The grumpy thread

[ProgRocker]

4 minutes ago, loserone said:

I, er.  Okay.

 

Council disposal here is £14 for up to three items of heavy furniture.  

Oops! I meant 'R number is below one', not zero. D'oh!

My local authority charges £30.50  for 3 bits, then it's a huge jump to £50 for 4 bits for some reason.

[Tetleysmooth]

28 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Not car related but in clearing my late parents' house I'm having a job and a half trying to get the three piece suite removed for free.

Even the charities seeking decent bits of furniture have ceased doing this due to covid.

Tried all avenues before contacting the council and paying for a bulk collection.

Bollocks to the lockdown. The R number is now well below one, its time for shops, charities, restaurants and pubs to open up and make some money.

Where are you located ProgRocker?

[ProgRocker]

1 minute ago, Tetleysmooth said:

Where are you located ProgRocker?

Norwich, Norfolk.

[Tetleysmooth]

6 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

Norwich, Norfolk.

Bit far then. I had visions of trying to borrow the firms van, but I've only been there a fortnight. I don't think they'd like it going up to Norwich.

Why not post some pics up in the wanted/offered section, somebody may have the means to come and collect.

[mitsisigma01]

Horsham Council £20 +£14 per item up to 8 items, flytipping is a booming business round here now. Tip is closed 2 days a week even though thousands of new houses just been built... End of the month they go to a book an appointment to tip system.. 3 weeks minimum in advance... 

[ProgRocker]

31 minutes ago, Tetleysmooth said:

 

Why not post some pics up in the wanted/offered section, somebody may have the means to come and collect.

I might do that, I have it listed on Bumtree at the mo. I did have one interested party last weekend but that one didn't pan out sadly. 

The sale of the house should be completing in the next few weeks so the pressure is on. 

With this crux comes a few victories: there was an old Bosch washing machine which one of my sisters informed me was actually faulty. Somehow summoned all my strength to get it from the utility extension to the front garden last week. Went to the house this morning to check on things and the washing machine has now disappeared.  Not sure if one of my sisters had taken it or maybe a scrap metal dealer or even someone on the estate. Done me a huge favour whoever it was!

Extending dining table & 6 chairs listed on Gumtree in January for £45 and within the next few hours I got 5 enquiries, sold the next day to the first person. Bedroom chest of drawers sold on eBay and collected shortly after. 

[Lankytim]

Landlords with student accommodation hooover up things like sofas no problem. 

[nomiST]

Freecycle has always worked for us.

 

https://www.freecycle.org/

 

 

[New POD]

Cut it up with a saw. Leave in loft. 

[Parky]

Grumpy with myself for venting yesterday.  I was having a bad day and am under a bit of stress at the moment so would like to apologise for losing my cool.  Usually I would be fine with everything that’s going on but the added pressure of having to submit a (very complex) set of exam essays which will totally determine whether I secure a job or not was just an extra layer I didn’t have capacity for.  

Straws and camels backs, etc.  Sorry everyone.

[loserone]

Hey Parky, that's what this thread is for.  Sometimes venting is what you need.

 

Good luck with the exams

[High Jetter]

It's fine, AS safety vent worked automatically, hope it helped you.

[Parky]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

It's fine, AS safety vent worked automatically, hope it helped you.

Yup, it did.  My mental health needed that vent as sometimes the stiff upper lip just keeps it all buttoned up until the pressure has nowhere to go.

Exam wise there are four parts.  Today I finished an essay which I can submit so that’s out the way.  I need to pass two multi choice tests, one of which is finished and passed, the other has two questions outstanding.  I have one shot left at that or else I fail but I know what I need to practice and rehearse so I will do that until I am fluent in bollocks before the final attempt.

Last thing is a live advice interview.  No worries there but the instructions are to use your companies forms and declarations which I don’t have as I don’t work for anyone.  So I need to create a set of compliant standard papers despite not knowing exactly what they are as have never seen any!  This should be a laugh.....

[Ghosty]

Bought a welder from Machine Mart, alas the one I wanted they only had the display model, but were willing to sell me it. They declined to discount it as shop soiled though. 
They asked if I need the box, I declined as it wouldn't be much use, and all the accessories were contained inside. 
However it transpires that parts of the provided mask are missing (nothing to hold the lens in), half the gas bottle holder, and several tips of different gauges. I needed to go back for more tips anyway as they were out of 1mm, but now I have to ask for a load of bits off them too. If I'm paying full price, I want everything... 

 

[dean36014]

To be fair the best investment you'll make will be a decent auto dimming mask. If you're intending to work on cars 0.6mm wire and tips is adequate

[Talbot]

1 hour ago, dean36014 said:

To be fair the best investment you'll make will be a decent auto dimming mask.

This.

I basically cannot weld properly without one now.  I can just about use a fixed-shade nod-down helmet when working at the bench, but when you're contorted under a car, an autodim is essential.  They're barely over a tenner on ebay now, and the one I bought about 18 months ago is still working just fine.  Seems amazing that they were £150 about 15 years ago.  The hand-held load-of-old-crap that they give you with the welder should be thrown directly in the bin.  Possibly used by spectators only.  It's basically only supplied to cover themselves so that when some idiot burns the fuck out of their retinas and then tries to sue them, the supplier can absolutely show that they covered their duty of care by providing a welding shield.

1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

I needed to go back for more tips anyway as they were out of 1mm

No single-phase welder can use 1mm wire or tips.  0.8mm is the largest you'll ever need with 0.6 definitely being preferable on thin car body.  To make use of 1mm wire you need to be up into the 300A 3-phase machine running quite hard, welding 8mm+ thick plate sort of welding.  Even then you can just use 0.8mm run a bit faster, it's just that 1mm wire is a (fractionally) cheaper way of doing it.  Ask them for a pack of 0.6 or 0.8mm tips instead as a "well, this was a display unit, I know you can't give me a discount, but you can chuck some other bits in, right?"  Or even a set of shrouds.  Is it a hobby torch or a euro torch?  Euro torch shrouds tend to last quite well, but the hobby ones will burn back eventually as they are so small and thin.  I went through several when I had a hobby machine.

 

 

[Ghosty]

53 minutes ago, Talbot said:

stuff

 

 

Yeah, I've got a nod-down helmet as a starting point (and as I need this thing MOTd stat) but I'll have to look into autodim for the next project. Thankfully light isn't an issue in the 106, and I do need a spare mask in case dad is supervising. 

0.8 tip is all well and good for 0.7mm wire, but the provided 0.9mm flux core wire won't go through that and I was advised by MM that I'd need 1mm tips for that. 
I'm arguing the toss on general principle basically, if they're going to sell me a welder at full price I expect everything listed in the manual to be present, or money back - especially at a price point well into three figures. 
It's also safety as at the current point in time and ignoring the mask I bought separately, I can't use the welder as a) it'd blind me and b) I can't mount a gas bottle to it with half the mount missing. 

[Talbot]

37 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

0.8 tip is all well and good for 0.7mm wire, but the provided 0.9mm flux core wire won't go through that and I was advised by MM that I'd need 1mm tips for that. 

MM haven't got the first clue what they are on about.  0.8mm tip is used for 0.8mm wire.  1.0mm tip is used for 1.0mm wire.  It's been a while since I've used it, but flux core wire is 0.8mm, so you need a 0.8mm tip.  if you have 0.9mm flux core wire then you've got something very odd there, and a 1.0mm tip will be a bit crap.  yes, it will likely work, but it will be a bit intermittent.

Check carefully it's not 0.8mm wire, and the tips are just shit. I've had them before now where the copper has deformed, so you have to run a 0.8mm drill bit through them before the wire will feed properly.  Especially on hobby torches, as the tips are thinner material and more easily deformed.

Actually, I'm not even sure you can get 1.0mm tips for a hobby welder.

Edit:  Evidently I'm a bit wrong here.  According to a quick google, Machine mart do indeed sell 0.9mm flux-core wire.  Nevertheless, you'll need a 0.9mm tip to go with it.  That will either be a bought 0.9 or run a 0.9mm drill bit up a 0.8mm welding tip to make one.  1.0mm will be too much clearance to work properly.

Generally the tip should be a very close fit to the wire, and a 0.1mm gap is too much.  It can be very noticeable when you have a worn tip in a welder as the weld becomes far more difficult to maintain.  Even then, the wear can be barely visible.

I've also tried running 0.6mm wire through a 0.8mm tip.  Could barely strike an arc.

[wuvvum]

I bought this one.  £8.78.

I had auto dimming goggles already but wanted a bit more face protection.  Feck trying to weld with the crappy perma-dark handheld mask which comes with most welders.

[Ghosty]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Actually, I'm not even sure you can get 1.0mm tips for a hobby welder.

There were 1mm Clarke tips on the shelf but out of stock. The MM employee called them 'industrial' though.

[wuvvum]

My new welder came with a 1.0mm tip in a little bag, along with a 0.7mm.  Haven't looked to see what's in the torch at the moment but assume it's 0.6 as that's the size of wire it came with.

[Angrydicky]

9 hours ago, Ghosty said:

Bought a welder from Machine Mart, alas the one I wanted they only had the display model, but were willing to sell me it. They declined to discount it as shop soiled though. 
They asked if I need the box, I declined as it wouldn't be much use, and all the accessories were contained inside. 
However it transpires that parts of the provided mask are missing (nothing to hold the lens in), half the gas bottle holder, and several tips of different gauges. I needed to go back for more tips anyway as they were out of 1mm, but now I have to ask for a load of bits off them too. If I'm paying full price, I want everything... 

 

I, on the other hand, couldn't have had a more different experience when buying a welder from a local branch of Machine Mart. The staff were falling over themselves to show me the different models and accessories. And the one I eventually went for, the only one they had in stock was the display model so they knocked a few quid off for that. I got a decent auto-darkening helmet at the same time with the money I saved on the welder, and a large roll of .8 wire. I did take the box containing the accessories too! Welders, I think are slow moving stock so it's in their interest to sell them whenever someone expresses an interest.

I went for a Clarke 130 turbo, and it's been absolutely brilliant.

Sadly, I suspect Machine Mart's days as shops are numbered, it wouldn't surprise me to see them go fully or mostly online. 

[PhilA]

My uncle Tony was admitted to hospital yesterday morning, just got call today that he died at 9:30.

Well, that blows.

 

Phil

[New POD]

18 hours ago, dean36014 said:

To be fair the best investment you'll make will be a decent auto dimming mask. 

And ear plugs if welding upside down. 

Where did the weld splatter end up? When welding the back of the sills on a mk3 cavalier.   Oh yes. Down my fucking right ear.  No.permanent damage.

 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Trite in the scheme of things here but Lady Grumpius asked me to just give her car a basic once-over before its MOT on Thursday.

Go out at 7.30PM.  Check tyres.  All fine.  Put on headlights to check bulbs.  Hmmm.  Looks like a sidelight is out.  Grab screwdriver, take headlight out and swap over the H1 bulb.  Switch lights back on to check.  Nope.  Hmm.  Works on full beam, works with dipped, it's a sidelight.  Ok. 

Look up 'sidelights out on one side' on Google.  'Check the number 53 fuse'.

Now imagine, if you will, a 19-stone, 6'2" former Rugby player whose playing days are behind him and hasn't seen a salad in a while.  For the knowledgable Ford Fondlers amongst you will know that the fuse box of a MK2 Focus is in the passenger footwell.  Well, I can only get into the drivers door so there I am, feet in the air, lying across the drivers seat with my arse digging into the handbrake, trying to get the 53 fuse out with the fuse puller from my Golf.  Ten minutes of swearing and nothing, can't get any leverage.  Eventually after fifteen minutes, I grab a multitool from my car and used the corkscrew to get some leverage from the point and pull the fuse.  Pull the 54 as well (the RH side one) and nope, they're both fine.  For fuck's sake.

Went back to look at the car and had another look.

'Grumpius' I say to myself.  'You are a total twit'.  For there are THREE bulbs in the cluster.  An H7, an H1 and a 501 that had completely missed.  Go to the back of my car, grab a spare 501 (I have a stash in the boot floor recess), change the 501 and it works.  Well, had to wrestle the light cluster back into position but got there eventually.

A five-minute job turned into 50 because of my own lack of observation.

In conclusion:

[High Jetter]

Maximus...sillyous. We've all been there at some time.

[Spiny Norman]

They've rebuilt the steps at the back door to our flats after fixing the drain that was underneath. There's only three but the middle one is now about two inches higher up than it used to be and today the inevitable happened when I was taking the bins out and I went arse over tit on it and smashed my knee on the floor, which took a fair size chunk of skin off it.

However that's only part of the grump, because in putting my hands out to brace myself as I went down I jarred the torn shoulder muscle that's been slowly healing these past couple of weeks and now I'm back to square one with that as well.

Fucksticks.


 

[Ghosty]

18 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

I, on the other hand, couldn't have had a more different experience when buying a welder from a local branch of Machine Mart. The staff were falling over themselves to show me the different models and accessories. And the one I eventually went for, the only one they had in stock was the display model so they knocked a few quid off for that. I got a decent auto-darkening helmet at the same time with the money I saved on the welder, and a large roll of .8 wire. I did take the box containing the accessories too! Welders, I think are slow moving stock so it's in their interest to sell them whenever someone expresses an interest.

Oh, I won't deny the staff are more than helpful - it's always the same two on the counter and they're knowledgeable and starting to recognise me as I'm in weekly at the moment. 
They were much the same here, more than willing to show me everything and explain it and knew how to answer all my questions. 
However I did note that they didn't stock 0.9mm tips for flux core gasless welding so I eBayed some. 
~ 
Phoned them up today and they thankfully still had the box for my welder and all of the missing accessories were in it, so I went down and they were handed to me with apologies. Nothing for the inconvenience, mind. 
The welder works perfectly though so that's all good. 

In other 'argh!' news, I took a Halfords Advanced 3/8" ratchet in for replacement as it didn't hold sockets any more. They still replace them no questions asked, alas they had no 3/8" ratchets in so it was either take a stubby ratchet or order one, I went with ordering one. Alas they've taken my ratchet off me... that has potential to be interesting* .
 

[loserone]

Got a receipt?

[loserone]

@PhilA sorry to hear of your loss.