Lousy job for cheapskates...

I wanted to fit my carburetor assembly with new Phillips-head screws... but because I was too "stingy" to spend 25 euros plus shipping on 24 "near-original" screws (zinc-plated steel), SO, I bought 50 "non-original" M4 x 14mm stainless steel screws for 5 euros instead. —

BUT: The heads on these screws have an 8 mm diameter, whereas the originals are 6.8–6.9 mm... So, I fabricated a jig to hold the screws and turned the 24 I needed down to the correct diameter... It’s a good thing I still have my small lathe in the garage... it was raining here today anyway... Still, it remains a "moron's job"—but that's what you do when you have to watch your pennies...






 

Wow. That is cheap.

Ha, a gent with more time then money. Your electric bill now will reflect the money saved ha. Those truss/cheeseheaded screws have pretty much saturated the market these days unfortunately. Good Morning Joe!! 

Hi Clay, you "midnight buccaneer"...( Did you wake up too early, or hadn't you gone to sleep yet?... or don´t you need any sleep? )

Don't worry: I can do the math The "power consumption" of this little 500-watt lathe amounts to just a few cents for an hour of sporadic use.

(( I’m not a penny-pincher, but I do have to make sure I don’t exceed my monthly budget... and I’d call €25 plus shipping for a 24-piece carburetor screw set downright extortionate; I’d happily spend an hour at the lathe with "all my spare time" instead.   ))
 

I've not had a sound/decent night's sleep in years. But have always been an early riser, plus it's been in the 100's here so taking advantage of cooler morning temps and lower humidity. Gotta wake up early to keep-up. A school hood friend brought me a couple projects yesterday. Always something unique and antique ha. Bultaco for crankcase pressure/vacuum seal testing and little Yamaha no spark. Prefer to work in the dark then the blazing beating summer sun,    Fun Fun!

I don't sleep well either—a typical sign of getting on in years, Amigo !

That sounds like summer... ,... though here, it’s unfortunately already (almost) over. The leaves are slowly starting to fall, and it’s raining pretty much every day, more or less; I hope there are still a few days left for riding, even though experience suggests there won't be many—it's a real shame. The motorcycle season here is always short in the autumn, unless you enjoy riding in the rain... which definitely isn't for me! -

So, I also spent some time yesterday and today doing a bit of "care and maintenance" on the vehicles: I finally cleaned the carburetor on my four-wheeled oldtime-runabout, fitted the mixture screws with new O-rings, and readjusted everything—it had been running far too rich before, but now the spark plugs are a nice "tan" color, just as they should be.- And on the Kawas, I retensioned the cam chains, adjusted the ignition and points, checked the charging voltage... just the usual stuff when you ride a lot. But I really enjoy doing this kind of thing; my bikes and their engines reward me with great reliability.
 

Nice vintage scooters ! !I like this old design much more than the layouts of today's bikes; I just can't get used to the way modern motorcycles look like aliens or insects—it's simply not my style... I'm hopelessly "old school."
  —I see your source isn't running dry; I'm really happy for you!

Great job on the screws!  We are lucky here because proper screws are not as expensive as in your area.  

I've made a bunch of fuel tees on my lathe.  It's not hard, and gives me an excuse to make some chips.  Way better this way than useing the old and tired rubber coated fuel tees that shrink and leak.  

Thank you, Ed!
(Yes, I couldn't imagine life without a lathe either! It really broke my heart a bit when I started dismantling my commercial workshop earlier this year; selling my excellent Weiler Primus lathe—with all its feed options, collet setup, and great versatility—was incredibly hard for me!!!)


Luckily, I had the foresight to buy one of those small Chinese mini-lathes for my garage two years ago. I could already see back then that I’d likely have to dismantle my workshop in the coming years—and as I said, I couldn't—and didn't want to—imagine being without a lathe. I do as much as possible myself, or tinker with improvements, and sometimes it’s simply necessary to fabricate a bushing, shorten screws, or make parts from scratch... the little lathe is perfect for that!




(( 

*That* was my Weiler lathe: fully equipped, featuring a switchable magnetic brake (the chuck stops instantly upon stopping), longitudinal and cross feeds, a full set of change gears for almost all thread pitches (metric and imperial), camlock-quick-change 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks, collets ranging from 1 to 20 mm with a quick-clamping mechanism, a steady rest, and so on. For me, it was the ultimate lathe for working on motorcycles and cars!

But this little chinese lathe, ( i´ve equipped it with a larger Ø 100 mm chuck on an selfmade adapter, and a "quick-changer-toolpost"), is still ok for me, and the most things, i´ve need to do....per example, last months the bushings and rods, i´ve fabricated for my footpeg-system... I am happy, to have this little bastard!!!

 
We all know it to well: It´s always hard to let go good things we used to love..