Wednesday, absent of Pineapple

pinno

Morning Colocynths

Bit dull here. Will try and arrange some activity for the girls - christ they need it.
Will gym it later.
Need to order new flea collar with extra bells for Beans who is on bird killing spree. Might be time to keep him in at night.

seanoconn

Bike washing didn’t go quite to plan yesterday as I managed to dislodge/break the rear derailleur pulley arm tension spring. Lots of annoying fettling on the menu 😕

tlw1

Chilling in the hotel whilst waiting for breakfast.

More shopping 🙄 probably lunch and then head home for a run and pick up the hounds.

Unsure what later will bring, but assume it will be ale

sungod

'ning

about time, waited ages for someone to post

gloomygrey and soggy

cafe stroll, sat among the plants of the cafe sipping coffee and nibbling toast

sungod

'twas some nights after christmas
and all through the house
not a creature was stirring
not even a mouse
because beans got them all

orraloon

I have a pair of Oxos doing things electrical up, in, out and around. Power to the People garage.

And the rain has restarted after a temporary refresher pause, due on for the rest of the day. Paging springtime, paging springtime.

oxoman

Morning all. Did think about posting a bit earlier but CBA to start it today. Going to hide in mancave and see what I need to do / purchase for the Dirty Reiver to my Cyclocross bike. Thinking new bars and tyres at the minute. Certainly not venturing far today as absolutely gopping out. Even the mutt waited till he had to go. Currently disposing of multi coloured phlegm so looks like I'm on the mend. Hope so as I've pretty much nothing for nearly 3 weeks. Enjoy the rest of the excess food and debauchery season folks.

Wheelspinner

After yesterday's scorchio, today was a bit more of the same to start but with added wind.

Shopped for tools.

pblakeney

sungod said:

'twas some nights after christmas
and all through the house
not a creature was stirring
Except The Four A******* Coming In The Rear.

An alternate version. 😉

seanoconn

Sat in a bike shop cafe for the past hour, my rear derailleur isn’t salvageable. Less than a year old and it corroded beyond repair apparently! How the flip did I manage that? Could degreaser cause that kind of damage? Bike is cleaned regularly and kept inside.

They are fitting an ultegra rear mech as I write.

veronese68

Afternoon folks,
Slowish start has been enjoyed, going dishwasher shopping soon, oh joy. At least it's significantly older than Seano's rear mech. Good thing I don't clean my bike too often, the build up of chain lube on bits of drivetrain must be helping. Degreaser will only cause problems if you don't put grease back where it should be. On the rare occasions I give my bike a proper clean I use spray grease on the mechs then wipe off the excess before putting a drop of oil on the pivots.

Stevo_666

So much for a bike ride, it's 'orrible out there. Need a new part for the garage door after the cable snapped, so getting in and out till next week should be fun.

Time for leftovers from yesterday's visit by the in-laws.

homers_double

Still functioning here, manage to do a bit of work which was needed. Out for dinner tonight, again...
When will it all end?
Wood burner is going full tilt.
On a plus it is one calander month until skiing!

oxoman

homers_double said:

Still functioning here, manage to do a bit of work which was needed. Out for dinner tonight, again...
When will it all end?
Wood burner is going full tilt.
On a plus it is one calander month until skiing!

Trust your not going to the none snowy bits in the French winter resorts.

homers_double

Off to Italy, La Thuile which is on the French border but the opposite side. The Pyrenees are the most affected and those regions tend to be lower in altitude than the Alps.

MattFalle

veronese68 said:

Afternoon folks,
Slowish start has been enjoyed, going dishwasher shopping soon, oh joy. At least it's significantly older than Seano's rear mech. Good thing I don't clean my bike too often, the build up of chain lube on bits of drivetrain must be helping. Degreaser will only cause problems if you don't put grease back where it should be. On the rare occasions I give my bike a proper clean I use spray grease on the mechs then wipe off the excess before putting a drop of oil on the pivots.

as V says re degreaser.

tbh, i slop it everywhere, hose off, dry then give all shiny metal bits - bolts, screws, springs a quick squirt of GT or duck oil just because I thinkit'll help stop corrosion/seizing but probably won't in real life

orraloon

Let There Be Light. And there was light. And power sockets, in the garage (my plus brother's wiring passed the tests) and in the outside boiler house. And, would you believe, I now have an extractor fan in the bathroom. Yes, radical.

Tick some boxes off The List.

pinno

You don't need a de-greaser if you use wax lube.

homers_double

Elastictrickery is pretty simple if you think about it. Its just flow and screwing some wirses together in the right holes. They're even colour coordinated.
I've done loads over the years.
Plumbing on the other hand is a censored censored censored of a censored to do...

oxoman

homers_double said:

Elastictrickery is pretty simple if you think about it. Its just flow and screwing some wirses together in the right holes. They're even colour coordinated.
I've done loads over the years.
Plumbing on the other hand is a censored censored censored of a censored to do...

I disagree, try multi core cables all the same colour or network and control / automation systems. Domestic electricity is easy as is any plumbing. I mean most domestic plumbing is plastic pipe now.

orraloon

That is true. Highly logical Captain, put the correct colours in the correct places and secure.

But needed connections of existing cables into the live world (reman impressed 😳 by how much sparkies do with things live) plus wanted a proper test done of whole house, as expected prev owner who is an electrician had done a sound job, but paperwork is paperwork and no such had appeared post purchase.

Edit: bumped by Mr Pro Sparks 😉

pinno

Plumbing: easy peasy. I can even do Yorkshire fittings.
Domestic electrical work: straight forward. I can do it but I am not certificated and to keep my insurance legal...
Car electrics: Some bits are okay, some bits take some amount of figuring out, wiring diagrams across marques are inconsistent in clarity, the rest of the time you have to plead with the Gremlins or smack the ECU with a hammer.
The can baling machinery: Hydraulics and sparks, hell. Absolute hell.

oxoman

I was lucky and was taught old school. We used to have to fit immersion heaters into tanks with no bosses so you soon learnt that mechanical bosses weren't very good and it was best to lead wipe / solder onto old tanks. Learnt to cable joint using old clay pipes and pitch including HV. Learnt to lead wipe vehicle bodywork as well. Hate car electrics since they started integrating ecu,s.

sungod

orraloon said:

That is true. Highly logical Captain, put the correct colours in the correct places and secure.

But needed connections of existing cables into the live world (reman impressed 😳 by how much sparkies do with things live) plus wanted a proper test done of whole house, as expected prev owner who is an electrician had done a sound job, but paperwork is paperwork and no such had appeared post purchase.

Edit: bumped by Mr Pro Sparks 😉

live, mmm, used to float equipment to live to measure low level signals, just had to be careful not to accidentally earth oneself

couldn't do that with my infamous 40kv thing, but if one poured a, now-banned, cfc on it the result was a pretty purple plasma at the edges, which ate whatever it was in contact with

kids today can't even wire a plug, they're doomed

oxoman

As kids we used to pull old radios and hi-fi's apart and building hybrid things. Repairing old tvs etc, nowadays kids can't do jack without health and safety getting in the way. Parents and schools are to risk aversed today, just in case they get sued or something.

pinno

oxoman said:

Learnt to lead wipe vehicle bodywork as well.

Now that's an art and something I have never done. They still do it on classics like E-types etc.
Being slightly younger than you Oxo, I learnt to mix epoxy resin at quite a young age*.

*Kerbside Motors Ltd. (I was only limited by weather).

oxoman

I had minis so got very good with fillers of all sorts and found that welding and lead loading was the way to go, especially for the seamless look without cracks. Couldnt stand fibre glass, used that for making canoes instead. I did see polyfilla and concrete used on a mates Mk1 escort strut tops, but only after the struts broke through. Peugeot still did it at Ryton into the early 90s for remedial bodywork to 405 and 306 models.

pinno

oxoman said:

I had minis so got very good with fillers of all sorts and found that welding and lead loading was the way to go, especially for the seamless look without cracks. Couldnt stand fibre glass, used that for making canoes instead. I did see polyfilla and concrete used on a mates Mk1 escort strut tops, but only after the struts broke through. Peugeot still did it at Ryton into the early 90s for remedial bodywork to 405 and 306 models.

Concrete and Pollyfilla?! I used PVA and Pollyfilla to repair the floorboards in PPP and it's good 4 years later. No creaks.

I had 4 mini's. My first car was a mini van: BAP 484T.
I think I could still change the tie bar bushes in the dark. We used to get the old solid Nylon cotton reels and lathe them to fit. More vibration through the bulkhead but you could shred the rubber one's in 1 evening of spirited driving.
I suppose now, you'd have Polyflex, hang on...

Ta da:

oxoman

Blue Minivan S reg i think it was UJU142S. Had to rebuild the front end after parking it in the boot of a BMW, followed by Clubman saloon then Clubman estate, and a shitty yellow city. All modified. The Clubman saloon was the most heavily modified, ended up with a Nova engine in it, went like stink and started every time. In the days when an MOT was at worst a few pints in the right direction and you didnt normally admit to modifications.

pinno

Mini Van 1000cc bog standard, blue.
Mini saloon 1000 with 1275 engine fitted.
Mini Clubman 1100s, 70's sh*t brown colour with light sh*t brown interior and sh*t brown tinted windows.
Mini pick up with 1300 Metro engine and Metro black leather seats in metallic British racing green with Cooper stripes, Radyot fireballs, High output alternator, Mahogany dash with extra dials* (you just had to), oil cooler, Lucas gold coil and performance HT leads, upgraded shocks, 13" Minilite's (big discs at the front) etc etc - drove it to Le Mans. It got so much attention.

oxoman

OK I was playing at it compared to you Mr P. Although the clubman saloon did end up bored out to 1380 ish with various other mods before I put the nova engine in. Wish I'd still got mine. Guy near has a 75 /76 clubman estate in near mint condition plus a woody that he's doing up.