Stuff you have fixed today

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I got this Cornish Style Lamp. In good condition. But dirty.

The clean up showed a lot more details.

The loose dirt and rust was removed by plunging into a bath of warm water, with washing up liquid.
The history of this would be lost if I was to strip it down and repaint etc.

There are Re-stamping of LNER and a date of 1937. The GWR stamp was removed by hammering it from the reverse side, as was the date. The date was to far gone to read, but the reverse side of the GWR stamp was just about readable.

This image is a case of durung. The darker area is a mix of warm bee's wax and oil. It will seep into the hard to reach areas and give a bit of protection.

I wish this picture could say a thousand words.

New wick(s). Gear wheel in the wick holder re-cut with a swiss file to allow it to grip better.

This was the other lamp I got.
At first it looked like not much needed doing to it.

But when filling with fuel there was a series of "weeps". A 1lb psi pressure test showed most of the seams had pin holes. So a large copper soldering iron was used to seal them up. By dragging the old solder over.

New wick. Well, ish. It is the new wick removed from the broken lantern.



In flame and looking good. The paint was waxed and polished. There are remains of water transfers and I want to save them.

Both in flame, using garden lamp oil. A plessent smell.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ Is the first one a signalling lamp, or just a "seeing where I'm going" one? If the former, will coloured lenses be 'findable'?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

^^ Is the first one a signalling lamp, or just a "seeing where I'm going" one? If the former, will coloured lenses be 'findable'?

The firts one is a copy on a cornish mine lamp, as used on the tram ways.

In WW2 theyy did fit them with red and green glasa, so they were a signal lamp.
Mine has the glass etched with LNER, that matches the stampings and over stampings.

The white one is a carrage light.

I am hunting a "Bulls Eyes" or a "Fish Eye " lense for my broken one, but hens teeth is comming to mind.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Well, I had time.

As I got it.

A good make as well.

So, fire thge music, make a coffee and set too.

De-rusted, and shaft clean.
The dark lines are not splits, but discolourations in the grain..

Shinny.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This "nice" Mitre guide was a pain.

I knew the blade guide was bent, so the slot was closed up.
A bit aof gentle force to open it and we get this.

The thread that held the bolt to hold the guide stripped itself. It will be replaced with a imperial bolt and nylock.

Being dried on a hot plate. This showed about four maybe six cracks on the main frame.
I am in two minds what to do with them. A friend has offered to TIG braze them, or do I gas braze them.
Not sure.

Research told me that it was either finished in a Hammer finish paint. Or with a hot wax/oil mix

So I finished it warm oil/wax onto hot metal.

 

[MattF]

I am hunting a "Bulls Eyes" or a "Fish Eye " lense for my broken one, but hens teeth is comming to mind.

Which is that; The white or the small lamp?

Took a photo of mine.

 

[MattF]

A friend has offered to TIG braze them, or do I gas braze them.

I'd go with gas braze, personally.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Which is that; The white or the small lamp?

Took a photo of mine.

View attachment 322064

The lense.
I have one more, I recently broke.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Shinny.

I preferred it as a blonde....well, they say gentlemen do

 

[MattF]

I preferred it as a blonde....well, they say gentlemen do

I look at it as: Beggars can't be choosers.

 

[qwakers]

in the spirit of the thread....


lots of general lorry fiddling today!

first things first, the heater controls on the lorry have never worked properly. it would move from hot to cold ok but i had to manually move the leaver under the flap to go from cold to hot.

not a problem to fix, just pull half the dash apart and reattach the cables.
dash disassembled

this is the temp cable obviously not connected correctly.

fixed

going back together

works fine now.

next i needed to find out where all my coolant was going, and why the coolant temperature was suddenly taking way longer to get to normal operating temperature. these are two separate issues.

first the thermostat

yup, that will be stuck open then.

the coolant leak was the water pump, so i pulled that out too.

last was the diesel room heater for the living, i stripped it down expecting it to be coked up but found no issues, so i reassembled it and it fired up fine. i then re attached the exhaust and intake hoses after checking they where not blocked and it would not run again. it is either some problem with the intake or the glow plug is intermittent. as a glow plug is only £13 ill grab one of those anyway, but its not likely to be a big issue.

 

[dobbslc]

A bit of dirty MMA but...
The alarm sounder batteries needed changing so I got the ladders out, job done but while I was up there I realised how bad the guttering is!
I knew it needed doing but didn't have a clue it was about to fall down! It's cast iron and was full of water and moss so even heavier than it should be.
I found 4 brackets out of the 4 it should have all being held up by the guttering NOT the other way round! Soffets rotten as a pear.
The only thing keeping it up was the downpipe at one end and the old BT cable bracket at the other
That's the end of a rafter in the photo!


I carefully removed one bracket at a time and refixed in a more solid spot, one needed to be welded as it was about to snap so I fired up the trusty GYS Easymig welder and tried some rods I found on the plant room floor at a job last year

I cleaned the gutters out and water now flows more or less towards the downpipe

I have had two guys round to give me a qoute earlier in the year but both never got back to me
Nothing is ever easy!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

That's the end of a rafter in the photo!

That looks pretty ripe, what are the plans for fixing it?

 

[dobbslc]

The whole front and sides of the house need doing but finding someone is another thing!

 

[awemawson]

A 'damsel in distress' brought me her suitcase generator - 'it always starts well but not today'

(This is vital to her life (and sanity) living in a caravan with three under sixes and no mains electricity !

Sure enough not a cough on pulling it. Check the plug - no chance - recessed deep into loads of plastic mouldings, weird tiny plug - looks to be about 16 mm hex but 16 mm deep socket wouldn't get it. OK I dig out my stash of 'box spanners' (tubular spanners) left over from a misspent youth keeping ancient motorbikes running, find a suitable Whitworth one and the plug is out !

I've never seen such a fouled plug. Totally jammed solid with crud. A quick trip through the sand blaster, plug back, she fires up, runs a few second then dies again. Plug out, it's choked again ! Now there is so much 'keep it from the consumer' bodywork on the thing that even seeing the carb never mind cleaning it, isn't feasible. Fuel filter - there may be but finding it . . . OK clean plug again, re-start - a bit of spluttering as it presumably coughs out a bit more nastiness, then settles down to run quite smoothly for the ten mins or so that I tested it.

Sent her off to equip herself with a spare plug and suitable spanner for next time!

 

[Arc Tourist]

In her situation, I would suggest getting a couple of comparable "surface gap" plugs, as they would be much simpler to clean when there is nobody else around to help.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

A 'damsel in distress' brought me her suitcase generator - 'it always starts well but not today'

(This is vital to her life (and sanity) living in a caravan with three under sixes and no mains electricity !

Well done that man - you're a hero.

 

[MCKDAVID]

air compressor running again,, well it will when the new motor pulley arrives..

started the farm compressor saturday morning, got a hellll of a belt of it 3ph, 400V , motor stalled and the magic smoke left the building.... generic italian compressor from the early 90's 3 phase... opened it up, and found it all a bit crispy... wired internally (presumably from the factory) in 3 core cable, so no earth connection...... old barn wired with ancient fuses etc, equals a fair old belt... luckily I'm the only one that uses it, so no real harm done .... a new consumer unit / dist board is on the to do list, with RCCD's new MCB's etc, just haven't got that far down the list yet....

Had a spare motor in stock, so swapped it over, rewired the compressor and pressure switch etc, with correct 4 core, so now have an earth all tested electrically and running fine again.. just waiting on the new pulley, as the new motor shaft was bigger, should be here early next week. Then it'll be a case of lining it up, belt tensioning etc, and then it'll be back available, always handy to have a compressor up, there saves me dragging kit back here..


wee bit blacker than it should be eh.....

 

[slim_boy_fat]

air compressor running again,, well it will when the new motor pulley arrives..

started the farm compressor saturday morning, got a hellll of a belt of it 3ph, 400V , motor stalled and the magic smoke left the building.... generic italian compressor from the early 90's 3 phase... opened it up, and found it all a bit crispy... wired internally (presumably from the factory) in 3 core cable, so no earth connection...... old barn wired with ancient fuses etc, equals a fair old belt... luckily I'm the only one that uses it, so no real harm done .... a new consumer unit / dist board is on the to do list, with RCCD's new MCB's etc, just haven't got that far down the list yet....

Had a spare motor in stock, so swapped it over, rewired the compressor and pressure switch etc, with correct 4 core, so now have an earth all tested electrically and running fine again.. just waiting on the new pulley, as the new motor shaft was bigger, should be here early next week. Then it'll be a case of lining it up, belt tensioning etc, and then it'll be back available, always handy to have a compressor up, there saves me dragging kit back here..


wee bit blacker than it should be eh.....

View attachment 322422

That would get your attention! Glad you're OK

 

[MCKDAVID]

That would get your attention! Glad you're OK

cheers min, all fine.... nae the first, and likely nae the last ane either...
aye already had my coffee, so was kinda awake, but that got me fully awake.. lucky it was only a "ooooyabastrd" type of zap, not a full on electrocution. Will have to move the "replace the consumer unit / 3ph dist board" up the need to get done job list a bit closer to the top.....

The starter on the compressor was obviously changed a long time ago, and the earth wire for the incoming cable went to the earth terminal in the starter box, but there was no physical earth connection to the machine / metal work of the compressor, presume the original was metal, so there was continuity throughout. With the plastic box, that earth continuity was me.... hahahahaha...

All fixed now, but it reminds me why I check everything that comes in.... this has been up there for donkeys and I've used it for years too, never gave it a second thought...