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Jan 15, 2023 22:55:32 GMT
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Remember the solar lights that were busted? Not only beyond economic repair but beyond all hope too. I said… …to have them static I need to actually need to flash both pairs quickly. That means an H bridge driver and a quick oscillator to drive it. I suspect the lights might wind up cluttering the garage for a few years. I was rummaging through my stock of spare parts for the various festive lights when I stumbled across a transformer for a long dead set of lights. Mains in, 24V AC out. A thought occurred to me. I don’t need a fast oscillator and an H bridge driver. All I need is an AC transformer and a current limiting resistor or two. And I have just found a transformer… So I dug out a couple of resistors. I used two because I didn’t have one of the right value. And then I fixed the lights. He might be slightly eccentric but he knows when to draw the line and file it in B-1-N I’m so sorry Jimi, I seem to have just proved you wrong. Please accept my most profuse apologies! Sometimes a chap does something for no good reason. Just because you can. Especially me. James
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,824
Member is Online
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Jan 15, 2023 23:52:13 GMT
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I didn't say you had reached the line drawing/B1N stage, just that you knew when to do it, you obviously hadn't reached that stage yet if that makes any sense at all (it does to me 😂) Either way, good job, very ingenious 😎
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Jan 16, 2023 13:19:29 GMT
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awww so pwitty
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Jan 29, 2023 22:28:37 GMT
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This thing has appeared in one of my threads before. It was probably this very photo of it being given a bit of stick. It’s the amp that lives in the garage to provide a musical interlude to stop my brain worrying about things I don’t need to think about. It’s branded ‘Fisher’, a company I’d never heard of. It turns out that Fisher was an American company making high end hifi. Around the end of the 1970s the company was sold to Sanyo. This particular one is from late 1984, I found a date cast into the front panel. It was bought by Mrs Sweetpea’s granddad in about 1985 which ties up nicely with the date inside. When he died it passed to Mrs Sweetpea’s dad (also no longer with us) and it lived in a hifi trolley or next to his computer as a headphone amp. A few years ago he no longer needed it and I was asked if wanted it. If I didn’t it was going to the tip. Not one to pass over some old hifi junk I took stewardship of it. I figured it could live out its remaining days keeping me entertained in the garage. And that’s where it’s been and what it’s been doing for a few years now. Sadly it’s now died and needs to go in the bin. Yeah right! When have you known me put anything in the bin? In fact I have a premonition that in future I’ll put an empty bin out on dustbin day and the bin men will fill it with tat for me to play with. All the time I’ve had this thing the graphic EQ hasn’t really worked and the ‘power meter’ (which is really a level meter marked in Watts as far as I can tell) has shown one channel being low. But it sounded ok so I never really worried about it. Well the other day I noticed that the left speaker was almost silent and what little there was coming out of it was badly distorted on the peaks. The cunning plan was to strip It down, get the front panel off, and work some switch cleaner into all the controls. Then keep my fingers crossed because I didn’t want to get involved with this lot. It’s actually an amp made of discrete transistors. Strangely it has very few integrated circuits which was a bit of a surprise. There are a couple of comparators in the power meter bit but I think that’s it. Anyway, if it’s not the controls on the front then, more than likely it’ll be a capacitor or two. It doesn’t really feel like capacitors though. So, having splashed switch cleaner around like Henry Cooper in a Brut advert I plugged it back in and cautiously tested it into a pair of headphones. And guess what, it seemed to work. I started to wonder what this thing actually sounded like. You know, plugged into a decent set of speakers rather than the trashy ones in the garage. So I hooked it up to my floor standing Acoustic Energy speakers and listened to some music. It’s not at all bad. In fact it’s really quite decent considering it’s almost 40 years old and has lived in a cold, damp garage for the last few. I compared it against my daily Yamaha AV amp and, thankfully, it’s not as good. Not quite as smooth whatever that means. But it’s not far behind. I’m really pretty impressed with it. You have to wonder what it would sound like with a new set of audio capacitors in it. You can keep wondering because I’m not changing them! It can live on in the garage then. James
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Jan 30, 2023 20:04:06 GMT
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We have a very similar fisher amp in the loft, worked when it went up there 20 years ago making me think about getting it out now!
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Jan 30, 2023 21:23:31 GMT
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Poor thing, abandoned in the loft for 20 years when it could be being loved and listened to. You should get it out for old times sake. Probably find all the controls are knackered and it sounds right wibblepoo. Don't blame me if that's what happens!
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Oh hi! You crept up on me, I didn’t see you come in. I know why you are here. You want to know, why now that the weather is better, am I not under the MR2. Well…. We had some nice gents replace the area outside the back door. It was York Stone and it collected water in the winter, went green and slippy and did its best to put you on your behind. Also all the sleepers and trellis and woody sort of material had turned to food for creepy crawlies. It was in need of a refurbishment. But that has left me with three little jobs to do. Well, four actually. When we looked in the light of a new day weren’t completely happy with one part of what they’d done so I took up a few slabs and relayed them. Yeah… Lunatic. So the three jobs are, The old log store was rotten so I need to make a new one. That’s still to do. I need to make a fence thing round the edge of the patio area to stop me stumbling into the flower beds as I get old and infirm. That’s also still to do. And the old stand for the outside sink was now far too ugly to be on my nice new patio. The Butler said the Footman’s niece was frightened to go near the old one in case she caught a dose of creeping lurgy and that, as a benevolent employer, I should make a new sink stand forthwith. I don’t know why I don’t just fire the Footman. Anyway, here is the old stand made out of fence posts… And the new one under construction which is also made out of fence posts. Just new expensive ones. It’s getting a shelf and a stone top too. Like this… Don’t you think that’s the best outside sink for miles around? I mean, that’s not hard as Sweetpea Towers stands in acres of Capability Brown gardens with the peasants kept at a safe distance. You’ve all met ‘Big Orange the CMT router’ because it seized up while I was doing the Mother in Laws kitchen. Well, it’s a great tool that I wouldn’t be without but it is heavy and sometimes you need something smaller. So I’ve been using ‘Baby Blue’ the old Hitachi router recently. (There’s Big Orange doing a bit of photo bombing.) Except it too started making some unfortunate noises and was seizing up. Well doesn’t that just put a kink in your nice straight furrows? It turned out that the big bearing on the front was full of dust and really stiff. The problem is that it comes off the back of the collet holder (towards the fan) and that’s a press fit on the armature. I didn’t want to disturb it so I popped the rubber shield out and the bearing got washed out with WD40. Then I repacked it with grease and put the shield put back in. You wouldn’t want it as a wheel bearing but it’s ok for the front of Baby Blue. The brushes have some nasty chips out of them but it’s working ok. New brushes are only a few English Pounds so I might send the Footman to the shops to get some. So that’s Baby Blue and Big Orange both fit for duty again. So what’s todays excuse then? Oh yeah, the new King had a Coronation so we have neighbours coming over for a ‘thing in the garden’. Hope the neighbours are all fit and healthy ‘cos it’s a mile walk down the drive to Sweetpea Towers and then they have to swim across the moat. James
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 1,949
Member is Online
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so we have neighbours coming over for a ‘thing in the garden’. Swinging? The footman can hold your coat.
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Swinging? The footman can hold your coat. You know, I nearly wrote that line as 'having the neighbours round for a dogging party' or something similar but decided it'd lower the tone too much. Thanks for lowering it for me! God, I hope none of them read this rubbish. I think they all have more taste.
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No crocodiles in the moat to make it more interesting?
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No crocodiles in the moat to make it more interesting? No. They eat the piranhas.
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,824
Member is Online
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Be careful you haven't over greased that bearing, I was taught to only pack 2/3rds of the bearing to avoid over greasing which can cause problems with overheating and increased load on the motor.
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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I was never taught! My thinking was that the seals aren't that well sealed anymore and it'll probably spit out what it doesn't want. But also the excess grease might just stop dust getting back into the bearing.
Or it might be a dust magnet and make matters worse. Who knows. It spins freely enough and isn't making a racket so I'm happy for the moment.
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May 27, 2023 13:33:26 GMT
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bestest garden lights ever !
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In the last exciting episode I’d made a new sink stand for the outside sink to go on the new patio… Next on the list was to make some railings in the same style as t’other side of t’house. Eventually looking like this. Took ages. Had to make the railings, drilling all the spindles to get the screws in the middle of them all… And cutting the detail on the top of the posts. Did that on the table saw. I don’t know how I ever lived without that tool. Needs a new blade now though. The posts are bolted to T brackets thats screwed to the floor. Just drilling the slabs took ages and wasn’t entirely straight forward. Anyway, that done, what next? Oh yes, make a new log store. Basically it’s the same design as the old one but not rotten at the bottom. I thought I’d paint this one in an attempt to stop it from going rotten at the bottom. I think the fair was in town the day I painted this. In the distance all I could hear was crappy music and some bloke trying to get me excited all day. Eventually I decided to fight back with some Marillion. I doubt if they heard it. In the mean time, round at the Gatehouse, a piece of guttering had come adrift and the barge boarding needed painting. Ok, let’s be honest, the woodwork was 140 years old and hadn’t been painted for decades so was probably rotten. Mrs Sweetpea’s mum, the Duchess, had found a chap who would fix it, but he’d need to hire a tower to get to it. Well that’s no problem, I have a tower! So we took it round and I built it. Trashed the garage in the process because the tower normally is hung from the ceiling. Anyway, the chap went round the following day and discovered that the 140 year old woodwork was rotten and he couldn’t replace it off the tower. He’d need scaffolding. So I went back to the gate house and took the tower down again. Yeah, that was a waste of a day that would have been better spent building the log store. I was a bit annoyed if I’m honest. Given that the guttering had become detached from the 140 year old woodwork it was pretty obvious that the woodwork was knackered. You didn’t need to climb up to realise that. Never mind. So this weekend I finished the log store and loaded it with logs that didn’t get used last winter. Good, all I have to do now is chop all the dead wood that got pulled out when the patio was relaid. Then it can dry out over summer and keep us warm next winter. This pile. Shouldn’t take long. Oh and this pile. Best crack on because that’s the last of my chores and then I can play with the MR2… Remember that? James
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You still have that MR2? 😉
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14 Audi A3 Sportback - Easy driver 05 Audi TT MK1 3.2 DSG - Damn quick 73 Triumph 2000 - Needs work 03 Range Rover 4.4 V8 petrol. Had to get it out of my system.
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You still have that MR2? 😉 I do! Just by way of proof... linky
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Cards on the table… My latest excuse is that I went on holiday. Mrs Sweetpea fancied some winter warmth and it seemed a bit silly to stay at home working on the MR2 so I, begrudgingly, went with her. The idea of not keeping in touch with you all was more than I could cope with so after a harrowing day lounging on a golden beach I did write a couple of the MR2 posts. Anyway we are back now. If you are a long time reader of this thread you might remember that back in 2018 we had a rat make it’s home under the decking just by the patio doors. This was a bit close for comfort and a bit annoying to hear it gnawing at the joists so I decided that I’d put it out of my misery. Well look, I’m a 6 foot monkey with opposable thumbs and a huge brain and it was a stupid rat. Just bait a couple of traps, leave them lying around in critical places under the decking and Mr Ratty was bound to stick his head in one of them and get squashed. Easy win. Apparently not. The war culminated in Mr Ratty stuffing loads of leaves in the trap until he set it off thereby diffusing it. You have to be impressed by that. Eventually Mr Ratty just moved house. I guess he figured that the afore mentioned 6 foot monkey was so dismally thick that he went to find some more intelligent neighbours. I don’t know where he went, he didn’t keep in touch. Back to now… When we got back Mrs Sweetpea went down to the shed (a brick structure at the bottom of the garden) to do something with the bird food and discovered that the bottom of a wooden cabinet had been gnawed. Well that’s a pain in the biscuits. Especially when I lost the last round because that rats are hugely intelligent and I’m as dumb as a goat. I set up a couple of traps knowing full well that Mr Ratty wasn’t going to stick his head in them. So far I haven’t proved myself wrong. There are no squashed rats in the shed. Not to worry I have another plan… Chemical warfare. I’m told rats don’t like things being moved around and don’t like human or chemical smells. So for a few evenings this week I’ve filled the shed with fly spray which has a very chemically perfumed smell that hangs around for ages. And for the last couple of nights I’ve watered down some bleach (still pretty concentrated) and squirted it all around the shed. The intention is to drive him out if he happens to be living there (or stop him thinking of setting up home). I’ve found where he’s getting in. The back wall of the shed is actually the garden wall. They put a wooden wall plate on top of the wall to take the rafters of a small pitched roof. Well that’s rotting away and much of it has been patched with cement. The very end has now rotted away so when Mr Ratty runs along the fence top he gets to a nice hole leading to a warm shed. I haven’t blocked it up yet because I don’t want to trap him in there - but it will get cemented like the rest. Today I started the ‘disturbing things’ phase of Operation ‘Up Your’s Ratty’ and dragged out the jet wash, the lawn mower and a load of bags of stuff that were under a shelf. I’ll do some more tomorrow. Now here’s the thing I don’t understand. Round the deck plate of the lawn mower and across the floor of the shed Mr Ratty has created a pile of sand about 4 inches high. I mean, like, there’s most of a 20Kg bag of the stuff on the floor. But I can’t see where it’s come from. I don’t know that there was a bag of sand in there and certainly not just above where it is now. This was taken just after I pulled the lawn mower out. See what I mean? Has this rat got a bloody JCB in there that I haven’t found yet? I don’t understand. The broken rat trap in the foreground of that photo… Well I wasn’t going to drag the mower out by hand and find that Mr Ratty’s extended family was living under it. I’d have screamed like a little girl and beaten Usain Bolt over 200M. So I tied a rope to the handle and pulled it out from a considerable distance. Well the trap attempted to squash the mower. It was a valiant attempt by the plucky little trap but it didn’t survive. Never mind, the rat isn’t daft enough to stick his head in it so it doesn’t really matter that I’m one trap down. James
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Feb 25, 2024 22:41:26 GMT
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Operation ‘Up Yours Ratty’ continues at considerable pace. The humongous pile of sand in the middle of the floor… …Actually came from a couple of bags under the shelf off to the right. That means Mr Ratty moved it half way across the shed. I have to admit I’m very impressed with rats. Incredibly clever and incredibly industrious. Can you imagine how much I could achieve if I was a rat instead of a lazy doofus. No matter how impressed I am with Mr Ratty he’s still not living in my shed. We dug all the stuff out. No sign of an occupied nest but there were a couple of piles of peanuts stored for a midnight feast and one spot where I think he could have been planning a cozy home. In the back corner of the shed was a hole big enough to chuck a dog through (assuming it was a small dog and you were a reasonable aim) so that got cemented up on both sides. Speaking to Mrs Sweetpea I think we might take the opportunity to paint the interior to clean things up. That means giving it a damn good wash down first. I got the jet wash out and went to town. I’m not sure what the health and safety people would say about jet washing your electricity while standing in a puddle of water. I actually teach an electrical safety course at work and nowhere does it say you can’t jet wash your electricity while standing in a puddle so I guess it must be ok. Right? And, anyway, nobody wants dirty electricity do they? James
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Mar 11, 2024 21:09:16 GMT
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Well, I hear you cry, what’s going on at Sweetpea towers? I did hear you cry that didn’t I? No? Well tough ‘cos I’m going to tell you anyway. Let’s start with Mr Ratty and the shed. Last we heard I’d emptied it and jet washed it all down. Now it’s painted shiny white. This, I have to tell you, was a right pain in the bum. It’s not been the best painting weather and the shed is always in the shade. It’s also damp so in general it’s cold and wet in there. I put the first coat on and 2 days later it was still wet. I don’t mean tacky, you could have wiped it off the walls and put it back in the tin. The second coat that I put on this weekend is still far from dry. Maybe it'll be ok by the summer? Poor Mr Ratty has lost his home. And his landscape gardening project playing with my bags of sand. And I’ve lost a couple of weekends cleaning and painting it. In fact the only person who has done well from this is Mrs Sweetpea who had her shed tarted up. Meanwhile, back in the garage… I now have both battery trays off the bus. I’d brought one home after the last trip and now I have two. Does that mean I’ve had another visit to the bus? Yes, yes it does. In fact I’ve had three weekends on bus duties.Two weekends under it and one at The Friends Of Chatham Traction AGM in between. I think I deserve a gold star for my dedication. Anyway, there’ll be another bus post coming along just as soon as I get round to writing it. Also in the garage I have a bed. Sadly I don’t have room to set it up in there and snooze in it as much as I’d like to. This is the old "make one bed out of the wreckage of two" job. There is a rail that runs along the centre. All the wooden slats land on it. Well that rail always gets bent. I imagine it’s due to, er… due to, well, er, over enthusiastic sexual activities? I wish I hadn’t started that train of thought. It belongs to my 85 year old neighbour too. No it’s alright, it doesn’t really. I made that bit up. She’s 76. Not to worry, it’ll soon be stronger than when it was new. I have a trolley. A sort of fold up sack barrow thing. When I visit the bus garage there is very limited parking on site so I leave the car just up the road and cart my massive tool boxes around on the trolley. Looks like there was one too many spanners this time. Well that wilts your blossoms doesn’t it? I’m quite fond of this little thing. The trolley came from Halfords and cost about £15. The first one I had took a huge amount of abuse before the bearings collapsed and the wheel fell off. This one hasn’t done quite so well but I’m still quite impressed with what it deals with. So we’ll be off to Halfords to buy a new one? Like hell we will. Hold onto your knickers chaps, but we’ll be fixing this one and, hopefully, upgrading it so it can better cope with my unreasonable demands. James
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