The handle end of an old fashioned nail file is 15thou near as dammit. The business end could also be used to clean points.
Also made an emergency screwdriver and lock pick.
Probably get arrested for having one today.

VW Beetle points could be set using a match packet, the ones they used to give out in restaurants/bars/hotels.
Rgds.
Dave

If ever there was a Heath Robinson idea it was 'points' on an ignition system. My Triumph Trident had three sets of points, one for each cylinder. The upside of this you did away with the need for a distributer, the downside is it's still a godawful mechanical switch.

We can only offer thanks to whatever deity you worship for electronic systems, which themselves were a bit Heath Robinson when they got started.

The quicker electronics, right down to quantum electronics, does away with mechanical crap, the better. :eek:

(Retreats to Nuclear Bunker ....:p )

Bob,
I went to Cotton Valley Wastewater Works to view four machines which had been supplied with a view to refurbishment and modernizing.

They were sludge/scum collectors, running on rails along a 100m tank, 30m across.

There was one central drive motor with chain drive to a single drive shaft from which chain drives drove the traction wheels. Obviously, they were known to "crab" and would derail, even falling into the tank! The traverse distance was controlled by a microswitch which incorporated a very complex watch type mechanism to count the distance. The control panel was bespoke, hard wired and relay controlled with big "Tardis" like lights, knobs and controls. I found that: a) I could get a replacement microswitch, but it cost 23,000 quid!;b)The guy who designed/built the control panel had retired about 25 years earlier!

Ripping everything out, installing a master and slave tracking motor and installing a PLC to control everything cost about 7000 quid!

So, I am in agreement with you! Modern electronics, off the shelf, plug and play is, in my mind, a wonder of the modern world.

Rgds.
Dave

No. One third.

And if you took the points off the peak of the cam, dragging the striker strip of the matchbook betwixt the contacts would like as snot get it running.

I still use a useful fluid measurement I picked up off a lab technician - it is the SG, the standard glug.
Mam used to buy milk by the gill. But she was old fashioned - she declared that I was 'As awkward as Dick's iron hat band'. It's still a mystery who Dick was, and why his hat band was of iron.

My Old Dear was Irish, born on a hill farm in Co Limerick. One of her favourite sayings was: 'Sod em I call em.'
Not a measure of distance as far as I could tell, but a measure of something I think we all know about.
:wink::p