lazy days..…..

So yesterday I pulled out my hydromaster upholstery tool; to fix. Out of service for 3 years or so.  It got a big hair ball inside, so I tried to remove it. Well it's made of 2 pcs that come apart, so I took it apart. Big mistake. The metal glides and the see thru window made it impossible to put back together; and seal everything up. It leaked and the on/off valve stopped working. So there my $500+ tool sat collecting dust. I've been using the basic PMF internal jet/plastic head tool. Works OK. Can't use psi over 300, it will have a concentrated spray on the fabric.

  So I pulled it out, took it apart, checked the valve and put it back to tether. And it worked. Didn't really do anything special or adjustments. Go figure. 

I did have to put a little smear of silicone on the airmleaks, to seal them. How can they make a 2 part plastic head that won't adiquatly seal???? I made several attempt to get them to seal. They have nut/bolts to pull them tightly together, but no deal. Go figure.

Everything that is made of plastic in a clam-shell design ends up leaking. That is one of the reasons that Briggs and Stratton motors did away with a the design on their carburetors...we used to use "seal-all" on them all the time. With the amount of hot water a tool like that receives, there really is no excuse for the factory not to use silicone bead gaskets at all points....it isn't exactly a cheap tool.

When you think about it, outside of a wand and a bucket, nothing in this industry is designed to last for very long.