Motor Bike Broken Crank Case Fix

The black rectangle at 4 Oclock is screwed to two aluminium posts that were cast as part of the crank case housing.  Snapped off

Here you can see the D shaped break where the stud came away from the housing

WEB SEARCH INFO
1
Welding is possible it would seem but I think will require us to dismantle the engine.
 2
Could drill a hole and screw from inside the crank case into the stud.  This will also require pulling the thing apart and we really dont have time for that.
3
Glue?

Devcon F  $100"

jb weld
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=NA1518

Fluke 75 Digital Multimeter LCD Faded Digits Repair

The screen of my Fluke 75 multimeter had become faded.

The service manual is here

Unfortunately I cracked the bezel (MP20) when I was dismantling it.

It would appear that Fluke used a dodgy flexible connector MP21.  These connect the glass of the LCD to the printed circuit board.  According to my reading on the net, the popular position is that oil comes out of the plastic and that somehow stops them working.  The solution is to clean them with isopropal alcohol.

Apparently not a permanent solution but it got my meter working.

Gold Coast - swell sculpture festival

Down the coast. At "swell sculpture festival".

Looking at Phil's sculpture. The blurb says it is an abstract interpretation of microscopic structures in nature.

And a passing horse selfie. As you do.

Now I feel guilty!


















The artwork continues with a big green thing on elephant rock. Now octopus rock?

Fairwork

At work recently we did the annual staff pay reviews.  In preparation for this I attempted to educate myself regarding my legal responsibilities.

Wow.
No wonder we don't have a car industry and soon we wont have a ship building industry.   To put it bluntly we are hamstrung by regulation.

I do believe that there is a role for Government to play in setting the rules and to provide protection for some basic minimum standards.  I am also OK with the idea that an employee should have the right to have someone -a union - negotiate on their behalf and also assist them in looking after their "rights".  After all in a big company you can bet that the company representative is skilled at negotiating when the worker is of-course skilled in other areas.  After all that is why they have a job.

But what we have goes a lot further than basic protections.  And it is hardly fair.

Fairness?

Lets start with the idea of fair.  We have over 400 pages of far work act and 120 "Modern Awards".  Neither the employer nor the employee can hope to even come close to understanding that.  If you don't understand it, then how can it be fair?

The sheer bulk of it means that the primary beneficiaries are lawyers and unions.  Employees, if for no other reason than they would have no chance of understanding it even if they wanted to will naturally turn to their union to ensure that they maximise their benefit or at the very least get a fair deal.  Actually with all this red tape you wonder how their could possibly be any space to negotiate.

What it does mean is that if a disgruntled employee wants to sue an employer, there is bound to be a clause somewhere that a lawyer will find to support the employee. 

The Role of Government

I will state up front that I believe that the Government should in all areas have as small a footprint as possible.  In particular I believe that people should be free to make decisions that affect themselves and I believe that they should have to accept the cost and consequences of their actions.

So it seems to me silly that we need such a level of detail in these modern awards.  In some of them there are over 100 classifications of people and each classification comes with its own minimum pay.  I am OK with the idea of a minimum wage.  That protects the vulnerable who are unlikely to have any leverage in negotiations but it is not until an employee is earning over $130 000 that they are no longer covered by an award.  I would suggest that anyone earning over about $50k is a person with enough life skills to not require the government to intercede on their behalf.

They even have an award for engineers.  Imagine that.  Someone earning say $100 000 a year.  Designing, supervising and so on.  The government even classifies and specifies minimum pay.

Cashing out leave
I discovered that in the professional engineers award there is no provision to cash out leave.

Chris- Mame games table teplica

Chris is building a replica 1980's games table replica.  Remember playing space invaders at the milk bar?

This table will look similar. Instead of a Z80 processor it will use  pc based hardware running a program called MAME.

Sherwood UC

Fathers day

Fathers Day Act 1

4:20am rise and shine. Chris and I drove to west end.  I went to my shed and Chris killed some time in the car waiting for the BGS shed to open.
5:30am I was on water & rowing. While we were out,  rowing Queensland were running trials for school boy Brisbane representative quads.  Chris missed out by 0.1 sec.
7:10 off water.
Coffee at Alberto's.
Chris called from the BGS boat shed to say he was finished.

Fathers Day Act 2

On a time frame so we drove to sherwood church.  Chris took the train from Sherwood to Oxley. I met Dan & Jemma at church.  Dan did the power point and Jemma played in the band.

Fathers Day Act 3

Kitchen tap has some kind of problem with the thing on the end of the spout.

Took it apart.

Off to Bunnings and discover the thing is called an airator.  There are lots to chose from. Eventually find something that looks suitable.  Take it home.
Fit it.
One job down!

Fathers Day - Act 4
The bulb in the microwave has blown.  This makes it hard to establish when the poridge boils over.  They don't make it easy to change the light bulb.  Easier to buy a new microwave.

The bulb is held in place by a screw.  But the glass bit is larger than the metal bit.  So we have to remove the metal cover.  More screws.

The metal bracket is jammed between the red wires and the door switch - The black bit at the left.

Marked and removed the red wires.  Marked them so we can put them back on the same terminals.



























Here you can see how you have to remove the light bulb from inside the bracket.

Off to Bunnings.  no chance.  So now we need to find where to buy such a bulb.

The bulb is marked:
KE240V 25W .RU? e1

Electrical tabs 4.5mm wide x 10mm from base.

main silver bit is about 21mm dia x 30 long.

the glass is about 25mm dia x 40 long.

the tab is straight.  8mm wide x 13mm long

I believe the part number of the new bulb is CL825.  This part being about 10mm shorter and 20W instead of 25W.









Fathers Day - Act 5
3:30pm
Chris in stroke seat.    This is an eight of potential first eighters.  Paddy Holt is the only other grade 10 boy.  The rest are the Grade 11's as I understand it.  Paddy is the power house and Chris I believe keeps a good rhythm with reasonable power.

Fathers Day - Act 6
Chris finished at 6:15 and we drove home and our friends "The Konings" arrived for dinner.  We had..... left overs.  :) - Macaroni cheese that Chris and Marcus cooked on Friday night. Teamed with Wombok salad and freshly cooked cooked corn. 

Epilog... :)

And for dessert - Sticky date pudding cream and ice cream.

Scoring Netball

No just keep track of when the ball goes through the hoop. Oh no there is a whole set of boxes to tick. A record is kept if the person even attempts to shoot. Also which team "kicks off" (not sure of the term to use). I assume this is all analyzed and calculated then individuals are graded, grouped and given individual tutoring. And this is apparantly "non compeditive".

Scoring is done alternatively by a rep from one team then the other. Luckilly the lady from the other team did the first quarter and tutored me and helped me through the second quarter. This is complicated stuff.

BGS Rowing Gr10 Dinner at The Breaky Creek

Friday night Chris and I met up with other Grade 10 boys and parents for dinner at the Breaky Creek hotel.  Helen Masselos organised it and she did a great job.  She had booked a table right next to a patch of grass where the boys played touch footie.

BGS Sing for your supper

Thursday night and Dan and I went into Grammar for the "Sing for your supper" evening.

This is my favourite music do of the year. Its so low key. Unpretentious. You don't have to book. Its free. We sit with friends or impose on others. All good. Tonight I imposed myself on Jon Cafferky & family.

Dan is second row from the front.  RHS.