What have you fettled today?

[Kim]

Nikki OTP has form for those.  I managed to not walk into a photocopier with them.

Obfettle:  Molished a wheelbender bike stand out of Useful Bits Of Wood.

[T42]

A wee bit of microelectronic bodgery. Ever thought what it would be like to 'see' by echolocation? With 'batvision goggles' you can. I persuaded some mugs to wander round a forest with the prototype tonight. Quite good fun. The ultrasonic sensor detects distance, and translates it to a tone through the headphones. The higher pitched the tone, the closer the object.

DSC_4844 by David Martin, on Flickr

You've got the basis of a new combat sport there.

[BrianI]

I hacked my old Carradice Camper Longflap saddle bag today!

Refitting it to my recent rebuilt Dawes Horizon, I wasn't happy with the saddlebag hitting the back of my legs.  I thought about making a spacer to increase the distance between the seat post and the back of the bag.

Then I though, since the dawes has a rack, why not bodge the carradice so that I can use the rack as a strapping point?

Wooden dowel cut to size, ends padded with offcuts of innertube, and screwed from the outside into the wood:



Point of no return - hole cut in the bottom edge of the bag so that I can put a strap round the dowel (as per the top straps on the bag)



All fitted - Nice angle of dangle!



A short test ride around the block with a few things in the saddlebag, and it seems nice and secure (as much as a saddlebag can be)

 

[T42]

That looks suitably disreputable.  Well done.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A wee bit of microelectronic bodgery. Ever thought what it would be like to 'see' by echolocation? With 'batvision goggles' you can. I persuaded some mugs to wander round a forest with the prototype tonight. Quite good fun. The ultrasonic sensor detects distance, and translates it to a tone through the headphones. The higher pitched the tone, the closer the object.

DSC_4844 by David Martin, on Flickr

Show us the bruises!

[Cudzoziemiec]

A wee bit of microelectronic bodgery. Ever thought what it would be like to 'see' by echolocation? With 'batvision goggles' you can. I persuaded some mugs to wander round a forest with the prototype tonight. Quite good fun. The ultrasonic sensor detects distance, and translates it to a tone through the headphones. The higher pitched the tone, the closer the object.

DSC_4844 by David Martin, on Flickr

You've got the basis of a new combat sport there.

Especially when combined with:

I bought this:
Bwahaha! by The Pingus, on Flickr

And fettled me some proto fire 

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have half fettled the bottom bracket on Jnr's bike. Actually that's an exaggeration. Got as far as removing the r/h crank when the rain came down. Not even entirely sure yet if it's a cartridge or cup and cone type, though presumably the former as it's a 21st century bike.

[ElyDave]

Seat positioning on the M5 now dialled in, will finish mounting later today

[T42]

Had a gander at the seized motor on my old E. German bandsaw. Duh.

[Torslanda]

Interesting one. Regular customer called yesterday morning. Could I have a look at his mate's bike, the cassette was loose. No problem.

Mavic Aksium with Campag cassette. Lockring tight, casette flopping around. It took minutes to sort out, in fact it took longer to clean the cassette.

The wheel was brand new, the shop that supplied it had been 'fiddling about' for over an hour the previous day (I think they tried gluing it on with grease) before handing it over with the cassette still loose. The customer now wants me to build his new bike for him. Must be doing something right...

[Paul]

Interesting one. Regular customer called yesterday morning. Could I have a look at his mate's bike, the cassette was loose. No problem.

Mavic Aksium with Campag cassette. Lockring tight, casette flopping around. It took minutes to sort out, in fact it took longer to clean the cassette.

Spacer missing?

[Torslanda]

Nope. What came off went back on. The only thing I can figure is the freehub only had 4 splines. If the spider for the bottom 2 wasn't in the groove it would allow the spider to move inwards making it look like a spacer was missing.

Meanwhile in other news I spent the afternoon mending the lid on the grease trap of a septic tank. Attacked it with a 100w soldering iron and some scrap thermoplastic as it was cracked in two. Things are a touch less fragrant in my mate's back garden and we can resume dining al fresco...

[hatler]

Some spacers, which, combined with longer bolts, a shuffling of clamps, and half an hour spent on the roof, have enabled me to put a slight angle into the solar panels (which had to be installed flat to comply with local planning regs) so that rainwater runs off and doesn't leave the whole panel with a sun-blocking muddy residue as the entire-panel pool evaporates off.

[Torslanda]

Can you use a  repellant such as Rain X to further promote water run off?

[hatler]

Ah. Good idea. Though they have different products for glass and plastic, so I need to determine what the surface of the PV panels is. Thank you for that thought.

[T42]

Finally got round to re-stringing a guitar that I put a new saddle on a couple of months ago.

Sounds good
Could shave another thou off the saddle.

[BrianI]

woops! forgot I had posted the bodge to the carradice a couple of days ago, so nothing to see here!

[fuzzy]

A SEVERAL of thousands of gallons of sewage into some pipes.

We had some sinks that were a bit slow to drain so, yesterday evening, Little Chris and I investigated. We lifted another SEVERAL of inspection hatches to find all were almost up to the lid in stuffs.

This morning we got the man with the van and his crewmate out and they lifted the lids on the pumping station. It was full to within about five feet of the lids.

Between us we found the float switches and got one of the pumps pumping. On emptying the pumping station, an hole about 25 feet deep and 12 feet across was revealed. That is a shit load of shit.

I think we were about 1 day away from not being able to flush a single toilet or drain a single sink. School closure time.

I used to really love the skin on custard but, after seeing the crust on top of the contents of the pumping station void, I'm not so sure any more

[Legs]

A wee bit of microelectronic bodgery. Ever thought what it would be like to 'see' by echolocation? With 'batvision goggles' you can. I persuaded some mugs to wander round a forest with the prototype tonight. Quite good fun. The ultrasonic sensor detects distance, and translates it to a tone through the headphones. The higher pitched the tone, the closer the object.

DSC_4844 by David Martin, on Flickr

You've got the basis of a new combat sport there.

Possibly even better for rhubarb-thrashing than a blindfold.

[matthew]

Fuzzy

That demonstrates why level switches (like float switches) are less preferred than level gauges (like radar) in the process industry. When a float switch fails it doesn't tell you while a gauge tends to be capable of a fault signal or an obviously false reading.

just be glad you didn't have to take a pump out to repair it as well. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Managed to adjust the bottom bracket on my son's bike, having worked out that it was indeed an adjustable type. I was so intent on the adjustment that I forgot to put any more grease in it, which was needed really, and once I'd got it right I didn't want to undo it and have to start again. And then by the time I'd got the l/h crank back on there was a bit of play again; but only a tiny amount whereas before it was really loose. It can't be adjusted without removing the l/h crank – it has splines rather than pins – so that'll have to do. Fairly pleased as it's a job I've never had to do before.

[tiermat]

Took the "old" barbag bracket off (Ortlieb Ultimate 5) and fitted a new one (ditto ditto 6), ostensibly so that I could fit the light brackets that Ortlieb make.

Found that they just foul the cables and hoses, so took the bracket off again.

At the same time I discovered why I have been finding it a bit harder than normal to pedal.  The rear brake pads were rubbing against the rotor.  This is probably due to me fitting the pads the wrong way round after the last time I inspected them.  As I happened to have a set of Superstar sintered pads sat around I replaced the pads and finned plate, having pushed the pistons back in first.  Braking back to normal, as is movement of the rear wheel!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oh, then I lost one half of the joining link. 

[Canardly]

Oh, then I lost one half of the joining link. 

My garden is full of those. 

[Torslanda]

At the same time I discovered why I have been finding it a bit harder than normal to pedal.  The rear brake pads were rubbing against the rotor. 

I don't even have that excuse . . .