Member postings for Chris Crew

Kevin & John, Thank you both for the information. Although I spent a lifetime in the telecoms industry, at one stage of the technology I carried an oscilloscope in one hand and an AVO in the other which was a big leap up from the 50V test lamp on the old Strowger equipment, I am still fundamentally 'mechanically minded' and modern technological advances seem to have left me behind. I think that I am now too much of an 'old dog' to be taught new tricks because I am constantly amazed at what even modern smart phones can do. For instance, last week I was fumbling about with a tape measuring up a bathroom for renovation. The woman who was watching me said, 'oh! we don't do it like that anymore'. She took out her smart phone, fired up an app, pointed it at the datum points to be measured and the damned thing read out the dimensions in both metric and imperial. I was both amazed at the technology and embarrassed that I knew nothing of it, even though it had been supplied with something as ubiquitous as a mobile phone. I think I will leave everything to the Volvo service agent and hang the expense!

Adrian, sadly I don't have anything so modern as a fault code reader, only a box full of old Sykes-Pickavant spring compressors and clutch aligners etc. from my youth when I was always having to repair cars just to be able to afford to run one in more impecunious times. I suspect a lot of us had to do that. I would not know where to start with modern diagnostic equipment although I did manage to extract a fault code, with a little guidance, from an ancient Astra estate that I was running as a van prior to retirement. Turned out to be the 'fly-by-wire' accelerator pedal which cost me £5 from a scrapyard to replace. As I have stated earlier, I think I will leave any further work to the service agent as I would probably end up doing more harm than good ripping panels and trim off not really knowing what I would be actually looking for. Your comments are appreciated none the less.

I haven't actually physically checked the bulbs, I suspected a fuse because half the lights are on the rear off-side wing and half are on the tailgate off-side so it must be something that is common to both circuits. I am not even sure if some of them are actually bulbs as it is difficult to see if they are not LED's given the length of the diffuser lens down the rear wing. The indicator is definitely a bulb, and working, and I think the tailgate light is a bulb but to actually get at everything looks to be such a kerfuffle, with trims and panels to be prised off etc. as the car is now booked into the service agent, and I am resigned to it costing me money, I think that I will leave the problem for them to sort out. Many thanks for your suggestion, anyway.

Posts deleted, no politics on the forum pls

Edited By JasonB on 31/01/2022 06:59:39

Clive, Thank you for trying to help me but the information in the link only replicates that which I already have in the owner's manual. I have crawled all over this car, had trims off, carpets up, tried following what wiring looms I can find etc. all to no avail. I gave up in the end and booked it into the service agent. The last time a fault came up it indicated the start/stop (which out of habit I always cancel anyway) required maintenance. It cost ninety quid to get the fault diagnosed which turned out to be nothing more than a low voltage on one of the batteries because the car does very little mileage and is stood on the drive for days at a stretch. So it cost me £90 just to get the battery charged!

The dashboard on my 2017 Volvo V90 recently lit up like a Christmas tree but the fault finally stabilised and indicated a failure of the rear lights. A quick check revealed that the lights on both the off-side rear and tailgate were not working. I immediately suspected a fuse and consulted the owners manual for the relevant information. Apparently, this car has three fuse boxes but nowhere is a fuse for the rear lights documented. Not only that, two of the fuse boxes do not appear to be in the positions indicated in the manual and there is no information on YouTube or Google that I can find that does not merely replicate the information I already have.

I have searched high and low for two of the fuse boxes to no avail, you would think that at least one could have been found, but no. There was a guy on YouTube hard wiring a dash cam into a fuse box under the passenger side foot well carpet on a V90 and you have to take the trim off the door pillar and console to get the carpet up to get at it which I did but there was no fuse box to be found on my car, but a fuse box under a carpet? - I ask you!!

I like to think that I am not exactly stupid when it comes to cars as, I suspect like many of us, I used to strip engines to fit new rings, fit end shells and change clutch plates etc. although I accept this is no longer necessary or even possible on the domestic premises. Whilst searching on YouTube I came across a campaign by American farmers demanding the Right-to-Repair John Deere agricultural machinery as they have the same problem with their modern tractors and combines as we do with newer cars. One man stated that when his old Allis-Chalmers broke down in the middle of harvesting he just got out his tool-kit and fixed it. Now he has to wait two days for the John Deere service agent to call. From the video, I got the impression this campaign is gathering pace and American farmers have a powerful political presence.

I fully understand their frustration as I have had to book the car into the Volvo service agent which will no doubt cost a small fortune for something that may be as simple as a fuse (hopefully) but knowing my luck it will probably be some mega-expensive electronic gizmo that will have to be ordered from Sweden, especially as the car had indicated various other faults before the lights failed. No wonder some people hanker for the old days!

Gerry, I have done this job before but it's so long ago now that I cannot remember exactly what is holding the front valve gear cover on apart from the screws you have already mentioned. Perhaps there are a couple of dowel pins to locate it accurately although nothing is shown there in my parts manual for the machine. There is a dowel which appears to be through the top of the cover but you have probably already found this. You could possibly, and very carefully, insert a small screwdriver blade in the gap you can open up and use it as a wedge to part the castings. I don't know exactly, and the risk would be all yours, but that is the sort of thing I would be looking at unless something more obvious can be detected. Other than that, is that bush on the cross-feed screw not fixed to the valve gear cover in any way? Or, does the casting just slip over it? Again, no fixing is shown in the parts diagram.

No, the emails have been deleted in short order, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction, or take the risk, of another response. Anyway, I have finished with cheques now as it's at least a 20 mile round trip to the nearest bank for me and even that one is closing in May.

The manual states that maximum hydraulic oil pressure is 120 lb/sq.in (.4 kg/sq.cm). It states that adjustment will rarely be necessary but to use a pressure gauge on the output when adjusting the relief valve. If you PM me with an email address I can try to send you a scan of the relevant pages from the manual if you don't already have one but that is about all it says. There is an illustration of the relevant parts and a hydraulic circuit diagram, if that is any help?

For a few months now I have been trying to sell a Drytex dust extractor via both HomeWorkshop and eBay with no luck so I was happy to receive this email from a Jeff Johnson:

Hello,

Good day to you.Am interested in your Advert and would like to know the reason you are selling it..Mind you,i will be responsible for the pick-up of it at your locations okay. Kindly leave me your mobile number.

Regards

In my immediate enthusiasm to sell I responded with the following:

Jeff, Good Afternoon!

Thank you for contacting me regarding the dust extractor. The reason for selling is that I bought it partly out of ignorance at least 20 years ago intending it to be used with a Jones & Shipman cylindrical grinder that I had acquired. What I did not realise at the time was that I didn't really need an extractor for this type of grinder so it has stood in my garage unused, collecting dust you might say, ever since.

I have tested it on a rotary converter and it appears to run perfectly well and I can demonstrate this to you. My contact number is 07799 xxxxxx and being retired I am available at most times and days.

Again, Thank You,

Rs.,

Chris Crew.

It then struck me that the English in the email was appalling and why would someone need to know the reason I was selling? I then smelled a rat and decided that this was going to be scam and should have been ignored. Sure enough, the following response was received this morning:

Hello,

Good to hear from you.I can confirm am satisfied with the price and am willing to buy from you okay.Firstly,i will like you to be aware i will be paying you via cheque rightnow and i do have a removal agent that we be doing the pick-up arrangements for me as soon as you have confirm the cheque payment clear in your account so you don't need to bother yourself about sending it okay.So i urge you to send me your details below:

Name on the cheque

Home Address

Postal Code

Mobile and Landlines

All the details required so that the cheque payment can be issue out to you and get delivered to your letterbox by Tues/Wed okay.So as soon as you have confirm the cheque payment,get it deposited into your account and speak with your bank about Negotiation so the money can be made available to your account within 3-5 working days and will be responsible for any charges incurred during this process okay.So as soon as you have confirm the money available to your account,get back to me immediately so that my removal agent can start necessary pick-up arrangements at your location okay.It's my pleasure doing business with you.Hope to read from you soon with your details.

I will wait till it's credited to your account before the pick-up arrangements can commence okay.

Regards...

Jeff

These scumbags must think I came down with the last shower and I am only sorry that I was stupid enough not to realise the initial email was bogus, but at least I only revealed my mobile number. I am fairly certain they must have got my email address off HomeWorkshop as contact via eBay is done through that site.

So stay alert and try to be a bit sharper than I was initially. (BTW, the extractor is still here for sale if any may be interested).

They are not going to catch me out this year. No chance!

SPG Tools website didn't have a .EU domain suffix, did it? If it did one of the consequences of Brexit is that, and I think I am correct in stating this, from 1/1/2022 no non-EU domiciled company or organisation can register or own this suffix.

No doubt one of the more tech savvy contributors will correct me on this point if I am wrong.

Maybe not an answer to the OP but just my experience and information imparted during my abandoned apprenticeship training, circa 1968, is that no 3-jaw chuck will ever provide repeatable concentricity once the work-piece has been removed. Therefore, as many diameters as possible are turned at one setting and if the work-piece has to be removed for another operation and then returned to the lathe, either you resort to the 4-jaw or grip-true and clock it with a TDI, you use a collet chuck or you turn it between centres if at all possible from the start and continue the work after replacing it between the centres. Self-centring chucks are obviously useful and some are quite accurate at various diameters but they will never reset precisely once the work-piece has been removed which always has to be borne in mind.

I had been an itinerant contractor in the telecoms industry for the majority of my working life which necessitated the driving of company vehicles around 25k miles per year when travelling daily to a site or weekly when daily travel was not practicable. Both my wife and I still have cars, which she uses more than I ever do these days, but since retirement we have been using the railways for travel to destinations on the UK network and for all continental travel prior to the pandemic restrictions because I really don't want the hassle anymore. I bought us each a Senior Railcard and, if you have the luxury of being able to select the time of travel, you cannot not buy the fuel and pay the parking charges for less than some of the real bargains we have been able to obtain. It's all so easy to book online, both for UK and continental travel and we have even figured out how to use the the smart-phone tickets, so now no waiting for the post or collecting from a station ticket machine. Prior to the pandemic we were regularly travelling from Cleethorpes to King's Cross for £10 one way, a distance of approximately 190 miles, and with bus pass travel to the station from our free parking space on a local relative's drive it made sense not to drive. So, living in a village that has never been served by the railway, we either drive 15 miles to one station or 7 miles to another (Market Rasen has free parking) and leave the car there for a couple of days. We have used the bus pass in destination areas and if we really have needed a car I have simply hired one from the local car rental company to run around in. It lessens the savings but I really cannot be bothered with long distance driving these days. I was interested to read the recent thread on renewing a driving license because my three-score years and ten expire next year and I will be faced with this issue very soon.

I have a Vertex BS0, which IMO is simply the VEVOR in a different guise at twice the price, and also a VDH with the additional differential dividing facility. It's 'horses for courses' really, if you are doing relatively heavy work like chewing out involute gears blanks on the milling machine, then the BS0 would be your best bet because the VDH, like all GHT designs is a bit light and flimsy, again IMO. Being an amateur project the VDH will come in a variety of qualities from the professional toolmaker to the back-shed butcher so you would have to be very careful about selecting the one you might buy, and you don't get to physically examine many things on eBay before you buy. I have only ever used the differential facility on the VDH once in the last 30 years and that was to make Myford plates 3 & 4 to complete the set for the Myford dividing attachment.

Be aware, this is a rich man's hobby. You will always have your hand in your pocket for something and you will be making tools and attachments more than you will be making models at first, that was my experience anyway. The lathe in itself is almost totally useless unless it is supported by range of other workshop tools and equipment. Fortunately, the Chinese have made things a little more affordable with their products and, although some contributors on here would have you believe they are absolute rubbish and shouldn't be touched with the proverbial barge pole, I have always found far eastern kit to be very acceptable by and large for the price. If you don't already have one, a bench or pillar drill of 13mm capacity is essential, IMO, and you can almost pick these things up with the weekly shopping because they are so relatively cheap. Ebay is a good source of most tooling if you must have it now or perusing trader's stalls at traction engine rallies and exhibitions (if we ever get to go to one again) always gives satisfaction when a bargain item is obtained. I actually, and very naively, started out by trying to build a steam locomotive but found that, with the limited time I then had available at home, as I was always an itinerant contractor together with the meagerly equipped workshop that I could only just afford, that I enjoyed making the tooling more than I enjoyed building the steam engine. This was because I could actually complete something that was useful and could be used to make something else so I sold the steam engine chassis and continued to make the tooling. The attachments got more complex as time went on, from machine vices to dividing heads through to gear hobbing and thread milling attachments, although time and other pastimes have interrupted the output a little over the years. But good luck with your workshop and your ambition for a steam engine. I think that you will find the pass-time rewarding despite the inevitable damage to your bank balance.

"Just had a Google search and it would appear that Mamod is still going strong, see here, but they are not cheap to buy".

I have just checked the Mamod site and was surprised, to say the least, at the prices. The last Mamod model that I bought was a traction engine for my then step-daughter's young son. This would be about 1993 and I can't think that the model cost much more than £80, if that. To see that a similar model now runs into several hundreds of pounds seems to me to have outstripped the inflation of the intervening years by quite a margin. However, if this British manufacturer can succeed and prosper with these models which have traditionally been bought for boys by fathers and grandfathers there will be no criticism from me.

I have read the full article. Was a it scam or was it over-ambition? Economic history is littered with entrepreneurial companies whose share price has collapsed, followed by the company itself, after the initial euphoria. From the South Sea Bubble to the Dot Com boom many people have had their fingers burnt in supposedly good investment opportunities, myself included. Investments can go down as well as up as any financial adviser will tell you. It may not have been a good product but given the intricacy of the device as mentioned I am rather leaning towards the opinion that the writer of the article may have been a little over censorious in his reflections because real scams usually revolve around illusion rather than actual manufactured hardware. But we will never know.

Probably out of ignorance, I bought a cheap set of seven 10mm shank tipped tools for the Myford via eBay, can't think they cost more than £25. The set contained turning tools, screw-cutting tools and boring bars but I can't see exactly the same sets listed now. I was so pleased with them that I ordered the same set in 16mm shank for the Colchester and they were equally as good for my amateur purposes at about thirty quid. I have just looked on eBay and was shocked to see that almost similar items are now selling for between around £85 and £100. These days price is no real guarantee of quality and utility, IMO, I took a chance and won out but I could have equally become unstuck although strangely enough all the supposedly cheap 'crap' from China seems to work perfectly well for me and my purposes. Perhaps it's just me?

It depends, take several quotes first. The Maitresse de Maison deemed that we needed a skylight above the landing at the top of the stairs. This was not unreasonable as the area was always dismal at any time of the day despite my installing additional lighting. Consequently, I approached a local builder who duly surveyed the property and quoted £2,100 for the job which I considered a 'little steep'. On the recommendation of a friend, I contacted an Eastern European builder who had apparently done some very satisfactory work for my colleague at a very reasonable price. This man quoted £900 for the job including the Velux skylight, fitting kit and sealant etc., a quote which I accepted with a little trepidation. I thought that I may have ended up paying for the job to be done again, properly this time, and so should have accepted the local builder's estimate in the first place. But no, the EU guy turned up dead on time with all the kit, for which I had offered to pay in advance and for which he declined advance payment. He, and his colleague, worked from 8.00am to 8.00pm without a break, except that the Maitresse supplied some tea and biscuits, and when the job was finished I was astounded at the high standard of workmanship and diligence these two guys had applied to the task. The work could not be faulted. So going by my experience, depending on where you need the skylight fitting, for an aperture approximately 90cm x 30cm I would suggest a price between £850 & £1,000 would be worth considering.

I suppose I should just add that I am located in the middle of Lincolnshire, so the prices mentioned may vary depending on the area your property is located.

Edited By Chris Crew on 10/12/2021 20:48:38