[Prodigy07]

Jeroen sir, Take a bow. I'm speechless.

Wish someday I could build one!

[pinin]

Wow Jeroen!!! Thanks for showing the BOYs how a real MAN CAVE looks like.

Regards,
Pinin

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There are still a couple of other things I might want to get first. Column drill, electric and gas welding equipment. Some grinders.

Your man-cave is surprisingly light on bench/ power/ machine tools!
Instead of a column drill, may I suggest a mini mill. And then so that the mini mill does not feel lonely, a mini lathe.

Domestic single phase power supply + arc welding: so an inverter based 200 - 250 amps unit?

Regards
Sutripta

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by maddy42

One thing which amazes me is the culture of DIY instead of hiring someone to do the same! Kudos to folks like you who keep the art of wrenching alive!

In many countries doing DIY whether it is on car, your house, your garden, your bicycle is considered perfectly normal. In fact many people pursue all sorts of DIY projects as a hobby. Doing DIY is for everybody whether you are a CEO of a multinational or a shop assistant. In fact, many people (in the west) really pride themselves on being particularly good at certain manual crafts. You can even take lessons in plumbing, electrical work, brick laying, car maintenance, just about anything under the sun. And there is a huge industry that caters for all these needs. Our village is near a small provincial town. Still it boosts five massive DIY centre that are open 7 days a week!

Doing DIY work can safe you a lot of money too. Contrary to for instance India, all these sort of manual labour is well paid. My builder charges Euro 45-55 per hour depending the type of job. Take your car to a garage and you could be charged Euro 65-75 per hour.

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

You'd have loved it: I did!

Being highly technical yourself, you might find some usable/useful idea there.

Sounds like my kind of house!
Thanks for the video. Makes for interesting viewing (and listening)

Originally Posted by M00M

Also maintaining these cars abroad is much more easier, as most of its DIY and also most of the parts can be sourced with a little trouble.

Can we use one of these trickle chargers on the Fiat Padmini in India ?

Yes, indeed. Getting parts whether it is for a plumbing job, wall papering, electrical work, car maintenance is very easy here in the west. See my earlier remarks.

Yes, these trickle chargers work anywhere in the world. This one needs 220VAC/50 Hz and can charge any 12 V battery. Different battery might require different charger.

Originally Posted by Sutripta

Your man-cave is surprisingly light on bench/ power/ machine tools!
Instead of a column drill, may I suggest a mini mill. And then so that the mini mill does not feel lonely, a mini lathe.

Domestic single phase power supply + arc welding: so an inverter based 200 - 250 amps unit?

Stay tuned for further updates. I just did not have room for any machinery before, so I’m only just starting. The compressor and the few initial pneumatic tools were a real must.

You make a very good point with the mini mill. I had a quick look and although they are a bit more expensive than a column drill, they are much more convenient. Will make an excellent birthday gift for my wife to get me in a few weeks for my 59th birthday.

When it comes to welding equipment there is plenty of equipment you can just plug into a 220 VAC/ 16A outlet. I’ve already been to see these guys (sorry all in Dutch, but you’ll get the gist)

They do a vast range of different welding kits all at very competitive pricing. Also, they provide excellent workshops/training on welding. I havent welded anything for nearly 30 years. So I’m a bit rusty to say the least. Also with this new kit, welding is a lot easier. They let me try out a few of these units in their shop and although my welds were far from perfect, within 15 minutes I was doing quite well on a simply underhand weld.

Good welding is a real art and it take a lot of practice and experience!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Thanks for the video. Makes for interesting viewing (and listening)

AvE does some useful and interesting stuff. Once you get used to the language, he's really, actually, very inoffensive. But your grandmother might not give him time to find out!

My other favourite YoutTube machinists are Thisoldtony and Abom79. But I think you've been there and done that when it comes to machining, and if I haven't completely scrambled my memories, I think you might even have done it at sea?

Anyway, I am currently learning about this stuff, at arm's length... on the screen. Not much chance of getting hands-on, even at the level I used to do. No space, not enough cash. But hey, maybe one day!

[maddy42]

Also has anyone watched James May Reassembler? Amazing watch and you get a lot of James May quirks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0jBvrH8ZRI

[Lone Ranger]

Jeroen, given your love for flying I half expected to see a flight simulator in there I think that's the only thing missing! Jokes apart, this reads almost like a guide on 'how to plan your mancave'. I for one definitely plan to use it as one. Thank you for sharing.

[majumon]

Fantastic read for the weekend kept me gripped to my chair going through this wonderful post. Very very inspiring , gives us a totally different perspective of a different world out there. So much of information is very new to me. As always great write up from your side, am sure lots more to come.

[GwD]

It's a dream come true for all car lovers. It's not just a man cave, it's the proverbial attic where the little boy inside us can get lost to the outside world and becomes oblivious of all else.

My best wishes pour out from my heart.

[aabhimanyu04]

Tricky chargers come in many different shapes and brands. But I swear by my CTEK ones.

Brilliant!! I am going to try this on my Ford EcoSport. It is available on Amazon.in, hopefully it is a universal model for all cars.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Also has anyone watched James May Reassembler? Amazing watch and you get a lot of James May quirks

I have always been a huge fan of the original TopGear with Clarksson, May and Hammond. May has always been my favourite. He has made quite a number of programs on his own. This one being a recent one. I have seen about half the episodes and really enjoyed them. This series is really about James fiddling in his workshop. I can relate to that.

Originally Posted by Lone Ranger

Jeroen, given your love for flying I half expected to see a flight simulator in there .

I havent flown to much in the last couple of years. Neither a a real pilot or on my simulator. Did manage to fly on the Concorde, you might have seen it:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commer...simulator.html

Originally Posted by aabhimanyu04

Brilliant!! I am going to try this on my Ford EcoSport. It is available on Amazon.in, hopefully it is a universal model for all cars.

There are a lot of different ones, I have two of these and one slightly more powerfull for the battery of the Jaguar.

https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/xs-0-8

As long as the battery isn't completed depleted, in essence any trickle charger would do. It's only when the battery is completed drained it will draw a very heavy current and a larger model will charge more quickly.

good luck with your purchase!

Jeroen

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by aabhimanyu04

Brilliant!! I am going to try this on my Ford EcoSport. It is available on Amazon.in, hopefully it is a universal model for all cars.

I have a bunch of battery chargers of which the CTEKs are my favourites. They are also sold as OEM accessory chargers for many luxury automobile marques. But sadly they are more expensive especially in India. Try getting one from Europe (not USA since the mains is 120VAC) as it would be cost you less there.

So, I would suggest you buy a Bosch C7, an automatic 7A charger, for your car. The Bosch has the same functions as the CTEK MXS range (except the temperature compensation IIRC) and costs way less. It is very well made just as good as the Swedish CTEKs.

The Bosch C3 is for small batteries found in bikes and other vehicles.

Read here for more info: Bosch C7

If you must get a CTEK then I'd recommend the CTEK MXS 5 or MXS 7 models.

[Jeroen]

At the very beginning of this thread I mention the fire extinguisher that the previous owner left me and that it needed maintenance.

I had a good look at it. Not sure how these things work in India. In many countries fire extinguishers need yearly checking. At least from an insurance and sometime even a legal point of view. Actually, for me and my garage there is no such requirement. In fact there is no requirement, neither legally or from the insurance to even have a fire extinguisher at the premises.

As I said before, I think it makes a lot of sense to have a good, adequate fire extinguisher in your garage. Especially, if you are like me, work on the cars, and also store chemicals/oils/solvent. You never know.

The fire extinguishers have a label showing when they were last inspected, when they are due for another maintenance/inspection and when the complete charge needs replacing.

You need to choose your fire extinguisher to be fit for purpose. Different kinds of fire might require a different kind of fire extinguisher.

Internationally, fires have been classified accordingly:
Class A - fires involving solid materials such as wood, paper or textiles.
Class B - fires involving flammable liquids such as petrol, diesel or oils.
Class C - fires involving gases.
Class D - fires involving metals.
Class E - fires involving live electrical apparatus

My old extinguisher was a powder one and suitable for Class A, B and C.

But it needed a service badly. It had also lost it’s pressure:



All in Dutch, but fairly easy to figure out: Last maintenance (onderhoud) was done July 2007. Next maintenance was due July 2008. The powder was supposed to be replaced by July 2012.



Not much pressure left



So I made a few phone calls with a couple of companies providing fire extinguishers. Getting my old one serviced wasn’t economically viable. So I decided to get a new one. This one is a Class A, B type and it’s a foam extinguisher. It was very reasonably priced too.

The powder does give you Class C capabilities, but that’s not so relevant for me. More importantly, the powder tends to leave a very corrosive residue on your cars, parts etc. Especially electronics can be badly affected. So you put out the fire but might still end up with substantial damage due to the powder.

So I changed to a foam extinguisher.

When I worked in the merchant navy and offshore I attended many fire fighting trainings and I have some official certificates to show for it. We spend quite a bit of training on how to use the various portable fire extinguishers. If you know how to use it, you would be surprised how large a fire you can extinguish. The most important part is to start from an appropiate angle (upwind) and start releasing the foam/powder whilst swaying the nozzle left and right continuously and moving forward. Never ever stop and restart the spraying. A lot of people still use these extinguishers with small bursts. But the fire will just flare up in between. So start spraying, start swaying and move forward at a steady pace. Just keep on going until you have emptied the complete extinguisher!

So now I have a nice, brand new extinguisher.

[Jeroen]

Earlier I mentioned that half of my fluorescent lights weren’t working. I traced it down to the capacitors.

It was really difficult finding these capacitors. As luck would have it I found an incredible hardware store in Breda, here in the South of the Netherlands . These sort of shops have become all but extinct, but you might still find one, occasionally. Have a look at this:

http://www.jaakvanwijck.nl/galerij-winkel.html

I happened upon it, by chance, stepped inside, as I love hardware stores. Met with the owner who showed me around. They have won several awards and are something of a touristy attractions even!.

You can buy everything and anything and what they don’t stock, they will try to get for you. You can still buy a single nut or screw here. Things like wood, electrical cable, tubing all that sort of stuff, all sold by the centimeter!

Long story short, they managed to get me my four new capacitors. Very cheap too!

Picked them up earlier this week.



This is how the old ones were mounted. Pretty simple. Took off the bracket, undid the two wires.



Just wired in the new one. Switched on and it works! Bracket needed a bit of bending, but it fits fine now.

This was the only one without a car directly underneath it. Don’t want to messing with bits, pieces on a ladder with my car’s roof underneath! I need to move all the cars around. But there’s a huge storm blowing and I don’t want my cars outside. We have already some damage to the roof of the house.



Last weekend I also visited a huge classic car show:

https://www.interclassicsmaastricht.nl/nl/

Sorry this time no photographs. But I did buy another item for my garage. These enamel plague are very expensive. This is a tiny one as the large version cost more than a Euro 100, which is a bit much. So the search is on for a half decent photograph on the internet. See if I can download it and print it A3 size on my photo printer!



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

So a few more addition to my workshop.

Bought myself a little tool cart. I used to have a near identical one when we lived in the USA> Sold it when we moved to Delhi. This one was on special, 50% discount, so I immediately ordered it. It has big wheels, two fixed, two castor press, with a brake. So it runs really smoothly.

One tray and it has these anti-slip material all across the various work services and trays.
When working on cars, I find it very useful to have one of these around. You can put tools on it, parts, bolts, nuts etc.







Also, got some more simple pneumatic tools. A ratchet which is just very convenient undoing and tightening up all sorts of nuts/bolts. This one you can use in combination with a regular socket set.

Then I got a pneumatic grinder and drill and a whole bunch of different grinding and polishing wheels. I need to figure out a bit, what does what and how.



Jeroen