Well done Mich.
Although I've never really been a blog follower, I think I might make an exception in respect of yours, as I've always followed your exploits with much interest.

If ever you need any info on the Shovel, feel free to give us a 'PM'.
Not that I would know any more than you, but I know a couple of blokes who do.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbi5Ggmk ... re=related

Exxxceeeelllleeennntt! =) Much appreciated!

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Illegitimi non carborundum

At last the motor is out, should be doing some really interesting stuff soon.



Andy

Trouble with the type of tubers I own is that they have generally enjoyed life to the max and have been spannered by people that have a jam jar for "useful things" left over after servicing.

Luckily I have space for a lathe and can whip bits and pieces up, and using an off-cut of mild steel (non-free-cutting) bar from some helpful people...



On the left, we have some original parts, taken from my 2002 X1. From top to bottom, we have:

N0616.01A1 - BUSHING, shift lever mounting outer - £36.00
N0614.01A1 - BUSHING, shift lever mounting inner - £9.80 (bargain in comparison)

As you can see, these bargain HD prices are an invitation to make your own stuff...

Next stop, Mike the Mop at the polishing shop to get them Zinc plated...

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08 Specialized Langster

Not quite true, I'll harden the outer bush up before plating...

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08 Specialized Langster

I used to have a big tin of Kasenit, but I lent it to a "friend" years ago and never got it back.

Is this what people use now?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-KG-Case-Har ... 0232975495

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I started out with nothing and still got most of it left.

Its not a patch on kasenit that stuff, shame you can't get it anymore.
We have never got any kind of a result with that.

Just for ease on parts like those would the simple solution be to use silver steel? it would be through hardened but it is easy to use.

Andy

I've still got a big tin of Kasenit. After not shifting it for a couple of years, the contents ate their way through the tin and when I went to pick it up, the bottom of the tin fell off Fekin messy stuff
It's now in a plastic pot - or at least what I managed to sweep up is

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If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.

But it's not widely available in larger diameters.
Kasenit worked well, but I heard that you can't buy it any more. I always liked the smell of Ammonia as you dipped your dull red metal in the pot.
I guess it was Carcinogenic or something. I used to machine a lot of Sindanyo also, but I also heard that you have to be licenced to machine it now.
It's surprising I'm still alive really.

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I started out with nothing and still got most of it left.

Yea, me too, lol

I think it is carinogenic, it is cyonide based also so it could just be an enviromental thing.

Quick search of the web and its available in the states (usually the first to ban anything).

Andy

Not true, they like their toxic stuff do the septics....they still sell MEK as well.....try getting it here..... B'stids.....

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Life is short - drink the good wine first

Maybe, whoever heard of cyanide causing health problems

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Wear the fox hat

When I was an apprentice the company I worked for was massive and employed about 6000.D
uring the 3 day week we were in for 2 days a week with virtually no supervision and we weren't actually allowed to do anything close to productive as it was against union rules and you seriously wouldn't have wanted to break them.

Anyway, we got to just mooch all over this massive factory on our own, allsorts was done in house, profiling, heat treatment, paint spraying, casting and obviously any kind of machining you can think of, by far the most interesting department was plating and heat treatment, we weren't allowed in normally because of the vats of acid and allsorts of other steaming tanks all in absolutly shit condition, none of the blokes that worked in there seemed to have any hair or teeth left and they were all mad bastards.
It was one of the unhealthiest looking places I have ever been and I still have a vivid image of it and the blokes who worked in it.
Sorry to waffel, just thought I'd share that.

Andy

I have similar memories, Andy.
I did my apprenticeship at Drummonds in Guilford. They made lathes and gear hobbing machines (one of the lathes we built was to machine the Gardner straight eight crankshafts) and I spent three months in the hardening shop.
As a second year apprentice (the first year was at a training centre) you got all the shit jobs like sifting coke and lime etc.
The oil quenching vats were 20ft deep and you had to wear a full heat suit to lower huge components into the oil. It was all done by hand with chains and you had to be quick to get the job below the surface to prevent it from igniting the oil.
Then you had to "swirl" the component around in the oil 100 times, before the sadistic foreman would let you stop. I was only slightly built (yeah, yeah go on ) when I was 17 and it was exhausting work, especially as it was summer.
You never forget the smell of a hardening shop.

Ironic isn't it, how we all survived, yet now I'm working on a site near Crewe, where you get a "yellow card" for removing your hardhat to scratch your head.

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I started out with nothing and still got most of it left.

As you mention Gardeners, when I started in sales in about 1997 that was one of my accounts although it was owned by some other asset stripping business angel

I was shown a workshop at the back of the patricroft factory, it was a brand new state of the art production facility with all the latest (of the time) machinary that had been mothballed for at least 10 years, it never made a thing, for all I know its still there, strange place.