What I Did This Weekend - In Pictures!

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Today is grey, wet, misty (clag on deck) and peculiarly dark even for mid winter. So I've opted to have a total 'NERD' day. I've hooked up a HACK RF1 SDR to a bit of wire going out of the conservatory as an aerial which then ends up in the warmth and comfort of the living room. Using SDRconsole V3 software on the PC I'm just breezing up and down the HF bands see what's out there. On the centre monitor you can see DDK9 Hamburg FSK weather (telex) to the left of the screen. V3 now has a facility to decode this, which is shown on the left monitor. It's always good to know what the weather is like up the Baltic. (Again to use a highly technical meteorological term ... it's f****** ORRIBLE.)

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The cold frame that I have been using as a compost heap for the last year was built with some old window panels from a house across the road in mind. Although the heap has rotted down quite well, it does have a high surface area to volume ratio, so it's pretty much stopped in the winter. I decided to 'glaze' it again, to warm it up a bit - we'll see what happens now.

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Moving the glass revealed a stash of long bits of wood, which, although they have been there, outside, for at least five years, were in good dry condition. They have been dusted off and placed in the conservatory for a further drying session.

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They were under the eaves at the eastern end of the house, with the glass as a 'lean-to' over them and on blocks off the ground, so they were fairly dry anyway.

A good find, I have plans for some of the bits now.

They were used to suspend nets and fleece over the veg plots, when production was in full swing.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I ventured into the 'city' for the first time since I was boosted in early December. A few odd bits were picked up. I was now able to replace the over-large clamps that were holding the 'portable' devices in place on the Shed and Greenhouse benches with more delicate items.

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The little "flags" may help to reduce fatal head injuries from ducking under the benches in the wrong place.

I also got another of the long slinky springs, as used on the gas poker earlier - this will be used to rodent-proof the flexible hose for the Shed's gas bottle, which is in an isolated and quite habitable area.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The second-nearest acceptable pub has a very effective woodburner stove. There is a thermo-electric fan on the top, to stir the air round a bit. A couple of weeks ago, it dismembered itself. Whilst partaking of my pint, I did manage to get it back together and working nicely, although I could see what the problem was and we left it going in a 'see what happens' test phase. It came apart again three days later. So, a less temporary repair has been attempted this time. The problem is that the rear plate of the motor, carrying the back bearing and the brushes, is made of plastic and it (presumably) softens in the heat and works its way past the rather feeble swages that are bent into the motor casing, with the intention of holding it in place.

Having got it back together again, I have tried to wire the back-plate in place this time, so it will stay there this time, even under high-temperature operations. The wire misses the terminals, so it should be OK - and it has been running all day on my stove here.

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The rear bearing does have a slight rattle now, after a couple of years of high-speed operation, so another modification has been attempted, to calm it down a bit.

An old spare stove lid has had a couple more legs added, at the same height as the 'lump' for the handle socket. This means that it will sit flat on three 'feet', but with a bit of an air-gap under it. It runs OK here, so it should be OK on the borderline volcano that the pub stove is.

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BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I spotted an all stainless steel twin paddle Morse key on Ebay and was fascinated by it. I had a whole bunch of unused Nectar points so I bought it. Of course it was coming from China, and they estimated delivery sometime between the end of March and May !!! :eek:

It arrived earlier this week ... :)

It's a really nicely made thing, and as a mount has small but very powerful magnets on the bottom of the three pillars around which it is constructed. So what I fancied doing was putting it on top of a heavy block of steel. But ... how do you come by a 'block of steel ?' Nevertheless I went on Ebay and searched for 'block of steel' and would you believe it, for seven quid I could buy a 2½ by 2½ by ¾ of an inch block of high carbon steel, nicely finished and polished. They were calling it a bench block anvil, but as you can see it's perfect for the Morse key. Stuck four non slip pads on the bottom of it and the key is portable, but doesn't move when in use.

Been tickling the airwaves with it today, it's very smooth and a pleasure to use.
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
But ... how do you come by a 'block of steel ?' Nevertheless I went on Ebay and searched for 'block of steel' and would you believe it, for seven quid I could buy a 2½ by 2½ by ¾ of an inch block of high carbon steel, nicely finished and polished. They were calling it a bench block anvil, but as you can see it's perfect for the Morse key. Stuck four non slip pads on the bottom of it and the key is portable, but doesn't move when in use.
Between the kettle and the hotplate here is a 1" thick, flame-cut, rectangular plate, about 6" x 9" - scrap from a transformer tank.

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I did find a place in the Black Country on eBay that would cut stuff to size, at quite reasonable prices, and I was going to get them to do a disc to fit over the hotplate, but this slab does (most of) the job - it retains a huge amount of heat and slows the kettle down a bit, too.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
I spotted an all stainless steel twin paddle Morse key on Ebay and was fascinated by it. I had a whole bunch of unused Nectar points so I bought it. Of course it was coming from China, and they estimated delivery sometime between the end of March and May !!! :eek:

It arrived earlier this week ... :)

It's a really nicely made thing, and as a mount has small but very powerful magnets on the bottom of the three pillars around which it is constructed. So what I fancied doing was putting it on top of a heavy block of steel. But ... how do you come by a 'block of steel ?' Nevertheless I went on Ebay and searched for 'block of steel' and would you believe it, for seven quid I could buy a 2½ by 2½ by ¾ of an inch block of high carbon steel, nicely finished and polished. They were calling it a bench block anvil, but as you can see it's perfect for the Morse key. Stuck four non slip pads on the bottom of it and the key is portable, but doesn't move when in use.

Been tickling the airwaves with it today, it's very smooth and a pleasure to use.
View attachment 12090
I have no idea what your post is about, but thank you for taking me away from the argument between the carer and the minime..... Can I have a place in your bunker, cos I think ww3 may start in my house tonight.

Looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Jeez @Gramaisc I'm looking at that fire in your burner and I can see the figure of a man holding his arm up toward us and mouth wide open in a continuous scream. !!!

Just what are you getting up to in that shed ? :eek:🤯😳😬
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
A couple more clamping bases done.

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These can now be secured almost anywhere along the front of the benches in the Shed and the Greenhouse - and removed when they're not necessary.

Eventually, the second greenhouse will have a similar bench system, but the construction of that is both more complicated and less immediately necessary.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Having obtained a decent bit of gasket material, I set about replacing the gasket under this inspection cover on the range flue.

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It was actually quite an awkward procedure. Apart from the outside shape and the screw holes, the central area of the cover projects through, to continue the internal sweep of the elbow and the gasket also ends up in a double curvature form. This, coupled with the fact that the old one had become a "gasket of many parts", meant that I didn't have a trustworthy template to use. There does need to be a reasonable seal, as there is a short period of positive pressure there, when the fan runs for a few seconds to clear the combustion chamber of any potential residual fumes, before the burner pump supplies the intended fuel and ignites it. After that time, there may be enough thermal convection to drop the pressure there below the ambient - even if it isn't actually negative then, it will still be very low. I did trim the gasket in stages and make a 'reasonable job' of it, in the end.

I will have a sniff round it tonight.

I also took the opportunity, whilst the cover was off, to remove what little debris had descended from the chimney in the six or seven years since I last reassembled the old gasket.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I have a (very) small compressor and it's had a leak at the pressure switch for a long while, so I resolved to fix that. This repair resulted in it being able to reach its rated 120psi again. However, it also resulted in it blowing off the head of this plug.

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Luckily, although this happened outside, I found all the bits, and I managed to get the broken threaded section out.

The plug also holds in the non-return valve, which gives the motor an easier time of starting when there is pressure in the tank. At 120psi, it only has about 20lbs on it, but the wall was really a bit too thin. "Never mind", I thought, "I'll just get another plug, even if I have to drill a (better) hole for the spring."

No chance! It has a really weird thread, 9/16ths X 26 tpi - and the housing was also too thin to tap a more sensible thread into.

So, as the actual loading isn't much, I decided to see if I could just tie the head back in place sufficiently well.

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Amazingly enough, it worked - and it now doesn't leak at all, although there is another leak in the hose that the extra tank pressure has revealed, but that's not much and should be easy enough to subdue.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I see the makings of a marine engineer here ... :P (Standard motto: If it doesn't work, bypass it or blank it off.)

:lol:
The problem was that I probably do need the non-return valve to work, or I could have just joined the pipes together somewhere else.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
That's the biggest greenback sea serpent I've ever seen, and I've seen a few through various ship's bar windows !! :urgh::P
 
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