Cool Tools Bench Awards 2018

This might be late, but I thought I'd add my photos of my workbench ... for the last couple of days anyway.

The first three images are trying to trace the problem that has seen this out of action for three years,

As a result the climate hasn't been kind and dust and debris has found it's way in, and required Meths, a toothbrush and some scrubbing, ...... this wasn't the cause though.

The last image is where things wear out from use.....

These are standard panel mount buttons, and screw into the holder.

I had to rob two unused ones from another machine and I'll chase down some new ones as whatever is left is worn out.

I suspect there will be only a few people can guess what office space this is from, so I'll add a couple of other images as clues.

The windscreen is broken from having objects inside, and then tilting the cab forward ....

They are heated screens and usually several thousand dollars to replace, hence they tend to stay damaged as insurance doesn't cover them.

It's the middle one of these ....

The problem started a few years ago, when it stripped a pump spline, which rendered it one track drive only, and after fixing the pump, it was steering strangely.

They use an electronic control system to provide a voltage to the hydraulic pumps (one for each track) and it is a proportional steering, so the more you turn the more one track drives until full lock and it will reverse the stopped track to spin it on the spot.

It all works great until it doesn't, and this one was intermittant, despite various attempts.

So this week I went up and tackled it.

We replaced the steering pot (which is a pain), and then fixed the pot that allows you to slow down the drive while keeping the revs up for tilling.

Both these were causing issues which looked like the problem.

Once these had been replaced and setup, I had it all working great ... doing donuts in these things is a blast ... right up until I put the covers back on and it wouldn't turn left .... it just stopped, right turns were fine.

The end cause was the flexible cable that goes through the steering column ... every wire had broken and when you put it all back together it was flexing at the broken spot. While you had the steering wheel cover off and the cable had come up the column a little, it worked fine.

Two days later, some frankenstein with a cable that will work for a while and it is back in action ready to clear the road if necessary.

I still have to chase down a 7 core flexible cable for a permanent fix at some point, but I'll make sure we have enough for a couple of others just in case.

Mark

This might be late, but I thought I'd add my photos of my workbench ... for the last couple of days anyway.

The first three images are trying to trace the problem that has seen this out of action for three years,

As a result the climate hasn't been kind and dust and debris has found it's way in, and required Meths, a toothbrush and some scrubbing, ...... this wasn't the cause though.

The last image is where things wear out from use.....

These are standard panel mount buttons, and screw into the holder.

I had to rob two unused ones from another machine and I'll chase down some new ones as whatever is left is worn out.

I suspect there will be only a few people can guess what office space this is from, so I'll add a couple of other images as clues.

The windscreen is broken from having objects inside, and then tilting the cab forward ....

They are heated screens and usually several thousand dollars to replace, hence they tend to stay damaged as insurance doesn't cover them.

It's the middle one of these ....

The problem started a few years ago, when it stripped a pump spline, which rendered it one track drive only, and after fixing the pump, it was steering strangely.

They use an electronic control system to provide a voltage to the hydraulic pumps (one for each track) and it is a proportional steering, so the more you turn the more one track drives until full lock and it will reverse the stopped track to spin it on the spot.

It all works great until it doesn't, and this one was intermittant, despite various attempts.

So this week I went up and tackled it.

We replaced the steering pot (which is a pain), and then fixed the pot that allows you to slow down the drive while keeping the revs up for tilling.

Both these were causing issues which looked like the problem.

Once these had been replaced and setup, I had it all working great ... doing donuts in these things is a blast ... right up until I put the covers back on and it wouldn't turn left .... it just stopped, right turns were fine.

The end cause was the flexible cable that goes through the steering column ... every wire had broken and when you put it all back together it was flexing at the broken spot. While you had the steering wheel cover off and the cable had come up the column a little, it worked fine.

Two days later, some frankenstein with a cable that will work for a while and it is back in action ready to clear the road if necessary.

I still have to chase down a 7 core flexible cable for a permanent fix at some point, but I'll make sure we have enough for a couple of others just in case.

Mark