Gas engine drive unit rebuild
Gas building overhaul
Laurence was taking a break in the wilds of rural England, so just two this week.
Geoff continued working on a new drive unit for the gas engine. The old unit relied on an O ring being driven via a small pencil rubber, which worked well, but started showing obvious signs of wear. Instead, the O ring wheel will be driven by a worm gear drive.
After a few mishaps (gears breaking, motor contacts accidentally being sawn off etc) a new unit was completed and tested very satisfactorily. The overall performance was greatly improved as Geoff had worked on the engine itself, generally cleaning and oiling the moving parts and giving it a good running-in session.
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| The new drive unit |
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| Initial testing to check the speed was within an acceptable range |
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| Fitted underneath, with a spring to lift the drive unit up against the fly wheel |
Stephen worked on the gas building itself, cleaning years of detritus of the old plastic brick finish, filling cracks and 'homogenising' the overall effect, following the patching-up exercise undertaken many months ago.
All went well until an overall colour wash was applied. Actually, it was when the wash dried out that the building looked decidedly worse for wear. A re-evaluation is required.
