simonr

Totally agree about Genuine Bushes - they last a very long time. My other thought, which has happened on a couple of vehicles, is the holes in the clevises at either end of the panhard rod have become oval / slotted. Easiest answer is to weld a thick washer on either side. Si

I'm not so sure that's still true! I have two DeWalt DCG405 Brushless grinders & the batteries charge faster than I can use them. They are way more powerful than any of my previous corded ones and seem to be lasting well. At work, in the fabrication shop, it's now very rare to see a corded grinder (or any other tool). Milwaukee are by far the most common. I just have DeWalt to be different! I think with Brushless motors and decent batteries, cordless tools have come of age. This week, after the storm, a Tree Person was using a cordless chainsaw (Makita I think) with a decent length bar, slicing up fallen trees. He says he keeps his petrol chainsaws in the van, but rarely uses them now, except on big trees. The battery one is very quiet, a few batteries last a days work - but most importantly, they always start when you push the button! I'd always regarded even corded electric chainsaws as being a bit Hobby - but now I'm not so sure!

Welcome Ozzie! This is a good forum. Like any, there's a range of opinions about most things, but on the whole, the advice given is good - or at least, it's given in good faith. More than that, it's a group of frends. Si

You hit the nail on the head there! When I was a member of my local one, there was a sort of driving test. I turned up in my RRS on road tyres - where most turned up in monster, off road 'challenge truck' type things, complete with more lights than blackpool illuminations, winches & stuff. I felt a bit out of place - but needless to say, the RRS drove the course quite happily. In practice, all the callouts were to be a taxi service. All on road, occasionally in the snow - but honestly I could have driven in the same conditions on a bicycle! I think the 'clients' appreciated meing in a nice warm, comfortable vehicle rather than a challenge truck with no door tops. I got bored of being a glorified taxi - and didn't continue with it! I dare say, if you live in the Yorkshire Moors or Brecon Beacons, it might be a completely different experience - but in an urban wonderland, you're just a cheap taxi. I've got the hat! Still didn't fit in though!

The nice thing with Suzuki transfer boxes is they have drive flanges on the input & output - so you make your own prop shaft out of half a suzuki welded to half a Freelander prop shaft.

I agree side bars / sill bars are a good plan. Probably not worth buying expensive ones as they are designed to take the damage rather than your sills / doors, so you could treat them as disposable! I've never needed (nor wanted) underbody protection. I've done quite a lot of off roading over the last 35 years and have never damaged anything that would have been saved by protection. I landed on the chassis of a 110 & squashed it once, bent a couple of axles. I've bent plenty of steering rods. Initially I boxed them in, similarly to one pictured above - but discovered I could still buckle the rod by turning the steering enthusiastically! Solution was to use heavy duty bars. Originally QT Services - then later Gwyn Lewis (on different vehicles). Never worried about them again! On the whole, skid plates & underbody protection are just mud traps! I would avoid!

They're not particularly cheap, but we're using these at work. They have an option to make the steering fully radio controlled. Plenty of ways to do it, but these provide bags of torque and work out of the box. https://www.dcemotorsport.com/ Their main business is EPAS - but are one of only one or two that are fully customisable.

I have one of these: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-stations/7998941 In fact, I now have two of them with one to use at work - I was so impressed with the first one! It's a lot cheaper than an equivalent Weller station (such as https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/soldering-stations/1227916) (which I've used plenty of) and I honestly think this is better, for one main reason - the iron itself has better ergonomics. I find it easier to hold for long periods. The cheaper Weller soldering stations just feel a bit Chinese to me - I've used a few of them too. The above will heat up to 500C (very quickly). While that might not seem all that useful when solder melts at half that temperature - it's good for soldering things like bigger copper terminals or PCB ground planes that sink the heat really fast. It can dump a load of heat energy into the terminal fast & the solder will melt where an iron that starts at a lower temperature cools below the melting point initially - then takes ages to heat the whole thing up. It gives you more localised heating. I also agree with Fridge - Metcal make really nice irons, probably with the best ergonomics of all, but they were too expensive for me at home (or work)

The main problem with this is the possibility of the pusher trailer forcing itself to jacknife either on corners or loss of traction on the front.

I dodn't know it was (ever) illegal to have two engines in the UK?

If all the above fail, my 'get out of jail' solution, which has not failed yet is to weld a short length of tube to the top of the bolt, then weld a larger nut to the tube (actually, weld the nut to the tube first). The combination of the heat from the welder and significantly more torque through the larger nut has freed everything I've tried it on. It can also work when the bolt has snapped in a hole.

I like that! Very clever solution. There will be no problem with printed parts & the plasma - by the time any sparks get close to a plastic bit, they will be cool. I have a few printed parts on my plasma - mostly as cable guides & things like that. Belts appear to be quie resilient too, much moreso than chain anyway. The only issue you might have with plasma is acceleration. Your motors look fairly small. When you are cutting a corner, one axis has to stop and the other accelerate which results in the torch effectively stopping momentarily at the corner. This leads to burning. You notice it particularly on thin material. My current machine uses 8Nm Hybrid Steppers on X & Y to give better acceleration - and the corner precision is much better. That said, you can just put a radius on all the sharp corners (Sheetcam has a feature which adds these automatically if you want). I said above that I hardly use my mill anymore. That's not only down to the plasma, but the 3D Printer too - often combining plasma cut & printed parts for strength & form. I think we all just adapt to the tools we have available, and what is the easiest solution. I'm still hoping for an affordable Metal 3D Printer one day.

And I, yours! 🙂

Can't help with where to put it - but, expensive - no. If you cast your minds back to this thread: Which eventually turned into this: https://www.instructables.com/CNC-Plasma-Table/ The original one I built had a 700x700 cut area but was small enough to fit in the back of my RRS. I've since built another one which is 700x1400 as I needed to cut some bigger stuff. It works pretty well.

Lathe first - I find I use it much more often than the mill. I had actually been thinking about getting rid of my mill, I use it that little. I have a CNC Plasma table too - and these days, most of the things I might have milled, I can design differently & plasma cut instead. Combined with a folder / welder - it's very versatile.

I've used a couple of Warco machines - and for the money, they've been pretty good. I went straight from the Centec (even smaller than the Warco one, easy 2 man lift) to a Bridgeport - but to be honest, rarely used it to it's full capability. Now I've gone back to a little mill (an EMCO PCMill 100, converted to Mach 4). The bed is about the same size as the Centec & it's been fine. I used to have a vertical slide on my Myford Super 7 (before I bought the Centec) and even that was very usable. You can pick them up on eBay for under £100.

https://gandmtools.co.uk/product/centec-2a-vertical-horizontal-milling-machine-1ph-80213922/ The first Mill I owned was a Centec 2A - and while small, was surprisingly good. I was working out of a friends single garage - and like you, there wasn't room for a mill and a drill but the Centec did the job of both. Although it's pictured with a horizontal head, it says it comes with vertical 2MT spindle as well. Although it says it's not working - worst case, it's only gong to be a new motor. G&M are a good place to look generally. They have loads of tooling and are not opposed to haggling!

I've never had carpets 😥 It did cure the seats going green - and the steering wheel kind of disolving & going sticky.

I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dehumidifier-Moisture-Electric-Dehumidifiers-Portable/dp/B09JP1HK4R/ref=pd_b2b_qd_subs_2/258-8065420-9823962?pd_rd_w=33sCc&pf_rd_p=4151aa3b-aa7e-4c28-b13d-49d06eba8c9f&pf_rd_r=8RXX2JR1TSB1JKR3K25Q&pd_rd_r=56d37469-4332-4270-8e6a-e86519f7a8e8&pd_rd_wg=kwRrX&pd_rd_i=B09JP1HK4R&psc=1 And, in cold weather, it was useless! However, with a simple modification, it became pretty good regardless of the weather! The units use a Peltier effect heat pump to chill a heat-sink and a fan to blow (moist) air over the heatsink. The water condenses on the heatsink & drops into the tank. The problem is, in cold weather, the water freezes on the heatsink and the whole thing blocks itself up with ice. Peltier devices are reversible - if you reverse the power polarity, they pump heat in the opposite direction (warming the previously cold heatsink). I just put a timer on it, so every 15 mins or so, the polarity reversed for a few mins. It was enough that it didn't freeze and caried on working regardless. The water tank (also prone to freezing) was replaced with a pipe which went outside. It used about 60W to run and seemed able to extract a couple of litres of water per day initially. It kept the inside of my 110 pretty dry over several years - and used a lot less power than a heater.

I've had several 90's & 110's and seem to keep alternating between them. It may be that with the improved design of the Grenadier, the difference would be less profound? I prefer the turn circle and power to weight ratio of the 90 - but prefer the towing stability of the 110. I rarely needed the additional space in a 110. I think I liked the idea of the extra (usable) seats, more than I needed them. Buying a 2 seat LWB just combines the worst of everything (for me). A 90 / 100 with 4 usable seats would be perfect - and that's kind of why I have a RR, but it's still not as practical, utilitarian a vehicle as the Defender was.

A few of the guys at work have the Milwaukee heated jackets - and rave about them! I agree they should be working harder 😉 - but a lot of the job involves waiting around on freezing, wet locations waiting for the next take. I have a DeWalt heated jacket (which came free with a load of tools I imported from the US) - but it's a bit too small for me. Works really well though. If any of you would like a lightly used 2XL Dewalt Jacket for free - and you're close enough to visit / forum relay - it's yours! Si

I'm looking forward to seeing what (if?) they come up with for a SWB version. Defender 110's are quite a practical vehicle which worked well and although there was a lot that could be improved, particularly the dash, they are pretty good. 90's on the other hand, I always were limited by poor access to the rear which made rear seats a clumsy option. Hopefully, they will address that. The Grenadeer has really grown on me - I can definitely see one in my future!

That has the makings of a beautiful press (in so far as a press can be?). I really should have built my own - but decided I needed a press more than yet another project! Si

You're right - I'd forgotten about that! Just loop the cable front to back, under the axles and pull.

To be honest, the main reason I bought this one was because it looked nice! I looked for the same type as yours (Steve) - but everywhere was out of stock or eyewateringly expensive. Motion simulation platforms are, unsurprisingly, a big part of my work - so I've had lots of practice. I wish I could show you the one I've been working on for the last few months (maybe I shall once the film has been released). It's an unusual geometry, big enough to sit something the size of a small jumbo-jet on top & throw it around. On Fantastic Beasts, there was a gag where they wanted a table top to levitate & wobble around (magically) - but we didn't have time to design & build a proper motion platform, so ended up just shaking the table & I guess they'll CG the levitation. But it got me thinking about cheap, small platforms - and this is the result.