Author Topic: What have you fettled today? (Read 2167257 times)

robgul · « **Reply #16075 on:** 13 July, 2021, 07:22:51 am »

Quote from: asterix on 12 July, 2021, 02:40:38 pm

It is quite old: if you dial TIM on it, it tells you that at the third stroke it will be 1936 precisely.

Have they stopped that then? . . .. I dialled "O" for the operator and didn't get an answer.

AND - a bit of trivia: my mother worked with the woman that went on to be the voice of the telephone time.

Jurek · « **Reply #16076 on:** 13 July, 2021, 07:36:20 am »

Quote from: robgul on 13 July, 2021, 07:22:51 am

Quote from: asterix on 12 July, 2021, 02:40:38 pm
It is quite old: if you dial TIM on it, it tells you that at the third stroke it will be 1936 precisely.

Have they stopped that then? . . .. I dialled "O" for the operator and didn't get an answer.

AND - a bit of trivia: my mother worked with the woman that went on to be the voice of the telephone time.

More telephone trivia - when the blokes voice was announcing the time, it was the same guy who at the beginning of Thunderbirds would do the countdown 5-4-3-2-1!

orienteer · « **Reply #16077 on:** 13 July, 2021, 04:38:48 pm »

On a group ride a couple of weeks ago, we ended up on a very rough track, and when I got home found that the front mudguard had got ripped off my Moulton Double Pylon. As one of the first ones made, in 2006, it had some minor problems that were ironed out in due course; one was insufficient space under the brakes and front forks, hence the plastic mudguards on mine were always a poor fit.

Moulton now offer alloy mudguards, that better match the stainless steel spaceframe. They don't seem to be available anywhere at present, but I was lucky enough to find a brand new set for sale on ebay which arrived today.

Managed to fit them with some minor adaptions to fit my early bike, mainly cutting the front guard down at the front fork bracket, as there's insufficient space under the fork.

Look much better than the distorted black plastic guards, so feeling pretty pleased. Might even go for a ride in the next rain shower to test them

rogerzilla · « **Reply #16078 on:** 13 July, 2021, 09:49:23 pm »

Fitted new Aztec brake pad inserts to the TSR. I quite like Aztecs - they're very cheap but almost as good as Kool-Stop salmons.

Snakehips · « **Reply #16079 on:** 13 July, 2021, 10:17:20 pm »

My hack Cannondale has had a noisy FD/chain pairing for some time. I've not been able to work out why. Today the FD stopped working completely so I gave it an abrupt jab with my right heel and the noise stopped completely. It's now so quiet I can hear the front disk/pad squeeking.

perpetual dan · « **Reply #16080 on:** 14 July, 2021, 08:41:42 am »

Yesterday, I got rid of the last of grit and grass the rain hadn’t washed off my bike, removed the pannier rack, put on fresh brake pads and re lubed.

hellymedic · « **Reply #16081 on:** 14 July, 2021, 09:50:18 pm »

D is fettling my wheelchair right now.
'Right brake lever isn't doing anything' he said
'Snapped cable' said I.

Snapped cable it was.

I gave him the choice of fixing it or calling Wheelchair Service, as it's a Council wheelchair.

He's opted to attempt to fix and use my pear-nippled brake cable.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #16082 on:** 16 July, 2021, 04:14:29 pm »

So far today I have fettled some brambles and the sapling of what looked like a beech tree into the wheelie bin. The beech tree must have grown from something dropped by a bird, the only tree nearby is a rowan. Anyway, it was far too close to the house, unfortunately.

Then I realized I'd overlooked the deadline for some work I should have started yesterday. Fortunately, it had been done well so I was able to finish it in time. And then the other bit of work, which I though I was going to have to rush for today, turns out to actually have a Monday morning deadline. So I think it's the weekend now.

BrianI · « **Reply #16083 on:** 16 July, 2021, 08:05:24 pm »

Well, not me, personally, but that's the roofers all finished today!

rafletcher · « **Reply #16084 on:** 17 July, 2021, 03:04:22 pm »

The side gate. After our neighbours fence had been replaced, the contractor re-hung our gate (which forms the last section of their fence. Unfortunately he re-hung it on the original screw holes, not the newer ones I’d created when fitting a new gate 3 years ago. And he had, of course, set the latch, and bolt holes, to the new height. Which was 1/2” too low, meaning the gate scraped the ground and wouldn’t open fully. So off it came, said 1/2” cut off the bottom, and re-hung. Hook now slopes downward to eye, but still reaches so I’ll live with it. It’s too hot now to do the rest of my list. Raise the crown of the dwarf cherry, remove and bag up a big chunk of (very thorny) rambling rose, prune back the Wisteria shoots, trim the Spirea, dead head the climbing rose etc., etc., I’ll do some tomorrow morning.

robgul · « **Reply #16085 on:** 17 July, 2021, 05:11:28 pm »

Out early to buy 4 100mm concrete blocks to finish the corner of a terrace area (bit of possible bonus - their system crashed having, possibly, taken my payment . . . told not to worry if payment wasn't taken, a whole £5.20 may have been saved)

Sorted out a shallow footing, levelled, knocked up some mortar and laid the blocks (with the other 8 I already had) ... tricky with levels but seems OK. Retired to house when the sun got round to that area of the garden. AM Sunday to backfill and, possibly, get the pavings down.

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #16086 on:** 17 July, 2021, 06:13:45 pm »

Swapped out the 32t ring on my Frezoni’s Campag triple with a 26t. My current fitness isn’t quite up to a 32/26 combination on some Chiltern climbs.

Replaced the Frezoni’s 0.75%-worn 8 speed chain with my last spare. Time to get another spare chain and cassette. My, haven’t cheap cassettes become expensive?

Replaced the front brake pads and regreased the rear hub bearings and headset. If I replace the rear gear cable (some kinks from packing it last time), it’ll feel like a new bike again.

perpetual dan · « **Reply #16087 on:** 17 July, 2021, 08:12:14 pm »

I removed some weeds from the garden, then retired to the shade to change handlebars for some that have a little less reach, a little less drop and a slightly different curve. Based on a ride up and down the street they seem like an improvement - I was failing to find a setup that gave both comfy hoods and drops on the old ones.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #16088 on:** 20 July, 2021, 08:38:02 pm »

My Tamron 18mm-250mm zoom was misbehaving and getting gradually worse over the weekend. Exposure was all over the shop and focusing was sometimes not happening.

Last night I diagnosed the aperture wasn't moving when the lever told it. I did a spot of YouTube consultation (bloody non-licensable music or whatever it is drives me made) and worked out how to take the flange off. Mine didn't look like the picture - the long aperture operating finger had become detached from the lever on the lens mount. The screws, amazingly, we trapped in the mount workings. A bit of head scratching and a few attempts at reassembly and all is good. I staved off that pingfuckit moment by putting the whole thing in a baking tray for disassembly.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #16089 on:** 20 July, 2021, 10:19:50 pm »

Yet moar shite out of the loft and onto Freegle.
Mostly handbags $:-\$

Weirdly some people are willing to make a 90 mile round trip to pick up a couple of bags of free grit. No, I'm not going to offer them to you, that's not very environmentally conscious.

T42 · « **Reply #16090 on:** 21 July, 2021, 09:54:09 am »

Greased the bathroom door lock, which previously worked fine for locking you in. Then did the dance of death trying to ease the door up on its pintles (for want of a better word) to get some grease onto the pegs. This involved lifting it gently with a lever while squirting the grease, which was somewhat ticklish so I got MrsT to do the squirting while I levered. Then I wiped my right ear and got her to do the levering while I squirted.

Door's fine now.

Jurek · « **Reply #16091 on:** 21 July, 2021, 12:28:02 pm »

Quote from: Guy on 21 July, 2021, 12:22:48 pm

That the European Stone Stacking Championships is actually a Thing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57791811

Mostly, but not exclusively, it would seem, the province of men.
With beards.

Shouldn't this be in the 'What I have learned today?' thread?

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #16092 on:** 21 July, 2021, 01:30:10 pm »

Quote from: Jurek on 21 July, 2021, 12:28:02 pm

Quote from: Guy on 21 July, 2021, 12:22:48 pm
That the European Stone Stacking Championships is actually a Thing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-57791811
Mostly, but not exclusively, it would seem, the province of men.
With beards.

Shouldn't this be in the 'What I have learned today?' thread?

I do hope that Auntie's use of the term “Professional sculptors” does not imply that there are actually people who do that for a living.

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #16093 on:** 24 July, 2021, 05:22:19 pm »

Replaced the freehub and drive side cone on my Frezoni's 6700 rear hub. There must have been a running change in the design as the nominally identical replacement components required a lot of faffing with spacers to stop the 8sp cassette rubbing on the spokes and to avoid a massive gap to the drive side dropout. No, I didn't forget to remove or refit a spacer during the rebuild...

And after all that, one cog on the cassette skips under load, confirmed by the Rohloff cassette checker. Time for a new 8sp cassette. I probably should have just run the previous chain and cassette into the ground as normal, rather than only replacing the chain at 0.75%. Oh well, <£40 for chain and cassette combined doesn’t hurt too much. It is just the extra hassle involved. Hopefully a new cassette will sort out the laggy shift problem that I thought would be solved by replacing the chain.

Jayjay · « **Reply #16094 on:** 24 July, 2021, 05:54:19 pm »

The toilet cistern. Last install of siphon er, some time ago, had its valve thing fall to bits, needing us to flush with a bucket-o-water.
Bee'n'queue had the same unit in stock

and I decided to replace the crumbling lever too, form a different supplier. It looked good until bugrit - the hole in the ceramic cistern was about 1mm too small

Ah well, risk the Dremel. Turns out my tungsten carbide doughnut shaped bit barely marked the glaze. Made lots of heat though. But hey, a cylindrical stone did the deed, huzzah! We have flush.
Now waiting to see if the outlet seal leaks, I don't want to tighten it further. But flushing loo!

vorsprung · « **Reply #16095 on:** 24 July, 2021, 07:44:49 pm »

i removed the RH fixed cup from an old Raleigh frame by using a vice

robgul · « **Reply #16096 on:** 24 July, 2021, 09:10:37 pm »

Yet more fence in the garden - I must work how much timber batten/lath I've used - and the number of fixing staples I've fired from the gun. Just about 3 metres run to finish when I get the timber in the coming week.

fd3 · « **Reply #16097 on:** 24 July, 2021, 09:14:20 pm »

Gears on #2 son’s bike. Fitted a spacer mounted bell to my bike … turns out you can get quite s9me sticky rust holding the old spaces in place over 16+ years.

zigzag · « **Reply #16098 on:** 24 July, 2021, 09:20:00 pm »

scrubbed the dried up latex from the frame, forks, brake calipers and all nooks and crannies after a fair bit of sealant escaped through the cut, while riding 24hr tt. wd40 made the job a bit easier, but it was still a right faff.

Kim · « **Reply #16099 on:** 24 July, 2021, 09:35:57 pm »

Yesterday's fettle was converting my PRiDE OUT jersey from a full-length zip to a 3/4 length zip, for increased recumbent friendliness. This was fiddly, but ultimately more successful than I anticipated. Especially after I remembered to put the right needle in the sewing machine.

Also recumbent-modded a several of sports bras, fixed a hole in a well-worn set of 3/4s that are fit only for crashing in, and shortened some trousers for barakta. That's my sewing tuits for the year.