Stuff you have fixed today

[sparkysy]

It must be the day for it, I fitted new disks and pads, control arms and anti-roll bar bushes to SWMBO's car today only to find the lower arm bushes were shot on both sides!
Upside is found a pair for less than 50quid on the bay!

 

[Craig-SM]

Replaced wheel bearings on the Shogun and unfortunately hub knuckles too. Pig of a job and the heat didn’t help either.
Made worse that the Clarke Machine Mart ball joint splitter failed with little effort. It’s the pincer type and as I tightened it down the fork part just folded over. After never managing to break ball joints free using the two hammer method today I mastered it, just as well or I would have been ********.

 

[MattF]

It’s the pincer type and as I tightened it down the fork part just folded over. After never managing to break ball joints free using the two hammer method today I mastered it, just as well or I would have been ********.

An irksome occurence can lead to a good/unexpected conclusion.

Was saying to my mum, just earlier today, that fate has some weird ways/methods.

 

[James1979]

Replaced wheel bearings on the Shogun and unfortunately hub knuckles too. Pig of a job and the heat didn’t help either.
Made worse that the Clarke Machine Mart ball joint splitter failed with little effort. It’s the pincer type and as I tightened it down the fork part just folded over. After never managing to break ball joints free using the two hammer method today I mastered it, just as well or I would have been ********.

That’s a good trick to master. The other one that never fails me is a Thor No4 and whump the crap out of it. You kinda need to have the knack of where to hit it but it’s like your double hammers - now you’ve figured it you’ll do it every time.

 

[MattF]

Copper or rawhide?

 

[James1979]

Copper or rawhide?

Copper.

If you’ve got the swing room, use the copper end and really **** it on the outer part of the tapered housing. They’ll always pop.

Sometimes I need to use a No3 because of less space but you really need to **** it.

If you can master it you save a lot of damaged rubber boots.

 

[DAPPH]

Last couple of days I finally fixed my 9 inch grinder to a heavy duty section of thick steel channel, added a welded on plate to mount a Draper 1180 drill grinding device .

The grinder fitted exactly as planned , so did the drill sharpener but the sharpener is about as much use as a chocolate teapot , far to much play in the pivot point meant I had two totally different cutting angles . Waah!.
I purchased the sharpener about 10years ago hoping to fit it before I needed it . Pleased to say I can still sharpen all sized drills better than than the 1180 .
Next step is to find a small face sander machine , as sharpening drills on one is a doddle even if you have Parkinson's disease .

Also discovered that the Libre 2 diabetic blood sensor device you stick on your skin is frazzled by the high energy plasma arc . Finished working cleaned up came in , had a shower and a drink of orange took my blood sugar 9.4 cleaned my teeth and had forty winks . I woke up with the diabetic alarm sounding for low blood sugar .

Huh? reading 1.4 m.mol , a few min later reading 1 ............. heading for a serious low sugar hypo?

One quick high sugar drink down my neck and 20 min later, I read the meter again & get a message declaring " Your sensor is unreadable... change sensor ."
You have to wait one hour after activating the new sensor for it to take several calibrating readings then take a new first time intentional reading. Panic off nothing is untoward reading safely within my range

 

[optima21]

Ive been working on a toy steam engine today. its a Signal Equipment Limited (SEL 1550). its a simple twin cylinder single acting oscillating engine from the 1950's. I wanted an engine (or two) to got to the Steam Toys and Meccano shaw at Leeds Industrial Museum on 30/07/23. I wanted one that looked to be used and not restored, so I thought this was a tidy example, as toys need to be played with. its also shown here with a Wilesco D6 that I got for the same event.

when I got it, it just about ran, but a few tweaks were necessary to get it to run better.

1) The whistle valve was leaking badly and I think someone had tried to fix it before as the spindle in the vale was bent, and that snapped as I tried to straighten it. I have to make another one, and this was fitted with a silicone rubber tube so that it didnt burn my fingers when I operated it.

2) the pistons were a bit worn as they were rattling about in the cylinders, so I made some new pistons, I decided to go for several small grooves to have some sealing effect.

3)one of the wick holders was missing so I had to make another one ( you could just about get it to run with one wick rather than two). but I made two as I changed to using a fibreglass wick, as these dont burn (like the original cotton ones do), and they are sold as 4mm glassfibre rope for oven seals.
The port faces on the cylinders were quiet worn too so these were flycut so that the port face also aligned with the cylinders

and after its refurbishment, it still looks like its well used.

and running under steam. I get 25 minutes running from 50cc of water and 13cc of meths, I think that is long enough, no need to fill a boiler with water as it just takes far too long to warm up. with 50cc of cold water it takes 5 minutes to heat up (would be quicker if hot water is used).

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Ive been working on a toy steam engine today. its a Signal Equipment Limited (SEL 1550). its a simple twin cylinder single acting oscillating engine from the 1950's. I wanted an engine (or two) to got to the Steam Toys and Meccano shaw at Leeds Industrial Museum on 30/07/23. I wanted one that looked to be used and not restored, so I thought this was a tidy example, as toys need to be played with. its also shown here with a Wilesco D6 that I got for the same event.

View attachment 401159

when I got it, it just about ran, but a few tweaks were necessary to get it to run better.

1) The whistle valve was leaking badly and I think someone had tried to fix it before as the spindle in the vale was bent, and that snapped as I tried to straighten it. I have to make another one, and this was fitted with a silicone rubber tube so that it didnt burn my fingers when I operated it.

2) the pistons were a bit worn as they were rattling about in the cylinders, so I made some new pistons, I decided to go for several small grooves to have some sealing effect.

3)one of the wick holders was missing so I had to make another one ( you could just about get it to run with one wick rather than two). but I made two as I changed to using a fibreglass wick, as these dont burn (like the original cotton ones do), and they are sold as 4mm glassfibre rope for oven seals.
The port faces on the cylinders were quiet worn too so these were flycut so that the port face also aligned with the cylinders


View attachment 401150

and after its refurbishment, it still looks like its well used.

View attachment 401152
and running under steam. I get 25 minutes running from 50cc of water and 13cc of meths, I think that is long enough, no need to fill a boiler with water as it just takes far too long to warm up. with 50cc of cold water it takes 5 minutes to heat up (would be quicker if hot water is used).

View attachment 401153

I have the same 2 engines.

The D6 has one weak point.
The steam pipe to cylinder connection. It is a simple fix.


The SEL engine is powerfull.

 

[Craig-SM]

Last couple of days I finally fixed my 9 inch grinder to a heavy duty section of thick steel channel, added a welded on plate to mount a Draper 1180 drill grinding device .

The grinder fitted exactly as planned , so did the drill sharpener but the sharpener is about as much use as a chocolate teapot , far to much play in the pivot point meant I had two totally different cutting angles . Waah!.
I purchased the sharpener about 10years ago hoping to fit it before I needed it . Pleased to say I can still sharpen all sized drills better than than the 1180 .
Next step is to find a small face sander machine , as sharpening drills on one is a doddle even if you have Parkinson's disease .

Also discovered that the Libre 2 diabetic blood sensor device you stick on your skin is frazzled by the high energy plasma arc . Finished working cleaned up came in , had a shower and a drink of orange took my blood sugar 9.4 cleaned my teeth and had forty winks . I woke up with the diabetic alarm sounding for low blood sugar .

Huh? reading 1.4 m.mol , a few min later reading 1 ............. heading for a serious low sugar hypo?

One quick high sugar drink down my neck and 20 min later, I read the meter again & get a message declaring " Your sensor is unreadable... change sensor ."
You have to wait one hour after activating the new sensor for it to take several calibrating readings then take a new first time intentional reading. Panic off nothing is untoward reading safely within my range

Those Libre 2 devices are great, a you relative has one and allows her so much more freedom but as you’ve demonstrated not infallible. Unlikely that she'll be encountering high energy plasma arcs but she is still at school so might be possible in a classroom. Glad you resolved it before it became a problem.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I got this Gas standard pole access plate

Thanks to the forum I know were it came from.

WWW allowed me to find out it is from a gas standard, the lugs are to give away.

A week in paint stripper had no effect on the layers of paint.

So.........

That burnt the paint off, all 4 layers of it.

Then it was de rusted.

First coat of wax and oil.

All done, 8 layers of wax and oil have been applied.

 

[bricol]

Copper.

If you’ve got the swing room, use the copper end and really **** it on the outer part of the tapered housing. They’ll always pop.

Sometimes I need to use a No3 because of less space but you really need to **** it.

If you can master it you save a lot of damaged rubber boots.

You should have heard the outrage when I suggested that method on the Lotus 7 cub forum quite some years ago

I have a little screw type ball joint separator as well as a pickle fork type, both bought when I was around 17, 35 yrs ago. I have no idea where the fork is, but the screw type one is usefull for removing windscreen wiper arms

 

[James1979]

You should have heard the outrage when I suggested that method on the Lotus 7 cub forum quite some years ago

I have a little screw type ball joint separator as well as a pickle fork type, both bought when I was around 17, 35 yrs ago. I have no idea where the fork is, but the screw type one is usefull for removing windscreen wiper arms

The outrage from people who’ve never had to separate ‘proper’ Ball joints, probably!

I’ve several splitters right up to a hydraulic one but I always start by whacking them. It never (usually!) fails and if you need to move to a splitter you’ve probably unseated the taper anyway.

The biggest issue with splitters I have is they invariably are hard to get in, and end up ripping the boot. So you then have to spend out on a new part, unless you have a boot to fit.

I keep meaning to make or buy a wiper arm splitter. Saves loads of damage. Strap on make one.

For a similar fortune you can buy a battery terminal one as well

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Nice 2 1/2 Lb axe.

No idea what this was/is. But it was hard and difficult to remove.

Pitted, but the edge was still sharp.

Cleaned up well.

handle sanded, finished with wax.

All done.

 

[Farside]

You should have heard the outrage when I suggested that method on the Lotus 7 cub forum quite some years ago

The outrage from people who’ve never had to separate ‘proper’ Ball joints, probably!

I've experienced similar shirts-ruffled and knickers-twisted when explaining how to fit a camchain using two hammers.
Oh, the preciousness of the bleedin' amateurs with cupboards full of special tools that they'll use once in a lifetime.

 

[Blue Chips]

Restored the old hinges and latch for the door to the new upstairs bathroom that I've been constructing. The hinges and latch (and the door) are all original and well over 200 years old.

Here are some of the old cast-iron door hinges from the upstairs rooms before cleaning. The latch was equally messy, but I forgot to take a "before" photo of it.

Here are the latch parts and door hinges after cleaning. The hinge screws are the originals, formed with primitive/simple equipment, and slots cut by hand, so no two are exactly alike.

This is the outer side of the latch after installation on the door. I used gun bluing to darken the iron parts, and then coated the parts with clear satin two-part polyurethane. I had to replace the screws on the latch plate, but the old ones (what was left of them) happened to be brass, so they're similar to the originals, other than the wider slots and the lack of patina (which I can remedy later).

Here is the inside portion of the latch. The lift/pull knob was missing; the original was probably iron or brass, but just for fun I made a cork knob, since the bathroom flooring is cork (and I have lots of corks)

I'm making good progress on the bathroom. I might start installing the fixtures this week.

 

[optima21]

and if you read my post at the top of this page, for the same steam toy and meccano show it would be rude not to annoy people with pop pop (or put put) boats, as they are the worlds simplest steam engines but have no moving parts. so I got a couple off ebay from india, and the "engine" needed to be soldered together to seal it as the crimping wasn't good enough

as standard these are usually heated by small candles run for a minute at most so not much good for display purposed, so I decided it would be better to fit it with a meths burner, (shown here with a £1 pound for scale

I think the inspiration for this burner came from when I was making my small steam engines and used a milk bottle top for holding the meths,

but for this burner I used a top from a 60ml almond extract, and is very thin walled to keep the weight down. I tried it with just the top on it with a silica wick (for e-cigarettes) but the heat from the flame was too hot and it turned it into a vapouring burner. the easy answer to that was to pierce a hole in the side and glue a piece of 3mm aluminium tubing in it.

I've got a clear plastic bowl, so that will do for running this boat at the show,

and to reduce the drag when turning, the water tubes were angled as the tiny rudder was useless, so it will now run round the inside of the bowl, or do "doughnuts" in the middle of the bowl . with the fuel tank in the open and with the 2mm vent hole in the lid, its can be refuelled without stopping every few minutes by adding 1ml of meths using a syringe. I could say it was designed that way, but it wasn't the hole is just there because the wick though the top didnt work. I've had it running continuously for 30 minutes, so that'll do me for the show.

and a video of one pulled from youtube (not mine as I dont do videos)

 

[Turbo]

Last couple of days I finally fixed my 9 inch grinder to a heavy duty section of thick steel channel, added a welded on plate to mount a Draper 1180 drill grinding device .

The grinder fitted exactly as planned , so did the drill sharpener but the sharpener is about as much use as a chocolate teapot , far to much play in the pivot point meant I had two totally different cutting angles . Waah!.
I purchased the sharpener about 10years ago hoping to fit it before I needed it . Pleased to say I can still sharpen all sized drills better than than the 1180 .
Next step is to find a small face sander machine , as sharpening drills on one is a doddle even if you have Parkinson's disease .

Also discovered that the Libre 2 diabetic blood sensor device you stick on your skin is frazzled by the high energy plasma arc . Finished working cleaned up came in , had a shower and a drink of orange took my blood sugar 9.4 cleaned my teeth and had forty winks . I woke up with the diabetic alarm sounding for low blood sugar .

Huh? reading 1.4 m.mol , a few min later reading 1 ............. heading for a serious low sugar hypo?

One quick high sugar drink down my neck and 20 min later, I read the meter again & get a message declaring " Your sensor is unreadable... change sensor ."
You have to wait one hour after activating the new sensor for it to take several calibrating readings then take a new first time intentional reading. Panic off nothing is untoward reading safely within my range

That's good to know.

My GP tried to talk me into changing to a Libre last time & no doubt will try again next week at my diabetic review. Last time I pointed out that I don't have or want a smart phone & the Libre is pretty pointless without one. This will be a new bit of info I can use to deter them from forcing me to convert.

 

[northwest]

One of my bits of productivity the weekend, soldered the latch back into a set of vintage barrels. Staged pic as I had dismantled the job before I remembered to photograph it.


No idea how it had become detached but as the top rib WILL spring off if you don't hold it all together while you succeed in getting too much heat into the job, I thought it best to wire the barrels up and wrap a soaked towel around them (my heat protecting paste hasn't arrived yet). Quite pleased with the outcome, simple and successful job, one of my favourite outcomes.
Yes, they are Browned Damascus barrels so I was taking no chances.

 

[awemawson]

Offside grass roller spherical bearing housing had broken on my Bomford 6 foot flail mower. I must have gone over a brick or something but not aware of having done so. A simple bolt off - replace - bolt on job. But those bearing are £62 each with the VAT - ouch.

Had to be done - I was leaving scratches in the paddock !