#KidsEngineeringStuff

2024-07-24

Field repair, sort of.

Went over to help an elderly friend who fractured both wrists & has double vision after coming off his bike 2 months ago… (more in alt-text)

#Strimmer #FieldRepair #KidsEngineeringStuff #HorseFlies #Bikes #DoubleVision #Gardening #Cycling #Blades

Close up of a strimmer / bushcutter engine. A small twig used to wedge the choke lever down to stop it riding up and closing off the air intake. 

One of three fixes to get the job done.
First job to flip the blade. Whoever put it on last, did so upside down making the non-cutting edge the ‘cutting edge’. 

The second was to clean off the spark plug, so it could actually spark. 

Then this to stop the choke choking and sputtering the engine to a stop ever two minutes.A triangular section of over grown grasses with fuschia and ferns down the sides. An old shed door visible on the right side of the entrance to the triangle. 

An area occupied by horse flies. 

Back in the early 80s, we welded a strimmer engine to an old bike and spent hours noisily zipping around the neighbourhood. Kids engineering stuff for fun.Same section of garden after the strimming and being nibbled by horse flies. 

‘The mouthparts of females are formed into a stout stabbing organ with two pairs of sharp cutting blades, and a spongelike part used to lap up the blood that flows from the wound.’

Parallels: BladesThe strimmer engine with the air intake cover off.

So, my friend, an avid cyclist, came off his bike on a downhill gravel track when he clipped an unexpected rut and went on a ‘denture adventure’ resulting in a face full of gravel, two fractured wrists and double vision. He’ll be fine, eventually, but for now the world is a little wonky.

The strimmer is back working a treat, though my field repair for the choke lever will need a ‘proper’ fix, it’ll do for now.

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