Nick Jones Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 1 hour ago, mpbarrett said: is there a link missing from your post? Yes….. I’m having some randomness with my phone and forums of this software type. Sometimes I can add links…. Sometimes not. Sometimes I can add pictures….. sometimes not….. Can’t find the link again now of course…. Sorry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 What's that squirrel trap, Nick? I bought a trap that electrocutes the little ^*&&"%$ - I think they were rats, but yours might work when electrikiry doesn't. JOhn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 This just appeared in Another Place in their Joke thread for captioning. Made me think of you, Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zetecspit Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 2 hours ago, JohnD said: What's that squirrel trap, Nick? I bought a trap that electrocutes the little ^*&&"%$ - I think they were rats, but yours might work when electrikiry doesn't. JOhn Honestly, after trying various stuff, rat poison works a treat and sorts thd problem quickly. Downside is you may get a temporary nasty whiff depending where they die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 2 hours ago, JohnD said: This just appeared in Another Place in their Joke thread for captioning. Made me think of you, Nick. Nerd alert. That is the starboard main landing gear of a Convair B-36 bomber. There must be some value in having all this crap in my head 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 59 minutes ago, zetecspit said: Honestly, after trying various stuff, rat poison works a treat and sorts thd problem quickly. Downside is you may get a temporary nasty whiff depending where they die. That was an ordinary rat trap John. Not very reliable as squirrels are a bit big and can reach the bait area with stepping on the trigger plate. Which is why I smear that too. It was crashing around again this morning so nothing has worked yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbarrett Posted April 27 Share Posted April 27 tried to order my seals for the engine crane, after 20mins on hold I was still number 3 in the queue. Will have to try again next week. Interestingly Clarke spares are now being sold by Machine mart, the number to ring takes you to Machine Mart spares... Nike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 (edited) Central heating been playing up randomly recently. The system has three 2-port valves - downstairs radiators/stat, upstairs radiators/stat and hot water cyclinder. Occasionally after the whole lot switches off at night the pump/boiler would keep operating. As the valves are all closed this makes everything very noisy and hot. Issue was with the tank valve which didn't seem to be making the off microswitch. Had this before, the switches are only rated for 3A which is a bit marginal. However with the fixed actuator valves a repair is a nightmare. But having over the piece replaced all the old valve with ones with removable heads I got some 5A microswitches from Farnell and took the head off today to replace what I thought was the burnt out one. Turned out the real issue was the bolts holding the drive motor had come loose which meant the actuator wasn't returning full travel to make the switch. Very strange. As I had the thing off though I changed the swich anyway as it's not difficult with everything on the desk. Edited April 28 by Escadrille Ecosse 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 Looks like the “value engineers” have been at it. Good work! Should be in the “can’t fix that” thread really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 The squirrel saga continues. Huge crashing and banging above our heads from about 4.30am and persisting. Opening the window and banging on the soffit would shut it up for maybe 10mins. Went into the loft armed with a long stick. Noted that one of my rat traps had gone entirely missing and the mousetrap sprung. One rat trap remaining set and bait untaken. Poked my stick down into the soffit box. Easier said than done. This established that there was something at the extreme end of the soffit box. Something that made noises a bit like a cooing pigeon when the stick was near it, but wouldn’t leave the corner. The stick got various bracketry attached for poking around corners, but didn’t gain much. From the top of a ladder outside I was able to thump the bottom of the soffit and bounce the creature up and down. More noises. Also an odd clatter. Was able to prise the soffit up just a bit which revealed the creature as a squirrel and that it had my rat trap attached to it. Also that it wasn’t moving away as it had got the trap wedged behind a joist. Not sure what part of the animal was in the trap, but nothing big as the jaws were fully closed (maybe hair only). To end the standoff I managed to prise the jaws open just a smidge which was apparently enough the little sod scampered away along the soffit. The worked my way along cleaning the gutter and thumping the soffit as I went, looking for the entry point, which turned out to be the extreme other end. While doing this we established there were in fact two squirrels in the soffit, on at each end, and in spite of the trauma, squirrel 1 was reluctant to leave her end. One small piece of good news was that squirrel 2 decided to leave of its own accord, almost followed by squirrel 1, which unfortunately ducked back in at the last minute. This meant I had to go back in the loft and poke some more. This revealed that squirrel 1 was back at the far end…… Finally managed to persuade the little sod back up to the hole end and jam some loft insulation into the soffit box to prevent easy return. Still won’t leave though….. Current situation is that the hole is obstructed in a way that will allow a fairly easy exit but not entry. I’m hoping it will leave, and then I’ll block the hole properly. Otherwise I’ll block the hole anyway and set a “humane” trap in the loft. I can’t set a rat trap as one is unreachable in the soffit and I sat on the other and broke it. Any of the traps is the end for the little sod as a) it’s illegal to release trapped vermin and b) I’m not feeling very humane towards squirrels just now, especially this one! Not a fun morning and I have many better things to do! Positives To date, squirrel damage is light I know how they get in and can fix it Gutter is clean and ticked off my pending jobs list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 4 hours ago, Nick Jones said: Positives To date, squirrel damage is light I know how they get in and can fix it Gutter is clean and ticked off my pending jobs list. Always look on the bright side of life... 4 hours ago, Nick Jones said: I can’t set a rat trap as one is unreachable in the soffit and I sat on the other and broke it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted April 28 Share Posted April 28 On the bright side of the last, the trap failed to bite my bum….. Little bugger is still in there. I’ve now blocked the hole properly. The other one is sat on the roof unable to get in. Trap set in the loft baited with raisins, chocolate spread (hazel nut) and water…. I think there will have to be some significant reduction of the local squirrel population! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbarrett Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 On 4/25/2024 at 7:51 AM, mpbarrett said: My 1Ton Clarke engine crane has developed a couple of nasty habits. First the crane jib will drop over night if left high and one of the cylinder used to pump up the pressure is leaking. Have contacted Clarke to see if I can get some new seals for it. Some comments I have read say that the seals are unique to Clarke cranes... I had never thought about this before but where is the reserve for the oil? If the jib is down where does the oil from the main cylinder go? finally got to speak to a human, ordered seals yesterday and they arrived today. Looks like a complete set for the engine crane, so pleased. Just need to find the time to fit them.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 7 minutes ago, mpbarrett said: finally got to speak to a human, ordered seals yesterday and they arrived today. Looks like a complete set for the engine crane, so pleased. Just need to find the time to fit them.. That was pretty impressive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 That was very impressive, actually being able to speak to a human. Great result with the seals also! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Noises from above again this morning. Had another session on it and another squirrel has been evicted. Didn’t end well for the poor little sod. Pretty much done in by hunger/dehydration or maybe had finally got desperate enough to take some of the bait. I sincerely hope that is the last of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 16 hours ago, Nick Jones said: I sincerely hope that is the last of them! Quite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 Started the conversion from automatic to manual and RHD to LHD. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escadrille Ecosse Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 That car is incredibly clean... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Spotted this the other day, AVO shocks, several years old, but less than a thousand miles and and always garaged, up until recently. Shite rubber/bubble gum or whatever it's made of. Closed the bonnet and the MK2 repro chrome badge fell off, one locating pin disintegrated. Then noticed the repro Vitesse bonnet badge was missing the black 'E'. Clearly not enamel, probably vinyl letters, just more crap parts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Volvo is not dripping oil it is pissing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 3 hours ago, Martin said: Volvo is not dripping oil it is pissing. From?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulAA Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 On 5/4/2024 at 12:17 AM, Nick Jones said: Noises from above again this morning. Had another session on it and another squirrel has been evicted. Didn’t end well for the poor little sod. Pretty much done in by hunger/dehydration or maybe had finally got desperate enough to take some of the bait. I sincerely hope that is the last of them! I was returning from the coast yesterday evening - 350km door-to-door, 305km of which will be new dual carriageway by the end of next year. The last 40km is being constructed now, which means that two lines of traffic each way are squeezed onto temporary roadways with a speed limit of 50km/h and an ambient user speed of 100km/h, which certainly tickles the sphincter when you are attempting to maintain that speed with an HGV gunning on one side, a solid concrete barrier centimeters away on the other, and a white van pressing from behind. I digress. I nearly collided with the slowing car in front when my attention was grabbed by a disconcertingly large, maybe bloated, squirrel of the dead variety, on its back with legs pointing skyward in a convincing rendition of rigour mortis, up against the aforementioned concrete barrier. There's no better squirrel than a dead squirrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 35 minutes ago, PaulAA said: There's no better squirrel than a dead squirrel. Amen brother. Amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Two dead squirrels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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