What have you fettled today?

[ElyDave]

Various garden fettlings, plus a new seat post mounted bottle cage for the airnimal

[Ashaman42]

More triffid hacking. Now out of bin space and a bin's worth in bags.

[perpetual dan]

Shuffled the spacers so my handlebars are a bit higher, as (especially off the road) just a fraction more looking up and out would be nicer.

[ElyDave]

Bodged together a wooden frame the footprint of my coldframe, filled it with a mix of garden compost and topsoil to use as both raised bed and for hardening things off through april/may

[Ashaman42]

More triffid hacking. Now out of bin space and a bin's worth in bags.

Still it did allow for this earlier:

[TheLurker]

Dug out the soldering iron and one bumper sized carton of oaths and imprecations when my hair clippers responded to the bottled lightning with a big fat silence instead of the happy little buzz I was both expecting and requiring having neglected my weekly shearing for nigh on a month which had resulted in a look that Coco the Clown would have paid good money for.  Strain relief clamp? Hah!

[Kim]

Copper-to-the-shed

Following on from that, and inspired by PushBikes, I've molished an air quality monitor:



I've deviated from the luftdaten design in order to avoid relying on the Devil's Radio (the signal's weak and it needs a cable for power anyway), so have rolled my own controller around one of these useful arduino-knock-off boards with integrated Ethernet.  It's mounted on the north side of an out-building as far as practically possible from the flues of our and our neighbour's boilers, about 80m as the crow shitehawk flies from the A38.

You can see the particulate measurements from it here.  There's a nitrogen dioxide sensor somewhere between here and China, which will get added eventually.

Should be interesting to see how that data changes with the lockdown...

[rogerzilla]

I asked the Chinese neighbours if I could cut their side of the hedge (I remembered to change my T-shirt first as it happened to have an IJN rising sun flag as the background, which could have been embarrassing) then attacked it with the s/h Stihl hedgetrimmer I got a few weeks ago, which is awesome.  And noisy.

Tip: if you run 2-stroke machinery on Aspen 2, it smells quite pleasant.  It's about £15 a gallon, though.

[rafletcher]

Finally got around to sorting a tyre on to a front wheel, so I have at least one fully functioning bike!  I’d tried before, but the combination of cold, and Hutchinson tubeless tyre had defeated me. So today it was on to the rim with a tube, to seat the tyre.  Then leave in the sun for half an hour, before deflating, popping one bead to remove the tube, and re-seating the by now warm and pliable tyre using my booster pump. Hooray.

[T42]

Been routing rectangular holes in ply to take a router plate. Didn't have enough similar bits of scrap to make a jig, had to use old tongue & groove and a chunk of a dresser frame I never used from about 25 years ago.  Boring, fraught & fiddly by turns, smelly and noisy the whole time.

Heh: dust-extraction H&S biting its own ass: the suck under the router was so fierce that a single spark into the routed-out dust blazed up in an instant. Was tempted to let it burn.  Used to be I never bothered with dust extraction, face masks or goggles. Got a hell of a lot more done. Sneezed a bit, though.

[SteveC]

MrsC and I cleaned the patio. I think we bought the adapter for our pressure washer two or three years ago and this is the first time we've got round to it.
I have to say that it looks a lot better, but it has been decreed that we will have another go tomorrow morning.

[davelodwig]

Copper-to-the-shed

Following on from that, and inspired by PushBikes, I've molished an air quality monitor:



I've deviated from the luftdaten design in order to avoid relying on the Devil's Radio (the signal's weak and it needs a cable for power anyway), so have rolled my own controller around one of these useful arduino-knock-off boards with integrated Ethernet.  It's mounted on the north side of an out-building as far as practically possible from the flues of our and our neighbour's boilers, about 80m as the crow shitehawk flies from the A38.

You can see the particulate measurements from it here.  There's a nitrogen dioxide sensor somewhere between here and China, which will get added eventually.

Should be interesting to see how that data changes with the lockdown...

After pondering how to sort fibre into the workshop from the network gear in the loft I just strung up some cat5e on a wire and went with it, if it needs replacing so be it I have many many drums with enough cable remaining to replace several times.

Have you any sketches for how you built said air sensor, I'd like to add one to the weather / enviromental data gathering I'm going to sling up the antenna mast with all the other wires and ting.

D.

[Kim]

It's an SDS011 laser fine dust sensor and a DHT22 temperature/humidity sensor, both have TTL-level digital interfaces.  Luftdaten provide a well-developed NodeMCU firmware for the ESP8266 (I just hacked something up in arduino (there are libraries for reading both sensors) that plays with the data collection stuff I've already got).  I'm going to try to add a MICS 4514 (analogue sensor) for nitrogen dioxide, but the level might be too low to detect properly in this location.  We'll see.

https://luftdaten.info/en/construction-manual/ should get you most of the way there.  They have source on github.

I'm not confident with speaking to their API, not helped by the luftdaten.info server being b0rked for most of today.  I expect this would Just Work if I used their firmware rather than attempting to reproduce the important bits of someone's python program in bash/curl.

Case is https://uk.farnell.com/abb/00852/junction-box-ip55-thermoplastic/dp/2529542 - IP65 is perhaps overkill as you'll be making holes in the base for the sensors to breathe, but it's robust and relatively cheap.

I used a https://uk.farnell.com/infomart-it-solutions/pem1205/module-poe-802-3af-5v-12-95w/dp/1902521 and one of those passive splitter cables to do PoE (I already have 48v available via a passive injector).  If it's just a one-off then you could stick 12V up the cable and regulate to 5V locally.

[MattH]

having neglected my weekly shearing for nigh on a month which had resulted in a look that Coco the Clown would have paid good money for. 

Maybe one for the claim to fame thread, but in 1974 he did his last circus tour (he was "only" a clown - but what a life he had!). I spent the summer on tour with the same show, and still have the Esso road safety badge he gave me and a photo from a local paper wherever we happened to be at that time with him handing them to kids from the show.


As for fettling, I stripped and cleaned a sticky brake on the planet slayer; the piston was corroded so will need to be replaced at some point but it now works again. Then attacked a tree with a chainsaw and repaired a fence that’s needed doing for a good couple of years. Being locked down is good way of getting around to all the bits that I never find time for.

[Wobbly John]

Did a bit of sorting out in one of the sheds (that 'borrows' garage and garden walls), and installed storage for mine and grandsons' recumbent trikes:

[rogerzilla]

Cleaning the winter filth off the Harry Quinn fixie commuter.  I smeared all the chromed steel fittings with vaseline before winter so have wiped that off first and it's all like new underneath.  All bearings seem good.  Rear sprocket and lockring a bit rusty, chain needs replacing, rear tyre getting flattened in profile but will probably do another winter.  Biggest expense is probably brake pads - it munches through an annual set of Kool-Stop salmons at £20, and the thin stud-mounted ones that fit best don't last long.  I must get some with replaceable inserts, since it's a right faff setting them up every time.  Front rim is barely worn, though, because these pads don't embed grit or chips of alloy.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A week or more ago I replaced the chain on the Sequoia, in which there was muchly merrye playing in ye bushes. Now it was time for the Pacer, whose chain was in far better condition but still displaying about 1% wear according to the chain wear tool. The first task was to get a chain, so off I went (on Sequoia) to Psyclewerx. Closing early. So try Bike UK just down the road: by appointment only. Okay, how about Mud Dock? Closed for the duration. So I go home, passing Evans on the way (closed, didn't bother to check for notices) and, oh what's this? The little LBS on Stokes Croft, whose name I don't even know, is open and yes, they have 9-speed KMC.

So, four shops to get one chain. Well what do you expect if you go shopping on Easter Saturday afternoon?

And it did give me the opportunity to ride down Park Street without having to touch the brakes, as well as some quaxing (including hot cross buns).

Then I fitted the new chain, added a couple of links back in ( ), checked everything worked and then – broke my Park Tool chain tool.  Theoretically I can get a new nib or whatever that bit's called. I haven't checked yet for availability or price...

[rogerzilla]

New KMC K710SL chain on...I had to use all of it!  Lucky this one is 46 x 18 (sometimes that one tooth makes all the difference into a winter gale) and not 47 x 18 as per the other fixies, or I'd have been stuffed.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

More wallpaper stripping.  Have now done 3/4 of the hall, stairs and landing, including the tricky bit over the stairs.  I hate wallpaper.

A cup of coffee and then another bit of Zwifting.

[rafletcher]

A dead bush from the garden. Now pondering what to replace it with, on a north facing fence. 

ETA we have a mock orange cutting that might do.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Replaced the 9sp cassette and chain on my trike, trued the rear wheels, adjusted the rear axles and flintmined the tyres. Replaced the handlebar tape.

[Tim Hall]

Discovered the loo floor was wet last night. As Declan McManus would say, My Aim is True, so it must be a leaky pipe.

Some investigation, scratching of head and fondling of pipes revealed the culprit to be a loose overflow outlet on the cistern, coupled with a float valve that wasn't shutting off completely.

Water off, remove float valve, de crud, water on to blow any crud out of valve body, water off, refit float valve, water on. All good.

Pheam mi l33t plumbing skillz.

[Kim]

We found a mysterious puddle on the kitchen floor this morning.  Aim hopefully doesn't come into it, so I've been boggling at the combination of a dry ceiling (it's directly below the bath, of recent tiling saga), non-leaking radiator and ostensibly weatherproof PVC door.

 

(I've just had a shower, and the ceiling remains dry...)

I'm thinking aliens.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Pulled and secateured lots of ground cover plants (horticultural magnolia) out of the supposed drainage ditch round the corner of the living room. Then demoulded that corner on the inside. Lungs feel better already.

[neilrj]

We found a mysterious puddle on the kitchen floor this morning.  Aim hopefully doesn't come into it, so I've been boggling at the combination of a dry ceiling (it's directly below the bath, of recent tiling saga), non-leaking radiator and ostensibly weatherproof PVC door.

 

(I've just had a shower, and the ceiling remains dry...)

I'm thinking aliens.

Always the frost that's fallen from frozen food here - seems to be huge amounts once melted?