Continuing Thread: What Are You Fix-It'ing Today?

[URY914]

Pulled the engine out of my race car today.

[Rot 911]

Did the hundred thousand mile service on my 2006 Mini Cooper S today. Replacing the serpentine belt is quite an ordeal! Although pelican does have a good step by step procedure for doing it. I don’t know how anyone with large hands could possibly fit the belt back in place. I’ve got small hands and I still have a number of scrapes on them.

[rsrguy]

Wow you worked at continental... that is pretty cool. To bad it’s china aero now, suks for us.

Stud started pulling at 350 inch/lbs... bummer. Took it out and found a helicoil. No clue it it was incorrectly installed or if divco messed it up. In any case it's on me now.

[A930Rocket]

^^^^ How will you fix it?

[rsrguy]

Most likely with an oversize helicoil... the correct answer however is how the ia wants it fixed.

[rsrguy]

Worked a little on the portable fab table I snagged off the local classifieds. Still need to cut 6" out of the legs...

[A930Rocket]

I cleaned up the leaves and palm fronds from the wind Friday.

Then back to removing more sound deadener. This time I used the heat gun and I think it was better than the dry ice method.

[porsche930dude]

last night customers dropped off 6 mowers , a snow blower a chainsaw and weed wacker. ugh

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

Nice find! Those look like top-shelf Blickle casters!

[rsrguy]

Haha ... at $40 a piece at the calranch store I doubt they're top shelf.

[jcwade]

Had to install a door at one of the rentals and replace 4 knobs and deadbolts at another.
Not the same level as pulling the engine out of a racecar, but we do what we can.

[Evans, Marv]

Doing some maintenance stuff before any winter weather starts. I might put another application of elasomeric coating on the roof, since it wouldn't hurt. But ugh! It's like looking out over the Sahara up there.

[rsrguy]

Like walking around Bonneville...

[Pazuzu]

I don't know why I never came in this thread before...I could contribute daily.

Let's see...
Recently been completely rewiring an Austria CNC lathe for new Linux based control and stronger motors:


Spent 2 hours with the cops at work because I did some evidence collection and cross-collated video footage of an...incident...at the shop last week.


At home just rewired the kegerator, the circulating fan blew out, and in the process of replacing it I learned that the 50 year old unit I have, at some point in time, had some internal wire fray and the case was energized. I never knew, because I never touched it when grounded.

Also in the process of trying to rebuild the actuator of our driveway gate, I fixed a major electrical issue (one of the relays must have started arcing and fused, burned some wire and blew a fuse). Had to remove the board, desolder the relays, replace them, and redo some wiring. Now, the controller works great, but the old actuator is slipping because it's now actually getting all of the current that the system is sending to it...

Oh, and telescopes. Reverse engineering a common but poorly designed telescope control package, hoping to make it much better. I also have a customer who wants me to learn and install an advanced go-to system from Japan on a rare Japanese mount, they have no support in the US so I might be the first to do this upgrade on my own.

Recently fixed a 35 year old camera flash cable which had a poor casing (UV degradation), I plasti-dipped the cable by hand several times and it turned out pretty darned good.

Um...changed a co-worker's battery? That actually took 30 minutes because it's a Ford Transit, and you have to disassemble the intake and battery box to slide the battery itself out.

All while getting addicted to No Man's Sky...

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Replaced the quarter inch steel seat mount for a quarter inch aluminum piece. Probably saved 15 pounds there. Used dry ice to remove sound deadener. Long way to go in that department.

Update. I’m at the track, Roebling Road, and the car weighed 2028 lbs. that’s about 400 less than stock. I set my fastest lap time today with a 125.8.

[Ayles]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I don't know why I never came in this thread before...I could contribute daily.

Let's see...
Recently been completely rewiring an Austria CNC lathe for new Linux based control and stronger motors:


Spent 2 hours with the cops at work because I did some evidence collection and cross-collated video footage of an...incident...at the shop last week.


At home just rewired the kegerator, the circulating fan blew out, and in the process of replacing it I learned that the 50 year old unit I have, at some point in time, had some internal wire fray and the case was energized. I never knew, because I never touched it when grounded.

Also in the process of trying to rebuild the actuator of our driveway gate, I fixed a major electrical issue (one of the relays must have started arcing and fused, burned some wire and blew a fuse). Had to remove the board, desolder the relays, replace them, and redo some wiring. Now, the controller works great, but the old actuator is slipping because it's now actually getting all of the current that the system is sending to it...

Oh, and telescopes. Reverse engineering a common but poorly designed telescope control package, hoping to make it much better. I also have a customer who wants me to learn and install an advanced go-to system from Japan on a rare Japanese mount, they have no support in the US so I might be the first to do this upgrade on my own.

Recently fixed a 35 year old camera flash cable which had a poor casing (UV degradation), I plasti-dipped the cable by hand several times and it turned out pretty darned good.

Um...changed a co-worker's battery? That actually took 30 minutes because it's a Ford Transit, and you have to disassemble the intake and battery box to slide the battery itself out.

All while getting addicted to No Man's Sky...

My son and I just starte No Man’s Sky! So far we are only a couple hours in but def enjoying it.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I don't know why I never came in this thread before...I could contribute daily.
-snip-
All while getting addicted to No Man's Sky...

Very impressive, Mike! Welcome to the thread!

I've been busy with hurricane recovery stuff and taking care of Mom but did run by HD to pick up a new mower and some potting soil.

I've never owned a Honda mower before and finally caved in!

I'll assemble and get her going tomorrow morning.....

[Bill Douglas]

The luxury of mowing lawns with a Honda mower...

I love the sound of a Honda engine.

[mthomas58]

After years of tightening and replacing loose and lost nuts on a wobbly and dangerous garage attic pull down stairs I overhauled as follows:

Problems:

(1) Spring assembly on 35 year old stairs were severely worn such that spring arms bent inwards and springs would jump the U catch bracket on the frame for proper spring tension. FIX: Since the assembly is NLA I drilled out the large rivet holding the swivel arm to the frame and replaced with bolts washers and nuts. Now much tighter and the springs catch properly.

(2) The ladder section hinge bolt holes in the pine ladder had become severely wallowed out over time resulting in a rickey unsafe ladder with too much play in it. I have been worrying about it failing as I move heavy items. FIX: Replaced all hinge bolts with new 1/4 - 20 1" bolts and 1/4" - 20 5/16" T-nuts which required drilling out the worn holes fo the T-nuts to fit. Ladder sections are now much tighter. The section gaps and ladder play are now gone.

Now that the stairs are properly functioning and safe I like them much better than the ones I replaced with a newer aluminum set in the house with narrow treads blocked by the opening cover attached on the back of the treads. I regret replacing them now that I know how to repair the old ones.

[rsrguy]

Finally finished my first ding pass (on top of the corrosion resistant epoxy) on the drivers side, and shot the high fill for blocking.