Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

Thanks guys. In the pic its showing 10:44. A little hard to read till you get used to it. I like it.

At my house it wouldn't get dusted and would end up loosing more that a minute in 3 days......

I read it as 10:36 but going back I see what I did wrong, the minute gear is backwards

Hey Jerry, cool clock.
If it’s losing time, maybe you could add a drop or three of solder to the counterweight?
Slowly get it closer to true? Everything else being equal, increased weight will make everything react and “count” quicker.
Sweet piece of mechanical mastery that is.
Cheers.

Just for Shite's and Giggles:

How do they change the time on Big Ben? Clocks going back will take team 5 hours | Metro News

And for those that don't have the patience or interest to read it all--

4) Pennies are used to keep Big Ben running on time. Steve Jaggs recently told Westjet Magazine: ‘The pendulum swings back and forth at two-second intervals. Depending on the time of year, the air can become thick, so the pendulum takes longer to swing. One old penny placed on top of the pendulum speeds up the clock by two fifths of a second over a 24-hour period. We like to keep the clock within two seconds of accuracy. At the moment, we’ve probably got about 30 pennies on there.’

That is cool. Using penneys on that machine. Maybe when they restore it they will fix the weights. It would be cool if they used penneys dated when they were added.

My clock is cool looking but no longer running. I came home one day and seen it stopped. Climbed up on the couch and was checking for a bur or something on the gears that might have made it stop. The wife came in and said she stopped it. Too noisy and drove her nuts. It just ticks! No chimes!

I also have this clock that chimes every quarter hour. Electric but with real works.

She unplugged it the first week after i fixed it. Just needed cleaning.

I love her but at times SWMBO can be a real party pooper. Ha.

Yup! It NEVER FAILS!! I go to do something simple then things get complicated.

For example: A while back I had my rig (my one and only besides my Harley) in a friends shop for work that wasn't comfortable doing (R&R the Track Bar) and while there I had him give the rig a once over. He said that my Cooling System Overflow cap and tank should be replaced as it wasn't holding enough pressure.

Well good old cuda spaced off getting a new one til the other day and I was low on antifreeze so I unscrewed the cap, added the 50/50 mix up to mark and screwed the cap on tight---well it was tight for just an instant and then it was loose again. Oh! That's right! I was Supposed to replace that unit I tightened the cap until it barely was tight and ordered a new unit and waited until it was nice enough out to R&R it. It was no big deal, siphon the fluid out, loosen two hose clamps, remove the rubber hold down strap and remove the hoses from the old tank and then reassemble. Easy Peasy.

Yup! It was easy peasy until I saw antifreeze leaking from another hose. Seems that when I was wiggling the hose free from the tank that the ancient and apparently brittle Heater Vacuum Valve broke! GREAT! It never fails!

Fortunately my local NAPA Auto Parts Store is just a very short walk away and they had the part in stock.

$35 and a short amount of labor later I was up and running.

Here's the part--the Red Circle shows where it broke.



Oh well, it could have been worse! It could have broke while I was out of town.

yep, one reason i don't do much of my own repair. Always ends up being more frustration than i am willing to put myself through. I admire people who can do there own mechanical work.

There is a good chance it would have broke at the shop also. They would have ordered the part not walked over to get a new one. Doubled the price of the part and added a minimum of another hour labor.

Add that to the origional problem and I can see saving $200 easily doing it yourself. Add another 25% or whatever your tax bracket is and that is what you would have to earn to pay for this doing another job.

How long did it take you Roy? I bet this was a pretty good hourly wage equivalent doing it yourself.

I've turned wrenches most all of my life. It started when I was 11 and began to mow lawns. The wheels would need to be moved up or down (no we didn't have the fancy 'quick adjusting levers') or the blade would need to be taken off and sharpened or replaced and of course the spark plug would need to be either adjusted or replaced.

A few years later I was a field mechanic for Green Giant and that was pretty basic with nothing being real critical besides making sure that pulleys, belts, drapers etc were in alignment.

Then I became an auto-body repairman and that had more detail to it. I left that trade as it was commission only for my wages and I had a child coming so I went into the grocery trade/which I'd worked at after school.

However I continued to turn wrenches. There's just something so satisfying when your done, the machine works as well OR BETTER than it had before. And it's because I did it.

Its such a shame that today's machines are basically disposable OR built so that the average person can't work on them. I'm sure that sharptonn will attest to how hard the cars of today are to work on.

Yes it was a bit frustrating. Just like when the vacuum valve broke but as I said it could have been worse. Since that piece was apparently so brittle it could have cracked and started leaking while I was out on the highway. Hopefully the 'Idiot Light' would come on before the engine was toast--but I doubt it.

Wrench On!