What did you do today?

[Cenedd]

It's good to see that you realise who's chair it is. Many people get this wrong!

[Zahnrad Kopf]

Another Skew Bevel Gear.

These are becoming normal fare around here...

[J Tiers]

Done on what sort of machine?

[jdedmon91]

Went for an MRI on Friday went to the orthopedic surgeon today found my shoulder was a total piece of crap he said he can't make it like it was to far gone, told him just make it not sore said that he would try , scheduled for June 26 then out of work for 3 months but it is work related so I get workers comp..

Hopefully they can fix it. My shoulder surgeon told me the same but I got lucky. I feel for you. It will definitely help but the road is long


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PStechPaul]

A friend is trying to sell her house in Lutherville, MD after buying a house near Rehoboth Beach, DE. She has had multiple problems with realtors and contractors and neighbors, and her latest problem was that she could not light the pilot on her gas furnace. She had someone check it out and he told her it was a bad blower fan and it would cost $700. I offered to take a look at it but I was delayed, and she made an appointment for the serviceman to do the repair. By the time I got there I just had enough time to remove the fan and determine that the motor turned easily and it had resistance on the motor wires, and I replaced it before the guy came in. I told him what I had done, but he assured me that it was really bad and was making a lot of noise and would stall out so it could not provide proper draft (it was the draft inducer blower). He installed a new blower assembly and I took the old one with me.

Here is a video clip of what happened when I applied power:

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electrical/Furnace_Fan_Noise_4302.AVI

I was unable to loosen the set screw to remove the blower to properly access the motor bearings, but I was able to get some 3-in-1 oil into them, and here is the result:

http://enginuitysystems.com/pix/electrical/Furnace_Fan_Oiled_4306.AVI

I found the exact blower assembly for $100 on eBay and $150 full retail.

https://acpartsdistributors.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=35663&zenid=c231885d6fa52fb9f8ad6eee8f55dcdb

So I think my friend got ripped off and could press charges. She is a senior and thinks people are taking advantage of her.

[J Tiers]

Repair people do not repair things.

They replace bad parts, because the liability of "fixing" is too high. Factory parts are "good" by definition, "fixed" parts have had some sort of "home made repair" done to them. Big difference. (but they are OK again if "factory overhauled")

[PStechPaul]

I realize that my quick fix of adding some oil would not be a reliable repair and would probably fail within a year, but I question a $700 repair charge for installing a $150 (full retail) part and less than a hour labor. I researched typical repair cost for this and Angies List gave a $300-$500 range, although one source gave $500-$800. I have contacted Horizon Services and they want to follow-up with my friend, but she is highly emotional and distraught about this (and many other things) so I hesitate to proceed or even ask her for permission to give them her contact info. I actually think she has a martyr complex and subconsciously makes decisions that make her suffer.

I think I could do a reliable repair if I were able to remove the blower blades and get to the armature shafts and sleeve bearings to properly clean and lube them. I dripped some 3-in-1 oil in the hole for the setscrew and also sprayed some PB Blaster, and maybe I can break it loose once they have soaked in. Otherwise I would probably need to bend some of the blower blades to get access with a drill to drill out the setscrew and then drill and tap another hole to remount it after a more complete rebuild. Probably a waste of time, because the repair is done and I don't really need a blower.

[boslab]

Lovely skew gear zahnrad, well beyond me

[Tim Clarke]

Repair people do not repair things.

They replace bad parts, because the liability of "fixing" is too high. Factory parts are "good" by definition, "fixed" parts have had some sort of "home made repair" done to them. Big difference. (but they are OK again if "factory overhauled")

I respectfully disagree; it's much more than this. It's partly/mostly about fast money. I offer this example. The garage, dealership, etc makes the most money by making 50% on a $350 part and charging $100 per hour to install it rather than charging 50 bucks for parts and $100 for more hours of work. Plus there's the liability, but I don't mean lawyer type, but having to eat the warranty work if it spit up. If you doubt this, look where all the franchise and chain stores went. Yup, Tires, Brakes, mufflers, and to a small amount, transmissions. There is where the fastest money is.

I spent over 40 years in the industry, and saw the whole situation turn 180 degrees. I bought reman parts over the years, I always feared them because there were lots of guys like me who rarely turned in a rebuildable core. Nowadays, there's lots of good cores returned without anybody bothering to see what's wrong with something. Hang a new one, make the bucks, and move on to the next job. I have no doubt that the good mechanics do a lot of troubleshooting, and the grunts hang the new/reman parts. It's why I quit the trucking industry and retired.

[PStechPaul]

Many things today seem to undergo major design changes and total make-overs every year or so, which really complicates the repair process. Basic appliances like furnaces often had easily serviceable parts and many were fairly generic so you could fit an industry standard motor or valve or thermocouple and get it working quickly and cheaply. In this case, I totally agree that the assembly should be replaced with a new part, and although $150 seems high, it is not outlandish. And perhaps a repair company could add 50% or even double the cost to account for having to keep a part in stock, or acquire it from a distributor. And then maybe $100/hour and a $75 troubleshooting, estimate, and service call charge. So something less than $500 - but certainly not $700 (unless it was an emergency). Certainly fixing a furnace in June with a normal service appointment is NOT an emergency.

Horizon Services advertises that they will make service calls anytime, 24/7, with no extra charge. So maybe they just price all service calls as if they were emergencies.

For $700 I would expect a thorough testing of all HVAC equipment, including cleaning and adjustment of the gas burners, replacing air filters, checking calibration of thermostat, checking for leaks and CO, and examination and lubrication of the main air duct blower. My friend even complained of a bad smell when he ran the furnace, and he said it was probably just dust that had accumulated or broken loose during the repair, and eventually would blow out. I joked that it had to blow out the mice and birds that had gotten into the ducts - but my friend was not amused.

I think the burners also needed some cleaning and adjustment, as I saw a lot of flickering yellow flames along with the proper blue indicating clean and complete combustion.

[Cenedd]

If you've not got proper combustion going on, could it be bad enough to be generating a not-insignificant amount of carbon monoxide? If so, have they left a repair in a dangerous condition? May well be far from this bad, of course.

Birthday tooling delivery arrived today. Spent the evening with a beer on one hand and cleaning up my shiny new angle blocks - went for the with-toe type in the end.
Had some other import parts too that needed cleaning, deburring and the holes tapped all the way through. Nothing that couldn't be sorted though.

[MrFluffy]

Busy in the shop at the moment, feel like I've got my 'shop mojo flowing again finally after recovering from my car accident.

Took out the water heater from the shop, It takes up massive amounts of wall space + lpg cylinders to run it, and in deep winter its a freezing risk if I dont heat the shop. When I wash my hands I use cold water anyway to keep the pores closed until theyre clean, and when I need hot water I have a kettle or a diesel powered steam cleaner. Taking the cold feed out through the wall to a external tap that can be drained down completely in winter, so the kids don't have to have my workshop keys to put the hose on to top off the pool/leave the connection leaking spraying water all over my cnc gear etc.

Then onto fixing the flood coolant pump on surface grinder, when switched on it just stayed still, pump sounded like it had dropped a phase (3 phase supply in shop). Grabbed meter, and p3 had gone at the pump, traced it back and it was the coolant switch on the grinder, which is the 1940's original. Being a period switch, it was made with brass innards and serviceable, so it was taken off and cleaned internally with the dremmel with a soft nylon brush on the contacts and reassembled. P3 back, pump working. While I was in there, I found a issue with the machine light and fixed that too.
Then flushed (flooded) with success I decided it was time to sort out the hydraulics on the table, its a hydraulic/manual grinder, but unlike the J&S and similar the ways are lubricated by a separate oil pump so no damage from using it manually. When I first got the machine, the hydraulics worked and I like them a lot because it meant large jobs could be ran unattended but the system was hit and miss on the day, then stopped completely a few months back.
So off with the covers and observe, and everything is rotating (can see the oldham coupler to the pump rotating anyway!) pull the unions for the hydraulic pump setup, and drag it out. First time I've tackled one, so I'm new to it but not new to hydraulic pumps, so tomorrow I'll clean it up and change the fluids and see where we are from there.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Got some battery powered pool lights for the kids pool. They have several blink/solid modes but basically sink to the bottom and fill the pool up with light/color. I wonder why they weigh them down with ~1/2" threaded nuts. They are made in china so I figure they must have something less costly than 1/2" nuts to use for weight? Maybe they were defective but they look OK to me. Maybe they are a very limited run. I wonder what the story is behind the 1/2" nuts for weight.

[AD5MB]

building a workbench, the length of one wall. this requires much wrestling of plywood sheets, clamping, marking. just allow no distractions, or it will never get done, he says on the internet...

[MrFluffy]

Note to self, don't leave tank extracted from machine overnight expecting gravity and fate to not cook up some cruel trick for you on your return...
Shopping tomorrow, since I have stolen the last of the cat litter from the supplies cupboard in the house, and we have 4 cats...