Re: What Projects / Tasks do you have going on / to do??

[RVR II]

'Play me a song on your piano stand'
Sorry, Billy Joel came to mind while reading this 

[RVR II]

Finally got around to working on replacing my Maytag DE7600 Dryer idler belt tension pulley.
It was making a loud squeaking noise for some time but it was a pain in the ass to get to.. Finally got motivated and it took around 30 minutes to replace it. Last year I had replaced rollers and tumbler belt and I guess I was getting burnt out working on it so I didn't bother with it till now and I'm wondering why I procrastinated on fixing this for so long

[RVR II]

Finally got around to working on replacing my Maytag DE7600 Dryer idler belt tension pulley.
It was making a loud squeaking noise for some time but it was a pain in the ass to get to.. Finally got motivated and it took around 30 minutes to replace it. Last year I had replaced rollers and tumbler belt and I guess I was getting burnt out working on it so I didn't bother with it till now and I'm wondering why I procrastinated on fixing this for so long

And today the drive motor on my 25 year old Maytag 9600 washing machine decided to seize up! Luckily I had a Roper washing machine I had on hand as a spare I bought a couple years back and put it in place of the Maytag so I'm not down a washing machine..
Found a replacement motor for under $124 total with shipping and found a YouTube video where a repairman is replacing the exact same drive motor on his 18 year old Maytag so it doesn't look to bad to replace. That'll be the next project I'll be working on when the replacement motor arrives.

[RVR II]

Finally got around to working on replacing my Maytag DE7600 Dryer idler belt tension pulley.
It was making a loud squeaking noise for some time but it was a pain in the ass to get to.. Finally got motivated and it took around 30 minutes to replace it. Last year I had replaced rollers and tumbler belt and I guess I was getting burnt out working on it so I didn't bother with it till now and I'm wondering why I procrastinated on fixing this for so long

And today the drive motor on my 25 year old Maytag 9600 washing machine decided to seize up! Luckily I had a Roper washing machine I had on hand as a spare I bought a couple years back and put it in place of the Maytag so I'm not down a washing machine..
Found a replacement motor for under $124 total with shipping and found a YouTube video where a repairman is replacing the exact same drive motor on his 18 year old Maytag so it doesn't look to bad to replace. That'll be the next project I'll be working on when the replacement motor arrives.

A followup on this project..
The company sent me the wrong motor. I have a 2 speed drive motor in my washer, they sent me a 1-speed motor. The website wasn't specific about this until afterwards.. After going back and forth with them for a couple of days about this and them trying to get me to pay for return shipping despite the fact their description was not clear on which motor I needed for my particular model so I cancelled the order for the correct motor and was eventually refunded for both.
I found a used 2-speed motor on ebay for half the price and it arrived a couple days ago. Installed it and works fine but discovered that my washer transmission may have gone bad as it would not agitate. Tried several times but could not get it to agitate so I wound up scrapping it

Luckily I had a spare Roper RAX4232KQ0 washing machine I was able to swap out and install quickly so I wasn't down a clothes washer. It's got a grinding sound while agitating so it's probably on it's way out as well but working fine for now so we'll see how long lasts..

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Today's home project was to replace the fill valves in my 2 toilets.  One was squealing like mad and the other was leaking a bit.  And while the tanks were drained I replaced the flapper valves also, they were still good but it only added $4 each and it's so easy to get in there when the fill valve is out.

[RVR II]

So that grinding sound I was hearing in that spare Roper RAX4232KQ0 washing machine was the internal parts of the agitator were wore out and slipping..
I just replaced them with new parts and it's working great now

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Well, today was dealing with old oil and grease on old gears, some 50 years old and some 100 years old...

I have my dad's 50 year old Chelsea Shipstrike clock in my kitchen and lately it's been running crazy fast no matter how I adjust the speed lever.  So it was time to clean and oil it, I did have to use a paint brush to clean the inside of several tiny gears that had black gunk in them and those gears were close to the escapement so the gunk was messing up the speed.  It's one of those clocks that looks like a porthole, and it was obviously meant to go on a boat since the entire movement drops in from the front, but there are 3 half hidden screws holding it, later models had screws on the back that were easy to get to, these you have to get a screwdriver in at an angle, then loosen each one a few turns at a time while lifting up the movement, if you try to take one screw out all the way it hits the face plate, so around and around you have to go.

Funny how you tune out clocks after many years of hearing them, I had some issues with getting the chime working properly when putting it back together, all day I've been thinking it broke again because I haven't heard it go off, but then when I watch it at the top and bottom of the hour it works fine...

For the 100 year old item I've been using my Victrola a bit since getting a batch of new needles for it (the correct way to use a Victrola is to replace the needle after every record played).  The motor had been making some funny noises so I decided to do a partial tear down and rebuild, removing the crusty 100 year old grease and putting new on.  That was easy but I now have black fingernails that are going to be that way for a while, that old grease just doesn't come off with any detergent.

I should get a new spring for it, I've had to bend the end over to get it to hook onto the can so it isn't as strong as it should be, and a few years ago the rivet broke that holds the plate on the can that the spring hooks onto so I had to put a sheet metal screw in it's place.

Pictures of the Victrola motor:

[RVR II]

Wow that's some history right there
I have one of my old nuclear submarine 'Ship's Bell' windup clocks that uses a square windup key.. Airguide brand.


I used to be responsible for winding them ever 2-3 days while underway at sea and setting the time if it was off. I  believe this came from my second sub and it could be over 50 years old itself.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Never heard of Airguide before, are they 6 inch or 4.5 inch faces?  For the Chelsea clocks the 6 inch ones are twice as expensive.

Was the bell turned on when submerged?  Or did the sub never go full silent?  My dad said they only ever went full silent when they were the ones trying to listen for other subs, but his sub was a test bed for new sonar systems being developed in the mid 50s.

If you had to wind them every few days they might be much older than mine, mine can go about 10 days, it usually stops on Wednesday if I forget to wind it on Sunday.

Wow that's some history right there
I have one of my old nuclear submarine 'Ship's Bell' windup clocks that uses a square windup key.. Airguide brand.
----
I used to be responsible for winding them ever 2-3 days while underway at sea and setting the time if it was off. I  believe this came from my second sub and it could be over 50 years old itself.

[RVR II]

Never heard of Airguide before, are they 6 inch or 4.5 inch faces?  For the Chelsea clocks the 6 inch ones are twice as expensive.

Was the bell turned on when submerged?  Or did the sub never go full silent?  My dad said they only ever went full silent when they were the ones trying to listen for other subs, but his sub was a test bed for new sonar systems being developed in the mid 50s.

If you had to wind them every few days they might be much older than mine, mine can go about 10 days, it usually stops on Wednesday if I forget to wind it on Sunday.

Mine measures 5" exactly.

The bells were never turned on to maintain silence and stealth underwater. That was another of my responsibilities, making sure all bells were silenced.

I think the longest I let one go was 5 days before it started losing time.. I had a daily log I would maintain and if I had to wind them, log how many half turns it took. It was a boring job but I have a slight fascination with clocks so I enjoyed it

[RVR II]

Next big project (and quite possibly my last big project for some time)..
Getting my roof re-shingled on my house. Had the contractor that did my vinyl siding and carport build last year, place the order for supplies yesterday. $3050 total for materials including Architectural shingles which will arrive on Wednesday and just over $2000 for labor but they won't start until I get my tax refund sometime in April
It's been 25 years since I bought my house and had a new roof put on it back then and now it's showing its age so it needs to be redone.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

After cleaning and oiling my dad's shipstrike clock it's been keeping very good time, a week of tiny adjustments to the f-s lever and it's now running only slightly fast, maybe only 5 seconds a day, about as good as you can do with this type of clock.  Should only need to do a minute adjustment when I wind it every Sunday, way better than 10 minutes every few days...

My current clock project is my 100 year old Gilbert mantel clock, got it at an antique store decades ago and got it working for a while, then it sat until I moved and the last time I tried to get it working the mainspring broke.  It's the stupid design with the loops on the end of the springs, so to get the end of the spring attached you have to take the entire movement apart to get the loop on the post (those posts really should be removeable...).  I did that last night and got the broken spring out and the one good spring for the chime, ordered 2 new springs and some tools to make it easier to put the new ones in.  Put it all back together without the springs just so I wouldn't lose any parts.   I did always like the tone of the chime (2 tone "bing-bong" type) so hope it works well after I get the new springs in.

Working with mainsprings is scary, they can slice you up pretty bad if they let go and spring out on you unexpectedly.  I have a pair of heavy leather gloves that work well, but at times I wish I had a face shield instead of saftey glasses.  The smaller springs in clocks aren't as bad, but the big ones like in my Victrola motor are really scary.

[RVR II]

I tried winding my old ships clock but it's seized up.
Not sure I want to try to mess with it and risk totally screwing it up

Got a call from the delivery driver this morning that he was going to drop off the roofing materials and I had to stop him as I was at work and there was no way I could get home to open the driveway gate.. I had it scheduled for Wednesday morning but for some reason the driver didn't get that memo.
Glad he called me first as he probably would have dropped them at the top of the driveway blocking where I park and then I would have had to move 72 bundles of shingles by hand behind my gate where then needed to be..

[MartyS (Gromit)]

My new mainsprings came in but not the tool to wind them down, didn't want to wait so did it with a cordless drill and my heavy gloves, had a few scary moments but it worked.

I thought it was going to be quite hard to get the 2 plates back together with all the gears and levers working and it was.  But only had to open it back up once to get a lever that was on top of a gear in it's proper place under the gear.  And then because there are wire "arms" that got pressure on them while assembling they were bent a little and the chime wouldn't run properly.  So lots of little bends with needle nose pliers and it's back to spinning up normally and stopping when it's supposed to.

The clock was missing it's pendulum suspension when I got it, over the years I used things like cassette tape but will now build a correct one, currently have a 3D printed one in there to figure out the proper length.  I got some of the thin metal strip that goes at the top of the suspension, just have to make a rod with a hook that attaches to the thin strip. 

I also cleaned up the case, the face, and the bezel.  Almost all of the shiny brass plating on the bezel is gone, someone put gold paint on it at some point but did a crappy job.  So I stripped off that paint and used my airbrush to put on a better coat of gold paint.

Now I let it run and see how fast or slow it is, and adjust my 3D printed suspension until it runs pretty close, then build a proper suspension the same length.

[RVR II]

That whole project looks like a tedious process but amazing work