Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

Well done Wendy! Thank you very much.

[Stanley]

We spend most of our time making castings smaller and this morning was more of the same. I cut the valve down to the correct size for the valve chest and then cut the 1/4" slot in the top for the driver bar which will accept the valve rod. More chewing away at the valve tomorrow! Now it's breakfast.

[Sue]

I shall be attending Ken's funeral service at Burnley Crematorium this morning, representing OFGB.

Morning
So sad. RIP. Ken. I will miss our chats

This morning I have art at Haslingden, but will have to leave early to use the Bacup route, rather than over Owd Betts due to the traffic problems getting out of here in that direction. I shall be home about 12.30pm, then its lunch and out at 2.00pm for Christies

Deepest condolences to Ken and his family

[Big Kev]

I shall be attending Ken's funeral service at Burnley Crematorium this morning, representing OFGB.

Thank you Wendy, I made my apologies to Jean earlier in the week as I can't be there.

[Wendyf]

Made it to Ken's funeral, despite my satnav app taking me to the wrong place!

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[Big Kev]

Thank you.

[PanBiker]

Yes, thank you Wendy for attending on behalf of the site.

RIP Ken.

[Wendyf]

I'm glad that I went.

[Tripps]

I'm glad you went too. Well done.

[Stanley]

Thanks for going Wendy....

This morning I shall be in the shed at 06:00 trying not to make a mistake with my steam valve. We are promised a dry day but will I feel like going out for a midday walk in the cold?

[Sue]

Morning

Today is our youngest grand daughter’s 10 th birthday. Doesn’t time fly, it seems no time since her and Claire’s lives were so delicately balanced, and that first visit to Blackburn hospital in treacherous icy conditions. We shall chat on whats app or the phone later to give our virtual hugs.

Otherwise its a late morning departure today, hopefully we will be back for our Friday lunch, by 3.00 pm. Today by ourselves as the other couples can’t make that time. We don’t want to go later as it starts to get busy from 5.00 pm for the evening, and also Bob and I will not have time to have any lunch otherwise. We shall have a bigger breakfast.

So that's the end of week 5, 3 days to go. Have a good day everyone.

[Stanley]

Well done so far Sue! And I wish you the best for today. It doesn't seem like five weeks, as you say, time flies!



I started this morning by finishing and fitting the driving block to the valve and putting witness marks on it to ensure correct fitting. Next I machined the face of the valve to provide passage for the exhaust steam and finish polished the contact surfaces. Then I stripped the steam chest off and finish polished the cast iron valve face, Next I cleaned the marking ink off where it shows and started building the valve chest up and fitting it on its studs with the paper gasket in place. I fitted the front lid with its studs and checked that they were all tight and had enough length for fitting to the bed. My last move was to remove the 1/4" end mill from the VM ready for tomorrow's fitting. Now it's breakfast time!

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed at 06:00 as usual. After breakfast and second sleep i have nothing on my schedule as Muthomi called in yesterday and brought the milk I would have needed from Aldi. The forecast is talking about heavy rain later this morning so it looks as though I will be declining a walk!
It may be my imagination but I have felt the cold more this winter..... Especially if it's down to the wind chill. Probably the years catching up with me. Whatever, the cure is to stay indoors!

[Sue]

Morning

Rain all day today but warmer. It was a bitterly cold wind yesterday, though less so down in S Manchester. Today should reach 10 degrees. It will be a busy morning, shopping at Bacup then over to the other side of Rochdale to buy a new vacuum cleaner. Ours died spectacularly yesterday and in view of its age we decided another repair was not worth it. I want to look at Jeans in Matalan and I may as well call at the garden centre to buy some veggie seeds. This afternoon I shall plant up any geranium cuttings that have rooted, I can see at least one is doing really well, and I want to move some of my pots from the conservatory back into the greenhouse so that if we get a sunny morning we have space to eat on the table out there.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue! Hard luck with the vacuum cleaner..... You've got it warmer than us, we appear to have less rain but more ENE wind and only 6C for a high later. Even that will suffer from a -5C wind chill.



More going on this morning than seems at first glance. The 1/4" end mill taken out and put away. Next I temporarily rebuilt the cylinder before moving on with the fitting. Then the slitting saw put in the chuck and the slot cut in the piston face to use when installing it. Next the 1" end mill that usually inhabits the VM was sharpened before being replaced. Next job was to start to make the valve rod. The 5/32" rod needed reducing to a shade over 1/8" and then 5/8" of 4BA thread put on the end of it. I haven't quite finished that but it's breakfast time so that's where I stopped.

[Sue]

Forecast changed, now mainly dry all day and back to 5 degrees, and feels like 1 what a difference half an hour makes!

[Stanley]

That's more like it! I'm simply going to stay indoors Sue 'cos we have a -5C wind chill as well.

[Wendyf]

After lunch I will be heading out onto Skipton Old Road, wearing a lot of warm clothing topped by a fluorescent vest, to pick up bags full of litter from the verges. It is Lothersdale's litter picking day but I like to join in as part of the road is within that parish.

[Sue]

After lunch I will be heading out onto Skipton Old Road, wearing a lot of warm clothing topped by a fluorescent vest, to pick up bags full of litter from the verges. It is Lothersdale's litter picking day but I like to join in as part of the road is within that parish.

Good for you Wendy, Whitworth always does one. In contrast Whitworth Road Rochdale is an eyesore. Too many takeaways and other fast food providers. It annoys me

[Stanley]

You put us all to shame Wendy. Your week has been full of good works and then in contrast you get old farts like me who won't even come out of the house.

[PanBiker]

Picking up a Snake Oil Salesman's vacuum cleaner (Dyson Ball) from our charity shop. It's beaters have stopped rotating. Had a quick look the other day but nothing obvious. Since then I have consulted Google and their are a number of common problems that need checking. A couple are a direct result of the over engineered design of the vac. In place of a simple belt drive belt it has a separate motor to directly drive the beaters, that needs a power feed from the pump motor, lots more to go wrong! I need to get it on the table and my screwdrivers and multimeter out. Over engineered and overpriced as a result. We didn't buy the thing it was donated to the group. Personally I wont give anything Dyson house room for our own use. Spares can be problematic so I need to decide if its recoverable or beyond economical repair.

[Big Kev]

Taking delivery of my shiny Ford Kuga. Been after one for a while and and this one came along at the right price

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[PanBiker]

Found the problem on the Dyson. I removed the head unit and partially stripped it down, took out the beater brushes, made sure the two end bearings were free and not bunged up. On to the motor assembly which is in it's own housing just off centre of the middle of the beater bar. Bad design means that you need two different torx bits for screws that are the same physical size plus a Philips head as well, again for more or less the same sized screws!

Anyway, a dozen screws later and I'm into the motor housing and I noticed what suspiciously looked like a commutator plate which dropped out of the motor housing. The motor is coupled via a small toothed belt to a double sided spline drive which is semi captive in the head unit. I got the motor in a position where I could turn the spline which of course turned the rotor and look through a vent and see the commutator. This confirmed a flat by feel in the motor rotation and careful observation confirmed the missing commutator plate. This of course should be connected to one end of one of the motor windings. No point going any further as it would be highly unlikely to be able to refit the plate in the motor even if I could get to it. Tt has broken out of it's housing and there looks to be damage to the insulation mounting between the plates.

Motor U/S, a new replacement from Dyson which includes the beater bar head but no beaters brushes is £65.00 on their website. Had a look on Ebay and I can get a new motor alone for £31.50. There are also quite few second hand ones around the £10 - £15 mark, don't really want to go there. I have not fully checked whether the head unit is getting power from the suction pump in the ball unit. I would need to strip that down to confirm all is well there so that would probably be another hour with different screw heads in a bad design.

Nice looking car Kev is it petrol or diesel?

[Big Kev]

Nice looking car Kev is it petrol or diesel?

It's the 2.0 diesel, the 150bhp tdci. Returns 60+ mpg if you're not too heavy on the right foot.

I think the Dyson would be in the bin, I looked at replacing the motor on my old DC08 but bought a Shark in the end. It wasn't much more than a replacement motor.

[PanBiker]

OK on the new to you car Kev.

My thoughts regarding the Dyson as well Kev. I have just thrown it back together and have one bit of plastic that should go under the motor, a rubber boot that should go over the motor and a rubber retaining strap that is totally unnecessary as it is fastened in with 4 screws and two self tapping screws both the same size but with different heads. I will report to our trustees meeting next week and we will probably replace it with a new one, definitely NOT a Dyson.

When you pull one in bits the over engineering and overall bad design jumps out at you. No wonder Dyson needs to explain the inflated costs with Pseudo Science like his impossible "digital motors" and his invisible dust detector. Can anyone justify to me why a simple hair dryer or pair of straighteners costs £499.00? A while ago granted, but top of the line walk about hair dryers with drying hoods used to cost £39.99. Bog standard hand held jobs like Dyson is selling now were £15 to £20. Snake Oil I say.