A well-known fast food restaurant. The ventilation system has started to malfunction. We went to take a look. The design is standard, but old. The restaurant was built about 35 years ago. Their favorite material is corrugated metal, of course. The entrance to the roof… There’s a special place in hell for those who design such roof access points. There’s no ladder, the hatch is narrow and squeezed in wherever it could fit. A person has about 30-40 centimeters to squeeze through, but what about the toolbox? We managed to get out. The roof is not accessible for use. Where it is possible to walk, there are walkways. If you climb onto one of those walkways, you can see a girl sunbathing topless in her yard.
The ventilation unit is a living illustration of the game Fallout. It weighs about twice as much and has more metal than similar, newer units. Rust, a crooked door on the control panel. The base is not designed for maneuverability. The paint is peeling. We stop. We start it up. Everything is clear. The fan drive belts are stretched and slipping. We stop. Okay. We open the cover and remove the belts. The motor shaft is connected to the fan shaft by two belts. But these aren’t just belts; they’re makeshift “plugs” — a belt assembled from pieces, used as a temporary solution, with the right length improvised on-site. Apparently, they’ve been in use for about ten years, and people have simply forgotten that they are temporary. We remove a few links. We tighten one belt back — we turn it on. Everything works.
We went to the store to buy belts. We took the second belt as a sample. The store was just a regular store—showcases with samples, shelves with products. The only thing missing was price tags. You just grab what you need and tell them which company to bill. After signing the paperwork, of course. We measured it and bought it. When we got back, we found that we couldn’t tighten the belt. This isn’t junk made from pieces that can be stretched without effort. We looked at the design. The motor is on top, and the fan shaft is at the bottom. By the way, the fan shaft bearing is quite strange—it’s a regular flat bearing, not spherical. It’s in a housing. Without a grease fitting. And it makes so much noise that it’s clear it should have been thrown away a long time ago. But it still holds the shaft. It rattles and squeaks, but it holds. We made a note about the bearing. We also noted that there are a lot of holes in the connecting coupling between the ventilation duct and the unit itself. We recorded that the electrical panel is completely inadequate. There’s still more work to be done with this unit, yes.
The motor on top is suspended by four large bolts with toothed washers. The holes are oval-shaped, allowing the motor to be raised and lowered, thus tensioning the belts. To lift and lower the motor, there are also four smaller bolts that act as makeshift jacks. You screw in these bolts, and the base with the motor rises. Everything is completely rusted. I mean, really rusted. But what can you do? To tension the belts, you need to lower the motor. To lower the motor, you have to unscrew the support jack bolts and loosen the holding bolts—the ones with the washers. We twist and twist… but it won’t budge. Well, with some jumping on the wrench, rust spray, and WD-40, we managed to loosen the large bolts. But the small ones… we got one unscrewed. As for the second one… first of all, it’s +31 degrees outside, and we’re in work overalls and safety shoes. At first, the wrench stopped gripping the bolt head. Then, the second wrench stopped holding the bolt and stripped the threads. After that… we just sheared off the bolt, and we were left holding its upper part while the lower part remained stuck in the motor base. Okay… drill, a set of drill bits, let’s drill out the bolt. We drilled it out. Lowered the base. The belt doesn’t fit. It turned out to be too small after all. We call the store—there’s no larger size available… So we put the old patch belts back on and will come back later.
How do we set it up? We head to another store without price tags and buy bolts. We arrive. We try to screw them in… They’re tight and the threads are clearly getting damaged. Alright then. Back to the car, off to the store again. We buy a tap. We return. We cut (refresh) the internal threads. We put on the old patch belts. We tighten the support bolts. The new ones. We level the base. We leave the large holding bolts alone — we’ll change the belt tomorrow or the day after, and then we’ll tighten them. We start the installation and pack up. Oh right. Time for a snack. At the back of the restaurant, overlooking the parking lot, there’s a bench for the staff. We sit there and eat our packed food. I wonder what impression we’re making on the customers?