20 years ago I got called to look at a pair of almost new Yamaha 115hp outboards once that were seized solid, but were working perfectly the previous day. Turns out they got muddled up with old 25litre drums being used to fill the fuel tank with petrol and put 50litres of Sodium hypochlorite in...
Much to my wife’s disgust last night I fixed my 40 year old AT-AT and Snowspeeder that were recovered from my parents house. Needed dismantling and all the contacts cleaning up and motors freeing off but both lighting and motorised sound now work, I’m now a very happy (4)4 year old!
Lots of PCL is just rebranded Chinese rubbish now, I fell foul of them with a retractable airline. I think the hose ends and ubiquitous Mk4/5 tyre inflator are still made in UK though.
Stihl TS410 are probably the best for cheap parts availability, the exhausts seem to undo / snap bolts regularly.
Husqvarna K760/770 good, also the old Makita petrol saws can be picked up cheap and parts still available.
My wife’s Golf GTD threw up a faulty glow plug code last week, I had a go at removing it but it was solid. I spent my early working life working on 1980’s Yamaha outboard motors which were notorious for seized bolts in alloy castings, this taught me two things, the precise feeling of a bolt...
mid 70’s seem to be hit and miss, however some of the best ones I have are ones I bought new in late 90’ / early 2000’s - all my 24mm / 1” and upwards spanners are this style, still made in England, matte finish with BRITOOL in stylised capitals, top and bottom faces of jaws machined flat.
It’s not even very big but seller adamant he won’t post it!! Alloy plate Approx 70cm x 40cm, 3kg tops! Would need posting at my expense plus time but in absolutely no rush!! Thanks
Gave my Thor hammers a new lease of life with new replacement handles from the Thor factory; the hammer on the left is over seventy years old, they still supply the handle for it.
I hadn’t really thought about it, but it is marginally slower, but for my usage it is more than adequate plus no trailing airline. I ought to go through all my air tools and weed out the redundant items, I have too many tools which are no longer used.
I’ve got the Milwaukee and although it is excellent on 3/16 alloy rivets, it will struggle to set a 1/4” stainless rivet.
I purchased the Laser 3597 mentioned above to put stainless 1/4” rivets in a yacht boom I repaired. The previous one I repaired in situ saw me loading a fully pressurised...
Bargain - I paid double that for my VL303 chisel
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295423789887?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4GU0VNmeRSu&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=T_BpbpGMQfW&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I have always used 3mm Trelawny chisel tip needles, be it for rust / paint removal or cleaning up stonework, but they don’t keep their edge for all that long and I end up re-profiling them on a bench grinder. The VL303 range has earned me a lot of money over the years, both in rust removal prior...
I’ve had them all over the years. Snap On Flank Drive Plus are the benchmark, Kennedy Professional are a very close replica to the non flank drive plus Snap On.
We had a Bosch fifteen years ago, drum bearings failed about at about eight years old, pulled it apart and drum was plastic welded together so bearings couldn’t be changed, although the same model was previously produced with a bolted together drum housing which could be repaired, but was...