What have you fettled today?

[Kim]

w00t and, moreover, awsum

I'm hoping it will prove to be more successful than my attempt at repairing the last one... if we ever get to use it.

[robgul]

Finished fettling the bike storage cupboard for the Pretty Bike that I sought assistance for in this thread.

I was strongly tempted by Brucey's pulley suggestions, just because, but as is tradition, I ended up doing something slightly different.


The 4 x 2 lower down are the remnants of a cold water tank stillage.  The vertical 2 x 3/4 above picks up on the timber bearer the paramount plasterboad runs on. There's a similar arrangement on the right hand side. The horizontal timbers are 2 x 1 and are trapped by lap(?) joints beneath the vertical timbers. Spray painted the timbers grey, two coats of white emulsion on the walls. All the timber was repurposed from the storage racks that used to sit beneath the cold water tank.

Looks good - in fact too nice to take the bike down and ride.   Is there space to add a second bike hanging up from the rear wheel (and interlocking with the first one)?  I have 3 machines hanging close together top-to-tail in a small space in my garage.

[Jaded]

A couple of weekends ago I put a new lock in our door. The old lock is still there, because. So the keys have been decommissioned. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I like the way they resemble castellations or battlements on medieval tower.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Mantled some wonky flatpack shelves (not Scandi!), like a proper 21st century suburban man living in a sitcom, or something.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

After some crackly noises came from my trike’s left rear axle a few weeks back,  I stopped riding it pending diagnosis and remediation. My “can’t be arsed” tendency stayed ramped up until this evening. Stripping and examining the cups, cones and individual bearings suggested that some tooling chatter on the cones might not have been polished out. Reassembly and I could have slight play or slight binding. I can live with a little play, it seems. Reduced the play in the right rear axle bearing while the trike was in the stand.

Hopefully I am now ready for next week’s snowpocalypse.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Completed the new kitchen ceiling, plasterboard and skim. Mrs A says it looks a bit clinical High praise, indeed!

[Jurek]

Pushed 3mm thick plastazote into the gaps around my draughty Victorian sash windows, in anticipation of the Beast from The East.
While throughout the year the gaps serve to ventilate the place and prevent condensation when cooking etc;  plugging them when it gets really cold makes a huge difference to the ambient indoor temperature.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gave the shower cabinet a proper clean of the bits that normally get ignored.
The wheeled bits on the bottom of the sliding door were proper minging. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

After a couple of overnight complete deflations of HK’s Kinesis, I pulled the tubeless tyres and valves and refitted them with new sealant, though the existing goo looked sufficient in quantity and quality. The tyres were also flint-mined, of course. Hopefully the problem has been solved.

[T42]

Gave MrsT back her scarcely-ever-used trail bike, which I have been using to nip into the next village for the odd bit of shopping. This involved swapping its reasonable saddle for a thing with about 1" of gel and an extra gel cover, fitting a lectern based on my old aerobars on it and installing it on a turbo in the cellar, where she'll only use it when the weather stops her running, which isn't often. Sorry to lose it. Still, its 28 mm Raceblades now adorn my Trek so not all is lost.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Swapped the LH bar end lever and gear inner on my Frezoni because the old gear lever was making funny cracking noises despite working perfectly. I don’t think I can do anything to the mechanism but now that is of academic interest.

[Gattopardo]

A vax upright carpet cleaner, that was supposed to work but doesn't.  Opened it up and found it had been apart, bits missing and the bottom (fan end) bearing was seized.  Freeed up the bearing as I could not get the end nut off.  But is all back together and still doesn't work.

The get the george carpet cleaner out, and find that the water circuit pump doesn't work.  So take apart the top, only 4 screws, to find the water pump moter stuck.  The last user, didn't run the machine through with plain water so pump was stuck and the spray nozzles are blocked.  So hours of fettling and still no clean carpets.

[rogerzilla]

Took one of the leaking ceramic cartridges out of the kitchen tap to measure and order a new pair (I stripped and cleaned them a couple of years ago but it never quite fixed the drip).  They come in a squillion combination of sizes and spline count.  Oh for the days when you could fit a new washer for a few pence*.

*except, in a hard water area, your chances of being able to unscrew the valve from the body were minimal after a year in use

[rafletcher]

Took one of the leaking ceramic cartridges out of the kitchen tap to measure and order a new pair (I stripped and cleaned them a couple of years ago but it never quite fixed the drip).  They come in a squillion combination of sizes and spline count.  Oh for the days when you could fit a new washer for a few pence*.

*except, in a hard water area, your chances of being able to unscrew the valve from the body were minimal after a year in use

I gave upon trying to find a compatible cartridge when ours went, and changed the tap to an old-school turn the knob and washer type. Our water’s not too bad.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gave myself a bit of a haircut round the neck area. The rest of it is not long enough for a Pingu haircut so this was an interim measure.
Didn't stab myself with the scissors. 

[Wobbly John]

Today I cut away some of the guard on the Aldi 125mm angle grinderto make it more useable - half the face was covered in so fine for cutting discs, but not much use for flap wheels, brushes, etc.

To do this I used the 115mm grinder, that has a faulty switch so is difficult to switch off, and has tooo small a guard to take 125mm flap wheels, discs, etc.

Finally managed to use a flap wheel on a grinder to do the coarse work on my axes (small hatchet that had some nicks, new maul that had a 'cutting' edge a few mm thick, and my felling axe while I had the rest out.

[campagman]

About a year ago I inherited a longcase clock. I knew nothing about mechanical clocks but I have really enjoyed learning about them and how they work. It seems like I have been fettling this clock since I rebuilt it at chez moi. Anyway, I now think I got it running as accurately and reliably as I am able. So the only fettling now is to wind it up each am.

[jsabine]

Took one of the leaking ceramic cartridges out of the kitchen tap to measure and order a new pair (I stripped and cleaned them a couple of years ago but it never quite fixed the drip).  They come in a squillion combination of sizes and spline count.  Oh for the days when you could fit a new washer for a few pence*.

*except, in a hard water area, your chances of being able to unscrew the valve from the body were minimal after a year in use

I gave upon trying to find a compatible cartridge when ours went, and changed the tap to an old-school turn the knob and washer type. Our water’s not too bad.

Lunns - https://shop.lunns.net/ceramic-disc-valves-42-c.asp

If they ain't got it, you're not likely to find it. (Loads of other plumbing spares too, and I remember them as efficient.)

[rogerzilla]

Gosh, they're expensive at Lunns.  £60 for a pair of OEM Howdens cartridges, which are utter crap (they started leaking after 4 years).

I got a pair from Tap Magician for £20.  They can hardly be worse.  I wanted good branded ones like Pegler but couldn't get them in my size.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Finally managed to use a flap wheel on a grinder to do the coarse work on my axes (small hatchet that had some nicks, new maul that had a 'cutting' edge a few mm thick, and my felling axe while I had the rest out.

Got a pile of wood to chop I hope..     Or will we see YACF all over the media following  murder spree 

[T42]

About a year ago I inherited a longcase clock. I knew nothing about mechanical clocks but I have really enjoyed learning about them and how they work. It seems like I have been fettling this clock since I rebuilt it at chez moi. Anyway, I now think I got it running as accurately and reliably as I am able. So the only fettling now is to wind it up each am.

Well done. I rebuilt one ~30 years ago after my sister's big Alsatian tried to get between it and the wall.  The bearings were worn, though, and since they'd already been tightened down untold years ago the brass is too thin now to do it again, so it stops after a couple of hours.  Ours is early 19th-century, to judge from the pic of an English man-of-war lambasting a vessel labelled Le Frog.

[rogerzilla]

My dad used to have a friend whose occupation was making clocks from wood, I think 100% from wood.  Lots of lignum vitae.

[Wobbly John]

Finally managed to use a flap wheel on a grinder to do the coarse work on my axes (small hatchet that had some nicks, new maul that had a 'cutting' edge a few mm thick, and my felling axe while I had the rest out.

Got a pile of wood to chop I hope..     Or will we see YACF all over the media following  murder spree 

Prepared for either eventuallity now... 
No wood to chop currently. The wood-pile is nearly empty and I need to find lots for next year. 

[Lightning Phil]

Topped up coolant / anti freeze in car