What Have You Fettled Today?
- Thread starter threebikesmcginty
- Start date
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fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
FrankCrank
Old layabout
Think I spotted an ant walking along the frame leaving dirty footprints. You'll have to start all over I'm afraid.
Punkawallah
Über Member
Yeah! Damn ants that won’t wear slippers indoors! Inconceivable!
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Laptop mouse fettling!
I had a problem with a mouse last year...
Then @slowmotion donated a wireless mouse to me, which was great until it too developed a problem: single clicks were seen as double clicks.
So...
I have never had that double click problem again. What has happened recently though is the same kind of scroll-wheel problem that I had on my old corded mouse, so I decided to try the same fix. I disassembled the wireless mouse, and sure enough - the rubber surround of the scroll-wheel had come loose on the wheel itself. I took the rubber off and cut a rough crosshatch pattern on the outside of the plastic wheel. That surface is rough enough for the rubber surround to grip. No more scrolling problems!
I had a problem with a mouse last year...
Sorted!Today, I have mostly been fettling...
... my old PC mouse!
I prefer using a mouse with my laptop. The track pad is ok for occasional use but a mouse is much better for intensive graphical work and I have been playing about with Xara Photo & Graphic Designer recently.
I really liked my old Microsoft mouse but it has died the death. (It looks like somebody immersed it in a vat of strong coffee, though I don't remember any coffee break accidents. Anyway - it is no more; it is an EX-mouse.)
I have a couple of cordless mice but they play up after a while; it is probably a driver issue. I haven't been able to get them to behave themselves so I have put them to one side for now.
I found a cheapo Labtec corded mouse in the drawer of my desk and I have been using that. It isn't as good as the MS mouse was but I can live with it. Well, I could until the point where the scroller wheel started playing up. It felt like my finger was slipping on the rubber wheel. About 3 times out of 4 there would be slippage rather than, er, scrollage. It was starting to do my head in!
Ideally I would have bought a new MS mouse but funds are tight, and I don't like binning things that I can repair so I decided to sort the mouse out.
Close inspection revealed that my finger was NOT slipping on the rubber wheel - it appeared that the rubber wheel itself was slipping inside the mouse. I disassembled it and discovered that the rubber wheel is in fact a doughnut-like ring fitted round an inner plastic wheel on a little shaft. I could feel that the rubber was not gripping the wheel properly. When I removed the ring I could see that it was relying on friction between it and the wheel, but the wheel's outer edge was perfectly smooth so there was little friction between the two. I thought about trying to superglue the two items together but they looked like they might be a bad combination for superglue - I haven't had much success with materials like that. Then it dawned on me that I could create the friction needed by roughing up the edge of the wheel. I took a sharp knife to it and scored a deep crosshatch pattern onto it. I refitted the ring and hey presto - the two stick together nicely.
I just put the mouse back together and it works perfectly. Yay - a few crisp tenners saved*** and another chunk of plastic did not end up getting chucked away!
View attachment 523589
*** I just looked up how much corded mice cost. You can actually get them for under £10 now, so not a huge saving, but still - waste not, want not!
Then @slowmotion donated a wireless mouse to me, which was great until it too developed a problem: single clicks were seen as double clicks.
So...
I have never had that double click problem again. What has happened recently though is the same kind of scroll-wheel problem that I had on my old corded mouse, so I decided to try the same fix. I disassembled the wireless mouse, and sure enough - the rubber surround of the scroll-wheel had come loose on the wheel itself. I took the rubber off and cut a rough crosshatch pattern on the outside of the plastic wheel. That surface is rough enough for the rubber surround to grip. No more scrolling problems!
bikingdad90
Guru
UPDATE: was there on Friday and it was fixed, I was able to leg press ok after it was fixed.
I thoight what the hell and stacked 200kg on it (5x20kg on each side) and surprised myself at how I was able to do a few sets. Think it is a new PB and I’m more of a sprinter than a climber.
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
Swapped saddle on my recently acquired Dawes Giro 500 to an smp one and sorted out the handlebar height at the same time all ready for use now
Used a self adhesive patch to fix a puncture in granddaughters “ Frozen “ themed inflatable bed after it went pop while I was blowing it up. ( I got impatient with the slow progress using the crappy device supplied, so I rigged it up to my track pump and got a bit carried away )
Andy in Germany
Guru
- Location
- Rottenburg am Neckar
"let it go..."
bikingdad90
Guru
Alembicbassman
Confused.com
Brake calipers from a £20 facebook road bike, very rusty and stuck. Removed most of the rust with the Dremmel, now just a strip down, clean and polish.
RoubaixCube
~Tribanese~
- Location
- London, UK
Visited the LBS on Monday to check in the wobbly wheel. The techs conclusion was yes the wheel was slightly out of true but my tyre was pulling it even more out of true 
- Cost me £15 to have it trued.
Quite a few comments about the wear/condition of my tyre were made. "you really need to change it, this tyre is done. Like really really done..." - They are quite pitted due to the rather lavish London roads but I haven't worn them down to the bare threads yet
I think they were the first pair of tyres i put on the bike when it arrived at my door in 2016. Back when Rubino Pro's were some £15-20 a pop. They've way outlasted other CC member's sets that started split down the middle or the sidewall so im not too fussed that I have to change them. They have earned their retirement.
Last week i did some cable tightening on the Triban as shifting on the rear was occasionally rather sluggish or would completely hesitate to change at all and that did result in an incident of chain slippage which almost had me face plant into the tarmac next to the side of a bus and moving traffic to my other side.
I thought the chain had either broken or come off but it was still fine. I just about managed to keep my balance 
-- Today however, I will be swapping to some of them new Rubino pro's that i picked up from Wiggle a month ago.
- Cost me £15 to have it trued.Quite a few comments about the wear/condition of my tyre were made. "you really need to change it, this tyre is done. Like really really done..." - They are quite pitted due to the rather lavish London roads but I haven't worn them down to the bare threads yet
I think they were the first pair of tyres i put on the bike when it arrived at my door in 2016. Back when Rubino Pro's were some £15-20 a pop. They've way outlasted other CC member's sets that started split down the middle or the sidewall so im not too fussed that I have to change them. They have earned their retirement.
Last week i did some cable tightening on the Triban as shifting on the rear was occasionally rather sluggish or would completely hesitate to change at all and that did result in an incident of chain slippage which almost had me face plant into the tarmac next to the side of a bus and moving traffic to my other side.
I thought the chain had either broken or come off but it was still fine. I just about managed to keep my balance -- Today however, I will be swapping to some of them new Rubino pro's that i picked up from Wiggle a month ago.
Punkawallah
Über Member
Sorted the brakes on a kiddies bike, and serviced a ladies bike (new tyres, gear cables, saddle, pedals) for it to go on sale. Apparently it was a ‘Toys ‘r Us‘ brand! Who knew?
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Darn thorns.
Fitted tyre liners to the commute MTB at weekend, and it's stopped at least two thorns on Tuesday's commute (pulled them out of the tyre), but something's caused a really slow puncture, and even dipping the tube, I can't see any air loss. It's dropping about 5 PSI over 3 hours. Another tube I think.
Fitted tyre liners to the commute MTB at weekend, and it's stopped at least two thorns on Tuesday's commute (pulled them out of the tyre), but something's caused a really slow puncture, and even dipping the tube, I can't see any air loss. It's dropping about 5 PSI over 3 hours. Another tube I think.
