Like everyone else, when dealing with the utilities, I've been on the phone for what seemed hours on end either waiting to have my call answered or, once in, being cut off during a transfer to the 'right' department and having to start all over again. Well, lately I've discovered a new (to me) and much better way of communicating with vast organisations - the 'live chat' facility.

For forty years I've been a customer of British Telecom (BT). I've always stuck with them because, historically, the phone line down my lane has been a bit squiffy. Rather than go through a third-party provider when something goes wrong I would, I'd been told by the various engineers who'd visited over the years, get things done more swiftly by remaining loyal to BT.

In the last few months, I'd been receiving regular emails from BT telling me that I was close to using up my monthly broadband allowance and, hot on those email's heels would follow an announcement that I had indeed exceeded my allowance. Further, attached to this would be an invitation to upgrade or pay an extra however-much-it-cost for my transgression. It's when I'm on the receiving end of this sort of corporate bullying that I begin to think twice about my continuing loyalty. In the past, I'd argued quite successfully that BT had no right to charge me for not using my phone (I couldn't believe that they had the nerve to try it at the time) so, with a measly 10Gb monthly broadband limit (it seemed a couple of hours of iPlayer plus some clips from YouTube and I was stuffed) I resolved to have another pop at them and see where it got me.

Trawling through their website for a number to ring for my specific complaint, I discovered hidden away in the depths, a 'live chat' facility. Yahoo! No hours wasted on the phone. I set about typing and was soon in conversation with someone, somewhere in the ether. Our chat started well with all the customary 'how are you's, but it wasn't long before the representative, who was unable to concentrate on the core issue of explaining to me why it should cost me more to download 100Gb than it would 10Gb, passed me on to the Awkward Customer Department. That's always a step in the right direction.

10 minutes later I had unlimited broadband, a box of tricks to hook up to the TV which gave me iPlayer, Catch-up, On-demand and a zillion other must-have facilities I'd never use and all for £5 a month less than I was paying (though they continued to evade my initial question).

More interestingly:

This is the new sketch of the nearside radius arm. The extra plate at the far end is to create a box to support the bush where the arm is bolted to the chassis. In cross-section it'll look something like this:

And on Learned Counsel's advice I've added the folded (instead of welded) flanges which will make it a better deal altogether.