The Engineer

The Nottingham caves are unique in that they are all hand-carved.

Ed Balls went to Crossdale Drive Primary School in Keyworth and then Nottingham High School.

Peter Bowles ("To the Manor Born" and "Only when I Laugh" among others) lived on Kersall Drive, Bulwell and went to High Pavement.

In the main, you can trust police officers but clearly not all of them. Same goes for any group, e.g. teachers, doctors, judges, tradesmen, scout leaders, priests, politicians, celebrities, etc. Any group will have a few dodgy members and a personal bad experience with an individual can obviously create a subjective prejudice against the whole group.

Visited the clock this morning. Cobweb Wheel and Top Feature both running normally. At 08:45, the bell struck, the petals dropped and the music started. However, the Orchestra didn't budge, though I could hear the motor running. I borrowed some step ladders to get up close and remove some covers. As I had now surmised, the two lengths of belt that I had glued to the drive pulley (26-Jun) were lying loose, having somehow come adrift. I removed the geared motor assembly. I still had the rest of the inner tube that I had previously used to enhance the drive for the Top Feature but there wa

Got a message today to say the animals aren't spinning when the should. I guess this means the orchestra players. I'll arrange to visit Birmingham within a few days to look at this (though looking ain't gonna fix it - must take spanners and a meter). Engineer.

They rely on the fact that natural gas is only combustible when at a concentration between 5% and 15% in air. The bigger risk from high concentrations is suffocation. Of course by the time some gas has wafted up to street level, it could well be at 10% concentration and ready to pop.

If unions are to survive, they need seriously to review what they are about. The original concept of power through numbers and walking out simply doesn't work anymore. I know that at a 'local' level, union reps and branch officials by and large do a good job and help individual members with claims and issues. However, at the top end, they seem to have 'lost the plot' and you get characters whose personal agenda subsumes their elected role, often with designs on being a politician (case in point: Alan Johnson, postman through union to cabinet minister).

The point I make is that unions had their place - sure they changed the world, mainly for the better in regard of working conditions and a day's pay for a day's work. Also I would assert that Health and Safety is rigidly controlled in the UK today (some would say "gone mad") and the law would discourage any reputable employer from 'persuading' employees to bypass safety devices. As for solidarity and industrial action, where did it get the coal and steel industries in the UK? Most here will know someone who used to be a pitter in the Notts mines and I have sympathy for those who lost jobs a

Striking is futile. There is no more money for teachers and the firefighters have to accept that their pensions are what they are (like millions of other are having to do). Trade unions are to a large degree anachronistic. Many of the issues that culminated in their formation are now covered by legislation, not least of which is Health and Safety. We have a minimum wage and further than that, market forces will drive demand for labour (i.e. if anyone wants a big pay rise they need to better themselves to get promotion or seek a better opportunity with a different employer). The 'big' unio

If the government announced a scheme to save £150m on each of several occasions that meant 2,000,000 public sector workers would lose a day's pay each time (based on £75 each), would the workers go for it? There are threats to repeat the strikes into next year so I'm just totting up how many schools and hospitals we can build with the money we've saved already with more to come. Sure it inconvenienced parents but did anyone notice closed libraries or lack of firefighters? The union leaders say they advance their cause with each day's strike (but remember the union leaders aren't losing pay

Had Germany tried just a little harder, they could have made it 8-1; "eight bloody one" (Gordon Ottershaw on the defeat of Barnstoneworth United).

In regard of sentencing, the judge will look at other similar cases to be seen to be fair. Max Clifford was given 8 years custody for 8 counts of indecent assault. RH was convicted on 12 counts of indecent assault. I think immediate custody is inevitable rather than a suspended sentence. The similarity is that both pleaded not guilty, leading to a trial and the need for victims to recount the events for the public record.

TODAY - SATURDAY 28-JUN I visited Brum this morning. The wheel was rotating but the rubber tyre on the drive shaft had a groove in it about 4mm deep where it had been turning against a stopped or slow moving wheel. I spent as long as it took to lap the bearings and shaft to a point where I could turn the wheel with one hand gripping the central hub. I fitted a new rubber tyre. To press the rubber tyre against the drive hub on the wheel I had devised a swinging arm with a counterweight. I was now able to shift the counterweight to reduce the pressure to a minimum, which should increase th

Originally there was a fixed shaft and the wheel had two flanged bronze bushes. At some point in the clock's history, it was modified (were I to be unkind I'd say butchered) to fit two ball bearings in plummer blocks behind the wheel. That was obviously done without careful consideration of the load and moments about the axis. The shaft, the bushes and the wheel were all pinned together and rotated as one. The ball bearings were too close together and ultimately failed on more than one occasion due to excessive lateral loading. I proposed that during restoration we revert to the original

FRIDAY 27-JUN Tim sent me a text to say that he had called by and the wheel had stopped. He said he nudged it and it started up again. I didn't like the sound of this because it might mean that the geared motor is getting stressed if the wheel is still too tight (and that was the brand new motor that cost around £300+VAT). I said I'd visit again a.s.a.p. to ease the wheel. Engineer

And so to this week........... THURSDAY 26-JUN Had been at work in the morning so got to MP around 1430hrs. Wasn't expecting Spider + driver until 1530hrs so had a look around the clock. I then saw that the shims I had used on the Cobweb Wheel bearings were coming out and one or two were completely out (still captive on the shaft). I took the outer bearing and its shims off. They were smothered in oil - must have oozed out of the Oilite bearing as we hadn't added extra lube. I cleaned the shims then glued them together to make one solid mass. I tried to refit the bearing + shim but it

Before I continue with the update on the work at Millennium Point, just need to say that I've been contacted by Intu's design consultants about the water works and the power requirements for re-installation in Vic Centre. Appears there would be a problem with having the electrical control box in the nearby corridor as the route for cables would have to pass through an occupied shop on the ground floor (they don't want to do that). I said the panel doesn't need to be remote (just that it was remote before). In fact I'd prefer the panel near the clock as it would make maintenance easier. We'

THURSDAY 19-JUNE I arrived on site at 0945hrs. The Spider was fixed so up we went (one of the MP technicians and I). The dodgy face was the rear one (we've decided that the Cobweb Wheel is the front of the machine). I re-synchronized all four faces to 12:00. We moved down to the Top Feature turntable. My intention was to put a section of inner tube over the pulley (the pulley is a rubber-faced Flexello wheel that is probably the original: 40+ year old rubber is understandably a bit hard). However it proved not possible to stretch the inner tube enough to fit in-situ (there is limited ac

Not posted for a while as have been busy trying to fix a clock................. Now then, where was I ...... we covered the three day move/install (2/3/4-Jun) and that ended with a poorly clock in many respects. So, next visit was the following week: TUESDAY 10-JUNE Petal drive - the vee belt was too long and the mechanism too tight (stiffness from overspray on bearing surfaces). As a temporary fix, I fitted the vee belt inside out. At worse it would damage the belt but it seemed to work for now and overcame the stiffness in the mechanism. It was also apparent that the "throw" of the cr

Why do these bridges need names anyway? If anyone asks me, I shall say "the tram bridge over the ring road" and "the tram bridge over midland station"; not that anyone is going to pose such a question.

So those rigs that were sold in the masses in the 80s (UK FM band, 40 channel) - did they become illegal at some point and are they legal again now? eng

Wasn't it Abraham Lincoln who famously said in 1855 "You can't believe everything you read on the Internet"?

Probably not common knowledge 'cos it ain't true! Gail [insert surname] on Corrie is played by Catherine Helen Wigglesworth (Helen Worth being her stage name). Harry's real name was Harry Bourlon Illingsworth.

Took some finding but it seems that the diameter of the ends of the bottom bracket axle should be 15.86mm +0.00mm, -0.15mm (that's about 5/8"). A likely source for a 4" rubber-faced cast iron wheel is Reids of Nottingham, Miall Street, Radford so I shall enquire there.