I was a kid 70 years ago, maccano was number 1 and mini bricks number 2 just after the war, maccano produced pieces to make war planes etc too. soap box carts were a good way of getting rid of the heals of our welly boots , breaks, bangers under man hole covers, or in bottles thrown in the river, skating on thin ice on a pond miles from anywhere with no one to rescue you if you fell through the ice, a bit of electric cable for an over head cable way, to a den high in the trees, walking down the river, crossing it now and again and going for miles in the "bush" on our own with a bottle of pop and a porkpie. how did we survive?? well perhaps some of us didnt, but we lucky suvivers are here to tell the tail/ Jem My personal best at climbing trees was a pine tree in Chalfont Park. I climbed to the top, stuck my head out of the canopy and had the most amazing view. My brother an I were climbing cherry trees, he was way better than me. He taunted me, while in the branches of one of the trees on how bad I was..... I picked up, what seemed like a half brick in my small hands and launched it towards where I thought he was. After an audible thud, he fell out of the tree.... Seemed like I was better at throwing stones than climbing trees. He turned out OK, no harm done
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Post by mugbuilder on Jan 28, 2023 6:27:18 GMT
I love these old memories, reminding me of many of the things I did too. Lego and Meccano were favourites because I could make what I wanted. I did like my train set and Scalextric, but were too limited for my liking. My Dad made me an Electric motor for my Meccano, from a pot magnet and nails for the winding bobbins. It was beautifully made with a hand crafted comutator, was very powerful and had fixings that matched the pitch of the Meccano plates. When I was old enough, I was allowed to make special parts for the Meccano, things that could hold two gears over the outside of the bosses so you could make a proper gearbox where you could change the ratios. Dad's workshop was a cluttered mess. He said he always knew where all his tools were because they were on the bench. He used coloured tape wrapped around things like Chuck Keys so they stood out in the pile. His workshop had a knackered Capstan Lathe that he bought as scrap, and that was a good name for it. It made parts for Spitfires in the war. It was so old that it was previously driven from a line shaft, so Dad fitted an electric motor and a Pre-unit gearbox from an ancient AJS motorcycle. The great thing about being brought up with garbage machines is it taught me how to get far more accuracy from them than ought to have been possible. I don't think we even had a DTI in those days, let alone a DRO, but many accurate things were made by being careful to machine as much as possible in one setup, much as I do today. Dad made me many things, a crane with electric slew, hoist and jib, a Go-Kart with Ackerman Steering and brakes and more. He also made a Motorhome from scratch, using parts from an old 1939 Austin 12 he was given, and later a 30 foot Steel Narrowboat. There was always a way to get around tools and equipment he didn't have, and it was the best ever Apprenticeship a boy could wish for. Dad passed away a couple of years ago, and he maintained that he wasn't very smart. I beg to differ. 174 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr 175 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr 182 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr 191 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr duorf1-2 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr PICT0004 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr Building the van 001 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr Building the van 002 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr Building the van 003 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr Building the van 004 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr The van as completed in 1967 by Timothy Froud, on Flickr It's obvious where Rogers skills come from.
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Post by suctionhose on Jan 28, 2023 7:09:40 GMT
Jem[/quote]My personal best at climbing trees was a pine tree in Chalfont Park. I climbed to the top, stuck my head out of the canopy and had the most amazing view. My brother an I were climbing cherry trees, he was way better than me. He taunted me, while in the branches of one of the trees on how bad I was..... I picked up, what seemed like a half brick in my small hands and launched it towards where I thought he was. After an audible thud, he fell out of the tree.... Seemed like I was better at throwing stones than climbing trees. He turned out OK, no harm done[/quote]
I have restrained from contributing stories from my "boring childhood" as it is thought of round here but we had an unusual trip back in time, to a better place, just last week, on holiday in Western Aust.
In one of the State Forests is an old tree you can climb. Reo bars have been drilled into the trunk to form a spiral and, one by one, up you go...65 metres to the top!
No harness. Nothing under but air. Nothing to stop you falling through or being conked on the head by a falling phone from above. Just hang on and climb!
The thing is you knew the danger and you went carefully. At the top, at a lofty height of over 20 storeys, there we met a tiny slip of a girl aged eight who had done the climb with her father and her brother who was not much bigger.
I'm so sorry my children are subjected to today's paranoia created by over protective adults. Just let kids be kids and they will surprise you.
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smallbrother
Elder Statesman
Errors aplenty, progress slow, but progress nonetheless!
Posts: 2,269
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Post by smallbrother on Jan 28, 2023 9:36:08 GMT
I think it's the claim culture perpetrated by the legal profession that has caused authority (including over sensitive parents) to clamp down on risk.
Pete.
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,907
Member is Online
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Post by JonL on Jan 28, 2023 9:43:42 GMT
One thing that has stayed constant is the use by the media of fearmongering to sell papers. I think that has generated a generation of people who are very aware of risks, sometimes to a crippling degree. Knowledge or lack of it can work both ways.
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Post by mugbuilder on Jan 29, 2023 0:11:58 GMT
We used to, among other dangerous things, raid the local rifle range and dig good 303 bullet heads from the mound. They made fabulous arrowheads when fitted to nice straight reeds collected from the river. The bullet heads were then bored out on my dad's wartime South Bend lathe to be a good fit on the reeds. The bows were made from a nice springy piece of timber selected from the local timber yard. In those days grocery shopping was delivered in big paper bags [by a man driving a horse-drawn wagon]. These bags, when empty would be filled with sand and used as targets. The arrows would go right through them. Couldn't imagine kids doing that sort of stuff today.
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jem
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,064
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Post by jem on Jan 29, 2023 18:30:27 GMT
My first lathe was a no namer, with a bit of investigation, it appears that many were made during the war, for home workshops to make small parts for the war effort. this one had change gears, but not much else, still I learned to make all sorts of things on it. I still have it, but in retirement.
Jem
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Post by simon6200 on Feb 5, 2023 4:56:34 GMT
A right of passage when I was a kid was jumping from one pipe to the next of the 6’ (guess) triple water pipeline that ran through our suburb, and also the local storm water canal. You had to wait to grow big enough to ensure success the first attempt. Now both are enclosed with high cyclone wire fences.
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Post by Boadicea on Feb 5, 2023 10:23:18 GMT
I think it's the claim culture perpetrated by the legal profession that has caused authority (including over sensitive parents) to clamp down on risk. Pete. Generally I agree Pete - but it's also the surrounding people who chastise parents if they take a reasonable risk, and all parents have to. It should be safe for a child of, say 10, to walk home from school. However, the whole world sets on them if something happens - Twitter storms, Faceache etc. The emphasis is always on why the child was allowed to, not how do we can fix our society so it is safe to do so. Many of us can remember putting the front door key under a flower pot. We knew nobody would use it. Everyone knew it was not acceptable to use the key and take stuff and most didn't. Now we don't do it - mainly because everyone thinks it's asking for trouble and the scabby insurance company may not pay up by saying it's negligent. Boils down to morals I think. It's no longer about whether you should be naughty - it's about can I get away with it. Think I'm turning into my dad!
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Post by jon38r80 on Feb 5, 2023 11:23:53 GMT
It isnt social media is it @?. It couldnt be much more ANTI Social. Simplest thing is not to use it at all. I dont care what someone has for breakfastor what the President of the United Snakes or for that matter what Elon Musk or Mr Virgin thinks or says.
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Neale
Part of the e-furniture
5" Black 5 just started
Posts: 278
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Post by Neale on Feb 5, 2023 16:41:03 GMT
It's interesting that usually the biggest "can't do that, health and safety you know" comments come from "amateurs" rather than H&S professionals who understand the concept of risk and risk mitigation.
I'm a SMEE member and spent a lot of time on the SMEE stand at exhibitions. At Alexandra Palace, we usually had a training lathe set up and would invite younger people to come and have a go. We had clear screens round it so people could watch from close up, and the "student" would be appropriately equipped with safety glasses and so on. One day, one of my SMEE colleagues was chatting to a father while their child was using the lathe, under close supervision of a tutor. Father said, "When he's finished, I'll tell you what my job is!" Of course, he worked for the HSE. His comment? "You've looked at the risk areas, and you've put appropriate measures in place. What's wrong with that?" It's that balanced approach that's needed, not a "no risk at any cost".
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jem
Elder Statesman
Posts: 1,064
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Post by jem on Feb 5, 2023 17:04:25 GMT
When I was a kid, you had to respect your elders and betters. It seem to me that that has gone out of the window, no respect for anyone, and the police are a joke, same applies to teachers and everyone else. This is the real problem with society today?
Jem
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Post by giggleswick on Feb 5, 2023 22:49:59 GMT
I also was given a Phillip's electronic engineer's set. I well enjoyed it, and it gave me a good basic knowledge of, and interest in electronics. Regarding things like home made go-carts, its true that common sense was far more common years ago than it seems to be now. Nowadays it seems that almost every other person you see has their head buried in a mobile phone, almost totally oblivious to what is going on around them. And it seems that none (or almost none) of these people are capable of (doing the work of) finding out things for themselves; experimenting, building, working out the method/"how to" of what is involved in building/repairing anything of a practical nature now, from finding a replacement screw/bolt of the right thread etc., to knowing how to re-form (for example) a bent/deformed bracket or piece of platework etc. For far too many people nowadays, if they can't view it on their phone screen (or any other form of computer), then they're all at sea, with no idea, even on how to think (for themselves) a problem out, and achieve a worthwhile solution. Brunel, Trevithick, the Stephenson's, Hackworth, and thousands of other seriously skilled people did enormous amounts of top class, skilled (and pioneering) work with not even a thought of any computer. Don't get me wrong, computers (in any form) properly used, can be, and are, a great asset in all sorts of ways, but they have sadly become a crutch for far too many people, who now are unable to do even the most basic practical things ti help themselves.
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Post by ettingtonliam on Feb 5, 2023 23:59:59 GMT
In order to comply with the Health and Safety rules of a well known major construction company, in order to change a flourescent tube in the office, the fllowing preocedure has to be followed:- Personnel working in the vicinity of the offending tube have to remove themselves and the area is cordoned off with hazard tape. Three 'trained' operatives arrive with a portable scaffold which they proced to erect. This scaffold has an in built ladder, handrails around the top and a safety gate. The power circuit is closed down and the electrician certifies that the tube is now isolated. One operative climbs the scaffold and removes the tube, receives the new one and installs it. Power back on, dismantle scaffold, remove, office personnel back to work. Time taken about an hour. Tube disposed of in hazardous materials container. I kid you not.
An electrician who arrived with a step ladder proposing to change a tube on one occasion was unceremoniously shown the door and told that he would not be offered further work owing to his poor attitude to health and safety. An attempt on my part to change a tube which had been flickering over my desk for about 2 weeks, by hopping up on the desk led to a major row.
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Post by steamer5 on Feb 6, 2023 0:26:19 GMT
Ask the HSE people what they get up to in the weekend……. Skiing, mountain biking, or for an extra thrill doing it at night, sky diving, you name it they do it………
Cheers Kerrin
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Neale
Part of the e-furniture
5" Black 5 just started
Posts: 278
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Post by Neale on Feb 6, 2023 8:14:57 GMT
I once visited a client's office and was warned of the "H&S" rules for use of the staircase. One hand on the banister rail, one step at a time, no running.
At the other end of the scale, an elderly neighbour needed a ridge tile reseating on her house roof. A local jobbing builder came round, ladder against the gutter, push concrete tiles up to use tile battens as steps, up to the ridge to do job, back the same way putting tiles back in position. Risk assessment and mitigation consisted of asking me to foot the ladder for him!
Not all the old school attitudes were sensible, but neither are silly extremes today.
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gwrfan
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Post by gwrfan on Feb 6, 2023 11:12:16 GMT
At the other end of the scale, an elderly neighbour needed a ridge tile reseating on her house roof. A local jobbing builder came round, ladder against the gutter, push concrete tiles up to use tile battens as steps, up to the ridge to do job, back the same way putting tiles back in position. Risk assessment and mitigation consisted of asking me to foot the ladder for him! . In the past I have re-roofed 3 properties of my own (Cornish slate) without scaffolding and with no additional help. A few weeks ago a lady in town asked if there was a roofer available to replace one slipped slate. He went to the property and said he could replace said slate, but she would need scaffolding at a cost of ......... £700!!!
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Post by jon38r80 on Feb 6, 2023 13:29:59 GMT
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