Tuesday 18 June 2013

(more) Strimmers

Well, in keeping with the purchase of aging gear, today saw the purchase of a Jonsered (now Husqvarna) strimmer GT24L.  And a much newer (5 yo) Bosch electric strimmer.  €45 for both.

The strimmer had been well looked after but had 'choke problems'.  It looks like a carb repair kit and some new fuel line will cure this.  It has run well, but the carb just choked up again with grot.

The electric strimmer replaces a really poor quality Stihl FSE31/41.  It's hard to know where to start.  Only 18 months old and was bought to replace a cheap Black and Decker strimmer that was 20 years old and had never once had a problem.

The spool holder cap is too thin, flexes and now has broken.
The rivets on the spool holder have almost worn out
There is no moulding to stop long grass wrapping itself around the shaft.  The spool housing is not removable, so you have to spend some considerable time fishing out grass in the garage.
The guard is very loose and wobbles
Not a design issue, but poor environmental consideration.  The spools are designed to be consumable. If you do re-fill them the bump cap wears out in no time.

Stihl's response to this was 'we've had no other complaints'  As far as I'm concerned 'we will not purchase Stihl anymore' or other brands they own, such as Viking

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Patio doors

Anonymous double opening patio doors
Doors can be individually removed
to remove :-
remove black nylon brushes in middle / top of frame 2 x posi screw
internal door only, remove curved white plastic trim, up top in middle on door, by carefully prising from below, then lift up & off.  Can't lift door enough if fitted.

Lift door up, then lower either in or outside onto wooden chocks.

the roller housings are marked 4401B and can be individually and easily prised out.
the white nylon (?) rollers are 23 dia, inner 20 dia (bit that contacts the rail)  The bearing is needle type, marked Nadella HK 06-08 made in france (http://www.nadella.fr/produits/pages/roulements-a-aiguilles.htm).  Rod that fits through is 5.97mm dia. Outer bearing dia is 10mm nom (maeasured 9.86mm) and is pressed into the roller

The alu rails that the doors run are loose and I imagine can slide out, but this will mean removing the entire frame.  Tricky. Meaure 3mm ride, 1.88mm tall.
Worn rollers result in the edges running on the side of the rail.

26/8/15 Have found a supplier in Poland that makes a 22od rollers cast nylon with 5mm shaft.  Close enough and around €2,50 each, rather than the €7,50. 
They fit ok on door out to covered area. Tried to get them to 6mm, as did the supplier, with no success. Hardened. Used M5 bolt and strips of aluminium to make up the difference.
23/12/15 ish. Have found a supplier on aliexpress that makes an almost exact item, but the delivery never appeared and they wouldn't re-send. Another supplier has the same thing a few months on, but the Polish rollers are holding up well.

Rollers are called V groove or U groove

Pictures on file + copies of nadella catalogue

23/7/16 re-machined the old pair of rollers using a 4mm drill on ID to about 18.5mm and a large drill to turn down the OD to about 22mm using a drill on high speed. Quite smooth.
Polish rollers are holding up well on the most used patio door. There may be a slight ovalness creeping in.
See post 7/3/18 for replacement roller dates

Sunday 9 June 2013

Wood shed

With our thoughts turning to winter - well we've had a very long spring  and summer is nowhere to be seen - the wood shed needed an extension to both tidy up the space, and somewhere to start drying off the trees cut 18 months ago.  A gross size of around 7m3, but the bin lives in there and boxes for tinder etc.  There should be space for around 6m3; we use about 1.5m3 per winter, so there should be 3-4 years fuel.

The intention is to put a trellis over the panels and across the garage and grow something...