Mixing it...

You join me half way through this project... Well, what turned into a 'half' project, if you like.

The story starts way back in the early 1980s when the younger version of me was doing a spot of DIY, well, rather a lot of DIY as it turned out. We had recently bought the house we still live in today. At the time we were slowly converting it back from a couple of flats to a single dwelling. Money was tight (when isn't it?) so laying out £145.00 for a cement mixer was a big decision. In those days it was relatively expensive to hire mixers, and it would not have taken very long to spend most of the cost of a new one. For once, I picked the correct path and parted with my £145.00.

We were laying a patio and building walls to retain the garden. That job alone repaid the investment in one go. We had weeks of use out of it mixing mortar and render. Since then, although it has had long periods of just sitting there, it has seen hours and hours of work over the past 35+ years.

It started life painted a bright orange colour, as all Belle mixers do. After several years of use, it was getting a bit tatty so one weekend it got a make-over in 'Buttercup yellow', I could not buy orange paint easily, and a bright yellow seemed like a good alternative at the time. From that point on, it became known as 'Buttercup'. I am not usually happy with giving inanimate objects names, but for some reason, this silly name just amused me at the time. That must have been well over twenty years ago. Since then it has lived outdoors more than it has been under cover.

16A IP44 plug and socket

For the past few years, the power lead has been missing. Not needing it, I had not had a reason to locate it, but while hunting through a box of 'stuff', as I cleared the workshop, I came across the plug devoid of its lead. For some reason, it must have been removed. I have no recollection of this heinous act. The only thing I can think of is that I had intended to upgrade it to the current 16A IP44 system of connection. This I will do, but for now, I just wanted to see if I could get it going so I have repaired the existing plug and rewired it to a length of three-core, blue 'Arctic' cord.

 

The bit I did not photograph...

Making the new lead led me to have a go at firing it up. Bearing in mind, it has been exposed to the worst of the weather for a decade I was not overly confident that it was even going to run. With the mixer connected to a supply, protected by an RCD, I gingerly switched it on. To my surprise, it ran well, if a bit 'dry' sounding.

Repaired, rusty and replacement fixings

Full of confidence I set about looking at stripping it down to give it a bit of a service. The first job was to attempt to undo the rusty and painted over fixings. Not only had I painted them with a good thick coat of brushed-on 'Buttercup' but it had been sprayed orange after its assembly by the workers at Belle. A touch of paint stripper and a good soaking with what Sue calls that "Magic Juice" (a twenty-year-old can of Plus-Gas) and I managed to remove all but one of the original bolts intact, all be it in poor condition.

The bit I did photograph...

Some of the metal work is in a bit of a sorry state having been ravished by the deep, destructive action of rust eating away at vulnerable steel and cast iron. This was cleaned and treated with Rust Remover (sold by Machine Mart) Although reasonably ugly looking, in all cases, there is enough good metal left to maintain strength, at least for now. I will probably fabricate a complete new bracket, I have always wanted to have a go at welding, now I have the perfect excuse - how hard can it be? Honestly? I have no idea, but I intend to do a bit of research, ask a few mates who have experience and, if I feel confident, I will give it a go. If that does not work out, I can always get one fabricated for me! I do intend to do a proper refurbishment of this faithful piece of mini-plant in the future, but for now, a coat of primer and the plant-rat look will have to do.

The cast iron gearbox seemed to shed a skin or two as the rust was peeled away, but was still solid and after being treated with a liberal application of Rust Remover, washed and dried off, it was given a couple of coats of Hammerite Smooth - great stuff for this sort of job! It can be seen in the picture below.

That will do for now - Where're the spanners?

Late in the day, I thought it might be worth photographing the progress so far. I found some replacement nuts and bolts (technically set screws, but the common description of bolts will do) of similar thread sizes, and just cut them to length. The large bold that is used to mount the motor bracket to the gearbox was in good enough condition to reuse as I did not have a suitable replacement to hand. It got a soak in the Rust Remover overnight and cleaned off to be paired with nice new full thickness washers and nut.

The original plug and socket - soon to be replaced with a modern 16A version

The motor got a good scrub with a wire brush and its internal residents, live and deceased, were 'encouraged' to evacuate with a blast from the air-line. I did not bother to repaint it for now.

It all went back together well, and a quick test proved the fact. Although not in too bad a state, the drum has some deposits of cement left inside. Ten years of rust took care of most of it, and a few clouts with a rubber hammer removed some more. Finally, I ran it for a while with a slurry of pea shingle, sharp-sand and water to polish off the inside. Although not perfect it is now very serviceable as it is, at least for the meantime.

In motion. The mixer is being run with a slurry of pea shingle, sharp-sand and water to polish off the inside. It might take a while

I have bought a new drive belt for it, but as the original is still going strong, I will save it as a spare for now, as there seems little point in replacing it for the sake of it. It is a simple five-minute replacement if it does break with use.

I will now use it for the couple of small projects I have to do here in the garden, but it will need the plug/socket replaced, and I would not mind giving it a bit of a cosmetic make-over one day.

Ralph.

Box-olagy

It is incredible how much stuff can be squirrelled away when you have space to do it. If that space is shared with a little brother who was never good at keeping his room tidy, you can imagine how much mess he can make in several hundred square feet!

My little brother (Tim, now in his 50s, but still referred to as LB) has just moved home and his new dwelling comes with the biggest single garage I have ever seen. This means that he has moved out of his lump of the space we share.Now I have more space than I know what to do with. To make things easier Tim has taken everything he wants and removed any rubbish leaving behind the rest for me to pick over and do with as I chose. This has been reasonably fruitful as he passed on a host of power tools and I managed to reclaim most of what he had 'borrowed' of my tools, power leads and fixings.

His stuff was scattered all over the place. Just like his childhood bedroom, it was impossible to find anything. This resulted in new tools being bought as it was easer and quicker than spending hours looking for stuff. I found at least three hacksaw frames and fixings of all shapes and sizes. In an old plastic tray that originally contained bulk chicken pieces, I found the remains of a box of 25mm, 18g narrow crown staples, along with an exploded box. The flimsy box had obviously given out under the less than careful handling it had received, during LBs tenure as custodian of said fixings.

Everything gets covered in dust down at the storage as the floor is loose chippings that are very dry. driving over them just kicks up fine dust that settles on everything that is not wrapped or covered. This open box of fixings had not escaped the layers of dust and just as the remains of Pompeii were eventually excavated, so it was for this little box of fixing.

At around £16.00 a box, it was worth collecting them up for recovery later. The box was loaded on to the van for transit back to the workshop. The first job was to brush and wash the dirt off of the fixings and see just what I had. It turned out to be thirty strips (3000 staples). That is just under a tenner's worth. The cardboard box was laying in the bottom of the open container with a flap hanging off and it had split down one of the corners rendering it useless as it was, laid flat. 

These fixing are very heavy for their size and the boxes they are supplied in, for the most part, are far too weak. I have often strengthened them with a wrap of 'Gaffa' tape. Just for the hell of it, I decided I would repair it and return it to a serviceable box. Yes, I know I am probably the only person to bother to do this, but If a fixing has an original box I much prefer to Keep them in it.

Repairing the box

The split box was washed off and left to dry overnight

The box had spilt down one of the folded corners and in order to be able to repair it properly I needed to separate the glued up seam. This I did with a scalpel.

As can be seen, part of the box remains on the flap, stuck to the original glue. This is no problem as it will be glued back together and become reunited making the same thickness as it was originally.

One of the flaps needed some repair as it was almost torn completely away

Water-resistant PVA glue is used to join it back together

More glue is added to the join where the box had been split.

Brown Gum-Arabic tape is used to reinforce the joint, the glue is activated with water painted on with a brush.

It is left for about 15 minutes before being burnished to remove any air bubles

The tape is trimmed to length before the glue has set completely

A final pat with a dry tea towel removes any excess moisture.

It is sandwiched between a couple of pieces of glass, weighted down and left overnight to dry

The repaired fold is scored using the handle of a scalpel and the box was assembled using PVA glue on the flap 

There we have it a serviceable box containing there best part of 3000 narrow crown staples ready for use. Note the additional strip of tape added to reinforce the outer corner where the box has been repaired

I know,I could have just put them in something else, but that would not be any fun. I have now achieved something and the original box will sit alongside the other couple of million air-nails/staples/brads that I have in stock.

Ralph.

And finally...

Not so smart, smart-phone.
I mentioned above that I refer to my little brother as LB. My current communication device has (as I assume most do) a talking mode. E.g. "Fred calling" I hardly ever use this feature but one day I was messing about with the settings and I must have inadvertently turned the voice on. A while later, the lady in the phone announced "Pound Calling!" ... What?  "Pound Calling!" It then dawned on me, I had entered 'LB' in the directory as the identifier for my brother's number. The dumb-phone thinks it is the abbreviation for pound weight (lb).