1967 DIY

[Andy Champ]

They told me that.

There I am, 6 years, old, skinny as a stick, and they say jump into this (unheated outdoor) swimmingpool, lie back and relax, and you'll float.

I didn't.

"You didn't relax". What did they expect? I was sinking!

I didn't learn to swim until I was 14, and I'm still not very good at it. Better BTW in salt water, where I float.

I *always* wear a lifejacket!

Oh, the Mirror? Well that was the source of my son's first capsize. He was about 3, and sitting in the boat while I sailed. Quite breezy, so I was out on the toestraps as far as I could go, when I got a gust. That's OK, free the main. Jib cleated, so it blows the bow down until the main sets again, and in we go. Only for a few seconds, but enough to get him all wet.

Andy

[clot]

Capsized an Enterprise once with my elder son crewing. The boat turned turtle. My son scrambled on the upturning hull so that he didn't get wet!

[Doctor Drivel]

never used power tools - maybe at the end he did. The only flash tool was a Yankee screwdriver; which everyone went Wow!! I believe they are banned on sites now.

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, wide angled cameras weren't available to everyone and there wasn't room in the bathroom for the fitter AND the photographer.

Mary

[Dave Plowman (News)]

With all the holes pre-drilled and assembled before - which made it look very easy.

Yankees have of course been replaced with cordless drivers. But they were very dangerous things when used with slotted screws - as at first. When the BBC changed over to pozidriv in their construction shop in the '70s, accidents reduced by a vast amount.

[Chris J Dixon]

Isn't the other danger that of releasing one from the compressed state, and getting the bit in someone's eye, or elsewhere?

Chris

[dennis]

They weren't particularly dangerous if you held the knurled bit like you were supposed to.

[Dave]

Another danger is getting your fingers a bit too close to the spiral and main body. It can take your skin off something terrible.

Dave

[geoff]

In message , George writes

Watched it from behind the sofa with a periscope

Now there's a scary image

[Martin Bonner]

:-)

Hijack alert:

My other half has brought home a useful DIY handbook which was cluttering up her office. I am trying to date it approximately (no copyright date of course).

- There is useful advice on how to move a light. A gas light.

- The gas pipes were iron and you hired a die to thread them (or got the shop to thread them for you).

- The preferred mixture for sealing the threads was a mixture of boiled linseed oil, 3.5 oz red lead, 1.5 oz white lead! Thick paint was an acceptable substitute!!

- Skilled gas-fitters might check for leaks in the new pipe work with a lighted match (but this was not a suitable method for amateurs).

- There is also discussion of electric lighting, and electric irons

- Electric irons are obviously terribly new-fangled because there is a handy tip to use an upturned domestic laundry iron in a vice as an anvil. Closer inspection of the picture reveals that they are talking about an old fashioned plain piece of metal with handle.

(Actually, I'm inclined to think that searching for gas leaks with a match is probably less dangerous than using SWMBO's iron as an anvil!)

Any dates?

[geoff]

It paid for the new science wing at my school (looking for a gas leak with a match, that is ... apparently)

[cerberus]

If the electric iron was 'newfangled' it'll be after 1892, Irons using an electrical resistance were first shown by both Crompton and Co. and the General Electric Co. in 1892.

Don.

[Cicero]

================================== The laundry iron would be a 'flat iron' made from a solid lump of cast iron. They came in various sizes and were often used with a 'slipper', which is a thin metal cover clipped on to the bottom to make sure the base (heated on the gas ring or coal fire) didn't soil the clothes.

[Adrian C]

And the model was quite sensitive of pictures of, ahem... her behind....

[Mary Fisher]

I hadn't realised it was a woman!

Mary