monkeyseemonkeydo

That's what you'd think! For ABS the build surface is at 88 degrees I think but it still curls up. The default settings are to have the head cooling fans at 50% for ABS and there are some people online who say to reduce that as much as possible for ABS which might be worth a try. In theory ABS is a bit stronger and less brittle but to be honest I've been fairly impressed with the PLA so far anyway so may end up just sacking the ABS off if it's going to be a pain. Currently printing a T-Rex skeleton puzzle thing for Finn...

Sorted. Yay me.

No haven't really played with that side of things yet. The PLA seems to give a pretty good surface finish from the machine but the ABS gives very visible lines and a somewhat rough finish so need to mess around a bit. One other thing I'm struggling with when using the ABS is the edges of the build 'rolling up' as it cools and lifting away from the build surface and then becoming detached and screwing everything up...

Wife's car shat itself on the way home today... Got there to find no coolant in it and a puddle underneath. Towed it home in the sketchyest fashion ever and topped it up with boiling water and it seems to start and idle ok but definitely a leaking rad at the very least. Going to give it a run and see if it drives ok and all being well will get it booked in for a new rad.

Yeah I never had an issue on ally frames so it's something specific to the steel guides in conjunction with the braided hoses. Not to worry though, all sorted now!

Next up is a plunger for a 2 part adhesive pack since the stuff we bought (for another actually work related project) didn't come with one!

No way!

Printer? The reviews seemed to place it as one of the better home/office ones and the fairly large build envelope (~200mm3) made it a fairly good bet. Not cheap (~£1500) but so far pretty pleased with it. Kind of disappointed with the quality of ABS parts coming out of it (having read up on the PLA vs ABS side of things) and am thinking that I might have to get some more PLA in stock as the machine only came with 0.75kg of silver PLA and I bought a couple of kg reels of black ABS. We've obviously got easy access to Solidworks so I'm using that to create STL files then using Ultimaker's 'Cura' software to do the tool path and related stuff.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I have ideas of what it could be used for at work but that's all fairly mundane boring stuff so am trying to think of bike/motorbike/toy/gadget related stuff to 'test' it on first And Ads- yeah, braided hoses on Hope Tech Trials. That and the non +20mm disc mount on the mk1 frames have been my only 'issues' (now running a 160mm rotor on the rear with Jitsie pads because I didn't like running the adapter!).

Not sure how successful this'll be but thought I'd give it a try. I've just bought my first 3D printer at work (Ultimaker 2) and am now in the process of working out what I can use it for so thought a thread may allow people to share their experiences, models etc. and give people ideas. Besides the usual printing test pieces and robots my first 'useful' print has been some U-clips for the Arcade because for some weird reason the cable guides on the frames don't seem to work with standard clips so I've been using zip ties for the past 18 months... And next to the original one. Anyway, anybody else got a printer and doing fun/useful things with it?

Little update here for anyone who's interested- Having messed around with BB/crank spacers I thought I'd have a play again with gearing and have found that 24:17 works out right between 22:15 and 22:16 and is perfect for the 365mm chainstay length. Bonus fact- JE James are still doing the 24T Raceface inner rings for £5.49.

Very sad to hear that Justin Wilson has died following his accident in the US... my Dad bought shares in him when he floated himself on the stock market (still find that odd) and have followed his progress since then. Horrible irony that he was killed by hitting a flying crash structure from another car. The accident is on Youtube and the initial incident was really innocuous compared to many Indy crashes but he was just massively unlucky.

Surely that's called 'backing it in'? I do it all the time these days coming up to junctions and stuff (note: Not backing it in Rossi style, just scrubbing the rear tyre on hard braking for lols).

Took the easy option and have signed up for a 10 year fixed deal with Nationwide at 3.24% over 15 years but will overpay to bring the term down to more like 10 years. £945 or so base price and will overpay to £1300pm. Edit: And just snuck in before they upped the rates today! Only by 0.1% but every little counts!

What do you do about chain tensioners etc.? I tried 22/16 the other day on the Arcade and had to run without the tensioners to get the chain on and so lost the ability to set the wheel position properly... Edit: Oh yeah, awesome video as usual- so natural and smooth riding. Pleasure to watch. Excellent work from Mr Westlake as well of course.

The thing with drafting is that you're actually being physically sucked along by the low pressure behind the lead vehicle so rather than just reducing your drag in some cases you can actually experience a level of thrust (aerodynamically speaking- rolling resistance etc. would still mean you'd decelerate if you stopped pedalling).

How does that work?!

I hadn't realised that the 10% is of the outstanding balance which we'd definitely be within. To be honest I don't know if we'll move anytime soon. In 10 years the boys will be 11 and 14 and I'm sure we could cope in the current place but even if we move the 10 years would still roll on and we'd just end up with a second smaller mortgage I imagine... Think I'll arrange a chat with Mr Nationwide.

Actually, thinking about it it would make more sense to enter at a 15 year term and over pay, assuming the deal allows it. That would be far more flexible in theory but I think I'll need to have a chat to Mr lender man...

Ok, time for the old TF advisory service request again... Fixed rate mortgage deal is up in October so looking around. 10 year fixed deals at 3.14% don't look too shabby but... Our current mortgage is just over £1100 a month but we've overpaid since day 1, currently paying back £1200 pm. If we took out that 10 year deal over the remaining 15 years (started with 20 years) it would cost £958pm and we'd want to overpay as much as possible (though lenders seem to limit this to ~10% so £1054pm paying back when we'd like to stick to the £1200. If, however, we do the 10 year deal over 10 years it bumps the payment up to £1322 but in 10 years we'd be mortgage free and I reckon we could quite happily stretch to the extra £100 a month. It kinda seems slightly no-brainery to me but is there a reason why we shouldn't try and get rid of the mortgage ASAP?

No way of splicing (you know what I mean) a new cable to the end of the shit one and pulling it through like that so it follows the same route? How tortuous is it beneath the floor etc.?

I more really want to hear a French person say inspired. Ensppeered?

Exactly. You really need to work on your sales pitch Mike!

I retract all previous statements... Managed to snap the threaded section of BB on the driveside at a demo on Saturday so have removed the third spacer from the BB and will turn up a crank spacer at work tomorrow...

Can't help thinking that Hulkenberg could probably have got out of that if he'd released the brakes and tried to turn the round thing in front of him... Surprisingly entertaining race and couldn't have been happier when Nico got the puncture. Oh how I laughed.