What Have You Fettled Today?

[marknotgeorge]

I have been teaching myself how to MIG weld over the last few weeks. It has taken a while to get all the bits together (auto mask, the right grinding and cutting disks, a local source of cheap CO2, regulator, flow meter etc etc
Here is a test piece I put together last night
I need to figure out what is causing the browning (oxidising) on top of the weld (too much shield gas or not enough) 40mm x 20mm x 2mm wall mild steel practice tubing

The oxidation could be caused by the angle of your torch, or the shroud is full of crap, giving poor coverage. CO2's not the best gas to use - I got a good deal on a bottle of Argoshield Light from BOC through a contact on the Volksworld website, I think. And that steel doesn't look too clean. MiG is the prince of welding, it likes shiny...

 

[Linford]

The oxidation could be caused by the angle of your torch, or the shroud is full of crap, giving poor coverage. CO2's not the best gas to use - I got a good deal on a bottle of Argoshield Light from BOC through a contact on the Volksworld website, I think. And that steel doesn't look too clean. MiG is the prince of welding, it likes shiny...

I ground it back to bright metal about 5mm from the end of the bar and all the way along the mating piece. Sometimes it comes up gunmetal, sometimes like that. Will have another play tomorrow evening, thanks for the advice

 

[arranandy]

New headset bearings just fitted to cyclocross bike. Took about 15 minutes. Easy peasy

 

[Shut Up Legs]

New headset bearings just fitted to cyclocross bike. Took about 15 minutes. Easy peasy

Glad to hear that, because I'll have to do the same for my Vivente tourer I use for commuting, this weekend. The headset is getting very noisy, because I've left its maintenance too long. Plus I haven't touched a headset before, so this one's new to me.

 

[Linford]

Just playing with wire feed speed and amperage on my welder tonight (practice)

 

[fossyant]

Sprokets arrived from smokeysmoo today. These were riveted, but a quick blast with the dremmel had the cassettes split. Now have some useful sprockets to match up the ratios on both road bikes.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

fitted new ball bearings to the bottom bracket
last lot lasted 9000 miles,not bad for £4

 

[Stu Plows]

Tried to fix rear derailleur on Peugeot, just not having it though. It doesn't seem to want to spring back... I must be missing something with it.

Removed saddle aswell as my old man has some leather to re-cover it how I want

Next job, change rear bearings in the Ribble and find out where grinding around bottom bracket is coming from exactly.

 

[screenman]

Emulsioned the walls of the office this morning whilst keeping my post count up on here, who says men cannot multitask.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

yesterday - fitted the new front derailleur to my OH's road bike and actually managed to index it correctly and get it working! I may just have sussed out indexing after all this time!

 

[Big Nick]

New gear cables, the previous ones have lasted 20 years!

The new ones made a hell of a difference and the shifts are very smooth now, a worthy £5 upgrade!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Fitted new pedals and toe clips to the fixed, straightened and rebent the toe clips to take my steel toe capped boots. Gave the fixed its weekly check, tires for debris and pressure, chain tension, I also tried better centring the chain ring on the spider to try and ease the slack spot in the chain, checked brakes and gave the bike a visual inspection to make sure alls well.

 

[PeteXXX]

P*nct*re fixed in front tyre of Town & Tesco SS bike. Must have been a slow as it was OK when it went in the shed a few days ago. I noticed it yesterday evening when I was looking for a hose connector.

 

[lip03]

cut my bars down finally after promising I would do it for months! been putting it off as I seem to feel comfier with a narrow set of bars (holding the bars by the brake/gear levers to "try it out") but didn't want to cut a lump off my bars then not like it and have to buy new bars!! took the plunge and seems to me that I made the right choice also swapped out my brake pads as they were low, all in all a good afternoon.

also fitted a new bottle cage!

 

[Glow worm]

Replaced both brake cables and tightened the rear gear cable. Minimal swearing too. I must be getting better at this fettling lark.