Reference Library Archives

Bullet Points and Numbered Lists

Preface

This post describes: How the Bullet Points and Numbered Lists are used and formatted in this blog.

Woodscrews And Bolts

Introduction

This article on woodscrews and bolts is very basic at the moment but may get improved with time.

Woodscrew Chart by W. L. Fuller

Coach Screws and Bolts have been used in the construction and erection of my shed as mentioned in my post about Securing Shed Doors.

Woodscrews Which Don’t Split Wood

This link goes to Titan Metal Werks, Inc of Illinois, USA a company which makes SplitStop screws which they claim won’t split the wood they are screwed into. Designed for fixing decking they appear to drill themselves in and make a countersunk hole to boot.

See their example video which I have embedded below. It shows how an ordinary screw splits the wood when it is screwed in. Then it shows how their screws can be screwed in around it, very close to the edge, without splitting the wood:

This is what TITAN have to say about their products:

“Experience the ability to place woodscrews within 1/8″ of the edge of a board without splitting the wood. Install deck boards and railing balusters with little fear of splitting! Penetrate knots without shearing-off screw heads! Countersink effortlessly, even in Oak! All without predrilling!” — Titan

How A Toilet Silent Fill Valve Works

Introduction

This article is in effect an addendum to the post Repairing A Toilet Silent Fill Valve which explains how to access and dismantle such a valve and inspect or change the diaphragm that sits in the valve. That post also explains what is, and is not, silent about a Silent Fill Valve. This is now complemented by the post Replacing A Toilet Fill Valve.

In order to satisfy the requirements of Internet SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) the valve is referred to, in this article, specifically as a Toilet Silent Fill Valve or more generally Silent Fill Valve but its full title is a Silent Fill Toilet Cistern Inlet Valve since it is:

A Valve.
An Inlet Valve.
A Cistern Inlet Valve.
A Toilet Cistern Inlet Valve.
A Silent Fill Toilet Cistern Inlet Valve.

This type of valve is complex and deploys a built-in mechanism which uses the inherent water pressure in the Mains Water to drive the valve from the closed to open position and then from the open to closed position. The mechanism is controlled by a much smaller valve in the form of a stopper covering a pinhole which requires a much smaller effort to operate it than the main valve.

The article endeavours to explain to the reader how the complete valve works so that they understand the order in which physical processes take place and why they follow on from each other as they do. The theory behind the workings of the valve are developed from the basic principles of forces and pressures acting on the individual parts but without the detail of too many mathematical formulae.

Kuiper and Oort Objects

Here is a poster of Kuiper and Oort Objects

This poster/wall chart was produced by SPACE.COM as a quick guide to Kuiper and Oort Objects.

Knowledge of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud is sparse but it is known that some objects have very eccentric orbits. I think we can expect many more objects to be discovered in this area in coming years.

Reference

Poster source: Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

Dwarf Planets In The Solar System

There is a new class of objects in the Solar System – Dwarf Planets – which now includes Pluto. See the poster below from SPACE.COM.

Since this poster was produced there has been an addition – Sedna. Take a look at Kuiper and Oort Objects.

Reference

Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Cosmic Inflation and Expansion of The Universe

This Poster Describes Cosmic Inflation and Expansion of The Universe

I’m sure we’re a long way from hearing the last on Cosmic Inflation and Expansion of The Universe, but here is a SPACE.COM chart briefly explaining inflation of the universe from a pinpoint to its present day size.

On 30^th January 2015 Space.com announced: Inflation is not proven to have occurred as previously suspected in March 2014. The evidence for it has been discredited. Check it out at Space.com where Evidence for Cosmic Inflation Theory Bites the (Space) Dust.

Reference

Source: Space.com – All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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My Latest News

6th October 2019: I have in the last few months worked through all my blog posts and pages and converted them from Classic Editing mode to Block Editing mode. While doing this I have found posts that had problems which I fixed. In particular with linked videos which were no longer working. I deleted one post amongst these. I may be tempted to delete more posts which are no longer relevant and just take up space on the server.

Along with the list of contents introduced to longer posts I have added a list of pictures too. I have been able to do this by giving the pictures their own headings. They could be interspersed with the contents but I am keeping them separate at the moment.

On some posts I have introduced a Preface to give a simple description of the post. This enables me to put the contents before the introduction.

The contents are compiled from all the headings in a post and underlined. These can be selected in the normal way in order to navigate straight to them. This should save a lot of scrolling for anyone who is referring to a post and its pictures to help them fix the item described.

NOTE: I have noticed that selecting a heading might not scroll all the way to it at the first attempt. Successive attempts during the same viewing get nearer. I hope to get this fixed in the course of time.

I have found that the reason the headings on small screens aren’t emboldened is because they aren’t set to use a bold font. On large screens there isn’t an issue because the headings look like headings anyway. However I use Jetpack to convert my blog for display on mobiles which displays headings as normal or bold according to how they are set. So I will be emboldening headings to give a better display on mobiles as and when i get around to it.

NOTE: I do expect most people to read my blog on a mobile phone these days. So I will try to keep it looking good for them.

3rd June 2019: I’ve had a go at making testimonials look better. The previous method was a mess so I’ve used the Kadence Testimonials block to produce a testimonials page with two neat columns which are now accessed from the Posts menu since they all originate via Post Comments.

1st June 2019: Continuing to edit using blocks I have changed to a Kadence FAQ block to display Frequently Asked Questions and their answers. I spotted a problem with the accordion block and Ben Ritner has very kindly edited the block to resolve it. There has been some editing of the Qs & As and you might find I mess with it some more.

I have also begun using the Contents Table block by Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg to show the contents of my posts. I am inserting this block after the Introduction. If I put it first, as it would be in a book, it causes some issues:

In my list of posts that is shown in reverse date order I only want the Introduction or part thereof to be seen. If I put the contents block first that will be seen. It will take up a lot of screen space and won’t be very interesting.
The contents block links to all the headings used in the post but that doesn’t work when it’s viewed in the list of post snippets described in 1 above.

Continue to My Latest News Archive.

Site Construction

The site helpfulcolin.com was originally built in September 2011 by Digitalog© now Wolf & Player using the Side Blog theme and handed over to Helpful Colin by his mentors in December 2011. It was changed to a ‘Twenty Fourteen’ child theme in February 2014 by Helpful Colin.

The theme was changed again in December 2015 when WordPress version 4.4 became active and Helpful Colin changed the theme to the ‘Twenty Sixteen’ theme which is designed to look good on all screen sizes. Although this may have improved the blog for mobile users it has removed some functionality available in ‘Twenty Fourteen’.

Helpful Colin took on board Gutenberg at an early stage and has since converted all posts to use the block editing format. The current version of WP used at 30/09/2019 is 5.2.3. Jetpack is used to convert the Helpful Colin posts to display correctly on mobile devices.

When WordPress 5.3.2 came on the scene on 18/12/2019 I adopted it immediately.

As of 20/01/2020 I have installed the Cache Enabler plugin to try and speed up the serving of files.