|
|
|
|
|
I decided I needed a new overnight bag...well, new to me. Bay of flea tenner find.  Not quite what Mrs Bravo expected.. Well it is only overnight on the way home. Size 13 shoe for scale.....hehehe. Part in Melbourne coming home on a ski pass.... Reminds me of this..... Waiting.....  |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So,two weeks in Aus is over. Only so much of this you can do...
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Great. Photo uploads from IPad no longer supported.....
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 29, 2016 17:17:06 GMT
|
|
|
| |
|
|
bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,967
Club RR Member Number: 71
|
|
Jul 29, 2016 17:36:55 GMT
|
|
What helicopter and boat parts would be useful for the Mazda?
It is a good point about ski bags, sporting goods are rarely considered as normal chargeable baggage on flights
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 29, 2016 18:07:45 GMT
|
|
Still trying to get iPad photos sorted out that they will upload. Photos I want to upload don't seem to be playing ball. Normal service to resume soon,hopefully!
|
| |
|
|
mattiwagon
Part of things
Just got a work truck
Posts: 445 
|
|
Jul 29, 2016 18:10:11 GMT
|
|
Good to see your back fella
|
| |
If they cant be nice f**k em!
84 low t25 panel 1.9td beige and rust combo
97 Goped Bigfoot G260RC with clutch conversion
97 Impreza turbo 2000 builders wagon 76k sold
04 Fabia vRs 50mpg pocket rocket
04 battered T5 pickup in blue!
Chainsaws lotsa Chainsaws
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Actually they are for Australian Air services. We thought the same and then got slammed for the extra bag (still under weight) when we flew to Japan. I was wondering if he built the helicopter first.  Looks like you had a good time though. Pretty green up there at the moment by the looks of things, which is good. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So. A bit of an update. With or without some/all photos dependant on iPads mood. Trip to Aus was great. Parts collected from Aus not so great apart from all the apex seals ,side seals and corner seals I got from South Coast Rotary. Kevin,the owner is a top guy to deal with,sent everything carefully packed up to the hotel I was staying at. So, have enough seals for five rotors. Plan is one two rotor motor to get going with as I have one nearly fully engineered,followed by the three rotor motor later on. Want to see photos? iPad pulling a little Britain and says no..... About a year ago I found a cowl panel that goes under the windscreen. It was in Melbourne. I emailed the guy and his words were, "It's mint mate". A deal was done and sent to a friend of mine in Melbourne. Long story short,I had it couriered to Cairns so it could come back to Blighty in a ski bag. Ski bags,being over two meters long are a cheap way to get long parts back. Note I said cheap,not free. You pay for oversize baggage,but still the cheapest,quickest way to get a long part back over long distances. Had the untrimmed part couriered up to Cairns...  Started to trim it down...  Stopped trimming it down. Took ski bag and part and threw both away. Serious sense of humour failure. Part was "Mint". As in polo mint. Full of fecking rusty holes that,in the great Australian tradition,had been smeared with bog and sprayed over. Never trust an Australian,if he tells you something is "mint". His definition of mint,when translated into English,is "totally shagged,of no use to man or beast". Actually, maybe ,better advice would be never trust an Australian... So £150 worth of rusty panel into the skip, followed by the ski bag.... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So, here's to nasty surprises. The other nasty suprise was just before I went down under. I decided to finish cleaning all the old paint off the cylindrical grinder and get it sent up to get all the slides reground. That didn't happen. Remember my suspicions that it had been dropped? Well, it has been well and truly dropped. I couldn't quite understand the wear pattern on the bed of the machine. It should normally be worn more at the ends and less in the middle. This was worn both ends,a bit of a gap,then more in the middle. Removal of last of the paint uncovered the fact that it's been Australianed in its previous life. It has been dropped from what looks like a fairly considerable height,and the main casting severely damaged. Yep, you guessed it,very dodgy welding repairs with more cracks than a whores convention,all plastered over with bog....So, we all know where that's headed...
It does, however have a happy ending. I have a customer who repairs castings. He looked at it and said yes,it is repairable,but financially it wouldn't make sense. So,that's the end of that,or so I thought. Fast forward a couple of days after I left for Aus,and I got an email from a guy asking about the cylindrical grinder. The casting repair bloke mentioned it to him, and gave him my details. Turns out he has one that belonged to his dad. Missing most of the parts over the years. He made an offer I couldn't refuse. We came to an arrangement. He will use all the bits from mine to rebuild his. So it's going to a good home. He is about 4 hours from me,but part of the deal was that I can grind my eccentric shaft on it once I am ready..
The upstart from that was I have been looking for a mig welder for awhile. Had a bit of money saved. But,with part of the proceeds from the grinder, I went and bought the welder I actually wanted......
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 31, 2016 13:07:27 GMT
|
|
Well it sucks that the Mazda related part of your trip didn't go so well. I hope the rest wasn't so bad?
Although you WERE in Cairns...
Did you manage to get to that car show?
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 31, 2016 14:28:54 GMT
|
Cairns is in part of Queensland,the sunshine state. It is also situated in a swamp. Even though it was winter and wasn't supposed to rain,it did...for more than a week. Locals were not overly suprised,apparently the Cairns show is better than any rain dance. So, first two days of the show it was chucking it down,and the Friday,being my last day,the sun came out,but I had arranged to go over to Green Island on the Cat. So,to answer your question,no I didn't make the show Saw this and thought of you...  |
| |
Last Edit: Jul 31, 2016 15:33:19 GMT by Deleted
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 31, 2016 23:16:46 GMT
|
|
For me "mint" rings alarm bells. I've never used the word mint to describe something I'm selling, so if someone described what they're selling as "mint", I'd think of Mike Brewer trying to sell chod as top notch. Sucks for you, but hindsight is 20/20.
A scottish lad I met was in Cairns about a week after you, and had nothing but sunshine.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aye,hindsight is a wonderful tool. Write it of to experience and move on. Weather first week was fine. Rain itself wasn't a huge issue. Just landed up doing things I probably wouldn't have,had it not been raining. It was still warm. Problem was the humidity. Walk 50 meters from the hotel to the car and you and your hair is sopping wet with sweat. You don't dry,neither do your clothes. Weird bit for me was,you jump in the shower in the afternoon and the shower is soon covered in red mud. Couldn't quite get my head around it being so damp and humid,yet the air was full of red dust that sticks to you live the proverbial to an army blanket. Can see why the locals prefer to live up on the Atherton tablelands. Saw a bit of retroness about    |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is a shame after all the effort you put into the grinder it was not to be. What are the chances though of coming across someone who needs it without the casting? Sounds like the best outcome and now you have a large space to put your new mig welder in. Keep up the good work.
|
| |
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just read the whole lot, amazing, DEFINATELY bookmarked.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is a shame after all the effort you put into the grinder it was not to be. What are the chances though of coming across someone who needs it without the casting? Sounds like the best outcome and now you have a large space to put your new mig welder in. Keep up the good work. I have learnt with this build , to expect the unexpected. Everything happens for a reason. Everytime I think something has gone wrong,or at least not the way I wanted,something better has happened. Look back to the old Hollander ,Maarten, who got his friend to bring me that rotten front end for nothing. Within a month,through people I got to know through him,I had parts I could only previously have dreamed of. I was gutted when I saw the bodged repairs on the grinder chassis. All that work for nothing. Yet a couple of days later I meet someone who I can help,and in return he helps me out more than he really knows. The acme nut goes to a good home. This build is like a journey,I look forward to reaching my destination,but am really enjoying the journey. I was was upset by being screwed over by the Aussie joker,but I got to meet Ken, a proper Aussie Oldboy. He says bug gar a lot. It's about the cleanest word he uses. It was an honour to meet him and very educational. Sometimes you can't be sour,you just need to make lemonade...Peace and Vegetable rights. Johnny out..... |
| |
Last Edit: Aug 1, 2016 19:52:18 GMT by Deleted
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mint - most used in the following context - ' Mint condition outside apart from scrape on wheel arch , dent in door and bubbling paint on arch '.
'THATS NOT BLOODY MINT THEN IS IT ?'
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just joined as I've spent 3 hours of my last day in Monaco reading your thread and am in total wonderment at your engineering skills. Was very interesting in the grinder story as that is what I know. Spent last 21 years as a surface grinder but running SNOW grinders  Keep up the great work! |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hope this is going to be a quick, weekend job  Found some suitable rusty pipe outside. Gave it a bit of a skim in the lathe  Made up some bolts to sort out a slight height issue   That gets the secondhand wheels the same height  |
| |
|
|
