# Show us what you're doing at work today



## Justinslow (16 Feb 2017)

I'll kick this off with "scraping moss off a patio" oh the joys.


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## MossCommuter (16 Feb 2017)

Oi


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## MontyVeda (16 Feb 2017)

Filling these...


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## MossCommuter (16 Feb 2017)

[QUOTE 4685153, member: 9609"]get yourself a power washer with a turbo head.[/QUOTE]


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## Drago (16 Feb 2017)

Today's work consists of doing this quite a lot...


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## Justinslow (16 Feb 2017)

Drago said:


> Today's work consists of doing this quite a lot...
> 
> View attachment 338074


Watching hardcore violent DVD's with your bull terrier fighting dog locked in its cage ? Jealous.


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## Milkfloat (16 Feb 2017)

Right now, I am following up to find out why our production team made a minor mistake that was spotted by a customer. This is not my job, but in the interests of going on holiday later today I want it cleared up before I go. I should be doing far more important things involving horrible spreadsheets.


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## ColinJ (16 Feb 2017)

[QUOTE 4685153, member: 9609"]get yourself a power washer with a turbo head.[/QUOTE]
And do NOT power wash towards the house with the patio doors open ... 




My nephew wanted to help when I was cleaning his family patio. I nipped indoors to get my phone and came back to find that he had absent-mindedly blasted about 5 litres of muddy, mossy water into the house!


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## User33236 (16 Feb 2017)

I could show you.... but then I'd have to kill you


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## Mugshot (16 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> I'll kick this off with "scraping moss off a patio" oh the joys.
> 
> View attachment 338067


That's a patio??!!??
Anyway, I'm waiting for some customers to come in the shop


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## mjr (16 Feb 2017)

So far, I've been trying to make Domain Name System servers work as desired. Nothing much to look at... which is part of the problem. 

After that, it's probably website-tweaking, spam filter reconfiguration and whatever else comes in. Oh and do this stack of admin paperwork in front of my keybard.


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## Spinney (16 Feb 2017)

Making powerpoints for teaching...





But now I'm off out on the bike!


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## Smithbat (16 Feb 2017)

Today I am doing my best to reduce thsee in trays to nothing.


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## djb1971 (16 Feb 2017)

Today I've removed ALL of the work junk from my van, replaced with my voicemail message with a 'don't bother me' message and added my bike and a bed for tonight.

I'm heading to Scotland for a couple of bivvy nights but won't be there until 4.00am tomorrow morning so I'm having a night in the van. 9 flippin' hour drive

A good days work


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## jayonabike (16 Feb 2017)

Feet up, lunch break


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## Jody (16 Feb 2017)

You are all lying. An accurate representation to what people are doing at work is shown below


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## User32269 (16 Feb 2017)

Smithbat said:


> Today I am doing my best to reduce thsee in trays to nothing.
> View attachment 338086








These should do the job.


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## ianrauk (16 Feb 2017)

Hoovering up in our gallery


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## Leaway2 (16 Feb 2017)

Jody said:


> You are all lying. An accurate representation to what people are doing at work is shown below
> 
> 
> View attachment 338092


I had to look round then. I thought you were behind me!


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## jayonabike (16 Feb 2017)

Feet up, coffee break


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## ufkacbln (16 Feb 2017)

Crown Court 

I hasten to say on the right side of the Dock


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## Cubist (16 Feb 2017)

Watching Fortitude on Box Sets, intermittently mobilising my new hip.


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## Drago (16 Feb 2017)

Forgive me going off topic a moment - you had a hip replacement @Cubist ?


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## Spinney (16 Feb 2017)

jayonabike said:


> Feet up, coffee break
> 
> View attachment 338114


Bit repetitive, your job, innit?


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## ColinJ (16 Feb 2017)

Spinney said:


> Bit repetitive, your job, innit?


You can say that again ...


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## ozboz (16 Feb 2017)

Tiling !
As usual !
Hand made imports ,


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## Justinslow (16 Feb 2017)

I think I win the trophy for "crappest job so far"


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## Haitch (16 Feb 2017)

Something to do with this:


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## snorri (16 Feb 2017)

It never fails to excite when you hear the crane engine rev. up at lunchtime.


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## Dave 123 (16 Feb 2017)

Today I've been preparing for my appraisal. I'm a bit peeved this year, so I used 2 extra sheets on one question!


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## Justinslow (16 Feb 2017)

snorri said:


> It never fails to excite when you hear the crane engine rev. up at lunchtime.



View: https://youtu.be/_M1372Z1Ldg


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## 3narf (16 Feb 2017)

Not from today (I'm off work 'cos it's my birthday) but here's a pic from the 'office...'


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## Justinslow (16 Feb 2017)

3narf said:


> Not from today (I'm off work 'cos it's my birthday) but here's a pic from the 'office...'
> 
> 
> View attachment 338162


Good, but it's not quite "scrapping moss off a patio"......







Ps happy birthday!


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## oldfatfool (16 Feb 2017)

No photos allowed. But building bits for Daimler and JLR among others. Beats posting for a living.


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## Cubist (16 Feb 2017)

Drago said:


> Forgive me going off topic a moment - you had a hip replacement @Cubist ?


Yep, last Wednesday. Up and about on a single walking stick now, and I can ditch that when I can walk without rolling. Can't go far, but plan is by next week Mrs Cube can take me and the dog to some flattish terrain to see how far I can stretch.


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## Rustybucket (16 Feb 2017)

Lots of boring excel spreadsheets!

I don't think I'll bore anyone with any photos...


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## CanucksTraveller (16 Feb 2017)

I took this picture while travelling with work, but I'm not in real estate, nor in blowing fanny horns. I just liked it. 






I'm actually in aviation and I travel around a lot, I took this at work a couple of weeks ago. When I'm not out and about I'm to be found at a desk in a very unglamorous town.


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## NorthernDave (16 Feb 2017)

I've been in meetings most of the day...






No photos allowed at work (seriously!), so this is the nearest I could find...


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## Saluki (16 Feb 2017)

Today mostly consisted of:





and


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## ayceejay (16 Feb 2017)

Grumble grumble whinge whinge


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## steveindenmark (16 Feb 2017)

I work for Elvstrøm Sails in Denmark and this is what we do each day.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNKjUaKFYps


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## gbb (16 Feb 2017)

Servicing one of these.
Maybe 2 hours work, mostly cleaning to ensure parts (and there's lots of them packed in) don't get sticky, lubricating, checking sensors, heaters.


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## keithmac (17 Feb 2017)

Recomissioned an MV F4, the bike was like new (2005) but the fuel system was a wreck!.

If you ever leave a petrol bike or car stood for long periods fill the tank to the brim and ideally add fuel stabilisers..


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## Drago (17 Feb 2017)

Done my work for today, the onerous task being a lie in until 0800hrs.

Now that bit of effort is done I can relax 

@keithmac are you a motorcyle mechanic type bloke? Lucky man if so.


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## Justinslow (17 Feb 2017)

keithmac said:


> Recomissioned an MV F4, the bike was like new (2005) but the fuel system was a wreck!.
> 
> If you ever leave a petrol bike or car stood for long periods fill the tank to the brim and ideally add fuel stabilisers..
> 
> ...


Oops I've a gsxr 600 srad not turned a wheel in a few years 98 vintage, carbs never been off, I expect that will be in a mess too.


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## jayonabike (17 Feb 2017)

Start of another shift & I'm waiting for my time slot to get on the dock and load up


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## Tin Pot (17 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> I'll kick this off with "scraping moss off a patio" oh the joys.
> 
> View attachment 338067


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## Andrew_P (17 Feb 2017)

jayonabike said:


> Start of another shift & I'm waiting for my time slot to get on the dock and load up
> 
> View attachment 338263


Lucky for you do a bit of cycling or you would end up like the average truck driver....


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## Drago (17 Feb 2017)

Gave the Ford Fusion of elderliness a quick wipe.


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## keithmac (17 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Oops I've a gsxr 600 srad not turned a wheel in a few years 98 vintage, carbs never been off, I expect that will be in a mess too.



Yeh, we used to import 400's from Japan and 9 times out of 10 they needed the carbs stripping.

With a carb bike if you're planning to stand it up draining the tank and fload bowls is normally good enough.

Stale fuel bloody stinks as well..


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## winjim (17 Feb 2017)

Drago said:


> Gave the Ford Fusion of elderliness a quick wipe.


Is that what you're calling it these days?


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## gbb (17 Feb 2017)

Servicing a labeller like this...

Clean all sensors.
Remove infeed belt assembly, clean rollers, check bearings, clean belts.
Ditto discharge belt assembly.
Ditto centre belt assembly, replace spindle bushes.
Remove cutter blade, thorough clean, remove excess label adhesive.
Clean anvil.
Check silicone oil dosage system, ensure oil hasn't contaminated belts, replace if it has.
Check Emergency stops, safety switches etc.
Clean printer / thermal head, conduct test print.
Calibrate label sensor. 
3 hours work, no rush today.


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## Drago (17 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Oops I've a gsxr 600 srad not turned a wheel in a few years 98 vintage, carbs never been off, I expect that will be in a mess too.


You should give it to me.


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## Justinslow (17 Feb 2017)

keithmac said:


> Yeh, we used to import 400's from Japan and 9 times out of 10 they needed the carbs stripping.
> 
> With a carb bike if you're planning to stand it up draining the tank and fload bowls is normally good enough.
> 
> Stale fuel bloody stinks as well..


Had an NC30 lovely bike but very small, I remember the days of BAT motorcycles etc and the grey import boom. 
Do the carbs need ultrasonic cleaning or is manual scraping and carb cleaner good enough?


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## keithmac (18 Feb 2017)

If you strip them down and give them a good clean (carb cleaner, brass brush airline blow gun) then normally that's good enough.

We bought an ultrasound bath and they do clean up better in there but you still have to strip them down first.


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## Drago (18 Feb 2017)

Todays 'work' consisted of removing the old locking wheelnuts from the Ford Fusion of Elderliness, because the key is missing.

Took 30 seconds per wheel, so if you think lockers will protect your wheels you need to think again.


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## subaqua (18 Feb 2017)

Drago said:


> Todays 'work' consisted of removing the old locking wheelnuts from the Ford Fusion of Elderliness, because the key is missing.
> 
> Took 30 seconds per wheel, so if you think lockers will protect your wheels you need to think again.




struggled a bit then did you ... 

£25 for a set of removers for ANY type. and a 3ft breaker bar. 

it stops the opportunist but not the dedicated scouser


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## Drago (18 Feb 2017)

Nope. 12 point socket, hammer it on, bar it loose, off it twiddled. Not wasting money on unnecessary extractors.

It takes longer knocking the nut out the socket prior to attacking the next one than it does to get the nut off in then first place. Wouldn't stop an opportunist, unless they left the house empty handed.


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## Justinslow (18 Feb 2017)

Oi! this is "show us" not "give us a description of"
Carry on.


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## keithmac (18 Feb 2017)

Honda Vision seat lock replacement, took over an hour of fighting with the bloody plastics..


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## 3narf (18 Feb 2017)

The nearest Heathrow ever gets to being a pleasant place to work!


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## PeteXXX (19 Feb 2017)

Waiting for someone to open the gate at Kidderminster.


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## Justinslow (21 Feb 2017)

FFS.


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## GlenBen (22 Feb 2017)

Sometimes I hate my job. Then I look at your patio @Justinslow and remember that life is good.


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## Scoosh (22 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> FFS.
> 
> View attachment 339050


Some tough moles you've got there - I wouldn't argue with them if I were you ...


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## djb1971 (22 Feb 2017)

Justinslow said:


> FFS.
> 
> View attachment 339050


I'd have just bought some gravel


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## r04DiE (23 Feb 2017)

Machining. Glorious Machining.


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## PeteXXX (23 Feb 2017)

[QUOTE 4695384, member: 9609"]fanny in a scanny alert - please tell me you don't have peek-a-boo curtains with tassles.[/QUOTE]
Ha! Nooooo.. no peekaboo curtains or tassels either! Or a cuddly toy on the near side window


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## PeteXXX (23 Feb 2017)

On the dock in Shirley, riding out Doris. Not a fanny in a Scanny today.


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## AckaDappa (23 Feb 2017)

Waiting for some passengers


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## Justinslow (27 Feb 2017)

Clearing this mess up





Getting there slowly


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## gbb (5 Mar 2017)

Conveyor gearbox was getting increasingly hot and juddery.
Opened up, no oil and the brass gear has shredded somewhat, lots of brass filings around the perifery. Bearing wasn't brilliant either.

In an emergency, i'd have flushed it out, replaced the bearings and put some oil in it in the hope it might make it last a few days until a replacement is found.....but i had a slightly slower version i could fit. The conveyor is getting scrapped soon anyway.


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## Justinslow (6 Mar 2017)

Finished today, been here the last two Mondays. Satisfying.


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## Justinslow (7 Mar 2017)

Rub down and re oil.
At least my work is varied I guess!


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## gbb (7 Mar 2017)

Installing a new packing line, the first of several.
This is the SMALL packing hall, there's another one twice as big.
Took me 4 attempts to find my workshops


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## Fab Foodie (7 Mar 2017)

View from the production line today....


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## ufkacbln (8 Mar 2017)

In the Pomelliers Rest in Bermondsey

Just been to a professional meeting and having a quick social pint before heading back

Tough work working for the NHS

(This is a semi-serious post)


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## Justinslow (8 Mar 2017)

Cunobelin said:


> In the Pomelliers Rest in Bermondsey
> 
> Just been to a professional meeting and having a quick social pint before heading back
> 
> ...


Photo or it didn't happen.....


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## r04DiE (8 Mar 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Photo or it didn't happen.....


Exactly, this is the _'Show us what you're doing at work today thread'_, not the _'Give us a written explanation of what you're doing after work today'_ thread.


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## screenman (8 Mar 2017)

I am fixing a dent on this car, last time I worked on it I took this picture. I hope that qualifies.


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## PeteXXX (8 Mar 2017)

Waiting at yet another gate..


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## PeteXXX (8 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4713411, member: 9609"]what do you carry ?[/QUOTE]
Everything, at all temperatures, that the supermarket sells.

I have three gates to wait at today, but just the one photo sums them all up!


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## gbb (8 Mar 2017)

PeteXXX said:


> Everything, at all temperatures, that the supermarket sells.
> 
> I have three gates to wait at today, but just the one photo sums them all up!


Must be soul destroying. In a similar vein, I had a driver pull up today at our new premises and there's precious few staff there yet. Finding who's delivery it was might take 1/2 hour.
He'd got a delivery no-one actually there knew about and a load of drops after, time I gather wasn't on his side. I could sense his frustration. 
'Stick it (his delivery) there mate, I'll deal with it later, get yer self off'

All of a sudden, his demeanour changed, we had a natter while he unloaded and off he went....no doubt happier than he was 15 minutes ago.


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## Cuchilo (9 Mar 2017)

At a friends house fitting new Windows for this fella and his friends .


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## r04DiE (9 Mar 2017)

Does he use the hoop much?


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## Pat "5mph" (9 Mar 2017)

I couldn't post while at work, so I'm posting now: today I stocked up the unit I will be supervising for the next three days, then I gave it a cycling theme, as one of the events on at the weekend is the Cycling Show.
I brought some bits and pieces to work on my bike


then I did this - bare in mind that it being a food unit the stuff had to be clean and not chemical, I would have loved to add a couple of cans of GT85, but no doubt somebody would have ended up putting it in their tea!


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## r04DiE (9 Mar 2017)

Very creative there, @Pat "5mph"


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## Pat "5mph" (9 Mar 2017)

r04DiE said:


> Very creative there, @Pat "5mph"


Thank you!
I scattered some multi tools as well, and I'll be wearing a cycling themed tee shirt, my ride leader hi-viz on top


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## Julia9054 (9 Mar 2017)

Today I mostly hung out with some owls at school


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## Flick of the Elbow (10 Mar 2017)

At my work we are often warned of a whole host of criminal consequences of taking photos at work. But you're not missing much, my photo would be of a spreadsheet and a phone.
At my first employer it was a disciplinary offence to even bring a camera onto the premises. But that was before mobile phones.


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## jay clock (15 Mar 2017)

This has been fascinating. My offering is an extract from a staff handbook I am writing where I discovered that the non-childbearing partner of a lesbian couple can take paternity leave.....












pic



__ jay clock
__ 15 Mar 2017


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## Haitch (15 Mar 2017)

Shouldn't that be parental leave rather than paternal?

My job today involves a lot of this:


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## jay clock (15 Mar 2017)

Haitch said:


> Shouldn't that be parental leave rather than paternal?


No, paternity leave is what I meant. Mums get maternity, Dads (or lesbian partner of woman on maternity) gets paternity and there is a completely separate thing called parental leave for either parent!


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## gbb (17 Mar 2017)

Big tidy up in the new workshop. Those blue benches weigh a ton,there's 4 there and each one is about 8ft long to five some scale. We'll be lost in there, it's massive. Lots to go in there yet...today was get it all clean and orderly for the first time.


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## Flick of the Elbow (24 Mar 2017)

Working from home this afternoon, here's a photo of my co-workers.


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## gbb (24 Mar 2017)

warning...may contain workshop porn.

Unpacking new equipment. ..
Mig and Tig welders, various power tools, bench grinder and not photographed, a pillar drill,welding acreens and extraction equipment for the welders


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## Justinslow (25 Mar 2017)

A bit of patch turfing


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## Justinslow (25 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4735928, member: 9609"]thats the wrong shade of green mate - take it back and get some lighter stuff[/QUOTE]
ummm not really sure why they didn't just want to reseed that bit, the rest of the lawn is very rough and the turf will stand out like a sore thumb for many a year!
but hey, they pay the bills.


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## numbnuts (26 Mar 2017)

Looking after these three


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## Cuchilo (26 Mar 2017)

Justinslow said:


> ummm not really sure why they didn't just want to reseed that bit, the rest of the lawn is very rough and the turf will stand out like a sore thumb for many a year!
> but hey, they pay the bills.


Because they want it NOW AND WILL NOT WAIT !


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## Pat "5mph" (26 Mar 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Because they want it NOW AND WILL NOT WAIT !


Aha, I see the joinery and gardening trades have the same challenges as the catering trade


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## GlenBen (27 Mar 2017)

Pat "5mph" said:


> Aha, I see the joinery and gardening trades have the same challenges as the catering trade


And retail


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## Dayvo (27 Mar 2017)

(not my photo)






Laying decking around the clubhouse at my golf course: 750 metres of it (it'll take all week).


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## Justinslow (28 Mar 2017)

Lunchtime company


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## Richard A Thackeray (29 Mar 2017)

NHS 'shop-floor', so cameras not allowed




screenman said:


> I am fixing a dent on this car, last time I worked on it I took this picture. I hope that qualifies.
> 
> View attachment 341432



Ahh, the Vulcan Moth................


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## Lee_M (29 Mar 2017)

can't take photos at work, but ~I'm currently browsing cyclechat - the most productive thing so fartoday


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## Randomnerd (29 Mar 2017)

Oxspring



__ Randomnerd
__ 29 Mar 2017






Thirty metres of new field wall done; forty more to do.


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## Lee_M (29 Mar 2017)

[QUOTE 4740736, member: 9609"]dot gov ?[/QUOTE]

Nope not at the moment, dot.meetingscancelled


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## gbb (31 Mar 2017)

Disconnecting 32 amp fork lift battery chargers, refitting at another location. I have a habit of always photographing connections, sometimes useful to refer back to later.





in this case 3 phase supply, 240 tapped off one phase.


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## PeteXXX (1 Apr 2017)

Truckwash...


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## gbb (7 Apr 2017)

Doing a major overhaul of a flow wrapping machine, found that sprocket is loose on its shaft. it's running but won't last too long. Shaft, key and sprocket ordered, photo sent to manufacturer because that assembly isn't showing in their parts manual .
Currently fitted 36 bearings, 2 belts and spent hours stripping and cleaning.
The job continues today...


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## Justinslow (7 Apr 2017)

Van trouble.
Handbrake cable snapped about a week ago and front ball joint 
This ain't putting bread on the table!


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## Cuchilo (7 Apr 2017)

Justinslow said:


> View attachment 346067
> 
> 
> Van trouble.
> ...


I see the van lifting is going well , how many reps can you do ?
I bet the front ball joint is fine , i had one MOT tester question my movano and another said its not a problem .


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## PeteXXX (7 Apr 2017)

Trailer change.. Height reminder adjusted accordingly


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## keithmac (7 Apr 2017)

Worked on this little beauty today. 

Carbs off and stripped, utrasound clean and rebuilt. New oil and carb breather hoses. 

Few sunny roadtests to set up carbs, very pleasant!.

Makes up for some of the overcomplicated pita shite I normally work on..


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## Justinslow (7 Apr 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> I see the van lifting is going well , how many reps can you do ?
> I bet the front ball joint is fine , i had one MOT tester question my movano and another said its not a problem .


Lol yeah lower off side ball joint was scrap, been making orrible graunching noises for a while and had loads of play. Handbrake cable had snapped near the rear in the middle cable so he replaced the whole lot as it was all corroded badly. It's 10 years old this October and I've had it since new so I guess I've got to expect this kind of thing.


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## Justinslow (7 Apr 2017)

keithmac said:


> Worked on this little beauty today.
> 
> Carbs off and stripped, utrasound clean and rebuilt. New oil and carb breather hoses.
> 
> ...


Lovely, 400?
Classic KR paint.
Edit, just spotted it's a 200


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## keithmac (7 Apr 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Lovely, 400?
> Classic KR paint.
> Edit, just spotted it's a 200



No this was just the 200cc, I did a 400cc a few years back though.

Also recomissioned a 1982 RD350 LC, completely original with 4000 miles on it. That was one of my favourite roadtests, lovely and smooth/ torquey engine.


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## Nigel-YZ1 (7 Apr 2017)

No way. It ended up being a right fark up!
Opened up the CNC machine computer, got the parts info. Put it back together perfectly and now as well as a duff baclight the thing is totally dead.
shoot!


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## PeteXXX (8 Apr 2017)

[QUOTE 4753496, member: 9609"]If you are over 3 metres in height you must have an in cab display giving your height in feet and inches and the lettering must be at least 50mm tall - what a whacky country we live in.[/QUOTE]
But the law says that you don't need a marker board on the trailer telling you what height it is


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## gbb (11 Apr 2017)

Nigel-YZ1 said:


> No way. It ended up being a right fark up!
> Opened up the CNC machine computer, got the parts info. Put it back together perfectly and now as well as a duff baclight the thing is totally dead.
> shoot!


Did you get it going ?
If it were me I'd retrace steps, check all connections for one that may have popped out and E Stops, make sure i hadnt pressed one without realising.
i had something similar with a machine, stripped and serviced, turned it on...nothing.
Turned out i needed to have an ancillary conveyor plugged in as well, it wouldnt boot up without it being connected.


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## Nigel-YZ1 (11 Apr 2017)

gbb said:


> Did you get it going ?
> If it were me I'd retrace steps, check all connections for one that may have popped out and E Stops, make sure i hadnt pressed one without realising.
> i had something similar with a machine, stripped and serviced, turned it on...nothing.
> Turned out i needed to have an ancillary conveyor plugged in as well, it wouldnt boot up without it being connected.



Point taken  I stripped the computer again. I know I only released 3 connectors and a board. I photographed on the way in and it all matches.
We're getting the screen backlight sorted this week and are thinking along your lines. There's access sensors on the beds around the cabinet and the PLCs aren't showing green.


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## MikeG (11 Apr 2017)

I've been drawing all day. This is a small part of what I've designed:







Thing is, my clients live in an 80s estate house! They saw some oak work I had done for another client (in a much more authentic setting), and insisted........ Sometimes, you've just got to grit your teeth. They won't build it anyway when they see how much it is going to cost.


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## Spokesmann (12 Apr 2017)

keithmac said:


> Worked on this little beauty today.
> 
> Carbs off and stripped, utrasound clean and rebuilt. New oil and carb breather hoses.
> 
> ...



Used to run an RD 200 as well, later an RD350LC as well as several Suzuki TS trail machines. Still have an umolested TS 100ER stoted away.


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## Cuchilo (18 Apr 2017)

Back in the workshop today so did a little bit more to the boat windscreen I've been meaning to make for about 10 years .


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## Cuchilo (20 Apr 2017)

Glue is dry so time for some spokeshaving .


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## MikeG (20 Apr 2017)

Is that ash? I can't quite see.....have you laminated it, or steam bent it?

Your tenon saw looks absolutely spot-on identical to mine, and my SCMS is a 12" deWalt, although slightly different model from yours.


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## Cuchilo (20 Apr 2017)

The tenon saw is an old Tyzack , lovely little saw .
Ive laminated unsorted redwood to get the shape as i'm going to be fibre glassing over it so it matches in with the deck of the boat . Ive just been down there to check the fit and its spot on .


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## PeteXXX (21 Apr 2017)

My turn next...


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## gbb (22 Apr 2017)

Defective print. Not good enough.
It's a relatively high speed printer, probably creates that in milliseconds so it's a game of elimination.
Thermal head pressure..ok
Change roll of transfer ribbon. No change
Clean thermal head.
Inspect printer counterplate. ..seems ok, no rough surfaces.
Inspect cartridge nylon rollers the transfer ribbon passes over...meh, cleaned but seem ok.
Inspect roller that presses the ribbon onto the label...cleaned but seems ok.

Nothing obvious then so replace counterplate rubber and Teflon, replace cartridge nylon rollérs. ..perfect print now.

All that while the line is stopped losing 70 packs per minute and worse still...maybe 40 people stood round unable to do much.

Time to complete...maybe 10 minutes.


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## keithmac (2 May 2017)

Ducati Mutistrada, service including belts and a good checkover before it does a 2000+ mile trip.

I had all the battery/ starter wires off cleaned and soldered all the crimps. Ran a secondary earth direct to the starter motor and just when I thought I'd finished found the reg/rec connector complete rotten..

Finish it off on the morning!.


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## keithmac (4 May 2017)

Clutch release bearing/ shaft issues on a Triumph Speed Tripple 955i this morning!.


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## Dayvo (4 May 2017)

Doing this 






but thinking of this:


----------



## ozboz (4 May 2017)

Justinslow said:


> A bit of patch turfing
> 
> View attachment 344007



Good job you laid it green side up Mate !!


----------



## steveindenmark (5 May 2017)

Making spinnakers like this today.


----------



## Cuchilo (9 May 2017)

Putting together a double glazed sash window and clamping some French doors up after glueing .


----------



## keithmac (9 May 2017)

GSX-R 1000 valve clearances + service today, the fun never ends!. Followed by drivebelt replacement and service on a 125 scooter, living the dream..


----------



## Justinslow (9 May 2017)

Hedge cutting.........again.


----------



## keithmac (10 May 2017)

No they are fuel injected throttle bodies, if you look at the rear where the white connectors are the black injectors are underneath.

The 4 top butterflies are servo controlled by the ecu for torque limiting, the bottom 4 by the throttle cables.

Quite a nice compact setup!.

Most later sports bikes have gone over to 8 injectors now, 4 in the usual location for idle/ low load and 4 spraying directly above into the throttle body intakes for better top end power and charge cooling.

I've worked on a few BMW's where there is no manual cable link at all between throttle grip and the throttle bodies, plus some Aprilias, you are completely at the mercy of the ECU regarding throttle openings..

Step too far imho, suppose cars have been drive by wire forna while now.


----------



## derrick (10 May 2017)

Playing with my bike today, Whoops wrong thread i should be in the retirement thread,


----------



## potsy (10 May 2017)

gbb said:


> View attachment 348731
> 
> Time to complete...maybe 10 minutes.



Our maintenance work in hours, not minutes, it takes longer than that just to get them to answer the phone between coffee breaks


----------



## Drago (10 May 2017)

Most throttles have been drive by wire for a while. Take the example of my 11 year old Ford - the cable from the pedal operates a potentiometer on the side of a black box under the bonnet, and that module in turn operates the throttle body. The cable is present only to provide some feel in the system and make it more like a conventional throttle to operate. The cable itself does not mechanically open a throttle plate or pull in a diesel pump arm as it would have done in the olde days. All the actual work is done by electronics.


----------



## derrick (10 May 2017)

[QUOTE 4796083, member: 9609"]Lorries even brake by wire now - I think it is only the steering that is not processed by an ECU first.[/QUOTE]
Unless you get a self parking car.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

Word seems to have got round that we (me!) work on MV's now, this came in for a missfire/ poor runner.

3 hours to change a set of bloody spark plugs!, all panels and fairing upper off, tank and airbox off without scratching anything..

Beautiful bikes and lovely to ride (nice roadtest in the sunshine ) but not the easiest to work on. Typical Italians!.


----------



## Oldfentiger (11 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> Word seems to have got round that we (me!) work on MV's now, this came in for a missfire/ poor runner.
> 
> 3 hours to change a set of bloody spark plugs!, all panels and fairing upper off, tank and airbox off without scratching anything..
> 
> ...


Lovely bike. Same bloke designed that who designed the 916 innit?

Edit: Massimo Tamburini Was the chap.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

Oldfentiger said:


> Lovely bike. Same bloke designed that who designed the 916 innit?
> 
> Edit: Massimo Tamburini Was the chap.



Yep, he's deffinitely got an eye for the design!. Very similar to to the Ducatis to work on as well now you mention it..


----------



## MikeG (11 May 2017)

Just to show that not everyone on the forum works on motorbikes for a living , I was doing this, amongst other stuff, today:


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

@MikeG , didn't know you designed suits .


----------



## MikeG (11 May 2017)

I don't. I steal other people's designs. 

One day I'm going to give that guy a nose......


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (11 May 2017)

Not today, but helping set up these for press reviews just before I went on holiday:





Have read the online reviews today which were very complimentary.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

Kymco?, they are very well made and well finished bikes.


----------



## Justinslow (11 May 2017)

Set this up for a customer today for some ashes 

Sorry if it offends but it is a job that I was doing at work today. (Senior Citizen passed away about 5 years ago) we all got it coming.


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (11 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> Kymco?, they are very well made and well finished bikes.


Yes, the new X-Town which is the Euro 4 replacement for the Downtown. I had a little go on the 125 version this afternoon and was quite impressed - it feels like it's got a bigger engine than it actually is.


----------



## gbb (11 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> Kymco?, they are very well made and well finished bikes.


I hired one of them (a Kymco) in Greece years ago, I suspect it was over 100cc, it went so so well, lovely to ride and fast. Blooming stupid really, I hadn't ridden anything like that in years.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

Rickshaw Phil said:


> Yes, the new X-Town which is the Euro 4 replacement for the Downtown. I had a little go on the 125 version this afternoon and was quite impressed - it feels like it's got a bigger engine than it actually is.



We were Kymco main dealers a way back (Cobra/ Stryker era), never had any problems with any of them; nice and reliable!.

How much is the X-Town 125 out of interest?.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2017)

Justinslow said:


> Set this up for a customer today for some ashes
> 
> Sorry if it offends but it is a job that I was doing at work today. (Senior Citizen passed away about 5 years ago) we all got it coming.
> 
> View attachment 351935



Looks nice and I bet they really appreciate it .


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (11 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> We were Kymco main dealers a way back (Cobra/ Stryker era), never had any problems with any of them; nice and reliable!.
> 
> How much is the X-Town 125 out of interest?.


Retail is £3699 for that one. You'd need to speak to our sales team for trade.


----------



## Justinslow (11 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> Looks nice and I bet they really appreciate it .


Yes mate she was really happy with it, which is what matters.


----------



## Cuchilo (12 May 2017)

MikeG said:


> Just to show that not everyone on the forum works on motorbikes for a living , I was doing this, amongst other stuff, today:
> 
> View attachment 351922


Why AWO ? It goes ginger !


----------



## MikeG (13 May 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Why AWO ? It goes ginger !



I reckon that's down to the finish. I've been making furniture all my life, and stuff I made in European oak and American white oak 30 years ago is indistinguishable now (in colour). For constructional (green) oak it's always European or British. For furniture grade seasoned oak used in construction situations, you get a more uniform and stable piece with AWO, albeit one which looks a bit dull comparatively. For furniture, nothing beats British oak, with its more gnarly, interesting appearance than AWO or European oak. 

As to oak and going ginger..........put linseed oil anywhere near oak and the result is ginger. I usually describe the colour to my clients as stale urine, and that's always enough to persuade them not to do it!


----------



## Bryony (13 May 2017)

I'm dispensing all the prescriptions in these baskets!


----------



## keithmac (17 May 2017)

I know everyone's bored of motorbike posts.. but I've spent 8 hours taking an engine out and finding out why it gets stuck in 1st gear..

Very strange answer and it took a LOT of finding (one component within 0.2mm..)


----------



## Justinslow (18 May 2017)

keithmac said:


> View attachment 352886
> I know everyone's bored of motorbike posts.. but I've spent 8 hours taking an engine out and finding out why it gets stuck in 1st gear..
> 
> Very strange answer and it took a LOT of finding (one component within 0.2mm..)


Definitely not bored of motorcycle posts, please continue!


----------



## keithmac (18 May 2017)

The little domed bolt (bearing retainer) between the shift drum and shift fork was "just" touching the fork in 1st gear.

Only a slight witness mark but enough to cockle the fork over and lock the gear shifting. A right job to find it!.


----------



## cuberider (18 May 2017)

Work????


----------



## Dayvo (18 May 2017)

It was pi$$ing down at work for most of the day today, so quite a few pints were downed:


----------



## keithmac (20 May 2017)

"Plug and play" Power Commander 5 on a BMW S1000 XR, basically the whole bike taken to bits to fit it this afternoon..


----------



## gbb (3 Jun 2017)

Yesterday's. .
Punnet sealing machine, several tonnes of pressure applied for 0.4 seconds to a heated tooling set seals your punnets of fruit. Now do that many thousands of times a day and this is what you get. 




Around a 25mm thick bIllet of aluminium is the starting point and is expensive....around £1000 expensive and I need two of them


----------



## keithmac (3 Jun 2017)

gbb said:


> Yesterday's. .
> Punnet sealing machine, several tonnes of pressure applied for 0.4 seconds to a heated tooling set seals your punnets of fruit. Now do that many thousands of times a day and this is what you get.
> View attachment 355201
> 
> Around a 25mm thick bIllet of aluminium is the starting point and is expensive....around £1000 expensive and I need two of them



Odd how thin they've machined the inner lip?.


----------



## keithmac (3 Jun 2017)

This was part way through servicing a 3 year old scooter, had to prise the pads out of the rear caliper with a screwdriver. 

Never seen any form of cleaning and only 3500 miles on it..


----------



## gbb (3 Jun 2017)

keithmac said:


> Odd how thin they've machined the inner lip?.


If you look at a punnet In section, it's sealing surface is right next to its vertical side, this leaves very little area for any substantial material, a design flaw driven by neccessity. The key to it is to produce a seal with the minimum possible pressure...unfortunately the operators often increase the pressure rather than adjusting the temperature or welding time.


----------



## keithmac (16 Jun 2017)

I've been in the motorcycle trade 20 years now and thought I'd seen it all until today.

What goes though people's heads?, he'd fitted some later upside down forks etc and booked it in for rear brake sticking and MOT. 

Needless to say I'll be sorting his throttle "issue" out as well as some other things..


----------



## Bryony (16 Jun 2017)

We had a very slow morning so we made this for a toy car that was left behind by a customer.......


----------



## Justinslow (16 Jun 2017)

keithmac said:


> I've been in the motorcycle trade 20 years now and thought I'd seen it all until today.
> 
> What goes though people's heads?, he'd fitted some later upside down forks etc and booked it in for rear brake sticking and MOT.
> 
> ...


Lol, I take it the cables would foul the plastics the right way round? "We won't worry about using the switchgear " and "I'm sure I'll get used to the throttle".


----------



## keithmac (16 Jun 2017)

Yep, the cables had scuffed his fairing upper.

Superglue on/ in the throttle opening cable was the icing on the cake..


----------



## gbb (23 Jun 2017)

The future has already arrived.
Plumbing has moved on. I'm used to compression fittings which are ugly...never done much soldering which creates a need for hot works permits at work...always to be avoided if possible, so now we have this....




Compression fittings ...I suppose the term is swaged on using this...




Marvelous bit of kit. Cost in excess of £600 I think but it's a contractors dream...no soldering, quick and easy to use...even I did it.


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (7 Jul 2017)

Nothing at work since Tuesday because of this: http://www.britishdealernews.co.uk/general-news/kymco-importer-goes-under

My sincere apologies to anyone on here who has a Kymco. You are not going to be able to get parts until a new distributor is sorted out.


----------



## keithmac (13 Jul 2017)

Rickshaw Phil said:


> Nothing at work since Tuesday because of this: http://www.britishdealernews.co.uk/general-news/kymco-importer-goes-under
> 
> My sincere apologies to anyone on here who has a Kymco. You are not going to be able to get parts until a new distributor is sorted out.



Real shame that Phil, hope you get another job sorted out in the trade soon mate.

I came on here to moan about this taking a day out of my life due to stupid design but seems a bit mute now I've read your post..


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (14 Jul 2017)

keithmac said:


> Real shame that Phil, hope you get another job sorted out in the trade soon mate.
> 
> I came on here to moan about this taking a day out of my life due to stupid design but seems a bit mute now I've read your post..
> 
> View attachment 362010


Dunna worry - I'm not any more.

What was the issue with that one? Looks like everything has been crammed in a bit.


----------



## keithmac (14 Jul 2017)

Rickshaw Phil said:


> Dunna worry - I'm not any more.
> 
> What was the issue with that one? Looks like everything has been crammed in a bit.



12,000 mile service which includes valve clearances, ATC fault (had to replace rear wheel speed sensor) and fork leaking. 

It's taken over 9 hours and I'm sick of the sight of it now!. Probably 20 plastic panels to take off, radiator out and had to drop rear subframe to remove rear cam cover.

Too complicated nowadays..


----------



## biggs682 (19 Jul 2017)

Spent about an hour trying to match an oil cooler to an unidentified engine , eventually i got it and informed my customer of part no & price with availability








only to be told about 10 mins later his customer has bought one elsewhere , so that was an hour of my life wasted


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (19 Jul 2017)

biggs682 said:


> Spent about an hour trying to match an oil cooler to an unidentified engine , eventually i got it and informed my customer of part no & price with availability
> 
> View attachment 362972
> 
> ...


Sounds like one of our customers. "Can you give me all the dimensions of xxx part so that I can get one off e-bay?".


----------



## Oldfentiger (19 Jul 2017)

Some years ago, while working at a bearing supplier, a bloke came in for replacement bearings for his Indesit washing machine.
After a bit of research I found that a SKF wheel bearing kit for a Hillman Imp had all the bits he needed, including seals and circlip


----------



## keithmac (27 Jul 2017)

Ducati 749 service including belts/ sparkplugs/ airfilters followed by a Vespa GT200 rear brake line (every bloody panel off!).


----------



## hobo (27 Jul 2017)

Been wiring this up the past week


----------



## smokeysmoo (29 Jul 2017)

Wondering why builders/workmen think it's ok to pour cement/concrete/render etc down highway gullys 

I bet they don't chuck it in the gullys outside their own houses


----------



## woodbutcher (29 Jul 2017)

keithmac said:


> Ducati 749 service including belts/ sparkplugs/ airfilters followed by a Vespa GT200 rear brake line (every bloody panel off!).
> 
> View attachment 364623
> View attachment 364624


Bloody hell l wish your workshop was in SW France, l can't find any local guys who will even consider working on my 748 never mind the beetle!


----------



## screenman (29 Jul 2017)

No pictures but helping out at a national cycling championship.


----------



## midlife (29 Jul 2017)

hobo said:


> View attachment 364650
> Been wiring this up the past week



Just out of curiosity what is it? Some sort of computer network..?


----------



## keithmac (29 Jul 2017)

woodbutcher said:


> Bloody hell l wish your workshop was in SW France, l can't find any local guys who will even consider working on my 748 never mind the beetle!



Shame you weren't a bit closer!, for some reason most people are frightened of Ducatis and italian bikes in general.

Done quite a few MV F3/ F4's as well.

Closing shims on the Ducati's are the most technical job, if you get them wron you can snap the valves!.


----------



## gbb (17 Aug 2017)

Just before the holiday we had a breakdown on a flow wrapper...no drive to the heater jaws. En route you're always thinking about probable causes...chain or timing belt broken ?
Got there, covers off...oh. all looked ok.



It turned out to be the CV joint, under the rubber boot was a shear pin....it had...errr. ..sheared unsurprisingly.


----------



## gbb (6 Sep 2017)

It's my old Henry...I have two I've rescued over the years and use them for workshop use. ..this one was loaned to a family member who TBH abused it. Not really bothered but thought I'd strip it and see if anything obvious is making it noisy and slow to slow down if that makes sense.
It's well abused, looks like it's had a rough life even before I rescued it.
It works...shrug shoulders...re assemble it and carry on.


----------



## Cuchilo (6 Sep 2017)

gbb said:


> View attachment 372114
> 
> It's my old Henry...I have two I've rescued over the years and use them for workshop use. ..this one was loaned to a family member who TBH abused it. Not really bothered but thought I'd strip it and see if anything obvious is making it noisy and slow to slow down if that makes sense.
> It's well abused, looks like it's had a rough life even before I rescued it.
> It works...shrug shoulders...re assemble it and carry on.


Given the copper in that motor i'm guessing that not a Henry hoover


----------



## Cycleops (6 Sep 2017)

gbb said:


> Just before the holiday we had a breakdown on a flow wrapper...no drive to the heater jaws. En route you're always thinking about probable causes...chain or timing belt broken ?
> Got there, covers off...oh. all looked ok.
> View attachment 368443
> It turned out to be the CV joint, under the rubber boot was a shear pin....it had...errr. ..sheared unsurprisingly.


All fixed by that tool in the lower RH corner.


----------



## slowmotion (6 Sep 2017)

I tried a sample pour of Weber Five Star precision grout. Odd stuff, but it's supposed to be good for 45N/mm2 after 7 days and it doesn't shrink.


----------



## Broadside (6 Sep 2017)

midlife said:


> Just out of curiosity what is it? Some sort of computer network..?


It looks like a voice (telephone) comms patch panel to me.


----------



## swansonj (7 Sep 2017)

Last week, actually, but I'd forgotten about this thread last week.


----------



## graham56 (7 Sep 2017)

You can't beat being retired.


----------



## winjim (12 Sep 2017)

Cleaning this, as well as swapping a few GC columns about.






Oh yeah, and ordering some spare insulator bushings.


----------



## keithmac (15 Sep 2017)

12 hours (£600 labour) for a £1 core plug..


----------



## keithmac (15 Sep 2017)

GSX-R 600 steering head bearings/ taper roller bearing conversion.

There was plenty of grease on them before final assembly!.


----------



## keithmac (15 Sep 2017)

Ducati 1098, came in for a belt service but came across a few more issues..

Genuinely amazed it hadn't set on fire!.


----------



## gbb (28 Sep 2017)

It was free. seriously.







Container housed emergency generator, Perkins 3000 series V12 twin turbo engine coupled to a 1200 amp 880kVa generator...from a closed down bakery apparently.
Shipping paid by us, yet to have a full service and test and installation by outside company, probable cost IRO £10K.
We just had to get the doors to the container open...keys were lost.

Funny though...built in 2000, it's only got 31...yes 31 hours run time on it


----------



## woosey (28 Sep 2017)

gbb said:


> It was free. seriously.
> View attachment 375873
> View attachment 375874
> 
> ...



Jealous! I only get to play with a 32L V8 twin turbo and a 42L V16 twin turbo  Seriously though how did you manage to swing that for free!


----------



## gbb (28 Sep 2017)

woosey said:


> Jealous! I only get to play with a 32L V8 twin turbo and a 42L V16 twin turbo  Seriously though how did you manage to swing that for free!


I know...i wonder how come it's come our way.
I theorized maybe they've made an enquiry to a company / companies for the feasibility/ cost of having emergency power backup. One of these companies has ownership of this generator and if we have it for free, they will get the installation / service work...which may well be very lucrative. Just a theory because who gives away something that would cost...i dunno...maybe tens of thousands when new.
As a footnote, apparently it used 40 gallons of fuel per HOUR when running


----------



## gbb (2 Oct 2017)

My first serious foray into box strapping machines, got some manufacturer training on setup and servicing last week whule playing with one in the workshop to build experience...todays been quiet so just took myself in a corner with one.

we have around 30 of them...should keep us busy.


----------



## Scoosh (2 Oct 2017)

Aaah - new toys ! 

So is this an extra 30 bits of kit to service/maintain ... in addition to the stuff you already have ? Must have lots of extra maintenance team workers for that ....


----------



## gbb (2 Oct 2017)

No sorry, we always had them but I'm just venturing into another arm of the business, one I never got involved in before but am forced to.
The PPM schedule on 'my side' includes around 100 different services a month on maybe 40 pieces of equipment, some very quick condition checks, some include more major stuff, most of it quite straightforward,
Then there's the other arm of the business that has 25 packing lines, including the strappers. I have to know them in case of sickness , holidays etc...not like I'm already busy enough but it's just in case so I can cover gaps.
Not a big engineering staff, one manager, 2 x 4on 4 off shifts of 2 guys and me on days. Keeps ya busy...too busy sometimes.
The strappers get a monthly clean and check, all reasonably straightforward it seems.


----------



## keithmac (5 Nov 2017)

Defacing a Harley Davidson on Saturday, lowering springs, Ape Hangers etc.

3rd Harley for the same customer.

Finishing it off Tuesday..


----------



## Saluki (5 Nov 2017)

Scanning and photographing old maps of drains and drain planning.


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (5 Nov 2017)

It is new machine week! I get a bigger machine to operate on Tuesday


----------



## Jenkins (9 Nov 2017)

Not today, but tomorrrow and next week, I suspect I may be dealing with some of this lot...




The OOCL United Kingdom on its maiden voyage arriving at Felixstowe


----------



## Elybazza61 (9 Nov 2017)

No pics but today I've been mostly building Ridgeback bikes;

Cyclone and Electron electric bikes and Anteron and Tensor 'normal' bikes.


----------



## keithmac (11 Nov 2017)

All done!, cusomer has a fancy front wheel on order with another whitewall tyre to match the back.


----------



## gbb (13 Nov 2017)

Hmmmmm....
Several sets of very expensive scales aren't working, I just checked the fuses and connections for any obvious prolems There' no way the suppliers have done this and I'd be amazed if any of the maintenance crew have, we don't normally touch them....so who's been fiddling ?


----------



## keithmac (2 Dec 2017)

gbb said:


> View attachment 383029
> 
> Hmmmmm....
> Several sets of very expensive scales aren't working, I just checked the fuses and connections for any obvious prolems There' no way the suppliers have done this and I'd be amazed if any of the maintenance crew have, we don't normally touch them....so who's been fiddling ?



Wow!.


----------



## PeteXXX (2 Dec 2017)

Sitting in a damp and dismal yard waiting for my trailer to be loaded.. 





What a lovely way to spend Saturday evening.


----------



## keithmac (2 Dec 2017)

Worked on an Aprilia Mana 850 recently.

Very interesting design, uses a constant variable transmission coupled with a variable "variator" which is driven from a transmission control unit via a stepper motor.


----------



## PeteXXX (2 Dec 2017)

gbb said:


> View attachment 383029
> 
> Hmmmmm....
> Several sets of very expensive scales aren't working, I just checked the fuses and connections for any obvious prolems There' no way the suppliers have done this and I'd be amazed if any of the maintenance crew have, we don't normally touch them....so who's been fiddling ?


Is there s PAT sticker on it?


----------



## PeteXXX (2 Dec 2017)

[QUOTE 5065086, member: 9609"]its better than having to hand your keys in and then having to sit in a windowless room with some bloke weighing about 25 stone who need to tell you stories of when he was on special ops in the SAS[/QUOTE]
Been there.. got the T shirt! Wonderful way to be treated, eh?!


----------



## Jenkins (3 Dec 2017)

Securing 800 of these...




Suspected counterfeit Beats Solo 3 Headphones (with the slip case used to disguise them). Just got to get the company representing Beats to formally confirm it. 
Approx £175,000 worth...


----------



## Thorn Sherpa (6 Dec 2017)

Been at work literally an hour and already covered in dust! The joys of unblocking the dust extraction system at the start of a shift!












Dusty



__ Thorn Sherpa
__ 6 Dec 2017


----------



## gbb (8 Dec 2017)

Fitted a new thermal print head, already defective after 1 week...probable cause, hopefully, the red print roller which had some damage I hadn't noticed in the printing area. I say hopefully because if that's not the reason....what is ?
New roller fitted as well. 
Time taken, about 20 minutes, no loss of production, completed during their tea breal. 
£403 for the thermal head.
£267 for the roller. ..all plus VAT of course.


----------



## Julia9054 (11 Dec 2017)

The thermite reaction


----------



## mjr (12 Dec 2017)

Julia9054 said:


> The thermite reaction
> View attachment 386853


Funny place to weld rails. Well done not having an alcohol still next to it, which is where I saw it done


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (12 Dec 2017)

Visiting customers in Englandshire. It's a bit grey


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (12 Dec 2017)

And the locals get strange things in their cafes


----------



## Cuchilo (12 Dec 2017)

Getting some sashes sprayed up


----------



## screenman (12 Dec 2017)

Fixing a dent, without the use of paint or filler.


----------



## keithmac (13 Dec 2017)

screenman said:


> Fixing a dent, without the use of paint or filler.
> View attachment 387013



Did you manage it?.


----------



## midlife (13 Dec 2017)

Not if it's a double skinned alloy Impreza bonnet


----------



## screenman (13 Dec 2017)

keithmac said:


> Did you manage it?.




If I could not finish it I would not start it, not a 100% but at £60 it was better than £400 according to the very happy customer.


----------



## screenman (13 Dec 2017)

midlife said:


> Not if it's a double skinned alloy Impreza bonnet



I have done dent repairs to quite a few Impreza bonnets, not I agree as bad as that one. Like the one shown the front is triple skinned, although if course that one is not alloy.

I do a lot of cars each week for an Audi dealer, alloy is not as scary as it used to be.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (13 Dec 2017)

I tested some wooden nails. They didn't quite work.


----------



## Cuchilo (13 Dec 2017)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> I tested some wooden nails. They didn't quite work.
> 
> View attachment 387159


Not quite sure what you mean but if you are pinning stuff like that , take the nail and place the head on the wood where you want it . Hit the point with the hammer then turn the nail around and hammer it into the dent you have made .


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (13 Dec 2017)

It's a wooden nail with no head fired through a pneumatic tool. Problem is at 3.8mm thick it just splits the MDF beading.


----------



## Cuchilo (13 Dec 2017)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> It's a wooden nail with no head fired through a pneumatic tool. Problem is at 3.8mm thick it just splits the MDF beading.


Are you a new age Roman ?


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (13 Dec 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Are you a new age Roman ?



With these tools, Rome could have been built in a morning


----------



## Cuchilo (13 Dec 2017)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> With these tools, Rome could have been built in a morning


But fallen apart within a day


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (13 Dec 2017)

Why do you think that, if you don't mind me asking?


----------



## Cuchilo (14 Dec 2017)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> Why do you think that, if you don't mind me asking?


Just going off the picture you posted .


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (14 Dec 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Just going off the picture you posted .



Gotcha


----------



## gbb (14 Dec 2017)

Broke the mandrel holding container on my riveter. Hot melt glue gun job....









Glued...




Back on riveter. 

Best rivet gun I ever had. Almost effortless, much better than the usual DIY type riveters, much lighter, easier to use and more portable than lazy tongs


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (16 Dec 2017)

I get to play on this.


----------



## Julia9054 (16 Dec 2017)

Martin Archer said:


> View attachment 387447
> 
> 
> I get to play on this.


Is it one of thos bucking broncho style fairground rides?


----------



## briantrumpet (16 Dec 2017)

Graduation ceremony music today... my 210th ceremony doing this.


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (16 Dec 2017)

Julia9054 said:


> Is it one of thos bucking broncho style fairground rides?



Nothing as enjoyable as that I am afraid. It is used for making tooling and cutting plastic windows for motorsport. 






The window is pulled down using a vacuum pump and the robot cuts around the outside.
I wanted to attach a chair to it and make it into a fairground ride, but human resources said no


----------



## Cuchilo (16 Dec 2017)

Martin Archer said:


> Nothing as enjoyable as that I am afraid. It is used for making tooling and cutting plastic windows for motorsport.
> 
> View attachment 387455
> 
> ...


Oooooooo i need a new windscreen for my boat , can you do that kind of thing ?


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (16 Dec 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Oooooooo i need a new windscreen for my boat , can you do that kind of thing ?



We do a lot of stuff for old rally cars. We scan the widow or the aperture that it sits in and then create a model of it on the computer that is used to machine a mould for the window to be formed. Then it is either cut out on the robot or by hand, so yes we can do a window for a boat, but it is not cheap.


----------



## Diggr (18 Dec 2017)

Disturbing the peace of a Sunday night/ early Monday morning in Edinburgh,piling for rail structure.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (19 Dec 2017)

Safety training - or "30 minutes in the warm off the factory floor" as it's called.


----------



## derrick (19 Dec 2017)

It was a hard day,


----------



## Cuchilo (21 Dec 2017)

Making London look pretty again .


----------



## screenman (21 Dec 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> View attachment 387975
> 
> 
> Someones got to try and make these houses look pretty again .



That is Accy's job.


----------



## Salty seadog (21 Dec 2017)

derrick said:


> It was a hard day,
> View attachment 387774



I'm in my pit....with bed socks on......that's how to get the job done.


----------



## Diggr (26 Dec 2017)

Loading railway platform sections onto wagons,same as yesterday


----------



## Thorn Sherpa (4 Jan 2018)

Hopefully a steady night of maintenance checks round the plant as long as there's no break downs 












Work



__ Thorn Sherpa
__ 4 Jan 2018


----------



## gbb (11 Jan 2018)

Installing a new tray / punnet sealing line. 
14 mtr infeed conveyor, fitted 13 double 240v sockets for the scales. 
Brand new sealing machine.
Checkweigher, model from another line.
Packing conveyor and promo labeller.

1 days work, 6 guys involved.


----------



## Cuchilo (11 Jan 2018)

I love power feeds but they cost more than the bloody machines !


----------



## Thorn Sherpa (12 Jan 2018)

Maintenance checks tonight












Work



__ Thorn Sherpa
__ 12 Jan 2018


----------



## Cuchilo (17 Jan 2018)

Spraying a few windows


----------



## Cuchilo (18 Jan 2018)

Putting the joggles on some sashes .


----------



## Julia9054 (18 Jan 2018)

Dissecting locusts.


----------



## CharlesF (18 Jan 2018)

Where did the locust come from?


----------



## Julia9054 (18 Jan 2018)

CharlesF said:


> Where did the locust come from?


Pet shop


----------



## CharlesF (18 Jan 2018)

Oh, that's boring. I thought you had been on a big hunt in Africa.


----------



## Julia9054 (18 Jan 2018)

CharlesF said:


> Oh, that's boring. I thought you had been on a big hunt in Africa.


Am i spotting a Zim flag? Taught science in Bulawayo for a couple of years in the early 90s. Never dissected locusts but used to get them flying through the classroom window occasionally which used to cause chaos!


----------



## CharlesF (19 Jan 2018)

Yes, born and brought up in Harare, but left many years ago and my last visit was in 2005; although I keep in contact with friends.


----------



## Noodle Legs (21 Jan 2018)

Fiddling around with live electricity in a hole filling up with water on a winters night.....living the dream folks!


----------



## smokeysmoo (22 Jan 2018)

Not very much first thing


----------



## roadrash (22 Jan 2018)

At least its only flat at the bottom


----------



## Thorn Sherpa (23 Jan 2018)

Birthday badge and cake at work tonight cheers lads! 












Work



__ Thorn Sherpa
__ 23 Jan 2018


----------



## ADarkDraconis (29 Jan 2018)

Spiffing up our design center in time for our 'surprise visit' (inspection) by our new owners tomorrow. So. Much. Fabric. No one ever puts them back where they go and I have replaced 42 broken hangers just on one wall- this is about 1/14th of it. But I have found some interesting ones, and some have fabulous names like 'Aerosmith Aqua', 'Dadgumit Navy', 'Becoming Peacock', and simply 'Da Bears'!


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (31 Jan 2018)

The robot I use is going to be famous!
Yesterday we had the crew from "car S.O.S" drop in as they need a canopy made for a messerschmitt car. It was scanned yesterday with a 3d scanner we use, to create a 3d model. I will machine a mould from the model with the robot. Once that is done, I will make a tool to hold it, and then cut out the vac formed canopy.
3 Weeks to complete it, and I am away on holiday for one of them


----------



## keithmac (2 Feb 2018)

Another day, another MP3..


----------



## keithmac (3 Feb 2018)

Fuoco front suspension today, living the dream!.


----------



## gbb (8 Feb 2018)

Punnet sealing machines, we have 4 with each having several different pattern punnet tooling, each toolset alone cost IRO £22k. The machines are IRO £100k each
One has snapped bolts and suspect parts internally do strip, assess, replace bits and order non stock parts...2 hours
Toolset mounted to machine.






Head striped exposing heater plates and mats, return springs, second pad from the right has a broken spring embedded into the plate...really embedded into the aluminium. Mind, I think there's 4 tonnes of force used every time it seals.








Damage to the spring seats and you can see one of the sheared bolt threads standing just proud between the two seats.
Drilled them out and retapaped. Alignment is critical but I've kinda got it good enough so they can still use it.

2 hours work. 40 odd bolts to remove / refit. 4 heaters, 4 thermocouples removed, 2 heater pads replaced, 3 new bolts, 34 new springs...and today I ordered £1100.00 worth of heater base plates and bits to replace the ones I've kinda bodged to get them going again...it was never a full repair, more a strip, repair what I can, assess what I need and reassemble.


----------



## JhnBssll (11 Feb 2018)

We got the first cartons through for our new pruning chainsaw, the Universal chain 18.

What's so special about this particular carton you might ask... Well take a look at the photo and zoom in on the right hand 2 photos...













Chainsaw carton



__ JhnBssll
__ 11 Feb 2018






It's me..!  We couldn't find a model that was confident with a chainsaw so they asked me to step in for what I suspect will be my one and only foray in to modelling


----------



## midlife (11 Feb 2018)

Chainsaw dangerously close to shoulder height


----------



## JhnBssll (11 Feb 2018)

To be honest calling it a chainsaw is stretching it a little. Its really a pruning saw, super-low chain speed (8m/s?) and non-removable tip protector make it pretty safe. Certainly no chance of any kickback anyway!


----------



## bruce1530 (11 Feb 2018)

Chain’s slack...


----------



## JhnBssll (11 Feb 2018)

And here come the trolls


----------



## Justinslow (12 Feb 2018)

No hi-viz??
No helmet??


----------



## Justinslow (12 Feb 2018)

Spot of hedge cutting on a cold but bright morning.


----------



## Cuchilo (12 Feb 2018)

Fitted these and went back today to cast some concrete cills .


----------



## Thorn Sherpa (14 Feb 2018)

Slowly making my way through replacing all the worn rollers this morning 












Maintenance



__ Thorn Sherpa
__ 14 Feb 2018


----------



## gbb (15 Feb 2018)

One of the problems with not being the only one in the workshop is sharing equipment. Drill bits and taps.. fed up of everyone using and abusing them, never find the one you want etc etc (only a mild moan )

Made myself a stand, 2.5 to 12.5mm drills, 3 to 10mm taps.
A couple bits missing but that' in my box now...shan't have to go hunting for bits anymore.


----------



## Heigue'r (15 Feb 2018)

Nice weather for framing


----------



## keithmac (15 Feb 2018)

gbb said:


> One of the problems with not being the only one in the workshop is sharing equipment. Drill bits and taps.. fed up of everyone using and abusing them, never find the one you want etc etc (only a mild moan )
> 
> Made myself a stand, 2.5 to 12.5mm drills, 3 to 10mm taps.
> A couple bits missing but that' in my box now...shan't have to go hunting for bits anymore.
> View attachment 395944



I have to go hunting for my tools now and again, worst one was my £450 Snap-on battery impact gun that had been "borrowed" and left outside.

Years ago I lent a chap my brand new 3/8ths ratchet, saw him attempting to hammer in a C90 front wheel spindle with it!, I was bloody livid!.

The joys!.


----------



## gbb (15 Feb 2018)

keithmac said:


> I have to go hunting for my tools now and again, worst one was my £450 Snap-on battery impact gun that had been "borrowed" and left outside.
> 
> Years ago I lent a chap my brand new 3/8ths ratchet, saw him attempting to hammer in a C90 front wheel spindle with it!, I was bloody livid!.
> 
> The joys!.


I guess we all have that...
Toolkit about 6ft away from me, I'm working on a machine, I turn round to see a guy rustling through it. 
'Whatcha doing Tavares ?' 
'Looking for a screwdriver '
'That's my personal kit mate, i dont mind lending stuff but please ask'
'Sorry, I didn't think '

David, kind of apprentice.
'Can I borrow your tape measure ?
'Yeah help yourself mate '
He measured something on the floor, stood halfway up and tossed MY tape on the floor so it clattered down (I assume he was going to use it again)
'Dave '
'What ?'
'That's MY tape you just chucked down
'Sorry '

Ratchets as hammers, had that too.


----------



## roadrash (15 Feb 2018)

bloody annoys me that does, if I borrow something it gets treated better than if it was mine , and I look after my own stuff


----------



## NorthernDave (16 Feb 2018)

NorthernDave said:


> I've been in meetings most of the day...
> 
> View attachment 338170
> 
> ...



Remember I posted the above last year?
Well this happened today...


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (18 Feb 2018)

gbb said:


> One of the problems with not being the only one in the workshop is sharing equipment. Drill bits and taps.. fed up of everyone using and abusing them, never find the one you want etc etc (only a mild moan )
> 
> Made myself a stand, 2.5 to 12.5mm drills, 3 to 10mm taps.
> A couple bits missing but that' in my box now...shan't have to go hunting for bits anymore.
> View attachment 395944



A pet hate of mine!
As an apprentice anything we bought, the company would pay half, so I got a full set of micrometers, and various other measuring equipment before the four years were up. I also bought my own set of drills as I cannot be bothered looking for the company equipment. 
I used to let the apprentice use my stuff, I told him to put them back as soon as he was finished. First time he left something out I warned him, second he had to go hunting for company equipment.
I grind all my own drills, and it is surprising how many machinists cannot grind them. (A basic skill when you use them all the time) It tells me a lot about the machinists ability when I look at their drills!


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (19 Feb 2018)

Sorting out issues at a modular buildings company


----------



## gbb (20 Feb 2018)

Flow wrapping machine, an old one, is being shipped out so a quick check over and service. Found one of the 6 film crimp rollers has stiff bearings...a fairly normal occurrence as they spray water all over the place.
The machine...





Sub assembly removed..





View from underneath...





Seen worse..




Maybe a couple hours work, no rush, nice steady job.


----------



## PeteXXX (20 Feb 2018)

Running repairs... 
Big p*ncture fairy at work here!!


----------



## screenman (20 Feb 2018)

I do not miss lorry wheels, started on the trucks 57 years ago in Twickenham and could not get off them quick enough.


----------



## PeteXXX (20 Feb 2018)

I prefer it when I just have to fill a defect sheet out


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (20 Feb 2018)

Demonstrating stuff


----------



## Datum2 (2 Mar 2018)

Despite there being not much depth of snow in PE28 country most of it ended up on this road following yesterdays brisk wind. So after a false start and having to change diesel filters on the JCB Loadall I eventually shifted some snow.


----------



## PeteXXX (8 Mar 2018)

Staring out of the cab window, waiting for my trailer to be loaded. 
Two hours so far. That’s my 105 cassette & chain paid for. Another hour and I can upgrade to Ultegra


----------



## PeteXXX (8 Mar 2018)

Datum2 said:


> Despite there being not much depth of snow in PE28 country most of it ended up on this road following yesterdays brisk wind. So after a false start and having to change diesel filters on the JCB Loadall I eventually shifted some snow.
> View attachment 398244
> View attachment 398245


Nice toy!!


----------



## gbb (16 Mar 2018)

Fibre optic sensor (emitter side) that detects product too high in punnets as they pass through the machine is damaged, not unusual, the lead is thin and a bit exposed.
You can see the red light at the eye end and look carefully you can see light bleeding out of the damaged bit further along...that reduces the light received back at the controller...thus making it useless.



Trace the lead back to its amplifier with the red and green indicators...




Feed new fibre optic cable through...





1 hours work..nice and straight forward, sensor now working.
Modded the cable routing to help prevent it happening again.


----------



## DCBassman (19 Mar 2018)

Looking at this...


----------



## Dayvo (19 Mar 2018)

My first day back at work after my winter break and there was a lot of this:






Unfortunately winter hasn't realised that it should be early spring now (over a metre of snow on the golf course) so I'll try again next Monday.


----------



## r04DiE (19 Mar 2018)

Machining brake discs!


----------



## keithmac (19 Mar 2018)

GTS 300 base gasket replacement.





Came across this on a service, words fail me sometimes!...




Nice satisfying clock foil repair/ rewire. Save customer a couple of hundred quid, most shops would have just fitted new speedo assy.


----------



## gbb (19 Mar 2018)

Looking at the horror photo above amazes me...and yet doesn' surprise me.
Mate of mine has a Piaggio I think with a 200cc lump in it. He's had problems and had all and sundry looking at and working on it. Then he broke down, had it recovered, then was told the variator had come loose...in other words whoever did it didn't do it up properly.
Now he's had more problems and apparently someone has been playing with the electrics and frigged about with the position of the fuse hidden under the seat.

Scooters are funny things, they'e not that complicated, I even tinkered with my sons Peugeot...but that relative simplicity encourages folk to 'have a go'...with occasional bodging thrown in.


----------



## midlife (19 Mar 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Machining brake discs!
> 
> View attachment 400606



Just out of curiosity who are you machining them for?


----------



## r04DiE (19 Mar 2018)

midlife said:


> Just out of curiosity who are you machining them for?


I'm doing them for a student project at work. I have already told them that I will not be responsible for any adverse effects due to their tinkering but in all honesty, I think they'll be fine.


----------



## keithmac (20 Mar 2018)

gbb said:


> Looking at the horror photo above amazes me...and yet doesn' surprise me.
> Mate of mine has a Piaggio I think with a 200cc lump in it. He's had problems and had all and sundry looking at and working on it. Then he broke down, had it recovered, then was told the variator had come loose...in other words whoever did it didn't do it up properly.
> Now he's had more problems and apparently someone has been playing with the electrics and frigged about with the position of the fuse hidden under the seat.
> 
> Scooters are funny things, they'e not that complicated, I even tinkered with my sons Peugeot...but that relative simplicity encourages folk to 'have a go'...with occasional bodging thrown in.



You'd be surprised on how complicated the new scooters can be, we now have ASR (traction control)/ ABS/ Stop-Start systems which are stater motorless, full electronic fuel injection etc.

Sounds like your mate has a GT200 which are nice and simple to work on!. If the variator has not been clamped up properly there's a few parts that should have been replaced as they are keyed to the crankshaft.

Every man and his dog has a go at fixing them and we get sloppy seconds unfortunately!..


----------



## palinurus (20 Mar 2018)

First job was to answer a question about the melting temperature of a tin-zinc alloy so dug out this publication, well worth the 2/6 we paid for it.






Just a tad below 200C, done.






Then some emails and some tinkering with Powerpoint, then down to the applications area to test some solder pastes.

Printed the paste onto some circuit boards with an automatic printer:






I had a few to evaluate so just a short print run of ten boards, plus a few extras which were going to be assembled to check the soldering quality.

The majority of electronic assemblies are currently made this way, the solder is printed onto the board using a stencil in the form of a paste, it's about 50% by volume solder powder, the other half is flux.






Then I measured the volume of the solder deposits using a Koh Young SPI (Solder Paste Inspection) system, this does the measurements automatically, I exported the data to sort out later in the week.

I placed components onto a few of the pasted boards using a pick & place robot.






Some chip resistors, some QFPs, nothing too challenging today- just a quick evaluation to check a new manufacturing process.






Then it was time to break out the soldering iron (all the soldering is done in a single step in a big oven)






Afterwards I photographed some of the joints, cleaned the post-soldering (flux) residues off using a big dishwasher. Tomorrow I'll finish it off and write it up if there aren't too many interruptions.


----------



## r04DiE (20 Mar 2018)

palinurus said:


> First job was to answer a question about the melting temperature of a tin-zinc alloy so dug out this publication, well worth the 2/6 we paid for it...


You have too many fun toys!


----------



## r04DiE (29 Mar 2018)

Today, I took this:






And turned it into this:


----------



## midlife (29 Mar 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Today, I took this:
> 
> View attachment 402042
> 
> ...



Some sort of venturi thing ? Looks interesting


----------



## r04DiE (29 Mar 2018)

midlife said:


> Some sort of venturi thing ? Looks interesting


It's an Air Intake Restrictor for a racing car, apparently. The poor lathe was holding onto it with it's fingernails at one point!


----------



## gbb (30 Mar 2018)

Basically this machine but our product is in punnets ...


The rollers that form the bottom seal of the film





keep seizing, juice from occasional crushed grapes builds up and gets like glue so a simple problem that required a 3 to 4 hour strip down. .




Cleaned, bearing all checked, running freely. New cylinder fitted that automatically opens and closes the rollers.




Just got the covers to refit. Rollers all adjusted to run on line...continued after with as much of an annual service as I could fit in, drive chains lubed and tensioned and various other condition checks. Service to continue next week, machine back working for now.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (30 Mar 2018)

Yesterday I had to do safety training at a factory after a worker had an accident.






These are corrugated fasteners, "wrigglys" or "zaps", used to connect two bits of timber together and fired through a pneumatic tool at 100psi. Somebody wasn't paying attention so this happened (not for the squeamish)


Spoiler: ouch












That's the back of his hand and you can just see one of the two fasteners at the very bottom of the wound. Lucky guy, no tendons were severed.


----------



## r04DiE (30 Mar 2018)

gbb said:


> Basically this machine but our product is in punnets ...


Fascinating machines!


----------



## r04DiE (30 Mar 2018)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> That's the back of his hand and you can just see one of the two fasteners at the very bottom of the wound. Lucky guy, no tendons were severed.


Gruesome stuff - hope he recovers quickly.


----------



## gbb (30 Mar 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Fascinating machines!


Plenty of manufacturers of flow wrappers out there and the Redpack is relatively easy to set up and generally reliable but they'e funny things, the slightest thing can send the film wandering off and they'e fustrating as hell when they go wrong, it' all about setup and experience.
I never liked flow wrappers, never got topside of operating them (not that I have to) but mechanically they'e relatively simple.
Priced up two of the drive shafts sticking out in the first photo and four sleeves that fit in the alloy blocks...over £1000.00, but not needed now I've inspected it all.


----------



## keithmac (14 Apr 2018)

Had the pleasure of working on this this week, 1983 CB1100R one of only 150 brought into the UK. 

Had new tyres and full service with valve clearances etc, fitted orignal exhaust system back on (nice and standard!).






I've got this to put back together on Tuesday when the valve shims turn up, just like a big jigsaw really!.


----------



## r04DiE (16 Apr 2018)

Wow! That 1100R is mint  Always been a big fan of Honda, thanks for sharing the pic.


----------



## plantfit (16 Apr 2018)

Working at home in my retirement on a 56 year old Lister diesel engine restoration, nearly finished


----------



## Salty seadog (16 Apr 2018)

plantfit said:


> Working at home in my retirement on a 56 year old Lister diesel engine restoration, nearly finished
> 
> 
> View attachment 404565



I wouldn't want to hitch that trailer up to the bike.


----------



## keithmac (16 Apr 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Wow! That 1100R is mint  Always been a big fan of Honda, thanks for sharing the pic.



He said he's always wanted one but never had the money until now. 

It is in very nice orignal condition, he was chuffed to bits with it.

Nice to see something different!.


----------



## Datum2 (18 Apr 2018)

Very busy few days for arable farmers making the most of the drier field conditions and sunshine. I've been applying nitrogen fertiliser to winter wheat with this kit.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (18 Apr 2018)

I saw farmers putting down lime today - what's that for?


----------



## Datum2 (18 Apr 2018)

Diogenes The Sarcastic said:


> I saw farmers putting down lime today - what's that for?



Usually applied to neutralise acid soils.


----------



## gbb (19 Apr 2018)

Datum2 said:


> Very busy few days for arable farmers making the most of the drier field conditions and sunshine. I've been applying nitrogen fertiliser to winter wheat with this kit.
> View attachment 404900


I saw a tractor , same setup as that somewhere near Folksworth or in that area. Wasn't you was it ?


----------



## Datum2 (19 Apr 2018)

gbb said:


> I saw a tractor , same setup as that somewhere near Folksworth or in that area. Wasn't you was it ?



If you passed through the Gt Gidding area then yes


----------



## Datum2 (19 Apr 2018)

Same tractor different operation today.
Seed drill planting spring barley today.

Good number of cyclists on the B660 today partly due to being on the route of the Tour of Cambridgeshire passing this way in June.
Hopefully will get time to cycle at the weekend just as the weather goes downhill again


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (20 Apr 2018)

I'm always fascinated by the Heath Robinson appearance of some agricultural machinery. It often looks like 2 or more pieces have mated to produce a hybrid.


----------



## gbb (20 Apr 2018)

Datum2 said:


> If you passed through the Gt Gidding area then yes


Haha. That was it


----------



## slowwww (20 Apr 2018)

keithmac said:


> Had the pleasure of working on this this week, 1983 CB1100R one of only 150 brought into the UK.
> 
> Had new tyres and full service with valve clearances etc, fitted orignal exhaust system back on (nice and standard!).
> 
> ...


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (20 Apr 2018)

Children or bikes?


----------



## keithmac (21 Apr 2018)

We had an RC30 at ours stored on behalf of a customer. That sold recently for north of £35k!.


----------



## slowwww (23 Apr 2018)

keithmac said:


> We had an RC30 at ours stored on behalf of a customer. That sold recently for north of £35k!.



Thanks. Not helping!


----------



## keithmac (23 Apr 2018)

slowwww said:


> Thanks. Not helping!



Sorry!. A garage full of Honda C90's would be worth a fortune now as well, couldn't gove them away 25 years ago!.


----------



## slowwww (23 Apr 2018)

keithmac said:


> Sorry!. A garage full of Honda C90's would be worth a fortune now as well, couldn't gove them away 25 years ago!.


...although would not be anywhere near as much fun to ride!


----------



## PeteXXX (25 Apr 2018)

Not doing too well today...
Read a lot of my book though


----------



## Jenkins (25 Apr 2018)

Spotted and drooled over while doing some other work in the same warehouse - a 1960's Lamborghini 400GT


----------



## Biff600 (25 Apr 2018)

Another safety audit


----------



## furball (26 Apr 2018)

Biff600 said:


> Another safety audit
> 
> View attachment 406017


Now I get your avatar


----------



## Turdus philomelos (26 Apr 2018)




----------



## Biff600 (26 Apr 2018)

furball said:


> Now I get your avatar



Oh no, that pertains to my previous job of gunnery and drill instructor


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (26 Apr 2018)

Why did I just stand straighter, dammit!


----------



## Dave 123 (26 Apr 2018)

30 window boxes done this afternoon, I'll put them out in 2 weeks


----------



## gbb (26 Apr 2018)

Servicing pallet shuttles. They pick up and move pallets automatically in racking.
Check / replace buffers, sensors, aerials (theyre controlled via a transmitter) emergency stops that often get broken, grease the worm shaft bearings, blow out any debris. All straight forward, 2 new E stops fitted.


----------



## Rowano (30 Apr 2018)

Waiting for this flight to London.


----------



## smokeysmoo (30 Apr 2018)

I forgot to post this last week while dealing with failed sewage pumps at a gym in Wrexham.

Scroll down for pic but DISCRETION ADVISED


----------



## Dave 123 (4 May 2018)

We have a temporary kitchen on New Court Lawn at present. This morning I’ve planted a herb garden. All plants grown by me from seed


----------



## Glow worm (4 May 2018)

A dull desk day here, but I'm nearly at item 6 on the to do list


----------



## rivers (4 May 2018)

End of year dance show...Nearly time for a dress rehearsal


----------



## Milkfloat (4 May 2018)

Glow worm said:


> A dull desk day here, but I'm nearly at item 6 on the to do list
> 
> View attachment 407372



You might be interested in what I do at work.


----------



## Glow worm (4 May 2018)

Milkfloat said:


> You might be interested in what I do at work.



Nice! 
I'm mapping a lot of footpaths at the moment, so most of it is done on foot. A little low tech, but at least I get to go for some nice walks!


----------



## Milkfloat (4 May 2018)

Glow worm said:


> Nice!
> I'm mapping a lot of footpaths at the moment, so most of it is done on foot. A little low tech, but at least I get to go for some nice walks!



For a proof of concept once I spent 2 weeks in the Harz National Park on foot and mountain bike building an off road product. It was bliss and I was paid very well for it.


----------



## Datum2 (11 May 2018)

Refurbishing the plough with some new mould boards and other earth wearing parts. Job slowed down as the parts company delivered the wrong nuts and bolts so probably get finished next week. Its not a rush job just on going maintenance and repairs.


----------



## keithmac (11 May 2018)

Are you all sitting down .

CBR 900, service and strip clean and setup carbs (been stood 4 years). Ran like a dream afterwards and enjoyed working on it.












2015! CB500, should have been an hours job for chain and sprockets but front sprocket seized onto output shaft. Had to get some heat into it with our "stick" welder while loading it up with the hydraulic puller..






ZX6 valve clearances (all 16 out of spec!), lot easier to a loose engine though!.






GTS 300 User Rectifier replacement, could have made it more accessible..






Pan European for seals, had to pull the front end out in one lump and get the gas torch on the legs as the seals were seized into the legs.






Yamaha MT09, fairing and radiator off plus clean air crankcase breathers off to access blood spark plugs, then another hour just to get to air filter....






GTS 125 fuel pump replacement, had to drop the engine off it's mounts to pull fuel tank down enough to replace pump.






Triumph America (2015).

Multiple wiring faults and Canbus failure, still on with it as I've had to strip the complete loom finding broken wirs and crimps as I go, lovely..


----------



## woodbutcher (11 May 2018)

keithmac said:


> Are you all sitting down .
> 
> CBR 900, service and strip clean and setup carbs (been stood 4 years). Ran like a dream afterwards and enjoyed working on it.
> 
> ...


----------



## keithmac (12 May 2018)

Got my Triumph all back together running and fault code free.







Then got legged into a Fuoco with snapped/ corroded throttle cables, 3hrs in...


----------



## Serge (18 May 2018)

It's not very busy in the kitchen today. I've got loads of thyme on my hands.


----------



## uphillstruggler (18 May 2018)

gbb said:


> View attachment 406124
> 
> Servicing pallet shuttles. They pick up and move pallets automatically in racking.
> Check / replace buffers, sensors, aerials (theyre controlled via a transmitter) emergency stops that often get broken, grease the worm shaft bearings, blow out any debris. All straight forward, 2 new E stops fitted.



we supply that sort of racking, small world eh?


----------



## gbb (8 Jun 2018)

Checkweigher failed to complete it's start-up process and alarmed Failed To Set Azm Zero....whatever Azm is ?




Check the weighcell connections, no debris on the sole of the weighcell plate, belts aren't fouling each other...nothing obvious found so maybe it' in the settings.




All looks ok....hmmmm.
Create another program with the same values...It works ? What I noticed was the new program when setting up had significantly slower belt speeds (these are user adjustable for different products). Figured in the end it wouldn't Zero Azm (whatever that is) because excess belt speed was perhaps creating vibration which upset the delicate weighcell. 
Delete old program, run with new.

You get no training for this stuff, you just have to percevier, you learn as you go.


----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

Needed a delicate touch to change a battery on this MV, think they made it as inaccessible as possible!.

Bit of a job trying not to scratch anything!.











Next up, had to use the welder to remove the remains of a broken needle roller bearing out of an R1 wheel without damaging it, bit of a ball ache!.


----------



## Tin Pot (8 Jun 2018)




----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

Tin Pot said:


> View attachment 413217



Fancy doing a job swap .


----------



## woodbutcher (8 Jun 2018)

keithmac said:


> Needed a delicate touch to change a battery on this MV, think they made it as inaccessible as possible!.
> 
> Bit of a job trying not to scratch anything!.
> 
> ...


I love my Ducati but oh boy that MV is a dream machine


----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

woodbutcher said:


> I love my Ducati but oh boy that MV is a dream machine



They are a great looking bike, very similar styling to Ducati (was it the same bloke who designed the 916?).


----------



## midlife (8 Jun 2018)

gbb said:


> Checkweigher failed to complete it's start-up process and alarmed Failed To Set Azm Zero....whatever Azm is ?
> View attachment 413205
> 
> Check the weighcell connections, no debris on the sole of the weighcell plate, belts aren't fouling each other...nothing obvious found so maybe it' in the settings.
> ...



Bitd AZM = azimuth


----------



## Rickshaw Phil (8 Jun 2018)

keithmac said:


> Needed a delicate touch to change a battery on this MV, think they made it as inaccessible as possible!.
> 
> Bit of a job trying not to scratch anything!.
> 
> ...


Suddenly I don't feel quite so bad about having to remove two panels to get at the battery on my CK1.


----------



## Oldfentiger (8 Jun 2018)

keithmac said:


> They are a great looking bike, very similar styling to Ducati (was it the same bloke who designed the 916?).


The late Massimo Tamburini, I think designed the F4 thus planting the DNA for subsequent models.
Previously designed the iconic Ducati 916, which explains the similarity.
Of course I could be spouting bull crap, so I stand to be corrected.


----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

Rickshaw Phil said:


> Suddenly I don't feel quite so bad about having to remove two panels to get at the battery on my CK1.



Triumph Sprint 1050's are "funny", they give you the vain hope of getting the battery out but the last few mm's require the tank lifting (back pannels off then!). Think they did that on purpose!.


----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

Oldfentiger said:


> The late Massimo Tamburini, I think designed the F4 thus planting the DNA for subsequent models.
> Previously designed the iconic Ducati 916, which explains the similarity.
> Of course I could be spouting bull crap, so I stand to be corrected.



I resurrected an F4 a few years back, had been stood for years with some fuel in the tank at some point; worste thing you can do!. Either keep it topped up and started or drain it all down.

Was a nightmare of a job..


----------



## Oldfentiger (8 Jun 2018)

I had a succession of across the frame 4 pot bikes. Then I traded a ZZR1100 for a Ducati 900SS and was then forever a V-twin man. Just loved the torque and drivability, also the elegance and simplicity of the design.
I could never understand why Tamburini put a 4 cylinder in the MV.


----------



## keithmac (8 Jun 2018)

Oldfentiger said:


> I had a succession of across the frame 4 pot bikes. Then I traded a ZZR1100 for a Ducati 900SS and was then forever a V-twin man. Just loved the torque and drivability, also the elegance and simplicity of the design.
> I could never understand why Tamburini put a 4 cylinder in the MV.



The F3 is a 3 cylinder 675 engine, I assumed it was a Triumph lump from their Daytona and Street Tripple but looking closely I'm not too sure!.

Have you ever riden a 2010 onwards Yamaha R1 "big bang" (cross plane crank)?. Remarkable engine, the low down grunt of a V twin but revs like an inline 4. In all my 20+ years of spannering that engine and power delivery really stood out.

A real peach of an engine.


----------



## Oldfentiger (8 Jun 2018)

keithmac said:


> The F3 is a 3 cylinder 675 engine, I assumed it was a Triumph lump from their Daytona and Street Tripple but looking closely I'm not too sure!.
> 
> Have you ever riden a 2010 onwards Yamaha R1 "big bang" (cross plane crank)?. Remarkable engine, the low down grunt of a V twin but revs like an inline 4. In all my 20+ years of spannering that engine and power delivery really stood out.
> 
> A real peach of an engine.


No, never did. I’ve heard good things about it though. 
They did summat similar years ago, with the TRX850. Hailed as being a competitor for the Duc L twins.


----------



## woodbutcher (8 Jun 2018)

keithmac said:


> They are a great looking bike, very similar styling to Ducati (was it the same bloke who designed the 916?).


Think you are right, would love a 916 but hey the 748s is ok by me !


----------



## keithmac (9 Jun 2018)

We have a 748 at work, think the are keeping rather than selling it, great looking bike!.

Took a couple more of the MV this morning.


----------



## woodbutcher (10 Jun 2018)

I would have no problem getting up to go to work at your place , bike heaven


----------



## keithmac (10 Jun 2018)

woodbutcher said:


> I would have no problem getting up to go to work at your place , bike heaven



We had a Ducati Panigale in last week, that was a good looker!. Seems a bit finickey with it's gear position sensor unfortunately..


----------



## gbb (15 Jun 2018)

I have whole packing line to service today while it's quiet so time to do those jobs that have been building up.
Promotional label applicator, the loom between the control box and labeller, the flexi conduit has deteriorated.




Cut away the damaged conduit, shorten the 16 wires as there's now very little room to accommodate the surplus in the socket



, tidy up and refit.




Nice to get the niggly stuff done. Got a damaged 3 phase isolator next.


----------



## Bryony (22 Jun 2018)

I was very productive at work today


----------



## smokeysmoo (29 Jun 2018)

Graftin' in the sunshine


----------



## Serge (29 Jun 2018)

smokeysmoo said:


> Graftin' in the sunshine
> 
> View attachment 416882


You can't beat dressing for the weather.


----------



## gbb (3 Jul 2018)

Running 10 x Cat 5 or similar cable runs in over around 80mtrs.
Steady but meh...not very interesting.








Keeping the existing bundles of cable in as you insert the new runs was problematic...








Every day...something different, shouldn't complain.


----------



## briantrumpet (7 Jul 2018)

Playing in the Dream of Gerontius in Truro Cathedral.


----------



## keithmac (8 Jul 2018)

I had the joys of drilling out three pilot air screws today (brass screws in aluminium carb bodies).

Managed to get them out without ruining the threads in the carbs.

Have advised the carbs needed sorting out over the last 3 or 4 services, wish I'd have kept my bloody mouth shut in hindsight!.


----------



## keithmac (12 Jul 2018)

Seem to be having a run on carb jobs!, YZF750 this time. Had to drill the pilot air screw anti tamper caps out (joy!).

Ran sweet as a nut!.












Also had a lovely Kawasaki GT750, fully restored but ran like a bag of spanners, couple of hours fettling the carbs and it was a completely different bike.






It's going to be a lost art soon, all laptops and diagnostic kit for the new bikes...


----------



## Oldfentiger (12 Jul 2018)

keithmac said:


> Seem to be having a run on carb jobs!, YZF750 this time. American import so had to drill the pilot air screw anti tamper caps out (joy!).
> 
> Ran sweet as a nut!.
> 
> ...



I passed my bike test, and 30 minutes later I bought a Kawasaki GT750. After a 125cc Yamaha it felt like a fire breathing monster! Mine was a gold one. Kept it for 2 years and upgraded to a GPZ900R, the original Ninja


----------



## briantrumpet (17 Jul 2018)

It's graduations this week and next, for which I direct the music. By Tuesday my running total since 2008 will be 232 graduations.


----------



## Dark46 (18 Jul 2018)

Not me in pic


----------



## r04DiE (18 Jul 2018)

Today I machined a pump casing out of a solid. 100mm diameter carbon filled PTFE rod.


----------



## Serge (18 Jul 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Today I machined a pump casing out of a solid. 100mm diameter carbon filled PTFE rod.
> 
> View attachment 419954
> View attachment 419955
> ...


I bet @Drago could've whittled that with a sharpened spoon.

Joking aside though, that's very impressive.


----------



## r04DiE (19 Jul 2018)

Serge said:


> I bet @Drago could've whittled that with a sharpened spoon.
> 
> Joking aside though, that's very impressive.


Ah, thank you and I am glad you like it! I am doing part two today.


----------



## briantrumpet (20 Jul 2018)

Just one more Exeter graduation to go before we transfer down to Truro.


----------



## Jenkins (20 Jul 2018)

From earlier in the week, I wondered why the cartons loaded a couple of rows back from the container door were different to the those you'd see on a casual check and why no proper shipping marks...






Aha, that's why...







Just confirmed as fake by Nike - £375,000 worth at RRP for the genuine article.


----------



## Rowano (20 Jul 2018)

Building and operating one of these. Top job.


----------



## Julia9054 (20 Jul 2018)

End of term. This. For 6 weeks!


----------



## Serge (20 Jul 2018)

Julia9054 said:


> End of term. This. For 6 weeks!
> View attachment 420264


Barsteward!


----------



## briantrumpet (23 Jul 2018)

Today's work: more graduation music, this time in Truro Cathedral.


----------



## briantrumpet (23 Jul 2018)

Julia9054 said:


> End of term. This. For 6 weeks!
> View attachment 420264


Give me a couple of days, and I think I can beat that, in the "for the next six weeks" league.


----------



## Serge (28 Jul 2018)

Pickling eggs.


----------



## Serge (28 Jul 2018)

Finished, 






Just need a week or so to mature.


----------



## midlife (28 Jul 2018)

Serge said:


> Finished,
> 
> View attachment 421406
> 
> ...



And coming to a pub near you?


----------



## Serge (28 Jul 2018)

midlife said:


> And coming to a pub near you?


I'm sure they'll be consumed with a copious quantity of alcohol. They're for a military charity day, Greenstock.


----------



## keithmac (28 Jul 2018)

r04DiE said:


> Today I machined a pump casing out of a solid. 100mm diameter carbon filled PTFE rod.
> 
> View attachment 419954
> View attachment 419955
> ...



That's great!, nice to see the fruits of your labour.


----------



## Julia9054 (28 Jul 2018)

Serge said:


> Finished,
> 
> View attachment 421406
> 
> ...


Save me one. I've never had a pickled egg and it's on my bucket list!


----------



## Serge (28 Jul 2018)

Julia9054 said:


> Save me one. I've never had a pickled egg and it's on my bucket list!


I have to admit, I love anything pickled. 

Apart from eggs.


----------



## slowmotion (28 Jul 2018)

I made the marinade for the Chicken Marbella I'm cooking on Sunday.


----------



## keithmac (28 Jul 2018)

This was on a 2016 bike, he'd run the rear pads down to the metal backing and all the ventilation holes on the brake disk were full of compacted dirt!.

Was in for warranty work (rear shock absorbers leaking) to be fair you can't expect a seal to seal properly coved in grit and dirt..

Was expecting a moan at an hours labour and pads to save his seized and neglected rear caliper but all good in the end!.


----------



## r04DiE (29 Jul 2018)

keithmac said:


> This was on a 2016 bike, he'd run the rear pads down to the metal backing and all the ventilation holes on the brake disk were full of compacted dirt!.
> 
> Was in for warranty work (rear shock absorbers leaking) to be fair you can't expect a seal to seal properly coved in grit and dirt..
> 
> ...


What a mess! Good work on saving the day there.


----------



## gbb (3 Aug 2018)

Printer has been playing up intermittently for a couple weeks now and gives a faded print occasionally..
Replaced the air regulator that applies pressure to the thermal head..no change.
Check cable connections, nothing found.
Tried a multitude of print head position in relation to the print roller adjustments, print darkness and boost adjustments, roller is good, print head is good etc etc etc.
Fitted new printer...thought it was ok but it came back a few days later.
Just fitted a new control box, configure all the IP address, encoder settings etc.
Printer and control box..




Sample of several pages of settings that had to be inserted...





Other 'problems' today include..
Line op reports as rectangular punnets enter a machine, it alarms 'incorrect size'.
'You're feeding them in wrong, they should be fed in wideways'
'Oh fkit' he replied.

Within minutes, another line reports their printer has stopped printing. Investigate and find they've put in the wrong ribbon'
'Oh' replied that OP.

Another line reports his machine isn't level...indeed it's not, it's dropped one end so I set about levelling it up. On completion he says it's now too high
'It can't be, it's at the right level for the machinery feeding and discharging from it...it can't all be wrong'
'But it used to be lower' he replied.
Strewth....


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (28 Aug 2018)

New customer so I've been prepping and testing all the new nail guns 






277 of the blessed things






Then training all 96 operatives in their safe use.

Phew! Too much like work if you ask me


----------



## biggs682 (26 Sep 2018)

Eating cake for Macmillan Nurses


----------



## Jenkins (27 Sep 2018)

Finally been released by our PR department - three of us over two days for each case!
http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/high-end...rth-10-2m-seized-felixstowe-suffolk-1-5712727
I was hoping they'd use this photo for publicity


----------



## gbb (1 Oct 2018)

Looking at a machine this morning, very evident it's going to need new shafts and bearings soon so preparing spare bearing housings with new linear bearings. Old ones were almost impossible to get out but apply some heat to the housing for a couple minutes, out they popped without too much trouble. The residual heat also meant the new ones went on without too much effort as well.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (5 Oct 2018)

The problem was the operators were wearing out the bottoms of the nail gun magazines by pushing them over the work surfaces. These guns are only two weeks old!






When the magazine wears far enough, the button on the base falls off which releases the spring which holds the magazine tray inside in place.

Making a steel magazine is cost prohibitive. Putting a metal base plate on is difficult because the bolt heads would impinge on the operation of the magazine inside.

My solution?





Take a small bolt that will fit inside the spring and drill a hole through it.






Thread the bolt through the washer and hook the spring through the hole in the bolt (later glued using a hot glue gun)






Hopefully, this will work. If it does we can get a bolt with a bigger domed head, but this was all that was knocking about my tool box.


----------



## gbb (10 Oct 2018)

So you buy your punnet of grapes with it's sealed film top, the machine that does that applies around 4 tonnes of force against heater profiles for 0.2 seconds....and your lid is sealed.
Yesterday it didn't seem right and got progressively worse, no last stage lift to make that pressure.
After many tests, checks etc etc it was found the gearbox had gone.




It's very heavy but not that big...maybe 5 inches in diameter.




Look carefully at the spines that mesh on the output shaft above, you can see some of them have sheared off hence the loss of drive. 
34 hours out of action, that's a record for us, diagnosing the problem, waiting for a service engineer, waiting for the part to arrive via courier then assisting him reassembling it all.


----------



## biggs682 (11 Oct 2018)

Diagnosing parts required to get a small genset up and running again.


----------



## keithmac (1 Nov 2018)

Had to laugh the other day while servicing a Yamaha 250 scooter, I'm surprised it even ran with that filter in it!.


----------



## keithmac (1 Nov 2018)

Also spent 2 hours removing a Multistrada rear wheel for a tyre, ended up cutting 3 sides off the wheel nut to remove it with an angle grinder and slitting disk..

This was 2 sides off and still wouldn't shift with me on the end of a flexing 3/4 breaker bar!.


----------



## screenman (1 Nov 2018)

I really should learn how to put pictures from my phone into here.


----------



## keithmac (1 Nov 2018)

screenman said:


> I really should learn how to put pictures from my phone into here.



Of you click "Upload a File" button you can browse your phone and upload pictures.

Other side of the Multistrada after another couple of hours, gear selection fault due to broken return spring on shift shaft.

They look nice but a ballache to work on..


----------



## biggs682 (22 Nov 2018)

Been trying to id this sensor for a client , finally sorted .


----------



## gbb (27 Nov 2018)

Bagging machine has been erratic lately and will occasionally stop instantly at random parts of its cycle. This could be a broken wire in an array of 4 sensors that monitors the positions of the jaws and monitors blockages...you can't easily tell if theres a broken wire or in which sensor so you replace the lot...'£390.00.
Jaws clamp the film, seal it, pull down a specific mount, open, return to the home position, seal, thus forming a sealed bag....60 times a minute.




Sensors disconnected...not a good pic, , it's gloomy in there.




Connections HAVE to be correct so I tape each new sensor cable to its original to prevent mix ups.




Old sensor set...




An odd photo mid job. I virtually had to climb in there at times to get access but it's full of mechanics.




2 hours...almost exactly what I said it would be.


----------



## CharlesF (27 Nov 2018)

all these hands-on jobs look so much more interesting than Excel all day! Keep making me jealous.


----------



## gbb (27 Nov 2018)

CharlesF said:


> all these hands-on jobs look so much more interesting than Excel all day! Keep making me jealous.


I love my job. It can be stressful, it can be mindblowingly busy or boring...and once I'd correctly set the sensor positions...very important or you risk instantly ruining one, or get the activation points wrong and it just won't work....and get the terminations wrong and risk blowing one or more of them ,....once you've checked and double checked everything....you breathe a sigh of relief...and smile.


----------



## CharlesF (27 Nov 2018)

And you get to admire the result, a machine working perfectly. Cleaning and servicing the bike is the closest I get to that, and it very satisfying.


----------



## Butchersbike (10 Dec 2018)

Busy on the pork pies-nom nom


----------



## CharlesF (10 Dec 2018)

Butchersbike said:


> Busy on the pork pies-nom nom
> View attachment 442191


That's my kind of work!


----------



## keithmac (10 Dec 2018)

Butchersbike said:


> Busy on the pork pies-nom nom
> View attachment 442191



Looks like a well made pie!, surprisingly hard to come by a decent porker..


----------



## gbb (10 Dec 2018)

View attachment 440615

Last week's job was replace the sensor set and while doing so, look at the vertical white toothed bels, at the bottom rear....its slack while the front one is correctly tensioned. It bugged me so today we planned some work so I could hit it....assuming it was stretched. Also the front one has some steel braid bursting through, time to replace.
New belts (30mm wide, around 1.5 mtr long) and new style tensioner/clamp mechanism fitted...but the rear one was still slack . It was a tooth out on the bottom toothed pulley and no amount of pulling would get it round that extra tooth, so undo the bottom base plate for the pulley shaft assembly, that allowed the assembly to lift a mm or two and gave me the extra tooth I needed, tighten it all up, tension belts, tidy up and monthly service the machine. 
3 hours...spent a good proportion of that on my back, squeezed into the machine, no room for manoeuvre, lots of clamp and adjusting bolts with poor access. Nice, proper mechanical job though.


----------



## subaqua (10 Dec 2018)

I can’t show pictures of my work anymore . An NDA of sorts , officially secret ... but I have been pulling a set of stage 4 “detailed design” drawings apart as they are nothing of the sort...


----------



## Richard A Thackeray (11 Dec 2018)

Chortling at the staff handbook

Rules, regulations, staff-discounts

On Porches???



View: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10216190860356499&set=a.10215285597365490&type=3&theater&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&notif_id=1544554133737342


----------



## Drago (11 Dec 2018)

A house isn't a home without a porch.


----------



## Butchersbike (12 Dec 2018)

Cold day behind our stall on Ludlow Market.


----------



## gbb (22 Dec 2018)

Flow wrapping machine is in the workshop while it's not needed for a few weeks so might as well start at the back and thoroughly inspect and renew as necessary.
Transfer conveyor, a strange design of multiple rollers that often suffer from bearing failures.





Lots of bearings, some replaced, any others...flip out the seal and pack in some more grease...




Drive roller, self aligning bearings cleaned and lubed...









Reassembled for the most part, new belts fitted, a few bits to sort....that 2 or maybe 3 hours work.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (25 Jan 2019)

The last few days have been setting up the tooling on automated machinery in Aberdeen. Everything went well and we were due to finish ahead of schedule when I spotted one of the bays was putting nails in a touch high on the joists. Not much, about 5mm but I figured it should be right.












The problem was the bottom sensor was set wrong. It should have just been a case of loosening the Allen bolt, moving it and tightening it.

But oh no. Because we were responsible for the tools, not the machine, the factory maintenance manager had to be called.





He fiddled and played and pushed buttons and swore a lot before going to get the Big Maintenance Book.






We waited patiently as he occasionally stopped to shout at us.

In the end, 45 minutes later, the correct procedure was deduced. Switch it off. Move the sensor. Switch it on. Switch it off then switch it on again. Bingo!


----------



## gbb (26 Jan 2019)

Diogenes said:


> The last few days have been setting up the tooling on automated machinery in Aberdeen. Everything went well and we were due to finish ahead of schedule when I spotted one of the bays was putting nails in a touch high on the joists. Not much, about 5mm but I figured it should be right.
> 
> 
> View attachment 448849
> ...


Been caught in a similar circumstance, different machinery of course but we couldn't understand why the changes we made wouldn't work. We gave up for the day and turned the machine off . Came back the next day, turned it on....and it I instantly worked !!!!

The flow wrapper above goes through a 'homing' phase on start up to align itself. Possibly the same scenario.


----------



## gbb (31 Jan 2019)

We have many sets of scales (maybe 30 of them) and occasionally they fail, thee in particular wont calibrate so its new weighcells time..




New weighcell fitted, only 4 bolts, wiring routed to the control box PCB....





Now go through a calibration process that really just a button push sequence and place some weights on the scales then save.
3 sets completed and working...cost of the cells....around £100 each. 
Saving of £1000 made by not calling in the scales suppliers engineers to do it.


----------



## CharlesF (31 Jan 2019)

You must have certified weights, are they beautifully turned brass weights, or just lumps of metal?


----------



## Biff600 (31 Jan 2019)

An easy day for me, packing a bag for work, all ready for a flight to Amsterdam tomorrow


----------



## gbb (31 Jan 2019)

CharlesF said:


> You must have certified weights, are they beautifully turned brass weights, or just lumps of metal?


Certified yes, beautiful...no. Functional would be the word.


----------



## gbb (5 Feb 2019)

One thing I learned when working abroad...and temporarily forgot, was theres usually a way to fix something, you got to use your imagination.
I'd been repairing a printer control box button which meant taking off the facia of the box. Unfortunately I ham fisted it and damaged a tiny ribbon cable...which is not available from the box manufacturer...so potentially this could cost £1000 or so for a service exchange. FFS, that's mildly embarrassing.
My Polish colleague reminded me of the make do and mend attitude, can't you cut off the damaged bit and peel back the contact covering he asked.,?
Hmmmm
Damaged bit cut off...




40 way ribbon, gently sanded back the insulation...




Inserted back in its receptacle / socket..




And the screen came on...





Thanks to Marek for reminding me...don't give up.


----------



## keithmac (5 Feb 2019)

Only came in for an oil change!.

"Bought it cheap" and enduro bike in the same breath rarely ends well..


----------



## keithmac (5 Feb 2019)

This has been on and off the bench over the last month or so.

Someone charged him a small fortune to turn it into a long range tourer and made a complete balls up of it.

Would have been easier to start from scratch but he ho!.

Sill have to remove swingarm to change front sprocket, what a daft design that is..


----------



## gbb (13 Feb 2019)

These cylinders will operate 20k times a day on occasions, in grimy conditions, difficult to clean so the 2 assemblies removed to 2 the workshops and overhauled with new linear bearing assemblies and 9 new cylinders .








Around 4 hours work and circa ,£600 in parts.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (13 Feb 2019)

you missed a bit


----------



## Zipp2001 (13 Feb 2019)

Working on some new product for Halloween.


----------



## Zipp2001 (14 Feb 2019)

Had a little time to work on some more Halloween figurines.


----------



## MrBeanz (14 Feb 2019)

Zipp2001 said:


> Had a little time to work on some more Halloween figurines.



Pooping figurines? How realistic!


----------



## Zipp2001 (15 Feb 2019)

Just wanted to get a group photo before they go off to the factory for production. The eyes and teeth will be glow paint so they will be watching you while your sleeping. The little buggers wouldn't stop making faces for a minute while I tried to take their photo.


----------



## r04DiE (15 Feb 2019)

Well, if there are two things I really like, they're machining and bikes.





Billets prepped.




On the machine!



Mmmm, bike hubs...


----------



## keithmac (20 Feb 2019)

Bit of an odd day today, from a complex fly by wire Aprilia RSV4 to an old school Yamaha RD500 

Both interesting in their own way, chalk and cheese..


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (28 Feb 2019)

Boring networking day today.


----------



## keithmac (2 Mar 2019)

"Interesting" one last week, customer brought his BMW in for an MOT.

The brakes had been sticking on so he'd decided to cover the disks/ brake pads etc in oil to free them off!.

Whats worse is BMW have decided to put the brake fluid reservoirs under the bloody fuel tank (abs servo brakes), so it's an hours job just to be able to top them up!.

Was a nightmare to bleed, ended up using a syringe to pump fluid up from the calipers to the servo unit.

Had made some new lines for the front so front brake system was completely empty.

The fluid the came out was horrific!.


----------



## Cuchilo (9 Mar 2019)

A bit more to my boat windscreen ...


----------



## Salty seadog (9 Mar 2019)

That's the way to do it....


View: https://www.facebook.com/wtfwatch.rfz/videos/355965161918686/


----------



## PeteXXX (9 Mar 2019)

Snack stop, on the way back from Norwich.


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (9 Mar 2019)

I went over to an engineering company opposite us today to see if I could scrounge some aluminium plate. I saw an engine that looked familiar to me. It is one I machined from solid aluminium about 9 years ago for a guy that has a dubious reputation in these parts. The engine is pretty much as I left it, none of the other work has been done. There was a V10 and a V8. Pics below show the heads I did for the V10. The inserts were laser welded in place to create the water jacket.
The guy over the road was doing work on a bike engine for the guy that designed it all. I just told him to make sure he did not hand it over until he had cashed the cheque for the work!


----------



## CharlesF (9 Mar 2019)

That is beautiful, I hope you see it finished one day


----------



## keithmac (10 Mar 2019)

Pumpkin the robot said:


> I went over to an engineering company opposite us today to see if I could scrounge some aluminium plate. I saw an engine that looked familiar to me. It is one I machined from solid aluminium about 9 years ago for a guy that has a dubious reputation in these parts. The engine is pretty much as I left it, none of the other work has been done. There was a V10 and a V8. Pics below show the heads I did for the V10. The inserts were laser welded in place to create the water jacket.
> The guy over the road was doing work on a bike engine for the guy that designed it all. I just told him to make sure he did not hand it over until he had cashed the cheque for the work!
> 
> 
> ...



Stunning work there, hats off to you!. Did he pay you for it?.


----------



## keithmac (10 Mar 2019)

The RD500 has turned into a bit of a "project" now!. 

Had to pull the front end out to modify a steering stop, managed to refurbish the anti dive system (no parts available). 

Got it back in one lump for a roadtest (nice and steady as it's not mine to break..).

All stripped now and panels off to painters.

Front calipers need stripping (partially seized) bit of a ball ache as it took ages to blead!.


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (10 Mar 2019)

keithmac said:


> Stunning work there, hats off to you!. Did he pay you for it?.



I got paid eventually, but I would not trust him as far as I coulf throw him! He is a very clever guy, but is trailed by failed projects. He blames everyone else, but there is one common denominator in it all! 



keithmac said:


> The RD500 has turned into a bit of a "project" now!.
> 
> Had to pull the front end out to modify a steering stop, managed to refurbish the anti dive system (no parts available).
> 
> ...



I did some work for a friend of mine on an RZ500 track bike he was building. He was converting the cylinders to use RGV250 barrels as they had better porting and sorted the problem of one of the cylinders overheating. The cases needed machining, and some plates machined to put it all together. The bike is still being built 10 years later, but it is a very special bike.


----------



## keithmac (10 Mar 2019)

Pumpkin the robot said:


> I got paid eventually, but I would not trust him as far as I coulf throw him! He is a very clever guy, but is trailed by failed projects. He blames everyone else, but there is one common denominator in it all!
> 
> 
> 
> I did some work for a friend of mine on an RZ500 track bike he was building. He was converting the cylinders to use RGV250 barrels as they had better porting and sorted the problem of one of the cylinders overheating. The cases needed machining, and some plates machined to put it all together. The bike is still being built 10 years later, but it is a very special bike.



Sounds like a very in depth project there. Not had a lot to do with the RD/RZ500's but this one is for road not track and the engine appears in good order.

Looks an interesting design.


----------



## Pumpkin the robot (10 Mar 2019)

A proper v4 2 stroke, unlike the square four rg500 that everyone likes to use for their 500 2 stroke reps. It reminds me I need to drag my 2 strokes out and get them built and ridden, instead of walking past them each time I go into the garage!


----------



## PeteXXX (1 May 2019)

Waiting...... For quite a while!


----------



## PeteXXX (1 May 2019)

Still waiting.....


----------



## Hicky (1 May 2019)

Servicing diffusion pumps, clearly the one on the right isn’t in good shape. The manufacturer doesn’t offer repair so tomorrow I’ll be trying to spot weld if I can’t find a firm in Mcr with more experience than me to do it.


----------



## Zipp2001 (2 May 2019)

Putting together some sales samples.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (2 May 2019)

Demonstrating using wooden nails instead of hand-driven metal dowels in gate manufacture.


----------



## Zipp2001 (5 Jun 2019)




----------



## Zipp2001 (5 Jun 2019)

In the final design stages of a rough sculpt for a stocking holder for one of our customers. Hoping to get them to sign off and get it over the Master Sculptor and into product real soon. 

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RzunydemvE


----------



## slowmotion (6 Jun 2019)

I finally managed to edit out the daft blank areas of a PDF page



.

Thank you PDFescape.com


----------



## Biff600 (6 Jun 2019)

Inspection time yesterday, right to the top. Nice view too


----------



## gbb (11 Jun 2019)

From the relative excitement and interest of a start of a major overhaul of a bagging machine, I've posted pics of it before....new shafts, linear bearings, lots of grease removing and cleaning g, various re routing of cables...circa 5 hours work and maybe £700 in parts...work to continue soon with new transmission belts etc....
To this.....




Toilets blocked again....give it a good plunge....sorted 
Theres no job I wont do....


----------



## gbb (12 Jun 2019)

Part 2 of a overhaul on a bagger, new vertical carriage drive belts, each 30mm wide, around 1.5 mtr long.












Around 90 minutes work, access to the back belt meant getting squeezed in the machine is neccessary, This one was a breeze to tension up, the older machines have a bottom sprocket assembly with both sprocket fixed which makes equal tension almost impossible due to any variation in belt lengths, this one has independent sprockets.




Replace any of the relays that are operating IRO 30k times a day...just to reduce the probability of later failures and downtime.
With yesterdays parts, cost around £1k in spares.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (19 Jun 2019)

Working with students of Heriot Watt University as they develop an innovative, solar powered house to be showcased at World Expo 2020. Some very bright people.


----------



## Biff600 (19 Jun 2019)

Today, I was mostly overseeing a hoist dismantle in London, I'll be back on Friday to close it out and another couple of site visits.


----------



## gbb (22 Jun 2019)

Biff600 said:


> Today, I was mostly overseeing a hoist dismantle in London, I'll be back on Friday to close it out and another couple of site visits.
> 
> View attachment 471530
> 
> ...


Do you have a base on Alconbury airfield ?...I think I see their equipment quite regularly.


----------



## Biff600 (22 Jun 2019)

gbb said:


> Do you have a base on Alconbury airfield ?...I think I see their equipment quite regularly.



No, we hired the crane in for a specific job


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (24 Jun 2019)

Using wooden nails fired through a gun to make NLT - Nail Laminated Timber. Entire walls of houses can be made this way and, because the nails are wooden, you can run a saw or a router through them with no damage. Early days but I'm working really hard with the Green Building Council people and others to construct an entire house using wooden nails instead of galvanised iron nails manufactured at huge energy and environmental costs in places like China and Mexico.


View: https://youtu.be/LLKGpFoga6I


----------



## Heigue'r (24 Jun 2019)

Diogenes said:


> Using wooden nails fired through a gun to make NLT - Nail Laminated Timber. Entire walls of houses can be made this way and, because the nails are wooden, you can run a saw or a router through them with no damage. Early days but I'm working really hard with the Green Building Council people and others to construct an entire house using wooden nails instead of galvanised iron nails manufactured at huge energy and environmental costs in places like China and Mexico.
> 
> 
> View: https://youtu.be/LLKGpFoga6I




Have any refused to go in?The protection around the nailer head looks interesting.

I spent the day shooting galvanised iron nails into 45mmx25mm lengths of merati,looks good but no pic,not a bad day to be building fences


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (24 Jun 2019)

Heigue'r said:


> Have any refused to go in?The protection around the nailer head looks interesting.
> 
> I spent the day shooting galvanised iron nails into 45mmx25mm lengths of merati,looks good but no pic,not a bad day to be building fences



Very small fences 

The plastic guard is usually the first thing removed because it gets glazed and covered in oil/sawdust but this is a newish gun used in pristine surroundings. You'll notice one nail smashed the top 5mm (that's why I had to take the gun out of picture to check no splinters in the feed).


----------



## gbb (28 Jun 2019)

During last weeks overhaul I changed both heater looms, both flex a lot in operation so a preventative measure. Trouble is the existing cable markers were in poor condition or gone so I had 12 cables to 6 separate heaters to work out. I thought I'd got it right butthe OP told me today somethings wrong so its refer back to the wiring diagrams, ID exactly which cables go to which heater then physically check what I'd done...and yes, I'd got two slightly wrong. No harm, it just meant they had to select the wrong heater on the control screen to adjust the settings.









Plus one diagram which gave the the cable IDs and which heater they went to...




Oops, upside down...
Cable connections to heater plugs, 2 pairs of brackets, 3 heaters connected to each.




Spare loom before fitting...





All corrected in 20 minutes, that's the trouble with trying to do everything in a rush, lesson learned, slow down.


Also had to convert the Spanish diagrams to English to u understand what Asa , Fondo and Superior meant before I started, this relates to each heater set, Handle, Bottom and Top. The wonders of the internet.


----------



## gbb (24 Jul 2019)

Should probably be in mundane news but this last week or so has seen very few breakdowns so I used the time to review the chemicals cosh files and create new cosh assessments for all of them ( around 60 of them, each assessment taking maybe 30 mins)




That's a M&S rose navel (aka cara cara oranges I think) i was furtively trying...very nice and sweet.
All assessments done barring inclusion of their relevant CHIP hazard symbols...working with a basic version of Adobe so I have to upload each one to the internet, edit to include the symbols then move the downloaded result back to it's original file...all quite laborious.


----------



## Biff600 (24 Jul 2019)

gbb said:


> Should probably be in mundane news but this last week or so has seen very few breakdowns so I used the time to review the chemicals cosh files and create new cosh assessments for all of them ( around 60 of them, each assessment taking maybe 30 mins)
> 
> That's a M&S rose navel (aka cara cara oranges I think) i was furtively trying...very nice and sweet.
> All assessments done barring inclusion of their relevant CHIP hazard symbols...working with a basic version of Adobe so I have to upload each one to the internet, edit to include the symbols then move the downloaded result back to it's original file...all quite laborious.



No CAS numbers, WEL's, hazardous constituents, risk or safety phrases ?


----------



## gbb (24 Jul 2019)

Biff600 said:


> No CAS numbers, WEL's, hazardous constituents, risk or safety phrases ?


Not necessary apparently. The assessment is effectively just a short form of the Coshh sheet, very basic user information, basic risks to the user, treatment, spillage instructions, environmental considerations etc...just very basic stuff the end user should know. Its attached to the full coshh sheet so further info is available. For my money there should be something on the template that instructs the user to view the full data if there is any doubt etc.
WELs etc, for Instance, we cant measure on the job so we wouldn't know what levels we were actually achieving so common sense has to prevail.
99 % of our usage is occasional and modest. I can kinda see the point of a short form assessment with very basic info...but it's all contained, and heaps more, in the full coshh sheet anyway, within the same file.


----------



## gbb (9 Oct 2019)

Sinclair label applicator, the type that puts those little oval labels on your apples and oranges..the carriages wont respond and park themselves according to the program. 
Open cabinet...first thing I see is two components showing fault...





But then realise they're not in use, no wires connected out the bottom.
Various visual checks, reset trips, reboot etc etc, phone the suppliers, further checks draw a blank. 
Low voltage side...just visual checks, loose wires, connectors, resets etc.. no joy.






Go back to it just to have a deeper look for damaged wires...anything really, took a side panel off the machine itself and saw the top rear plug had pulled itself out...haha, reconnected, 





Bad design really, those cables are pulling the plug downwards.
I'm a time served (not qualified) mechanic with very basic 3 phase experience. My dad who used to work on Vulcans used to say of such problems...you always fear the worst...but it's usually the simplest things that cause problems. How true.


----------



## Jenkins (9 Oct 2019)

Examining Christmas tat!


----------



## gbb (9 Dec 2019)

After a week off, first day back, immediately into an electric motor that failed on nights.
100.1 ratio gearbox I don't have so swapped the motor o ly and hope the gearbox is ok..















Terminals swapped for inverter use, not changed at point of taking photo.
Nice straightforward job, motor started in reverse, swapped 2 of the 3 cables, job done, now running correctly.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (24 Feb 2020)

Playing with toys


View: https://youtu.be/8Ap5h-rDhoc


----------



## Captain Sensible (24 Feb 2020)

Swotting up before the next check ride


----------



## keithmac (25 Feb 2020)

LML 125 engine strip, bloody horrible thing it is to work on too!..


----------



## Gunk (25 Feb 2020)

keithmac said:


> LML 125 engine strip, bloody horrible thing it is to work on too!..
> View attachment 505955
> 
> 
> View attachment 505956



Now that is a proper days graft you lucky devil. What’s the saying? Do something you love and you’ll never do a days work ever again!


----------



## Gunk (25 Feb 2020)

jayonabike said:


> Feet up, lunch break
> 
> View attachment 338087



You’ve got the right idea, I’m having a well earned coffee break, I’ve been off 3 days and came back to 93 fricking emails 😮 and no time to deal with them properly, now out all day dealing with crap.


----------



## keithmac (25 Feb 2020)

Gunk said:


> Now that is a proper days graft you lucky devil. What’s the saying? Do something you love and you’ll never do a days work ever again!



Living the dream as they say!.


----------



## Zipp2001 (28 Feb 2020)

Quick visit to the summer car to let her purr for a bit while in winter storage.


----------



## keithmac (29 Feb 2020)

Zipp2001 said:


> View attachment 506364
> 
> Quick visit to the summer car to let her purr for a bit while in winter storage.



Can't beat a bit of Jap!, mine lives outside unfortunately. Needs some TLC when weather warms up a bit..


----------



## Gunk (29 Feb 2020)

I’d rather have the red P6 in the background


----------



## RoubaixCube (29 Feb 2020)

I see we got some mechanics on the forums! Any of you got experience with BMWs?


----------



## keithmac (1 Mar 2020)

RoubaixCube said:


> I see we got some mechanics on the forums! Any of you got experience with BMWs?



Worked on plenty of BMW motorcycles, no cars though.


----------



## keithmac (4 Mar 2020)

Ducati belt service in today, they like using sprockets out of the parts bin..

This was timed up at TDC crank pully marker, mine are the White markings, just look where the factory dot marks are (Yellow Dots)..

If you just steamed in and pulled the belts off without checking you'd be in a real mess..

Anyway all good and runs like a dream.


----------



## Gunk (4 Mar 2020)

keithmac said:


> Ducati belt service in today, they like using sprockets out of the parts bin..
> 
> This was timed up at TDC crank pully marker, mine are the White markings, just look where the factory dot marks are (Yellow Dots)..
> 
> ...



I’ve done a couple of belts on my old 600SS, not quite as tricky as everyone likes to point out.


----------



## Randombiker9 (4 Mar 2020)

Well I did my work as a receptionist yesterday obviously I can’t post that due to data protection (people’s details) and children etc...

today I was volunteering at a local animal park don’t have pictures of the enclosures but got pictures of the animals I was cleaning out lol


----------



## itboffin (4 Mar 2020)

one of my customers ignored or missed their email warning alerts for something very basic which resulted in two service outages for them, so i'm not in support but do have a technical role and i know real people dont sit around watching their emails especially at the weekend. Plus email is frankly evil.

Anyway I knocked out a quick and simple messaging alert solution, sends them slack or teams notifications which pops up on their phone apps if they're out of the office, free and teeny tiny overhead to run.

Not my job but satisfying nonetheless, now back to real work.


----------



## Zipp2001 (5 Mar 2020)

Playing around with a new product design ideas, just having fun.


----------



## Landsurfer (5 Mar 2020)

Testing one of our Traction and Braking Sanders before fitting to a Class 323 train.
Thats Dave .. one of my fitters .....


----------



## presta (5 Mar 2020)

I'm retired, but being as cameras were prohibited, you wouldn't have seen my work anyway.


----------



## derrick (5 Mar 2020)

Today i am working on finishing this beer before i order the next one.😁


----------



## Gunk (5 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> Today i am working on finishing this beer before i order the next one.😁
> View attachment 507150



That’s my kind of work, I’m going to have a couple tonight, I feel I’ve earned it.


----------



## keithmac (5 Mar 2020)

Tried some new detergent/ cleaning solution in the Utrasound bath today.

Pics don't really do it justice, the carbs were minging when they went in!.

Before..






After..


----------



## keithmac (8 Mar 2020)

I had a lovely Saturday afternoon, 14mm steel spindle seized solid into a swingarm (how do I get legged into these!). Need it out to replace center spacer (acts as inner face for needle bearings) and bearings which were rotten.

Only option on RHS was to cut it with reciprocating saw, which took ages as it kept blunting the blades..

LHS was a grind and drill job, without damaging the frame. Did the last bit with a die grinder.

Probably took 2 hours total, now the spindle is obsolete so I'll have to spend ages finding a suitable replacement.

2004 bike so really it should of just knocked out!, for the want of some coppa slip at the factory when it was built..


----------



## Gunk (8 Mar 2020)

Wow, that’s had a hard life.


----------



## Zipp2001 (17 Mar 2020)

Slow time of year at work for me, so spending more time throwing product ideas against the wall.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4it_0Yf5DpU


----------



## Heigue'r (20 May 2020)

I wanted to get a new kitchen block for prepping food.I had a few offcuts of pine at work so gave a go at making one instead.I didn't have any clamps to hand so had to do with an agricultural wedge on the glueups,this made lining up the second glueup really difficult as everytime you knocked the wedge to squeeze the workpiece,it knocked everything out of line.Also my electric sander appears to have walked off site on its own so I had to sand everything by hand.Not the best results but not bad either considering the lack of proper clamps etc.

Timber ripped to 44 x 44mm and glued,tidied up with a hand planer after glueup






Tiber laid out ready for second glueup,everytime I knocked the wedge,everything went out of line






Router sled to get everything in to one plane/level





Routered the top and bottom of the board





After hours of sanding,I added two slots so the board is easy to lift out of the way,I slighty rounded over the bottom lip to stop the endgrain from splitting away,I also rounded over the top wit a slightly more pronounced curve.





I wet the board to raise the endgrain on the surface both top and bottom and sanded again for approx an hour with 120 grit.






All thats left to do is give it a couple of coats of oil.
Ive got some nice oak at home,I think I'll have another go with that and use clamps as it easier to keep everything where you want it and also,I would think easier to get the pressure where you need it for glue up...happy enough with the first attempt though...


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (20 May 2020)

Work!
You lucky, lucky b@@@@@@@


----------



## keithmac (20 May 2020)

We've worked right through, could do with a week off..


----------



## mudsticks (20 May 2020)

keithmac said:


> We've worked right through, could do with a week off..



Likewise.. 
I uncharacteristically (for me and the time of year) sneaked a week off work to go cycling in Cornwall, just before lockdown. 

Haven't had two consecutive days off since, been busier than ever really. 

Hopefully calming down a bit soon. 

Would normally go to Scotland, this weekend coming for ten days walking. Not this year 

Still, work isn't too awful.. 






Started lifting the first of the tunnel carrots today.. They smell soooo good


----------



## Heigue'r (20 May 2020)

Joey Shabadoo said:


> Work!
> You lucky, lucky b@@@@@@@


First week back since the lockdown announcement.


----------



## keithmac (24 May 2020)

Had a few V-Twins in recently.

Yellow VTR had been stood up for 15 years!, quite a bit of work to get it back up and running but customer was chuffed to bits (owned it since new)

Blue one was very odd, poor runner. Took carbs off etc and checked ignition. Ended up tearing it down to check cam timing and front was over 360 crank degrees out of phase (god knows how it ran). Cams out, timed up and all good.

TL had been sat for 4 years, service/ battery and some fettling and all good. Surprisingly nice to ride!.

Got 2 a Ducati Monster and a Multistrada in next week to keep the run on the twins going!.


----------



## keithmac (27 May 2020)

Another rarity today, VFR800 32,000 mile service and it actually needed re-shimming!. Would have put good money on them still being in spec..


----------



## keithmac (28 May 2020)

The VFR800 snowballed a bit today, rear cylinder head needed re-shimming as well and ended up cutting the exhaust off (for a full stainless replacement).

Customer wants it done right and is prepared to pay so I'm happy to sort it all out for him, nice to get stuck in and sort it all out properly!.


----------



## keithmac (28 May 2020)




----------



## Gunk (28 May 2020)

That’s had it


----------



## keithmac (29 May 2020)

I did mention trying to remove it and replace parts but had to cut it off in the end. Front pipes/ collector box and rear downpipes are all one unit from Honda.

The pipe in the picture is obsolete as well, can't order a Honda one.


----------



## keithmac (30 May 2020)

Ducati in for a starter motor today, "interesting" design, more like an afterthought!.

Lovely customer so made it a more palatable job..


----------



## Gunk (30 May 2020)

Looks like a Multistroodle


----------



## keithmac (30 May 2020)

Gunk said:


> Looks like a Multistroodle



Yep 1100 Multistrada 👍


----------



## Gunk (30 May 2020)

They’re a really nice bike, bit tall for me sadly


----------



## keithmac (30 May 2020)

Same here, Africa Twins etc as well I struggle to get my leg over (ho ho).

Nice bike though as you say, Ohlins suspension etc.


----------



## SGG on a bike (30 May 2020)

keithmac said:


> Ducati in for a starter motor today, "interesting" design, more like an afterthought!.
> 
> Lovely customer so made it a more palatable job..
> 
> View attachment 526252


Must be an Italian thing. The starter on my Maserati is in the "V" of the V8, nicely hidden under the Plenum chamber and a water manifold with eighth outlets. It's a twelve hour job to change it! I do have a soft spot for those Ducatis though, despite being a Guzzi owner with the ditch pump the other way round.


----------



## ozboz (30 May 2020)

Mugshot said:


> That's a patio??!!??
> Anyway, I'm waiting for some customers to come in the shop
> View attachment 338080



That’s interesting , I’m a Tiler , is that one of the National companies like CTD or a private enterprise ,?


----------



## keithmac (30 May 2020)

SGG on a bike said:


> Must be an Italian thing. The starter on my Maserati is in the "V" of the V8, nicely hidden under the Plenum chamber and a water manifold with eighth outlets. It's a twelve hour job to change it! I do have a soft spot for those Ducatis though, despite being a Guzzi owner with the ditch pump the other way round.



Sounds about right!.

The Italians don't like visible fairing fasteners either, I've spent 3 hours taking panels off where it would have been 1/2 and hour for the sake of a couple of fasteners!.

They do like to make things more complicated than they have to be it seems.


----------



## SGG on a bike (30 May 2020)

It does seem to be an Italian theme. You can't do any job on the maser without having to remove at least three things first. Even a headlight bulb change is about an hour and that's if you know what you're doing. We've had a few Alfas over the years too and they were just as bad. I think they're all a little eccentric in their own way, but that's what gives them character and makes them endearing.


----------



## SGG on a bike (30 May 2020)

My V11...


----------



## Mugshot (30 May 2020)

ozboz said:


> That’s interesting , I’m a Tiler , is that one of the National companies like CTD or a private enterprise ,?


Just me, myself and I @ozboz


----------



## ozboz (30 May 2020)

Mugshot said:


> Just me, myself and I @ozboz



Looks a tidy showroom with a good selection of Tiles ! Hopefully things will get better soon, I’ve drifted away from site and shopfitting, but the domestic side has gone a bit quiet , I have begun to get out of fixing , I’ve been at it since ‘73 , I am present in abeyance after applying to some of the of the leading training and assessing organisations for our trade . Lots of reading the BS stuff , 
they do have some incredible names for Tubbed ready mixed addy ! and other stuff


----------



## Mugshot (30 May 2020)

ozboz said:


> Looks a tidy showroom with a good selection of Tiles ! Hopefully things will get better soon, I’ve drifted away from site and shopfitting, but the domestic side has gone a bit quiet , I have begun to get out of fixing , I’ve been at it since ‘73 , I am present in abeyance after applying to some of the of the leading training and assessing organisations for our trade . Lots of reading the BS stuff ,
> they do have some incredible names for Tubbed ready mixed addy ! and other stuff


Thank you, yeah I do a mammoth selection of tiles alongside the bathrooms and kitchens. We'll see how things get on when we open up again, that picture is from three years ago. 
Not surprised you're starting to get out of it if you started in '73! How are your knees doing?


----------



## keithmac (4 Jun 2020)

Well welding torch out for two snapped studs and a 9 piece exhaust with no instructions later we have a nice shiny stainless exhaust fitted..

Managed to salvage his old silencer, saved £100 ish and a bit quieter to boot.


----------



## GetFatty (4 Jun 2020)

I'm spending all day interviewing for service managers. Same as yesterday. Tomorrow is doing all the things I should have been doing yesterday and today. I'm going through all this again next Weds and Thurs.


----------



## ozboz (9 Jun 2020)

Mugshot said:


> Thank you, yeah I do a mammoth selection of tiles alongside the bathrooms and kitchens. We'll see how things get on when we open up again, that picture is from three years ago.
> Not surprised you're starting to get out of it if you started in '73! How are your knees doing?



Sorry for late response I’ve only just seen your reply ! , the knees are pretty good tbh ! I get a slight pain in my left knee when I’m riding sometimes though , you do the whole caboodle then , complete bathroom and kitchens , it will be interesting to see how it all goes , I am based in London now , lots of site work but I can’t do the travelling on the Tube , and the sites are all agency I can’t do with them either , where are you based ? I have been doing for small builders and domestic stuff for year now , it’s ok but money is tight on those jobs, everyone trying it on , The Covid has put a bit of a stop on the assessor and training as the Colleges are shut ,


----------



## keithmac (9 Jun 2020)

On with another Multistrada today, front exhaust blowing/ belts and service.

Exhaust nuts rotted down to stubs, managed to salvage one stud but had to get the acetylene torch out and remove the other. Luckily it came out eventually without snapping!.

Got the air filter to do in the morning which is most of bike to bits, lovely!.


----------



## Profpointy (9 Jun 2020)

Gunk said:


> I’d rather have the red P6 in the background



I spotted that too; aren't we a right pair of geeks?


----------



## CharlesF (9 Jun 2020)

keithmac said:


> On with another Multistrada today, front exhaust blowing/ belts and service.
> 
> Exhaust nuts rotted down to stubs, managed to salvage one stud but had to get the acetylene torch out and remove the other. Luckily it came out eventually without snapping!.
> 
> Got the air filter to do in the morning which is most of bike to bits, lovely!.



I would love to see the “after” when you have replaced the studs and putting things together again!


----------



## keithmac (11 Jun 2020)

CharlesF said:


> I would love to see the “after” when you have replaced the studs and putting things together again!



I was going to take a picture this morning but he's picked it up already.

Did a Royal Enfield Interceptor 1st service today amongst other things.

They've stepped up a notch again with build quality, very nicely made and finished.

Valve clearances needed adjusting, needs Fully Synthetic oil as well (put Motul 300v 10w50 in which isn't cheap!).

Managed to adjust valves without completely removing cover so less labour charge (good to know).

Roadtest in the morning!.


----------



## Gunk (11 Jun 2020)

They’re amazing value for money, a really nice motorcycle


----------



## keithmac (12 Jun 2020)

Miserable rainy morning but the RE road really well, cracking bike for the money!.


----------



## ozboz (12 Jun 2020)

keithmac said:


> I was going to take a picture this morning but he's picked it up already.
> 
> Did a Royal Enfield Interceptor 1st service today amongst other things.
> 
> ...



is that an English built bike ?


----------



## keithmac (12 Jun 2020)

ozboz said:


> is that an English built bike ?



Designed in England, built in their plant in India I believe.

All the castings and welding looked very well done, could see myself on one to be honest!.


----------



## keithmac (13 Jun 2020)

Blast from the past today!, we used to import 400's from Japan years ago, cut my teeth on VFR400 NC30's/ ZXR400's/ FZR400's/ GSXR 400's etc.

NC29 CBR400rr Gullarm in for some work over past couple of days, forgot what a nice bike they were to ride!.

30,000km and still going strong.





Indian Scout in as well, have to work out if we can talk to his ABS computer next week at some point..


----------



## gbb (20 Aug 2020)

Daumar citrus bagging machine, similar to this...

View: https://youtu.be/Y_9XHyCLMzY

It alarmed a heater or probe (thermocouple) problem. Its quite new to us so eventually narrowed it down to one of 8 heater elements. All very confined and difficult to access.
New heater wired in, probably 1.5 hours work.




Element is within the jaws, connections visible top left.














Neccessary to release the opposite jaw assembly to get access to its opposite number. All in all a pig of a job but the kind of job I like. Knees are really sore, the only way to get to everything, really must look after them


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (20 Aug 2020)

A factory near West Auckland yesterday where the owner had bought a second hand framing station. Couldn't get the tools mounted.





Had a look inside










Told him we could engineer brackets for him but the cost would be £3k each (there's two and he'd need another two as spares as they're handed). Wasn't too impressed. The station is £60k new, he bought it for £20k and has spent over £10k transporting it and getting engineers in to install it. There's no guarantee it will ever work properly. Money pit.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (18 Sep 2020)

Trying out wooden nails in coffin manufacture


----------



## CharlesF (18 Sep 2020)

Joey Shabadoo said:


> Trying out wooden nails in coffin manufacture
> 
> 
> View attachment 547723
> ...


Love the shape and I would definitely have the Smarties, if I was getting buried!


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (18 Sep 2020)

There's one like a tube of Rolos too.

The idea is that using wooden nails makes the coffin 100% biodegradeable.


----------



## CharlesF (18 Sep 2020)

Definitely Smarties, I spoil my granddaughters with them, much to their mother’s horror.


----------



## keithmac (2 Oct 2020)

Did an engine rebuild on a KTM Duke 125 today, 10,000 miles. (Been waiting a month for bits!).

Really small noise from the engine, I said we can strip it but can't guarantee to find anything.

Even down to just rotating the crank in the cases by hand there was just a miniscule rough spot at TDC, no play in crank at all.

Cannot believe how quiet it was and how there wasn't any more damage, just LHS main bearing cage absolute shot.

Had one in before that sounded worse, told customer we needed to strip engine but he carried on regardless, 30 miles later it was bin fodder.

So seems a common theme on these engines..


----------



## keithmac (29 Oct 2020)

Treated myself today, 3/8th Techangle torque wrench. Torque and gyroscopic angle tightening.

5ftlb to 125ftlb 2% accuracy.

Been looking at one for a while and thought sod it, why not!.


----------



## Jenkins (9 Nov 2020)

Looking at titanium Brompton forks. Loads of them


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (9 Nov 2020)

Working from home


----------



## Randomnerd (15 Nov 2020)

Rounded corner right on the roadside. Luckily very little traffic but still unable to cover the road in stone. Lots of wheelbarrow action on this one.


----------



## gbb (16 Nov 2020)

keithmac said:


> Did an engine rebuild on a KTM Duke 125 today, 10,000 miles. (Been waiting a month for bits!).
> 
> Really small noise from the engine, I said we can strip it but can't guarantee to find anything.
> 
> ...


SKF bearings as well , not even as though they have cheap ones in.


----------



## Tripster (16 Nov 2020)

Laser














Aligning a Gas turbine and compressor casing


----------



## keithmac (16 Nov 2020)

gbb said:


> SKF bearings as well , not even as though they have cheap ones in.



Yeh we only stock SKF and Koyo as they are top quality bearings, odd how 2 engines have had the same failure.

Rest of the bearings in this engine were still perfect..


----------



## palinurus (26 Nov 2020)

Most of today I doing some routine measurements plus some emailing and a crappy teleconference. I did have a bit of tinkering to do for the first couple of hours though.

Had some X-ray work to do, having a look at some voiding in solder joints. The machine was playing up though, really poor image quality. Had to take it apart to check the filament.

It's not a difficult job- easier than changing the grill element in an domestic oven (I had to do that recently, and I had a YouTube video to help me)






It's in here, it's an open-tube type instrument so the filament is inside there and there's a high vacuum to protect it. First thing is to turn off the vacuum and allow air into the chamber.

Then the top can be flipped over to reveal the filament holder thingy.






Then the old filament is pulled out and all this stuff cleaned up. I went a bit too hard with the cotton bud.






New filament just plugs in, easier than a spotlight bulb.






The tricky bit is getting the filament properly aligned in this cone thing, it's got to be just right so the tip is just visible, and dead centre. Was lucky, pretty much in the right place first off (although looking at the photo I wonder if it isn't sticking up a bit too much?)






Then stick it all back together, give the beryllium target a little twist, get the gun evacuated and run some calibrations. Was back in use in a couple of hours.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (26 Nov 2020)

And did Bond talk or die?


----------



## palinurus (9 Dec 2020)

Had to use the Geiger counter yesterday (it was my turn to do the radiological checks on the X-ray machine while someone else stood around and witnessed it and countersigned the documents). It's just like the ones you see in b-movies- it clicks every now and then and- I presume- it would click a lot if you pointed it at a crashed UFO, or an 160kV x-ray machine with compromised shielding.

The rest of the day I was at my desk putting some soldering trial results into Powerpoint (I dislike it but results are almost always shared using Powerpoint even though a regular Word document would be a better format)


----------



## Scoosh (9 Dec 2020)

@palinurus - did you make it click ???


----------



## palinurus (9 Dec 2020)

Scoosh said:


> @palinurus - did you make it click ???



Not substantially. It clicks normally, and randomly, due to background radiation. The reading stayed around 0.1 micro Sieverts/ hr at the bottom of the scale and normal for background radiation (taking a flight will give a dose in the order of 5-10 micro Sieverts/ hr)


----------



## PeteXXX (9 Dec 2020)

First job ob the day.. Retrieve a broken down driver and his trailer, leaving his truck to be towed away.

(BTW, it wasn't the driver that was broken down, only his vehicle!)


----------



## gbb (10 Dec 2020)

New, old, machine, learning it as we go...

View: https://youtu.be/0ozZuRqgwok

Not ours in the video, just a promo. Ours has a label printer thats been problematic, so not sure if its mechanical or settings or electronics. It runs a bit then stalls, motor running but it can't overcome some friction somewhere.(thats how it seeks to me)









A motor drives the ribbon reel at the bottom, the reel at the top is free running.





There's loads of settings all accessible by this simple 5 button pad, took ages to navigate my way through it all, frequently getting lost.

Photo below....The green discs on the upper and lower rollers are clutches. The free running roller one had a higher setting than the bottom drive one so the drive couldn't overcome the top, hence frequent stalls/ jams.




No idea how, someone has struggled with it. Tomorrow will tell us if we are going to struggle too...or whether I fixed it by making the drive clutch stronger than the driven one.


----------



## gbb (12 Dec 2020)

gbb said:


> View attachment 562776
> 
> N


The saga continues. It's been running ok'ish but after one days running, the belt you can see at 10 o'clock snapped. It snakes it's way around about 10 pulleys, you have to take the motors off to get access, unplug various bits, it's as fiddly as heck.
While refitting a new belt over the belt sprocket at 10 oclock...the bearing has gone, you can waggle the sprocket around. So that's maybe where the jamming is occuring ?
Problem is, the parts drawing doesn't show any bearings. It's either part of the shaft to the sprocket...or integral or supplied with the entire chassis side plate, which will be incredibly expensive (based on the prices I've been quoted for normal spares and has a lengthy lead time from Germany.
New belt fitted and it's on a wing and a prayer until the story plays out from the suppliers.


----------



## shep (12 Dec 2020)

Took some antenna's off.


----------



## shep (12 Dec 2020)

Office day, Rigger stylee!


----------



## Julia9054 (12 Dec 2020)

Waiting for my self isolating online year 8 class to turn up.


----------



## keithmac (12 Dec 2020)

shep said:


> View attachment 563063
> 
> 
> Took some antenna's off.



I've seen some headcam videos of similar jobs and hats off to all who do that kind of work!. I'd be glued to the mast unable to move!.


----------



## keithmac (12 Dec 2020)

Julia9054 said:


> Waiting for my self isolating online year 8 class to turn up.
> View attachment 563066



My lad was off for 2 weeks, they just emailed him lessons or used Google Classrooms.

Nice to see you are still visible to your pupils.


----------



## shep (12 Dec 2020)

keithmac said:


> I've seen some headcam videos of similar jobs and hats off to all who do that kind of work!. I'd be glued to the mast unable to move!.


It's safe enough, just a bit cold at times.


----------



## shep (12 Dec 2020)

Here's another, the orange 'dot' is a bloke.


----------



## keithmac (12 Dec 2020)

Bit of an odd week, lighting kits on 700cc Quads (full loom front to back) to Harley Davidsons!.

Green laning was a bit late to kick off but spent a day sorting out a KTM 400 along with a few others.


----------



## shep (12 Dec 2020)

Had a couple of Enduro bikes in the past Yam WR400 and a EXC 200, always used to joke about KTM,s that it stood for 'Kost Too Much' as everything was so expensive,


----------



## Julia9054 (12 Dec 2020)

keithmac said:


> My lad was off for 2 weeks, they just emailed him lessons or used Google Classrooms.
> 
> Nice to see you are still visible to your pupils.


We are an iPad school so it's easy for us. Every pupil has an iPad and we were used to using lots of the software before the pandemic. Most schools use Google classroom as access to computers/tablets or even wifi is patchy amongst pupils


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (9 Feb 2021)

Not work really, playing around


View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Blacksmith/comments/lg2sa1/forging_in_the_snow/


----------



## Zipp2001 (18 Mar 2021)

Checking in on the assembly department to see how a large sunflower ornament order is going. I have a 225 piece sunflower order come in the other day and I need it out by Monday.


----------



## Zipp2001 (23 Mar 2021)

My car spends winter across the street from our shop, so it was time to take her out. The biggggggggg white Cadillac was also being taken out today.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (14 May 2021)

Visiting the new Brewdog water filtration ponds being built in Ellon this morning. That's a LOT of rebar and concrete which won't do much for their environmental credentials.









3 huge ponds to be built. Apparently local groundwater goes into the first pond then in a painstaking process over a period of days using reed beds and sand, it's turned into piss which is then bottled! Marvellous!


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (5 Nov 2021)

At a conference as part of COP26. Looks dull, but this lady is from the Dept of Education and they're pushing for all schools to be built sustainably and out of wood basically. I'm dead chuffed that one of the products I champion may bein every new UK school soon.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (16 Nov 2021)

I like getting paid to blether


----------



## Zipp2001 (23 Nov 2021)

My latest project bike joined me at work today.


----------



## keithmac (2 Dec 2021)

Finished the Lambretta LI 150 this morning, electrics and a leaking gearbox output shaft seal.

Been an interesting journey as I've not worked on many, it's got a new 12v generator and electronic ignition conversion, runs sweet as a nut!.

Lovely customer, just wanted it done properly which makes life a lot easier for me.


----------



## PeteXXX (11 Dec 2021)

Eating free cake and drinking coffee while the chaps clear enough room in the warehouse to tip my trailer... 👍


----------



## gbb (15 Dec 2021)

keithmac said:


> Finished the Lambretta LI 150 this morning, electrics and a leaking gearbox output shaft seal.
> 
> Been an interesting journey as I've not worked on many, it's got a new 12v generator and electronic ignition conversion, runs sweet as a nut!.
> 
> ...


Trouble is, wanting it done properly...costs.
Colleague has something like a late 1950s, 1960 Lambretta, cost him far more than its worth to bring it up to good reliable spec, but he wants it right.
Equally, a former colleague had the rear wheel fall off after he had done some DIY engine work, not a matter of being tight, rather cant afford to pay others to do it for him (and do it right it seems )


----------



## keithmac (15 Dec 2021)

I've lost count of jobs that have cost twice as much to complete as they would have done if the owners "mate" hadn't had a go first .

Had a Thunderace once, cylinder head removed already, all the bits that were in a cardboard box had been tipped onto owners garage floor (cams/ shims/ shim buckets etc).

Took longer to clean all the parts and shim it from scratch than to fit a new headgasket and head back on..

Saying that it keeps me in a job!.


----------



## PeteXXX (31 Dec 2021)

Stationary on the M62.. Happy New Year..

Edit: No-one hurt, happily, just a very toasted van!


----------



## keithmac (7 Jan 2022)

M1200 rear cylinder head removal, 3 hrs in and haven't touched the sides yet, not really a fan of Italian bikes at the moment!.

The engine is basically the frame so I can see the majority of the bike been removed just leaving the lump on the bench.

Only 3,000 miles on it and by the look of it it's been wrong from leaving the factory.

Living the dream!.


----------



## TheDoctor (7 Jan 2022)

I do dog boarding. Charlie is going home tomorrow, but we've had him since just after Christmas.


----------



## Randomnerd (7 Jan 2022)

When I whistle, she tootles over and licks her lips!


----------



## presta (8 Jan 2022)

PeteXXX said:


> View attachment 624215
> 
> 
> Stationary on the M62.. Happy New Year..
> ...


I stood in the southbound carriageway of the A1 once watching an old MkIII Cortina burn whilst the brigade turned up to put it out. There wasn't much left of it by then. A middle aged couple on the way home from holiday said they'd already stopped at a garage because they were having electrical problems.....

I thought my Carlton was going the same way once, I was sat in the traffic on the way to work one morning when smoke started billowing out from behind the dashboard. Fortunately it stopped when I turned the ignition off. When I collected it from the garage they said they hadn't been able to find anything wrong, then when I drove off it started again 100 yards up the road. Turns out it was the heated rear window fuse melting the fuse box.


----------



## PeteXXX (8 Jan 2022)

presta said:


> I stood in the southbound carriageway of the A1 once watching an old MkIII Cortina burn whilst the brigade turned up to put it out. There wasn't much left of it by then. A middle aged couple on the way home from holiday said they'd already stopped at a garage because they were having electrical problems.....
> 
> I thought my Carlton was going the same way once, I was sat in the traffic on the way to work one morning when smoke started billowing out from behind the dashboard. Fortunately it stopped when I turned the ignition off. When I collected it from the garage they said they hadn't been able to find anything wrong, then when I drove off it started again 100 yards up the road. Turns out it was the heated rear window fuse melting the fuse box.


I would have thought that the fuse box would be one of the first places a garage checked!!


----------



## keithmac (8 Jan 2022)

Rebuilding CBR1000rr engine today with my son, to free up the "long term project" bench for the Ducati.

Nice having the boy helping, always look forward to Saturdays.

He's already fixed a none running scooter this morning.


----------



## TheDoctor (9 Jan 2022)

This weekends dog. He's a Parson Russell Terrier, a close rellie of the Jack Russell.
Not as laid back as a greyhound, it's fair to say!


----------



## keithmac (11 Jan 2022)

Well it's definitely in bits now..


----------



## Jenkins (12 Jan 2022)

Looking for a non-existant RoRo vessel that the Port computer insisted was on berth!


----------



## Milkfloat (12 Jan 2022)

keithmac said:


> Well it's definitely in bits now..
> 
> View attachment 625983
> 
> ...


All that for a cylinder head - ouch. Dare I ask how much it is costing him?


----------



## ClichéGuevara (12 Jan 2022)

Wordle 207 3/6

⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (12 Jan 2022)

Surprising another joiner with the strength of my wee wooden nails -


View: https://youtu.be/Gh1VoAMSs1U


----------



## keithmac (12 Jan 2022)

Milkfloat said:


> All that for a cylinder head - ouch. Dare I ask how much it is costing him?



He's having other work done as well, probably £1k total with all parts and labour.


----------



## Spokesmann (16 Jan 2022)

keithmac said:


> Well it's definitely in bits now..
> 
> View attachment 625983
> 
> ...


What happened to the days when bikes were so much simpler? Ive had many but still have my very first, a Suzuki TS 100 ERX, been 'working on it' to get it ready for its first run out in 12 years, now tax and MOT exempt. I could take this one apart with my eyes shut...


----------



## keithmac (16 Jan 2022)

Spokesmann said:


> What happened to the days when bikes were so much simpler? Ive had many but still have my very first, a Suzuki TS 100 ERX, been 'working on it' to get it ready for its first run out in 12 years, now tax and MOT exempt. I could take this one apart with my eyes shut...



My sons Honda MT-5 is a dream to work on in comparison to modern bikes, only another year and he'll be on the road with it!.


----------



## TheDoctor (27 Jan 2022)

Ringo, a year-old Lab.


----------



## TheDoctor (6 Feb 2022)

More what I was doing a few days ago. Charlie the golden retriever, Jess the Collie / Springer cross.


----------



## keithmac (10 Feb 2022)

Resurrecting an RD350 LC over last few days. 

To be fair another lad has built it up from a frame, I've bee lumbered with wiring repairs and sorting carbs out, getting it running.


----------



## keithmac (10 Feb 2022)

71 plate Benelli TNT, wiring loom failure.. Can't be more than 5 months old?.


----------



## keithmac (10 Feb 2022)

GSXR-750 carb job, along with a set of DR750 carry out carbs (don't like doing carry outs, much prefer to set up on the bike.


----------



## keithmac (17 Feb 2022)

Another day, another Ducati..

749 in for valve clearances (which need shimming).

Apparently due to Ducati "revising" the design of the closing shim it needs to be pressed off the valve, which requires cylinder head removal (for a bloomin service operation!).


----------



## Noodle Legs (17 Feb 2022)




----------



## Joey Shabadoo (17 Feb 2022)

Noodle Legs said:


> View attachment 631499


Picture taken by one of the 33 men leaning on shovels no doubt.


----------



## Noodle Legs (17 Feb 2022)

Joey Shabadoo said:


> Picture taken by one of the 33 men leaning on shovels no doubt.


That would be me (“project manager”)


----------



## shep (18 Feb 2022)

.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (18 Feb 2022)

nope!


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (4 Mar 2022)

First exhibition since Covid hit. Pity there was a tube strike.


----------



## keithmac (29 Mar 2022)

Waved goodbye to the GSXR "Slab Side", another carb job (had a lovely ride in the sunshine!).






MT-09 major service, cams out for 4 tight clearances, bit of a mission!






Barn find AE50, got it running (carb and wiring faults), something a bit different!.











Another Ducati (Multistrada) on the bench now for valve clearances and service, lovely jubly!.


----------



## TheDoctor (31 Mar 2022)

The most recent set of dogs - Molly (brown Lab) and Monty (black Lab).
Went home a few days ago, and I'm rather missing them. Very laid-back and affectionate dogs, no trouble at all.
Didn't really get the chance to update this thread in February, as I was rushed off my feet.
Utterly chocker for the whole month.


----------



## keithmac (2 Apr 2022)

4+ hours in on a 21 plate Honda PCX (30,000 miles!), for an indicator fault and not done yet.. Taking the panels off is a joke, far too easy to break one if you're not careful (and even if you are).
















Shot myself in the foot as well today, KLZ1000 in for a normal service, turns out it's on 26,000 miles so yet another valve clearances job, probably a day's worth of work by the time it's all in bits and back together.


----------



## keithmac (5 Apr 2022)

Finally found my Indicator relay after a few more panels off!.






The LED relay is £70+ so managed to save that with some cleaning but the connector was scrap.






Made an xtended wiring loom and fitted out of harms way up near the charging port 10 mins to get to if it does need replacing rather than hours!.






Found another rotten connector while it was in bits so crimp and seal repair to that as well. Fully taped up after picture.






Been one of those jobs where you can't charge the time spent but hopefully he'll be back in for other work in the future.

Lord only knows why Honda put the relay where they did, on the parts diagram it shows it near where I've fitted it. Hey Ho!


----------



## keithmac (23 Apr 2022)

Another day another PCX.. 2019 this time.

Randomly blowing EFI fuse (back/white wires in diagram). Been to another shop who'd just replaced the fuse and sent him on his way (got a couple of days out if it..).

Needle in a haystack job, so started off with inspecting loom for chafing against frame etc and any modifications.

4hrs in (mostly removing panels without breaking anything), seat bucket etc and finally found the fault.

Ironically it was a standard loom guide that had caused the issue.


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (23 Apr 2022)

Another day, another trade show


----------



## keithmac (28 Apr 2022)

Old friend back in today, been stood after I rebuild his carbs a few years back.

New battery and fresh fuel, runs sweet as a nut!.


----------



## keithmac (1 May 2022)

Last victim of the day on Saturday, Ducati cut out while riding, no fuel pump prime.

Job for Tuesday as I'd had enough by that point!.


----------



## keithmac (3 May 2022)

Ducati had dead fuel pump relay, when repaired it was evident the pump itself was not long for this world!. 






Got roped into replacing VRF cylinder heads this afternoon. Shimmed new head with old cams on the bench, saved faffing about. Checked clearances again when head torqued down and all good.


----------



## TheDoctor (6 May 2022)

Penny is with us again for a few days, and Rosco was having a trial session before a week stay later this year.


----------



## briantrumpet (6 May 2022)

Evening work: mostly Miller in a big band concert on my nearly 90-year-old trumpet.


----------



## keithmac (8 May 2022)

Well I knew I wasn't getting away lightly with the VFR, he wants carbs stripping, seized calipers strip and rebuild and a full exhaust supply and fit along with a charging fault.

It'll be a bloomin fortune, but he still wants it all doing.


----------



## TheDoctor (10 May 2022)

Let's try that again...
Jasper the greyhound cross. One of my frequent flyers, it's his third stay with us.
He likes walks, but otherwise alternates happily between strokes and sleeping on the sofa.


----------



## Scoosh (11 May 2022)

TheDoctor said:


> He likes walks, but otherwise alternates happily *between strokes and sleeping on the sofa.*


Is he healthy otherwise ?? 
My friend Bill has had a few strokes and it has affected his memory a bit ...


----------



## TheDoctor (11 May 2022)

The dog likes to be stroked. Can I report a Mod for pedantry?


----------



## Ripple (14 May 2022)

Typical Saturday at work.


----------



## keithmac (14 May 2022)

2 VFR 800's in the same week!.

One for clock foil repair (can't buy it as a seperate part), and one for cluch slave failure after been stood.


----------



## keithmac (17 May 2022)

Another Italian none runner this afternoon, lovely jubly..


----------



## keithmac (17 May 2022)

They don't run very well on water!, must have pumped well over a litre of water out of it (plus 8 litres of fuel), then another 5l fresh fuel to wash it all out (painful!).

Luckily they've added an access point for the fuel supply line, and diagnostics can control fuel pump remotely.

Found the drain takeoff pipe from the fuel tank had a U bend in it so all the water collected in the filler cap tray was entering the tank when cap was opened for refuelling.

Triumphs have a similar fault, aluminium fittings for the drains corrode and block up then tank slowly fills with water.

Pulled all the excess pipe through and re-routed drain line (snipped excess off after.

At least it didn't turn into another wiring job!.


----------



## Andy in Germany (18 May 2022)

Opening the order of bike goodies; Mwahahahaaaaa...






We'd been waiting for it in the workshop for nearly a week. It turned out one of the clients had (quite sensibly) signed for it and shoved it in the office on the other end of the building, where the staff had kindly buried it...


----------



## Gwylan (18 May 2022)

What is this work, you speak of?


----------



## Andy in Germany (18 May 2022)

Gwylan said:


> What is this work, you speak of?



In my case it's basically messing about with bikes and other fun things, most of which I'd do for free, but don't tell my boss...


----------



## buzz22 (19 May 2022)

Put our 44m Bronto Ladder Platform and some of our crew through their paces on a gorgeous autumn day.


----------



## Andy in Germany (19 May 2022)

Okay, my only contribution to this was tidying the bike up, but still...






The coffee table was being carried into the "Pickup" bay as I left so it's already been sold...


----------



## keithmac (19 May 2022)

Got a 1998 R1 in today, been stood 10 years, same owner from brand new.

Clutch was seized together but apart from that it's in really good shape (doing a full service, all fluids changed and really it needs new tyres due to it's age).

Best bit is we sold it and more than likely I PDI'd it from brand new, a bit of history coming back, nice to see he's looked after it.


----------



## Noodle Legs (23 May 2022)

A spot of High Voltage cable jointing today….


----------



## Joey Shabadoo (23 May 2022)

Interviews via Teams. Sat in a diner with a friendly waitress refilling the coffee.


----------



## TheDoctor (4 Jun 2022)

Jess, who went home today. She's a 9 year old Springer / Border Collie cross.
Definitely on the "Dogs I'd like to keep" list.


----------



## palinurus (10 Jun 2022)

Measuring the composition of some tin-based alloys (in the original form of solder pastes)

First I melt the solder, pour off the flux and then tip the molten metal into a little round mould to give a little slug like this.






Then- to make it nice and flat and expose a fresh surface- I machine it with a lathe (it's a soft alloy so very easy to machine and the swarf doesn't give you splinters!)





Then I pop the sample face down on the spark stand of this atomic emission spectrometer (spark AES) and give it a whack with the electrode (it goes bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)- some magic happens and it displays the composition of the alloy (selected elements I'm interested in, anyway- silver, lead, bismuth, nickel, antimony, copper- several others)






Meant to have been a 15 minute job but the bismuth composition was low so a recalibration, preparation of new samples, re-testing of a known-good sample followed- took up a lot of time. Still not resolved so will pick it up again next week.


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## keithmac (17 Jun 2022)

Been mulling over buying an automotive oscilloscope for a while now (and learning how to use one properly!).

Finally bit the bullet with a Snap-on Verus Pro D10.

Was wanting a 4 channel to log cam / crank / injector and coil triggers for a start off.

Might take a while to learn but ultimately it will save time and prove 100% which component/ part is faulty which is the main aim.

Apparently these are a good robust scope and can handle 6 million samples a second (can't get my head around that personally!).


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## keithmac (20 Jul 2022)

Something a bit different, one off Royal Enfield build, been stood a few years and getting it back in the road.

Carb clean, fresh petrol, new inner tubes and a bit of wiring and it runs like a champ!.

Ignore the battery cable tied on, just for powering the ignition!.


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## keithmac (23 Jul 2022)

Had a nice ride out on the Enfield this morning, can't beat right hand gear lever and one up four down!.

1980 BMW Bobber finished (head gasket, pushrod tube seals). Lovely to work on, beats bloomin fuel injection diagnostic and wiring faults..


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## Spokesmann (30 Jul 2022)

Not work as such but re-wheeling my 1981 Suzuki TS with freshly tyred wheels...


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## TheDoctor (10 Aug 2022)

Skyla having a last walk with me before I dropped her off at home.
She's a Bichon Frise cross, and a very cute little dog.


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## keithmac (10 Aug 2022)

Teaching my boy the ropes today, he helped me do a valve clearance service this morning.

Still really enjoying helping out at the shop which is nice!.


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## keithmac (25 Aug 2022)

You don't get much for £1500 nowadays..


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## keithmac (25 Aug 2022)

Ducati Scrambler engine removal this afternoon, a not very nice job made a lot better having my boy helping!.

You never know a few years down the line we could set up shop together (only after he's decided what career path he wants to do down mind..).


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## midlife (25 Aug 2022)

keithmac said:


> You don't get much for £1500 nowadays..
> 
> View attachment 658623



https://subarutech.net

$2950 for a years subscription to use the Subaru a select monitor, was always silly money. I used psi Secs on my Impreza


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## Andy in Germany (25 Aug 2022)

keithmac said:


> made a lot better having my boy helping!.



This improves everything.


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## keithmac (25 Aug 2022)

midlife said:


> https://subarutech.net
> 
> $2950 for a years subscription to use the Subaru a select monitor, was always silly money. I used psi Secs on my Impreza



Ford are now £4000 a year.

I registered as an Independent Operator and they wanted over £100 for one days access to their server iirc. Absolutely rip off.

I was under the impression with cars and their Euro compliance any PCM updates should be free of charge but obviously not!.

I bought a VCM2 (Ford factory diagnost tool) and use FORScan which is a much better interface over Fords IDS. Managed to find the PCM update files online.

Our bike subscription is £350 a year iirc, bargain really!.

Some people still complain if you charge them £40 for your time and use of nigh on £3k worth of equipment to pull diagnostic codes but luckily they are now few and far between..


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## keithmac (26 Aug 2022)

Half an hour faffing about this morning and it's out!.


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## shep (26 Aug 2022)

C'mon!


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## Joey Shabadoo (26 Aug 2022)

eek


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## keithmac (26 Aug 2022)

shep said:


> C'mon!



I was up a ladder doing our guttering on Monday and that was high enough!.

Anyone who works at height deserves a medal imho!.


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## Gwylan (26 Aug 2022)

Noodle Legs said:


> A spot of High Voltage cable jointing today….
> 
> View attachment 645914
> 
> ...



Very clean in there. Not all of the are like that.


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## shep (26 Aug 2022)

keithmac said:


> I was up a ladder doing our guttering on Monday and that was high enough!.
> 
> Anyone who works at height deserves a medal imho!.



To be fair, I have a few old bikes and think I'm pretty handy with a spanner but when it comes to rebuilding an engine or gearbox (WTF is that all about?) that's a different ball game.


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## keithmac (26 Aug 2022)

Engines are just like big jigsaws or Rubics cubes really. If you can be certain of timing on TDC cylinder One you can't go far wrong.

I've rebuilt a few engines that have come to us in cardboard boxes, always nicer to do if you've taken It apart yourself!.

I don't do heights at all, signed up for an abseil down Malham Cove, most frightening thing thing I've ever done but couldn't let the Scouts down!.


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## shep (26 Aug 2022)

keithmac said:


> Engines are just like big jigsaws or Rubics cubes really. If you can be certain of timing on TDC cylinder One you can't go far wrong.
> 
> I've rebuilt a few engines that have come to us in cardboard boxes, always nicer to do if you've taken It apart yourself!.
> 
> I don't do heights at all, signed up for an abseil down Malham Cove, most frightening thing thing I've ever done but couldn't let the Scouts down!.



It's that gearbox thing that gets me everytime. 

I've got an old Z1 that had a head gasket leak which I decided to fix, can't be that hard thought I, bought all the bits, put it back together and got the cam timing out!

2 bent valves later I took it to someone who knew what they were doing, each to their own I say.


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## keithmac (27 Aug 2022)

shep said:


> It's that gearbox thing that gets me everytime.
> 
> I've got an old Z1 that had a head gasket leak which I decided to fix, can't be that hard thought I, bought all the bits, put it back together and got the cam timing out!
> 
> 2 bent valves later I took it to someone who knew what they were doing, each to their own I say.



Yeh, fair enough!.

I always rotate engine gently by hand 4 full crank rotations and that way you can feel if anything is off, plus final timing check.

You were unlucky to bend a valve, we've done a fair few manual cam chain tensioner conversions and some of those had jumped timing ,(Yamaha R1s are terrible for that). Suppose it depends how coarse the chain and sprockets are.


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## keithmac (27 Aug 2022)

Got my favourite R Nine T back in for work on Tuesday.


Already done his airbox delete kit, bespoke exhausts, clear valve covers, battery relocation and digital speedo/ dash.

He's having new triple clamps and dropped bars fitting now.

Lovely bloke, must admit though he was a bit made when I was chopping his airbox out with a Sawzall a while back but he's definitely got an eye for quality kit!.


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## bikingdad90 (27 Aug 2022)

I can imagine it’s one of those bikes that spends more time in bits getting stuff done that been driven by its owner.


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## shep (27 Aug 2022)

bikingdad90 said:


> I can imagine it’s one of those bikes that spends more time in bits getting stuff done that been driven by its owner.



Ridden surely?


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## bikingdad90 (27 Aug 2022)

shep said:


> Ridden surely?


Dunno.. ridden to me implies you sit on it and it drives itself or your driven by a driver where as driven implies the rider controls it? 😂😂


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## shep (27 Aug 2022)

bikingdad90 said:


> Dunno.. ridden to me implies you sit on it and it drives itself or your driven by a driver where as driven implies the rider controls it? 😂😂



Oh right, your pushbike ride itself?

I guess you must drive that then, live and learn.


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## keithmac (27 Aug 2022)

No, he rides it quite a bit to be fair.

I've seen Triumphs in for MOT that you'd put money on were only 5,000 milers where in fact they were 50,000 miles or more.

Nice to see some people can look after, clean and service bikes properly.

Seen 125's at 2 years old that are basically wrecks due to neglect.

Same as everything, you get out what you put in..


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## keithmac (27 Aug 2022)

You ride a motorcycle, unless of course you are just fishing for an argument..


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## bikingdad90 (27 Aug 2022)

@keithmac not at all on my account… can’t comment on @shep but I think it’s a bit of banter on the English language.

I can’t show you what I’ve been up to at work today; nothing as I’m on annual leave 😂😂 until Tuesday! Woop woop.


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## Spokesmann (28 Aug 2022)

My day yesterday was spent finally getting my 41 year old TS to start and prepping it for its final MOT and service before I register it for tax exemption, bikes were so much simpler back then...


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (28 Aug 2022)

Getting paid for this


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## keithmac (1 Sep 2022)

Went out on it yesterday after 10 hours working on it!.

One of the bikes I'd have for myself and there's not many!.


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## TheDoctor (1 Sep 2022)

Robbie, an elderly Patterdale terrier. He went home earlier today after a 12 night stay. Thanks to a cancellation, I've actually got a day off tomorrow! First day with no dogs since late July.


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## keithmac (1 Sep 2022)

@TheDoctor do you have a dog yourself?. Looks a nice business to be in!.


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## Scoosh (1 Sep 2022)

keithmac said:


> Went out on it yesterday after 10 hours working on it!.
> 
> One of the bikes I'd have for myself and there's not many!.
> 
> ...



Obviously needed a lo-o-o-ong check ride...


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## TheDoctor (1 Sep 2022)

keithmac said:


> @TheDoctor do you have a dog yourself?. Looks a nice business to be in!.



Not anymore we don't. We had a yellow Lab, then a pair of black Lab crosses from Wood Green, then a black Lab cross from Blue Cross.
Bit of a theme going on!
We're doing more travelling now, so having our own dog doesn't really work. But looking after other peoples dogs is nearly as good, especially with some of the regulars. I like all the dogs - I wouldn't take them again if I didn't like them - but there are some who are particular favourites. And it does give me great flexibility, as long as I don't want to go away in the summer holidays too much.
It won't make me rich, but it'll pay for a few long-haul trips a year.


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## PeteXXX (1 Sep 2022)

Looking at how the idiots attending Leicester v Man United match have blocked my exit from the goods yard. 
Luckily, the store manager donned his hi-viz and helped me reverse out of the entrance onto Leicester ring road!


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## keithmac (2 Sep 2022)

From this:





To this:





Finished it off this morning, a pig of a job but customer picked it up tonight and over the moon so all good 👍.


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## Moon bunny (12 Sep 2022)

I finished painting this bad boy:
A Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway boundary post.


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## Andy in Germany (12 Sep 2022)

Moon bunny said:


> I finished painting this bad boy:



I'm guessing that's the NRM Workshop?

I like it when you post in this thread @Moon bunny: It's always something unexpected and interesting...


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## Moon bunny (12 Sep 2022)

Andy in Germany said:


> I'm guessing that's the NRM Workshop?
> 
> I like it when you post in this thread @Moon bunny: It's always something unexpected and interesting...



I feel privileged at times, getting to handle some of the most valuable and beautiful objects the nation owns, from rockets and the big mill engine down to a ceramic cat.


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## TheDoctor (13 Sep 2022)

Jasper and Ringo. Ringo is a 18 month Lab who's really a big powerful puppy. Pulls (quite) a bit on walks.
Jasper is nearly 9 now, and just about the nicest dog ever.
If there's a storm he gets frightened and jumps on my bed, then looks unhappy when I stop stroking him.


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## Joey Shabadoo (10 Nov 2022)

Delivering Carbon Literacy training to a room full of MDs. I really, really wish I wasn't doing Movember.


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (11 Nov 2022)




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## palinurus (21 Nov 2022)

palinurus said:


> Measuring the composition of some tin-based alloys (in the original form of solder pastes)
> 
> First I melt the solder, pour off the flux and then tip the molten metal into a little round mould to give a little slug like this.
> 
> ...



So this job took longer than expected. I've been waiving through any samples with slightly low bismuth in the meantime, sending some to our lab in Hungary for verification (they get a result between 2.80 and 3.25% which is the specification range for this alloy). I didn't have a reference standard with the right sort of bismuth content, I searched a database and found one- 3% bismith, some zinc and the rest tin. I don't care about zinc but it doesn't do any harm. Took ages to order it, we've just been taken over by a new company and we had no purchasing procedures. Finally it was delivered last week.

It's a little cylinder of alloy, with a certificate. It cost over £500. Bismuth content is certified at 3.03%.




As before turned it on the lathe (not very deep- that's expensive swarf right there)









(the swarf, incidentally, is very nice- the alloy is very soft and ductile and it remains in one continuous thread of metal)

Put the sample on the AES and flushed with argon, gave it a zap with the electrode -three zaps- in different places, everything in triplicate at least. The bismuth came out at 2.65%- there's the problem.









It's easy to adjust- add a correction factor until the result shows 3.03%. Then I rechecked some earlier samples.




Seems OK now, three samples from earlier this year which were originally low are now within specification.

This is a minor part of my job, mainly do this because we're short of technicians and because I like machining the samples.


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## winjim (21 Nov 2022)

Today I have been mostly analysing horse urine. Maybe alloys would be preferable but at least I don't have anything to do with the sample collection.


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## Moon bunny (22 Nov 2022)

Picking out posters for the 2024 calendar:


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## Andy in Germany (23 Nov 2022)

Moon bunny said:


> Picking out posters for the 2024 calendar:
> View attachment 668904



Thanks for this: my parents send me that calender as a little slice of "home" so it's nice to know who puts it together...


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