Stuff you have fixed today

[KemppiFrog]

Not today, but several years ago. Could be of interest though.

Fireplace outfit that I used to help out occasionally with tech stuff. The did marble surrounds, woodstoves etc I occasionally built non standard wood stoves for them, like a six sided one for a restaurant.
They got into underfloor electric heating, using kit from Holland or scandi.
Anyway, a big living room had been wired and the floor laid with very expensive tiles. The system tripped out to earth and hair was being pulled at digging it up, around 80 sq mt. so a lot of money.
Talking to the factory, they had a bit of kit to find the fault and sort it, so sent it out. Interesting box arrived. The cabling was +ve & -ve twin and the idea was that the machine ran 4,000 volts down the wire and then at the damaged point, it would carbonised the insulation. It then sent a low pulse down the line and one used a detector to follow the the line until the pulse stopped, which would be the point were the cable shorted.
I read the book carefully and we tripped out to the house (a new build and very smart..) and got to work. Owner was there too....
Ran the system with the high voltage (carefully!) and checked the pulse system. Seemed to function, so started with the detector and phones.
After going backwards and forewards over most of the floor, the pulse stopped. Confirmed it with a few passes, then chalked a cross and told the waiting bloke with the tools to dig there. He bust up the tile and chiselled the concrete. Few minutes later a charred cable appeared within an inch of my cross. The atmosphere of relief was pretty solid and the owner extremely impressed. The box had come with repair kits and I fitted one, potting the result, then tested the system, all OK.
I also commented that likely, from the look of it, someone had leaned on a spade and cut the insulation.

They bought their own tester box and applied new MO. Systems were tested after laying and again after concrete laid. After that, any fault was charged to the builder.
KF

 

[KemppiFrog]

Bit more recent Got up at 7 this am, correction, the cat got me up.. Fed the moggy and flicked on the TV to get the news, but says no signal?
Box is OK, so a bit later, when it stopped raining, had a look at the dish. It has been windy, but it is on a pole off my w/shop that would not be out of place at Jodrel Bank, so went up the steps and peeked. One of the two connectors had the inner flange fail, so the screw bit no longer held it to the unit.
Rain was beginning, so just went in and swopped the connections on the boxes, will look for another 'end' bit later. News is on. 'er inside happy!

 

[GRW]

Over the weekend I got around to tinkering with my assortment of Electrolux RM212 3-way Caravan/Motorhome Fridges.
These are an old fridge unit now,but they are generally reliable and robust, & in many ways I think better than the new compressor units.

I had one that wouldn't work on gas, one that wouldn't work on 240vac, and neither were proven on 12vdc.

I'd also picked up a couple of others over time, unworking for parts, which were also the electronic ignition model (my partly working pair were pushbutton Piezo ignition).

Both igniter boxes proved functional & were transferred onto the better, most complete units. A wiring fault correction & a blocked gas body sorted the faults, & tests proved the 2 fridges chilled-down on all 3 supply sources.

I now have a fridge to fit into the new van when I can get to it, and a spare (which I might sell on).

 

[Jan-DIY]

Yes. It is a German 3P Machine. Tbh you will not get any

Very cool a German made machine.

Is it 3 phase?

Have you got any pics of the innards just curious as I seen one similar for cheap locally which had let the magic smoke out. I am tempted to take it home and see if I can put the smoke back into it.

Hi,
yes of course it is 3P because it is a 300A machine.
Unfortunately they went bankrupt a few weeks ago. Very nice machines with a phenomenal ignition.

 

[roofman]

Had the same problem that @Rannsachair had with a motor shaft not fitting a hole...I had machined the motor shaft down for another project and now using the same motor i had to bring the size up again to fit a washer pump,this shaft into this hole.

Let's machine a bush

Now it needs a slot for the key to pass through, 8mm end mill and fit to shaft.

Choose the correct key and mount the pump.

This is one i have made including the frame from left over bits i had, 100 BAR and nice and quiet. Normally i am using these/fixing/building/selling and buying this more industrial type.

 

[DAPPH]

Not today, but several years ago. Could be of interest though.

Fireplace outfit that I used to help out occasionally with tech stuff. The did marble surrounds, woodstoves etc I occasionally built non standard wood stoves for them, like a six sided one for a restaurant.
They got into underfloor electric heating, using kit from Holland or scandi.
Anyway, a big living room had been wired and the floor laid with very expensive tiles. The system tripped out to earth and hair was being pulled at digging it up, around 80 sq mt. so a lot of money.
Talking to the factory, they had a bit of kit to find the fault and sort it, so sent it out. Interesting box arrived. The cabling was +ve & -ve twin and the idea was that the machine ran 4,000 volts down the wire and then at the damaged point, it would carbonised the insulation. It then sent a low pulse down the line and one used a detector to follow the the line until the pulse stopped, which would be the point were the cable shorted.
I read the book carefully and we tripped out to the house (a new build and very smart..) and got to work. Owner was there too....
Ran the system with the high voltage (carefully!) and checked the pulse system. Seemed to function, so started with the detector and phones.
After going backwards and forewards over most of the floor, the pulse stopped. Confirmed it with a few passes, then chalked a cross and told the waiting bloke with the tools to dig there. He bust up the tile and chiselled the concrete. Few minutes later a charred cable appeared within an inch of my cross. The atmosphere of relief was pretty solid and the owner extremely impressed. The box had come with repair kits and I fitted one, potting the result, then tested the system, all OK.
I also commented that likely, from the look of it, someone had leaned on a spade and cut the insulation.

They bought their own tester box and applied new MO. Systems were tested after laying and again after concrete laid. After that, any fault was charged to the builder.

I could do with one of those here at the bungalow in South Wales , we had a lightening strike several years back, , The insurers paid for a new under floor tiles wet room trace heat cable system , three years later it gave up on us . I do have a high impedance signal generator and a listening coil device but I couldn't locate the break or breaks caused by a bad installation of the electrician or tiler. The bulb thermostat in a copper capped soldered up pipe appears to be OK . The new with the new floor wall thermostat appears to be OK too .

I

 

[Barking Mat]

Did some fiberglass and gel coat repairs, then tried to fit the new balcony, but....

So I chopped it off, got a ratchet strap on it, realigned it, and welded it back together.

 

[Barking Mat]

It doesn't look like it's welded, but it you zoom in, the bottom inch on the left isn't as shiny as the rest, cut it tacked it, with arc stainless rods, then decided to tig it.

Had completely the wrong settings dialled in, cooked a hole in it.

Chopped a bit of same size diameter pipe, from dead balcony, slit it, hammered it inside, built back up the hole, welded the joint, looked a dogs dinner, got my finger (B&D) file going, cleaned off raised puddles, and then 800 grit to attempt to polish it up.

You have to look for it, it's fairly tidy, I am no tig pro.

 

[roofman]

It doesn't look like it's welded, but it you zoom in, the bottom inch on the left isn't as shiny as the rest, cut it tacked it, with arc stainless rods, then decided to tig it.

Had completely the wrong settings dialled in, cooked a hole in it.

Chopped a bit of same size diameter pipe, from dead balcony, slit it, hammered it inside, built back up the hole, welded the joint, looked a dogs dinner, got my finger (B&D) file going, cleaned off raised puddles, and then 800 grit to attempt to polish it up.

You have to look for it, it's fairly tidy, I am no tig pro.

great job you made of that Mat

 

[Barking Mat]

great job you made of that Mat

Thank you, even my wife said it looks good, I've been asking my company for years to send me on tig training course.

 

[roofman]

Thank you, even my wife said it looks good, I've been asking my company for years to send me on course.

you need to be asking them for a pay rise looking at that repair

 

[Barking Mat]

you need to be asking them for a pay rise looking at that repair

We can all dream on, the last four years hasn't been great obviously for boat rental, two years of COVID, 2022, drought, stopped the season mid August, this year we had a good season, but not over the rest of the bases, what with the economy as it is, sadly.

 

[roofman]

We can all dream on, the last four years hasn't been great obviously for boat rental, two years of COVID, 2022, drought, stopped the season mid August, this year we had a good season, but not over the rest of the bases, what with the economy as it is, sadly.

Yes that's true mate, i myself have felt the pinch the last half of this year as punters just don't have the money for new roofs and would rather just tarpaulin them over for now.

 

[Barking Mat]

Yes that's true mate, i myself have felt the pinch the last half of this year as punters just don't have the money for new roofs and would rather just tarpaulin them over for now.

I think everyone's feeling it, I certainly finding things harder.

Not in a good way...

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This old box came my way, it contained old lanterns.

I knew they needed attention.

Every screw broke, below the service. But with a DA sander the wood did come up well.

Active worm was found, so 20 minutes in the micro wave, in 3 minutes burst. Then sealed into a plastic bag filled with CO2, Then of the shelf worm killer to make sure the buggers were dead..

They wee shot with rust, bent and the holes were out of shape.

Not original burners, but old enough. I am waiting on a back order to get more original looking units.

The old wadding was kept, but new wicks were used.

I wish this image could show how much work went into getting the lanterns to this stage.

Soldering, adding new metal pulling, pushing metal into shape.

The paint finish, originally would be.
Lamp black, linseed oil and bee's wax.

I used stove black.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

The wood was sanded and sealed.

Getting new furniture on.
The finish was button polish and wax.

Yes, I used better screws, the ones with the hinges etc were poor.

The light from theses was never good.

 

[cheb]

The reversing camera on my van. The picture quality had become steadily worse since I installed it earlier this year, despite my cleaning the lens. I gave it wipe today and discovered it still had the lens protecting film on it.

Oops.

 

[Pete.]

The reversing camera on my van. The picture quality had become steadily worse since I installed it earlier this year, despite my cleaning the lens. I gave it wipe today and discovered it still had the lens protecting film on it.

Oops.

I smashed my phone at work and the other site manager helping me gave me his 'old phone from home' because the screen was too scratched. As soon as I touched it I knew - he'd never removed the protective film off it since new

I did offer it right back, and offered some money for it but he declined, said he'd already written it off in his head.

 

[bricol]

The reversing camera on my van. The picture quality had become steadily worse since I installed it earlier this year, despite my cleaning the lens. I gave it wipe today and discovered it still had the lens protecting film on it.

Oops.

Reversing camera on my Dodge occasionally claimed to be unavailable . .. . an accidental hard boot slam . . . it worked again. Quick perusal of US forums - common problem is a dodgy connection inside the boot lid. Dealers fit a new camera to cure it. Owners with some ability to dismantle get in, and disconnect/connect a few times to clean the contacts and make sure it's fully home. Mine, being slightly outside the usual dealer network and owned by tight-wad works again

 

[Onoff]

Pub washing machine done. Had it apart to fit the drain hose. Found a hair clip wedged in the pump too.