James May in a wood shop

[Graham Orm]

He's started a new series of 'reassembling', starting with a 1959 petrol lawn mower, however, he's clearly in a woodworking shop. I wonder if it's his? http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... -lawnmower

 

[Droogs]

1957 telephone tonight in about 2 minutes on bbc2

 

[ColeyS1]

I wondered the same thing ! Looks like a good collection of sash clamps and possibly mirka sandpaper...

Coley

 

[johnny]

god thats mind numbingly boring. :shock:
I managed about 8 minutes ....
Did you see the faces of the film crew ? they looked like they had lost the will to live.

I think it must be someone elses workshop because he says he'll try to pinch that screwdriver

 

[Droogs]

May talking about the split screwdriver made me laugh. It's the one that used to be in every cheapy Britool tool box that everyone I knew would . throw out, coz they didn't know what it was for
:roll:

 

[Graham Orm]

god thats mind numbingly boring. :shock:
I managed about 8 minutes ....
Did you see the faces of the film crew ? they looked like they had lost the will to live.

I think it must be someone elses workshop because he says he'll try to pinch that screwdriver

Later he actually makes a reference to that fact saying 'I wonder if there has ever been a TV show where the only person interested is the person on the show'?

 

[lurker]

I think its very good TV
Gentle, no boorish laddism, no contrived cliff hangers, quite witty witterings.
The only downside is the padding with recaps, its only 25mins long FFS.

Interesting that others here thought the same as me: it was a "borrowed" workshop.

 

[johnny]

Later he actually makes a reference to that fact saying 'I wonder if there has ever been a TV show where the only person interested is the person on the show'?

i quite like James May . He does have an encyclopedic knowledge of stuff and a good technical understanding but although he loves his bikes and cars I get the feeling that he is not a 'natural mechanic'
He tends to do everything slowly and unintuitively as if he is doing it for the first time.
He'd get the job done but you'd wish that he'd get a sense of urgency and get it done a bit quicker . I would have to nudge him aside and get stuck in myself if I was there:roll:

 

[DiscoStu]

The only downside is the padding with recaps, its only 25mins long FFS.

I hate that. I used to love scrap heap challenge (I suspect I'm not along on here) and I used to get frustrated with "coming up after the break" and then after the break we'd have a recap on what had happened so far.

I might not be in Mensa but I can remember why happened 5 minutes ago and I don't need to know what I'm going to be seeing in 5 minutes time to make me watch.

 

[NazNomad]

Why is gently tapping in the gudgeon pin with a soft hammer 'not proper' on a Suffolk Colt engine?

The phrase ''just get it done, you ***'', springs to mind.

 

[Claymore]

........

 

[Rorschach]

I would not be surprised if this was cheap attempt to fulfil the rest of his BBC contract. No doubt he will need to produce x number of hours of TV footage and since they will have already paid him they just needed to find something cheap and easy to produce.

 

[novocaine]

I rather enjoyed it, chill out TV for after a hard day. not everything on the idiot box needs to be fast paced, shiny shiny with a undercurrent of suspense.
Norway has a whole channel devoted to relaxation, they play shows like train journey, which is a front facing camera on a train across the country. fire light, which is a fire. it's great.

here you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7VYVjR_nwE

 

[bugbear]

The only downside is the padding with recaps, its only 25mins long FFS.

I hate that. I used to love scrap heap challenge (I suspect I'm not along on here) and I used to get frustrated with "coming up after the break" and then after the break we'd have a recap on what had happened so far.

I might not be in Mensa but I can remember why happened 5 minutes ago and I don't need to know what I'm going to be seeing in 5 minutes time to make me watch.

Agreed - when watching on a PVR you have to not only "blip" the adverts, but also the intro to the program (AKA the highlights), the "this coming after the break" trails, and the post-break recaps.

It's amazing how short a 1 hour program can be...

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

May's prog. is saved for later here (BBC iPlayer).

Frankly, James May describing paint drying is be better than Chris Evans doing, anything at all.

One of them could probably dis- and reassemble an F1 car (and it would still work). Clue: it's not Evans. And May has a proper engineering degree from Lancaster (according to Wikipedia).

R.I.P. Top Gear (wish I could afford Amazon).

E.

 

[Graham Orm]

I enjoyed it because I have a love of engines, but wonder if he actually did put it together from that exploded diagram?? Maybe he did if it was him who disassembled it in the first place. Why would he have to hammer the gudgeon pin???!!! I enjoyed the story about his passion when he was a kid and losing sleep in excitement over being allowed to use the petrol mower!

 

[mind_the_goat]

BBC4 taking lessons from YouTube except with bigger cameras? There are much better things on YouTube. Reminded me a bit of those short 'intermission' segments I vaguely remember on TV from the late 1960's, potters wheel anyone ?
Have to say it was boring and compelling at the same time, the narration was mildly entertaining but seemed to lack any learning opportunity, if I didn't know how those things worked before I would be none the wiser now. If each item needed something mending it would add a bit more depth to the show. At least it avoided the personality stories that seem to be 'essential' in discovery channels efforts, Orange county choppers, Welderup etc.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Why would he have to hammer the gudgeon pin???!!! I enjoyed the story about his passion when he was a kid and losing sleep in excitement over being allowed to use the petrol mower!

+1 on the mower excitement.

We had 2x industrial Flymos. It used to take about 8hrs every fortnight to do the grass as the house/paddock was on a slope (way too steep for conventional rotaries). In the summer the clay shrank and there were huge cracks: you could turn an ankle (or much worse*) if you weren't watching out. Loved doing it though.

Gudgeon pin: Haven't seen the show yet but assume it's a stroker - they do sometimes gum up: I had small bikes, strimmers etc. that did that. But if he's RE-assembling, you wonder why he didn't clean it first!

E.

*Google hover mower accidents, but turn images off first, just in case.

 

[Graham Orm]

Why would he have to hammer the gudgeon pin???!!! I enjoyed the story about his passion when he was a kid and losing sleep in excitement over being allowed to use the petrol mower!

+1 on the mower excitement.

We had 2x industrial Flymos. It used to take about 8hrs every fortnight to do the grass as the house/paddock was on a slope (way too steep for conventional rotaries). In the summer the clay shrank and there were huge cracks: you could turn an ankle (or much worse*) if you weren't watching out. Loved doing it though.

Gudgeon pin: Haven't seen the show yet but assume it's a stroker - they do sometimes gum up: I had small bikes, strimmers etc. that did that. But if he's RE-assembling, you wonder why he didn't clean it first!

E.

*Google hover mower accidents, but turn images off first, just in case.

It's a 4 stroke. He just carried on without checking why it wouldn't go in. He'd left the circlip in the other side, so I assume that it came out the way he was putting it back in.

 

[AES]

I must say I share the general dismay (sorry!) with both programmes so far. Personally I think mind-the-goat's comments are about right. It was somewhat interesting at times but if you didn't know anything about lawn mowers (or phones) at the start, there was little (some but only a little) content to make you any wiser afterwards.

But I felt these 2 programmes were like so many other "technical" programmes on the box - a lost opportunity.

For example, why just re-assemble something? Why was it in bits anyway? Far more interesting - in my opinion - to do a live trouble-shooting with disassembly as needed (assuming there was a fault), or a live complete disassembly just to "see how it works/see how it was made" (the dial mechanism and governor on the phone looked lovely).

And why put the lawnmower back together without a bit of a clean up (not a re-paint & complete refurbish like we see some members here do on their machines) but what one would normally do in a real shop? And did anyone see any trace of a little oil used when refitting the piston, piston rings, gudgeon pin, and conrod. I didn't, everything went back dry. Not good.

Having said all that, I'd rather have seen James May doing it than either of the other 2 "lads" from Top Gear. And sorry for my ignorance but although I've heard of Chris Evans (isn't he taking over "TG Mk 2" soon?) I don't think I've ever seen him.

AES