Read up a bit more on blower resistors.
The older type are resistors..

The new types

"the blower motor resistor is actually a solid-state module that sends a varied signal to the blower motor."

That's why there's no 'resistor' logic to them when a similar Ohm meter if applied I guess.

They should always be run fully installed, as even a short test period hanging in the footwell, they are not in the cooling airflow of the motor and can be damaged..
The blower can easily pull 15amps / 180W.
Those cooling prongs or fins are there for a reason!

I got that right then - fully installed before testing!

Used the car for the first time since fitting the new blower resistor.
Great to have the blower working i.e. blowing well when I or the Auto setting requires it.
It was very warm in the car this afternoon, so it was needed at more than virtually off.

Long may it last!

If it does fail again, next in line for replacement would be the blower motor, as well.

Sanded the rimu bedside cupboard down over the weekend.
Oiled it on Monday.
Put the modem, router, modded switch and linear power supply in tonight.
Looks lots better in the corner.

Will put in the Eichmann Universal Plugboard with Mad Scientist Nano power cable tomorrow.
Means I can also plug in the Russ Andrews 'Silencer,' and the Add Powr Eau2.

The John Deere lawn raker attachment arrived.



Needed a tiny bit of tlc.

The bolt that adjusts the front wheel height was too long, so the wheel couldn't 360°. Found that out and cut it down.

Doddle to fit




Ready to go. I set the mower height to quite high, mulching plug out and bag on.



After a fair few stripes
Plenty of push from the mower. Light and easy to turn and manoeuvre.



It certainly gave the grass a deep rake. The grass that came up was pretty much hay coloured.

I wouldn't want to do it by hand / nor have I in 7 years.
My modded scarifier on wheels, rear mounted worked soso.
Had to go over it again to pick up
That's what's great about this one.

Not a scarify but that's not what I wanted.

I now know what it's like to mow this plot with a 21" mower 😂

I'll probably do it every couple is months.

Lightly Waxoyled ready for storage.

I guess it's DIY but I am a Pro at it too😂

Stringing and restring tennis racquets.

Any racquet, any string pattern, natural gut, Polyester, nylon, multifilament, you name it.
Advice on tensions, grommet repair, weight and balance set up..
I even do special tendon equaliser stringings called Sergetti and others.

Strings have a big effect on play and playability.
Something the average club player doesn't get into 🙂

They can also have an affect on wrist, elbow and shoulder health - as can the stiffness and balance of the racquet.

Here are a few examples.

Babolat, Prince, Volkl, Pro Kennex, Yonex Blackburne, Wilson, Dunlop, even woodies.

The vertical clamps hold the string while you pull tension.

The tension is pulled, I'm my case with a crank. There's a friction clamp that grips the string, you crank and it clicks out at the tension you've set.
0 to 80lbs or so.

You can see the gripper top right.



The disc does the friction lock out at the tension.
Clever analogue.

There are digital systems too.
You load the string, press a button, a motor pulls..

The stringing machines are solid and heavy!

Typically the stringing range is 45 to 60lbs tension.
Most are 55 or 56 lbs.

Hybrids are usually a few pounds more on the mains vs the crosses.

I forgot to say you can hybrid strings.
Many pros play natural gut (40ft long cow gut..) mains and polyester crosses.
Gut gives power and feel.
Full bed of gut was Sampras era and before.
Polyester came along and that helped returners and spin generation.
Gut mains deflect on the poly crosses during contact with the ball and then it's flicked as it leaves the strings giving more rpm.
Full poly does the same.

Full bed of gut locks and does not generate spin on the same way.

Nadal, Warwrinka and many more use full poly.
It's good for about 9 games, then goes dead. It's stiff as hell. Easy to get elbow problems from the vibration.
Natural gut is gentlest on the arm.
Many with tennis elbow etc, try natural gut. You can't play in the wet though. It swells and loses tension.

Nadal would not have the huge spin without poly.
Or the big 100sqin racquet head.

Sampras would have whooped Nadal just transported back in time to Wimbledon back in the day with only gut allowed, and the slightly smaller faster balls back then.
It was a servers / serves volley game.
That said Nasal is talented enough to have done serve volley etc, had he grown up with it.
It became a predominantly baseline game with poly and the ball changes.
Courts got slower too.
They are being sped up again, for a more all court game.

A video would be worth a thousand pics😂



The tension head at 1m ish explains it.
Rather relaxing watching stringing at speed🙂

That's cool.

It's quite a contraption.
They are not cheap.

The ones the Pro stringers use are ££££'s.


It takes a while to get good at stringing.
Lots of little tricks.
Racquets have different patterns and grommet skips for mains and crosses.

I've got a snowshoe patterned with vertical mains rarity to do soon.
That uses 1.5 sets of strings🙂
Very fiddly weaving..
Gives a star of David pattern.
Supposedly very stable and consistent string bed.
They banned it back in the 90s.
There were a couple of pros using them.
Stringers hated them, and the strings last 15+ years, of amateur play!
Snow shoe pattern is known for its strength.
It was called the Madraq, after inventor Madeline, a mathematician!
Nice lady apparently.

So, about this budget camping trip...