Stuff you have fixed today

[Seadog]

Is your boiler used for domestic hot water, heating your home, or both? I suspect that it's rather different from what we're using in our house. I'm planning some upgrades to our boiler to make it more efficient, so that I can procrastinate for a few more years about installing a new system. Our boiler is oil fired and used for heating the house (hot-water baseboard heaters) as well as for domestic/potable hot water. It's 31 years old, but still in reasonably good condition. We just had it inspected and serviced, but I think that if we replace the heat exchanger coil that's used for heating domestic hot water with a more efficient one, we should save a few bucks on our oil bill, and the hot-water recovery time should be shorter...maybe even unlimited shower time.

It's a domestic combi, a Ravenheat. 19 years old, it's not done bad service. I had to replace the diverter diaphragm last year, at which point I soaked the plate heat exchanger in cleaner for a couple of days. That gassed quite a lot. The only other real problem that I've had was intermittent ignition. It turned out to be the ignition module (surprise, surprise). Every pin on both connectors had fractures in the solder. However they seemed perfect to the naked eye. Resoldering with proper lead/tin solder fixed that.

 

[Blue Chips]

It's a domestic combi, a Ravenheat. 19 years old, it's not done bad service. I had to replace the diverter diaphragm last year, at which point I soaked the plate heat exchanger in cleaner for a couple of days. That gassed quite a lot. The only other real problem that I've had was intermittent ignition. It turned out to be the ignition module (surprise, surprise). Every pin on both connectors had fractures in the solder. However they seemed perfect to the naked eye. Resoldering with proper lead/tin solder fixed that.

When we get to the point of replacing our old-technology oil-fired boiler, we'll be looking at things like condensing combi units. A neighbour has a Bosch Greenstar boiler that he's happy with, although I plan to do a bit of research before going ahead with a new heating system. We're far enough from the center of town that we don't have natural gas service here, and we're thinking about switching from oil to propane, which would save space in our 'basement' (glorified crawl space) by getting rid of the big oil storage tank, and I think it would reduce maintenance as well. Of course, I'm open to suggestions.

If we had deeper soil in our yard, we might consider a ground-source heat pump system with a long ground loop, but we're essentially sitting right on bedrock, so a ground loop is economically impractical. An open-loop drilled well source would probably work fine instead of a ground loop, but it can get expensive, the flow rate would be unknown until after spending money on drilling, and I'm a bit leery about the chance of any disturbance to our existing drilled well (or the neighbours' wells).

 

[Seadog]

I've just bought a secondhand Intergas which I'll be using when I eventually get round to finishing my UFH project.

 

[Blue Chips]

I've just bought a secondhand Intergas which I'll be using when I eventually get round to finishing my UFH project.

Just glanced at some of the Intergas literature. Sounds like it might be easy to maintain, with fewer parts to deal with. I'll add it to my list of systems to research.

 

[Red'n'Black]

When we get to the point of replacing our old-technology oil-fired boiler, we'll be looking at things like condensing combi units. A neighbour has a Bosch Greenstar boiler that he's happy with, although I plan to do a bit of research before going ahead with a new heating system. We're far enough from the center of town that we don't have natural gas service here, and we're thinking about switching from oil to propane, which would save space in our 'basement' (glorified crawl space) by getting rid of the big oil storage tank, and I think it would reduce maintenance as well. Of course, I'm open to suggestions.

If we had deeper soil in our yard, we might consider a ground-source heat pump system with a long ground loop, but we're essentially sitting right on bedrock, so a ground loop is economically impractical. An open-loop drilled well source would probably work fine instead of a ground loop, but it can get expensive, the flow rate would be unknown until after spending money on drilling, and I'm a bit leery about the chance of any disturbance to our existing drilled well (or the neighbours' wells).

Don't know how it works in the US but last time I looked at a propane install, most suppliers here won't fill a tank that wan't supplied by them. So a big barrier to changing suppliers if they hike their prices, start giving poor service or even go bust. We went with oil (kerosene) in the end, choice of half a dozen suppliers in the local area and all pay-as-you-go. This was 15 years ago, don't know if anything has changed?

 

[Blue Chips]

Don't know how it works in the US but last time I looked at a propane install, most suppliers here won't fill a tank that wan't supplied by them. So a big barrier to changing suppliers if they hike their prices, start giving poor service or even go bust. We went with oil (kerosene) in the end, choice of half a dozen suppliers in the local area and all pay-as-you-go. This was 15 years ago, don't know if anything has changed?

As far as using their own tanks, it's probably the same here for liability and/or advertising reasons. Because much of Maine is very rural and without municipal natural gas service, we seem to have have a lot of fuel suppliers to choose from, both for oil and propane, and they're pretty competitive. My neighbor two houses down switched propane suppliers last year with no problems at all. If I recall, he pays separately for each delivery, so he isn't locked into any time-based payment plan, and if he doesn't like the supplier he can change. His old supplier picked up their propane tanks, and the new supplier dropped off new ones. I think a lot of the propane suppliers have moved away from single huge tanks to multiple tanks that are smaller and easier to transport/set up.

 

[oldbikedavey]

Mostly fixed a Startrite 14.S.5 bandsaw with a mate, for another old mate.
It was a simple enough problem, in that the supply leads had been torn from their connections during transport.
Mind you, the blue flash was epic when it first got switched on, and everything trippable most certainly tripped....
Anyway, the thing is up and running, and it produced a lot of smiles.
Which is always good...

 

[Keithmac]

Finally got the H2 750 fired up today, sounds sweet as a nut!.

Quite satisfying building it up from bare crank cases into a running bike again.

Customer brought the rolling chassis back in after powdercoating and treated it to some reproduction exhausts (expensive but they look really well made).

Shame it's so crap outside or I'd have gone out for a ride..

 

[addjunkie]

Finally got the H2 750 fired up today, sounds sweet as a nut!.

Quite satisfying building it up from bare crank cases into a running bike again.

Customer brought the rolling chassis back in after powdercoating and treated it to some reproduction exhausts (expensive but they look really well made).

Shame it's so crap outside or I'd have gone out for a ride..

View attachment 437208

Thatll be a 75 H2C if my memory is correct. There not a bike to be tootling about on, but I assume you know that. That feeling of frame twist as you wind the throttle open coming out of a corner or round about is quite interesting!

Its a thing of beauty to those of us of a certain vintage.

 

[Keithmac]

Thatll be a 75 H2C if my memory is correct. There not a bike to be tootling about on, but I assume you know that. That feeling of frame twist as you wind the throttle open coming out of a corner or round about is quite interesting!

Its a thing of beauty to those of us of a certain vintage.

Yes it is a H2C, been a bit of a job working on it, sourcing parts but nice to see it back on the road again.

 

[badabec]

My first bike was a Kwaka KH1, 250cc triple. It cost £405 in 1973.

 

[Onoff]

The washing machine! Nasty new Hotpoint thing. She'd put in about 10 reusable make up pads. F05 fault and it wasn't happy. Full of water and heavy as. Two pads were jamming the pump. Much easier with it raised up on some handy pfc. Easy to slip an old washing up bowl under and drain it with virtually no mess:

 

[Bobupndown]

Serviced my wife's mates car today. Unmistakable clunk from the front suspension driving it into the garage. Sure enough lower control arm bush hanging out of it. Luckily it was only 1130 and the local motor factors had the arm in stock. Could have bought the bush but for £50 so much easier to just throw a complete arm into it.

 

[Pete.]

The washing machine! Nasty new Hotpoint thing. She'd put in about 10 reusable make up pads. F05 fault and it wasn't happy. Full of water and heavy as. Two pads were jamming the pump. Much easier with it raised up on some handy pfc. Easy to slip an old washing up bowl under and drain it with virtually no mess:

View attachment 437337

View attachment 437338

We just threw out our 10kg Hotpoint inverter drive one, and switched over to Bosch. Been using Hotpoint for many years but this last one was the final straw. First the frame started cracking around the shock absorber mounts causing an annoying click each time the drum went round. I repaired that with some home-made doublers. Then it started messing about with the wash programs, timers all over the place. This was the second Hotpoint that had gone wrong at only a few years old whilst the older one in the outside shed I use for my work/bike gear is still going strong and must be 10-12 years old at least.

So yeah, Hortpoint have gone down hill of recent. Shame becaus eI like to stick with brands but this 10kg one was not cheap.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This Charcoal Silk Iron looked good.

The handle was glued on, a good glue.

The issue was the original threaded bars had broken. So I removed the remains and fitted new ones.

The finish on the handle was degrading

It was also badly stained.

All done. I have tried it out, it is not a bad thing.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This soot lamp was nice.
I have not been able to do a full restoration.
As the glass top is seized on.

The lean is clear here.
A new wick was fitted.

Before sooting.

After.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This was acquired, as a teaching aid.
The issues it had.
Loos head, shaft loos in the handle and a poor finish on the handle.

Make shift Vapor tank. This will remove any polish, wax, oil and dirt.

The handle was refitted to the handle and the blade was riveted over.

Fresh polish.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This razor is nice item.

WW1 Red Cross Issue.

Rust had sneaked in.
That was soon removed.

The box was saved, the blade was stropped up by a local Barbour.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Record 40 Plough plane.
Used and in need of some attention.

The paint was failing, so we removed it.

In bits.

Hot caustic soda will remove most paints.

Flash rust is quick to appear.

New paint.

 

[T5 TDI]

I had a mate with the 500cc version of that. It went like stink once you wound it up.
I have been toying with the idea of finding an old Yamaha AS3 125 twin to restore (like I had when I was 17) . I loved that little thing. Getting thin on the ground now and parts even more so.