The Random thought thread

[Marty_d]

11 hours ago, red750 said:

I didn't know where to post this:

 

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joined the board of one of Australia's most ambitious space industry companies.

 

Space Centre Australia, which is building Australia's first permanent spaceport at Cape York in far north Queensland, has appointed Mr Morrison non-executive chair of the company.

 

More here.

As a Cadet I hope.  Or crash test dummy.

[facthunter]

Let him light the wick on take off. . Nev

[onetrack]

No, no ... you've got it all wrong. Scott will be quoted, right after the initial launch failure, saying,  "I don't hold the match, mate!"

[Marty_d]

He's known to hold a hose, or in his case, a straw.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Clearly this company is a tax write off for its owners. SFM's track record of failure is well known and he is hardly going to get a sympathetic ear in Canberra.

 

Who better to ensure the demise of a company?

[spacesailor]

" who better to ensure the demise of a company " .

Donald Trump  .

spacesailor

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

" who better to ensure the demise of a company " .Donald Trump. That's one thing the's spacesailor

That's one thing in which he is highly experienced.

[willedoo]

There's a lot of good stuff on YouTube but YouTube Shorts seems to be a breeding ground for airheads. Alright if you's got ADD I suppose.

[willedoo]

12 hours ago, willedoo said:

Alright if you's got ADD I suppose

That was a typo, meant to read you've. I just thought I'd get in first before any of yous accuse me of being a bogan.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

I just thought I'd get in first before any of yous accuse me of being a bogan

There's no accusation.

 

The hoodie, flanno and mullet bring in the conviction.

[willedoo]

I'm not sure how random this thought is, but for want of a better place to ask, does anybody know how good or bad those cheap Chinese imitation Honda stationary engines are. I think some people call them a Chonda.

 

Edited October 18 by willedoo

[willedoo]

I was asking from the point of view of an engine that was not for critical use such as firefighting and would only see occasional use.

[nomadpete]

I have one on my fire pump (shock horror). Got it back in 2013. It gets a couple of hours run each summer, and lives outside with only a bit of corrugated iron over it to keep the rain off.

Which reminds me, I  should change it's oil.

[willedoo]

They're certainly cheap enough compared to a genuine Honda. I've heard they're very close copies with a lot of parts interchangeable.

[nomadpete]

This one has run every time it had to. Parts seem easily obtained. I have heard from a friend that they had a bad run with a chonda small motorbike motor that only lasted a couple of hours. But that's a different motor probably from a different factory.

[onetrack]

You get what you pay for. I've heard some stories about rings made out of chewing gum, and no doubt the QC is pretty hit and miss.

If you want reliability and long life, you can't go past the genuine article, it's hard to kill a Honda.

 

However, having said that, I bought a firefighter off eBay, powered by a no-name Chinese Honda copy. I only wanted it to transfer a bit of water around from collection points to tanks.

It cost me a whole $186 delivered! However, when I went to fill it with fuel, the petrol poured out on the ground, as fast as it was going into the tank!! 😲

 

A little investigation showed the fuel hose from tank to carburettor had never been connected! It took me about 20 minutes to fix, I had to R&R the tank to fit the hose, and go find a hose clamp!

Despite that, it fired up no problem, and has never missed a beat in a few hours work since. But I'm not so sure I'd want to rely on saving my house and my skin, on a cheap Chonda-powered firefighter!

[spacesailor]

I bought a petrol powered ' hedge trimmer ' works well , just too heavey to hold up in the air for very long .

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

I ad no on a log splitter, it never gave a problem.

[facthunter]

I have a Honda firepump and it won't take full power for much more than 15 minutes.  What use is that? Its supplied together with a 2 stage pump. That's useless in the real situation. Fire pumps must not fail. Your Life might depend on it.   Yes it's been checked over many times. Nev

[onetrack]

Nev, what happens to the Honda after 15 mins at full power? Does it overheat?

[facthunter]

Thats the indications In my view. . There's no obstruction to the flow of cooling air. It will go all day at part throttle. . Considerable reduction of pressure at that setting. It's my sons. I can't waste any more time on it.. Another thing with four strokes they rust up exhaust valve guides. You need to squirt CRC down the muffler about 10 mins after stopping the engine to prevent that.  Nev

[onetrack]

I was always taught to leave little engines on compression, to prevent valves sticking, when leaving them for any length of time. Yes, the Hondas are bad for valves sticking open when left in moist or humid conditions.

[willedoo]

That's what a bike mechanic told me many years ago. He said to always pull the Honda on to compression when leaving it for any time.

 

The price difference with the firefighting pumps is big, but that's the pump quality as well as the Honda engine part of the cost. I bought a 5hp Honda with a single impeller Davey pump last year and it was around the thousand dollar mark. The 6hp Honda with the twin impeller Davey pump I have down in the creek has a replacement cost of around $1,300 these days, about twice what I paid for it originally.

[facthunter]

The CRC makes the mufflers last longer too.   I might put something on the tractor PTO. These little pumps are just expensive toys..  Nev

[old man emu]

23 hours ago, onetrack said:

I was always taught to leave little engines on compression, to prevent valves sticking,

An engine will "breathe" with changes in air pressure brought about both by the movement of weather systems and the heating of air from cool in the morning through wam at midday to cool in the evening. This introduces moisture to the cylinder with the adverse effects that moisture causes over time. If you have a single cylinder engine, then pulling it onto the compression stroke will close both valves and prevent the that daily movement of air. However, you can't use the same technique for a multi-cylinder engine because there will always be cylinders with one valve open. Putting a plug in the exhaust pipe might reduce the daily air movement a little, but unless you can plug both the intake and exhaust manifolds, you are going to get that air movement. The best you can do is remove the spark plugs and squirt some oil into each pot and put the spark plugs back. I wonder if there is enough oily residue left in teh cylinders of diesel engines to protect them.