Stuff you have fixed today

[Guzrik]

from what I can see the rubber seals are worn out. Honing the cylinder with sandpaper is definitely not worth it. Flex-hone for manual work will give the necessary surface cleanliness. What is an amplifier, a pneumatic actuator or a vacuum amplifier, is not so important. If the main brake booster fails, either buy a new one or buy a complete repair kit. There may be wear and tear further down the hydraulic component chain. You need to audit the entire system.

This can cause pain in the wallet.

This is an ultra slow hobby machine never going on public roads.
The reason I would like brakes is for stability while digging. Buying a new one if possible, is out of the picture at the moment. If it leaks I will consider new seals if I can find them.
The corrosion pitting is relatively small so I hope I can still fix this.
I don't have a Flex-hone for manual work, do you think it is so much better then emery cloth wound on a suitable piece of wood?
I find the returnspring is very weak and don't see a problem in a little stronger one helping the piston to return, giving the full stroke for the next brake action. The booster can easily overcome this spring I think.
The rest of this brake system is defenately going be inspected, I am scaling up on tools at the moment, to be able to change the wheels

 

[MattF]

Drilled & tapped a fixing point which had been missed during manufacture.



It's for a screw to secure the bottom rear of a cover in position.



As you can tell, the brass rod was in the lathe, so...


.
The other screws were replaced with brass thumbscrews too.

The rear of that cover is now as it ought be, rather than flapping out.

 

[Gragson]

The other screws were replaced with brass thumbscrews too.

Thumbscrews abound in your dungeon workshop

I've got one of those little linishers, just checked and that fixing point on mine is also missing, shame the belt case door is plastic, as apart from that they are solid little things. Think I'll copy that and replace with thumbscrews - which means I need to buy a knurling tool...

 

[Arc Tourist]

Thumbscrews abound in your dungeon workshop

I've got one of those little linishers, just checked and that fixing point on mine is also missing, shame the belt case door is plastic, as apart from that they are solid little things. Think I'll copy that and replace with thumbscrews - which means I need to buy a knurling tool...

Consider using socket head cap screw's with a press on knurled cap. Easily squeezed on with a vice, and a good solution for many applications.

 

[MattF]

Thumbscrews abound in your dungeon workshop

I've got one of those little linishers, just checked and that fixing point on mine is also missing, shame the belt case door is plastic, as apart from that they are solid little things. Think I'll copy that and replace with thumbscrews - which means I need to buy a knurling tool...

Any reason to buy another tool is a good one. Adding a screw near that dust port firms that cover up nicely. Should help improve extraction too. They're M4 thread.

 

[MattF]

Consider using socket head cap screw's with a press on knurled cap. Easily squeezed on with a vice, and a good solution for many applications.View attachment 414894

Are they brass?

 

[Hitch]

Ensuite toilet flush was constantly dripping into the pan. Removed, scraped the scale off the sealing washer seat, added a little silicone grease. Sounds like it's sorted. 10 minute job to fix something annoying. Always forget about it until bed time usually.

 

[Arc Tourist]

Are they brass?

I've only seen them in red & black, but I suppose you could touch them up with brass paint.

 

[DAPPH]

MY empty Kielder battery drill case got flipped off an outside bench by a strong gust of wind six months ago , landing as sods law dictates on one corner causing the two clam shells to seperate . Arrrrgh! or Olde English Industrial Language to that effect . .

Realised that with care the two blown skins that are ultrasonically welded to make each half of the clamshell could be gently drilled and with some packing pieces and a strip of 2mm engineering WPM a new hinge could be made and fitted to the two halves .
Three hours later after having had to use the bench saw , bandsaw and the drill press as well as the battery drill , I used 18 off 3 mm hex headed machine screws with nylock nuts to gently pull the new hinge & packers onto the case body .
If it dies before I do , I might consider asking Kielder if they sell replacement cases for their product. Piccy's to follow after I've finished digging out the mancupboard in a day or so's time .

 

[Mart63]

The Geeetech A10 at work, again. The fan stopped working the other day so I tried to order another one the same. Turns out you can get a 24v fan but not with the same size plug. I ordered the correct size jst plug with wires already attached and connected the 2 together with a soldered joint and heat shrink to insulate. What I didn't notice is the new plug was wired back to front so it didn't work. Had to pull it all apart and redo it. Works now. What a pain.

 

[mtt.tr]

The site radio development a fault, when you press the next button the mode changes.



Simple PCB, found it works via a resistor ladder, one of the switches had excessive internal resistance.


New switch ordered and soldered in and it's fixed. Nice and simple.

 

[DennisCA]

I bought a pair of old fog lights for my Saab, only 10€. When I get them I can see they say Bosch Halogen and Made in Sweden. They have no CE mark so they are older than 1984. Made in Sweden, not bad for 10€.

Treated with plastic restorer to the left, just cleaned with soap and water on right.

There's some rust, I put linseed oil on it... I figure that's good enough for now. Possible to do a better job later, separate the glass from the body with a thinner bath.

Plastic restorer on both

Tried applying some yellow headlight film, first time ever so I did a lot of mistakes, apparently you can use heat to make it go easier. Will do that on the next one. I like the yellow shine, will see though how I proceed, good thing is I can just remove it for a clear look.

I am cooking up my own circuit to make the lamps run on different voltages, so I can run the things as front position lights during the day, and when I need the fog lights (was real foggy recently) I can just press the fog-light button and they glow full strength. Also need them to shut off when the low beams are on and fog light switch is not depressed. I'll need three relays to make that logic work.

 

[bricol]

Anything like my 80's Lancia fog lights, some time in the oven at 200C will soften the glue to allow the glass to be separated and clean off.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Mrs said, "there's something rattling really badly at the back of the golf, people were looking at me".

Easy fix, till they also rust out .

 

[Prajna]

Nice fix.
Odd place to crack on the back?
Would expect the frontside, because of cutting force?

Yeah. Perhaps he was not cutting with it. Maybe it was run over or something fell on it. Pity I didn't grab a 'before' pic because there was a deep groove in the rib, as if someone had hit it with an axe. I would ask him but I'm not sure my slender grasp on Portuguese would be sufficient to make sense of the answer.

 

[qwakers]

something red and shiny arrived today...

these where sold to me nice and cheap, and as needing rebuilding. however, to my delight, they do not need a rebuild, just a mild refresh. no parts required.

there are 2 core issues making them a bit sticky. one the pins are siezed to the calipers and the pads. the second is that the pads are stuck to the caliper body. neither are unusual brembo issues.

first things first, hammer the pins out using a pin punch and a big hammer.
no surprise they are sticky. then in the pillar drill they go and spin them and scotch brite them til shiny. I then tweaked them straight until they span true in the drill chuck and refitted them to the caliper the verify goodness.

then i tested piston movement and found one slightly stiff piston. i popped it out with air, cleaned it up(piston and seals are perfect) and pushed it back home a few times til it moves freely.

then i filed the edges of the pads to take the smoo off, the same with the caliper lands, added some antiseize to the mating surfaces and reassembled.

much betterer.

 

[Pete.]

A minor repair today. The bottle would not stay on my prressure washer's foam blaster because the neck of the bottle is too thin it just jumps the thread, of course it only does it when full of shampoo which ends up on the floor.

I turned an ally collar to press inside the neck and support the thread. Now it fits nice and snug.

 

[sako243]

No piccies yet but got the wee Gaston Dufour mill I got off @8ob wired into an 11kW static phase converter.

Found a happy setting for it to at least do the slow traverses and spindle. Doing other bits and bobs needs tweaking of the phase converter knob but at least once I make a draw bar I can do some milling.

There's a big gennie outside which can power it for bigger jobs but that needs plumbing in properly.

 

[galooph]

The Surf's MOT is looming, and I've been waiting ages for a dry/still day to fix a small hole in a sill. Was visiting Dad this morning, so didn't make a start till 3pm, finally slapped on a thick coat of epoxy mastic (by torch light!) as the light faded.

While I'd got the sill opened up, I thought I'd try spraying some ACF-50 forwards and back. Was very impressed with the way it wicked/tracked over time. a thin film appeared from the sill lower seam (between the spot welds) which then tracked up the outside of the seam - could see the grime changing colour!

Thanks for championing it, @tom2207

I certainly missed my 2-post lift, though - not as easy when you're lying on the floor welding overhead!

 

[nickk]

Sprayed some new pattern wings back in Easter,now fitted,not the best of fits,good job I have a die grinder. The other sides similar quality,good enough at £100/pr ,for a van.