Stuff you have fixed today

[Mr Fro]

I fixed my hand held Dyson.

The past few weeks it's been clogging the filter every time it's used so this morning I took it all apart and cleared an alarming amount of gak out of it.

Note: if you tell the wife the vacuum sucks much better after a bit of a clean up, DO NOT suggest she hops in the shower to see whether the same applies to her. No matter how jocular your tone, the outcome will be less than satisfactory.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Due to a flamingo at work., same as a cock up, but bigger.

I am still awake and still pottering. But does mean a nice lady gets some help.

My neighbour is having a rough time, the C/vid, work, 2 small humans and no man.

She brought this hedge trimmer for £1, thinking I could fix it for her for not much more.

Why not?



It looks new, if not hardly used. It even has a blade guard.

So, my neighbour asked if it was a complicated job?
My reply: "you are going to find out." Then handed her a screwdriver.



No need for a test meter we thinks.




This manufacture has had the idea to fit a "Choc block" in the handle.

A good idea, so a repair did not take long.


One happy neighbour.

One happy TYA, there may be cake in my future.

 

[nickk]

How bizarre,having dismantled the log Turner,see earlier post,I then get a call from the abattoir,for something similar but different lol,bigger chain and sprocket,1”,leaking seals,and knackered bearing.Its a pig boiler,for removal of hairs!
Btw,I did major work here in 1993,like overhead steelwork,cutting tables,mobile tank,wash booth,and lined all the walls and window reveals with aluminium sheets,nice to see the wear and tear since,although I’ve been back a couple of time since then for small fabrication work.
It’s a traditional set up behind the butchers shop,last one in the county I heard.
Press photo,shows the bearing removal.

 

[MattF]

My neighbour is having a rough time, the C/vid, work, 2 small humans and no man.

You're omitting the important bit of info. Is she fit or not?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

You're omitting the important bit of info. Is she fit or not?

I do enjoy her company.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Sold my mate a cylinder head on an exchange basis. He said the old one had a glow plug seized in it.

He neglected to mention that it had an extractor (with the drive square snapped off) stuck in the seized plug.

Welded a nut onto the extractor to remove it, drilled out the threaded section of the plug and removed the remaining body.

And carefully drilled out the remaining threads from the plug, and ran a tap through the undamaged threads in the cylinder head.

Now just needs to be cleaned up, checked, valves lapped in and reassembled ready for sale like the last one:

 

[Edward Teach]

I have been re-commissioning this 1976 Daimler XJ6 over the last few weeks,
Its been sat in a garage for the last 10 years, 95% finished.
I was told it was running when parked up,
All in good condition, and just needs sorting out !!
Oil and level - its clean - check,
Coolant - its clean - check,
Manual choke conversion !
No air box fitted, has the owner been trying to start this vehicle ??
Right, here we go.

Turn engine over - no fire,
Spray petrol into the SU inlets,
It fires momentarily,
I cannot hear the fuel pumps, play with pump switch !!
Remove the fuel pipe, funnel, fuel, with a little fuel sprayed into the inlets,
Turn the key, it fires momentarily,
But stops when you release the key ??
After a few more efforts,
It stops when you release the key ??
And come to the conclusion !
The ballast resist is playing up,
Re-configure the ignition/coil wiring, bypass the ballast resistor for now.
A little choke,
Turn the key,
It starts and runs.
After this,
I go through all the basics to make sure I have the best chance of getting it right first time:-
SU carburettor strip, rebuild and balance/set up,
Points set with a dwell meter,
Dynamic ignition timing ( that's what they call it)
New spark plugs, after one developed a misfire - wow - £11:10 for six NGK spark plugs, how cheap, lol
Replacement fan/alternator belts
Radiator re-cored, less than half the price of anything replacement online - Arrow Radiators - Avonmouth, Bristol
Paintwork on the rear end, small "blend outs" for now, it needs to be used soon,
Top and bottom ball joints on the front end
I'll update this later :-

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@Edward Teach .
They are still going, that's good to know.
If the head recalls the brought out Melksham radiators.

 

[JMS1972]

The wheels on my bandsaw were beyond rubbish so I fitted some castors.

They lasted exactly one metre before the plank split.

I flipping hate wood

Some sort of welded angle coming up in next attempt....

 

[Seadog]

That's a surprise

 

[8ob]

Fixed the mancave lights today, replaced another load of duff led tubes , need to keep an eye on these because as they start to fail they run very hot.

Upside is I can now see in there

 

[Barking Mat]

Fixed the mancave lights today, replaced another load of duff led tubes , need to keep an eye on these because as they start to fail they run very hot.

View attachment 298556

Upside is I can now see in there

View attachment 298555

Do you recommend led tubes, or standard fluorescents?

What's the price difference, and light difference, and longlevity?

 

[Migmac]

Do you recommend led tubes, or standard fluorescents?

What's the price difference, and light difference, and longlevity?

We use led ones. The first ones we got were rubbish, failed within months. The replacements are still going 6 years on. The light from them is different but better

 

[Barking Mat]

I appreciate the advantages of leds, but without exception, they don't seem to last.

I've a traditional fluorescent, in the back shed, 16 watt, single tube, it's been on for four years, never turned off and has outlived every led bulb I've ever bought.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I've a traditional fluorescent, in the back shed, 16 watt, single tube, it's been on for four years, never turned off and has outlived every led bulb I've ever bought.

I was told by someone who sells light fittings that it's the repeated on/off cycles which does for them - that would seem to gel with your experience.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

I was told by someone who sells light fittings that it's the repeated on/off cycles which does for them - that would seem to gel with your experience.

Heat cycling i believe. Same that kills filaments in incandescent bulbs.

 

[Wedg1e]

How bizarre,having dismantled the log Turner,see earlier post,I then get a call from the abattoir,for something similar but different lol,bigger chain and sprocket,1”,leaking seals,and knackered bearing.Its a pig boiler,for removal of hairs!
Btw,I did major work here in 1993,like overhead steelwork,cutting tables,mobile tank,wash booth,and lined all the walls and window reveals with aluminium sheets,nice to see the wear and tear since,although I’ve been back a couple of time since then for small fabrication work.
It’s a traditional set up behind the butchers shop,last one in the county I heard.
Press photo,shows the bearing removal.View attachment 298056View attachment 298057View attachment 298058View attachment 298059View attachment 298060View attachment 298061View attachment 298062

Nice touch, fitting a shower for the pigs...

 

[GafferTapeKing]

A few days have passed so I declare "IT" fixed.

"IT" being the ex wifes car, a touchy subject at best as Wife 2.0 is understandably not very keen on any of my endeavours helping out The Batty Old Harpy Wife 1.0.

The car is a Ford Fiesta 1.4 diesel (May be a 1.6 but I dont really care), serviced since new by a dealership but has had an ever increasing tendancy to refuse to start or simply throw a dashboard sht-fit and pretend to be possesed by malevolent spirits that the dealership want to fix by installing a new car
My middle son lives with her as she is still and always will be his mother, so for an easy life he has been googling how to mend a wonky Fiesta.

The fix he decided on was to disconnect the battery and connect it back up.
This worked for a bit, then it didnt any more and the next level was "clean the battery terminals" which had him beaten.

It transpired he was trying to undo the captive nut for the negative battery lead and it was reluctant to undo, with it being welded in place.
I showed him the error of his ways, undid the offending bolt instead and was about to walk away when I spotted the fault the dealershi(tp) had been ignoring for years.

The battery ground point relies entirely on the bolt having a good connection.
Why ?
The ring terminal from the battery lead is plain metal both sides.
One side touches the bolt which goes into a captive nut exposed to the elements and was rusty into its threads.
The other side of this terminal is clamped to the bracket where the captive nut lives.
The bracket has primer, several coats of metallic paint and a good top-coat of gloss keeping half the earth-point from actually working.
A minutes work at most had the offending paint removed with a flat bladed screwdriver then a quick hit of emery paper had ths part of the negative contact point paint free and shiny.

The car now starts every time and has been exorcised.

 

[Dr.Al]

I appreciate the advantages of leds, but without exception, they don't seem to last.

I've a traditional fluorescent, in the back shed, 16 watt, single tube, it's been on for four years, never turned off and has outlived every led bulb I've ever bought.

I've never yet got round to buying tubes with LEDs in. At the moment I use the 5 metre long LED strip lights you can get for very little money (a bit like this one, but they're cheaper if you order them from China). I stick them onto bits of wood and hang the wood from the ceiling - super cheap and you wouldn't get away with it in the house but it works. I think I've got about 7 of them in the garage (one over each machine, one over each bench and a couple in the middle). The first four were installed in 2014 and are still going strong.

 

[Seadog]

Now why didn't I think of that? I've actually been using them in my hallway, very effectively, for about 5 years. They're certainly much cheaper than LED strip lights