By Atom Heart Mother in Miscellaneous
at 1:54 pm on July 30, 2022 | 80 comments
‘For the Italophiles on the list, this was my favourite Alfa, a ’74 Spider 2000’
‘I had that one for 15 years or so, until I rolled it :-(
The missus had a little BMW M series at the time.’
‘M series engine with auto gearbox – an absolute slug around town. Over 80km/h it went harder than the spider…
When I rolled the Spider, I got this Gulia instead’
‘It was a cracker – like brand new in the panels (it spent 1970-2006 in the desert). 3 months later, whacked by a taxi and written off…
I still have this little beauty.’
‘Gavin’s economic indicator, worthless unregistered car dumped. No bumps or scratches, just a bird deposit.’
‘I almost hit the 32mm gas pipe to the pool heater with the bar yesterday digging down to make a new drainage connection for an outdoor bbq area.
‘Knocking down my old high school,…Marsden High’
By all means beam sundries offerings to
DXY is holding at peaks as EUR
Down she goes: Much worse ahead. Full
That car Boom still has the rego plates! Yea, in my area few Utes on the major road with big sign for sale on them!!
Unregistered, been there for a month. Illegal to have unregistered car on the road. No one has told council yet. They come and get rid of them but takes time so will try and find that guys number who takes them immediately. Off subject. Done myself in yesterday by charging $240 for GL Glyoyole 460 on invoice and when I went to replace costs $736. For a big worm gearbox with lots of modifications to do. Working WE on plastic bagging machine cast aluminium welding. It sucks the air out, replaces with nitrogen then hermetically seals.
Put it for sale on Gumtree.. 😜 $9800, drive away, no more to pay!
Not my car, but special for you, for free.
Got a question Boom (or anyone else that has some knowledge) – Came across another stuck bolt on the Rodeo, I just sprayed the other one I had with WD-40 and after letting it soak got it open with a breaker without too much difficulty. This one has not obliged after the same treatment – so the question I have is what easily available (ie from supercheap etc) penetrating oils do you recommend?
Cheers to you and phanny
WD-40 Specialist Fast Release Penetrant (double the price of normal wd40)
There are a lot of home brew penetrating oils you can use. Popular are the ones using acetone, then mixed with auto trans oil or vegie oil. Yeild by Chemsearch is what I use as it is handy and no fuss. The others I have in stock is used for bike chain lubrication etc.
Old bushie trick – Eucalyptus oil. Best stuck bolt fixer ever. And it clears the sinuses.
Read that on the land rover forum and thought they were insane lol, to read it here gives it more creedence!! I’ll have to give it a go, have some on hand, will save buying something extra.
Friars balsam for nose too. Also cuts.
I still use Senega ammonia and magnaplasm
The old school chemists get chuffed when you ask for them 😂
Try some heat mate- if it’s feasible without doing damage. I use Penetrol and then a heat gun. I guess the small amount of expansion allows movement…or when in doubt, solid wack or 10.
That shows how much inflation has hit hard Boom… $736 is nearly triple $240! I hate it how much quickly the market moves in raising the prices up for goods…and resists so hard to pay for labor
Not so much inflation, more my bad for rushing the invoice by looking at a recent 20L purchase of a different oil and assuming a similar price. Hopefully can ameliorate the situation by supplying them with what’s left, for top ups their other worm gearboxes and charging for my new one for stock, minus the $240. One can only hope.
Not stolen, there is about 5 of them. Probably the mechanics cars but a bit unfair to the resident’s as parking a luxury here.
A cloud 4 light years long….wow! Great shot of Saturn though…it’s majestic with its rings..looking at it for first time was just amazing. Also if you know the intro of star trek next generation how they pass by Saturn…quit great for old show!!
IIRC Catholic Church had a dissertation about the first observation of the rings of Saturn. They postulated that it was Jesus’ foreskin.
Not sure how you can draw that uh, very, long, bow, but sure: when you can’t think of anything else but d!ck, any guess is as good as another!
They were a group of dîćķs
Correction: they still are a congregation of turgid c*cks!
Plus one. Clear or not clear, I love the shot of Saturn.
@LeMon3 I think that BMW is similar to what Harry drives around with! Are you planning to get a new alfa?
No more Alfas here. I can’t image a less appropriate vehicle for the place I live now (except perhaps a Lamborghini Countach or one of the sporty Teslas). The beemer would’ve been great around here, but a ute or station wagon far more practical. The only Italian machinery I’ve been getting lately are a Landini tractor and and SCM combination woodworking machine…
@LeMon3 Love the Guzzi. One should never do on four wheels what can be done on two. Cars are for carrying wine and bicycles.
The Guzzi is awesome – even on the crap dirt roads around here. Not quite standard – more a Le Mans three and a half – far more rideable than the stock 850, a bit more oomph, a lot less rotating inertia. Cars are also useful for carrying dogs – especially since they’ve been banned from motorcycle fuel tanks. How’s your Duck reno going?
The budget has blown! In the last few weeks I’ve dissembled the motor. Initially things mostly looked good. The crank looked fine despite having done 100K and nothing unusual or concerning. However, close inspection revealed fine pitting in the hard facing of the gears, a valve guide that wasn’t secure and some minor damage to one cam lobe due to clearances being set too tight. The latter was disappointing as it was the result of a rare occasion of me sending the motor to a well respected Ducati workshop for work. After much consultation with another bevel Ducati expert it was decided that a new gearbox was in order. The old one still had miles in it but I’d have to split the cases again sometime later. Plus, the gearbox would continue to deteriorate and there was the risk of failure. Once that decision was made then whatever else was done needed to be to the same standard. So, new gearbox from Vee Two with much better metallurgy than the original, new oil pump, new main bearing sleeves in the cases, upgraded sprag clutch, all new SKF bearings throughout, new Wiseco pistons and a rebore. The crank and conrods were in remarkably good condition and were pressed back together with just a new bearing race and balanced with the new pistons. The cases will be vapour blasted this week. The valve guide and cam will be repaired by the the bevel expert over your way, and re-assembly can begin. The above will correct some of the design or manufacturing flaws of the original. I’m now 60% over my original budget but I’ll have one of the best vintage Ducatis about.
Only 60% over budget? You are doing very well. Lucky you having the Wiseco option – I have to do piston + cylinder as a matched set – and no-one makes them any more… It all sounds great. Is the sprag clutch on the starter motor?
Yes, the sprag engages a gear on the crank when driven by the starter and free-wheels when not under load.
Made my own Ducati cylinder bore once, turned the piston down and made my own piston rings. Went great until it warmed up as I was used to water cooled engines which have tighter tolerances.
How much rotating mass does the sprag add? I had an XS750 that had a sprag clutch on the starter. After I pulled it apart and couldn’t put it back together and decided that a kick start only version would be cool, I found it would accelerate much faster than before…
Not sure but the upgraded unit from Vee Two is lighter and stronger than the original. Converting to kick start would be headache.
I thought III had a more angular fairing, is it stock or is that also part of the half? What’s it like on unsealed roads? A Guzzi is easily my most frightening experience on gravel.
Edit I know you said dirt, but curious about gravelled roads.
In my head dirt ≈ gravel roads. Which Guzzi nearly killed you on dirt? The Le Mans III has 18″ front and rear. I run a 90x90x18 front, which sharpens the steering a bit from stock, at the price of a bit of ultimate grip. If it had more than 3″ suspension travel, it’d be a great dirt bike, as it is, the clipons and rearsets limit how hard you can go on a dirt road. And yes, the fairing is an aftermarket Agostini – popular with the endurance racing set back in the day…
850 T5. From memory 16″ wheels, maybe wrong. Goodness, it was so nervous. Other than that is was excellent, albeit heavy and slow but wasn’t fussed about that part: if I was, it would have been a III!
Ah, yes, the 16″ fashion statement. Horrible things. They wrecked the Le Mans handling the same year…
Cars are for supporting bicycles on epic 220km/5000m loops from Modane -> Galibier -> d’Huez back down -> Croix de Fer -> Jean de maurienne
My next product plug – Tiger Balm “White”, that’s some good gear.
Been using the red tiger balm for years and didn’t even know it came in other formulations until my sister got me this jar in Singapore. Still haven’t seen it for sale in Oz but haven’t looked too hard so I’m sure it is.
White zinc oxide, distilled water and white tiger spunk
Feel the tiger in you!
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what colour the tiger was. Science, you see.
If we learned anything from Scrote McPM, I’m pretty sure it matters what you say it was. Marketing, you see?
Marketing always trumps science, capisci?
My missus swears by Thai Green Balm (wangphrom?) Stinks to high heaven, but the only thing that takes the sting out of her arthritis…
Sirius question; Any tips for beginners regarding astronomical photography? Telescope type and set-up?
It comes down to budget, more than anything. Jason’s Unistellar rig looks pretty good, provided all you want to do is electronically assisted astronomy. I use a Pentax K-1 mk II DSLR (which has an astrotracer function, which moves the sensor to compensate for the earth’s rotation) and some film era long lenses for similar results. Jason has a way easier time finding deep sky objects to photograph than I do… I purchased a second hand Celestron goto telescope mount which I am working through mounting the camera on, so hopefully will get better results soon. Post processing is where most of the magic happens, however. I use Affinity Photo for astrophotography – the developers are really into it and the product has some really good features – much better than anything else I tried and it’s not expensive… If you want to go further, the sky is the limit, dollar wise – I have my eye on a mono camera with filters and a decent scope next, which will allow me to take photos when the moon is getting in the way of my colour camera, but that’s close to ten grand of kit (could go much much higher too…) This stuff is almost as much of a money pit as Harry’s boat or Gav’s cars…
Please share your astronomical pics when you take some, nothing beats a Galaxy pic
Yeah the Unistellar 2 is completely cheating but it’s amazingly easy. At the moment, I’ve 36 min into a photo of M 100 which I’ll try and post for next week’s sundries. I’ve also got a 5″ Celestron Starsense Explore DX which is what I use mostly for solar system objects. I’ve got to learn how to attached the DLSR to it though. Alternatively, I might put a request in for a mid priced ZWO for Christmas.
I’ve still got to get into the post processing game – at the moment I just use the Photos app and Lynkeos for Saturn. I’ve been looking at Pixinsight but 1) it looks terrifyingly complicated for someone with no photography experience and 2) I want to build up a stock of photos before starting the free trial! I’ll take a look at Affinity Photo though if you reckon it’s good.
Affinity astro tutes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjZ7Y0kROWit-4cZY2A-tiEsYaWzWQoIC
Post processing difference – Orion nebula using my camera and Affinity post processing: https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/277301836_964413964441596_7107135888350884670_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720&_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=S_EC_nqkYCUAX9eEYSF&_nc_ht=scontent-syd2-1.xx&oh=00_AT8mGDDXJUYigRt4eEqzE5464m06YuoyqbwweIyHGyf0Yw&oe=62EA73F1 Orion nebula taken by a neigbour on a fancy telescope, but with more difficult to use post processing: https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/277559362_2929318534033190_9206724735193482489_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dbeb18&_nc_ohc=Lqa-NxqYIuoAX-pHU_j&tn=eEG4fwIaUyGthhag&_nc_ht=scontent-syd2-1.xx&oh=00_AT892fEGZRZK2xmuf2F5zJi40slmls7VWO2hjP8Y37v4Eg&oe=62E9A284
Nice. What lens did you have on the camera?
I haven’t been able to get Orion yet. When I first got the telescope it was just about the last week for the season that Orion was visible at night and of course it was raining most of the time.
20 year old film era Pentax F2.8 300mm with their current 1.4x teleconverter. From memory it was ~30 30 second exposures at F4 or F5.6 stacked with dark frames, light frames and bias frames (all explained in those tutorials). Last summer there was one single night where there was no moon and no rain to get that shot. Now I have a puppy waking me up at all hours, I see that Orion is rising at around 0400(ish). You could get some decent shots at 0500 or thereabouts…
Here’s what some guy in England did with an EV Scope2 and the Orion Nebula.
https://twitter.com/SeeTyneandWear/status/1552651455298801668
Sorry, can you link to what you have?
I want to get a telescope for the boys – eldest(7) is mad about stars and 3yo came out to pop the peepers at Piscis Austrinidis last night (I caught some crackers at 9.30) and was blown away – he’s normally asleep at star time.
Happy to spend 2k on something decent. Integration to tracking software would be nice …
Edit saw your post below
10 Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 telephoto lenses https://spaceaustralia.com/index.php/news/new-huntsman-telescope-turns-its-eyes-sky
Wow – going to be interesting to see what that produces!
I have the EVScope 2 by Unistellar who also make a smaller scope. The one rival at the moment is Vaonis who make the Stellina and will soon release the more budget Vespera – https://vaonis.com/vespera
LeMon will probably have a better idea about building a whole rig but from what I’ve read, you can do something useful with a decent size telescope with a guidance app and an astroimaging camera to attach to your PC – probably around $2k all up to start.
No idea, but these photos and competition are inspiring. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-31/astrophotography-competition-david-malin-won-by-ian-inverarity/101267518
I tried posting a picture to AHM this morning of all the people wearing a mask on the G:Link this afternoon, but couldn’t.
Absolutely no one I could see on a trip down the entire length of the line was wearing one.
My limited travel on QR Brisbane metro lines lately has been about 50/50 mask/no mask, weekend evening travel more like 25/75 mask/no mask.
Although important to limit covid, I’m mostly wearing the mask to avoid the flu!! I know a whole bunch of very sick people right now with the flu.
I finally caught it after manfully avoiding it
Been masking everywhere but was at youngest’s preschool for a thing for parents who missed earlier inthe term and didn’t have a mask and of course caught it from a pre schooler who’d been sent to preschool with it
Northern Rivers – it’s rampant
Symptoms very mild fortunately so far. Spent the day knocking up some bench seats from leftover hardwood beams and posts for our fire pit
Ooooh I might send gunna some photos for next week
Send pics of the pool progress too, has it been finished?
Gosh no DA went in a month ago – 4 month wait I’m not in any rush
We’re putting more solar + battery on first and replacing a rotten retaining wall plus adding paved area plus heaps of agi to keep water away from house . Posts around paved area and beams between for festoon lighting and fire pit. Also hanging the swinging chair I proposed to wifey on from a beam but replacing the plastic supports with hardwood decking and dressing it up. It’s gunna look mint
Glad I didn’t get vaxed as most of the vaxed I know caught it. Still feel left out even having been exposed to a dozen close contacts and even working in confined spaces with covid case 1 day after his release. Not against vaccinations, just a bit pedantic of what goes into my blood. Same as don’t stop people taking steroids’ just wouldn’t let them into my gym or contests. They have their place in medicine but my personal belief is prevention better than cure if it could be an alternative.
Stunning sunrises/sets there Gunna.
@Ermo – How old you reckon that pool filter and heater are? Good chance I touched it with my very own fingers lol, I unloaded many containers full of those things for the Aust. distributor.
The build was only completed in Jan/February I think
Geoff McVeigh, thank you always for your posts!
+1 You must live in an inspired mind
@Ermo Marsden High … When I was a youngster in High school (pre woke period) all the lads had a score sheet for keeping record of where they’d been sinking the sausage (a popular after school activity). The lowest of the low were Malvina High girls … and than there was Marsden (you didn’t even mention Marsden) Those were the days, self organized school excursions to the Malvina girls knocking shop, up against a tree, on the banks of the beautiful Buffalo creek (518 bus if my memory serves me). F’me that takes me back.. $5 went a long way back in those days. Definitely not woke, definitely not PC, definitely not hygienic but very educational.
The Marsden High girls who lived on the Ermo side of the school were known to be much less prudish than those on the Eastwood/Denistone side.
@Ermo, What are the owners doing with the BBQ beside the open sewerage?? Are they serving hot turds front of parliament??
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