Today I mostly .....

[Zelandeth]

Dug the old broken washing machine out of the shed at my parents house and attacked it with the grinder. This has yielded several nice, reasonably thick (1 millimetre thick mostly) steel sheet which will be most useful for stabilising the doors of the van until I can get replacements, and a pile of potentially useful bits which have been thrown in the "might need some day" box. The only things left really are the drum assembly, one of the blocks of concrete (because I don't have a reeeaaally long reach 12mm socket to get it off) and the motor (knackered, which is why the machine was in there). Going to attack the outer drum next weekend (ran out of cutting discs!) as I think it's steel as well, just with an enamel coating which I can make short work of with the grinder. It will be getting cut up anyway to make it easier to transport the remains to the recycling centre anyhow.

Also dug my poor, long forgotten bike out of the same shed. It had been in there for about ten years I reckon, so various parts are now soaking in penetrating oil. It's going to need some work - the gear assembly was pretty well knackered several years before it went into storage (main spring tension was mostly provided by a bit of bent wire coat hanger! wedged in place - worked fine!), there's some play in the bearings for the pedal crank and the chain doesn't seem to have fared too well. The brakes need pretty much rebuilding as well, but that's no real problem at least...couple of new tyres wouldn't go amiss either...

Still - I've done many hundreds of miles on the thing and it is about 60 years old, so I think it's due some attention!

[spikey dapikey]

Washing machine drums make good fire drums for your yard or garden

[excossack]

Renewed my driving licence using the online option which meant providing
NI Number
Passport number
Paper driving licence number
Card driving licence number
mothers maiden name
Inside leg measurement & £20.

[Janko]

Almost stayed on the road.. Driving, when suddenly i press the pedal and there is no response, rpm falling down and then become alive again. Did the solenoid check and main solenoid was clicking and not clicking in 2-4s intervals.. Alive, dead, alive, dead.. I tried to unscrew it a little and hit it a little, but no effect.. Then i wire it to constant 12V so i could limp home. Inspected and changed it with a new one. Car now working again. The solenoid lasted for exactly 2 months. Yuppi.

PS: I LOVE HORROR CARB It makes life very exciting.

[excossack]

Today I lost a few hours researching miniature Land Rover models and a replacement lens for my Canon EOS300D. I have a Tamron lens(200mm) thats packed up
Spotted a lens that does 70-300mm.

[Tracer]

... enjoyed my sick day in bed watching some movies Is it weird that I'm actually happy I have the flu ?

[excossack]

Cured a strange issue with the Landy...When I put the side lights on the engine would cut out.

I noticed the interior light would go very dim once the door was shut but not go out, and the side lights in the spot lights would come on and gentle flash in time with the alarm light....
After a bit of tracing, I got sorted.... A bad earth!!!!!!! Now sorted.

Washed my car and washed the Mrs's car.

Bought a new lens for the trailer board and then pondered a Tohatsu 3.5hp 2 stroke 2006 engine. The local trailer place has one in.Its a choice between a 2.3hp Johnson (1992) or a Tohatsu 3.5hp (2006).

choices...£80 differance between the engines...

[excossack]

Cool. Is that with a 2nd dish and decoder or a motorised dish and same decoder?

[excossack]

That will be the only way to watch F1 unless you cough up.

The lens hasnt arrived yet, its been dispatched. Thats a shame about the Sigma, will see what its like when it lands.

[excossack]

Show off!

[excossack]

Is that a freesat box or a sky box with a sky card?

[Zelandeth]

Restored structural rigidity to the van's passenger door. A quarter of a washing machine case, half a box of rivits, one broken drill bit and a cutting disc and a half later, it's actually looking more door-like rather than a couple of bits of floppy tinfoil on some hinges.

Pretty...no. Should be solid enough and sharp-edge free enough hopefully to satisfy Mr. MOT Tester until such point as I actually replace the doors, which is in the plan for post-MOT tasks.

My welding is still at the "blowing holes through thin metal" stage, especially when it's as thin as some of these bits were. Plus I can always go back and re-do it. The metal bits are the right shape now anyhow!

Hopefully get this one finished (bar painting anyway) tomorrow and get a plate in place to sort the one bit of the drivers door which as it stands has separated from the frame at a couple of points. Nowhere near as bad as this though!



EDIT: More sensibly sized image...Sorry about that!

[excossack]

Its just gone 5:30am, its still dark and its lashing down. Oh well 2hr drive to the rally stage http://www.angleseycircuit.com/
A day of tarmac action from the comfort of my car doing radio

[LINCSLADA]

I attended a 4x4 response HI LIFT jack training day.Was a very useful day loads learnt..

Cheers Gav

[excossack]

Got to the rally. Took me 3 hrs to do a 1hr 45min - 2hr trip. Found out later it was due to this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-nort ... s-17420398.

The road was closed so had a detour to do, about 20 miles stuck behind 3 fully loaded artics over twisty roads.

Good event and then home by 7pm