Morris Minor Owners Club

What all this high falutin' talk about engineers and technicians?
I'd be happy to be called a shade tree mechanic (if we had any need of shade trees )
Or a tinkerer.
I'll even answer to bodger

" Back street mechanic " was Fred Dibnah's name for himself! A better Engineer it would be hard to find !

Exactly.
Not only did he get several (Honorary) Degrees.
He got a medal from the Queen too

A better Engineer it would be hard to find

I'm not sure how much stuff he ever designed... although he rebuilt a lot of stuff, destroyed even more stuff and his enthusiasm was great.

His next door neighbours may have questioned his civil engineering ability if their ground started slipping (some very interesting 'big holes' in his back garden) ;-)

A great personality, wit and mechanic. But not an engineer in my mind. However, if you get a chance to see his drawings.....well worth a look

Your idea of an Engineer being IKB standing about in his top hat smoking a cigar! I'm afraid I prefer Mr Dibnah. He designed and made all his own stuff. IKB just organised (and he was v good at that) others to do the design work and make his ideas come good!

IKB was an entrepaneur, a visionary and a brilliant mind. He came up with the ideas, and to a large extent worked a lot of stuff out. I read a book on the chap, and his father and himself were truly inspired people. But were they engineers or just designers? In my mind an engineer can be both, just because he or she doesn't actually make the thing at the end of the day doesn't necessarily mean they aren't an engineer!

Oh I do admire IKB and his work - and of course I accept he was indeed an Engineer - and a good one at that! Although as you say - he kind of slid into the position following his father's footsteps. I still prefer Mr Dibnah as my role model!

the world is a lesser place without fred he was a fantastic man

To me the term "technician" nowadays conjures up someone from school with an NVQ, doing your wifes nails, or at the most a spotty teen looking gormless in baggy overalls in Quickfit with the radio blaring! I qualified as a technician, and out the other side, long before anyone ever thought there would be money to be made doing peoples nails/feet(yuk) etc, and when you were a mechanic if you worked in a garage. In my last job I baulked at being referred to as a Technician almost as much as being asked if I was the "Fitter"!
PS: As this forum may be read by minors, could you please not refer to IKB as smoking a cigar, definitely not PC!!. Perhaps you could "airbrush" that comment out!!

But his iconic picture is of of him wearing top hat and smoking his cigar in front of a huge pile of chains ! Facts is facts - people used to, and many still do, smoke all manner of substances. Just walk down any street and see the hoards standing on the pavement puffing away - and dropping the remains where they stand. I think that's what I find the worst part !
BTW - I am a 'reformed' smoker and desperate for a good cigar right now !

What am I then??

Im an engineer Technician?!!

Aircraft sheetmetal work fabrication and repairs, mechanical technician and engines. Civil Aviation HND course and school of life! lol

bmcecosse wrote:But his iconic picture is of of him waering top hat and smoking his cigar in front of a huge pile of chains !

Not any more!! The cigar has been airbrushed from school text books, so I am told. What a bunch of softies we are becoming!
Blast- I just broke a fingernail on the keyboard- and there wasn't a safety warning about it in the manual- anyone know who I can sue?

Blast- I just broke a fingernail on the keyboard- and there wasn't a safety warning about it in the manual- anyone know who I can sue?

No, but I think you should be reported to the league of cruelty to keyboards

I had to take a load of stuff to the tip today. After signing various forms saying who i was and that i wasnt dumping stuff banned by an act ive never heard of (they didnt spot the asbestos sheets luckily). I then saw a proper old style Ransome's cylinder mower laid up next to one of the recycled metal containers. you used to be able to give the tip owner a fiver and take what ever you wanted away. Being a bit of a garden machinery nut, i asked if could have the mower away....at which point i was given a huge lecture on how i couldnt. Despite my protests that i was in effect recyling.
This world has gone nuts.

No the world hasn't gone nuts. Don't you realise what would have happened if you took that mower away and hurt yourself with it? I bet you haven't even got any certification of competence!! Its only sensible that legislation should protect irresponsible people from themselves!! Blast- there goes another fingernail! Seriously- you're dead right- the amount of stuff I would love to re-use (thats the term- recycle is when you squash it to pulp and give it to the Chinese), but its no longer PC. The joke is most of these people are confusing guidelines with rules- two different things entirely! PS I'm a Ransomes nut as well- got a garden full of them!

Being a bit of a garden machinery nut, i asked if could have the mower away....at which point i was given a huge lecture on how i couldnt.

The people who take the metal away from the tip will most likely know what can be re-sold and what can't... However if they are fully regulated and work to their procedures fully, then they won't be able to sell it either!

Obviously you already know that 'controlled waste' has to be handled correctly and unless you have the correct permits you will not be able to issue the correct documentation (disposal certificates) to allow them to give/sell you any controlled waste. Added to that, it would go against the tendering procedures for people who are approved to take the council's scrap metal.

My firm had to get rid of its parafin wash and replace it with a useless water based chemical one. The only reason was because we had to class the dirty parafin as 'controlled waste' but our disposal people never managed to do the paperwork. In the good old days I'd have been able to take it off them for free, and re-use it for thinning vegetable oil (chippy flavoured bio fuel) at approx 10%.

This world has gone nuts.

I think you mean 'may contain nuts' - as per the warnings on packets of nuts.

Here's the story of Brunel's disappearing cigar...

http://www.brunel200.com/downloads/ciga ... elease.doc


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/belvedere/2419677103/" title="Brunel by Dru Marland, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2388/241 ... 7576da.jpg" width="500" height="378" alt="Brunel" /></a>

...stopping you taking stuff from dumps is stuuuupid, isn't it? -I've rescued loads of bicycles in my time, and done them up for people; no longer poss round here...

Dru wrote: ...stopping you taking stuff from dumps is stuuuupid, isn't it? -I've rescued loads of bicycles in my time, and done them up for people; no longer poss round here...

My point is it largely seems to depend on the operatives interpretaion of "guidelines" ( I'm not referring to controlled waste, but bicycles etc) In Essex we have the no-no dumps, who also make you fill out forms etc, also the "not bothered" dumps but you can't take anything out, down to the "make me an offer in my pocket" variety. Then moving up to Suffolk there are those with dedicated portakabins for re-usable goods, the donations going to local charity. Many folks see this type as a full time boot sale, and make a Sunday jaunt to find the bargains. They also allow skip diving within reason (eg not electrical). Certainly didn't mind me fishing for an ash chair leg to splice into Mollys woodwork! (temporary fix, honest). So it seems to depend on how officious your local guys are!

I'm not referring to controlled waste

anything dumped at the tip is controlled waste according to the environment(al) agency.

We have a seperate 'recycling centre' at our local tip. I took some furniture there on the back of a flatbed, but wasn't allowed! Because it's council operated together with the tip anything on a van or truck is classed as 'commercial waste'. I would have been charged for the weight of anything I offloaded + £20.
I took it home, smashed it up, then took it to the tip in 6 journeys.