I was building a heavy duty walk in chicken run. It came flat packed
Walk in run pueces by English Countrylife, on FlickrThe pipes are not quite as heavy duty as scaffolding, but that sort of thing. They are galvanized to reduce rust. They use a process called "Hot Dip Galvanising". It's very effective. BUT in one place it had gunked up the threads needed to bolt the assembly together. Completely. With metal. Now I could have asked the manufacturer for a new part, but I happen to have a "tap and die" set.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tap_and_die
A tap and die set cuts the threads on a bolt or nut. It can also be used to chase fouling, rust, paint ....or Galvanising...off threads. So an M6 tap through the fouled but and it all went together sweetly
Walk in run by English Countrylife, on FlickrBecause our ground isn't perfectly flat, I also needed to fettle the door to stop it sticking
A No.4 Bailey plane and a stick of chalk soon sorted that
Walk in run frame by English Countrylife, on FlickrI'm embarrassed to admit that my metal work is awful and my engine maintenance is worse. I never learned these things as a child
We are trying though to learn basic mechanical and engineering skills and amass a good set of tools to support what we can do. We think that the ability to make, repair and maintain things will be vital in times to come when things are no longer "disposable"
