Hi All
This week I am back in the workshop due to the weather! it has rained on and off all week! The Lovolite rebuild continues, we get a new car for keith due to the Volvos demise, and I repair two faults on the Ryobi chainsaw We did a little field work in final preparation for a much smaller than usual Wicani Jamboree, but were so rushed in between the rain I didn't get much time for filming!
Phil, in increasingly soggy East Yorkshire.
Hi All
A very mixed bag this week, a couple of days of workshop fixes and Fordson major and topper working on the field topping out the regrowth on the bramble patch we cleared earlier this year. The tractor started (just) after a couple of months, and all running fine after my last attempt to blow it up when the water ran low because the rad was leaking and I didn't check the level before I started!! All running sweet, good oil pressure, cool running and no dramas, so I set up a couple of cameras, went back to the tractor, and it wouldn't start! in fact it was totally dead. I jumped it off from the Toro2CV tractor (which ran out of petrol mid charge) and then proceeded to finish the area and took the tractor to a power point and put the charger on it......nothing, ammeter didn't budge, and a test proved the battery to be open circuit! Probably a broken internal link. £166 later we have a new 900 amp one, and boy does she start, although at that price I would expect it to cut the field by itself! I will be back to it Monday, weather permitting, this will probably be the last cut of the season.
Phil, in lovely late summer East Yorkshire.
Hi All Which indeed? Keith and I went to look at, and bought, a mobility scooter for Angela to ride round the field on so she can get through her very demanding day a bit easier! We ttried it, I rode it, and he bought it, but when we got it home, we realised that it was fine on the flat, but even the slightest incline bogged it down! I have come to the conclusion that it has had the wrong control PCB bodged in some long time ago, not by the guy we bought it off, who sold it in good faith, as I found the screws holding the cover over the PCB were rusted solid. Looking at it from this end, it was a bad buy, we are trying to find a wiring diagram,and the spec of the board that SHOULD be in it! Got the spares for the chainsaw, and fitted them, and it starts, then stops! more attention required! Got the new handle on the pressure wash finished, so I suppose something has gone right this week, and Martyn came over Friday, fitted a couple of security cams for me, and set up the network so that I can view them remotely And I had a ride in a Teswla, and the wildlife cam too, and then he took me for a ride in his wifes Tesla, which ,although he is a complete computer nerd, he hates! Me, being a bit of a prat, forgot to video it, but the acceleration was much MORE than impressive!!
Phil, Summer has been switched off in East Yorkshire!
Hi All A very hot week in which both field work and shop work get done! Lots of grass cutting with the Fordson, and i got video to prove it! and also some workshop time working on a couple of old stairlifts that are being sold off as a project. a little generator, and I fix the yardcam as well. lots of stuff to interest the eclectic tastes of my viewers (I Hope!!) Hard to get into anything apart from an iced G&T when it's so hot!
Phil, in sweltering East Yorkshire!
Hi all, A short one this week as we got involved in a very dirty and boring clean up operation which I didn't bother filming to save you the drudgery of sitting through it! I got the stairlifts repaired and working, and fixed the spark problem on the brigs and stratton on the little generator, but thats about all Next week we have more grass to cut, a tree to fell, and looking at the weather, more workshop time!
Phil, in Autumnal but still warm East Yorkshire.
Hi All, This video was made with Clipchamp, but it won't be made with it ever again! what an execrable piece of crap it is! Microshaft have disabled video editor, and replaced it with clipchamp which is grossly overcomplex, and doesn't work. It would normally take me about 1-1/2 hours tops to turn raw footage into a video, I started at 7 and now its after 10 and I havent finished yet! Clicked the tab to arrange clips in ascending order, didn't work! neither did descending order! Tried to click in the text box to add screen text, it didn't work, but when you rewatch the video it has inserted "type text here" into the video, and by clicking on the screen I was eventually able to add the text I wanted! Trust Microshaft to take a simple and usefull piece of software that works perfectly and completely screw it up! RANT OVER!! Lots of repairs of kit I have for sale, and a recalcitrant Ryobi chainsaw which I think I got to the bottom of! Unfortunately Keiths wife, Angela is in Hospital at the moment, which means the looking after, cleaning out and feeding of 30 odd dogs has fallen on our shoulders, so I only get an hour or two in the workshop a few days a week! Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, please bear with me!
Phil, in Calm, peacefull and sunny East Yorkshire
This video was made with Clipchamp Yes folks, still clipchamp, and still a horrid piece of bloatware garbage that hides everything I want to do behind a wall of bloat that I have no interest in whatever, and apparently microshaft will NOT let you revert to video editor! watch this space! They are asking for feedback, so I am going to give them some!! So what have we this week? an incremental improvement on the pressure washer, and a realisation that it may be the limit of my water systems input that is causing lack of output!! I take on the carb on the Ryobi chain saw and change it from almost running properly to not even firing! Life brings good weeks and bad weeks, and the bad ones shorten your patience, test your temper, and sometimes make you doubt your own ability , but I must remember that, despite my autistic nature, it is not essential to be able to repair everything!
Phil, in the East Yorkshire rain forest!
Hi All, Clipchamp has gone!! I am back on Video editor, great joy!! I am indeed, back on the Holbrook, though I shall have to fit other jobs around it, like the forge shop roof, and the heating system. So after some more pesky Ryobi (skip to 12.32 if you can't stands na more) I start the Holbrook where I left off by straightening the threading stop bar, which went well, and so the next job is to fit the apron, and try it out, BUT! When I finished the apron and reassembled it I found that the changeover lever for the threads/feed control stuck when shifting, only sometimes, but enough to be annoying, and so i strip the apron again to replace it! I also noticed that some slight corrosiion has dulled the apron faceplate, so I will polish it again! Turning, and milling, and next week more milling to get the part to size, but what size? Looking at the wear on the old one it will be a hand fitting job to get it just right!
Phil, in wet but warm(ish) East Yorkshire.
Hi All,
A whole week of on and off and on again on the Holbrook! You need to get the sequence of assembly correct, or you end up pulling all the bits you just fitted off in order to fit the bit you forgot about, that cannot be fitted because you have forgotten the sequence! It is not difficult, because all the pins are new and tap out easily, just a pain, and sometimes awkard because you need to be at both ends of the lathe at once, or you need to manouver a particularlt heavy lump into alignment without damaging it! A friend turned up just as I was piling up some blocks to refit the apron, and we fitted in between us in Two minutes!! it is begining to look like a lathe again!
Phil, in ratty and rainy East Yorkshire
Hi Folks What a week!! I get some more Holbrook done, actually quite a lot as the knock off bar was stopping progress, and with that straightened in my makeshift arbor press it all goes back together, well nearly all, as I then move on to the top slide and find a compound bend in the spindle which I get partially straightened out, but ran out of time. The roof was (of course) far worse than expected but I managed to get all the rotten stirling board removed and the framing and trimmers in before I had to cover it up again for two days of storm Babet to hit us! it was wild and very wet, a tree came down on Cottam lane, but luckily not one of ours, and it rained and rained! Ryeslay, our local pest control man came to sort the rat problem out, I had to take part of the ceiling down to gain access, but it all went smoothly, and then on Saturday, 45 minutes before we were due to set of for Beverley hospital for Cath to have an X-ray, and odd popping sound came from the utility room, luckily we were both in the kitchen next door, we checked it out, but saw nothing, then a few minutes later Cath smelled burning, and I shot in there, closely followed by Cath, to see smoke coming from under the machine, and flames underneath!! I dragged it out, switched off the power , Cath turned the water off and I disconnected it, pulled it forward , leaving a pool of burning platic on the floor, and dragged it over the doormat and out into the yard! we doused the plastic with a measuring jug full of water and got another jug full for the machine which was now on its side and burning merrily, when I realised I was standing next to the outside tap with hose attached! and then it was all over! I hope for a quiet week next week!
Phil, in Babet ravaged East Yorkshire