Fresh air and exercise ...

I've just played my first game of golf for about a year. I'm not a great golfer, but I do own a set of clubs and enjoy a round of golf with friends. I maintain that I get much more value out of each round, because I get to hit the ball more times than most of my playing partners!

Today was a perfect golfing day. It started out misty, but the sun came up, burned away the mist and we enjoyed the morning in the warm sunlight.

I stood on the first tee with some fear and trepidation. Golf is a game that rewards practise and dedication and I had given it neither. I teed the ball up a little higher than usual, swung the club a little less enthusiastically than usual, and to my delight (and some surprise) managed to launch the ball towards the hole along the fairway. So far honour (and diginity) had been maintained!

The game progressed well, I continued to strike the ball with gusto and make great strides along the fairways. The odd edged ball caused some laughter, but all in all a very pleasing round.

It was when I looked at my score that my disappointment developed. How can I have hit the ball so well, and got to the greens so easily and yet come away with a lousy score?

As I'm sure anyone who plays golf will know, the devil is on the putting green! Poor putting was adding a stroke to, pretty much, every hole, and with 18 holes played, that's a lot of extra strokes!

So the moral to my story is don't get carried away and rush up to your objective, only to find you are ill prepared to deal with it when you get there. Make sure you plan the whole journey and know what to do when you arrive!

As a footnote, you might want to plan for things around the journey. It's now a few hours since I finished playing and I can feel my muscles tightening as if to say 'I told you to go to the Gym!'.

I'll sleep well tonight and, hopefully, will feel a bit looser tomorrow!!

Regards,

Nigel.

Half Term ...

The schools are closed for half term. It only seems as though the children have just gone back after the Christmas break, but my wife (a Deputy Head!) insists that both staff and children need the break - who am I to argue?!

At the moment, I am working from home. This usually means I get to my desk around 08:00 am and leave the study at about 20:00 pm with the odd break to make a cup of tea, have a bite to eat for lunch, feed the rabbit, Guinea Pig etc. All in all a very pleasant way to have a productive working day.

Half-Term then, would seem to be a bit of a nightmare with my youngest son at home, together with my lovely wife. Both providing distractions from the job at hand. Indeed this was my initial thought. But then I realized just how lucky I am to be able to spend working time in my nice warm house, being able to see my lovely wife and youngest son throughout the day, and generally being far more relaxed and satisfied than when I've been forced into an unproductive and unnatural (but more common) work pattern.

So for me, its no more moaning about by home work environment being trashed, no more stress about having to look at a new piece of Lego sculpture, and just a renewed realization that I'm really lucky to be able to work and see my family at the same time.

Right now I'm going to take a break and prepare the evening meal with my son. I'll make up any lost time later this evening, when he's in bed! ...

Best regards,

Nigel.

The Great Thaw! ...

I Live in the East Midlands. Apparently Northamptonshire was one of the worst hit areas by the 'sever weather event' the country has just experienced!

Thankfully, the snow has stopped falling, the temperature is beginning to rise, children are back at school, and the village shop is no longer completely bare of essentials from people invading the village to 'stock up' (just in case ...).

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I have the luxury of being able to work from home, I have a broadband connection, a telephone line, and a place in my house where I can shut the door and get on with whatever I need to get on with. I am just as contactable when working from home, than I am when I am in the office. In fact, I'm probably somewhat more responsive, as I have the comfort of my own surroundings (Dog under the desk, kettle on the Aga, etc. ...). So it does confuse me somewhat, when I try to contact clients, partners, etc. to be told that they are unavailable due to the weather! Despite me being ready, willing and keen to work, the world has decided that: Snow = No work needs to be done!

Still, enough moaning! At least I was able to get in my car, leave the frozen wastes of my village and drive to a meeting in Slough today. It was good to get out of the village in a car not designed for the snow, it was good to go to a meeting with a real person (to prove that some people are getting on with it!), and it was good to see that the world did seem to be reaching some level of normality!

Long may it continue ...

Nigel.

PS Its just started snowing again!! ...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ! ...

Once again the country has come to a complete standstill over the (heavily predicted) arrival of a small amount of snow! Around my own house, we have about an inch of snow, and although it keeps falling, I don't think we will be lost in a snowdrift any time soon!

I love the snow and the sight of children having a great time in it, but hate the way the country grinds to a halt. I've lived in other countries where they just get on with it! All roads are gritted and cleared, public transport continues to operate, and people expect to continue as normal. The media doesn't sensationalize the issue and life goes on.

Of course, there will be people who really can't get to work, of course there will be places where the snow is deep and treacherous, of course we need to ensure that people are made aware of the situation across the country, but lets just keep it all in perspective.

My advice is to carry on as normally as your specific circumstances allow, but take some time to enjoy the beauty of the snow, and make sure your children have the opportunity to play in it. Spare a thought for the less able members of your family and local community, and make sure you take a little time to check on your elderly neighbour to make sure they are OK, warm enough and have what they need with regard to food, drink etc.

Lets celebrate our country's climate and not make a mountain ... where a snowman will do!

Have fun and take care on the roads. I'm off to put more straw in with the Rabbit! ...

Best regards,

Nigel.

Back online ...

Its been a long time since my last post and a lot has happened in that time (sadly one of those things is not the completion of the off-road buggy – but more of that in another post!).

A key change is that I've now started an IT Project & Business Management Consultancy (www.Dei-Lucrii.com) and I've also set up a small web design business (www.ThinkBoxDesigns.com) to offer professional web sites and deliver outstanding service to help people who'd rather not do everything by themselves online!

Clearly my sanity must have been affected by something, because starting two businesses in a credit crunch is not the best recipe for a stress free life!

The main business is the IT Project & Business Management Consultancy, Dei Lucrii Ltd. We've got a set of services defined and also offer interim services. The key services are focussed around three areas:

• Project Start-up - Make sure your project or programme starts up in the correct way. This is the 'PMO-in-a-Box' service that ensures everything is in place to get the project or programme started in a controlled environment.

• Project Governance - Having started off on the right foot, these services provide in-flight checks to ensure the project or programme is still on track. These services cover planning, risk & issue management, opportunity management, change management, configuration management, documentation management, supplier management, stakeholder management and reporting.

• Project Rescue - These services are tailored to the specific project or programme, and follow our methodology of evaluating the project against a set of criteria tuned for the specific project. This highlights key areas of concern, which are then looked at in more detail. Processes are amended to address areas of weakness and governance is put in place to manage the project more closely.

We can also provide a project team to manage a specific project, leaving the client to focus on its core business. An example of where this is useful would be where a product oriented company has a requirement to implement a solution, but does not wish to maintain an in-house capability to provide this service. We can ensure that the customer demand is met without the expense of taking on the ongoing cost of a project business. This is a way of outsourcing the project expertise to enable the client to pursue specific opportunities, without taking on the cost of the team or maintaining the project infrastructure behind it

The web design business (ThinkBox Designs Ltd.) is focussed on the SME market, Clubs & Societies and Individuals (Small sites, low customer expertise) The objective is to provide outstanding service and a personal approach in contrast with the many 'build it yourself online' offerings that seem to be driving the low cost web development market.

I've also developed the business to leverage a non-traditional labour pool (Students, New mothers, HomeMakers, etc.) to try to tap into a rich seam of expertise that simply can't manage to work in a traditional regular work pattern.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of these companies as they develop and mature ...

Thanks for reading and please comment and come back for more!!

Best regards,

Nigel.

Bending, Bashing & Bodging! ...

Now there's a name for an engineering company! This entry brings us up to date with the Buggy building saga. So far, we've built the basis for the frame (aka chassis) and made the seat. The next thing to tackle is the roll-bar. This is a very simple design. It's just a loop of tubing that goes from one side of the buggy to the other. It is located in-line with the back of the seat and is tall enough to be above the head height of the tallest driver. Should be no trouble at all!

In order to make the roll-bar I went to my favourite online tool supplier and purchased a pipe-bender. This is basically a hand cranked hydraulic pump that forces the pipe to bend around a former of the correct size for the pipe being bent. I've seen these things used many times and it looks really easy.

Needless to say this was not as simple as I thought. I got a suitable length of the tubing I was using for the frame, measured where I wanted the first bend, put the correct former in the machine, aligned the tube in the pipe-bender, and cranked away! The good news is that the tube bent, the bad news is that it also flattened on the outside of the bend. This was not what I wanted. For the second attempt I cranked a little more slowly - same result. By now I was more than a little disappointed that my shiny new tool was not performing as I had expected. I got back on-line and sent a note to the manufacturer ...

The clue is in the words tube and pipe. To me, the two words mean the same thing. To an engineer, they are completely different! I'm still not really sure what the difference is, but its about the construction and dimensions (welded or not, wall thickness, etc), anyway, the upshot is, a pipe bender bends pipe but not tube! I was advised that I could bend tube with a thicker wall, so I went and bought some thicker tube - cut it to size, marked where the bend should be aligned it in the bender, crank the handle, crush the tube! The thicker tube had survived much more bending before it flattended so I redesigned the roll bar with one continuous bend, rather than a more conventional two bend design. This enabled me to complete the job with acceptable results (I'll add some pictures later so you can see what I've done). In the meantime if anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong or how to get perfect bends every time, please contact me ASAP!

Next I made some brackets to hold the rear axle, attached the seat, and then started on the steering. The steering is pretty straightforward 'go-kart' type steering with a steering column attached to the frame, and track rods attached at one end to the front stub axles, and the other end to the steering column. You turn the steerng wheel, which turns the steering column, which pulls the track rod on one wheel and pushes the track rod on the other, the wheels then turn left or right depending on whether they are pulled or pushed.

In our case things were not quite as simple (theres a pattern emerging here!)! Having shortened the buggy from the original design, to accommodate my young son, the steering column has had to move to the front of the frame, which means the track rods interfere with the accelerator and brake pedals! After much head scratching the answer was to 'reverse' the original design and attach the track rods to the front of the steering column rather than the back, and then to swap the stub axles so the track rods attached at the front of those rather than the back (sounds complicated but is actually very simple, and makes no real difference to the basic design). This should give enough clearance to operate the brake and accelerator without interfering with the steering (but we'll only know for sure when we get to putting the pedals on!).

Sadly, I've not had much time over the last two weeks and progress has slowed to a standstill at the moment. Once the steering is finalized I can get on with looking at mounting the engine and attaching it to the back axle!

I'll take some pictures and add them to show what we've done so far.

Friends have suggested that it would have been cheaper and quicker to buy a buggy! but they have missed the point. I'm having a great time doing something I've no prior experience of, have to learn each skill as I need it, and am acquiring this knowledge and experience with my two sons. It's one of the few things where a father, a twenty-one year old, and an eight year old can work, learn and achieve something that none of them has any previous experience in. It may not be a great buggy, it may take far too long to build, and it may have cost a fortune by the time we have built it! But when its finished we shall all take great pride in having built it together - it might sound trite but I can't put a price on every minute I spend with my sons bashing and bending bits of steel!

Regards,

Nigel.

Its Engineering, But not as we know it! ...

Some months ago, I had the great idea to take the old go-cart, that my youngest Son had just about grown out of, and put an engine on it! I expect I have spent too much time watching the Discovery channel, and believed anything that a group of, seemingly poorly skilled, poorly organized, people could do on the various TV shows, I could do as well! (I certainly fit the desription of 'poorly skilled', and can also claim absolutely no experience in matters of welding and engineering!). I am now much more impressed at the what the people on the TV shows produce, and much more aware of the limitations of my own abilities! Still, we learn by our mistakes, and I have learnt a great deal already!!

The original idea was very simple, get the go-cart, get an engine, make a simple frame to mount the engine, connect the engine to the wheels, via the existing (pedal powered) chain - nothing to it! My wife decided this was not such a good idea ('Don't think I'm letting my young Son anywhere near that ...!') and tried to push me towards a more 'sensible' project (such as decorating the dining room!). But I was not to be deterred. I designed the petrol conversion and started to look for a suitable engine. It was at this point that my wife spotted a book about building a buggy. She immediatley thought it would be much more sensible for me to have this book and follow some instructions, rather than just go off and make something myself.

I read the book and began to wonder if the real objective was for me to see the complexity of the task and decide to do something else! But to her surprise I thought building the whole buggy from scratch was a great idea and immediately went about seeing what shiny new tools I would need to bring this project to reality!

First step was to build the frame. I ordered the steel tubing and began the task of cutting the various pieces for the frame. The buggy in the book was designed for teenagers and adults, so I needed to adjust the size to ensure that my youngest would be able to reach the pedals and the steering wheel. This seemed a simple thing to do at the time, but we'll see later that even the simplest things need to be thought through ...

As the frame is made of tubing, wherever one tube fits against another, the end has to be 'fishmouthed' (cut so that it fits round the other tube perfectly to enable the weld to have maximum strength). With my limited tools, this was a tedious job, but ultimately rewarding when the tubes fit together nicely. It took a week of evenings to cut and fishmouth the pieces, and most of the weekend to 'tack weld' ( tack welding is where you just weld a couple of spots for each join. The lets you check everything is in the right place, before you make the final weld which will be difficult to undo) the frame together.

I started the fishmouthing by making a tube of paper, the same diameter as the frame tubing, drawing the profile of the tube at one end, cutting this out with a pair of scissors, slipping this over the tube to be cut, marking the tube, and cutting it with a grinder and tidying it up with a file. This was quite a long process, and each stage is prone to error, leaving me with inconsistent results (my skill level didn't help here either!). I thought there may be a better way so I looked on the internet ...

The first thing I found was a program that let me input the size of the tube I wanted to fishmouth, the size of the tube it was to fit against, and the angle it would make against the other tube, it then printed a template I could use to mark the tube for cutting. This helped with the marking, but still left the cutting open to the vaguaries of my ability! Back to the web ...

I saw some advertisements for proper tools to fishmouth tubes, sadly these were too expensive! Then I read that you can use a holesaw to achieve perfect results, reliably, and at a reasonable cost. Basically, you get a holesaw (the type of thing you use to cut a hole for a spotlight) the same diameter as the tube, mark the tube as before, then align the edge of the holesaw with the marked line and cut the tube, easy!! This method made the job much faster and also significantly improved the results.

Top Tip #1 - Use a holesaw to get accurate, consistent results when FishMouthing steel tubes.

So after an initial flurry of activity, I had the frame tack welded together. Now I needed to get some wheels so I could work out where the axles need to be located so that the frame is level. For the front wheels I got two wheels that were originally intended to be uprated wheelbarrow wheels! they came complete with bearings and fairly rugged looking tyres. For the back wheels I really wanted some quad bike wheels with off-road tyres, but these were much too expensive new, and as rare as Unicorns Tears (took me a while to find a polite metaphor there!) secondhand.

After a month of searching I finally managed to buy two wheels that I saw advertized on eBay (what would we do without eBay?). These were fantastic, the right size, great chunky tyres and very reasonably priced. The courier tried their hardest to lose the wheels in transit, but the seller was very helpful and between us we managed to track them down, and I finally got my hands on the wheels two-weeks later!!

During the time I was sourcing the wheels, I decided to make progress with the seat. The seat is made from an old broken plastic stacking chair (the sort with metal legs and a rigid plastic moulded seat with a back cushion and seat cushion built-in). One of the legs had bent and the chair was ready for the skip. I managed to 'save' it and convert it into a 'racing bucket seat' for the buggy! This was done by removing the legs, cutting two pieces of sheet steel for the sides, and making a steel frame to attach the seat to the buggy with. The side pieces were pop-riveted in place, and the finished result really doesn't look too bad!

I also managed to buy a 50cc Scooter engine, so things are beginning to take shape ...

Next time, I'll move on to making the roll-bar ...

Best regards,

Nigel.