The great "can't fix that" racket

[Escadrille Ecosse]

[JohnD]

If they had used plastic, it could have been Kevlar, just like in F1 when they can't use carbon fibre, and glass fibre isn't strong enough!

But not 40 years ago!

JOhn

[rogerguzzi]

3 hours ago, JohnD said:

If they had used plastic, it could have been Kevlar, just like in F1 when they can't use carbon fibre, and glass fibre isn't strong enough!

But not 40 years ago!

JOhn

Hello John 

                 I am still glad they used a bit of me as plastics then were nothing like now??

Roger and the Memsahib

ps I could have pierce my left ear lobe for sometime after as it was numb(but went for the nose ring instead!!!)not really

pps it was a ward with blokes with alsorts of lower bits missing I felt like a fraud but they did let you smoke in the day room?(I had given up long before but it was mad but the poor buggers did not have much else to look forward to?)

pps I must tell you about the trip planned after the Spain trip we are going to the Shlumph collection and the Railway musueum then off to the Stelvio and other passes with some other old daft buggers!

This all before the Grim Reaper comes Knocking!

 

[JohnD]

If you can go to the Schlumph, the Memsahib can have TWO ice creams!

Go for it all, Roger (and Memsahib!)

John

[rogerguzzi]

Hello All

              The Epoxy resin came today and it looks quite runny(Technical Term?) I found some fibre glass matting and cut it up and loosened it to lots of strands(I wish I had not bought the other filler now ! £7 wasted!!!!)

I will have go at it tomorrow so fingers crossed!

On another note a little battery powered hand held vacumn cleaner I use to suck up ash around the log burner stopped working yesterday!!

It is an Aldi Special years old on inspection and a clean of the switch still dead! and there is a pcb full of electrical bits above my pay scale?

Then I noticed that one battery lead was directic to the motor and the other onto this board so I thought bugger it I am on a good hiding to nothing so I sorted it out and the motor ran!

So I found a toggle switch and fitted it in to the case and ran the battery wire through it and it still seems to chage ok and the little led flashes the same but now I can run the motor at the same time (not Before?)

So if it lasts through this winter saved a few pennies?

Roger

[JohnD]

I like it, Roger!    I would have no idea what the PCB was supposed to do, either.     Except that I have learnt that the parts on such boards that last least long are capacitors.   I believe that they are usually small discs or rectangles on two wires, and discolour when they fail.  But also small cylinders that don't change colour.      Replacing them can rejuvenate the board, but nor do I have the soldering skills necessary.

John

[Escadrille Ecosse]

13 hours ago, rogerguzzi said:

The Epoxy resin came today and it looks quite runny(Technical Term?) I found some fibre glass matting and cut it up and loosened it to lots of strands(I wish I had not bought the other filler now ! £7 wasted!!!!)

The filler will make it less runny Roger. Be wary of the the fibreglass, long strands, anything more than sat 4-5mm will make it extremely difficult to pour and slosh about and they don't hold 'runny' resin well so ironically will make things weaker ans the resin will drain out into pools.

[rogerguzzi]

Hello Colin

                  I will just use the filler then

If I have some resin left over I will perhaps stick a layer of fibre glass matting to the bottom of the lid and I could rough it up a bit first?

Roger

[Escadrille Ecosse]

A picture from the days when 'they could fix that'...

or maybe this belongs in the Joke of the Day thread

[JohnD]

This is less "can't fix that", more "can't use it anymore", unless you guys can advise.

I have an old Desoutter finger sander, air powered.  It will take belts up to 25mm wide that are 480 to 500mm long.  But the nearest I can find are 457mm too short, or esle much too short or long.

I have a few belts left, but unless I can buy some more, this tool will soon be just a nice shelf item!  Any ideas, please?

John

Edited January 30, 2024 by JohnD

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Remember those from my old foundry days. Nice.

I have a cheapo electric version with the short 1/2 inch belts. Even so what a handy tool. 

Would it be possible to make your own either from a longer belt or from a  roll?

I'm not sure exactly what adhesive they use but with a bit of experimentation it might be possible to work something out

[DeTRacted]

A couple of sources for 20 x 480 ones:

https://www.cromwell.co.uk/shop/abrasives/coated-belts/sanding-belt-20mm-x-480mm/f/97359

https://www.abtec4abrasives.com/20mm-x-480mm-zirconia-abrasive-sanding-belt-price-per-10-belts-1906-p.asp

[Nick Jones]

20 x 480?

https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/abrasives/sanding-belts/aluminium-oxide-power-file-belts/f/3019
 

I always struggle with this….

[JohnD]

Gosh! Thank you!!   The CR of SU comes up trumps (small 't') again!

John

[Escadrille Ecosse]

13 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

20 x 480?

https://www.zoro.co.uk/shop/abrasives/sanding-belts/aluminium-oxide-power-file-belts/f/3019
 

I always struggle with this….

Should have thought of Zoro. Excellent source for this sort of thing

[Nick Jones]

One of my local friends has a habit of bringing random objects around for me to fix. I have a reasonable hit-rate, but some things are (well) beyond me.

This is one of them. It’s the Bose 10 channel amplifier from his 2010 Audi A4. It’s stopped working as Audi can’t build a waterproof car anymore, and this is positioned below a leak point and has a convenient fan hole in the casing to make sure the water has a way into the most delicate area. The clever bits, on the left. You can see the watermark.

It’s deeply integrated with everything else and is security protected with the VIN and some matching code with the head unit. This means that even if you can find a working used one you need dealer level (connected to VAG central servers) to re-assign it. Of course, this is a very common problem, so used ones that work are scarce and expensive, plus the cost of getting it coded. Though less expensive than getting it repaired and much less expensive than a new one.

Replacing it with a more conventional system is also extremely difficult due to the level of integration.

Ridiculous over complexity. Depressing lack of thought on durability.

 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

21 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

One of my local friends has a habit of bringing random objects around for me to fix. I have a reasonable hit-rate, but some things are (well) beyond me.

This is one of them. It’s the Bose 10 channel amplifier from his 2010 Audi A4. It’s stopped working as Audi can’t build a waterproof car anymore, and this is positioned below a leak point and has a convenient fan hole in the casing to make sure the water has a way into the most delicate area. The clever bits, on the left. You can see the watermark.

It’s deeply integrated with everything else and is security protected with the VIN and some matching code with the head unit. This means that even if you can find a working used one you need dealer level (connected to VAG central servers) to re-assign it. Of course, this is a very common problem, so used ones that work are scarce and expensive, plus the cost of getting it coded. Though less expensive than getting it repaired and much less expensive than a new one.

Replacing it with a more conventional system is also extremely difficult due to the level of integration.

Ridiculous over complexity. Depressing lack of thought on durability.

 

Challenging.

Bit like VAG.

[mpbarrett]

13 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

One of my local friends has a habit of bringing random objects around for me to fix. I have a reasonable hit-rate, but some things are (well) beyond me.

......

Ridiculous over complexity. Depressing lack of thought on durability.

 

Difficult, impossible repair. No chance of getting cct diagrams, no spares, almost impossible to replace highly integrated SM devices (although a hot air soldering station can help). And if there is any programmed devices on the board, almost certainly, you wont be able to get the code to reprogram them.
All you can do is to clean the corrosion off the connectors, PCB and pins and hope that nothing has been killed on the board due to the water.

Unfortunately typical modern electronics.  

mike

[zetecspit]

Tumble dryers. What a faff. 

A few weeks ago I got sent to a student house as the dryer has stopped working. That turned out to bethe wall socket, so a new MK faceplate and sorted. 

Last week, the same machine went wrong, so I got asked to visit again. Motor turning, getting hot, drum not moving. So popped the top off the machine, then pulled it out. the bearing at the back had worn through, and teh drum spindle had been sawing its way through the case until the spindle itself got chopped off. Drum dropped. 

Being naive about these things, I ordered a genuine repair kit. Friday it arrived, I went to fix it and then how the heck do some of the panels come off the machine? Eventually got in there only to discover the belt had broken too. 

Yesterday I returned with a new belt. And are the bloody things tight. Youtube video showed a bloke flicking it one with a screwdriver. Maybe after 5 years practice,but it took me an age and a small crowbar to do the job. The reassmbled all the panels, plug in and.... nothing.

Top back off, and a bit of poking revealed a wire was off the door switch. Replaced, and it luckily works. 

The moral of the storey is after 6 1/2 years (machine was built 2017) of drying 6 students clothes it may have been better off replacing. Or maybe next time get a proper repair man out.... (the landlords are good clients, and they pay reasonably well, thankfully) 

Next task is flushing the central heating system. New boiler was fitted 2019, but the system was not flushed properly. I chucked a couple of bottles of cleanser in when there yesterday, the draining, reflush etc will be a job for next week. Shall I take a bet on how many radiator vents are seized? And yes, twin panel ones with the vent screws between the panels so no flippin access. 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Did a tumble dryer once. Which was once too many.

Good luck with CH flush. Another fun job. Are you hiring a pump?

Seems rather an act of cruelty to do it this time of year 

[JohnD]

We replaced a tumble dryer.  It had to be dismantled to get it out from under the work top.

Inside, it was full of fluff.  Bad enough, but  where the wires ran through the fluff to the heater elements, the fluff was charred!

For fear of fire, we never ran a tumble dryer while we were out of the house!

John

Edited February 7, 2024 by JohnD

[Escadrille Ecosse]

2 hours ago, JohnD said:

For fear of fire, we never ran a tumble dryer while we were out of the house!

Very wise precaution John!

[Sprint95m]

On 2/7/2024 at 12:22 PM, JohnD said:

We replaced a tumble dryer.  It had to be dismantled to get it out from under the work top.

Inside, it was full of fluff.  Bad enough, but  where the wires ran through the fluff to the heater elements, the fluff was charred!

For fear of fire, we never ran a tumble dryer while we were out of the house!

John

Professional (Industrial) dryers have a trap, which is a drawer to be cleaned out daily.
The hotel I work at has two huge (Hubesch) machines in constant use day and night.....

kitchen tea towels and cloths are the most dangerous things to dry because of grease/oil.
To avoid this danger we use a large dollop of washing up liquid on the 90 degrees boil wash

 

At home I don't have a tumble dryer

 

Ian

[Nick Jones]

8 hours ago, Sprint95m said:

At home I don't have a tumble dryer

Me either…… fire hazard aside, their power-hungry nature triggers my skinflint reflex!

[Nick Jones]

I may have mentioned that our DVD player stopped working after a long power cut.

So I looked inside. Fuses all ok. Switched mode power supply with outputs at various voltages. No output at any voltage. Nothing obviously melted/exploded. One rather bulgy electrolytic capacitor. I changed that. Wasn’t really expecting it to work, so I wasn’t very disappointed when it didn’t.

This is the power supply board.

I have found a circuit diagram for a “similar” machine. Bit out of my depth though.