There's a heat detecting alarm thingy on the ceiling of my kitchen, handily placed above my cooker. Whenever I made toast, the blinkin' thing would go off. This week, in a fury, I 'removed' it. That, however, didn't solve the problem. A high-pitched squeak continued to come from somewhere in the room. Eventually, I found a CO2 alarm lurking on top of a cupboard, its squeaking alerting me to its batteries running down. While waiting for a replacement unit, I had three days of blissfully quiet toast-making.

The Great Collector has struck again, this time acquiring an early 20's AC Acedes two-seat coupé, which had been in the same household for over six decades. When it gets to its new home, I'll take a more complete picture. In comparison to the AC coupé The Great Collector used to own, this example sports a very pretty body, and looks good even with the hood up - a source of embarrassment with his previous example.

Rather than let the spare laser-cut steering wheel base become something of an ornament, I thought I would make up a second, this time using up some thin oak boards I had hanging about in the wood store, and having done it once, it would be even easier the second time around - or so I thought. Apart from misremembering the assembly sequence, oak, being somewhat brittle and harder to work than ash, gave me several headaches, not the least of which was it splitting where the grain was short and breaking out where the copper rivets were pressed in. I also inadvertently put vice marks on each of the spokes where a piece of steel swarf had become embedded in the aluminium vice jaws.

It looks alright from a distance...

... like my TIG welding. After I'd done this bit, there was reason to do a couple of autogenous welds, and with a hand free to help steady the torch, the results were almost professional.

The Other Wright Brother hasn't got around to TIG work. On my recommendation, he purchased an up-to-date MIG set and has been steadily working through the rebuild of his Triumph Stag. We bought the car sometime in the late 70's from a dealer in an underground carpark in Bloomsbury. Fortunately, although we didn't think much of it at the time, it had its original Triumph engine rather than having been subjected to a V-8 Rover conversion.

He's also making some curtain poles that might survive a nuclear war.

Progress with the Precedent 'Bi-Fly' kit presaged a dive into the archives. Yours truly, 35 years ago, with the first Bi-Fly at Knettishall airfield - an old USAAF base and one of the many that surround us in Suffolk. The same colour-scheme is to be adopted - yellow overall with dark blue highlights and profile edges.

A Merco 61 is the engine of choice and I'm tasked with making up a decent silencer. I'd originally hoped to install a four-stroke Saito, to swing a bigger and quieter prop, but to get the same performance would necessitate a much larger capacity motor. Even with the 61, the Bi-Fly was slightly underpowered and very much a case of energy management to achieve realistic aerobatics.

I'm leaving the chassis on stands and the wheels off for the start-up. I'll have to rummage through the farm store for a suitable piece of pipe to direct the exhaust out of the workshop door, and I anticipate working up a snag sheet before I can move on to the bodywork.