The 1972 Mazda Rx2.Time to get going

Yes! At last, I am on the way to becoming as good a machinist and fabricator as JB - we have the same dustpan!

Small steps and all that

So opened up the box of electrickery. More akin to an ‘80s television with its Cathode ray tube, even though it was manufactured in 1995🤣

Much searching later and still none the wiser,I decided that possibly the yarn I had been strung about sabotage was more likely to be a campfire story,as no sign of tampering was evident. Oh well, let me just straighten this power transistor to satisfy my inner OCD, and I will put it back together and be on my way

Well ,well ,well, looky here....

They say a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. Well in this case it is. Closer inspection shows the one leg has been snipped off,blunt side cutter marks present. So, why is a little bit of knowledge dangerous then in this case,you ask?  You see that power transistor,made originally by Motorola,is obsolete. With the swap over to LCD and LED screens,those transistors were discontinued as they are redundant. Components of that ilk,still in production won’t cost more that a couple of quid. That ,being obsolete,but still in demand by the arcade game anoraks,drives the price up considerably. Like trading at £50 a pop seriously 😳 Couldnt he have found a cheaper component to give the snip? 🙄🤣🤣

A couple of months searching resulted in one arriving last week Sub £20. Unsoldered the damaged one with the aid of some solder wick . Bit of a pig as it’s a double sided board that’s epoxied to the tube once the board is populated. 


New transistor soldered in. 



Absolute pig to get the corner nut back on. Didn’t feel like taking the whole box to pieces to gain access,so bit of wire to slide the washer and nut down to the stud worked a charm. 

Allback together. Will possibly recommission that machine this weekend. But I doubt it , as something else has cropped up 🤣🤣🤣

Obviously related to the people that reside across the lane from Grumpy Towers - its the type of thing that they would get up to 

Nice save on the electronics, lets hope that sorts it

The best thing about being self employed is not having to work with idiots! The xmas party is a bit dull though oh and no holiday pay, no sick pay, no pension, the phone ringing 24/7 etc etc!

Aye, for sure. Sometimes I think one should always think the worst of people ,that way they cannot disappoint. Very cynical outlook...
The bit that absolutely smacked my gob,was when that little titbit of information came out,he was actually fishing for a job with me 😳😳. Talk about having my mind made up instantly. Not that it makes it any better,and it’s not an ageist statement,but it’s the kind of thing you would  expect from a teenager who had one too many Stella’s the night before. Definitely  not from somebody who was nearly half a century old when he did it.....Some of the holes in the bed of the machine that also hadn’t been there sixth months before,also make you wonder. Cannot help but think they probably were not accidental....😡

🤣🤣🤣🤣

As some of you may know,this man cave that now holds the mortal remains of the rx2 was rented with the idea that it would give the rx2 project a bigger home. The idea was it needs to basically self fund to cover the rent. Which it has been doing. With this in mind I bought a cnc vertical machining center awhile back. The idea being small overflow jobs could go on it,but the main reason was to have a dedicated machine for making what I need for the Rx2. One that doesn’t need to be broken down constantly to do the next job. What with the front scuttle being scanned as we speak I decided I really need to get this recommissioned. It was bought as a non runner in the hope it wouldnt cost a fortune to sort out.

The day it arrived via IPad Rocketship

Absolutely filthy



Bought from a very strange bloke/ compulsive liar/ div of the highest order. If I had known just what an idiot the seller was,I would have just walked on by..🙄. It looked like it had never been cleaned in its life
Pretty much all the issues so far in getting this going again stem from his zero maintenance and cleaning policy. How you can buy a machine,on finance for £30k and not keep it clean, beggars belief

Five days of cleaning later it was starting to look a bit more like a vmc

Don't poke the bear !! 😅

Nice to see someone else likes euro boxes for storage.