Repairs

It’s important to keep your equipment maintained and in good repair.  Sure it’s inconvenient sometimes, but there’s no way around it in many cases.
 
I was cutting the last slab of the day recently when I noticed there was a flood coming out of the splash box.  I turned off the power and water and checked what was happening.  I couldn’t find anything wrong except the drain hose was kinked slightly, and it went back to being like that after I straightened it.  I got through the rest of the session by pinching it lightly the other way to keep it open.
 
I cleaned the box after I’d finished, took it apart and thought about the problem.  I don’t know why I drilled two holes in the box long ago!  Maybe the one was too high, or I was thinking of adding a second hose if the first wasn’t sufficient for drainage?  I don’t remember.  But this is the first trouble I’ve had with it.

Figure 1 shows the splash box once the hose had been removed and the sealant scraped off.  Two holes?!  I de-greased and sanded both sides to ensure the sealant gripped well.

​I thought about adding a snap-on hose fitting to the lower hole with strengthening washers either side of the box wall, and then clip on the hose whenever needed.  That would stop the kinking in future.  But having looked through various hardware stores, I couldn’t find any suitable fittings so I decided to simply cut-off the end of the hose, turn it around and fix it back into the box wall – it’s been fine for 19 years, so anything more elaborate is probably over-engineering the solution!

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Figure 2 shows the completed repair, including lots of sealant filling the second hole.

Figure 3 shows another splash box with a rubber flap keeping splashes from escaping around the tool shaft.  The flaps glue had been failing for a while and it was necessary to re-affix it to the box wall.

​Whilst in the mood, I decided to fix the rubber splash-flap back as well – the glue had been going though it hasn’t been causing a problem, but I didn’t want it to get worse than it was.  Again I had thoughts of making it more difficult to fix than necessary!  After a while I came to the conclusion that the simplest way was to use my revolving head punch to cut the holes through the plastic box wall and rubber sheeting at the same time and then use a pop-rivet to secure them.  It was the work of ten minutes to complete!

Figure 4 shows the revolving head punch making a hole through both the rubber flap and box wall.  Very quick and easy!

Figure 5 shows the repair completed and ready for use once again.

​Unfortunately, as I was pre-polishing some slabs on a 1500 grit flexible diamond belt yesterday the glue gave way and the backing patch came off.  With that the belt flew off the expandable drum, but at least the latter didn’t disintegrate as well!

Figure 6 shows the flexible diamond belt and tape before cleaning and repair.

​Well, the glue has been good for many years so no complaints.  I figure the best way to fix it is to clean off the glue and re-glue it – I’d be lucky to find a piece of fibrous backing tape that strong and thin anyway.
 
I’ve visited my local hardware shop and bought the materials I need to fix it and I’ll report on the outcome next month.  Watch this space!