Sold off three of my saitos, just fed up with the conrod seizing on them.
Got real good money for them too.
I bought an OS 61 Fx off the BMFA website that was listed as in excellent condition, when I got it there was no prop nut and washer and no muffler bolts, worst of all it was jammed solid. I freed it up but it was clear the bearings were gummed up so I pulled it to bits, knocked the front bearing out and popped the rest in the oven at 200 C 3 hard knocks on the work bench and the rear bearing popped out, solid with castor I dunno why people still use it. $10 worth of bearings from my local industrial supplier and she now feels like an OS should.

Plenty has happened in my life since my last entry. My tame builder has completed our bathroom makeover also demolished the wall and fireplace between the dining area and living room so we now have a walk through room.
Originally the structural engineer wanted steel joists to replace the loadbearing wall between the two areas, but as most of the weight was the chimney running up through the loft and out through the roof I decided to have that removed as our heating now is provided by a boiler in a utility room. The builder took 6 cubic yards of rubble out, this included the chimney breast on the gound floor, the lined firebrick structure up to the loft and a huge offset to get the chimney out at the top of the roof.
The net result was the structural engineer agreed we could use two 8"x 4" joists bolted together which prevented having a return to cover up the steel joists, the wooden ones being in the space between the ceiling and the floor above.
While he was at it the builder re-plastered, rewired and painted the the "new" room too.
It wasn't easy as where the chimney breast mounted on the floor we had to re-screed an area 8'x4' and recarpet.
It's done now and me and old mama are happy as pigs in crap. We were that happy we got him to redecorate the entrance hall, stairs and landing which he managed in about four days.
Anyway that's behind us, we have two more bedrooms to decorate in the spring but before then I have to tidy up my workbench and build...Continue Reading