Yay, it's cheery Friday.

[ledburner]

Cheers both, cheery now as drove home from my workshop, but earlier in the day it was looking like not taking a backup bike with me was going to be a mistake.

I was only changing the auxiliary belt tensioner, but the amount of dismantling required is something else
Thought I might have been looking at a 12 mile walk or trying to cadge a lift.



I've also eaten far too much birthday cake, messaged my friends to say I was at the workshop and I had cake (gift from mum) and said to pop by for a slice. This was to reduce the amount I needed to eat. Trouble was every time someone called in for a slice I ended up having one as well

Modern Vehicle Design 101.
-Step1. Choose the most frequently routinely replacable components,
-Step 2: Build the whole vehicle around them

[whitestone]

Chuffin' hell

We've a Peugeot Partner van (it's exactly the same vehicle apart from the badging as the Vauxhall Combi and Citroen Berlingo), changing the headlight bulb requires that you have an 8-axis wrist with attached eyeball. Not only that but everything inside the rear of the headlamp appears designed to inflict injury if you don't get everything lined up right.

Compare with "old" cars such as the classic Vauxhall Cavalier. A mate used to be a police mechanic and he offered to replace the cam shaft (known problem on that particular engine), as he'd a home workshop. Took him four hours to: disconnect and remove engine from car; pull apart the engine; replace the camshaft (and all the rockers, springs and followers - there were four pages of parts); rebuild engine; put engine back in car and reconnect it.

[sean_iow]

Luckily my BB200/BB300 skill-set got me through...

Keep going even though it seems hopeless
Keep telling yourself it will get better soon
Don't stop just because it hurts

[ledburner]

Chuffin' hell

We've a Peugeot Partner van (it's exactly the same vehicle apart from the badging as the Vauxhall Combi and Citroen Berlingo), changing the headlight bulb requires that you have an 8-axis wrist with attached eyeball. Not only that but everything inside the rear of the headlamp appears designed to inflict injury if you don't get everything lined up right.

Compare with "old" cars such as the classic Vauxhall Cavalier. A mate used to be a police mechanic and he offered to replace the cam shaft (known problem on that particular engine), as he'd a home workshop. Took him four hours to: disconnect and remove engine from car; pull apart the engine; replace the camshaft (and all the rockers, springs and followers - there were four pages of parts); rebuild engine; put engine back in car and reconnect it.

To replace kerb side bulb on my Fabia (16plate ), I had to remove a small cover and go through the wing. Some how the lamp (not bulb) retaining clip disconnected and was impossible to put back on. In the end I shoved a sponge in & put on outer cover. It passed the MOT.

Edit I've just sold it. It's now the next owner (dealerships) problem...
Punter at auction.::roll:

[thenorthwind]

I've finally scraped (pretty much) all the parts together, so today is going to be new bike day if it all goes well.

Very much a ground up job: I need to finish servicing the Alfine hub and build that into a wheel, swap the dynohub from my old bike onto a new rim and then I can start actually putting stuff on the frame. Coffee and gumption requirements will be high. Glad I didn't have a third pint last night.

[thenorthwind]

Well, I've committed myself now by breaking down my old hack bike. So now I have two piles of parts: one covered in years of accumulated urban road grunge, and one not, which I've laid out like a nerd:



Can you tell what it is yet?

[ledburner]

Well, I've committed myself now by breaking down my old hack bike. So now I have two piles of parts: one covered in years of accumulated urban road grunge, and one not, which I've laid out like a nerd:



Can you tell what it is yet?

Looking tidy ,
Is it a Has-Beans grinder?
Did Rolf Harris paint the frame for you?

[Cheeky Monkey]

You utter nerd!

Good on ya

[Verena]

Yep, reasonably cheery Friday or was for me, very busy and quite intense week at work, which meant I've dropped out of the happenings on here yet again , but hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up as I'm off for a long weekend, going to see my parents in their various ailments, but it'll also be fun time travelling with my daughter, and involve an eclectic mix of activities including a visit to a German techno club to see someone called Rodhad who looks good, a Thai massage, a fayre, a visit from my uncle who wants to make plans for him and two of my cousins to come over for a week next year to cycle tour route 4 - oh and if course there will be the obligatory beer and apple strudel

[Boab]

Been nowt much cheery round these parts for the last few weeks. The usual tale of "everything's great", swiftly followed by restructuring and loss of headcount. First time in my professional career that I've escaped a round of redundancy. Nothing like a bit of survivor guilt as you watch colleagues, through no fault of their won, be shown the door.

So currently watching Cycling Solo the Silk Road on a Gravel Bike : 12,000km and 18 countries and dreaming...

[thenorthwind]

A cheery enough day yesterday. Snow, but the wrong type for any sort of fun really... wet, slushy, rapidly disappearing. So after a brief local ride, it was a continuation of last week's theme.

Got both wheels built last weekend, so it was looking a lot more like a bike. Yesterday's job was fitting racks, which I didn't expect to be a quick job (what is?) but I also didn't expect to take all afternoon. Firstly the lower brackets needed grinding to fit on the fork mounts. Then fork crown bracket was nowhere near the right shape to put the front rack in a sensible position and angle, and snapped at the slightest attempt to bend it, so I cut it up and re-welded it to give the perfect position. Except that put the lower mounts in the wrong place, so they needed to be spaced out, and will need further cutting and re-drilling, and the chunk I ground off them is more superfluous. And the fork crown bracket needs an extra spacer as well





Sneak preview before I finish the last few bits and post some proper photos:

[voodoo_simon]

^^^
That’s looking rather cool and purposeful at the same time. Frame colour certainly looks better now that it’s built up. Reminds me of Neopolitan Ice Cream, happy child hood memories

[RIP]

Or a Zoom lolly

I reckon we should put that lovely machine head to head with 'The Shopper' and see what happens

[fatbikephil]

Looking good Dave. Always handy having a welder for those awkward brackets

[thenorthwind]

Cheers Cool and purposeful is certainly the plan, it's to be my daily driver, so needs to be practical. There's a rear rack to go on too, but I need to make some adapters to go around the brake caliper, since the Tortec ones are out of stock everywhere Only problem is I might have made it too nice, and I need to be able to lock it up without worrying about it.

Ta Phil... Not sure what I'd have done before I had the TIG (it's stainless). Now I've hacked it about, I might as well weld a light mount on too. I wonder whether it's a case of "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

[boxelder]

Sneak preview before I finish the last few bits and post some proper photos:

Looks ideal for a tour of Windermere/Coniston (maybe some knobblier tyres)

[thenorthwind]

Sneak preview before I finish the last few bits and post some proper photos:

Looks ideal for a tour of Windermere/Coniston (maybe some knobblier tyres)

I don't think some gentler 'packing is out of the question... Maybe not in the Lakes though

[fatbikephil]

Ta Phil... Not sure what I'd have done before I had the TIG (it's stainless). Now I've hacked it about, I might as well weld a light mount on too. I wonder whether it's a case of "when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

Tig welder? Ooof I keep contemplating a tig but always bottle it (so to speak) given the cost....

[thenorthwind]

Well the best part of a grand's worth of kit has saved me several pounds here*, so there!

*that's assuming I'd be able to buy a replacement bracket that would work, which I probably coudn't... so it's probably saved me hours of searching the internet for such a solution, which is worth its weight in gold.

[fatbikephil]

Well the best part of a grand's worth of kit has saved me several pounds here*, so there!

*that's assuming I'd be able to buy a replacement bracket that would work, which I probably coudn't... so it's probably saved me hours of searching the internet for such a solution, which is worth its weight in gold.

I'm a great one for spending a fortune on a tool to do one job! It's always nice to have it for the next time though.
Been looking at tigs (again) and looks like a grand will get you something that will do AC as well as DC for ally welding, and is good enough for what I'd use it for. The actual process looks somewhat involved rather than the MIG approach of point and squirt but I'm defo thinking I 'need' one. Might see what comes up second hand....

[sean_iow]

I heading out this morning to get a bottle of Argon to recommission my TIG, it's only a small DC only unit (cost under £250) but enables me to weld thin steel much better than the MIG and I can also weld stainless*

I once had a go at welding ally on top spec water cooled AC set under the guidance of a very experienced welder. My experience was that the amount of time required to be able to produce results I'd be happy with, the cost of the set and the skill in setting it up V's the amount of jobs I'd use it for meant it wasn't worth me owning one. If you have a mate who can weld ally the money gives a munch better return used a beer tokens for favours

*The van will need a new exhaust in the not too distant future but as they are £230+ for a pattern one and I'm intending to keep the van for some time I'll make a custom stainless one.

[thenorthwind]

I went for DC only in the end too. I might regret when my ally frame snaps or something, but I didn't have an immediate need* for it so I decided I was just upselling myself. Also, as Sean says, it's quite a different technique, which I've never tried.

My machine itself (180A DC) was 4-500, but the cost of a ground clamp, consumables, gas (the big Hobbyweld cylinders are better value, but a big chunk, plus deposit), regulator, hose, the fancier torch I bought, PPE, etc. adds up.

[sean_iow]

I bought mine about 20 years ago so probably a fair bit more now.

I was lucky I had a friend with a bottle of argon to get started with and the rest of the kit borrowed from my MIG. I've since bought a second set of regulators and had my own bottle.

I also bought a bench grinder specifically for sharpening the tungstens, I was told using a grinding wheel for other tasks contaminates it and it can then transfer to the tungsten.

[Bearbonesnorm]

If anyone (Phil) happens to be looking for a Tig, R-tech do some good stuff at 'reasonable' money.

https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/?gclid= ... JjEALw_wcB

[fatbikephil]

If anyone (Phil) happens to be looking for a Tig, R-tech do some good stuff at 'reasonable' money.

https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/?gclid= ... JjEALw_wcB

That's whose I was looking at as they do the complete kit and kaboodle as part of a package. Sean, that makes sense - I'm unlikely to turn into an expert Ally welder at my time of life
Might have to check the piggy bank out, but it's been hiding of late....