*sigh*

Rear shocks, rear tires, oil pan gasket, oil filter housing gasket and valve cover gasket.

DIY Time.

I'll be doing the shocks and tires myself alongside another mechanically inclined friend of mine. As for the gaskets, my local Euro mechanic will be doing that.

So far:

1) Discovered oil leak
2) Investigated oil leak - determined it was Oil Pan Gasket
3) Mechanic's opinion - All three gaskets are leaking, two of which are a slow seeping
4) Ordered 60$ of parts and 40$ of oil
5) Had alignment checked (Today)
6) Front/Rear Toe angle and Right Rear Camber are off. Camber is a smidge more positive than the other rear wheel
7) Investigated Right Rear suspension
8) Wiped oil-covered shock, promptly swore
9) Angrily took to google with my now-black with oil and brake dust hands
10) Currently researching shock absorber prices and considering burning cash to heat the house

:dead:

Parts for oil leaks come in Friday. Going to order new rear shocks between now and then and prepare for DIY. :salute:

After which I'll be in the market for some 245/40R17's....

What year and model car?

garden update

my chilli section

http://i.imgur.com/Vsxl5Pl.jpg?1

2005 BMW 330i

Good ol' E46... :03:

Update: Rear shock lower bolts do NOT want to come loose. :/\\!!

I heard coca cola does wonders to that.
Not joking, I'll try to link the article after work

^ If you have nothing else, try Cola. If you have WD-40, try this.
Both are better than nothing, but not much.

If you really want to loosen screws effectively, take something like rust-shock or chemical wrench, or mix some acetone with hydraulic fluid. Latter one is cheap, but destroys paint, so use only on unpainted parts..
Never going back to WD-40 again, this stuff is almost useless.

@Betonov: greenhouse looks nice! :up:

Had to redo the sides. Those PVC pipes just bent when the first breeze push agaisnt them.
So I just extended the wooden frame with more wood

http://i.imgur.com/RlFCxYy.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/JJ9XM8X.jpg?2


And also made an apartment balcony herb and tomato garden for my city dwelling friend

http://i.imgur.com/A6BtMQP.jpg?1

Parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, thime, mint, cherry tomato, venezia tomato, san marizano tomato and jalapeno and tabasco peppers. Poted and ready to be moved to a new home.

Do you need a greenhouse for jalapenos or could I grow them in my conservatory?

Anywhere the temperature never drops below 1o°C
So yes.

Danke padawan :salute:

Fixed :O:

Bought an old wardrobe for 60 bucks .
Removed the front panels and replaced with glass .
I used to be a glazier so easy for me to cut some glass .
Added the glass shelves and a mirror floor .
Wiped the outside timber with some scratch cover stain .
Bought a 5mtr strip of led lighting .

That's some nice handywork.
If I'd try to remove wood and place glass in an old wardrobe, the wardrobe would end up as firewood.

And quite a collection of artifacts

I have always been a collector . For the last 40 years anyway .
Stamps/Rocks and minerals/coins/Metal detecting etc etc etc .

The WD in WD-40 stands for "Water Displacement", and the 40 means it was their 40th attempt at getting it right. WD-40 is not an oil per se. While it can lubricate, it is best used for getting water out of places it shouldn't be.

If you are going to need oil, use a penetrating oil like 3 in 1, or Zep's. PB blaster is also pretty good for 4 reasons: 1) It's made locally (Cleveland Ohio) 2) It smells like Peanut Butter 3) IT will loosen stuck bolts really well, and 4) There's enough random text written on the can that you will have plenty of reading material to read while waiting for dozens of bolts.


Found an my Great Great Uncle's old wood lathe on a shelf the other day and wanted to play with it. It had been adapted at some time from being treadle powered to an AC motor. So i mounted it on a 2x8, and got it ready to run.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...psmlfodwtw.jpg

THere is a lot of hardware missing from it, but I figured I could bodge some stuff together. The kicker is though, There was an old box of chisels with it, turns out to be $300-$500 worth of chisels if purchased new today. I started cleaning them up and plan on making new handles for most of them. One of them turned out to be an old framing chisel made in 1837. (On the very left of the pile you can see a pair of actual soldering irons. As in you stick the lump of metal in a fire, and use it to melt solder on pipes and wire.)

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...psslbwn2pn.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...pskacl6lmd.jpg


In order to mount some wood, I had to fabricate a drive center for the lathe. The thread on the drive shaft (Which, requires that little hopper on it to be filled with oil each use to keep it turning, and I'm using too thin of oil and it flies everywhere) was really wonky hard to find 1/2" medium thread. We actually had some nuts of it in the stock room at the plant, so I bought a few off the company, TIG' welded them together, and the proceeded to cut teeth into it.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...pszscyizfr.jpg


This was my first and last attempt at running a spindle.


http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...pser6w0mja.jpg


There is now a small hole in the wall. I immediately ordered a face shield, of course using the SUBSIM Amazon affiliate link.

Since my girl has a small wood burning business, and I had the bug to do this, after some deliberation, I dropped the cash on a new 10"x30" lathe, with all the fixings.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps5rwe5zvn.jpg




It arrived today, and after some initial warmup cuts, I was able to turn this nice little piece as my first attempt at lathing for real. Not usable for drinking, as it's made from a pressure treated 4x4, and used shellac as the finish.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...psc8suyrz5.jpg

Now I just have to get good at sharpening chisels.