Never mind grand designs, try some real DIY nostalgia

[John Rumm]

Recently digitised:

[Nightjar]

held a number of egg races. I think they gave up because my father and me always won. We made a racer with wheels spun from very thin aluminium, with lightening holes punched in them and Dycem tyres, mounted on a tubular steel space frame chassis, made from hypodermic needle tube. IIRC the whole thing weighed about 30 grams.

Colin Bignell

[Jules Richardson]

this as a kid. I'm sure I remember one where they built a machine for shuffling and dealing cards, though, and sadly that one doesn't seem to be there.

Really glad that they've put this up - and that there aren't any geographic restrictions on it, of course :-)

cheers

Jules

[John Rumm]

Yup, we used to do one a week at school usually. First prise was £1 if you won your category! Used to mean I could earn at least an extra quid a week, although I sometimes had to spend more than that to do it!

I can see how that may have dispirited the competition a little ;-)

[newshound]

Highly recommended, especially Catapult.

(But then I am in it, on the CEGB team. I liked Michael French's comments, but I thought Heinz Wolf had some of the engineering wrong).......

[Andy Champ]

What do you mean "Morning"? I had things to do this weekend too!

Andy

[Jules Richardson]

:-) I'm pacing myself - other mornings may be wasted, too ;)

Having watched a couple (hovercraft and steam engine) I was surprised that the teams weren't given more space to work in, more power tools, more time and more materials (it seemed a bit bodgy, having to hand-drill things, or nailing stuff together almost randomly, or taping bits together - I got the impression that it wasn't just down to lack of experience, but that they weren't really provided with enough to do any better)

I suppose that's TV for you - but it would have been nice to see that 3- cylinder engine up and running :-)

cheers

Jules

[Clive George]

You mean why wasn't it scrapheap challenge? :-)

Was there less of a power tools culture back then?

[geoff]

In message , newshound writes

But then, he was a nutritionist, not an engineer

[Ericp]

Just the B&D D500 and ingenuity and hurt fingers.

[Roger Chapman]

I thought the nutritionist was the nutter with the windmill arms (whose name I can't rmember) who was the Government's scientific adviser back in Harold Wilson's day?

[Bob Eager]

Magnus Pyke. Had dinner with him once! .-)

Much taller than I expected - six feet or so.

[Steve Walker]

Yes, there was a card dealing one - ISTR that it rotated around and had a finger with a rubber thimble on at each position, so as to slide a card out ... I could be mistaken though, as it was a long time ago!

SteveW

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: [e-mail] ---

[John Rumm]

Magnus Pike

[Nightjar]

I think he was chosen for the look and the accent.

Colin Bignell

[newshound]

He certainly had them alright; but ISTR that his area was bioengineering. Prosthetics, perhaps?

[newshound]

Way before then; his scientific work was during WW2. From the 60's onwards he was a media pundit.

[geoff]

Ah yes, Magnus Pike (?), but a quick wiki reveals ...

"He spent much of his early career in bioengineering"

so, same area

"I was working in my lab late one night ..."

(10 points for the first correct answer)

[TheOldFellow]

[Andy Champ]

Scary Squashed Potatoes (IYSWIM, and not giving too much away)

Andy