What hobby would you like to start?

[Retired]

Hi,

I couldn't have put it better Doug. Unfortunately our local kids must be taught how to take drugs or drink alcohol given the number of court appearances in our local paper but sadly it's true of most of the UK these days. Swearing used to be illegal but it's now encouraged on most TV programs; I was brought up to respect others and to respect myself.

Yes to find an old vehicle or machine that has stood broken and idle for 30 years then restore to its former glory has to be done to believe the joy of such work; I wonder how many kids these days would leave school aged 15 then start their working life down a deep coal mine?

I'm a dinosaur Doug of an age long ago when people had to work hard in order to eat and although I've had a very hard life I am stronger for it.

Yesterday morning I met my chum David at Rufforth Auto Jumble as arranged and David kindly brought along his wayward petrol Briggs & Stratton mower kindly giving it to me; David has bought a new Honda mower and couldn't spend more time working on his old mower; he installed new parts; carb; air filter and spark plug etc but the mower still dies after five minutes running; given the amount of work carried out by David and the new parts I thought the problem must be a failing magneto coil so I did a few quick tests yesterday afternoon; resistance from plug lead to ground read 2.6K cold; I then fired up the mower and sure enough it died at five minutes; a quick check and the resistance was still reading the same and it still had a healthy spark indicating the ignition was OK; I then quickly removed the air filter and poured a drop of petrol directly into the carb intake and the mower roughly fired up for a few seconds normally it wouldn't fire up until it had cooled down; I love these problems and have been working on engines for the last 55 years; I'll wander into the workshop shortly to tinker with the mower.

Kind regards, Colin.

My chum David's wayward mower; it's in for some life support from me like it or not.

 

[Silentrunning]

Oh how I love problems like this to solve. On an engine like this we need 3 things. Spark (properly timed), compression and fuel. Assuming you have verified the compression to be adequate at both hot and cold temperatures, that leaves fuel. With the Briggs engine fuel being gravity fed it is quite easy to interrupt the flow. The first suspect I would investigate is vapor lock. The new petrol formulas are very prone to this in older engines. This was an ongoing problem in my Studebaker until I installed an electric fuel pump. Keep us posted. In fact, I think this project should have its own thread. It may be of help to someone in the future.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Doug. I've enjoyed tinkering around with the mower today; it's now been decoked and the valves have been ground in but as expected this work hasn't solved the problem because it still dies after running a few minutes but at least I've now removed one area that could cause lots of problems knowing it now is OK regarding compression. Unfortunately it's burning a drop of oil hence the top of the piston and combustion chamber heavily coked up but surprisingly the valves were excellent taking little cleaning indeed. Thanks also for suggesting this story could be a thread in its own right; I'll see how I get on and then I might create a thread adding more detail but here are a few pictures of what I've been up to today. Thanks for mentioning vapour lock and yes this can catch anyone out; it might even be the cause of this problem but I'm starting from scratch with compression first then I can work through each stage; it's too easy to jump in and simply guess.

Kind regards, Colin.

No I couldn't be so lucky in this causing the mower to die.

The piston crown and valves before decoking. I didn't have a new head gasket so had to be careful with this original gasket.

Definitely burning oil indicating a rebore and new piston will soon be needed if I decide to run this mower a lot.

Combustion chamber carefully decoked head now ready for refitting.

I was very surprised to find this when I removed the magneto; three heavy wires grounded so crudely; this magneto is very suspect for the problem so I've now bought a new magneto; these are prone to fail when they warm up and can be mistaken for fuel starvation hence lots of carbs get replaced; I've wound many coils; chokes and transformers previously and when the new magneto arrives I'll strip this magneto just for interest. As you rightly say Doug; fuel; compression and spark are needed; I call these three stroke engines; suck; squeeze and bang.

Here's a 75kg transformer I hand wound to supply my workshop with 3 phase 415V power. Definitely not recommended for a novice to attempt.

Anyone interested in engines will recognize these.

Valve seats nicely reground; one of the valves was tight to remove and this proved to be a rather nasty burr around the end of the valve stem; I've reground the profile and once the valves were reground I ensured valve clearances were perfect. These are wonderful jobs for anyone who likes to get their hands dirty but the skills are rapidly dying out in this throw away society we now live in.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Just for interest Doug this Briggs & Stratton engine isn't fuel gravity feed to the carb; the carb sits on top of the fuel tank so the fuel is actually pumped to the carb it being a pulsa jet carb which at the moment I don't fully understand but I'm catching up quickly having watched a few YouTube videos;

Here's a video which lasted half a minute with me before being ignored; I want to learn how to do things to the very best of my ability and shun this kind of thing;

I've not worked on engines for over 30 years and until now had very little to do with mower engines but mower engines have got my full interest; Pulsa Jet carbs are new to me so I'm on a steep learning curve because this mower is faulty and both fuel and ignition are suspect at the moment; I'm more used to car engines having the separate fuel pump. Magneto ignition goes back 55 years with me to when I used to rebuild motor cycles but the setup is different on mowers as are the various carb controls. By the time I get this mower sorted I'll know a lot more about them. I believe vintage Rolls Royce cars had both magneto and coil ignition so if one failed the other worked?

You mentioning your Studebaker being converted to electric fuel pump Doug brings back memories; our vintage BMC Morris Minors used to have an electric fuel pump fitted to the bulkhead; many times these would "stick" the cure was to open the bonnet then give the pump body a few taps until it started clicking; we're giving our ages away Doug.

I've just been looking at the magneto and might have lots of difficulties in opening it up because it's encapsulated in resin with a plastic shroud and though I'm used to lamination packs I wonder how these lams are stacked; I love this kind of thing and it torments me until I understand how things work.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Silentrunning]

Hi,

Just for interest Doug this Briggs & Stratton engine isn't fuel gravity feed to the carb; the carb sits on top of the fuel tank so the fuel is actually pumped to the carb it being a pulsa jet carb which at the moment I don't fully understand but I'm catching up quickly having watched a few YouTube videos;

Here's a video which lasted half a minute with me before being ignored; I want to learn how to do things to the very best of my ability and shun this kind of thing;

I've not worked on engines for over 30 years and until now had very little to do with mower engines but mower engines have got my full interest; Pulsa Jet carbs are new to me so I'm on a steep learning curve because this mower is faulty and both fuel and ignition are suspect at the moment; I'm more used to car engines having the separate fuel pump. Magneto ignition goes back 55 years with me to when I used to rebuild motor cycles but the setup is different on mowers as are the various carb controls. By the time I get this mower sorted I'll know a lot more about them. I believe vintage Rolls Royce cars had both magneto and coil ignition so if one failed the other worked?

You mentioning your Studebaker being converted to electric fuel pump Doug brings back memories; our vintage BMC Morris Minors used to have an electric fuel pump fitted to the bulkhead; many times these would "stick" the cure was to open the bonnet then give the pump body a few taps until it started clicking; we're giving our ages away Doug.

I've just been looking at the magneto and might have lots of difficulties in opening it up because it's encapsulated in resin with a plastic shroud and though I'm used to lamination packs I wonder how these lams are stacked; I love this kind of thing and it torments me until I understand how things work.

Kind regards, Colin.

Colin, I was discussing this with a friend yesterday who is somewhat of a wizard at keeping old equipment running properly. He had a two word answer to the problem- gas cap. He explained about the engine not being gravity fed and then told me about the vent in modern 4 stroke engines. If the gas cap vent is plugged it creates a vacuum in the tank. The remedy is easy - next time it quits remove the gas cap and try to start the engine. If it starts the cap is the problem. As for pulling the magneto apart, you are a lot more courageous than me. Good luck my friend.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Doug for taking so much interest in this problem; I do appreciate it.

Yes your friend is well informed but unfortunately in this case it was the first thing I suggested to my chum and he not only completely removed the gas cap (petrol tank filler cap to us) but I also suggested he remove the air filter too; not a bit of difference so he bought a new carb diaphragm and installed it; still no difference so he bought another new diaphragm thinking perhaps he had missed something; still no difference so then he bought a brand new carb and again still no difference by this time after more checks and tests he had to give up due to more pressing things to do hence I now have this mower but I've got the time to tinker with it.

I assembled some of the very first Honda motorcycles here in the UK and a friend bought a twin 175cc model (CB 175cc); this late friend was only used to riding a 50cc moped so I rode the bike to his home address; my luck was just the same then as now mostly bad; having touched his bike I must have put a curse upon it; he ran it over a short period then it started to play up by not starting the following day after it had been hot and parked overnight; if he installed a new spark plug it would then run as normal for a short while before needing yet another spark plug so he asked for my advice; I went to his workshop and he watched as I removed the cylinder head and barrels but I couldn't find the slightest problem so I reassembled the bike which obviously still misbehaved but I also wrote to Honda here in the UK explaining the problem; it's a good job I took the initiative because I was totally surprised by Honda's reply; the Honda factory had installed inferior air filters? A new air filter completely cured the problem.

Thanks too Doug for your good wishes; I enjoy experimenting and over the years have coil wound many transformers so I'm very interested to see what's hiding inside this magneto; the three heavy leads to the laminations look interesting to me; what's on the other end of these leads and if I break their connection will it make a difference? I've wound transformers with lots of tappings to provide the voltages I needed such as vintage radio mains transformers with 240V primary supply but by winding on a number of separate secondary coils could obtain from 6V up to 350V in the same transformer. The new magneto should arrive Wednesday or Thursday this week but with my luck I'll wait and see.

Please pass on my sincere thanks Doug to your friend for his welcome suggestion; by the way for members who wonder what difference a tank cap makes is that a cap that is fully sealed will create a vacuum inside the tank preventing fuel being drawn out hence tank caps have at least one small vent hole to maintain atmospheric pressure inside the tank. This sure is good fun and I hope it's not going to be easy to resolve the problem.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Silentrunning]

This is fun! I love the detective work. I had a thought but you probably did this already. Checking the compression cold and after the engine has shut down. I too hope you don’t solve this right away.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

I'm doing a bit of research and have found this useful video;

I wondered how the spark timing was achieved so it would appear this magneto has an electronic method of replacing points (electronic ignition) and a capacitor enclosed; to answer the questions on the video regarding what the capacitor does; the capacitor charges up then suddenly discharges as the points open generating the spark; electrolytic capacitors I used a lot in vintage radio restoration could easily catch a restorer out because once fully charged they can remain charged for quite a while until discharged so coming into contact with one of these if fully charged but the radio switched off the capacitor could still give a nasty shock; I don't recommend using fingers to discharge a fully charged 450V 32Uf electrolytic capacitor.

This is getting rather too deep for a novice to follow but I can follow the video explanation without problem and if I'm correct then the problem with this mower could well be the magneto because I don't trust anything electronic; just look around at how washing machines fail due to a circuit board fault?

Now I'll look at electronic ignition just for the fun of it; I'm a dinosaur and fully understand the old contact points and coil but have never been involved with electronic ignition; it's amazing what can be learned in a very short time just by being nosy and inquisitive. I'll try anything if it interest me. Whatever the problem is it involves heat in one way or another?

Thanks Doug; I'm sure compression is OK; I can feel compression simply by pulling the starter cord and as I've just decoked it and ground in the valves everything looked good; there's no sign of compression problem because if it was say a sticking valve then I'd expect a flash back through the carb or a backfire through the exhaust? It's definitely good fun though; I'm not surprised my chum decided to buy a new mower and kindly give me this to play with; as with any problem once the solution is known it's then so obvious; I love telling people about work I've done and problems I've solved for them to know all the answers after I've told them but strangely they never seem to know the answers up front.

I was puzzled by the three heavy wires going to ground on the magneto but looking at the video above explains these; this magneto is self contained having the capacitor and electronic points (switch) enclosed hence these wires need grounding but had the mower been fitted with contact breaker points and capacitor then these wires would have been longer to connect the remote points and capacitor.

Kind regards, Colin.

I've just been looking at capacitor discharge ignition so here's a bit of extra interesting information;

A circuit and components similar to this will be moulded into my magneto saving me trying to open up the magneto to find out what is enclosed; Once the new magneto arrives it's a quick job installing it and I'm keen to see what happens?

 

[Silentrunning]

Colin, it seems you are on a very logical train of thought. To me a magneto is a “buy new, throw out old” item due to my lack of experience. I did have one other thought. In the last few years Briggs has upped their quality to compete with Honda. Is it possible that they could have installed an over heat protection device somewhere in the ignition. This could be as simple as a piece of bi-metal that would bend at a certain temperature. If it was defective or adjusted wrong it may shut the mower off at operating temperature.

I hope you aren’t offended by me throwing out ideas. I am in NO WAY questioning your mechanical prowess but I find this type of sleuthing fascinating.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Doug you are a top ambassador for this forum and I doubt very much you would offend anyone let alone me; I sincerely welcome your input and suggestions/information; I'm sure had we been neighbours you'd have also been a top class friend because we have so much in common.

I don't think I mentioned this mower is over 20 years old; all the ignition components are contained within the sealed magneto and as you rightly say when one of these fails its a throw away item; if I could open one up then perhaps it could be repaired but it's fully encapsulated so just breaking into it would cause lots of damage; one thing I don't yet understand is the kill wire from the magneto but this is because I've not yet had chance to fully inspect it?

I was very interested though to find the wiring details and components used in these magnetos which explains a lot to me. One thing really does stand out is it will have an SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) enclosed I've used these in my home made power supplies years ago and even then I had to ensure a decent heat sink was installed because they do heat up and if I'm correct I think this is the cause of this particular problem; if the SCR heats up then dies and is allowed to cool; it won't fully cool so when it does kick in again and fire up the mower the second time it dies it will be after a shorter run time; I'm unsure if the SCR will be half or full wave. I could of course be totally wrong and am sticking my neck out but to me it makes sense because the mower runs a full five minutes from cold until it warms up then it dies; if it was a fuel problem I'd expect the mower to die in less than a minute with a diaphragm carb and a bit longer with a float bowl carb but until I receive the new magneto this is only my theory; I hope I'm wrong then this will really start to get interesting?

Your suggestion regarding a heat protection device is excellent and such devices could well be installed but these days I think with electronic monitoring; such devices are used extensively to protect electric motors? I've not heard of a bimetallic strip used for many years; you'll well remember these Doug being used when flashing indicators were introduced for cars; it used to be an aluminium can with a bimetal strip inclosed and in use it would click away merrily; now it's solid state with perhaps something like a 555 timer chip?

I'm hot at the moment having just been digging up the mountain; it sure gets the blood going round.

Yes it really is fun and highly interesting chasing a solution to this kind of problem and in a way I'll be disappointed if I can sort it out but then I'm like a dog with a bone once I start so I'll win in the end however long it takes me; I'm too dumb to know when to quit but I'm learning so much along the way. If my theory proves correct then it might be worth adding the full story as another thread as you suggested Doug because many mowers will get scrapped when in fact all it takes is a bit of interesting work and a bit of money to keep the mower in service for many years to come; I dislike scrapping anything if I can save it.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

My life is like a corkscrew nothing ever being straight forward. I can now confirm the problem with this erring mower to be ignition the Magneto failing when hot. The new magneto arrived at dinnertime today so straight after dinner I was keen to try it out; this new magneto looked a lot different to the original but it fitted so I thought all would be well. Initially the mower refused to fire up so I primed it more with fuel; now the cord handle was viciously dragged out of my hand giving my arm a nasty jerk. I did fire the mower up but WOW; I thought I could donate this engine to the "Williams" team; it took off at terrific speed forcing me to shut it down before it self destructed; after more playing around I found I could keep the revs from going ballistic by using the hand control but it wasn't at all happy; in spite of this I was determined to see if it would run more than five minutes so well after ten minutes I turned it off.

Now for some detective work; I had noticed the profile of the laminations didn't match the profile of the flywheel but this magneto was sold to me as suitable for this mower hence I had gone ahead and installed it. I concluded that there was far too much ignition advance so I've now emailed the eBay seller explaining what has occurred but also stating the engine became so hot it's caused damage to the spark plug insulation so it wouldn't be fair of me to simply request a refund; I can afford the loss because I've had a lot of pleasure from sorting this problem out.

The seller has now replied asking if the magneto coil sizes are different and I've replied yes they are; the new coil is 1.3" dia the original coil 1.9" dia; I'm awaiting his reply; I never ever leave negative feedback on eBay because usually problems can be resolved amicably with a bit of give and take.

This mower however has given my chum David the run around especially when there are dozens of YouTube videos all showing this fault to be fuel related hence David bought carb diaphragms and even a new carb but without luck in solving the problem. David I fully trust knowing I could ignore the fuel side and as I have decoked the engine and checked it the compression was also in order leaving ignition but how could it be ignition; I had checked resistance from plug lead to ground both cold and hot; there was still a healthy spark when hot whilst the mower had just died and when I poured in neat petrol into the carb intake it roughly fired up indicating the ignition was present but I don't trust electronic components one little bit so when I did the research finding electronic components to be encapsulated within the magneto I wasn't going to simply start checking David's work after all it certainly appeared to be fuel starvation at fault. I believe the fault to lay with the SCR in the magneto as I stated earlier and now with the new magneto running the engine for well in excess of ten minutes I'm pretty sure I've not only found the cause of the problem but also the explanation; this mower has tested me but I'm used to playing with electronic components so I saved further endless work chasing my tail; good try mower but not good enough; once the correct magneto is installed I'll adjust the new carb assuming it can be adjusted; this mower will give in and end up purring like a kitten by the time I'm done with it.

Why there are dozens of YouTube videos cloning each other stating carb faults beats me; this amount of videos make it look as though such problems as this one are definitely down to fuel starvation and I confess on face value every one of these videos could have been correct but I'm not the normal guy; everything I touch or do is laden with problems so I smell a rat and use my own judgement.

I hope these notes help others who are experiencing similar mower problems; I'm certainly not complaining because I volunteered for the job and my chum David generously gave me the mower; I love tinkering in the workshop.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Dulavin]

Playing the harp! I wanted to learn so badly ever since there was a small segment on a kid's TV show when I was little (maybe Teletubbies?), I was upset for years that my parents said no until I looked into it myself much much later and saw that harps easily cost £1000+! I think it's fair they didn't want to hand that kind of money over to a 6/7 year old who would probably have broken it or got bored after a few months.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

£1,000 these days is considered not much but when I was a kid we had one penny to spend and if ever we had sixpence we felt rich. We didn't even have electricity in our cottage.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

The latest craze amongst young people is the ukulele. It's much easier to play than a guitar, as a lot of chords can be played
by holding down either one or two strings. You can pay a lot of money for one of these. But for many it's a passing fad.

It amused me to learn, being the owner of a professional quality Yamaha tenor saxophone, as well as an "all singin' and dancin'"Yamaha Tyros 5 leccy piano, that the great jaz musician Charlie Parker, played at one time, a beat up old alto sax.
I should explain at this point that the 22 keys on a saxophone, each have a spring which either keeps its port open or closed by design, (mostly closed, as the keys are operated by the four fingers on each hand, plus the thumb and palm of left hand and the side of the index finger of the right hand).
He used elastic bands to keep one or two keys open or closed where a spring or springs were broken.

You can't buy talent.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

I've just been looking back at older posts. I did buy the new correct magneto in the end and yes the mower worked perfectly; I used it a few times but it was taking up space so I sold it and split the money evenly with my chum.

I sold it through Gumtree and was surprised when a guy up the village contacted me and bought it; he's delighted with it so it's now back in service and saved from being scrapped. I didn't need this mower but as my chum was disposing of it I thought it would make a nice challenge because I like tinkering with anything mechanical. I thought I'd update with an happy outcome. After 33 years I've finally caught up on jobs I had to do; now for some quality workshop time this winter.

We have a friend in Australia who has a small group of like minded retired ladies with an interest in Uke's Doghouse; before the virus they got together on a regular basis they also are a singing group and would have been getting ready for Christmas singing at care homes etc.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Like with any hobby you have to stick at it and the best way is with a group of other people.
I think your friends have the right idea, playing together gives everyone some encouragement.

But for my family I think ukes were just a passing fad.

To expand on what I've posted before.

At seventeen whilst still at grammar schoo,. I played guitar in a jazz band in a pub on Saturday nights. I think our headmaster would have had kittens if he knew.

But when I got married there was no time for such hobbies and my wife being non musical (or musical depending on your point of view) didn't like me using the amplifier. The old valve amp is still in the loft.
I've played an electic piano (badly) since my forties, I'm on my sixth a Yamaha Tyros 5.

I subscribe to a dedicated Yamaha keyboard players' message board, where we upload our efforts to "Box" and post links on the forum.

I won't post anything unless I think it's a decent standard, but you get all sorts. I just wish some wouldn't spoil a decent enough performance by attempting to sing along with it. (I don't) But it takes all.

People can then post comments, (but no one ever says anything unkind)

.
I've about 200 recordings of mostly jazz standards or vintage pop or Motown I've made over a several years, which I've posted.

I've been playing tenor sax for about ten years, I've a Yamaha YTS62 I bought new.

But that I only play for my own enjoyment, I can play along with recordings I make on the Tyros.

So with my vintage hi-fi system and big Goodmans speakers on the wall.

Lots of albums and CDs

A stick in the side of the TV with thousands of mp3s on it, that I can play through my hi-fi.

A Humax HDR 2000T with a lot of films and music on it (my tenor sax lives behind the TV, (it stops my wife accidentally clouting it with a vacuum cleaner).

My jukebox wallboxes with which I can select mp3s on iPods and play through my Leak tuner amp.

and my two vinyl jukeboxes that have to live in our summerhouse as there's no room in our small house.

I think I've got music pretty much covered. I've plenty of time for it at the moment as the golf club to which I belong and where I play several times a week, is closed due to the virus.

Lately as well as all the classic recordings of the era, I'm into the lesser known girl groups of the sixties, but it is hard to find records in good condition that are nearly sixty years old, but I've had some success.

I'll leave you with an example, on my 51 year-old jukebox, there's more on my YouTube channel.

 

[Retired]

Hi,
You've certainly got a lot of very impressive fire power when it comes to music Doghouse; you could lift the roof if you fired the lot up at full blast.

I once read of a guy who made a giant speaker it fastened to the ceiling in the basement but was the size of the ceiling; when powered up it rattled the whole building; I bet neighbours loved him.

Bringing the thread out of early hibernation regarding new hobbies to start; it could be over two years since I bought a Peter Child pyrography kit;

https://www.turners-retreat.co.uk/peter-child-pyrography-machine/p1491

My intention then was to use this kit to add wood burning embellishment to my woodturning but I was too bogged down with heavy jobs to even try it out. At last I now have time but the dire weather is making life difficult so I'm having to change my plans a bit. It's too cold to be standing at the lathe but it's very cozy here at the computer so I've bought a tall picnic table;

This table just squeezes into my office; my office is actually our entrance hall which is doubling up as the office; this table is perfect; I can now set up the pyrography station very quickly indeed and a couple of days ago tried it out; I now need to do a lot more practice. I'm learning pyrography on small pieces of well sanded 1/8" plywood.

First problem was in resizing a picture and printing it out to use as a pattern; the picture was very poor indeed having large pixels but undeterred I just drew roughly around the profile using graphite paper as seen; yes it's poor but at least I could now play with my pyrography kit in warm dry well lit comfort. This was the start.

My next attempt was much more successful; again printing out the pattern this time without scaling problems and I was careful going over the pattern with a pencil in order not to displace it; even doing this I found to be interesting and a lot easier than digging up giant tree stumps.

The new picnic table is a perfect fit between the computer desk I made and the nice warm radiator; my office desk is handy too. I'm generally right handed so the machine is out of my way giving plenty of working space; there's a ceiling pendant light and also a desk lamp but yesterday at midday it was like the middle of the night it being extremely dark as the rain poured down causing misery all around with lots of flooding; the rain doesn't flood us because of our steep valley side location and years ago I installed flood defenses but with the weather being so bad it put me off doing anything at all.

Doodling with the pyrography pen adding our names and names of cats just to get the feel of the pen. Two new bobbins of correct resistance wire has just arrived from Turners Retreat; I had bought 50 extra nibs so now I'm set up for life; the wire I can form into any shape but it's still too cold to be in the workshop; I'd like to make "Spoon" type nibs but in the meantime I can do lots more practice with the fine writing nibs.

Heat and speed are very important; ideally the pen needs to be moving at touchdown rather than placing down then moving otherwise it leaves a heavy black dot; I soon got the hang of it though; plywood can be difficult as can any wood to burn due to grain; the nib I'm currently using is a writing nib but I'm informed I need to use a different nib in order to burn better quality lines; the fine nib tend to dig in as it runs over the grain. I'm pleased with progress so far and having beaten the dire weather is a real bonus.

Bron and I have been watching lots of inspirational YouTube pyrography videos such as the one shown above which is truly wonderful and something for me to aspire to regarding high quality.

Once I can get into the workshop without wrapping up like an Eskimo I want to do more woodturning; a short while ago I did manage to turn my first goblet as seen above; this is the kind of turned item I'd like to embellish with pyrography; I've also bought a new Makita palm router for use on the lathe so I'm in for a bit of fun.

Here's the holly blank which was turned into the goblet shown above.

We've lived here 33 years; the first 30 years grafting sorting our detached bungalow out the last three years grafting in the gardens. I've been retired 20 years and this is now going to be a bit of retirement at last us having caught up with all the heavy work. Here's the new fence and meadow that replace a giant 60' long very high hedge I removed last summer

When I say graft I mean it; 73 years old fighting stumps/rootball's like this one; this is the last I dug out and disposed of so now perhaps when I've had a rest I can get involved in things I want to do not things I have to do.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[He who knows]

The latest craze amongst young people is the ukulele.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ukulele+orchestra+of+great+britain

 

[He who knows]

View attachment 1906

Anyone interested in engines will recognize these.

Oh yes.

These are wonderful jobs for anyone who likes to get their hands dirty but the skills are rapidly dying out in this throw away society we now live in.

To be fair, modern engines are now far too complicated for the DIY we used to do, it's not just the throw-away society (although also to be fair that is a problem with many consumer goods). I've stripped and rebuilt engines, and once a gearbox.

Could someone do it now with variable valve timing, computerised management units, direct shift gearboxes, on their driveway? I very much doubt it.

But to be fair for the third time, all the complications have also brought us cars which are much more fuel efficient and much less polluting.

 

[He who knows]

Anyway...

Is there some hobby / endeavor that you have never participated in that you would like to try? Assuming that cost was not a factor, of course.

If I may be allowed to stretch "never" into "not for 45 years", shooting.