Saturday 6 May 2017

Nothing to do with Bows! Well just a little bit...

Blimey I'm knackered!
Spent yesterday helping my daughter work on Binky the Suzuki Carry van,  (Binky is an honorary bowyer as he has carried Yew logs).
She'd asked the garage to change the rear wheel bearings but they didn't want to, spouting some waffle about it being the diff'. I suspect they just didn't fancy uncovering other work which would lead to a bill higher than the "value" of the vehicle.
Anyhow, we set to and got it stripped down, the job actually went pretty smoothly except for a couple of predictable pitfalls, like brake pipes that won't come off and have to be cut.
Many many years ago I'd made a half shaft puller (aka slide hammer) but had since thrown it on the grounds that I wasn't likely to have rear wheel drive cars with half shafts! ... Bugger... decided it was quicker to make one than hire one, problem was finding a weight, but the penny dropped in the end and I found something.
We had to grind off the old bearings and spacer, you'll see from the pic we certainly found the source of the loud rumbling noise! I was surprised it was the drivers side one that was worse, I expected it to be the kerb side one which get more bumps from potholes, man hole covers etc.
We haven't got round to drifting on the new ones yet. I made a couple of calls to Mick the Blacksmith for moral support and he might have some suitable tube for a drift, if necessary, or I may just use the old spacer and a block of Oak... always good to have a back up position.
Having a break from it today as Nic' is busy, but I'll tidy the garage and search for tube/Oak.
We recovered with an Indian Takeaway and I was off to bed V early totally done in!
Last shot shows imaginative use of latex gloves.
Update:- Saturday, done a bit on the bow, it's starting to look pretty, 45# @20" with a nice even tiller. I think I've probably got that knot area just moving a hint now, so I won't do much more there, I think I can just feel it slightly moving in my hand, but hard to be sure. The rest of both limbs is now working. Not sure if I'm working on the van or the bow tomorrow.

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