The launch pad equipment for my rocket experiments has still not arrived. I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will.

But I haven't wasted the days. It seemed a sound plan to gain some understanding of the disorientations involved in space travel and its effect on the human body. By happy coincidence, a chum has the inside track on these affairs and has put at my disposal his Ellipsoidal Motion Extra Sensory Inversion System (EMESIS) for this exact purpose.

I've also had to trim again a prolific Eucalyptus that I foolishly planted on the route of the cottage's old sewer system. The combination of the tree's oil and rocket fuel could be problematic, and besides, the branches were beginning to interfere with next-door's telephone wires. The trunk could be the canvas for a commemorative sculpture of the anticipated events - I shall think on that.

Perhaps in protest of my rocketeering ambitions, my Comtoise clock decided to stop. Nothing would persuade it to go for more than 5 minutes until I took the face off. It now keeps perfect time though it's almost impossible to see what that time is, especially in the gloaming. I'm happy with that; I enjoy the sound of its steady tick...tock, following the day's exertions.

This is the swarf extractor auger which runs along the bottom of Chumley's CNC mill. You'll notice that a good portion of the flight has been ripped off and I said it wouldn't be a lot of trouble to replace it. As a pile of paper patterns - all unsuccessful - gathered on the floor I realised that making a scroll was not as simple as I thought.

I knew that I'd seen something about it somewhere and thought that my edition of Sheet and Plate Metal Work might shed some light on the problem. It did. The drawing has gone off to the laser-cutting people. I've ordered a couple of extra plates as the author reminds me that some hammer work will be required; the shape won't form naturally.

Delving further into the MX5 throttle spindle job, I worked out a way to remove successfully the throttle cable bellcranks and slip the new bush into its housing without removing the actual spindle. Reassembly involves a couple of blobs of weld, taking care not to melt the plastic top hat section which sits below the bellcranks.

I've collected a set of Riley instruments including a rev counter already converted to electric. It reads a maximum 5000rpm which is plenty as the Morris 6 with its 4-speed box indicates 5k at around 70mph. With the T9 5-speed box, the needle won't be bending the stops.

Mr Slightly-Strange has almost finished the drawings for the Riley subframe. The shaded plate is the base of the welding jig and, courtesy of my measuring equipment, some of the holes didn't quite line up.

I'll be interrupting the progress on his 'T', but it'll be better for him to cast his eye over the actual structure; that'll save us all a lot of time.