Unkel Kunkel

A suggestion :For the bit that’s missing, I would go for an epoxy filler - I find the best one is made by Plastic Padding -called ‘ Super Steel’ - available at Halfords. The usual method to prevent a crack spreading in most materials is to drill a tiny hole - to reduce the stresses at the end of the crack - so this should be considered - and the crack and hole filled with the epoxy after cleaning with acetone.

At least you spoke to a human being … Some years ago I had a weird conversation with an early AI answer machine type ‘ bot ‘ thing after ringing a UK Gov. Helpline. In theory ,’ it ‘ ( or ‘she’ - it had a female voice ) , listens to your questions and replies with something like ‘ Let me see , I think you are inquiring about …’ and advising with a list of different situations and options. Unfortunately, it must have picked up on specific words that I repeated back in my surprised responses to each of her strange questions… ‘ WHAT… ? ‘I am not …’ So, when ‘she ‘ came up with , ‘ Let me see ,I think you are saying is that you are at home, out of work , retired - and pregnant and….’ I hung up, Thoroughly confused and fearful for the effects on my blood pressure Aargh!

I am ashamed to say there-in lies my problem, Pete!

The gadget was chosen primarily to address my forgetfulness and laziness. The draining of water has secondary gains in that it removes water from the air supply and by reducing corrosion lessens the amount debris in the air supply to air tools and lengthens the working life of the pressure vessel of my compressor - which is an expensive one to replace , whether it pin- holes or violently ruptures. I don’ t know any figures relating to incidence of such events or morbidity/ mortality data, but I am sure Pete is quite correct in saying that they are rare. This means that such bad events probably fall into the ‘ low risk ‘ / ‘ high hazard’ area i.e. very unlikely, but when they do occur the consequences can be extremely serious. Therefore , there is case for awareness and adoption of sensible reasonable precautions as good routine workshop practice - to maintain those considerable good odds firmly in one’s favour!

I, like many had not really thought much about ‘ pressure vessels’ , diy compressors and the importance of draining, but on reflection, it is obvious that having air in a 100 litre cylinder compressed at 10 bar, if the tank were to rupture, the increase in volume of that air as the pressure reverts to atmospheric is going to be large - and very sudden.

I know - air compressors need the condensate draining off at intervals otherwise it accumulates and it results in rusting of the lower part of the air tank and this can lead to weakening, leaking and … worst possible case - the tank dramatically explodes. Problem is, I forget .Also , the valve is awkward to reach; it’s fiddly to undo and when released it sprays water into my palm and up my sleeve. So, being lazy and forgetful , one of these automatic valves seemed an attractive gadget for me to try: The tank drain valve is removed and replaced this - which is a solenoid- operated valve with electronic timing that allow choice of different intervals to ‘blow off’ and also set the duration of the opening in seconds and there is a ‘ test’ button. Closing the blue valve allows the end cap on the right can be removed and a stainless mesh filter can be removed for cleaning. The little periodic brief releases blasts the moisture out.A hose to outside the garage or a better outlet than the one shown could be devised The power supply is taken from the compressor switch. Advantages - It works - really well. Disadvantages -1.Fitting would be quicker if the instructions that came with the one I bought had been supplied in a language other than Chinese.( There are loads of other suppliers, though) 2. The ‘pssst ! ‘ air release takes you by surprise first few times.

No, not foolish at all ,it is quite interesting … There are folk who have converted a micro wave oven transformer into a spot welder; there used to be a gadget ( Kel Arc? ) that used the power from a 12v car battery through a sort of solenoid vibrating switch arrangement that was said to arc weld, and there are other things who probably share the same common feature - low cost. For the car body type use, spot welders are usually expensive - as in very expensive, so that would in itself make me rather wary. They deliver a very high current at 1-2 volts - for a very short time. I would think that timing might be a critical feature. The phraseology and use of English in an advert perhaps should not be used to predict the quality of a product - but from my experience , it does seem to ! It is very understandable that the ‘ occasional user’ , can be tempted to be motivated mainly by cost when choosing equipment they won’t use very much. However, the paradox is that they end up buying something that even a very experienced, professional welder would struggle to get decent results with; the purchaser quickly gets disheartened; the bargain quickly gets relegated to the back of the garage or ends up as ‘hardly used’ on E -bay.

Depending on the joint, I use one of these. Or : this also works well, if there is enough room: - Steady a hefty lump hammer firmly behind the steering arm at A and then with a slightly less bulky hammer, give a well aimed hefty single wack directly in line on the other side of the arm at B ( NB this not hammering the joint itself - either lower part - or the taper - it just doesn’t seem to work) The impact should make the taper release.

- Those pipes seem to be an ‘interference fit’. A highfalutin term for ‘jammed-in’. Drilling and tapping would seem an option. There are fuel resistant sealants -Plastic Padding do one - and blue Hylomar used to be OK with petrol. Drilling and ‘ pinning’ the pipe in place would be a possibility, if rather involved. It was often done with early V6 Scimitar carbs where the brass inlet pipe similarly used to come adrift resulting in unwelcome ‘ thermal reconfiguration’ of the fiberglass bodywork. This pump pipe issue seems another problem area with some replacement fuel pumps. Others are: 1. pressure way above above spec. leading to carb needle valve leakage. 2. poorly finished (ie rough / ridged ) operating arm surface which has to be dressed before use to prevent damaging the camshaft

Having a spare air cleaner box began led to ‘ doodling’ in metal regarding the air box / piping of MK 1V Spitfire. The internals of the mk1V Spitfire air box were opened up and reworked and welded The front was reshaped and adapted the to accept wider intake pipes. They are not a huge lot wider - but Hagen and Poiseuille tell us that a small change in pipe radius can have a significant effect on flow. New wider flexible piping was needed. That came from the garden centre (pool piping) .It looks very similar to the original, is quite inexpensive and a bit smoother on the inside than the original type pipe. A more direct route for the pipes means a hole though the radiator support and repositioning the rad water overflow/ expansion tank to the other side - the space seems more appropriate for it that side. To do that means unsoldering the pipe and routing in a new copper pipe from the rad filler neck ( 8mm central heating micro-bore capillary solder type fittings)m supporting bracket to rad. frame. Scrap aluminium sheet for the air deflectors from cereal packet templates and similar with pipe scrap used to fabricate the ‘ cow bell’ intake .( This was formed on a piece of drum kit of the same name) A stainless edged detachable ‘bug catcher’ mesh cover was formed over a wooden dolly. Anti vibration mounts hold the oil cooler to the radiator bracket and the the chassis rails. I doubt whether it has any significant beneficial effect, but the process was interesting.

I find the metal nibbler an extremely useful tool. Just in case I’m not the last person to know this… It does have one problem … From painful experience, I can say it produces lots of extremely sharp 5mm nasty little circular pieces of swarf which can be really troublesome. Nothing could have been better devised to stick into the soles of your Doc Martens and be transferred indoors where they can get into the carpet even stick into vinyl, then on into the soles of bare feet of humans and pets and into clothing and bedding.It will not endear you to your better half… The answer apart from being aware, is to a strong magnet nearby to collect the horrible stuff - the amount produced is quite surprising. Must check my shoes..

Hydrochloric acid,HCl, as found in brick cleaner, known by some by some by its old name of ‘muriatic acid’ , is cheap and works well - particularly on tools that are rusted and cement-encrusted, but it does have some draw backs. It is a strong acid and that means it can cause burns- splashes can cause eye damage. It will cause flash- rusting ( unless the acid is removed or neutralised promptly after treating ) but it can also have a very annoying effect on anything ferrous within a 2 metre radius in your garage or workshop (from the very reactive HCL fumes, resulting in red brown coat ping in a red rust. In theory, HCL can cause springs and other high tensile steel alloys to become liable to snap - because of of ‘ hydrogen embrittlement’.Certainly true of small springs and enough to deter me for use on road springs. Citric acid is very user-friendly, even benign , and has comparable results, - if used warmed.

Citric acid is cheaply available on line as food grade citric acid crystals. From my experience, it’s effectiveness as a rust remover is temperature dependent in the sense that at 10C it is quite disappointing compared with very impressive results at 40 -50 C .( immersion heater) I have no experience of using higher temperatures. The action is both to form Iron citrate and some chelation. Ideally scrub the debris off the part you are de-rusting at intervals. Clean off with de-ionised water and dry quickly with a hot air gun, to avoid flash rusting , before the final stage of the process which is application/ immersion in phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid is available as Jenolite which is very expensive; also as Machine Mart’s Rust Remover which is much cheaper (and I think very similar) or the solution dairy farmers use to clean their milking apparatus milkstone disolver ( though check the ingredients - I recall looking at this some years ago and there seemed to be formulations that aren’t phosphoric acid. Don’t wash off the phosphoric acid.After an hour or so, but Before it dries, re-apply it -then dry it off with rags.Where it is black or has a white powdery deposit repeat the phosphate part of the sequence. You will need to do this part several times to achieve a stable phosphate anti rust layer. Citrate is very much safer to use than say hydrochloric acid .The waste solution Fe citrate and chelates is not considered environmentally damaging. An alternative for inaccessible bits can be phosphoric acid followed by the various ‘ converters’ which are largely tannic acid based - forms a blue black chelate which can be painted.Tannic acid is also cheaply available.The main hazard is that it stains black almost anything it comes into contact with - esp. fingers which will remain stained for days. Evapo-Rust keep their list of ingredients close to their chest, but some regard it as citrate plus at least one chelating agent, possibly EDTA, buffered with an alkali to give a near neutral pH. Works really well - but not cheao.

like that

My episode also involved a scissor jack that just suddenly slid - it was on paving that may have tilted, perhaps. It just happened so fast…