Bosch Angle Grinder

The other day I bought for myself a Bosch angle grinder. Bought it off Amazon through Cloudtail at a cost of Rs 1899. It came without any attachment. Basically there are different attachments that can be used with this grinder. So they gave none. You could want to cut metal, wood, marble, tiles, bricks. You might just want to grind metal. Then there are various polishing abrasives. It is a huge range. However, I feel Bosch should have included an assorted bunch of discs.

The Bosch literature, as usual, was quite useless. I am sure they assume that Indian mechanics who use such machines are illiterate. I had to work it out from poorly made youtube videos. However, once set up it works pretty well. Gets a little hot if you are using it on heavy load - for example, cleaning a cauldron.

I had originally bought it to sharpen knives. Worked perfectly. I sharpened all the knives available at home. The maid servant is extremely happy about it. She was having to deal with dull knives. Blessed me a lot. Bought two attachments to clean rusty iron. Used it to clean an old cauldron. Worked like magic. The cauldron now looks like new. However, while cleaning the cauldron I used the 3M eye protection goggles. This is the first time I used them. Works really well. Very comfortable on the nose, despite my glasses. One has to be careful about centrifugal and centripetal forces, while working on the round cauldron. The cauldron or the grinder can go out of control of the operator. It happened to me a couple of times. If you are novice like me, be very careful about this. 

IceToolz Cable Pliers

I never knew such a tool existed until I saw a video on brake adjustment on youtube. It's a Park Tool video (which have excellent tutorials on the subject of bicycle repair). After the Darjeeling trip my front brake was found to be a little misaligned. So I tweaked with it for a long time until getting it more or less fixed. 

This tool, I realised, makes the work convenient. Of course ParkTool makes it look like that. IceToolz obviously had a cheaper solution. Went for it. It cost me Rs 765 with delivery. 

Tweaked with the brake cable once again almost right away. It's a little tricky at first. You have to get used to using it. Once you get a hang of it, it's not so difficult. 

However, ultimately I realised the problem of my brake was with the barrel adjuster ;-) But I am super happy with this purchase. It's a very specialist bicycle repair tool. You cannot do anything else with it. It will be necessary to adjust brake and derailleur cables (if and when I learn how to tweak it).

As a side note, getting the brake callipers to move the exact same distance on either side seems to be some kind of black magic. Will have to learn it well.

Loctite 242 And The Story Behind Finding It In Calcutta

In Siliguri hotel, after our epic Darjeeling trip on cycles (read about the trip here) I lost one of the nuts of my SKS Bluemels mud guards. Even during the trip I realised a few nuts were coming loose. I had tightened them. But somehow this one nut got lost. I am immensely lucky that it happened in the hotel room after the ride. We searched the hotel room almost upside down but couldn't find it. The bolt was lying on the floor but the nut was gone. 

After some research I decided to go for Loctite on these nuts. I have also decided to use them on some of the nuts and bolts at home - particularly the handle in Mampu's cupboard. 

First I looked up Amazon. There it was available but I wanted to check if Chandni had them. In Chandni the nuts and bolts sellers seemed to have never heard about Loctite. I went to the Prinsep Street area. A small shop there sells various types of hardware chemicals. He had heard the name Loctite but tried to sell me something called Anand claiming it to be the same thing. I decided against buying it because I have no clue how strong it might be. 

When I told him about my doubts he said, these are used for truck parts and tractors etc for heavy duty stuff. He thought I would be impressed. It had just the opposite effect on me. 

My next stop was Bhanubhai Desai- a famous industrial tools shop from where I buy most of my tools. The owner there is a very knowledgeable person. I knew he wouldn't keep it but might know who keeps it. As presumed he told me where to find the distributor. It's some office just in front of AC Mohammad. 

I wasn't sure if I would find the office there. These commercial buildings have innumerable small offices and no one would know who there is the distributor for Loctite :-)

I had a brainwave. Went to AC Mohammad and asked the sleepy old salesman about Loctite. He needed to be explained what it was. I showed him the bottle of WD 40 in his shop and said - like that is used to open tight nuts, this is used to tighten loose nuts.

He immediately understood what I was looking for. He asked me for the model number and then told me to wait. He went out of the shop murmuring 242, 242, 242 .... 

I knew where he was going. He came back in 5 minutes and sold me the 50 ml bottle for Rs 650.

I am waiting for the replacement nut to arrive. Then I will apply it and see how it performs. 

Deuter Speed Lite 20

Yesterday I got for myself a Deuter Speed Lite 20 - a soft 20 litre back pack - for Rs 4000 from Nikita. I got it for myself for the upcoming ride to the mountains. The idea is to carry my basic stuff in it and carry it on the shoulders. I don't know if that's a good idea. But nothing stops me from doing an initial review of the bag. Whether I carry it on my shoulders or tie it on a rack can be decided later. 

The top notch Deuter quality is written all over. It has a separate chamber for a hydration pack. It also has another chamber for small this and that. There are two side mesh pockets for water bottles. There is a front mesh pocket for keeping a rain jacket or something similar. 

Yesterday I put all my stuff inside and they fitted pretty fine with room to spare. The problem with soft bags is that, if you fill it up completely the back of the bag bulges out like a ball and that can hurt your back. That's happening with my bag too. It's not a problem of the bag per se but the problem of stuffing it. If you put less items then it will not happen. So possibly I will take the rain jacket out from the main bag and keep it in the front mesh pocket.

But the back has a soft mesh kind of finish, which will possibly help when I sweat. 

The sack is not water proof. There is no rain cover either. So what I will do is stuff my items in the Sea To Summit dry sack and put it inside. 

The sack is incredibly light, 530 grams to be precise. But it has all the straps, particularly the four compression straps on either side. Only problem with the straps is that the loose ends dangle around and there is no mechanism to roll them up and lock them in. The straps in my North Face all have velcro tapes attached in a T kind of shape so that you can roll the loose end up and lock it. I think I will use rubber bands. Dangling loose ends of straps are not good for cycling. 

I love the finger pull loops attached to the zippers making it very easy to pull them. These are high quality loops. There also are four fixed loops on the four corners of the front part of the sack. I think they are meant for hanging solar charger panels. 

There is a loop to grab the bag or to hang it from a hook for storage at home. 

The colour red, when I saw it online, looked obnoxious. But it's not that offensive in real life. I am okay with it. It has 3M reflector in the front. 

Deuter talks a lot about its tapered shape. It indeed is a little tapered but not as exaggerated as they make it look in the pictures. But one good thing about the bag is it stands on its own when placed on the ground. Apparently the base is rectangular. 

   

Lowe Alpine Dry Sack

Got for myself a smaller dry sack from Lowe Alpine. This is a little smaller than the Sea to Summit ones I have, which are large at 20 litres. This is size S which is 7 litres. In it I intend to pack all my stuff that is meant for the handlebar bag. I think I am going to carry most of my non-clothing items in this - like medicines, toiletries, emergency meds etc. It cost me Rs 850 on Amazon.

The packed size is very very compact, as you can see in the picture to the right. It has a rectangular base, making storage easier when stuffed. I believe it is not submersible but that's fine. I am not going for any river rafting trip with it. My Sea to Summits are good for that. This will be used mainly for packing my medicines and toiletries in future adventure trips. Nice and handy size.

I just have to see how durable the material is and how it handles small sharp objects and the nicks and cuts. The Sea to Summit, for example, looks very vulnerable. In fact that is one of the reasons why I hesitated to use it during my Stok Kangri trip in 2018. This is way cheaper and I should not have any problem using it in rough handling situations like a cycle trip or a trek. Lowe Alpine is a good brand and I am glad that it is now available in India.

February 13, 2019

I opened the bag last night at home. It is no match against the Sea to Summit that I have. The material looks coarse and it is obviously not submersible. S2S can be made airtight and like a balloon. This is just a stuff sack that is water proof. But then that is what I was looking for. I think it will serve the purpose for which I bought it.