Public service broadcast!
It dipped to minus seven in parts of the westcountry last night. Are you sure there is no water left in your engines?
Security. Other people might well have their eye on your engines. As engine prices continue to spiral and power tools become ever more common, a well-equipped workshop and engine house become a tempting target for thieves. The likelihood of you ever seeing your tools again if they go is remote indeed, and once your precious engines get onto a ship, you can whistle for them I'm afraid.
Firstly, make sure you are adequately insured. In pursuit of which, take several photos of each engine, record the serial numbers and special features on the back and put them in a safe place. You could lodge another set in a sealed envelope at the bank, send a set to your broker to go in your file. You might be able to extend your house insurance to cover them, but special purpose and agreed value insurance is also available. Sit down and add up what it is all worth and what it would cost to replace. Ouch!
When you've got your spanners etc on the wall boards and tidied everything, take several photos of it all. It will make any insurance claim a lot easier. When it happened to me some years ago, the claims adjuster was impressed to see the empty places on the wall where the spanners had so obviously been.
Practical security is the best aim. First and foremost, don't leave the key over the door jamb, under a rock or on a keyboard in the house. If you can find it, so can they. Don't leave power hand tools in the workshop, keep them in the cupboard under the stairs etc. Fit good locks on the doors. It is a really good idea to have two separate locks. For instance, a cross bar and padlock obscuring the mortise lock, means they have to get the bar off before they can even begin on the door itself.
Can the door simply be removed from the frame?
Could the hinge pins be driven out easily?
Look at the workshop as if you were trying to break in having lost your key - if it can be done in five minutes, your toys are at risk!
Bar the windows with substantial bars or very flexible steel mesh that will not break even when it bends.
Now to the engines themselves. Remove anything attractive (like oilers) and separately expensive (like magnetos). Stationary engines are heavy great things, but we conveniently equip them with wheels, the better that the light-fingered may wheel them away! Easy solution, jack them up on blocks and take the wheels off - it will only take a few minutes. Keep the wheels and the jack in a separate place. In another building would be best, but out of sight in a cupboard is much better than nothing . Even if they find them, it will take precious time to sort out which ones go where, jack the engine up and refit them. Block doorways you don't frequently use with your heaviest de-wheeled engines. Fit all your trailers with trailer locks. Don't leave spades, crowbars, picks and sledgehammers in unlocked garden sheds.
The longer you can delay them, the more twitchy to be away they will get. The harder it gets to steal your things, the more likely you are to keep them.
Paranoid? Well, alright, I might be, but it is a wicked old world that we live in. Just think how devastated you would be to find the door wrenched open, all your hand and power tools stolen and - worst of all - the engine you have spent months renovating gone.
You know it makes sense .........
Regards,
J. Kim Siddorn,