fraggle42

I built something similar to the big one from a huge kit when I just got my first job (always fancied one), cost about £600 in parts 25 years ago. Loved building it, making sure all the bearings were free and lubed, balancing things and threadlocking everything. And then running the nitro engine in - tied the whole thing to a railway sleeper so it wouldn't go anywhere. Or that was the plan. It couldn't lift it fully, but it did manage to lift one end of the sleeper up in the air a few inches! Really surprised me as those railway sleepers are damned heavy things. This model was back in the days before carbon fibre, all alloy construction and the weight overcome by the simple solution of a bloody huge engine After I ran it in I did try to fly it, but gyros weren't in my price range so didn't have one. I remember I actually did better than I have with The Kid - bigger = heavier = slower response = more stable, but I just couldn't bring myself to break something I'd loved building, couldn't find a club or someone to teach me, so it sat around for a while and eventually got sold. Older and slight chance of being wiser now, plus if it turns into expensive fragments it's only a weeks wages

I've had this Nexus 5 for a year now, and also still got a Dell Streak somewhere that was used for a few months before being chucked in the cupboard. The things that bug me about it * Battery life is worse, even after disabling NFC, removing apps that use location services a lot, preventing apps from using backgound WiFi data a lot. Get 2.5 days on average. * The "press button to show all your apps". You know the hated Windows 8, with a start screen, and a "down" button to get to a damn ugly, unusable long flat list of EVERY PROGRAM, HELP FILE and accessory? Remind you of something? * I had about 140 contacts. Went on hols to my sister a few weeks ago, on the way there at a stop got phone out to call her. Not in address book? It only had 90 or so contacts in it? 50 had 'gone' (no they weren't just Skype or Facebook contacts) Oddly the "quick link" to my sister WAS still there, but as it was a link to absolutely nothing (not even a blank contact entry), pressing it did absolutely nothing, confusing as hell. * The addressbook / contact list is a bloody nightmare. If you log into facebook you do not get a choice if you want it to sync FB contact info, it just does it. Making loads of duplicate contacts, contacts that you only have in FB that have NO info in them as the FB user hasn't shared info. Can't turn off FB sync without removing FB from accounts. Ditto for any damned thing it adds to "Accounts" (apart from Skype which is the only one that DOES give you an option to easily enable/disable contact sync - proving it can be done) * Updated it to 4.4.3 a couple of days ago wondering if that could cure some of these problems. It may have, but the "cannot use camera" and, "bluetooth stopped working" errors I saw yesterday are not a good sign all has gone well. * Android games are poor. Trying to find a decent action, racing, flight sim sim on Android is fruitless, there aren't anything comparable to what you can get on Apple. I've no idea WHY this is, as the hardware has been upto it for years but the game writers just don't port the games across. Fav is Radiant Defense, a static 2D shoot-em-up. Apple is a very closed in ecosystem, I know the app writers tear their hair out sometimes trying to get app approval and having to jump through stupid Apple requirements, BUT the OS and UI still pees on everything else out there from a great height. (I've got a Windows phone too that was tried for a month - very simple and easy OS and it all worked just fine, but far too restrictive for me)

So when I have learned to do 3D flying with this one, can I have a play in your F16? Should be easier?

Haha, no that's just for scale This is everything I picked up along with the heli:-

I am FAR from any kind of Rolex expert (or fan really), but you asked so here it is The '13' date looks too far to the left, the white space to the left and right is not even. The '15' minute bezel insert marker is aligned to a tooth on the bezel, but the '45' marker is not quite aligned to a tooth. The 7pm dial index seems to be filled with more lume than the others. The lume in the hour hand seems to be slightly under filled. Rehaut doesn't line up with minute markers. Security clasp (on the clasp) is poor, sitting at an angle, upper left bar/arm is bent out fractionally. Lume brightness does not match between hour indices, non-hour indices and hands. And your window sill is dirty! Get it cleaned!!

(after a hell of a lot of practice on the sim Meet Big Daddy and The Kid. Got The Kid a year or so ago, couldn't find any local clubs so spent some very frustrating months attempting to learn in my garage whilst praying it didn't do another suicidal bit for the concrete wall (always the corner that sticks out...), which it did with depressing regularity. After spending the same as it cost new again in replacement and upgraded bits (bad idea - make something stronger and the next thing along in the line breaks or bends) I kinda let it rest in peace. (main shaft bent, replaced it, still crazy vibes from the rotors) A few weeks ago I find out there are actually THREE local clubs! I did find one but they hadn't updated their website in 4 years so assumed they were dead. So now I know there are clubs, and trainers, and help, I had a look around to see what was out there, and found Big Daddy... < grins >

And all that stuff just to process the pilots poop! Amazing what they can do now. What do the sandwiches that come out the other end taste like?

We're all DOOOOOOMED!

I'll likely get the Plus 64GB. Didn't bother with the iPhone 5 at all, switched to a Nexus 5 but the large screen is the only advantage the Android phones have, a lot of other things are just a PITA so will probably switch back. Or throw them all in the bin as no one calls me

I do like the looks of the Galaxy round watch, and this apple watch looks OK. But every time I consider should I get one, I remember that they are NOT smart watches, they're dumb watches with a lovely screen that can't do much without a phone to connect too. I think ALL manufacturers of these have missed the boat big time. I want a smart watch that syncs the alarms, calendar, phone book, diary, a few hundred songs, with a battery that lasts a few days at least, so I can use it usefully without it having to be in contact with the phone all the time. I don't want the watch to tell me I've got a call / text, I don't particularily want it to have a mobile data connection, just bluetooth so it can stream stereo audio to my headphones whilst I have my lunchtime walk. The rest, it can remind me of appointments (as it's synched the calendar the previous evening), alarms, yes, it's a phone book that I can look up numbers on to dial them on the office phone. Fitness things would be good too. And a watch, a damned good watch, accurate to very accurate. Calendar for the next 1000 years. Multiple alarms. Sleep audio music player. Stopwatch. Kitchen timer. Haptic feedback and also vibration for alarms and diary entries.

The responsibility to offer to replace the bag with the correct one, yes. The responsibility for any other damaged caused indirectly or directly to any other party or property, no. That's called consequential loss and is a whole different ballgame. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequential_damages What if the unsealed package with the bag in, whilst sitting in the postal office, was infested by some insect type foreign to the destination, that got out on arrival and then proceeded to cause billions of dollars of damage to the ecology of that country? Do you think Ken should pay for that? What if Ken chucks this bag next door to a strap maker who chooses the wrong bit of leather, a bit that has weaknesses in, and a despot group leader buys the strap, it breaks, falls off, smashes his nicked Rolex and he is that [censored] he starts world war 3? Ludicrous, but in the same vein.

Sorry to hear this Ken. Having read all the replies my thoughts are:- * The original error was on your sales persons behalf, that cannot be questioned. The extend to how much that would bother the customer is subjective, but this is the rep game and we all know you have no legal obligations, just honesty and the desire to uphold a good trading name and continue in business. I think asking the customer to return the bag, possibly covering their return postage (once back with you and in a resellable condition) is a fair course of action. * The buyer lives in a tropical country. Unless they have never, ever bought leather goods before they will know what a hot, humid environment will do to leather if you wrap it up in a plastic bag. Common sense applies and I don't think you have a responsiblility to provide instructions on how to pack goods (for return or anything else) * When it arrived in wrecked condition, it's obviously not resellable or usable (maybe source material for a few straps!), the customer can be expected to know how leather responds in their own environment and has a responsibility to ensure it arrives at yours in the condition you sent it out - i.e. new. Customers fault entirely. So to me you have attempted to make good on your original error, the customer has failed to return the goods, essentially destroying them, so your obligation ends there. I think your offer of $50 for a new $300 bag, in what is essentially a new transaction is commendable. If the customer doesn't accept that they are a sandwich short of a picnic and living in cloud cookoo land. If they decide to "slander" you here, I suspect 99% of us will just point and laugh at their post, replying with suitable comments.

Join the forums that host these as trusted dealers and order via the links provided on those forums. Technically you will have protection via the mods of those forums then.

If he believed "a Muslim is a terrorist" he wouldn't have bothered to even write the "Muslim" part or the "terrorist" part. As he wrote both parts together he obviously doesn't believe all muslims are terrorists. It certainly could have been phrased better, but your logic in interpreting his words is flawed.

I'm with Nightwatch on this one. We all know QC has been getting worse (thanks to ZF), and prices are going up. The only reason QC came about was because the buyers back then were asking for it and complaining about the quality and problems. If we can see prices going up and QC getting worse and say and do nothing they'll just think everything is happy and in the end we'll be receiving bags of broken bits for 50% the price of the gen. If we don't let them know they need to step up their QC, they ain't going to do it.

Wow, that dial refinishing looks great - they've completely gotten rid of the dent in it. Looks a lovely piece, and I'd stick with a leather strap meself.

Seconds and date at 6? Huh? The date is at 3?

Personally I would just potter along by yourself, making things for your own use. That way you're under no pressure to make something for someone else by a certain time, for a certain budget. Once you've got the designs for whatever finalised and you are happy with them, I'd send a couple off to people who specialise in building those kinds of frankens and get their feedback, integrate their feedback, produce another couple, send back, until everyone's happy. At that point word of mouth will do the rest. Kind of like TC does for his Rolex builds. He doesn't have a "shop" as such, just a blog, and you don't just buy one, you talk to the man and ask him if he'll build you one. That way you still keep the hobby aspect, and the interest (the most crucial part to me), and it removes a lot of the pressure. It also has the benefit that if what you produce is really good, you can find yourself in "fabled" status where people really, really want one of your cases (or whatever) Good luck!

The font ain't right. Close, but not close enough. It would be OK if it was a $150 beater but not for anything that costs more. (and you could probably get something better for $150 to be honest)

Love that nail gun - had me going for a minute too as I looked at it and thought "where the hell does the nail clip go? That's the 18V battery... err..."

Received two straps from Donerix today. Both lovely, but somehow one is about 1.5cm longer and too long for me to wear, getting sorted tho.

The new motor drivers and the controller are compatible with the old way of driving them via a parallel port, which is what my old software uses. The software is an ancient version of Mach (V2 I think - it's a DOS program) which I feed with the G code generated by a plugin to an equally ancient version of Autocad. It works, but is very basic and I have to do a lot of work in Autocad to get the simple 3D objects I want, plus usually quite a bit of hand editing the G code to optimise it. The motors, drivers and simple controller I've just got cost £300, and I'm thinking of getting a Planet CNC controller http://www.planet-cnc.com/ The software that comes with that controller looks nice, and it can import a lot of other formats beside basic G-code (and as the controller is an intelligent one with it's own microcontroller, you can just feed G-code straight to it) That'll leave me with the CAD software to choose and buy. There's loads of those about, so I think it'll be rather problematic finding one that's good and within my price range. To sort out the differing tool depth offsets I've seen videos of CNC machines where they have a small microswitch mounted somewhere that, when a tool has been changed, they tell the controller to measure the tool depth offset and it drives the tool so that it's above the microswitch and then it lowers it until the switch is switched and the controller (or PC software) then knows the tool depth offset. A lovely and simple idea They also do cool things like mount a video camera on the tool holder mount and use the video image to record the position of two known points on the work piece. The controller software can then rotate the program so that it will work perfectly even if the work piece is rotated to any angle - very cool!

I bought a mini CNC machine a few years ago. Came with ancient CAD/CAM software. Just upgraded the main motor to a nice direct drive DC, and bought upgraded stepper motors + controllers + PSUs for it. Looked into the cost of new CAD/CAM software and decent stuff is a lot of money

EBay doesn't give a damn, I think most of us have reported fakes for sale on there and they usually do nothing until the original maker reports it.

For a replacement movement I would go with the TC 2824, they're about $125 plus P&P. I've got four, one in my Omega PO 45.5, two in two Rolex reps and the other is a spare. They work like butter and are better than the asian movements.