Rsser's accident.

[wally peat]

So what do you call a fork with two hearts? No idea Ern, but I will put my hand up to a windup about Japanese suspension. My last two bikes were a Guzzi and a Duke, but they were built in the 70's so there's no comparison with the capability of today's equipment. These days, I use a fork which contains no metal springs and almost no oil. Both compression and damping are done by air, and the entire fork weighs less than two kilos. Not only that, but at the twist of a dial I can change the length of travel by 50%, adjust compression damping as I ride from plush right through to rigid, and there's a monoshock at the back with the same range of tweaks. Ironic really that all this technology came from motorcycles when Fox and Marzocchi decided there was money to be made from selling suspension parts for mountain bikes, but I can see the day coming when all this lightweight technology does the reverse trickle and motorsickles get some of our gimmicks. On the last bike my front fork only had one leg, which actually makes it a strut, rather than a fork. It was called a Lefty, you'd never guess why....

Anyway, the big black beast and I are still very good friends. I happily plowed into bowl turning with no real idea of what I was doing, and when I eventually found one of the local turners who was prepared to come over and help me play with the stubby I was amazed at how much easier a little technique makes things. (thinks: must read one of those books one day)

I've had lots of fun with the auxillary equipment as well. I installed that gantry over the lathe to help load big pieces, but wisely, I haven't turned anything I can't lift with one hand yet. The slabs are there, and if it ever stops raining I will have a shot at a really big platter, but probably with some supervision.

I shamelessly copied Vern's circle cutting jig for the bandsaw, which saved me endless amounts of time and grief getting blanks to balance. I also admitted defeat on freehand grinding and bought a tru grind jig to go with the slow speed grinder. All of a sudden I'm a whiz at sharpening things ) Mind you, I'm still a bit hesitant to hoe into a tool and put a whole new shape on it the way my local tutor does.

We had a good deal going here with me going to his place to play on the Vicmark or my place for the stubby on a weekly basis, but after the Xmas adventure with my boat I'm now pretty consumed with a rebuild of all the things which led to misadventure, so the tuition is on hold for a bit.

I was going to come home and take a few photos for this post just to prove I actually made woodshavings with the lathe, but my most recent mechanical investment decided that fuel injection was just sooo last century and just stopped pumping fuel into the cylinders. That wasted a few hours getting it home, so I'll wait until there's some more daylight and try to get proof of life in the shed.

I was in Melbourne for work a few weeks back, and I was tempted to try and wangle a visit to your shed, but the one evening I had free was an opportunity to go and poke around in the shed of my now deceased uncle - the one who showed my how to pull a motorcycle engine apart and put it back together so that it worked. I took a bunch of photos and had a big grumble to myself about how his workshop has been neglected by his inheritors, but that should probably be the subject of a separate post. That sort of thing only leads to ranting and sentimentality.

I've been getting treatment for a dodgy shoulder tendon from the local pilates instructor. She is proof of the fact that there's life after ballet, and every time she smiles and suggests I do something that I know is going to hurt I think of you and your hand, and tell myself I got off lightly. Hope yours is recovering.

[Manuka Jock]

Gidday guys,
do you have the link to Vern's circle cutting jig for the bandsaw ?
We could do wth one of those in the guild workshop .

cheers ,
Jock

[TTIT]

Gidday guys,
do you have the link to Vern's circle cutting jig for the bandsaw ?
We could do wth one of those in the guild workshop .

cheers ,
Jock

Finally a chance to hijack Erns thread

Here you go Jock... ttit - The Gadgets

[rsser]

Hijack away Vern. Much more interesting than talk of injury.

Peter, glad to hear you're soothing the black beast - lathe whispering?

Yes, being shown how is the fast route up the mountain.

And yes, bike suspenders are a tech that's been developed beyond a sensible plateau. 25 years ago I added a set of tyre valves to fork cap nuts and added a few psi of air for better damping. But these days we have from BMW the option of on-the-fly changes to spring preload and damping so you can cruise comfortably down the highway and when you get to the twisties and rougher blacktop can switch to sports mode settings.

Most riders have no idea of how to adjust their bike's suspension to suit their weight and the conditions.

Anyway, any time you're down this way you'd be made v. welcome in the shed. Goes for Vern too and anyone else from outside of town. You can help me brush the cobwebs off the lathe.

As for the wrist, I'm slowing right down with the exercises. Sposed to avoid pain so when it fires up, the wrist gets a rest til it goes away - usu 1 or 2 days. - part of my program of taking control of the rehab pace and learning what works one thing at a time.

Today's highlight is finally getting someone in to mow the lawn at TAC expense. It's been two months of phone calls and broken promises. The grass is knee deep in patches.

[rsser]

Damn paw.

Swore off the exercises bar the ortho strap and it settled down. Thurs I added in a couple of gentle stretches and the thing went gang busters thru to sleep time last night.

Got up with a headache this am, took a couple of Panadeine, and went to do the weekly shopping. Wrist in the old soft splint just to stabilise the old thumb injury.

Sailed thru the lifting and packing thinking, gee, the thing's coming good. Then realised the meds were prob still at work and oh sh*t, it's going to bite back big time when they wear off.

So the hours pass and there's no kick back at all. No aches, no tingling palm, no stiffness. Best it's been since the fractures happened.

The thing has a mind of its own.

[rsser]

Just back from the final hospital X-ray and review.

Side to side hand to forearm alignment is fine; fore/aft it's 20 degrees out. That's the max acceptable error apparently. Anything above that the instant rec'n is they break the wrist again and tilt the bone by grafting a wedge of hip bone into the gap.

That's what I'll be looking at if the wrist plays up badly in time.

[Ozkaban]

Gees Ern, hope it improves and you don't need to go through that. Sounds rough.

Cheers,
Dave

[Grumpy John]

Just back from the final hospital X-ray and review.

Side to side hand to forearm alignment is fine; fore/aft it's 20 degrees out. That's the max acceptable error apparently. Anything above that the instant rec'n is they break the wrist again and tilt the bone by grafting a wedge of hip bone into the gap.

That's what I'll be looking at if the wrist plays up badly in time.

In the good news/bad news scheme of things, is there any good news?

[rsser]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, don't want one side of the hip to sag ;-}

GJ - yep; slowly getting more rotation through the joint. Plakky hand-cuff is off except for sleeping. Grip has jumped from 12kg to 20 in 2 weeks (used to be well over 50kg). Can lift a kettle!

The deadness/tingling in the skin of the palm is apparently due to bruising of the median nerve, either from the accident or from the surgery. Should disappear unless it's further bruised from overuse inc. overdoing the exercises. That's the one GJ that was under pressure in your carpal tunnel.

[tea lady]

Can lift a kettle!

Phew! That's a relief. Some normality at least. Hope is continues to behave.

[ToothFairy]

Sounds like a glass half full / glass half empty. If I read you right, there's one bit of good news and one bit of . . . let's say indifferent news. Could be better; could be worse. I just hope you're able to get back to somewhere like where you'd like to be.

All the best.

- Michael

[rsser]

Thanks.

It's a matter of suck it and see - expecting a lot of the hand is likely to show up its limitations; it may or may not involve pain. Carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis will be the usual suspects.

[rsser]

Update: did a few hours of light work on the weekend rehabbing a Stanley plane.

Well, I thought it was light! Pain flared up for a couple of days afterwards.

Hand therapist says to give it a run briefly, then wait for half an hour to see how it reacts.

Shoot; it's not my style but needs must.

At the review yesterday grip strength had increased to 30kg but there was no improvement in wrist rotation. It seems pain locks down the muscles.

The boredom is killing me.

Gotta laugh though. The hand therapist is a qualified Occupational Therapist with further study in hand rehab. She can't prescribe a soft splint or even a measly heat pack without getting the referring GP's approval. FFS, the GP knows nothing about what's going on with the rehab; approvals are almost always given sight unseen; and it's just another bucket load of paperwork. 'Medical dominance' it's called.

K, rant over.

[NeilS]

It seems pain locks down the muscles.

Yep, can seize you right up!

The boredom is killing me.

However, seems like you are making progress, Ern, albeit slowly.

Of course easy for me to say, not having to struggle through it all day after day, and night.

.....

[rsser]

Yep, making progress Neil.

Great to get some shed time in at last, even though I tend to overdo it.

It's hard to calibrate that. With other physio involving muscle pain or tightness I've been taught to push it and breathe through it. This suck it and see approach is a new ball game.