Topic

My trusty Dremel suddenly stopped working last night when i was (perhaps too optimistically) using it with a small cutting wheel on the remains of an exhaust mount bolt.. A few mins of googling pointed to the field coil being the most likely point of failure so i took it apart, and measured the continuity across the coil. One set of windings was dead and it was from the usual cause one of the tiny wires from the winding was broken right by its connector. With a bit of patience i cleaned it up so solder would stick to it and soldered a strand of scrap wire between the tiny wire and its connector, Reassembled and its now fine.

The whole job took 20 mins so if your Dremel ever packs up suddenly there is hope you will be able to do a DIY fix rather than having to shell out £ 60 odd for a new tool.

The likes of you & I, & I suspect a goodly number of the other spanner jockeys who regularly crop up on here, do not form part of the exalted customer base so loved by manufacturers. The bin it & by another brigade is where the profit lies, we represent dead weight along for the ride. Why buy & maintain a car designed thirty plus years ago unless you have that “mend to drive” overview.
It takes me longer to get into & out of the car these days, but once in it fits like my old leather trench coat & like my coat I could wear it almost indefinitely. Fortunately, unlike my coat the car hasn’t been stolen & that’s the way I want it to remain.

Think you hit the nail on the head, we are a disappearing breed. I certainly inherited this trait from my father who now even in his 90s won't change his slippers for the new one in the box as theirs years left in the current ones. In a way I'm quite happy to be thought of as strange, I try to mend 'bodge' as my son calls it rather than submit to the throw away society. Funny, when he's in a jam my bodges are so welcome along with his so modern friends who also ask any ideas on how to fix things. Soon it will be the newest trend, a bit like home delivery but without the boy on the bike.

The wilderness is gathering its children back again. There will be a time when people with the arcane knowledge will be the shaman for the future, the person who can drill a hole & tap a thread will be regarded as a miracle worker. Wizardry. As my dad encouraged me to use his tools as soon as I could, I did the same. Those who are training to be motor mechanics these days won’t be able to work on cars earlier than ours, no OBD no repairs, only by working on classic stuff will you learn how a carburettor works & how a points / distributor/ coil system works. Or maybe we’re just self righteous.

I completely agree!
I'm the same, I'll mend/renew/bodge things, rather than add to the landfill that's taking over the country. I was at a Steam Rally yesterday, oh that smell, hot oil, grease and coal smoke!
While I was browsing the stalls, I found a box of distributors, I almost bought one out of nostalgia!

Enjoy those smells whilst you can as there are people out there who would gladly see those engines go cold. They would happily glue themselves to the road whilst a roller was approaching not thinking that they didn't equip them with ABS & with no concept of, well I was going to say braking distance but that isn't applicable with a roller. Ref the late Mr Fred Dibnah whilst coming down Smithills Dean in Bolton.
It would be interesting to see what area an oil protestor would cover when rolled flat.
Soon steam engines will be lubricated with vegetable oils & greases & fired by coal substitute, preserved diesels will be the same. The once glorious smell of the steam age will be replaced by the smells of the takeaway kitchen without the curry.
And the same pillocks will be after our cars & anything that isn't powered by electricity. When asked where the power came from one dick with a placard declaring it (indeterminate gender) claiming to be a green activists said "The Plug Socket ". Is it time for another mass extinction where the only survivors are those who can …............................... . I'll let you fill in your preferences.
M

My tame auto electrician makes his living outta the classic car niche market, he actually uses solder on terminals and works on old fashioned positive ground systems, 6 volt systems, generators, old style, regulators and other antiquated concepts unknown to the whippersnappers of today, who are still shitting yella!

I often advise the young fellas it the trade how important it is to learn the old ways as well as the new, otherwise no one will be able to fix anything built before last Tuesday.
But no one seems to be interested in anything without a damned touch screen these days!
They endlessly peck away at the bloody things like demented chooks, only to wonder why they can’t find what’s wrong, without going through any old fashioned diagnoses.
One has to embrace both the old and new, to be a fully rounded tradesman.
And if you’re the only one left who knows the old ways you can charge the client like a wounded bull, as you can capitalise on the knowledge that the others don’t have.