What have you been doing today?

The Sainsbury's guy was most grateful that I'd pitched in but what I found bizarre is that there were other members of staff watching it all unfold but they were doing nothing.

I think they have a general rule now, not to try to prevent theft, because of previous risk of injuries which have occurred, trying to prevent theft.

We took a trip to the local town, to do a bulk shop at Iceland this morning, taking advantage of their pensioners discount, and free delivery if you spend more than £20. After which, I cracked on with the mobility scooter trailer for the dog. I made up an eye, to hook on the towing pin, hammered cold into an eye, from some steel rod, then threaded the other end 8mm. I then drilled (8mm) and turned a piece of scrap brass, ready to fit in a bit of alloy caravan awning pole. The idea of that, is to allow the eye to rotate, in the brass drilling when scooter and trailer cross uneven ground. 8mm rod, will have a nut and washer, either end of the brass, with the brass drilled and tapped through the side of the tube, so it cannot move.

I'm still waiting for Avril to turn up with the scrap kid's bike, so I can salvage the wheels - so I'm marking time, until these turn up, not really able to fully design it..
 
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finally finished the top, getting a bit sick of it in the end, huge amount of time. Apparently they are the 7 classical planets of ancient time (they must have thought sun and moon were planets!) Arranged in days of the week starting with the Sun (sunday) at the very bottom then going clockwise - Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus and finally Saturn (saturday)

not sure what I'm doing for its legs yet, but going to leave it for a month - have a rest from it

new project, plumb in (aye copper fittings) an inspection lamp for the lathe - LOL

zAstroTable.jpg
 
finally finished the top, getting a bit sick of it in the end, huge amount of time. Apparently they are the 7 classical planets of ancient time (they must have thought sun and moon were planets!) Arranged in days of the week starting with the Sun (sunday) at the very bottom then going clockwise - Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus and finally Saturn (saturday)

not sure what I'm doing for its legs yet, but going to leave it for a month - have a rest from it

new project, plumb in (aye copper fittings) an inspection lamp for the lathe - LOL

View attachment 349375
That’s very nice. (y)
 
Paid off a loan! Apart from our mortgage, we have never, ever, had a loan or a credit card that we have paid a penny interest on - our view is that if we haven’t got the money, we can’t have the item whatever it might be. When we bought our kitchen units from Magnet a few months ago, they were doing a deal where you can pay nothing for a year and then either clear the loan with no interest or pay off over 5 years at some ridiculous interest rate. To save taking money out of our account at the time, I chose that. We had until May 2025 to pay but since a couple of our bonds have matured, Mrs Mottie has been crazing me to pay it "in case we forget and have to pay interest". I said we might as well wait till May and earn interest on that amount but she was having none of it so to ease her mind, I paid it. Happy wife, happy life…….
 
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The kids toy bikes appeared today, along with a surplus, plastic bread delivery basket, so it was full speed ahead, with the trailer for the dog, to attach behind the mobility scooter.

The bikes were of the type with no pedals, or brakes, just a frame, seat and wheels. I rather expected the 12" plastic wheels, would just have a crude bush, but no, they were each fitted with a pair of decent roller bearings. The shaft through the middle, was far too short to be useful, so I turned down some 10mm threaded rod at the end, in the lathe to fit the bearing inners, then crossed drilled the outer end, to accept a R spring pin. A 10mm nut at each end of the thread, and they were a perfect fit for some thin, square tube, I had ear marked for an axle tube.

It's a two wheel job, just a steel tube slightly rear of centre, and an alloy tube as a draw-bar forming a T, with the rear of the basket unsupported by the frame.

I expected the plastic basket to be far too small, but it was just the right size. Avril test fitted one of the spare memory foam dog beds, and that too was a near perfect fit - just enough surplus around the sides, to turn up to cushion the sides.

The next trick, is to teach the dog to ride in it. She has already more than accepted riding up the stairs, on the adapted stair lift - You only have to hint at going up, and she jumps on ready to ride up.
 
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Apart from our mortgage, we have never, ever, had a loan or a credit card that we have paid a penny interest on - our view is that if we haven’t got the money, we can’t have the item whatever it might be.
Actually, I’ve just remembered - we have! A few years ago now we bought a pre-owned Range Rover and they were doing a deal of two years manufacturer's warranty, two years breakdown cover and two years free servicing if you took out HP. I tried to get a hundred quids worth of HP but the minimum was £10K. I took that but paid it off all bar £100 a few month later ( the catch was that you couldn't pay it off in full before 6 months had passed). Now I find out I’m eligible for some kind of payout in this latest HP scam to do with car loans. Dunno what I’ll be getting though.
 
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Took Mrs Mottie out to lunch today. We were meant to be going out with friends but they had to cancel this morning as my mates near 90 odd year old dad had a fall last night and broke his hip! Having the surgery today. We went here, sat outside and because it was hot, we both had chicken salads. I’m bloody starving now! After lunch, we went looking for paint to finish the kitchen off and after what seemed like an hour choosing something from the Valspar range, we went to get it mixed and found out the mixing machine was broken. :mad: Been trying to book a holiday for September but there’s just too much bloody choice. Sometimes I wish we'd not sold the villa. Only some times!
 
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Running data cables in local school during holidays, kids finished at 12 today so popped in and dropped cable & trunking at various locations, probably my last summer doing this, Mrs CB retires in January which might prompt my retirement, its easy work and pays well, hard to walk away
 
Driving much of the day, slowly, to spend a week in Hertfordshire, home of the horny plumber.
Will spend a day at Lakeside do a bit of shopping and generally just do some mooching around. Nice not to be working for a week.
 
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