Never throw anything away

[Huge]

Just used a piece of an old garden pavilion (one of those tent-like things) to mend the handle of the grass bin cover on the ride-on lawnmower.

[Jabba]

Huge wrote

It must be a struggle to drive the lawnmower around the piles of scrap in your yard. Probably cheaper to buy a couple of sheep.

[Bill]

In message , Jabba writes

But then you would have to train them to operate the mower.

>

[JimK]

What what!

Jim K

[Brian Gaff]

Geese might be better, and they seem less likely to misbehave, and if they do you just eat them. Brian

[John Williamson]

You've obviously never met real geese, then. They get very territorial and gang up on intruders, and aren't always able to recognise their owner. You also need a pond for them to wash in, which rapidly becomes like an open septic tank.

[Robin]

As in "I didn't nick it, it fell off the back of a passing SR-71 officer"?

[Tony Bryer]

I was a building inspector back when roof tie-down straps were first brought in and at first they weren't always easy to obtain. I went to inspect an extension in Chessington to be greeted with some superb straps like I'd never seen before. "Don't tell anyone", said my self-build client, "but I work for Hawkers [Kingston] and they're titanium alloy offcuts". Perhaps you had a bit of the same?

[Huge]

Reminds me of a friend who had an Austin 1100 gearbox first motion shaft made in the machine shop at Rolls Royce aero engines.

(When I worked in the fitting shop at WD & HO Wills in Bristol, these jobs were called "foreigners". I still have the Newton's cradle I made there around here somewhere.)

[ARW]

I thought for a moment you were going to say you had found a use for a knackered pedestal fan.

[fredsmithdc]

Nah. Geese shit all over the place and goose skitter is nasty stuff. They do make good watch dogs. Didn't they save Rome.

[Bill Wright]

Very light, same colour as aluminium, almost impossible to cut or bend.

Bill

[Huge]

Naah. That went off to landfill last Wednesday.

[mail-veil]

They used titanium for making the turbine blades for Concorde (probably others too). I knew a guy who worked on them at Filton and they used one drill bit for each hole drilled, still have a couple lurking in the workshop and they come in handy from time to time!

Mike

[Cursitor Doom]

No, you want ganders for that, M8. Bit more intelligent and discriminating than their female counterparts.

[Cursitor Doom]

Very much like stainless steel, then. Apart from the light weight...

[Cursitor Doom]

Yeah, but there are differnent grades of titanium and the lower ones aren't much tougher than mild steel.

[PeterC]

Chap who used to race a vintage Scott reckoned he needed a bit more speed (true - my mate had one and I was forever trying to get him a bit more performance - and changing plugs, bloody 2-strokes). This chap owned a machine shop so had the facilities. He was at the race the next weekend with titanium con-rod and crankshaft. This was in the '70s and I've no idea of the price of such a chunk as would be needed for that job.

[PeterC]

The piece that I have is thin sheet, fully annealed and has some irridescence. I used some to make platforms to fit inside Campag Super-Record pedals. The bends were radiused and made slowly and genty - cracks appeared after a couple of weeks.

[Nightjar]

You will want something off it next week.