Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

It’s been absolutely bloody wild here for a good 36+ hours now and got little done today !!
Gathered up a few odds and sods that had ‘escaped’ from where they’d been parked and secured ‘em ....... then warmed the ‘Drema up, to lift a ‘straight edge’ out from where it was sat and chuck it on the bench.



Then picked the beam off the bench .......



Gave a bit of a try and seems to work pretty well ...... will be even better with a bit more ‘stuff’ to shove about .... and a roller on the back end



On the roller front ..... having measured up the two ‘volunteers’ they were different diameters ..... which was bloody annoying ..... 4mms of annoying!!!

So went in search of the various other ‘remnants’ of previous ‘victims’ and sussed whether they’d make up the 101 inches required to make it with ....... just was the verdict!!

So hauled them out and dumped them in the straight edge to see how they looked.



Still a slight discrepancy between them all, but live-able with I think!

As I said, it’s been seriously wild here and I’ve been blown off my feet a couple of times today !!!!! Remarkable eh ..... have really had to brace against the wind at times and trying to do anything requiring any finesse, or steady hand’s been real up hill .... anyway .... the last gust that got me, put me on my arse ...... in a very large muddy puddle and that was enough action for me for one day!!

Packed up, locked up, went and stripped and jumped in an early shower .... sod it. Getting too bloody old for playin’ in puddles ..... getting rained on I can live with .... bog snorkelling’s a wetting too far !! ......... and no .... there’s no pix !!

[v8druid]

I swear the posty thinks I'm running a new age cult here ....


sat trying to have a coffee and a bag o' crisps lunchtime-ish, 'bout 3, whilst trying to fend off two cats, who quite like crisps .....





..... when he arrives with a 'curious' look on his face and a bit of a grin





opened it up to find this .....





...... and an Engcon manual, ............





...... from a certain pasty scoffing 'Cornishman', who's acquaintance I'd made, end of last year, picking up a couple of racing mowers LOL




Bit of reading to do later !


Didn't know Lefty had an artistic flair with the ol' pencil, as well as a tilty !!

Also got another pleasant surprise in the post, from one of my 'friends' on Maskinisten, who'd said he had one for me, to go with the 'Drema one I acquired a while back ........ I wear a lot of 'em

[ianoz]

Pretty smart Forensic postman over there and a very talented artist.

[v8druid]

"Patience is a virtue".....that thankfully I am blessed with ..... in bucket-loads ......... God knows I need it some days

And it’s been sorely tested today ........ beautiful morning, although still blowing fair-ish.
Spent best part of the day yesterday going through boxes of old files, paperwork, etc. and all my final accounts, ready to put away for the next 10 years ...... in case HMRC wannalook!!!!!!FFS!!

Humped that lot from the office up to a filing cab in a box, before getting started on ..... the roller !!

Managed to profile some end plates a few days ago ....... whenever it wasn’t peeing down last .... and had cut some pins ready to assemble ‘em up.



Centred ‘em up and got ‘em attached



To the inner support plates, then set ‘em up for installing ‘em in the roller tube.........





And got the inners well stitched inside the tube......



My big Vee block was perfect for getting centre with, with a shim of 1.6mm (16SWG) under it ........ bit of luck, eh?

Then got some holes sorted in the outer/end plates .....



Note the nice bright light ...... called SUNSHINE!!!!



Set up the outer plate in the same manner and again the Vee gave me a perfectly square face to work off .... and ended up with this



By the time I’d gotten this far with the second end ......



It was snowing like buggery!!!!!

It did ease off sort of ...... on and off, so persevered and got all the tube ends Vee-ed ready to weld up ....... when it ain’t such a crap day ..... which is tomorrow hopefully ..... according to the forecast!!





It’s all set up ready to stick together and have overcome the slight differential in ‘bottle’ sizes ..... the planing’s ain’t gonna care about a mil here and there !!



I’ll get it well stitched then drop the plummer blocks on each end to get a nice rotation for welding it up, with a bit of a packer under ‘em



So maybe by tomorrow night it might be attached to the back end of the beam .... weather permitting.

I’d had a guts-full of getting persisted on, before it got dark tonight and my feet had actually gotten cold, which is unusual for me so called it an early day.

Came in to be greeted by the news from Mrs D that it was Shrove Tuesday ... eventually, ... after asking me what day it was ..... several times ...... I’m wracking my brain trying to work out WTF was special about February the ninth ???? What had I forgotten ??

So after tea it was Pancakes a la Druid ....... I don’t do a lot of ‘stove driving’ ... quite capable, but ‘she’ is the boss in the kitchen ...... but ...... Pam’s track record for dropping pancakes ain’t too good, so for once she’s quite happy to leave me to it



So I’ve been a ‘right tosser’ tonight!!!!!

[Geoffdiggerman]

Looking good there Graham, ...... I mean the pancakes! Ahh tummy thinks my throats cut!!

[v8druid]

Looking good there Graham, ...... I mean the pancakes! Ahh tummy thinks my throats cut!!

Yeah........they went down pretty well Geoff ........ not often allowed to do anything in the kitchen

[v8druid]

They say ...... “the sun shines on the righteous” ...... and on a Druid today, too !!


Got it ‘secured’ ........





and set to it with the ol’ 6013s. Having got it securely stitched, it was up on the plummers, for a weld up .....





Followed by a damned good clean up and grind off







And a coat of black shiny shite to finish off with





Ready for getting attached to its new home tomorrow. ..... Rolls sweet enough on the blocks and pretty damned true too ...... considering !!


‘Sposed to be nice again tomorrow ...... once the frost thaws !!!

[ianoz]

Didn't Break into a sweat I hope

Looking good as usual mate .

[v8druid]

Didn't Break into a sweat I hope

Looking good as usual mate .

not with this sort of weather to contend with Ian and thanks for the 'approval' Boyo

[v8druid]

Well Thursday morning was as forecast ....... sharp and white !!

Warmed the ‘Drema up, whilst I got the roller off its packers and ready to mount on the beam, once I’d picked it up and got it lined up.



Got some bolts into the plummers and dogged up ......



And the roller was the anticipated 1” below the beam’s bottom ........



Picked it up, centred the roller in the plummers and got the 4 pinch grubscrews done up on the spindles



And it rotates a treat.
Gave it a bit of try, on what was already down and a bit scuffed up and it flattens it out pretty well .....



Should be real good on some ‘fresh loose’ stuff.
Just needs a top coat of shiny shite now ..... when I get something suitable ......



Friday was a different day with a much different view .....



6 month MOT day and all seems good from the provisional results .... 45 minute scan, 6 x 10ml vials of blood extracted and a bit of a natter with the consultants, who both seemed happy enough.

11.00 appointment for the scan and a 16.00 time for me consult, left me with several hours to kill and having got my bloods done, went and parked my bum in the waiting room’ bout 13.00....... hoping !!
The 13.15 appointment had cried off and I was in !!

Out again by 2 and I was away, avoiding the usually horrendous Friday afternoon rush hour traffic in Cardiff, so thought I’d call in on the young fella/ex-customer, who’s doing my top hat bushes for me and have a shufty at his new machine shop.

Had a rough idea of where he was, but took some finding, all the same.

On another ex-customer’s old site and wow hadn’t it changed ..... old chicken/turkey site, which had originally been a munitions storage area for the local ordnance works, so was interspersed with some serious looking brick units and lots of modern units in a very ‘rural’ sort of setting ..... great place to have a unit.

Matt seemed pretty pleased to see me ..... or it could’ve just been, ‘to see a face’ ... not the sort of location that’d see a lot of ‘passing trade’ (or uninvited visitors either).

Got himself some great equipment and doing some pretty special work. (a few of his m/cs) .......







He’s a time served tool room engineer/machinist and VERY good at what he does. Did his time in Saunders Valves (an international co.) and as they come .... I rate him highly.

Anything Matt produces will be of the highest calibre.

Should have me bosses next week, as the bar for ‘em was sat in the saw when I arrived .... down side was, his CNC lather had just blown a PCB, so was going to be a manual job ‘less the PCB arrives soon.!! ...... or ..... I go run his D S & G - type 17 (like I used to have) for him !! His type 24 is an awesome tool and’ll swing 4 ton .... bit more than my lil’ job requires.!!

Anyway, left Matt to it and got back home to be greeted by the boss with a “you’re early ...... you fly back?” and a “what you been buying now then ” ??



“Now’t .... I’m aware of ” ??? Looking at the label,



..... this was obviously not a ‘self-purchase’ !!

So having opened said box ...... all I can say is thank you very much ... I assume, Alex, (Cyberprog - from 't'other forum'), from a few earlier comments there!!



I particularly like the little ‘logo’ on the back ........



Very good !!!!!

Oh and forgot to say ..... I tripped over this earlier in the day, searching for Matt’s unit .... old girl still earning her keep, by the seem of it ...



I‘ll have a better look, next time I’m down, picking up my bosses.

[v8druid]

.........and now for something COMPLETELY different

Something a bit different on the bench today .......



A Citroen C2 !!!!!

CV and bottom ball joint on the off side to do ...... and damned if I was sitting / crawling about on the floor to do it !!

On the fork extensions and sat her on the bench .... job’s a good ‘un.

I have never come up against such an awkward lil’ bar steward CV to get off the shaft and after an hour or more trying to persuade it over the spring clip, it had to have it .... the 5” thin disc !!



Took the drive shaft spigot off to start ....



....and having found the spider had gone over the spring clip ......



......as far as it was going to .... it had to have it again ....



.......followed by the cage and the bloody spider !!!



Never had to cut one off before and reckon this must have been the original joint !!



New boot, duly stuffed with the graphite pack, .....



...... followed by the new joint, new bottom joint and all back together in a lot less time than we’d spent trying to separate the old one from the bloody shaft.

Having it up here .....



Makes life a damned sight easier though, ‘specially for a tough little bugger, like this one was!!!!

Been a beautiful day, weather-wise, spoilt by the scourge of my life ..... the kids cars !!!

‘Least they are appreciative of the efforts that are spent on ‘em.

[ianoz]

Teas and Biscuits?????? Where's mine .

[v8druid]

Teas and Biscuits?????? Where's mine .

Nah ....... coffee in mine Boyo ........ can't stand tea!!
Didn't get a look in on the one pack of bic.s either ..... dunno what they were...... but they just sort of evaporated

[v8druid]

more druidification

Don’t know where to start with this one ...... without giving the game away .

Been contemplating knocking this up for a while and have thought of all sorts of variations on the theme .... this is what I finally settled on....

It’s yet another ‘adapter’ to be able to make multiple use of an att. I’ve already built, that could get more use than it does !!

The first bit ..... after much thinking about and fiddling about to get it to this ....



Followed by a few more bits lopped out very carefully, with the thin disc .... yet again ...



.... set out on the ‘set out’ to check for fit.

Then stitched./assembled up ......



Ready to get welded up ....



And tried in position to fit/align the last piece ....



Now you can see what I’s about !!

Drilled, ......



...... tapped .....



.... and bolted the brace plate in position ......



....... so I could get the rest of the adapter in the right place .... to stitch it up and welded in spot.


..... and end capped the last open end.

Broached out some pick up plates ......



...... and lopped up a couple more 50 mm pins to suit ....



Assembled it up on some spacers and clamped square on my trusty Vee block to get the pins stitched in .......



And dropped the assembly onto its new home ....



Ready to get it firmed up .....



And securely attached ....... permanently !!



Cleaned it up, despatterd, etc., then cleared up and got out the ‘Fabricator’s friend’ to give a coat of HBZP primer ......



........ followed by a top coat the following morning ....



Which contrary to the forecast was nice and dry ....... again ..... getting to be a bit of a habit ... dry days on the trot !! ‘Bout time too !!!!

This stuff dries real quick and was handle-able in an hour .

Before getting it assembled/tried for fit, I wanted to get some weights marked up on the various bits and while I had the Dynamometer out, weigh a few other bits too.
Nice to know what you’re picking up !!

[v8druid]

Dry for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon,......
so motored the Dane out of the mower stable and hung it by its ears off the ‘Drema, .....
to give it a damned good clean underneath and then a thorough going over with the oil can and grease gun, .......
after blasting it all off with the air line.
‘Twas remarkably clean underneath, much to my surprise!!
Only had half a bin of dead grass to clear up off the bench!!













So all ready for action once it’s had an oil and filter change .....
when I pick one up, hopefully from the local ‘emporium’ ....
it’s a screw on, so should be relatively easy to get .....
I hope !!


'Twas a decent fit on the bench too !!