onetrack

1. I'm cleaning parts and components for hobby restoration work, and some of the cleaning is income-producing, as I do sell a few parts and components - but it's not a big part of my life now. 2. No, I don't do things just to "fill in time". Everything I do involves a project. 3. As a restorer, I fight corrosion on a constant and daily basis, and I've refined my corrosion-repair techniques over the years. I have a workshop sandblaster for the small stuff. 4. The pressure washer originally cost around $2000 new. It's a "Global" brand, and it appears the brand and the dealer have folded up in recent times. I've got a photo of it on my phone somewhere, but I can't find it, right at present. I believe these units came from China, although the pressure pump is Italian. When I pulled the fan cowling off the Briggs & Stratton, even though it's got a Stars & Stripes flag on the engine, there was a decal inside the fan cowling that said, "Not for sale in the U.S.A."!? I got all the parts I needed from the local Mower shop, who is a B&S dealer. However, I did get right up them, when I bought a little plastic in-line fuel filter off them (it fits inside the tank, so I couldn't get it elsewhere), and they charged me $27 for it! I left them a negative Google review and they rang me up, protesting that Briggs & Stratton set the retail pricing, and they couldn't do anything about it, except register a complaint with B&S HQ. I told them it was total rort, especially for the size of the item - and the fact it was made in China, anyway! They came back to me a couple of days later and said they'd been in touch with HQ, and they'd agreed to reduce the price to $12 - so I got a $15 refund - provided I modified my review, of course! It's difficult to find a pressure cleaner that has a decent wind-up hose reel on it. I consider a wind-up hose reel a necessity. The nearest thing I can find to my B&S pressure washer today is this Honda-powered unit - and they want $4495 for it! https://www.hendersonmowers.com.au/brands/bar-group-pressure-washer/pressure-washers/display/41961-bar-group-pressure-washer-honda-gx390-gearbox-drive- I do also have a 240V pressure washer, it's 2000psi and it's a Husqvarna - which is made in Italy. It cost me $899 in 2020, but the price has gone up since. It's a very handy and capable pressure washer, but the engine driven one produces double the pressure. https://hmc.husqvarnadealers.com.au/products/pressure-washer/9704684-02.html The beauty of soaking things in an acid bath for rust removal, is you don't have to do anything else while the acid is working. You can go on with other jobs while the soaking is happening, the only effort involved is setting up the bath, dropping the items in, and then a short time pressure-washing them and spraying with some Ranex. I've never tried molasses, and I don't know what a big drum of molasses is worth, or even how easily it would acquired here. Seems like disposing of the used molasses would be messy and possibly involve a disposal process that would cost money. I simply let the water evaporate from the citric acid and dispose of the remnant solid crud in the bottom, in my industrial waste bin. I have never had any success with electrolysis. Electrolysis uses chemicals, cathodes and anodes, and it produces gases, especially hydrogen, and you have to very careful you don't blow yourself up. I experienced a hydrogen explosion from an electrolysis bath - in the open air! It was quite frightening. It was set off by a spark from a power disconnection. You can also produce hexavalent chromium from electrolysis, and that stuff is toxic with a Capital T. It can be produced from any chromium content in an electrolysis bath. Citric acid, on the other hand, is a food additive, is totally safe, and doesn't attack and dissolve chrome, brass, copper, aluminium or the base iron metal.

Bit of a shame the Su-35 didn't mistake the S-300 for Ukrainian weaponry, and take it out, too!

OME, those sulky springs would come up great after about 10-12 days in a citric acid bath. You pull them out after 5 or 6 days and pressure wash them, then put them back in again for a final cleanup. I've just done 4 sets of Caterpillar D4 track chains in a bath in the big poly tub - along with 2 huge lathe chucks (about 20" and 24" from memory). The track chains, although new, had been stored on pallets in the open, in a marine depot alongside the ocean for several years - so they were pretty grotty. The track chains have been in the bath since Tuesday 19th Sept, but I didn't have enough acid in the bath for the first 4 days, I added more acid on Sat 23rd Sept. They came up great today with a pressure wash and a spray with Ranex. Didn't get any photos, unfortunately, I was going like a cut cat today and wasn't stopping for photo sessions! The chucks went in the bath last Saturday (the 23rd), but when I pulled them out and pressure cleaned them today, they need more time, so they went back in again. I'll give them a few more days. I've got an electric start, 13.5HP Briggs & Stratton powered pressure cleaner, it puts out 4000psi, so it gets the crud off pretty well! It's on a big 4 wheel trolley with a big hose reel mounted on top, I think it's got 15M of hose - plus 5 nozzles of varying spray angles. The pressure cleaner only cost me $150 - I bought it off some clown who had zero mechanical skills. While he was using it, the seals in the rotary coupler for the hose reel starting leaking. But because the hose reel is mounted right over the top of the engine, the water was dripping onto the B&S fuel tank. And of course, the fuel cap is recessed, so the water got into the fuel tank, went through to the carburettor, and made a right old mess of the carby innards. The needle valve on the float jammed open, and filled the engine full of petrol! The bloke didn't have a clue what to do about it, it wouldn't go when he hit the starter, so it was buggered as far as he was concerned. When I first got it, I pulled the spark plug and yanked on the rope, and about 2 litres of raw petrol came gushing out of the plug hole! I stripped the carby down, cleaned it and rebuilt it, and sealed the fuel tank with POR-15. I decided to whip the head off while I was at it, to check the engine internals. The internals showed almost no wear. I pulled the valves and found the exhaust valve had a bit of valve face recession, so I refaced the valve, bought a new head gasket and re-assembled it - and it went like a dream, and hasn't missed a beat since! Naturally, I also fixed the leaking rotary coupler seals, there's nothing to them, just two o-rings with nylon support washers. Best little machine I've picked up in the last 5 years!

"Pasting" images is simply hotlinking, isn't it? Your image is not on this site, it's actually a link to a website where the image is hosted. Websites hate hotlinking because it eats up their bandwidth, so they cancel hotlinking on a regular basis, as soon as they realise the traffic to the image is peaking.

And that's where citric acid wins hands down. It's cheap, simple, gets into all the crevices, if the item is either rotated or positioned so the air bubbles can get out - and it doesn't eat into the base metal. I just picked up a 25kg bag of granular citric acid for $85, this will do all my rust removal requirements for the next 6 months at least. All you need for citric acid treatment is a poly tub. Don't use an enamelled cast iron bathtub, the citric acid dissolves enamel. The size of the tub is the only limit on what you can treat for rust. I just picked up a couple of big poly tubs from an auction for $75 each. Internally they measure 1.9M long, over a metre wide and 800mm deep, and I can acid bath large items with these.

Interestingly enough, the above email is the first of any No vote information I have received - but I've received plenty of Yes vote literature and emails, and media articles.

You can buy cheap laser cleaners that are low wattage, and they're as useless as the hip pocket on a singlet. If you want a serious laser cleaner, you have to start paying out tens of thousands of dollars.

I got this forwarded email from a friend this morning. The missive is signed, unlike so many extreme-right-wing chain emails - by a John Pascoe, who is a retired West Australian accountant. It's a copy of quite a thought-provoking speech by a S.A. nurse, who has Aboriginal ancestry. I believe what she says is largely true, and a view that many "Aboriginal activists" refuse to acknowledge. Kerry White also features in a number of YouTube videos expressing an alternative approach to the Voice to produce a better outcome for the Aboriginals in remote regions. "It is very useful to hear about The Voice' and its background from the lips of an aboriginal lady who has been directly involved over many years in efforts to lift aboriginal people. Kerry White was born in Port Augusta South Australia and spent her early career as a nurse, before running her own antique shop and plant nursery. She has also been focused on Indigenous and community health services in the mid-north and Upper Spencer Gulf. White is an elder of the Narungga people, and has worked in a number of community roles including at the Port Pirie Aboriginal Community Centre. She is also a diabetes educator and a case manager with Families SA." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Better Way - a speech by Kerry White I am a Narungga leader and Native Title holder. My grandfather, mother and extended family come from the Point Pierce Mission here in SA. I also have ties through extended family to the Utnamutna, Kaurna, Nukunu, Warlpiri and Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people. l served on boards and committees, both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal. My area of expertise is in health and small business, I have worked in both public and private sectors, including the Welfare system. I am going to share a few facts with you this evening. Some information you may be aware of, and some information may be new to you. Albanese claims that the Voice to parliament came about due to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The push by activists for a treaty began as early as 1888, since then there are several recorded attempts. In 1924 they began pushing for a treaty with the Federal government. Bob Hawke in 1988 committed to a treaty by 1990, this promise however was broken in 1991 in favour of a Reconciliation. In 1989 ATSIC was established. Several Aboriginal Organisations were set up under ATSIC to deliver outcome-based services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Neither the Organisations nor ATSIC delivered the promised outcomes. ATSIC was not interested in doing the job they were established to do. What then, was ATSIC’s priority? The answer to that question came in 1995 when ATSIC pushed the Keating government for a Social Justice package including, you guessed it, constitutional recognition. Thankfully that didn’t happen and was never implemented. In 2000 there was another push for a treaty and constitutional change, then in 2010 the Gillard government pushed for a constitutional change; they didn’t succeed. In 2017 the Uluru Statement from the Heart emerged, but whose statement, was it? The Uluru Statement from the Heart was orchestrated by Thomas Mayo. Thomas Mayo by his own admission likes the Communist style regime and will be asking for rent and repatriations to be paid by the Australian people. The end game is power, control and the elimination of our current system of government. In 2017, Malcolm Turnbull rejected the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. It was stated at the time “The Referendum Council provided no guidance as to how this new representative assembly would be elected or how the diversity of Indigenous circumstances and experience could be fairly and democratically represented”. Here we are in 2023 and that statement is as true today as it was back then. When Turnbull rejected the voice to parliament he was labelled as a “Mean Spirited Bastard”, now they just label anyone and everyone who opposes the voice to parliament as racist. Two years ago, news travelled through the Aboriginal grapevine that the Uluru mob were not happy about the statement. The Pitjantjatjarra and Yankunytjatjara are the traditional owners of the land that Tjukurpa/Uluru sits on. Numerous elders were shocked when they learnt that their names appeared on the canvas that they didn’t endorse (canvas is the Aboriginal term for document). The elders want the Australian public to know about the lie that is being sold to them as factual. They have rejected the statement, stating that it's dangerous and the canvas should be torn up. This means that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a fraudulent document that is being pushed onto every Australian as representing the will of Aboriginal people. Aboriginals in groups have taken to Twitter creating short videos with a simple message - We Vote No. There are many pitfalls in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, one is in the name itself. The definition of "indigenous" means native to a particular place or country. Therefore, anyone born in Australia is Indigenous and can be a representative of the voice in parliament. This serves the activists well. The government seems unwilling to address the tick a box revolution. Why would they? Labor abolished proof of Aboriginality back in the early 2000’s. According to the census there are 800,000 plus Aboriginal people in Australia. The actual number of Aboriginal people is approximately half that number. The average lifespan of an Aboriginal person is 65 years, they have the worst outcomes in terms of health. Diabetes, heart failure and kidney disease top the list. Aboriginal people for decades have endured high infant mortality rates, so our numbers have not increased significantly over the last 100 years. Aboriginal numbers according to the census have soared since approximately 2005 when the government abolished proof of Aboriginality. Consequentially this means that the tick a box movement will be able to have a say on what happens regarding Aboriginal people without knowledge of the complexities and diversity within the different Aboriginal mobs. Anthony Albanese stated in one of his many media appearances in relation to the voice that billions of dollars have been spent on Aboriginal people and nothing has changed. This is an undisputable fact. The question is, why has nothing changed? The answer is simple, for decades Aboriginal people have been exploited to gain millions of dollars in funding by the Aboriginal organisations setup to provide outcomes for Aboriginal people. In the last 3 decades a growing number of Not-for-Profit Organisations have capitalised on the feeding frenzy for their share of the Aboriginal dollars. Health services also get a large chunk of the pie if they show they provide services to Aboriginal people. The sad truth is that Aboriginal people in rural and remote communities do not benefit from the billions of dollars the organisations have received. Another fact is that millions have been rorted by individuals within these organisations. Plus, there is also the millions wasted in the endless pursuit of a treaty, the voice, and changing the Constitution. The Australian public is continually being fed mistruths to support the elite's narratives to gain access to more power, and more of the taxpayers’ dollars. Back in the early 2000’s the AHACs (Aboriginal Health Advisory Committees) were working on a draft proposal to be put forward to the Government for Closing the Gap. We finally got it passed, but the gap between Aboriginal health and non-Aboriginal health continues to widen. Why is this happening? The AHACs were a community initiative set up to be an advisory body working in conjunction with the Public Health Sector. AHCSA (Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia) began convincing the AHAC chairs that they needed to go Community Controlled. AHCSA gained control over these community-controlled health services and the millions in funding that go with it. By the time the realisation set in that it was not how they were told that it would be, it was too late, the wheels had been set in motion. Many of the community-controlled health services ended up closed in rural and remote communities. 20 years ago some Aboriginal families relocated from Alice Springs to SA because the health services in the Territory were so bad. You may be aware that mining companies pay millions of dollars per year to some Aboriginal communities in the form of Royalties. These communities are still not thriving .....why? The reason lies in the way the Royalty payments are structured. Once again, the money goes to the elites, most of whom don’t even live in the communities they are being paid Royalty payments for. None of the Royalty payments are being used to improve living conditions in those communities. The millions in Royalty payments could be better utilised improving these communities. You may be surprised, even angry to learn that many of those receiving these payments are also collecting Centrelink benefits. They are required to disclose the Royalty payments to Centrelink, but they don’t. The supposedly Stolen Generation is a mistruth which brought about another Aboriginal organisation called “Bringing Them Home”. Back in the early 50’s and 60’s mixed race children were being removed and placed in institutions for their own safety. Mixed race children were not accepted by blacks or whites and were being abused and in some cases died as a result of their injuries in rural and remote Australia. Remote communities here in SA up near the Northern Territory Border have been made dry zones by the elders to combat alcohol fuelled violence. Problem is that some parents and grandparents started abandoning the children and headed to Alice Springs for the consumption of alcohol. Leaving the children alone and neglected in the communities. Elders in some communities opted for the cashless debit card which Albanese scrapped when he was elected. There is no denying things need to change if we are to improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in rural and remote Australia. What is clear is that we need transparency, productivity and accountability for all the taxpayer’s money spent by these organisations and the government. What we don’t need is more of the same BS that for generations, has been built on untruths, half-truths, and fiction. We the Aboriginal people of rural and remote Australia reject the tokenistic, Sorry day, and Welcome to Country. The Welcome to Country was the inception of one man, an Aboriginal actor by the name of Ernie Dingo. Aboriginal people in rural and remote Australia were not consulted, and we didn’t want it. All the Sorry day and Welcome to Country achieved was to stir up racism towards us and fuelled gang violence. None of us can change the past, but together we can change the future. Aboriginal people in rural and remote Australia want real change and tangible results for their communities. There is a saying “A new broom sweeps clean” it’s time to clean house and remove the dead wood that is draining the public purse. Aboriginal people reject the divisive Voice to parliament. We are asking the good people of Australia to stand with us as one, and reject it too. Vote No to the Voice and demand a better way for all Australians. We are One people, One Nation, One Australia Thank You Kerry White John D Pascoe Unit 487, 118 Monash Avenue Nedlands WA 6009 Mobile: 0406 380 215 Email: johnjill@westnet.com.au

Here's a 4 cyl little Caterpillar head I did recently. Didn't get enough photos of the "before" state. I took the head back off the first head reconditioners, when they tried rorting me, big-time. This mob charged me $138 for an "acid-bath" treatment, but all they did was dip it in a RoboWash parts cleaner. Passageways in the head around the valves and ports were still full of grotty corrosion. So I acid-bathed it and pressure-washed it, twice, and it came up Mickey Mouse. Gave the cleaned head to another cylinder head repairer, and he installed all new bronze K-line valve guide inserts, cleaned up the stellite valve inserts, and installed all new valves, and all new springs - for a lot less than the first bunch of rorters wanted to charge me. He also machined the head surface. Haven't got a photo of the completed head, I must do that, the engine is all set to be re-assembled. 1. Engine out and starting on dismantling (engine was running quite well, but I found pieces of piston skirt in the sump, so it had to come apart. I found two fractured pistons, and one with chunks out of the skirt). 2. Crap left in head passageways around ports and valves. 3. Same area after I chiselled the corroded crap out. New stainless core plug on the left of photo. 4. After initial acid bath and pressure wash. It went back in again for a second dip. 5. Final acid dip and pressure wash. 6. and 7. Completed treatment with phosphoric acid spray.

The video looks good, but apparently the laser cleaners are only effective on very light rust. Sandblasting or acid-dipping still works best on heavy rust.

Peter, I posted this photo last week.

I'd like to see how the insurance claim form is filled out, on this one!

You can see the weaponry opportunities in that piece of equipment!!

It was a politicised referendum from the word Go - and there was no general community consultation on whether a Voice was needed, or if something else was required, to appease the permanently-angry members of the Indigenous set. The Voice was just put up by Albo, out of the blue.

The result probably has more to to do with no decent opposition, ever since the Liberal Parties in most States folded up and disappeared up their own collective arses. When the Libs can get over their inbred party structure, and produce policies that offer something to the Man in the Street, then perhaps they'll be able to offer up a viable Opposition again.

It's not Photoshopped, it's actually very clever, mind-bending, stick-on vinyl graphics. The tailgate would get your attention pretty quick.

It might have been a better image if the wheels didn't look so silly on a big V-twin bike.

The local cartoonist, Alston, is having a wonderful time, and not sparing even our "local hero", who also baled without any warning, while the going was good.

GM supported rail freight to a certain degree, but they effectively opposed passenger-carrying trains and electric street cars/trams. They had a vast monopoly on the transport system and didn't want anything to affect their bread-and-butter line - passenger-carrying cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy#Court_cases,_conviction,_and_fines

Henry Ford, John Rockefeller and plenty of other major American industrialists of the era conspired to ensure electric cars would die out and fossil-fuel vehicles would reign supreme - despite the writers story (below) that they didn't. You kill off a product by failing to invest in and finance it. You kill off a product by investing in and financing expansion of a product you favour. Nothing can be done without money and financing - and John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford had hundreds of millions at their disposal to invest as they wished. They chose to invest in IC engines and fossil fuels, because that is where their major financial interests lay, and not in electricity generation and battery manufacture and development. GM did the same thing with rail investment in the U.S. - if not for GM pressure after WW2, America would have had major passenger rail infrastructure today - and it's only now that Amtrak are planning on tripling their investment in U.S. rail network infrastructure. http://www.dejohnsonauthor.com/blog/who-killed-the-early-electric-car The greatest travesty ever imposed upon the world, was the sharing of directorships between auto manufacturers and oil companies. When you have board seats on companies from both industries, you aren't going to do anything to damage the sales of either.

Nev, that's rubbish. Of course you can flood proof a place that has little fall across it. I've spent years doing flood mitigation works in large flat areas of W.A. It's all about ensuring floodwaters can get away rapidly without restrictions, and slowing the amount of floodwaters further back upstream. How did Victoria manage to incur so much COVID debt when other States didn't? Could it have been as a result of a badly-managed COVID response? Level crossing removal can only be a good thing, but the fact they're still there after nearly 170 years of railways in Victoria only shows how little effort was put in to infrastructure improvements in Victoria for so many decades. Despite attacking the level crossing problem, Andrews continued the backwardness in valuable infrastructure investment, with his failure to provide energy security, housing security for the battlers, and lower costs for small businesses.

From my side of the country, Daniel Andrew appears to have been in the same mould as Colin Barnett in W.A. - who spent like a drunken sailor, pixxed $350M of taxpayers money on a rusty power station that he was told wasn't worth repairing - and it then had to be scrapped after he blew the $350M. Barnett left W.A. with a massive State debt (approaching $40B) and we lost our premium credit rating because of him. Now Andrews has left Victoria with something like $200B in State debt, no sign of where the money will come from to pay it off - except for massive debt repayments for 20 or 30 years to come. I see nothing that Andrews has done to ensure energy security for Victoria, flood-proofing Victoria, ensuring water security for the State for the next 100 years - and to top it all off, he told everyone he'd see out this full term, and then present for re-election for a 4th term. Add to that, he's even chucked in his seat, so the State is now up for the additional cost of a by-election. If I was a Victorian, I'd be saying, "don't let the door hit you on the arse, on the way out!". I reckon spenaroo might have hit the nail on the head, he's heading for cover right as he sees all the cracks he's papered over for years, starting to open right up.

Just got this news (below) this morning, from AIMS Industrial. The Govt reckons inflation is heading downwards. I call BS on that - what with fuel nearly or over $2 a litre, prices on everything going up every month, the AUD$ dropping like a rock in a pond, and the average grocery bill increasing at almost every shop, I reckon the inflation bogeyman is looming bigger and more threatening than ever. "We've been notified of upcoming pricing changes for the following brands effective October: Abrasives, machining and tools: Alpha, AUSTSAW, Bondhus, Bordo, Channellock, Draper, Econocut, Euroboor, Eze-Lap, Goliath, Lockjaw, Maverick Tools, MAXBOR, Nextorch, OLFA, PG Mini, P&N, Recoil, Saber, Shaviv, Sterling, Sutton Tools and Tracer Adhesives, sealants and tapes: GSA and Permatex Cleaning and janitorial: Gilly, Lazco, Sabco and Septone Fluid handling: Lubemate and Macnaught Hose, ducting and fittings: Retracta Load restraints, material handling and storage: Fasty Lubrication: Inox Paint & Equipment: Anchor, Boston, Pacer and Phoenix Portable Coolers: CW Brands Safety: Bushman and Itchfix"

You forgot - fake hair, too.

Bottom photo was what the customer ordered - top photo was what he ended up with - after spending upwards of $50K, and waiting for 3 years.