Thread: One for the fridgies

Originally Posted by scarry

So an old Fridgie i have known for around 45 yrs decided to leave us last week
Mesothelioma got him,after 86 yrs,so didn't do to badly i suppose.He was bloody good at sorting the old temprites,750 valves,needle and seats,knew all the tricks with them.
And Kelvy compressors,we used to rebuild them,all different models of open drives,semi's,etc.
Did his time at Buzzacots.

Anyway,i dropped into see him about 3 weeks ago.His wive took off about 30 yrs ago.
So i sit on the 40yr old couch,had the dog with me that day,so she lies down at my feet,on the floor.
The dog wouldn't settle down,every now and then would get up and growl,had her ears pricked,wasn't happy about something.

Anyway,after an hour or so of chit chat,out of one of the bedrooms down the hall,appear two young ladies.

Oh,he says,just making the most of it before its all over...

So we shook hands,and after 45yrs,thats the last time i saw him.

Cut him a bit of slack Paul. (Pun intended) At age 86 every bloke needs a companion especially olde Fridgies, maybe you ,me & Rick one day even? It is the least that could happen for all the ****, aggro & wishful thinking we have had to tolerate over the years.

Not sure I could handle two though. Hang on, they may have been nieces or daughters or slappers from down the road.

3 weeks ago & you shook hands?? Not touching elbows? OMFG!

Originally Posted by 4bee

I know I know a blast from the past but I was re-reading this thread for olde times sake..
Fun & games we had.

Rick's post reminded me.
When Terry introduced their V4 Orange Comps they would **** the seals quite readily because they were direct coupled. After a few let go one at the Kraft Cheese Distribution Depot & another at a remote Milk depot & one other somewhere. Terry did a few tests etc & found the high revs (1440 rpm) overheated the seal rubbers consequently allowing the shaft seal to blow out. What to what to do?
They fitted, from memory, a 6" diam fan blade on the coupling directed at the Comp. That appeared to solve the problem back then, but I had some misgivings that it was a long term solution but I didn't stay with the crowd long enough to know for sure. Who knows? Maybe they are still operating albeit more heavily modified for the job they were meant to do? Or maybe Terry gave them away as a bad job & wished they had never entered the field of Direct Driven Compressors.

Terry stuff was usually a reliable piece of equipment & there were 100s around the state & the country. So reliable that the Seatainers & OCAL fitted their comps on Refrigerated Shipping Containers & the Australian Army used them In Vietnam on portable Walk in refrigerators for Base Mess Kitchen Storage. These also had a B&S petrol engine to drive them as well as Electric. Stainless steel cabinets but spray painted Army Khaki.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

A bit of a bugger of a job fitting the fans to the V4 comps as the Motor & Comp had to be split to fit the blade being that the shaft ends of both were nearly touching each other & the units were mounted with poor access..

Both were on R12. & heaps of that went west. Can't recall the HP of each. Maybe 8 or 10 HP at a guess.

We used quite a few VS Terry's.
And PJ and PJS.
Interesting re the fan, never saw that, and dear old dad's would often have them running at full speed, but always belt driven so had the fan type 'blades' cast into the flywheel.

Replaced lots if valve reeds and valve plates, and quite a few seals, too.
They couldn't handle liquid like a Kelly or Bitzer.
Did an all nighter once when a PJS smashed it's flywheel on startup.
Lots of pre and post heat, I assisted as dad welded it up as the room had about $80,000 of stock in it, Italian Salami, Sopresso, etc.
This was early-mid 80's.

One fruit grading tank we refrigerated we used an Ellis and Judges V4'at a full 1:1 ratio with a 4 pole motor on R22.
It was fairly spinning!
This one used the deep sump with oil pump.

3am finish, lying in bed trying to wake as I type.
Bloody callouts have stuffed up today and the rest of the week, we have work coming out our wazoos atm.
How can i schedule and plan meetings and jobs and do on-call at the same time?
What a **** of a business it is at times.

Originally Posted by rick130

We used quite a few VS Terry's.
And PJ and PJS.
Interesting re the fan, never saw that, and dear old dad's would often have them running at full speed, but always belt driven so had the fan type 'blades' cast into the flywheel.

Replaced lots if valve reeds and valve plates, and quite a few seals, too.
They couldn't handle liquid like a Kelly or Bitzer.
Did an all nighter once when a PJS smashed it's flywheel on startup.
Lots of pre and post heat, I assisted as dad welded it up as the room had about $80,000 of stock in it, Italian Salami, Sopresso, etc.
This was early-mid 80's.

One fruit grading tank we refrigerated we used an Ellis and Judges V4'at a full 1:1 ratio with a 4 pole motor on R22.
It was fairly spinning!
This one used the deep sump with oil pump.

3am finish, lying in bed trying to wake as I type.
Bloody callouts have stuffed up today and the rest of the week, we have work coming out our wazoos atm.
How can i schedule and plan meetings and jobs and do on-call at the same time?
What a **** of a business it is at times.

Unfortunately Rick, Digital Cameras & Mobiles were not the go at that time or I would have taken some images.

I think the fans were a cast steel or an Ally & had a clampon sleeve with lock screws. I recall the installation instructions contained a note about having the lock screws opposite each other. Maybe as I mentioned above they might have given that idea away by the time you got your hands on them. I suspect these early ones may have been "pre-production" but cannot say for sure, or they had never been Direct Driven from the Motor Shaft before or since.

Of course another option was they may rehashed the quality of the seal ring to a higher temp one, as it was only that which was failing each time & not the seal faces.

What a **** of a business it is at times.

Yep as any Fridgie will agree, when you wake up in the morning to a stinking hot day, wind from the North with dust & the phone starts ringing at sunrise you know it can only get better. You being a Country lad would have experienced all this, maybe every day in Summer out West. The smell of smoke wouldn't have helped matters either.

Take good care of your wazoos you never know when you might need them.


Ah Happy, happy days eh?

I used to dread summer when I had my own business Des.
The constant phone calls, the searing heat, the pace at which we went.

I'd reckon we only get through half the jobs/day now, thanks mostly to the increased compliance requirements.

Once upon a time I'd jot details quickly in a diary and race off to the next job, these days we must stop and do all the compliance BS on our tablets/devices, sign in/out, SWMS, detailed job descriptions including photos, answer emails, etc.
The client pays for it, but there's no way I'd get through 8-10 jobs a day as I'd do in the peak of summer in the early 90's.
Lucky to do 4-5 today.

So much for productivity

Yer we shook hands,old school,none of this new school garbage.

Done a heap of work on those V4 Terry,and the 2cyl,but never seen one direct drive.

Never really liked them,always something playing up,but some ran flat out for years on freezers and never missed a beat.Some of the larger belt drives had an auxillery electric condenser fan as well,the sparkles always forgot to wire it up.They always seemed to be pullied right up,not like the old Kelvy.

The smaller ones were Frascold from memory,still painted Terry orange,Lovelocks sold them.We had about 8 at one of the jails,all on R22,v4 freezer on R502.One day the power was off for the condensers due to an electrical fault,overnight.The sparkie fixed the issue in the main board,before we got the call,turned them all on,and with sumps full of liquid,4 smashed up.We Replaced them same day with sealed units.Worked into the night that day.Middle of winter freezing bloody cold at the time.

I know where Rick is coming from,I often think if the phone doesn’t ring for the next few days,we will be catching up,and that will relieve a bit of pressure,but it never seems to happen.
The stress at times is unbelievable.

I should give it away,I know....

I definitely don’t do as much in the field as I used to,although I did the Gold Coast service run yesterday,8 sites,little **** jobs for Qbuild.Part of a bigger contract so has to be done.

Originally Posted by rick130

I used to dread summer when I had my own business Des.
The constant phone calls, the searing heat, the pace at which we went.

I'd reckon we only get through half the jobs/day now, thanks mostly to the increased compliance requirements.

Once upon a time I'd jot details quickly in a diary and race off to the next job, these days we must stop and do all the compliance BS on our tablets/devices, sign in/out, SWMS, detailed job descriptions including photos, answer emails, etc.
The client pays for it, but there's no way I'd get through 8-10 jobs a day as I'd do in the peak of summer in the early 90's.
Lucky to do 4-5 today.

So much for productivity

Exactly,productivity has gone downhill with all this crap.
Combined with the traffic congestion,we can’t do the number of jobs we used to,probably about 50 to 60% of what we used to do ten years ago.
It isn’t just us,it’s all the trades,and we are all paying for it,one way or another.

That coast run I did yesterday,just to service one cold room,I have to fill out two bits of paper,for the school,then a COVID form,then do our own SWMS,risk assessment,then our service paperwork,email it all to the school and our office,Book the job with the site the day before,also have to have a working with children document signed,and seems now we will have to have a blue card at some schools,when will this crap stop?
Oh and a yearly police check,for working on govt sites.

No good complaining cos no one gives a ****.
The pen pushers that bring in all theses rules have no ****ing idea how things work in the real world.

And also,even though the school is new,and obviously has no asbestos anywhere,doesn’t even have an asbestos register,we still have to sign three pages of crap,saying we are not going to work on asbestos,every time we arrive at a school to do anything.FFS

Honestly,it’s easier getting into and working at a maximum security jail,than working at a school.Although at the jail there is always a risk that they won’t let you out

A room for the night probably wouldn’t be too bad,it’s the room mate that is the worry

Originally Posted by scarry

Exactly,productivity has gone downhill with all this crap.
Combined with the traffic congestion,we can’t do the number of jobs we used to,probably about 50 to 60% of what we used to do ten years ago.
It isn’t just us,it’s all the trades,and we are all paying for it,one way or another.

That coast run I did yesterday,just to service one cold room,I have to fill out two bits of paper,for the school,then a COVID form,then do our own SWMS,risk assessment,then our service paperwork,email it all to the school and our office,Book the job with the site the day before,also have to have a working with children document signed,and seems now we will have to have a blue card at some schools,when will this crap stop?
Oh and a yearly police check,for working on govt sites.

No good complaining cos no one gives a ****.
The pen pushers that bring in all theses rules have no ****ing idea how things work in the real world.

And also,even though the school is new,and obviously has no asbestos anywhere,doesn’t even have an asbestos register,we still have to sign three pages of crap,saying we are not going to work on asbestos,every time we arrive at a school to do anything.FFS

Honestly,it’s easier getting into and working at a maximum security jail,than working at a school.Although at the jail there is always a risk that they won’t let you out

A room for the night probably wouldn’t be too bad,it’s the room mate that is the worry

More risk if one drops the soap though.

The above is probably much the same here but I never had to do any of that stuff so I don't know for sure. I can't tolerate the bull**** that has crept into what used to be a quite a "run of the mill" essential job . Permits for this,that & the other, I think I'd go spare. My only approval was a permit to use R12.

Previously.

Just rock up & say G'day to the gaffer, have a bit of a chat on how his daughter's 21st went, advised of the refrig. problem (s). have a chat on the possibilities. Carry out repair work, advise said gaffer as to outcome, pack up ****, leave the bill then ****off to the next. Repeat + Repeat. Some times I'd accept a cuppa Tea or a cold drink in the hot weather.

A courtesy call the next day if it had been a dicky job. Every one was happy.

Seems now one needs a clearance/permit just to ****off.

Oh yeah, burn all the paperwork. That would no doubt come under an Air Pollution Permit.

Originally Posted by scarry

Yer we shook hands,old school,none of this new school garbage.

Done a heap of work on those V4 Terry,and the 2cyl,but never seen one direct drive.

Never really liked them,always something playing up,but some ran flat out for years on freezers and never missed a beat.Some of the larger belt drives had an auxillery electric condenser fan as well,the sparkles always forgot to wire it up.They always seemed to be pullied right up,not like the old Kelvy.

The smaller ones were Frascold from memory,still painted Terry orange,Lovelocks sold them.We had about 8 at one of the jails,all on R22,v4 freezer on R502.One day the power was off for the condensers due to an electrical fault,overnight.The sparkie fixed the issue in the main board,before we got the call,turned them all on,and with sumps full of liquid,4 smashed up.We Replaced them same day with sealed units.Worked into the night that day.Middle of winter freezing bloody cold at the time.

I know where Rick is coming from,I often think if the phone doesn’t ring for the next few days,we will be catching up,and that will relieve a bit of pressure,but it never seems to happen.
The stress at times is unbelievable.

I should give it away,I know....

I definitely don’t do as much in the field as I used to,although I did the Gold Coast service run yesterday,8 sites,little **** jobs for Qbuild.Part of a bigger contract so has to be done.

[QUOTE]Yer we shook hands,old school,none of this new school garbage.[/QUOTE


Yes it looks ****ing ridiculous trying to catch someone's elbow to touch it. Scomo seems to do it & he looks quite uncomfortable when doing so as did HRH Prince Charles after he was released after his brush with C-19.

Me? I just apologise & say "we aren't shaking hands these days". The intended recipients always agree so probably makes it easier for them as well & lets them off the hook in case they were apprehensive about what to do..