Member postings for Ian McVickers

I Do Cars on YouTube has just done a tear down of a 1.0 Ecoboom with a belt failure.

They are for MIG torches with built in fume extraction.

Not all of the charge points require a mobile phone and an app. Charge Place Scotland also issues an RFID card which you can use. I have their app on my phone but have only ever used the card at the charge points. It is linked to my account with them and if I use a charger that requires payment I get an email with the costs for the month and is is debited from my account.

Using the heater in my Ioniq doesn`t hit the range much at all. I think at full charge with climate control on I loose about 10 miles. What does make a big impact is the cold weather. Summer time and near 20 degrees I will get about 205 miles range. Winter time near freezing and it drops to about 150 miles.

So I lost the spindle drive on my Omnimill. Stripped the pulley section off to find a worn out drive dog that doesnt exist on the parts list I have.

The drivre dog lives in the inside of the top pulley assembly.

Decided to have a go at making a new one from aluminium so made up a broaching bar and ground down a bit of HSS to match the spline shape. Made up a clamp of sorts to prevent the spindle from turning.

The hole on the aluminium plate was drilled off centre to allow the edges to fit into the splines and stop the shaft from rotating to allow mw to cut the new splines.

Carried on and cut the drive dog not realising that the cutting tool was slightly off square to the drive dog so the splines are a bit wonky but it still fits and works ok.

Cut the groove in the drive dog to allow it to be held by the same circlip that holds the bearing cover plate in place.

Greased up the bearings while it was apart and fitted the new drive dog and all is well again. First spline I`ve ever cut and happy that it works besides being a bit off.

My missing delivery which should have arrived on 22nd November arrived this morning.

Nice install. Ive just completed mine using the Victron kit as well. Its good stuff. My battery capacity is at 10KWh just now but planning to expand it to 25KWh. Its better to be able to store it and use it yourself than get paid a pittance from the energy companies. Sunny Scotland isnt so sunny in the winter but in summer I can generate up to 32KWh per day, no where near what you will manage, but I can also charge the battery at cheaper nightime rates when Im not charging the car. My solar array is 4.4KW but limited to 3.6KW output from the inverter to comply with the energy companies regulations but I think you can install a larger array than that without permission if not feeding back to the grid.

Ordered something from Stuart Models on November 30th and it hasnt arrived either. Thankfully they will send me a replacement. Deliveries from Amazon and deliveries via DPD are arriving next day without any issues here. My order from ebay posted 21st November still shows as being in Heathrow but on contacting Royal Mail this morning they are now advising to claim for it as its lost.

Edited By Ian McVickers on 14/12/2022 12:54:29

Just been out to fire up the stove and its -2 in the workshop.

I purchased an item from ebay and the seller promptly posted it on 21st with Royal Mail guaranteed next day delivery. Apparently its sitting in a container somewhere near Heathrow and Royal Mail have no idea why its there or when I will get it.

Sent a parcel by Evri on Saturday and it arrived at its destination on Monday without issues. On the other hand Tuffnells left 2.5K worth of ESS kit lying on my doorstep on Monday morning at 9-45AM. Lucky for me it was still there when my daughter arrived home from school. I wonder how that would have went if it had disappeared?

I have just received a Sun engine and the drawings supplied with it are not all clear. Can anyone assist with a clear set of drawings?

Sorted now. Thanks very much.

I am waiting on delivery of a Boxford 280 lathe which hopefully arrives on Friday. Been trying to find a manual for it, Boxford dont have any and I dont fancy paying £60 for one. Does anyone know the lifting arrangements for it?

The eventual demand for more EV charging will put alot more demand on the grid. Thats not really in question and I cant see any major upgrades getting done soon. I use one of the Chargeplace Scotland chargers once a week to get some free power but have no idea how long that will last.

Some of the smart EV chargers allow charging direct from solar if there is enough energy but this wont really make that much of a difference here in sunny Scotland.

My EV is charged at cheap rate between 1 and 5am. Most people who have Evs will probably have cheap rate charging at home so wont be charging at evening times I hope.

Forgot to add that you can purchase Bitdefender for various license packs like 1,5 and 10 devices and it works across pc and android. Its installed on all our phones as well.

Ive been using Bitdefender as antivirus for quite a few years now without any issues. I moved from Norton after they disabled my antivirus when I took my tablet to USA on holiday. I had no idea it was a geo-locked product. Express vpn for my vpn. Its built into my Linksys router and has quite a few nice features. One I realky like is it will drop the connection if it thinks it has been compromised.

So, I have decided to have a go at a PM Research No4 build. Base has been machined, bearing blocks more or less complete with additional bushes. Crankshaft and flywheel nearly finished.

Next job is to drill and tap the flywheel for the grub screw then need to cut the keyway and make the key. After that I will polish up the completed parts then move on to the frame.

I would have been a bit further on but this arrived a few weeks ago.

I had to reorganise quite a bit of the workshop and build a base for it to live on. A few years ago after I got rid of my cnc router I said I would never build another but the pull of the dark side was too much to resist. This will be converted to cnc but hopefully I will finish off the engine before getting stuck into it.

My Hyundai ioniq battery is guaranteed for 8 years to still be above 80% capacity I think. I have a low cost charging rate between 2am and 6am. Different companies offer different charge rates and times. I have a 7KW charge point fitted which also allows me to charge directly from solar panels if they are generating enough power. This is a good option rather than selling it back to the grid for 6ppkw.

The only issue as has been said is the network availability. Went to Fort William at the weekend, planned route and charge points. and found all of the new Chargeplace Scotland points in An Aird car park not working. The older Evolt charge point worked only on ac charge, dc fast charge not working. Not surprisingly all of the 6 or so Tesla chargers were working perfectly.

Ended up using the chargers at the Nevis Range while we were there. 50ppkw wasnt cheap though.

Edited By Ian McVickers on 07/04/2022 15:09:21