Stuff you have fixed today

[droopsnoot]

Turn the stop cock off at the meter and let the pressure off in the house and see if it slows down or stops?

I've no idea how to do that, unfortunately. This is all new to me. If I'm in when they come to fix it, I'll go and have a look. Mainly I don't want to mess around with something I don't know about and make it worse.

I reported it to United Utilities yesterday morning, via their very long web form after trying to get someone to answer the phone for almost ten minutes and getting annoyed with the "So sorry to keep you waiting" messages. I got a text in the afternoon telling me they'd been to have a look, there appears to be water coming from the meter outlet joint and the meter is moving a little, and they've scheduled to come and look in more detail and send me a claim form as it will be affecting my meter readings. I don't know how it's all laid out around the meter, but there must be a fair bit of pressure for it to spray through the wall.

But it's not enough for it to be coming upwards to ground level. I imagine now they've been, if it was something serious, they'd be on it a bit more quickly.

 

[Pete.]

Fixed the brakes on my bike. New discs all round new pads to suit and serviced all the calipers.





One of the pistons was a real bitch to get out, Normally I pop them out with compressed air but this one was not moving even with 120PSI of air. In the end I cobbled up an attachment for my oil pump and pushed it out with ISO60 way oil



Turned out it was ally corrosion under the dust seal causing the seal to grip the piston tight.

 

[awemawson]

Today I replaced twelve 6 foot T8 70 watt fluorescent tubes with LED replacements. I have a total of 36 of the 6 foot tubes in the main workshop giving 2500 watts so with electricity having gone up to 29.49 p per kwH this was costing 75 pence per hour just to light - never mind actually using any machines ! My electricity for the workshop had been running at £8 per day (inc standing charge) so something HAD to be done.

The twelve that I have changed were a pilot exercise to check light quality etc, not a cheap exercise though at north of £150 for the LED tubes. If I can scrape any spare cash together I'll certainly do the other 24 as they are pretty good, and apart from access issues over machines were very easy to do - just replace the starter with a 'special' which actually is just a short circuit - then put the new tube in.

These ones are 24 watt so a saving of 66%

The welding shop foundry and woodwork shop probably have another at least 36 tubes between them which is why I've been putting it off - darn expensive this saving money lark!

 

[Am333rcr]

i fix my auto clay trap. not been used in a long time. nothing when i hooked a battery to it.

3 quid toggle switch sorted. i am wanting to remove pedal so i am going to try and fit a cheap reciever/transmitter

 

[Anguz]

i fix my auto clay trap. not been used in a long time. nothing when i hooked a battery to it.

3 quid toggle switch sorted. i am wanting to remove pedal so i am going to try and fit a cheap reciever/transmitter

What make trap?

 

[Bki26]

i fix my auto clay trap. not been used in a long time. nothing when i hooked a battery to it.

3 quid toggle switch sorted. i am wanting to remove pedal so i am going to try and fit a cheap reciever/transmitter

This do?

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Am333rcr]

cheap well at the time gdk. they do a remote but i thought i would give it . fob and transmitter a tenner

 

[Am333rcr]

thats exactly what i have bought

 

[Barking Mat]

So, I was asked to go change an impellor, on a small marine diesel engine in a sailing boat this morning.

Not really interesting, normally a ten minute job.

However sailing boats are really irritating to access the engines.

Down the steps, pull the steps out, access to the front of the engine, six hex bolts on the face plate, pop out impellor, replace impellor, replace gasket and faceplate... Take the money, plus time going there and back and runaway...

Oh no, not this morning.

Down steps, open lid on bottom step, 6" square hole.

Marine cooling pump visible with a torch.

Horror.

Cross head brass screws, painted over... Argghh.

Five out of six came out with only mild swearing.

No. 6 had been overtightened, and the cross head had been rounded out.

40 minutes later, two options :

Rip it off, and hope whatever's left can be tweaked out, with mini mole grips.

Or engine out.

Tried unscrewing it with my knipex adjustables, and after 45 minutes, victory.

Here's the little fellow.

Then they took me to lunch, yay !

 

[Bki26]

So, I was asked to go change an impellor, on a small marine diesel engine in a sailing boat this morning.

Not really interesting, normally a ten minute job.

However sailing boats are really irritating to access the engines.

Down the steps, pull the steps out, access to the front of the engine, six hex bolts on the face plate, pop out impellor, replace impellor, replace gasket and faceplate... Take the money, plus time going there and back and runaway...

Oh no, not this morning.

Down steps, open lid on bottom step, 6" square hole.

Marine cooling pump visible with a torch.

Horror.

Cross head brass screws, painted over... Argghh.

Five out of six came out with only mild swearing.

No. 6 had been overtightened, and the cross head had been rounded out.

40 minutes later, two options :

Rip it off, and hope whatever's left can be tweaked out, with mini mole grips.

Or engine out.

Tried unscrewing it with my knipex adjustables, and after 45 minutes, victory.

Here's the little fellow.

View attachment 343931


Then they took me to lunch, yay !

At least it wasn't countersunk

 

[Dcal]

Not today, I lost a data card and it's just turned up, but a couple of weeks ago I did a few more repairs on my late 80s MTD ride on.

The plastic nose section has always been loose and I botched it with mud guard washers which lasted fine for about 10 years.
As I had it apart for painting, I thought I'd I fix it properly because it would make it easier to take on and off (which you have to do if you want to work on the carb etc.)
On the bottom of the nose cone the mounting bolts holes had cracked or broken off.

I made up a couple of boxes out of 2mm plate and welded a couple of nuts to each.

Then cut out 2mm plate to strengthen the bottom of the nose cone.

I even gave them a blast and a lick of epoxy primer and 2K top coat.

Then stuck them on with sikaflex and a few stainless pop rivets.

These rivets are normally a pig to set but the air rivetter I got on here made short work of them, brilliant tool.

Then just bolted the nose cone on and let the polyurethane cure.

Should be good for another 10 or so years.

 

[Barking Mat]

Not today, I lost a data card and it's just turned up, but a couple of weeks ago I did a few more repairs on my late 80s MTD ride on.

The plastic nose section has always been loose and I botched it with mud guard washers which lasted fine for about 10 years.
As I had it apart for painting, I thought I'd I fix it properly because it would make it easier to take on and off (which you have to do if you want to work on the carb etc.)
On the bottom of the nose cone the mounting bolts holes had cracked or broken off.

View attachment 343958
I made up a couple of boxes out of 2mm plate and welded a couple of nuts to each.

View attachment 343959

Then cut out 2mm plate to strengthen the bottom of the nose cone.

View attachment 343960

I even gave them a blast and a lick of epoxy primer and 2K top coat.

View attachment 343961

Then stuck them on with sikaflex and a few stainless pop rivets.

View attachment 343963

These rivets are normally a pig to set but the air rivetter I got on here made short work of them, brilliant tool.

View attachment 343966

Then just bolted the nose cone on and let the polyurethane cure.

View attachment 343967

Should be good for another 10 or so years.

Don't bother with sikaflex in future, all modern PU gloops are as good and cheaper.

We only use proper sikaflex due to company policy on some bits. Ultra violet ness.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

I knew this plane needed some attention. I hoped it could be fixed and returned to service, only because it had a metal sole.

I knew it was bad.

I have fixed, what looked worse. But the screws are broken, the split runs the full length of the body. Only the metal sole is keeping it together.

So.

I took it apart and started fixing it.

It would be a good old fashioned plane, if it was not broken.

So, I pulled out a spare Boldrick and had a cunning plan.

I turned it into a plane plane.

But as it has no markings, no decorations is it a:

Plain plane plane?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Grade 2. Same story. Faff all maintenance. Rotting away.

To this

 

[galooph]

A temporary fix, at least

The speedo on the Surf died, and judging from Surf forums, it's quite a common complaint. It's a doddle to remove the instrument cluster, so did that and extracted the speedo. I'd expected the electrolytic caps to be leaky, but they looked fine. Anyway, I had a good portion of the components knocking around, so replaced them anyway.

The dark spots on the bottom of the surface mount resistors are glue, don't often see that used in SMD assembly. I did find that one of the 1206 decoupling caps was cracked in two, so that won't have helped things.

Hooked it up to a pulse generator and cycled it up and down, all working nicely

Whacked it back in the truck, jacked up the rear axle, gave it a test – and it was now only intermittently dead

With it being an import, I'd expected to find a km/h to m/h pulse converter behind the dash, especially as there was a black sticker covering the 'k' of km/h on the speedo dial. Did a few more tests and confirmed that when the speedo 'died', it was due to a lack of pulses from the sensor on the transfer box.

Crawled underneath, started to trace back from the sensor, and found the pulse converter taped up with the wiring! Who in their right mind thought that was a suitable place?! They'd soldered the connections to the loom, but just stuck a tiny bit of insulation tape over each connection. Decided to cut out the converter, and restore the loom back to how it was originally, just so that the speedo would work (albeit in km/h, for now). Snipped through the cables, started to strip them back, and saw the copper strands were all corroded – wonderful! Water must've wicked along the wires.

Ended up removing the plug from the sensor, de-pinned it, and soldered some new wires to the crimp terminals. One of the terminals had started to corrode inside the plug, as well. Also noticed that the locking tab was non-existent on the speed sensor socket! So now I have the plug with short lengths of wire attached, back under the truck to hook it up. After cutting back the wires of the loom a couple of times, they're all still corroded. No chance of soldering, so ended up using crimped splices, covered with adhesive lined heatshrink. Used a few cable ties to make sure the plug can't come off – the missing locking tab worried me.

A quick test drive, and thankfully, everything is working again, just in km/h.

Time to order a new sensor and plug, then I'll replace this whole section of loom properly. Just wish the original importer had done a proper job, not a bodge!

 

[Luggsey]

A temporary fix, at least

The speedo on the Surf died, and judging from Surf forums, it's quite a common complaint. It's a doddle to remove the instrument cluster, so did that and extracted the speedo. I'd expected the electrolytic caps to be leaky, but they looked fine. Anyway, I had a good portion of the components knocking around, so replaced them anyway.

View attachment 344288

The dark spots on the bottom of the surface mount resistors are glue, don't often see that used in SMD assembly. I did find that one of the 1206 decoupling caps was cracked in two, so that won't have helped things.

Hooked it up to a pulse generator and cycled it up and down, all working nicely

View attachment 344289

Whacked it back in the truck, jacked up the rear axle, gave it a test – and it was now only intermittently dead

With it being an import, I'd expected to find a km/h to m/h pulse converter behind the dash, especially as there was a black sticker covering the 'k' of km/h on the speedo dial. Did a few more tests and confirmed that when the speedo 'died', it was due to a lack of pulses from the sensor on the transfer box.

Crawled underneath, started to trace back from the sensor, and found the pulse converter taped up with the wiring! Who in their right mind thought that was a suitable place?! They'd soldered the connections to the loom, but just stuck a tiny bit of insulation tape over each connection. Decided to cut out the converter, and restore the loom back to how it was originally, just so that the speedo would work (albeit in km/h, for now). Snipped through the cables, started to strip them back, and saw the copper strands were all corroded – wonderful! Water must've wicked along the wires.

View attachment 344290

Ended up removing the plug from the sensor, de-pinned it, and soldered some new wires to the crimp terminals. One of the terminals had started to corrode inside the plug, as well. Also noticed that the locking tab was non-existent on the speed sensor socket! So now I have the plug with short lengths of wire attached, back under the truck to hook it up. After cutting back the wires of the loom a couple of times, they're all still corroded. No chance of soldering, so ended up using crimped splices, covered with adhesive lined heatshrink. Used a few cable ties to make sure the plug can't come off – the missing locking tab worried me.

A quick test drive, and thankfully, everything is working again, just in km/h.

Time to order a new sensor and plug, then I'll replace this whole section of loom properly. Just wish the original importer had done a proper job, not a bodge!

I see capillary action of water in cables quite often, once had someone's TV aerial cable dumping water in their lounge from the roof!

 

[awemawson]

Today I replaced twelve 6 foot T8 70 watt fluorescent tubes with LED replacements. I have a total of 36 of the 6 foot tubes in the main workshop giving 2500 watts so with electricity having gone up to 29.49 p per kwH this was costing 75 pence per hour just to light - never mind actually using any machines ! My electricity for the workshop had been running at £8 per day (inc standing charge) so something HAD to be done.

The twelve that I have changed were a pilot exercise to check light quality etc, not a cheap exercise though at north of £150 for the LED tubes. If I can scrape any spare cash together I'll certainly do the other 24 as they are pretty good, and apart from access issues over machines were very easy to do - just replace the starter with a 'special' which actually is just a short circuit - then put the new tube in.

These ones are 24 watt so a saving of 66%

The welding shop foundry and woodwork shop probably have another at least 36 tubes between them which is why I've been putting it off - darn expensive this saving money lark!

Yesterday I replaced the remaining 24 tubes in the main workshop - some amazingly inaccessible over various machines - in fact the four that span over the Beaver CNC lathe one needed to walk on top of the machine enclosure. To my great surprise the wife volunteered which probably a very good thing as she must weigh about half of what I do !

. . . only another 41 to go in various other outbuildings and workshops but in all likelihood I'll leave them as they are 'occasional use' only.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Just wish the original importer had done a proper job, not a bodge!

It all makes work for the working man to do [well, at least according to Flanders & Swan]

Good result there, though!

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Yesterday, at MIS and my place, we used the laminated sheets on tool restoration.
This are some of the results.

Both heads were loose, so they were removed, handles cleaned up. The heads were then refitted.

This spear and Jackson Bolster was well used.

It is now had the cutting edge rounded over and made into a carpet Bolster.


Now this looks like a old screwdriver, but it has a lot of history.

It is Ex-WD and is from a Vickers Machine Gun Service kit.

New beech handle fitted with a hot tang into sulpher.



This Record small Spoke Shave just needed a clean up.
All done with now power tools.

A cutting edge was put onto the blade with a old hand cranked wet stone.

All done.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Nice Little Mamod came my way, missing the burner and I was told it had an issue.
The issue was it would lock up every now and then.

Stripped it down and could find nothing wrong. It would spin freely and run nicly on compressed air. But with steam it would lock up.

The pop rivet that holds the saddle in place would work lose in the heat and allow it to move. Thus making the engine lock.

I even located a norrow burner for it.