Ronaldo47

Blades are available in a range if different tooth pitches optimised for different metals and thicknesses. A few drops of 3-in-1 oil or the like can help extend life when sawing steel. It is not always appreciated that many hacksaw frames have square-section saw blade attachment pieces that allow the blade to be oriented sideways or backwards relative to the frame, as well as the normal forwards position. These alternative positions can be useful if you need to saw off something like a bolt close to a wall or other obstruction, or inside a channel or ducting, as I had to do a few months ago.

A couple of years ago, a radio programme on the Tower of London mentioned that the Krays were the last people to be imprisoned there. They had failed to turn up at their allocated army base when called up for national service. At that time, the Tower was still an operational army base, and as it was the closest to the Kray's home, they were put there for a night after their arrest before their transfer to a military prison.

I am pretty sure that The World at War series was made later. There were several series on TV about WWII in the 1950's, the British- made "War in the Air" and the US-made "Victory at Sea".

I well remember seeing the Trollenberg Terror on TV as a child in the 1950''s. I am pretty sure it was shown in weekly episodes then. I see that TPTV [Freeview channel 82] is showing it on Saturday 29th March, 5.20 to 7.00 pm: not sure if this is the same thing I saw on TV, or a film of the same name.

Ireland (Eire) was in transition when we toured it in the early 1990's: distance in km, speed limits in mph. Apparently the distances on mile posts had previously been given in Irish Miles, not Statute Miles. This made conversion extremely simple, as one Irish Mile is almost exactly equal to 2km, so they only had to double all the numbers. In some of the more remote areas, you could see signs where, rather than provide new ones, the old miles distances had been painted over with the new km distances.

My first experience of canals was in 1976 with an equally inexperienced crew of friends. One thing we soon learned was that it it was advisable to remove the windlass from the paddle gear once the paddle had been raised. At that time, the ratchets of many of the paddles were badly worn and prone to release themselves. Not too much of a problem where the mechanism was stiff, but many we encountered moved very freely. One girl's wrist was probably saved from injury by the wide and hollow gold bangle she was wearing, that became a mangled bangle after the windlass handle attached to a rapidly-descending paddle struck it, and at a different lock, the windlass came off and was thrown into the air at high speed, fortunately missing everyone when it landed.

Reminds me of an apparently genuine incident reported on the news a few years ago at the time that "Minder" was being shown on UK TV. A group of British tourists in the USA were travelling in a bus that was involved in an accident, some of them suffering injuries. An ambulance-chasing lawyer was surprised that none of them took up his offer of help. His name was Arthur Dayley.

When I need to ensure a heat shrink joint is waterproof, I apply a smear of electrical-grade silicone rubber over the cable before fitting the tubing. I use stuff that I get from elecronics distributors such as CPC, one of the types that is safe to use for encapsulating electronic circuits. Some types of ordinary silicone rubber release acetic acid when curing that can react with copper.