GRIPES

[Jerry_Atrick]

A native Victorian following Rugby, and an Eastern Suburbian a member of Collingwood???? Is nothing sacrosanct anymore?

 

Next, you'll be telling me she drinks Fosters, and doesn't give a XXXX!

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Bruce Tuncks]

There is a form of rugby I can't watch because every now and then they all have a gangbang. Apparently they call it a scrum.

The origins of the game at some one-sex school are only too apparent.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

There is a form of rugby I can't watch because every now and then they all have a gangbang. Apparently they call it a scrum.

The origins of the game at some one-sex school are only too apparent.

They have scrums in both Union and League, but they are more obvious in Union. When I was a kid, Union and League were way more similar than they are today. Union has two extra players per side and they do that line out thing. Union hasn't changed much over the years, but League is constantly having rule changes which has morphed it into a much different game than it was fifty years ago. The reason behind most of the changes has been to speed the game up, make it more of a spectator sport, attract more fans, and in turn, attract more sponsorship and money to grow the game. Union is in a time warp; watching a Union game is like watching a League game in 1970. I guess Union has remained fairly true to the original game.

 

That's resulted in Union scrums being played like they always were - a disjointed rabble that can drag on for ages and slow the game down. In Union, the players have to do everything right or the ref blows the whistle and makes them do it again. Very boring watching them push each other all over the paddock for several minutes. The ball is thrown into the middle of the scrum and then it's a brute force contest to win possession.

 

League used to play scrums like that, but it was a boat anchor around the neck of the sport. League is an ambitious sport - the organisers want the crowds, the money and the big stadiums, so it has to be played hard and fast to keep the crowds. You lose them with slow, boring things like Union style scrums. A scrum in League is more of a de facto penalty. The side that is the beneficiary of that de facto penalty get to feed the ball into their own second row instead of the middle. Virtually no pushing, it's all over in seconds, and the side that gets to feed the ball always wins it. They've probably kept a Clayton's scrum in League just for a bit of historical merit, if anything.

[red750]

5 hours ago, willedoo said:

The ball is thrown into the middle of the scrum and then it's a brute force contest to win possession.

In League it's thrown towards the thrower's (whatever he's called) team. Not neutral like an AFL toss-up.

[old man emu]

7 hours ago, willedoo said:

most of the changes has been to speed the game up

Maybe so, but with the money being paid to players Worker' Compensation payments would be a factor in taking the push and shove out of scrums. I've lost interest in League as there is no skill in it now. Catch the ball. Run into the defenders. Stop and play the ball. Repeat four times than give the ball to the other side. What ever happened to the sight of the ball passing from hand to hand across the back line, finishing with the winger pirouetting along the side line? What about full backs playing "forcings back" with kicks from one end of the field to the other? And what about the hookers trying to rake the ball to their own side, with a lot of push when the hooker failed? Centres and Wingers used to start the game with a pocket full of side-steps. Now they don't have pockets.

 

Don't dismiss my opinion with a "don't argue". League is no longer a spectacle for the punters. Just look at the size of the gates. Proportionally to the crowds of yesteryear, no one braves the wintry winds blowing across the grounds anymore.

[old man emu]

Tunksy will understand with this.

 

I recently went to a hobby shop that 30 years go housed not only all that was needed for aviation-in-miniature hobbies, but gurus who provided the correct advice to solve  a building-off-the-plan problem.  Now the staff know nothing, unless its about a quad-copter out of a box, or a 4WD RC racer.  I asked for some 12SWG piano wire, and the bloke there gave me a look like poddy calf caught in the headlights. I asked for some 1/4 x 1/4 balsa sticks. Again, a vacant look. So then I had to do some quick conversions in my head:  1/4 = 6mm, 1/8 = 3mm  1/16 = 1.5mm. When I looked at the balsa it was in sub-divisions of 5mm. In order to follow what the plan calls for in material dimensions, I'll have to laminate metric stuff. I gave up trying to find 12SWG in metric.

 

Then I asked if they had any airframes-only stuff since I've got boxes of radios, servos and batteries.  Nope. Only ARF stuff with advanced flight control modules and 2.4 GHz radios, for which they wanted half a gorilla and more.

 

I bet you think I was being served by a Millennial. Wrong! I reckon the bloke was conceived under the glare of a black light, to the sound of a Hendrix Experience.

[Bruce Tuncks]

When I went to the US, there was a guy with a North Melbourne tee shirt. I thought he wore it for us, but it turned out that he liked Aussie rules on cable more than any other thing. Of all the sports in the world, he chose Aussie rules.

I agree about it being the best spectator game. I would change things a bit to make players very conscious to keep a players head from being concussed, since I don't want them to mandate helmets.

And OME, I share your grief with the metric system buggering up balsa sizes, but have to shamefacedly admit that I generally fly foamies these days. ( look up a Phoenix electric glider ). Except for a great balsa free flight which has an enlarged Dixielander fuselage and a Playboy set of wings and is electric powered. I have a telemetry radio with a variometer in the model and an audio on the transmitter. I keep trying to find thermals with this setup but alas its very hard without a constant energy vario in the model. The stick lift is hard to ignore and it tends to swamp the mild thermals down here in the winter.

Anyway, the dogs just love the models....  there is something about border collies and model planes that clicks.

I'll send a pic of the models soon.

[onetrack]

What about eBay for imperial (inch) sizes? You can generally acquire items from the U.K. in imperial size at reasonable cost, and they're delivered to your door. Not sure about how balsa would go in the mail, though?

Then there's AliExpress, where the Chinese are happy to supply you with imperial of metric, as so much of what they produce is for the American market, and the American don't understand anything but inches.

[spacesailor]

Someone is selling out his old aeromodleing gear, including balsawood.

FB marketplace.

spacesailor

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, onetrack said:

What about eBay for imperial (inch) sizes?

It really doesn't matter much. If you can accurately pick a difference of 0.5 to 1.0 mm on  bit of balsa, you could possibly get a job estimating the lengths of bees' dicks . As for importing from Blighty,  the postage doubles the price.

 

There won't be much balsa around soon as the Chinese are buying it all. I wonder if they are building Mosquitos?

[facthunter]

better with BAMBOO. Nev

[spacesailor]

Size vers size ' a big weight difference. 

spacesailor

[Yenn]

Whats good about bamboo?

[facthunter]

Plentiful and processes well. Makes thing s like Masonite but better.. It's a product for a clean future. Nev

[spacesailor]

It could be an excellent propeller wood !.

BUT

It seems hard to get a good glue joint. 

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

We've got a bamboo benchtop in the laundry which has lasted well.  Looks like the trick is smallish rectangular sections glued together, probably with a lot of pressure.

[spacesailor]

Yes I use ' bamboo trays ' . but to epoxy glue them to form a propeller is much harder than gluing a flat plank  I must find some that I can practice on.

Could also incorporate " carbonfibre " into it as well . (  remove some weight ).

Pylon 500 had a go at ' composite prop ' making.  Said never again .

SO It must be a lot harder than wood chopping. 

spacesailor

[octave]

I am wearing bamboo socks and I have a bamboo pillow. Sound rough but they are made from bamboo fibre. 

[onetrack]

I like bamboo towels, sheets and socks - but I've found there's bamboo fabric, and bamboo fabric. There are two ways to make bamboo yarn - mechanically and chemically. The mechanical method uses crushing to produce fibres naturally from the original bamboo wood. The fibres are then spun into yarn.

 

But the chemical process cooks (i.e. dissolves) the bamboo in strong chemical solvents.

The resulting liquid is then pumped through a device containing tiny holes, and the strands of cellulose (essentially rayon) are then fed into a sulphuric acid bath, to produce rayon/bamboo fibre - which is then spun into yarn.

 

I believe the mechanical process is much more environmentally friendly, and produces a more natural yarn, and better quality bamboo sheets, towels and socks.

Naturally, the largest proportion of "bamboo fibre" is produced by the chemical process, because it's cheaper and faster.

 

https://fairware.com/bamboozled-getting-the-facts-on-bamboo-textiles/

[pmccarthy]

I have found bamboo socks too slow to dry after washing.

[Bruce Tuncks]

There were some model planes, I think rubber-powered, made from bamboo many years ago.

The bamboo sure is heavier than balsa, but it bends very well and can be used in much smaller cross-sections.

I never tried one on account of having no nice supplies of bamboo strips.

I'm also sure that it would be harder to glue than balsa.

Thanks onetrack for the info about the 2 types of fabric.

[Old Koreelah]

7 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

I have found bamboo socks too slow to dry after washing.

Too plurry right, PM. I leave mine in the sun for a day or two. 

The other major problem is that all my bamboo socks quickly lose the elasticity on their top band.

[Yenn]

I reckon the push to make bamboo is just another advertising gimmick. I grow bamboo and it is great if you want a fairly small section and length up to maybe 300mm, but otherwise it is only good for long poles with little or no bending or tension loads.

It is basicaly a hollow tube with nodes at regular intervals. It has been used for flooring and as I understand it there is nothing clean and green in its production, as far as bending goes it is quite rigid, but to use in tension needs well thought out joint design. Even if the bamboo is stripped down to fibres I don;t know how well it would spin, because unlike wool it is a smooth fibre. The comments about slow drying socks are real. I seldom use the pair of socks that I have because of that factor.

[willedoo]

I wouldn't recommend bamboo bum fodder. Tried it once, never again. Apart from being expensive, it just doesn't have the right texture. Too slippery.

[spacesailor]

Old Models that have wings like Spitfires use bamboo to form the eliptical wing tip !

But  had cotton to bind the bamboo tothe  balsa  leading & trailing edges.

Gee takes me back a few years.

spacesailor