Member postings for Adrian R2

Hello Fred - How fares the McDonald project? Is the gearbox assembled yet?

Right, thanks. Further investigation to follow, although it occured to me last night that I might be better off gutting a GU10 LED spotlight and using the bits from that, after all if the original failed once it may fail again even if I repair it.

Andrew - Ok, so that could be a problem then. Can you suggest which capacitor might be performing which function and whether it failing would cause high voltage DC on the output?

Dave - This isn't the motor controller, it only does the LED. Takes 2 wire 240v input (RHS of insert pic labelled L & N) and presumably is supposed to give out low voltage DC on the two wires to left labelled + & -.

No, I dunno either, web search gives lots of possible circuits but which this is I'm not sure.

John - thanks, that's not likely to be the problem then.

Martin - agreed, I think this is also probably still OK as I am getting output voltage.

I suppose next step is to desolder and test the electrolytic. If any of the surface mounted components are dead then it's probably game over.

Would this be one of these beasties? It's from my bandsaw, appears to have gone short circuit and to be delivering 300v to the LED which made that understandably unhappy.

4 legged chip has 810 on it and I think is a bridge recitifier, there is an obvious electrolytic but I haven't attempted to decipher the rest of the circuit yet.

Edited By Adrian R2 on 12/01/2021 09:31:54

So, first problem with my LIDL bandsaw, the LED has packed up. I was cutting away and it flickered and then went out. There are two screws to remove a cover for it which revealed a Chip-On-Board type device on a small round PCB. I tested the voltage and was a bit surprised to get 300v DC (yes, three hundred) so I suspect there is a voltage converter board inside that has shorted or something and is now passing through rectified mains.

Alternatively for model engineer scale stuff, have a look at the electric furnace being used by Myford Boy to make Nigel Taylor's lamp post engine. Seems a lot more efficient and less hassle for home workshop use.

I made this last year as my son wanted to try some metal casting. It's a composite of several internet designs, starting with an out of ticket butane cylinder similar to yours. Cutting done with angle grinder disk and plasma cutter (after filling with water and thorough rinsing to remove any gas remnants), base is an old firebrick, lining is the non-hazardous biosoluble blanket, and it's fired with propane using a burner salvaged from a space heater.

We've melted and cast alumimum (easy) and copper to make aluminium bronze (harder, but turned out machinable), works fine except that if you run it too long the tip of the burner gets red hot and then it starts misfiring so improving that is waiting for the proverbial round tuit to arrive.

Updated - I realised this was a work-in-progress photo - I later added some handles to it as well to make it easier to move. The lid is a tilt and swivel which stops it reflecting heat back at you when opened - inspired by FarmCraft101 on Youtube for that part.

Edited By Adrian R2 on 08/01/2021 18:20:18

"Disk thrashing" suggests you are still on a traditional hard disk. if you are happy with your software and just want it to start a bit faster and not get bogged down you might want to look to see if a retrofit solid state drive upgrade is available. I did this with my son's laptop last year, it involved a straight clone of the old disk to the new SSD (this was connected via a USB adaptor and took several hours as it was a 750MB drive) without any software reinstallation needed, then swap the drives over and off it went, reducing the startup time from multiple minutes to 30 seconds and giving the machine a whole new lease of life.

I wouldn't be concerned about that. The parkside tools are sold as part of the "middle of LIDL" offering which is a quick rotation of special products to encourage customers to buy now on the "when they're gone, they're gone" basis. The rotation means display space is needed to be re-used by the next offer so if the shop hasn't sold the stock then local managers will discount to clear so I'd expect these batteries to be new stock and to be covered by the full guarantee.

Whether they are actually any better or worse than other manufacturers batteries (which are 2x to 3x the price) I don't know, but for occasional use tools they make sense for the DIYer or hobbyist who doesn't want to invest multiple hundreds in a premium brand.

It occured to me after posting yesterday that the ID pin might be to allow the battery to identify the charger rather than the other way around. It would make more sense from a safety point of view to put the smart bit in the battery, i.e. will not take charge unless charger ID matches list but this is pure speculation.

I know you can power things from the battery but just connecting pos + neg, I've done this, but only using a battery charged with the correct charger and being careful not to go anywhere near the point that I could be over discharging it. The matching tools cut out at a low point, again, would make more sense and seems likely that this is a battery function but I have not verified it.

Final edit - the battery knows it's state of charge as it has red/orange/green LEDs on it. The charger knows, or is told the state of charge as it has red/green LEDs and signals when done, so more speculation, possible some signal is exchanged between them.

Edited By Adrian R2 on 22/12/2020 10:14:09

If this is the current 20V X-Team range then the charger only uses 3 of the 4 pins. The outer two are pos & neg (which are used for both charge and discharge), and the one next to the pos is labelled ID, which I speculate allows the charger to IDentify what sort of battery is connected and how it should be charged (?)

LiPos are trickier than NiCad/NiMh etc, they can catch fire if over charged and die if over discharged so you'd be better off waiting until you can get hold of a proper charger - they are not expensive even at full price.

There are several nice things on that site, thanks for sharing it Michael. It says the maker has tried offering the steady rest as a 3D printed kit in metal but not found enough of a market, shame.

Has anyone tried a heat pump? In theory 4x output for a given electrical input, they don't make a lot of heat hence all the discussions around problems retrofitting houses but for a workshop might be OK? I've toyed with the idea but as they are still £££ to buy then thinking is as far as it has got.

Air conditioning was mentioned earlier, I have seen bidirectional units that will both heat and cool, but again, I've not tried it.

I think you've got it Keith. Graces Guide has the Princip Street address as "Linisher Works" and there is a photo confirming this on the Alamy images site. Possibly "Linisher" may have been used like "Hoover" as the actual product name. Thank you!

Alright, asking the other way around, who made cast iron belt linishers? I'm thinking something like this horizontal one,w hich also has "LINISHER" cast into it but I can't make out the nameplate.

https://www.machinebidder.com/lots/horizontal-belt-linisher-6-belt-complete-with-box-of-spare-belts-2

Another "wotizzit" question. Clearly a linisher but what machine does it belong to? It came in the box of bits with my lathe so will be at least 50 years old and possibly more than that. Made of cast iron, measures approx 7" across, adjustable angle plate with brass scale, dovetails underneath, does not fit the lathe bed.

I've got the RCD etc, it's not the electrical part that worries me, more what happens if it snags and pulls either me or the workpiece loose. Those pictures in the advertising of people happily sawing unsupported things halfway down the blade don't tie up with my experience, hence the desire for something lighter for convenience jobs.

I bought the Lidl one and I'm keeping it, at least for now. I made a temporary (wooden) stand and a foot switch for power to use it in vertical mode and I will invest in a better blade in due course but for the money it seems useful enough until such time as I can justify buying a proper vertical/horizontal unit.

A the risk of encouraging topic drift it would also be nice if one of the budget makers added a cordless bandsaw to their range as using this one handheld is a bit fearsome.

Thanks chaps. I will wait for a reply.