A set of aluminium roof bars for €86 delivered, or about 1/2 of what Thule want. My existing Thule 750 feet will not in any way work with the new fitting kit (confirmed by Thule and a few posts on-line) which requires a 754. A 754 is over €100, plus the fitting kit at around €40. The existing bars are possibly ok, but a tad short. Thule refused to tell me if I could modify the 750 to make them work, so I took this as a yes, but it's a (financial) risk. Thule told me there was no way except to use a 754. They lost their sense of humour when I pointed out that they had competitors and that I can buy and throw the Menabo bars away and still have enough cash left over to buy another set. Perhaps there's no price comparison internet in Sweden.
So Menabo bars it is. They're ok. For reasons best known the them (well, it's cheaper) the bars don't use the threaded holes for the bars under the gutters. Still, they fit just fine and are nice and light. Like Thule, they use an annoying allen key to tighten it all down.
A nice touch on the rails is a channel you can drop fixings into, so the ski rack can just slide on.
Monday, 18 July 2016
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Dewalt DC981 Rohm chuck
Securing screw for chuck is Torx t20 LH. Measures 6.2mm on thread, 5.7 on shank. Not a set screw.hex head - it had a rounded rather than flat bottom to the head.
Found a Dewalt service sheet that implies it's always a bit stiff, as there is a special fixture, which involved removing part of the drill initially. IIRC Tighten screw to 9Nm and chuck to 45Nm.
A bit reluctant, but a soak in lubricating oil over night loosened it up. Put back without thread lock.
Didn't remove chuck. Cleaned up the jaws, and oiled as much as possible. One stiff point around 8mm went away. Hopefully this will cure the slippage.
Looked and didn't find any videos, but it looks like the way into the chuck is to hold the area just below the knurled part (probably need to remove chuck) and unscrew normally. Watch out for falling ball bearings!
Found a Dewalt service sheet that implies it's always a bit stiff, as there is a special fixture, which involved removing part of the drill initially. IIRC Tighten screw to 9Nm and chuck to 45Nm.
A bit reluctant, but a soak in lubricating oil over night loosened it up. Put back without thread lock.
Didn't remove chuck. Cleaned up the jaws, and oiled as much as possible. One stiff point around 8mm went away. Hopefully this will cure the slippage.
Looked and didn't find any videos, but it looks like the way into the chuck is to hold the area just below the knurled part (probably need to remove chuck) and unscrew normally. Watch out for falling ball bearings!
Wednesday, 6 July 2016
Friday, 1 July 2016
Stihl strimmer head
Bought head 46-2 from Soulé €38.80. Came with 5m of 2.7 red line. Line seems to have a groove running down it.
Supplementary gate remote microcontroller stopped working
A few more failures in 2017. 9/12/17 added a watchdog.
Saturday, 28 May 2016
Oregon tap & go 539137
My Stihl strimmer has a fixed feed line, which is ok except when you're working a lot of edging. Then it's tiring stopping to unscrew the bolt and let some more line out.
I've had a number of Oregon products and found them good. Mainly safety gear, but the odd chain.
I found the tap & go product which is suitable 'for most' strimmers above 33cc. So I bought one. Nice product. To re-fill it, you simply feed it through the holes and turn the dail to load the line in. Great.
The on-line instructions and video make it clear that it will only work with 20mm spigot, which I have. So I open it up and lo, its a 25mm hole with a reducing ring. Sigh. So I fit it and it is so off centre, the whole strimmer vibrates violently; it is painful to hold the controls. I take it all apart and try to re-centre it. The reducing ring is about 0.4mm different diameter to the hole in the product, so no matter how carefully you install it, it will always be off. The ring is also thicker than the product, so if you have a flat washer with your strimmer (as shown in the video), it won't hold the base in place and it'll wobble.
I've asked Oregon to send me a replacement.
Oregon wanted very much to help, but this involved me travelling 2 hours to my nearest dealer. In the end I got a full refund of Amazon, who didn't want it returned.
So with nothing to lose, I made an accurate 20mm hole in a large washer, which I tacked into position with a run-out of 0.3mm. It was a bit better. A friend suggested balancing the head on a marble and adding weights to get it level. Pretty tricky (read impossible) but I think I found the balance point, so added 2 M5 bolts with blu-tack. There wasn't really enough space to fit them, but it was a test. They flew straight off. I noted the the large alu button that comes with the head is held on with 2 bolts, which don't appear to be balanced up.
Abandoned project! Off to get a Stihl 46-2
I've had a number of Oregon products and found them good. Mainly safety gear, but the odd chain.
I found the tap & go product which is suitable 'for most' strimmers above 33cc. So I bought one. Nice product. To re-fill it, you simply feed it through the holes and turn the dail to load the line in. Great.
The on-line instructions and video make it clear that it will only work with 20mm spigot, which I have. So I open it up and lo, its a 25mm hole with a reducing ring. Sigh. So I fit it and it is so off centre, the whole strimmer vibrates violently; it is painful to hold the controls. I take it all apart and try to re-centre it. The reducing ring is about 0.4mm different diameter to the hole in the product, so no matter how carefully you install it, it will always be off. The ring is also thicker than the product, so if you have a flat washer with your strimmer (as shown in the video), it won't hold the base in place and it'll wobble.
I've asked Oregon to send me a replacement.
Oregon wanted very much to help, but this involved me travelling 2 hours to my nearest dealer. In the end I got a full refund of Amazon, who didn't want it returned.
So with nothing to lose, I made an accurate 20mm hole in a large washer, which I tacked into position with a run-out of 0.3mm. It was a bit better. A friend suggested balancing the head on a marble and adding weights to get it level. Pretty tricky (read impossible) but I think I found the balance point, so added 2 M5 bolts with blu-tack. There wasn't really enough space to fit them, but it was a test. They flew straight off. I noted the the large alu button that comes with the head is held on with 2 bolts, which don't appear to be balanced up.
Abandoned project! Off to get a Stihl 46-2
Friday, 27 May 2016
Dewalt battery
New dewalt pack made from irobot cleaner pack for 510/530 series.
Downtown direct. 3Ah. No manf date or cell make. £3 amazon.
The box it came in, and almost fitted, states the cells are samsung or sony. It also states this is a li-on pack, so little confidence there.
Cells are stamped cbt-sc30mk18 c03
22 x 43mm
First test with a 1.1A load gave a running time of about 2.5 hours (~2.7Ah), so the cells were pretty well charged.
Bought another irobot battery pack in July 2016. This time a BAKTH 14.4V 4000mAh Replacement NiMH Battery for iRobot Roomba 400 series Vacuum Cleaner at £6.70. No manf date. A bit of charge left.
They are no-name cells inside. Poor spot welding. This replaces the 2Ah AEG pack, which I'm moving to the Wickes drill, which replaces a bunch of AA cells which just don't have the umph.
From fully charged, a constant 1A load was applied and got forgotten about until the battery was down to around 1V. A very gentle recharge was applied for 10 + hours, but whilst the volts rose steadily to 15V set point, the charge current stayed 0.4A (C/10) and even when the volts were reduced to 14.4, current dropped off, then stayed at 0.4A.
A discharge with the dewalt lamp (9V cut off, 0.7A load) gave around 4.5 hours, or 3.15Ah. Not very impressive. Currently on the normal charger; takes about 2h and gets pretty hot.
Downtown direct. 3Ah. No manf date or cell make. £3 amazon.
The box it came in, and almost fitted, states the cells are samsung or sony. It also states this is a li-on pack, so little confidence there.
Cells are stamped cbt-sc30mk18 c03
22 x 43mm
First test with a 1.1A load gave a running time of about 2.5 hours (~2.7Ah), so the cells were pretty well charged.
Bought another irobot battery pack in July 2016. This time a BAKTH 14.4V 4000mAh Replacement NiMH Battery for iRobot Roomba 400 series Vacuum Cleaner at £6.70. No manf date. A bit of charge left.
They are no-name cells inside. Poor spot welding. This replaces the 2Ah AEG pack, which I'm moving to the Wickes drill, which replaces a bunch of AA cells which just don't have the umph.
From fully charged, a constant 1A load was applied and got forgotten about until the battery was down to around 1V. A very gentle recharge was applied for 10 + hours, but whilst the volts rose steadily to 15V set point, the charge current stayed 0.4A (C/10) and even when the volts were reduced to 14.4, current dropped off, then stayed at 0.4A.
A discharge with the dewalt lamp (9V cut off, 0.7A load) gave around 4.5 hours, or 3.15Ah. Not very impressive. Currently on the normal charger; takes about 2h and gets pretty hot.
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