Happy thread

[Newportnobby]

@Skyline2uk Congratulations on the arrival of your son, and I hope all concerned are doing well.
You realise, of course, there will be no peace or money for at least the next 20 years

[TrevL]

@Skyline2uk Congratulations on the arrival of your son, and I hope all concerned are doing well.
You realise, of course, there will be no peace or money for at least the next 20 years

And then you become "Bank of Mum & Dad".

But I wouldn't change a thing

Congratulations to you @Skyline2uk  and yours.

[Bealman]

Congratulations Skyline! 

[stevewalker]

I have had a pretty awful weekend working on my car. First the thermostat had gone. No great problem, easy to change, but rather expensive as it includes a sensor.

Then the big one - no hot air at all from the heater. I'd hoped for a simple problem like a failed stepper motor or a linkage popped off. Oh no - it turned out that there was a flap that mixes the hot and cold air and that the corner of the flap had broken off, along with the female part of the drive! The flap is not removable or replaceable, so it was looking like a new heater box (guessing a fair few hundred quid for that). To make it worse, getting the heater out requires degassing the air-con, draining the engine coolant, removing the entire dash, glovebox, centre console, gear lever mechanism and then removing a 2-1/2" bolt-in structural member that goes right across the car and which in turn needs most of the wiring disconnecting. Re-assembly requires regassing and setting up the gear lever throws. I have no time for that at the moment and was looking at at least a day in a garage, plus the heater itself and regassing, so estimating somewhere around a grand.

With Christmas coming, three kids, my wife's birthday on Christmas eve, paying to rent a house in Ireland for two weeks over Christmas, my wife unable to work due to her health and me not being paid anything for the two weeks I'll be off, it was not looking good.

Anyway, last night I had a thought. Today I bought an 8mm long reach socket (which fits nicely on the stepper motor output), put it in the lathe and turned it down to fit through the drive hole in the side of the heater and then I cut a slot along most of its length with an angle grinder.

Dropping the bottom off the heater in-situ and lowering the heater matrix down allowed me to just about reach in and position the flap. The socket could then be slid backwards into the hole, with the slot sliding onto the side of the flap and along the back edge and enclosing the wider,  rounded edge of the flap. Motor remounted, with its drive sprocket in the "proper" end of the socket, a few minutes with the laptop to "re-calibrate the stepper motors" and, abracadabra, a working flap again!

All at the cost of a few quid for the socket and one day off work to do it 

[dannyboy]

Two things spring to mind - a) you have an expensive few weeks coming up and b) what great ingenuity! (And the coming weeks will not be quite as expensive now  ). I hope the health of your wife soon improves and you enjoy the break in Ireland. Out of interest, whereabouts?

[Newportnobby]

You obviously know your way around cars, Steve. Well done on coming up with a cunning plan as to how to fix it. Methinks that's a few pints of Guinness you've earned yourself

[stevewalker]

Dannyboy, a) yes, Christmas is always draining financially! b) I am an Engineer and someone once described us as "problem solvers." If you can't do something, look at ways of going around it!


My wife's health prospects are unknown. She has a few problems, but the ones that matter are osteo-arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Both cause a lot of pain and can be disabling (it was an achievement last week when she managed to open a tin of carrots!), but the RH is the nasty one. Apparently it not only causes arthritis, but also attacks various organs and can have a significant effect on length of life. However, she has recently started on medication and we will know in 3 months or so whether it is working to keep the symptoms at bay.

We will be staying in our usual place in Donegal, about 3 miles North of Ballyshannon. Visiting family in Donegal and Sligo, but mainly in Leitrim (particularly around Rossinver). We have spoken before and you recommended a visit to the Arigna Mining Experience - which we finally got to in August. You're down at the South end of Leitrim if I remember correctly.

Newportnobby, I do find these modern cars somewhat difficult to work on - both from point of view of complexity and difficulties of access, but I am pretty practical and have in the past built a kit-car (see attached PDF) and can do quite a lot of things.

[Newportnobby]

Newportnobby, I do find these modern cars somewhat difficult to work on - both from point of view of complexity and difficulties of access, but I am pretty practical and have in the past built a kit-car (see attached PDF) and can do quite a lot of things.

@stevewalker Very nice job, Steve. I bet you had fun in that!

[Jon898]

I am an Engineer and someone once described us as "problem solvers." If you can't do something, look at ways of going around it!

Looks like (like me) you have "The knack"!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0

Jon

[Bob Tidbury]

Well not really a Happy Post more a cheered up a bit post .
Today Midsumer End and his brother Adrian ,Snowwolflair Cazadoom and Crewearpley 40  came to visit me to ( play trains ) and cheer me up after the passing of my Father in Law last week ,
They did a good job and I do feel a lot better and I would like to say a big Thankyou to all of them ,I did ask my Mother in Law if I should have cancelled today but I went ahead with her blessing she said that's just what I needed and there was nothing that I could do anyway .
I hardly ran anything  I just really enjoyed seeing  all their locos and some of their stock Steve's  sound locos were amazing  I especially liked the little Terier and the  Panier ,Snowwolflair ran some of the projects that he is in the middle of building just to test them out ..
All in all we had a really great Day.
Bob Tidbury

[crewearpley40]

bob

from us all our prayers and thoughts are with you and the family at this time. the next running session will be in 2019, hopefully

from us all at the forum

[Webbo]

Joy!

As I write this the rain is bucketing down and we have thunder and lightning. Drought for us is a frequent reality (like this year so far) so rain is 100% welcome. The more the better. By lunchtime we had 44 mm - Bureau of Meteorology prediction was 25-40 mm. All too often they predict 20 mm and we get 5 mm.

In an interlude between storms this morning, I too the dog for a walk. She is a kelpie, a sheep dog, who tries to round up everything moving faster than walking pace - joggers, cyclists, motorised wheelchairs, cars. Consequently, due to the consternation of those being rounded up, she is almost always on a lead, but this morning I'm thinking that there should be no joggers about in what was at the time a light rain. So, I let her go. Almost immediately a jogger rounds the corner. Tilly does not damage the rounded up goods, but she can be a bit confronting if the rounded-upee is not used to dog behaviour. No harm done this morning.

Webbo

[Bealman]

 

On Ya, Tilly!

Raining here too in Wollongong by the way. Thunder now and storms forecast tomorrow too.

Best wishes to you all for Christmas, Ian. 

[daffy]

So just how many of these "joggers, cyclists, motorised wheelchairs" do you now have in the pen in your back yard, Ian?



Glad to hear that for today at least the drought is being kept at bay.

[The Q]

Probably as many as our Border Collie rounds up..