What have you fettled today?

[citoyen]

Finally got round to having a session with a pile of inner tubes and a pack of patches. I now have 10 good spare inner tubes. 

Would have been 12 but I threw a couple that would have been more trouble than it was worth to repair.

[Gattopardo]

Stuff about a ballista

Searched on google about 'ballista' and the first like post is the dictionary definition is a catapult!!!

 

[T42]

Removed a small wasps' nest that had appeared on the doorpost of our old A4 since last it was used, maybe a week ago. Sorry to say that I first covered the wasps with insecticide from an ancient spray can that's been knocking about the house since we stopped using such things, well over 10 years ago, but what can you do? Building a fire on the driver's seat and smoking them out seemed rather impractical.

[Mrs Pingu]

That seems like an odd place to build a nest..

[T42]

We seem to have lots of different species of wasp & hornet around here. This one was of a variety that delights in finding hollow spaces and building nests two or three inches across in them. We also had a different species that nested inside one of our front door locks a couple of years ago.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Refitting kit to my recently repainted Rogers trike. The threads were mostly blanked off but some stray powder coat has found its way into several of them, so lots of playing with small taps to prevent forcing things. Unfortunately the derailleur hanger is mounted with a weird (old British front axle) thread that I don’t have a tap for, so I anticipate a hassle when I get to that stage.

[T42]

Whitworth?  My father used to wax lyrical over the beauty of the Whitworth, in particular in comparison with US threading.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

5/16″ × 26 tpi British Standard Cycle thread, so I understand. A trike gear hanger boss is actually a repurposed fork lamp boss. Sure, it was a common cycle thread back in the day but now it is just a pain. Apparently I can still buy taps and dies to suit, along with bolts (even SS).

[hatler]

I think I have a few Whitworth taps and dies kicking around, but not any British Standard Cycle thread versions.

[JonBuoy]

Can you use M8*1.0 (Metric Fine) ?

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Yes, if I had one. I only have M8 x 1.25 here, so I might as well buy the proper tap, which is a bit annoying. Impulse purchased yet another tool that I will use once. Such is life!

[Mrs Pingu]

Fettled some cinnamon buns and painted 2 door ways. Shoulda been more but a)hangover and b)cat bed

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The only stuff left to do on my trike is cleaning out the derailleur hanger boss to let me refit the rear mech and running new cables.

Fitted a Kurosac headset to my Brompton, along with another Ti bolt. The fork didn’t reach all the way through the locknut but sufficient engagement to keep me happy. The cups were not exactly loose in the head tube but certainly I did not need to lean on the press to seat them. We will see if some retaining compound will be necessary down the line.

Once the seatpost and chain pusher assembly are sorted, I will just need to run new cables and apply some frame protection to finish it.

[Gattopardo]

Whitworth?  My father used to wax lyrical over the beauty of the Whitworth, in particular in comparison with US threading.

Whitworth threads I though are supposed to be the perfect pitch and never seize.

[Feanor]

Half an hour into applying the lime mortar render, it began to rain and forgot to stop. Impromptu makeshift gazebo using an old tent flysheet.


Lime mortar rendering by Ron Lowe, on Flickr


Lime mortar rendering by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

Good sferics on the VLF Rx, tho. Storm was 15 seconds or about 5k away.


Sferics1 by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

The bright vertical lines on the spectrogram indicate a massive spike in electromagnetic energy across the entire spectrum. These are 'sferics', short for 'atmosperic' artefacts. Lightening strikes, in this case about 5k away.

[rafletcher]

A small piece of black insulating tape (I don’t have any gaffer taper to hand) to mask the barely-visible-by-day-but-searchlight-like-at-night blue LED on the new ‘phone base on my wife’s bedside table.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Fitted chain, decals and brake and hub gear cables to my Brompton. The new derailleur cable, pusher plate assembly, rear mudguard and handlebar grips will have to wait a few days.

Ran new gear cables and a brake cable on my trike. Just need to fit the rear mech and chain and it will be ready to ride. It will be loaned for a fortnight to an older fellow who thinks that a trike might let him get back into cycling. If he likes it, then he can find his own.

[andrewc]

Tee bike fleet has been more or less untouched & unused since last September       Replaced the Marathon Supreme on the back of the Nomad (split sidewall).  Fixed the punctured tube.  Got so fed up with the security skewers I put the quick release ones back on.  Tightened the Brooks.   Fixed the puncture on the MTB.  Blew up the tyres on the fixie.   Stripped down some old Time Atacs,  then realised I'd ordered the Wrong Bearings.  Lubes the old bearings & spindles, they seemed to spin a bit better.  Put them back on the Nomad. 

[Gattopardo]

Found a decathlon nearby that had the B'twin triban resist in 700x38....in stock.  Called and reserved them.  Collected and paid now I am home they are 44 not 38.  The 38 are no longer on the website, and nor are the 44.  Do I try and fit them?

Does shaving, showering and brushing teeth could as self fettling?

[andrewc]

Does shaving, showering and brushing teeth could as self fettling?

If the results are better than before (for varying values of better) then yes....       I've been getting far too slovenly during lockdown,  not shaving , not showering.  Some days I don't even put a tie on     

[ElyDave]

Does shaving, showering and brushing teeth could as self fettling?

If the results are better than before (for varying values of better) then yes....       I've been getting far too slovenly during lockdown,  not shaving , not showering.  Some days I don't even put a tie on     

what's a tie? Some kind of space vehicle IIRC

[De Sisti]

Fitted a 33t middle chainring to my three bikes. Since the start of spring I've reduced the gears from:

50-34-26 => 46-33-26

48-34-26 => 46-33-26

46-34-24 => 44-33-24

It also gave me the opportunity to give the bikes a good clean and tune-up.

[Wobbly John]

Fettled a slightly sharper edge on a brand new log-splitting maul, It was bought for me to replace the felling axe I had been using.

The 'edge' was over 2mm wide at some points! 

[robgul]

Put the finishing touches to a fence at the front of the house - it's made from tile batten timber in horizontal rails, about 23 high, spaced about 1.5cm apart - fixed to the previous realtively sound but ugly fence/posts.   About 450metres of batten + another 20 of the coping rail that had to have 2 coats of black garden paint on 3 sides ... slow process - then a lot of nails and even more staples fired in from the "very satisfying to use" brad/nail gun 

Rob

[Mrs Pingu]

Replaced the coil springs in both sides of a lever on rose door handle after it went ping.
On my own (only 2 hands).
Without bad swears.

Could probably do with ordering some spare circlips for next time though...