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Hi Dave,

I would love some practice scraps to practice brazing on, and one complete set of tubing to build a frame. Congratulations on your retirement - I never got round to doing your course but if you ever decide to run any one offs I'd gladly come and do one.

Thanks,
Michael

Amateur CAD. I have decades of experience though and can model any engineering model to as precise a tolerance as you need. 3D printed bike parts, engagement rings etc

Is it an issue with the hub bearings having too much play?

Hi,

I am looking to buy a Brompton. Either a good condition used one from a reputable source (provides receipt) or cycle to work scheme, whichever is cheaper.

I am 6 foot 3. Any recommendations on model and accessories? Thanks

Yes, I suspect Oatley went public at a multi billion dollar valuation because they were the first people to create a type of milk (Oatley Barista) that basically makes even shitty espresso palatable. It adds a nuttiness and creaminess, and disguises bitterness. Forgives mistakes like nothing else.

DIY installed sheeps wool insulation a few years ago. Has since got moth infested so the manufacturer is making sounds like they will cover the cost of replacing it.

I am trying to avoid fibreglass which gets in the home air and is generally horrible. Thinking of replacing with the same company's hemp insulation which I have read doesn't attract moths and tastes bitter to rodents, if they will agree to supply it as a suitable replacement.

They have asked me if I have got any quotes for replacement cost. Anyone have any ballpark figure on what it costs to have 40m2 of insulation removed, moths vacuumed up, and new installed? Cheers

Tiling: Invest in a £40 diamond tile table saw and a heavy duty tile cutter if you are doing a big job

The whole global economy relies on shifting stuff around using mainly ships.

Grains, raw materials, trillions of tons of useless shit we buy every birthday, Christmas, whatever. Some useful shit. We also haul a lot of humans around the world all the time.

Imagine a world where all this physical shit was digital. The whole world, running on electricity, no more humans hauling arse, no more cheap Chinese produce circling the world. There is a jigsaw puzzle of manufacturing, agricultural and financial innovation needed to reach this point, but I'd imagine once we get there it will hugely reduce energy consumption.

Bitcoin can be spun in many ways. The global financial infrastructure is so expansive and energy intensive. Offices, people, commutes, lighting, computers, media, stationary, and millions of other things and activities and the entire network of consumption that radiates from each thing. Imagine automating that all away.

As an aside, this week is Black Friday. Look at Amazon and the rampant consumption of stuff that will be in landfill in a year. Ask yourself why the media isn't attacking an absolute mountain of energy waste there that would dwarf Bitcoin's.

I think cash savings is just pissing away money at the moment especially so I have everything I save apart from emergency funds in a Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap ISA. The way I understand it, that money tracks the global economy and if the entire global economy tanks long term I don't think my cash savings would be worth much either. So that is my reasoning.

I watched a video about inflation the other day (Economics Explained on Youtube) and he made a good point. At the moment commodities markets have in reality gone to shit. Timber, gas, grains etc are all up in price because there are supply issues that were triggered by the pandemic. This should mean a stock market fall as these raw materials and energy are the foundation of economic progress. However, the S&P 500 is up, everything is still booming. This suggests that inflation has driven down the value of money so much that the stock market looks good in comparison, not because it is actually in good health.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. Don't listen to me or do anything as a result of what I say.

I have a parkside 24v drill driver and two batteries. Bloody brilliant kit.

3 years ago I bought the 12v version and used it to build the base for a log cabin, build planters, install radiators, switches, sockets, and much more. Renovated a whole house and the battered thing is still going strong.

Yeah, I looked into an air source heat pump and it was £13k for my small 2 bedroom house. Mad.

I would buy two solder ring connectors and a bit of 15mm copper pipe, and a cheap donut shaped pipe cutter, and a cooks blowtorch, some flux, and some fine grade wire wool, and a pipe bender/pipe bending spring.

Then do this

I did all the plumbing and drainage in my kitchen including new stopcock install, with no previous experience. YouTube FTW. It hasn't leaked three years on, strong water upstairs etc.

Started off with Speedfit then learned about solder ring on copper - incredibly easy to do with a cooks blowtorch.

We hired a plumber before that who bodged the bathroom and I ended up fixing a leak from his work due to the knowledge I picked up doing the kitchen plumbing. Bought £20 worth of copper pipes and replaced most of his pipework while I was at it!

Has saved me a fortune.

I want to make a p2p network using RPis, preferably using the cheap £10 Pi Zero Ws as web hosts. Download a pre-made OS image, load it in, forward a port on your router and it automatically connects to the p2p network. The network would be a community with a chat/forum, personal profile pages etc.

I like the idea of being able to use cheap devices to build a grassroots type thing that doesn't rely on Google/AWS etc.

Would even have its own "free domain" type identity system, and maybe be accessible via a web proxy for people who aren't tech savvy.

Just ordered £400 of stuff to do a quality electrical installation in the shed with underfloor heating, spotlights, sockets, outdoor sockets, outdoor lighting. Exciting times. I have notified LABC who said they'd send out an electrician to test the work. Hopefully it all goes smoothly. Anyone ever done the DIY electrical notification thing before?

We moved out of London a few years ago to Tonbridge, Kent. Lots of green open spaces, lots of cycle routes, 33-45 minute trains into London every 10 mins or so. Every supermarket and hardware store you can think of. Overall a great place to live. I love it here.

Centralisation in the fast moving digital age is dangerous. It just doesn't scale. Massive single points of failure which the global economy relies on are dangerous.

Even in the online world: Last year a massive amount of the internet went down for a few hours. Day before yesterday Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram went down for 6 hours. People rely on a lot of this tech to communicate.

IMO we need protocols that turn all our phones into little web servers so the internet is an actual network, not just a massive data centre in California. We also need to invest in 3D printing, high tech city agriculture etc so it is possible for every community to be sustainable individually. I hope technology advances towards that world.

Thermafleece Cosywool

I insulated with sheep's wool and currently have a pretty bad moth problem.

I want to install a new consumer unit in the shed. Got in touch with building control to get it all signed off properly and they haven't responded in more than 10 days.

Took a few months to be honest, as we were both working full time and doing it on weekends only really.

I took a chance on B&Q carcasses, which were the cheapest on the market by far. They were all precision cut, everything felt high quality. It is all melamine faced particle board regardless of who you buy from, unless you go to an actual carpenter and pay for wooden ones. The doors I got were really high quality for the cost B&Q Stevia which were MDF with a thick plastic gloss coating.

I bought the oak worktops from a supplier on eBay for £300 total.

Bosch washing machine £150 after Bosch rebate deal from PC World open box deals section in store.

Bosch slimline dishwasher £180 from Facebook Marketplace, like new.

IKEA Smaksak pyrolytic oven new in box in bargain corner, presumably a customer cancellation. Haggled it down to £250 from £500.

The thing that saves you money with DIY is that you can go round at your own pace finding all the bits cheap with a bit of shopping around. With a tradesperson they are getting it all out of a catalogue, even with trade discounts.

We really wanted a nice modern German style kitchen but they were all £30k+. Did the entire thing ourselves in the end, from an empty box to a full kitchen, plumbing and all. Electrics were easy as I had all the circuits available from old fitted kitchen. Really proud of it, and it came to £4k in the end, including all the high spec appliances.

Yes, it's the same with Starbucks (being considered good because someone once said it was good), which tastes like shit. Actually worse than shit.

They had the first mover advantage here. An Australian friend of mine told me that Starbucks failed the first time they tried to launch over there because Australians had already made coffee an artisan craft. The UK were still drinking muddy instant water when Starbucks arrived. It's all relative.

source: https://twitter.com/tachyon100/status/1221696829437480961?lang=en

I'd stick it all into a global all cap index fund. Something like Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index. Mostly invested in the biggest tech companies. Tech is probably just going to get richer and more powerful in the long term (even if we have a world war the tech companies will likely be getting rich off the analytics and as communication providers just like in the pandemic and governments would be shovelling cash into them for it), and the incumbents are all more rich and powerful than any company ever has been in history. I mean yes we might see a crash in the next few years, but that is always on the table. Cash can crash (inflation), Bitcoin and crypto crashes all the time, gold can crash. It is all about patience and never investing what you cant afford to lose.

I am old fashioned and think that having a good honest career that brings in decent wages, changing jobs if your current job pays fuck all and has no prospects, and being frugal and practical/handy gets you very far. It has served me very well.

(I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. Speak to a financial advisor and don't listen to me, I don't really know what I am talking about.)