James May - The Reassembler

mickledore

mickledore

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I went to the British Lawnmower Museum a couple of weeks ago. Well, it's on my doorstep.
I've just realised that I have a shot of the mower that James May used on Monday night.
Not sure if you can enlarge this shot enough to read the label, but it says that they completely stripped down the machine and supplied it to the programme. That would explain why all the bits were nice and clean and no rust on the nuts and bolts etc.

If anybody is really keen I have three complementary tickets for two people each to visit the museum, complete with audio guide.


The Reassembler by mickledore on Talk Photography
 
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:D

:coat:
 
I think I'll pass on that thanks...
But I did watch the programme (sadly) and James May was so different in it to his persona on Top Gear - reassembling an old lawnmower seemed to me to be much more up his street.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I think I'll pass on that thanks...
But I did watch the programme (sadly) and James May was so different in it to his persona on Top Gear - reassembling an old lawnmower seemed to me to be much more up his street.
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you mean that on top gear he acts and looks like he is 50ish (which he is), whereas on this he acted and looked about 70? ;)
 
Great Programme if you like that kind of thing, I almost fell asleep after 15 minutes purely because it wasn't quite my thing. But I appreciated the concept and may watch the guitar one as that's a lot more interesting to me.

Definitely was his kind of thing though. He said he barely got paid for it, but you can see he loved it.
 
brman said:
you mean that on top gear he acts and looks like he is 50ish (which he is), whereas on this he acted and looked about 70? ;)
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Well, he's 53 but looked nearer to 70... But what I really mean is that on TG he doesn't really look like he belongs there, on the reassembly programme he looked like he does belong, and is really interested in what he's doing.
 
gramps said:
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:D

:coat:
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Thanks.....I think!

Yes on TG he looks like a sad old git who won't let go of his youth and still thinks he's "cool". Really he's a long way past his sell by date. On this he had a real enthusiasm and interest in everfthing that went on.
 
db247 said:
Great Programme if you like that kind of thing, I almost fell asleep after 15 minutes purely because it wasn't quite my thing. But I appreciated the concept and may watch the guitar one as that's a lot more interesting to me.

Definitely was his kind of thing though. He said he barely got paid for it, but you can see he loved it.
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guitar one was a bit of a disappointment - mainly because they disassembled the entire bridge, all the sliders and height settings - then threw them back together without any illustration of how to re-set the whole intonation of the instrument when it was rebuilt and re-strung - the very thing I was actually interested in, and frankly, the only part of building an electric guitar (other than perhaps winding your own pickups, and soldering up all the cables (again, all the tone/volume controls were pre-wired into a single assembly for him)) that rises about a "meccano" job... It's always a bit of a p***er when a completely nerdy program turns out to not be nerdy enough for my requirements :LOL:
 
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I want one of those gripping screwdrivers that he used on the telephone re-assembly - NOW!
 
Got bored with the lawn mower one. Was interested to see the pullback shots but it was still boring. I turned off halfway through and haven't watched any others
 
Giblets said:
I want one of those gripping screwdrivers that he used on the telephone re-assembly - NOW!
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Definitely. Where did that come from?
TheBigYin said:
guitar one was a bit of a disappointment - mainly because they disassembled the entire bridge, all the sliders and height settings - then threw them back together without any illustration of how to re-set the whole intonation of the instrument when it was rebuilt and re-strung - the very thing I was actually interested in. It's always a bit of a p***er when a completely nerdy program turns out to not be nerdy enough for my requirements :LOL:
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I got the impression that the programme was quite heavily edited to fit into a 30 minute slot. I know they filmed at the Lawnmower Museum, and all the local talk was that it would be shown, but not a whisper about it. I wonder if the powers that be decided that an hour was just too long for non nerds to keep watching. What did they put on for tha last 30 mins? Repeats from ages ago about weapons of war; very much a filler.
 
Just watched the Stratocaster rebuild on I player, I can't believe it took him 6 hours for goodness sake, or did he spend 20 minutes polishing each screw before putting it in.
 
We enjoyed the lawnmower episode. Mind you, it was obviously not quite real; he didn't end up with any parts left over!

:jawdrop:
 
His soldering technique on the Stratocaster made me shudder a bit, but I'm sure it's for the sake of keeping things visually coherent for the TV so I'll let him off :D
Giblets said:
I want one of those gripping screwdrivers that he used on the telephone re-assembly - NOW!
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mickledore said:
Definitely. Where did that come from?
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I think they are called split-blade screwdrivers.

</jeremy-clarkson-adenoids-voice>
 
Just had a little googling session as I remember my father had something similar to that, back in the 1960's and it used to start with copious amounts of French if I remember correctly.
 
Dad used to have one of the gripping screwdriver things and it was great until it decided that rather than hold the screw it would ping it off into the ether, never to be found!
 
I watched the first two but missed the guitar one, unfortunately.

I found them strangely compelling. Almost beautiful.

I laughed at his description of what happens when your concentration slips while holding a small coiled spring.

It's a quantum event. It's there, then it isn't.
 
It must be one of the most boring TV shows ever,
I watched the guitar episode and was amazed at how boring he could make a possibly interesting idea.

I suspect this will bomb the same way his 'man cave' series did.
 
I watched the lawnmower programme and found it a bit like watching the old test cards.
A shame as i enjoyed the previous series he's done.
I wouldn't let him build an engine for me; not a drop of lubricant used on the crank or anything else.
 
kendo1 said:
It must be one of the most boring TV shows ever,
I watched the guitar episode and was amazed at how boring he could make a possibly interesting idea.

I suspect this will bomb the same way his 'man cave' series did.
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It was a slow tv style show - like the 5 day boat ride. It got nearly 1/2 a million viewers on a channel designed to try risky projects, hardly a bomb.
 
I enjoyed the series, but I'm very patient, methodical and have an enquiring mind.
 
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Yelkrub said:
I wouldn't let him build an engine for me; not a drop of lubricant used on the crank or anything else.
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Not strictly correct. We just didn't see any used and given that this was something like a 9 hour rebuild cut down to fit in the middle of a 30 minute TV show there must be a distinct possibility that we were not shown everything that went on.
 
I enjoyed it until he put the stratocaster together... what a balls up that was
 
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