Stuff you have fixed today

The_Yellow_Ardvark · Apr 28, 2024

This lump of rust, paint and glass was mine.

Yes it is bent.

But I did have a tank, wick holder and burner.

Fresh from de rusting, then into caustic soda to remove the incorrect white paint.

Yes there is a dent, but it is as straight as I can get it.

The white paint is gone, I know most lamps of this style are white, but I saw some original paint.
I did a quick google when I was in the shop.

Why red?

Back in the 1960's, when BR ran mail trains, with the sorting office, they had the lights painted red to separate them from normal rolling stock equipment.

Gold paint on the BR stamp, the GPO stamp is part hidden by the paint.
After I painted it, I found that the GPO stampings were filled with wax, so the paint would not stick.
Oh well, learn and live.

The_Yellow_Ardvark · Apr 28, 2024

This was a pain all the way through.

It is done, but I will revisit it in the future as I have only stopped if from dissolving into a rust pile.

Glass holders are incomplete, the lower rim bead is rusted away, door is bent.

Paint removing, soot was removed as well. Well it was under the paint.

This was a pig, poor welds, poor braze and cheep tin plate.

Even the paint failed.

Gragson · Apr 28, 2024

I'd gun blued some of this mini mills rusty black parts which came out well, this then showed up the flaky paint on the motor, non of which needed doing, just bugged me.

Tedious manual stripping finished, half thought about just clear coating, but it would not fit in.

Rattle can acid etch and satin after good prep has come out well and a pretty hard finish.

Which now makes the yellow paint look crap

Cheesie · Apr 28, 2024

A split intercooler, it may look pretty with the shaped end tanks but it was made with no more than 1.5mm sheet, I'd say even lighter when I checked back in the log I didn't go over 68amps or it was going to hole, I like to use 3mm for intercoolers, hopefully get some 2" hose tomorrow and test it

Blobber · Apr 28, 2024

Gragson said:
I'd gun blued some of this mini mills rusty black parts which came out well, this then showed up the flaky paint on the motor, non of which needed doing, just bugged me.

View attachment 447424

Tedious manual stripping finished, half thought about just clear coating, but it would not fit in.

View attachment 447427 View attachment 447428

Rattle can acid etch and satin after good prep has come out well and a pretty hard finish.

View attachment 447429 View attachment 447430 View attachment 447431 View attachment 447432

Which now makes the yellow paint look crap

Looks good enough to me :thumbup:

indy4x · May 2, 2024

Alternator packed up on my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's an 09 model with the Mercedes OM642 v6 diesel

Bit of a mission to get it changed, probably best part of 4hrs

Ended up unbolting the RH engine mount and jacking the engine up to get enough space to pull it out

This little tool was a life saver, had it years but never used it till now. Of course, I knew it would come in handy one day

Dozzer · May 3, 2024

Stuck the Discovery gear linkage back together last weekend, still had HDC faults and parking brake faults, apparently a dodgy wheel sensor will do this and diagnostic tool did say front left, so borrowed friends ramps (its ****** it down all day here) only to find that the wheel sensor was corroded to buggery and need to be drilled out

final bit dropped down the exciter ring so had to take wheel station apart.
Done now, and no Christmas tree lights in the dash.

nickk · May 6, 2024

Bit of lawn levelling,I’m hoping it will be adequate for seeding then the new ride on doesn’t drop wheels in holes that cause the steering rod to bend. Had to remove the digger’s canopy to enter a low archway. All done this glorious weekend when it didn’t rain once.

Robotstar5 · May 6, 2024

I fixed a 4G camera so Mrs Robo can keep an eye on her horse from the comfort of her armchair.

Seadog · May 7, 2024

Another interestong project came my way, a GWR signal lamp that had had a hectic life.

This presented the opportunity to use a dolly and planishing hammer that I acquired about four years ago. Think again...

After about three quarters of an hour of filing and draw filing, I reached a point where I was happy that they were good enough to use.

Cue another hour of annoying the neighbours (well, it was a sunny day so I wanted to work outside ).

That'll do.

And to cap it all, I made a brass pin and used a couple of 2BA dome nuts from my hoard (originally a split pin was the pivot.

Seadog · May 7, 2024

Another job from the same chap.

A metal box, the hinges had detached due to poor manufacturing. There was barely a line of solder along the edge.

Cleaned, tinned and reattached. Interestingly some text came through the silver paint due to heating.

"First aid outfitt", "Aircraft/dinghy large".

So probably WWII.

Hitch · May 8, 2024

I was at a customers site in Edinburgh last week for some service work.
Struggled to get these out of their housings. Much much worse than expected, very damaged o rings, and sides of the plugs scored badly.
Decided to bring them back, as we didn't have time to polish them up or the specialist tooling to refit the new rings.
Palletised to send back for the customer to refit, luckily they're on a 3week shutdown.

Seadog · May 8, 2024

Hitch said:
I was at a customers site in Edinburgh last week for some service work.
Struggled to get these out of their housings. Much much worse than expected, very damaged o rings, and sides of the plugs scored badly.
Decided to bring them back, as we didn't have time to polish them up or the specialist tooling to refit the new rings.
Palletised to send back for the customer to refit, luckily they're on a 3week shutdown.

View attachment 448464

What are they?

Hitch · May 8, 2024

They're automated valves essentially. The bottom section moves in and out across 3 positions, 1 clear path through the built in filter, 1wash position to allow the filter to be cleaned and 1 drain position, to allow the crud to be sent straight to drain.
Top bit is basically an air assisted spring that opens and closes, the black bit is an extension with a magnet inside, then there's a clever bit that links to a computer on the top (left wired up on site) to allow automated control of them and position sensing.

Brad93 · May 11, 2024

Helped my pal begin stripping this motor. London made. Suspect it's 1930s.

At first glance i thought it was a slip ring motor, but it's not, it has four brushes ant 90° and a commutator. My pal whose motor it is thinks it's a repulsion-induction motor.

Four wires coming out of the case but no indication of what is what.

Data plate says:
Electro Dynamic Construction Co.
London
190v 3HP ~1 50Hz.

So at the rewinders, we first done an insulation test at 250v which it passed fine, then we checked for continuity on the terminal block finding what we think is the stator and the field going by the resistance readings.

So we hook it up to the rheostat give it some voltage and we get nothing - not even a hum.

Dave (the rewinder) recons it could be some sort of series motor.

We have to crack the thing open to see where the leads to the brushes terminate and hopefully work out what's going on.

Very interesting piece of history no doubt well obsolete now.

If Dave isn't sure of how it works (50+ years in the industry) you can be sure it will be a valuable learning experience.

Anyways will be back on that in two weeks time so i will try and get more photos to update.

sardine · May 11, 2024

Scrapped post hole digger , missing one blade and both handles busted, a rummage in my junk pile turned up am offcut of 6" pipe for the blade, two curtain poles, steel tube for handle bushings and some M10 studding.

I will swop the blade bolts for hot rivets to match the other sidebwhen I get some .

The_Yellow_Ardvark · May 12, 2024

It was a good day yesterday, many things done, much coffee drank, much fun was had.

Only in the order I find them.

Oh yes, all I did was watch, advise and took the pee out of the pongo, crab, booty, wafu etc.