Ping Natural Philosopher: Kenwood Chef

[Part Timer]

Remembered you mentioning mixer fettling on the cookers thread. My mum kindly let me know that her inherited Kenwood Chef started smoking when making a Christmas cake today. She had enough sense to turn it off and was able to continue manually. I powered it up for 10 seconds without any loading to determine that it still spins. The model on the label underneath is A901. I have found

to positively identify what it is. (Not sure which you have). So I've checked eBay and found 160688606343 and 260909605553, the 2nd kit has brushes included too. Will I need brushes if it still spins? (Perhaps I could barter with some oil for his caps lock key). Do you have any recommendations/websites for how to go about dismantling the machine? Anything I need to be aware of?

Cheers

James

[Newshound]

Havn't got a specific link, but my recollection is that they are all pretty straightforward to dismantle. Plenty of spares dealers on Google and there's a thriving trade on ebay for used spares if you find something broken.

[The Natural Philosopher]

James I didn't bother with brushes - just the two capacitors. And IIRC the resistor

It works fine now.

I didn't use ebay - I phoned these people up and the woman there told me what I needed 'I've sold kits for hundreds of those sir, that's what we sell, and no one complains'

the controller still works, even if lumpy, the triac is OK and the brushes probably are as well. That's leaves the two capacitors and the snubber resistor - that will PROBABLY burn out if its series cap goes pop.

In my case it all still ran, but with lots of smoke and the usual Terrible Smell of overhot phenolic ..

I took some pictures to help me remember where everything went.

- and follow the obvious link.

But wait 20 mins till 11:10 pm or so cos these are BIG pikkies and they take time to upload there.

the fix was really trivial in the end. Harder to get the thing apart.

SWMBO uses it three times a week to make sourdough. It runs!

[Part Timer]

Thanks for your input, I'll leave the brushes and post an update when I get parts from the local toy shop aka Maplin. Found a fairly good description to opening the machine on moneysavingexpert. You were right about the pictures. My S5's output are comparable size with fewer pixels than your D200.

James

[grimly4]

I don't know why you don't, but there's a pic size reduction routine in nearly every photo suite. 4MB/pic is unnecessary for web use and

400K would be much more usable (and faster up/download).

[The Natural Philosopher]

because manual input to upload them was 30 seconds

manual input to resize them would have been as long as the upload.

My time is more precious than the bandwidth, and only one person will probably ever look at them OK?

[Jon Fairbairn]

But? you use linux, so could just define

f () { jpegtopnm $1.jpg | pamscale -xsize=800 | pnmtojpeg > $1.scaled.jpg }

in bash and apply it to each file. Even given the time taken for you to correct your typing mistakes, I can?t see it taking /that/ long to type in.

Fair enough.

Unlikely, given that you posted it on uk.d-i-y ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

First, I would have to learn bash and discover that particular program.

how many people ACTUALLY fix kenwood chefs A701s in a year?

Or whatever that model is...

[Jon Fairbairn]

Well, whatever shell you use. It?s just command line.

netpbm package. Useful if you are doing anything much with multiple images.

I don?t know, but I have an A701 and have repaired it in the past, which implies a non-zero number, and a google groups search for

kenwood chef repair

should get this thread?

[grimly4]

It's common courtesy towards those who don't have broadband enabled and that's still a surprisingly high number. However, if you want to be a selfish, thoughtless bastard, you carry on.

[grimly4]

Nevertheless, a thoughtless upload of 4MB picture files speaks volumes. Dance all you like.

[Martin Bonner]

Given the choice between TNP thinking: "If I upload this full size, I'll get shouted at by someone on Usenet. OTOH I don't care enough about these to spend time resizing them; I'll just leave them on my hard disk." and "Well, in an ideal world I'd resize these before uploading them, but life's too short and full size images will be a lot more use to someone than no images at all."

It's hard to describe the second one as the choice of a "selfish, thoughtless, bastard".

1. TNP thinks "these might be useful to someone". Then he thinks "oh, but th

[grimly4]

You'd be totally wrong; I just call it as I see it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Exactly. That's how people who have zero courtesy act.

[grimly4]

Please yourself. Like I give much of a toss.

[The Natural Philosopher]

well apparently you give a lot of a toss.

[grimly4]

You've wasted enough of my time; begone to your favourite nuclear kettle and hug it for Xmas.