Stuff you have fixed today

[Barking Mat]

That's no good its all in foreign

Yep, true, I don't know if you can make out where some lout took a black marker pen and added some notes to remind them of what did what, been bugging me for years, spot of acetone and well it's not clean but cleaner.

 

[zx9]

That's no good its all in foreign

Makes it more fun.

 

[Barlidge]

My Sharan - Since buying it in September I've been chasing an issue where the turbo oscillates in and out on acceleration - I've been through everything and was about to toss a match at it but today I found the little culprit, the clutch position switch was broken so its been driving round thinking the clutch pedal is on the floor all the time.

Before and after traces

 

[nickk]

Unseized the bonet lock on my van,only replaced it 3 years ago!
I suppose it’s right in the salt spray firing line,vehicle designers eh,want shooting ,and be forced to spend 5 years on the tools learning about placement and access.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

which is in the neighbours workshop.

What's it doing in there? I assume that means you're dependent on them for your supply actually reaching your sockets? Just don't fall out with them.........

 

[Barking Mat]

What's it doing in there? I assume that means you're dependent on them for your supply actually reaching your sockets? Just don't fall out with them.........

Correct, and correct.

 

[Wedg1e]

ORR?

It's how a pirate who's just been to the dentist says 'Arrr'

 

[Wedg1e]

OK, not today but a couple of weekends back... well, it was cold, and even if there'd been anything on telly to watch I don't own one so that was a non-starter.

I've a couple of old Vax 121-series cleaners. The first I bought about 1990 when it still looked new, from a family where the lady of the house wasn't man enough (ahem ) to push the Royal Marine-scaled Vax around the place, so she'd stamped her foot until the husband bought her something smaller for her birthday, or xmas or whatever

The second I was given by a former work colleague who'd used it to clean out his aviary. Having got rid of the birds he had no further use for it, so I grabbed it ostensibly for spares, then realised that under the thick whiff of guano and canary corpses there was a virtually mint 121. So all the plastics went into a bath of Domestos and with some new filters fitted it became my workshop/car vac.

Anyroadup, as they say just down the road from here, I'd become aware over the decades that both motor units were getting a tad noisy, and after replacing a motor bearing in my 15 year old Ariston washer before xmas which rendered it as close to quiet as a 1400 rpm spinner stood on a concrete floor in a 6 foot square kitchen is ever going to be, I reasoned that mayhap the Vaxes would benefit from new motor bearings too - there being nothing else in there to make a noise.

So I stripped one down (the ex-spuggie sh*t-slurper), pulled the motor out, and quickly realised that it was evidently not intended to be serviced. For a start the brush holders are rivetted in; second the fan is housed in a pressed tin can which is crimped to the motor base, and the bolts clamping the motor frame together are hidden by the fan housing. There's a cooling fan on the other end, with a left-hand thread, but with that off there's nothing to hold to undo the big nut holding the fan to the other end... you get the picture.

Anyway, I monkeyed the motor apart and found that there's only one actual ball bearing, at the fan end; the other end of the shaft spinning in a spherical plain bush. There was plenty of life left in the brushes and the commutator was in good shape, but the 608Z ballrace did feel as rough as a Middlesbrough girl's kneecaps on Sunday morning. I reached into my drawer of random bearings and amazingly enough, the very first bearing I pulled out was a 608 but 2RS rather than 2Z, not that it'd matter. Laughing like a man who's just won his first game of Russian roulette, I rebuilt the motor, washed all the plastics in the sink and 'reassembled in reverse order' (c) Haynes, 1903.

Plugged it in and... nothing. WTF, I said, as I believe is the current fashion, and reached for the multimeter. Bloody field windings were open-circuit. Then I remembered that the last time I used that Vax, it stopped for no apparent reason. Thinking it had just blown a fuse or had a cable break, I switched to the other one and had been using it ever since. Peering at the windings I could see the break, near the attachment point. Right then. Some precision fiddling with a small tubular crimp restored continuity and I threw the switch aaaaaand... away it went, a little quieter than before perhaps, so I left it running on 'soak test', propped against the wall while I tidied up. After a couple of minutes, for no apparent reason, it stopped. Lawks a mussy me, I ejaculated, as I went to the bathroom to wash my hands.

That's odd: no hot water. Bloody combi must have tripped on overheat again. I'll fix it later. I headed back out to the garage I'd not long since closed, to bring back the tools. Goodness me, the motion-sensing floodlight has failed to illuminate, spake I, as I interfaced with the wheelie bin. By the time I'd gathered the tools and gone back indoors I was beginning to suspect common cause and sure enough when I checked, the main ELCB had tripped. Resetting it put the Vax back on, as well as the floodlight, as well as the house alarm which promptly triggered because I couldn't hear the countdown owing to the Vax motor unit which had toppled over and was now trying to suck itself through the kitchen floor, making a noise like Ann Widdecombe driving over cobbles.

I reset the alarm, put the motor unit back on the dust bucket and set about vacuuming the house. Wedg1e Villas isn't a large place, the Vax will reach every corner from the socket in the hall. I was halfway through what was laughingly-titled by the estate agents as the 'master bedroom' when I became aware of a strange aroma, and it wasn't Rachel Riley's ankle socks festering under the bed either. I dunno how many times I've told her... anyway, leaping (insofar as one my age 'leaps' within the confines of a bedroom that would have civil rights campaigners closing down prisons) over to the Vax I hit the switch as an acrid plume began emanating from the exhaust vents. Sadly it wasn't a genie telling me that I'd won the lotto or that Lucy Verasamy was on her way round with a tin of squirty cream and some handcuffs.

Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs, I muttered, switched to the other Vax to complete my domestic chores (think Freddie Mercury in that video, although I have neither 'tache nor dress) and then gave up for the night, having spent about 4 hours to end up back where I started, i.e. with a knackered Vax. Now, of course, the northern cheapskate in me wants that 608-2RS back...

 

[MattF]

Had to like that, even if for no other reason than the fact that composing & typing that epic must have taken you ages.

 

[dobbslc]

Stunning!
And Rachel with her socks eh? She just won't listen!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

A brilliantly written write-up, too many bits had me laughing to try to put them all in quotes. Well done that man for brightening my afternoon!!

 

[BarrieJ]

No stand yet but it needs some kind of cast iron setup to look right I think. Problem is all the 'vintage / upcycled' crowd have pushed the price up for that kind of thing.

If you can, I'd most definitely bolt your leg vice to a bench and the bench to the wall, it'll increase its range of uses no end.
An old fashioned cast iron stand, an Atwood, an Alldays and Onions sort of thing, or something that replicates it in size and weight is OK for filing and a bit of hammering but unless it's bolted to the floor the moment you might want to use it to bend a bit of hot 50mm x 12mm, you'll be pulling the vice and stand all round the workshop.
Some of the home made stands you see posted to 'Pinterest' are frankly ridiculous, they'd prove more of a danger to the user than anything else.
I have a 6" one that weighs I guess in excess of 100lbs and although my wooden bench is pretty substantial (6" x 6" legs), if it wasn't bolted to the wall, the vice would pull it over.
An 8" wrought iron leg vice can easily weigh well over 200lbs.

 

[dobbslc]

It will eventually go on a bench but at the moment I don't have the space!

 

[nickk]

I think I’ve fixed anyway,as you can see,a previous badger made the gauze filter too short,so I fear this repair kit may have been wasted,if the oils circulated dirty it will have knackered the rotor and seals
P3 Perkins btw.

 

[dobbslc]

Turned this

Into this

How many lights do we need in a kitchen?

 

[brightspark]

Turned this
View attachment 274492
Into this
View attachment 274493
How many lights do we need in a kitchen?

just done 20 recessed lights in someones kitchen

 

[dobbslc]

Shoulders like The Hulk?

 

[123hotchef]

Started fixing winch number 2.

 

[Anguz]

Fixed my gurgling condensor boiler by removing a 3 foot ice plug from the drain
Have insulated it, but its baltic where it is, so it may happen again

 

[badabec]

just done 20 recessed lights in someones kitchen

My neighbour, same size kitchen, changed his 5 foot fluorescent tube to poncy recessed lights, now he can't see a thing.
I'm sticking to the old fluorescent.