The Retirement Thread

[Flick of the Elbow]

Just the 1x£25 for me this month. Since I bought them 11 months ago they are doing better than 0.5% so that’s not bad for cash.

 

[welsh dragon]

£75 for me

Shut up

 

[numbnuts]

 

[Dirk]

Nothing for us on the bonds this month.

 

[classic33]

You'll be staying up this time.

 

[welsh dragon]

It's dry and bright here if a tad cold. I have done some washing and have another load in the machine

 

[numbnuts]

You'll be staying up this time.

Yeah I have to go shopping

 

[Paulus]

Morning all, listening to pop master on the radio at the mo.
Dog walking done on this nice bright frosty morning.
MrsP won £50 from Uncle Ernie.
We are off to Ware shortly to meet up with a couple of friends and then a nice walk along the River Lea to Stanstead Abbots for a pub lunch and back again.
The dog will enjoy another long walk.
Enjoy your day everyone.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

First yoga session of the year done, I'm a little bit wobbly legged and Hungary now so thats another good workout.

 

[PaulSB]

Good morning from a glorious sunny Lancashire. Cycling buddies cancelled today's ride last night due to ice warning. Reasonable. Then at 8.50 reinstated it for 10.00. I was already in full on get things done mode so declined. I'll be going to do hill repeats in a couple of hours.

New phone is great but taking an age to set everything up. It puts in a space after every word when typing which is taking some getting used to but I 'll get there soon is

 

[Drago]

Enjoying a bowl of soup.

 

[PaulSB]

@ColinJ I'm 5'6". When I go to 70.5kg, which is sadly rare, I tend to start getting saggy old man skin especially on my upper arm. Good excuse to stick at 71.5

 

[Poacher]

Mrs Poacher has been away at my SiL's since Tuesday. Yesterday, having prepared Melanzane alla parmigiana and baked a Pannetone in readiness for her return later today, I was at a loose end, having to stay home for an expected delivery. Way back in late January, I collected a decrepit J F Wilson for @midlife and started dismantling it for salvageable parts. After applying copious quantities of penetrating oil and brute force, I got the 5-speed block off one side of the Normandy flip-flop rear hub, but the fixed side was seized completely. Putting the lock ring in a vice and applying as much force at the rim as I dared (they do unscrew clockwise, don't they?), something gave.
Unfortunately it hadn't loosened but sheared off, leaving me with a useless, but quite free-turning broken hub.
View attachment 610650

It must be useful for something, though, surely? After musing several possibilities I decided a wind vane might be the best option. This is only a proof of concept, using a scrap piece of packing wood and a small piece of plastic left over from secondary double glazing several decades ago.
View attachment 610651

So far it's proved to be sensitive to wind direction and an effective scarer of Woodpigeons (and other birds, I'm sorry to say). If I bother to make a finished version, it will have a cyclist struggling against a perpetual headwind. Laser-cut metal commercial versions are available, but I might just put my fretwork skills to the test with some thin plywood.

Finally got round to making a "perpetual headwind" vane, using the same scrap wood plus some equally scrap 3mm ply.
The cyclist is about 30cm high. Quite roughly finished, but I can still use a hand fretsaw! One coat of white primer, two coats of satin black.
The counterweight at the windward end of the spar is scrap lead from when I replaced the bath wastepipe with plastic, x years ago.

Toyed with the idea of 3 or 4 spoked wheels, but sod that for a game of cowboys! He can suffer more from air resistance with two discs.
The fixed base is an ellipse cut from a scrap piece of floorboard, with spare safety brackets from Ikea Billy units, adjustable to allow for a support mast between 25mm and 45mm wide.

Not totally suitable for outdoor use, being (probably) bright zinc plated rather than stainless, but should last OK for a while.
The immovable 17t fixed sprocket is used to hold the hub firmly with angled stainless screws through Ikea bzp washers.
Crude but effective; may benefit from a smear of grease against the weather. The top hub bearing is protected by a cut-down top of an old aerosol of Noir anti-perspirant deodorant. I may present the vane to my neighbour when he completes his long-planned bike shed, if @midlife doesn't want it; I'm still storing the frame I collected for him nearly a year ago, which is where the Normandy hub came from.

 

[numbnuts]

Shopping done

 

[Tenkaykev]

Morning all, listening to pop master on the radio at the mo.
Dog walking done on this nice bright frosty morning.
MrsP won £50 from Uncle Ernie.
We are off to Ware shortly to meet up with a couple of friends and then a nice walk along the River Lea to Stanstead Abbots for a pub lunch and back again.
The dog will enjoy another long walk.
Enjoy your day everyone.

I take it the Pub lunches are on Mrs P 😁