Wilsons Prom Easter 2018

Some mixed photos of our 3 night camp at Tidal River campground in Wilsons Prom. We did the Sealers Cove trek on day 1. (20km round trip, mixed terrain).

Kitty Containment

As Pixel got bigger, she was able to stretch across from the trees over to the top of the fence, walk its length, and subsequently over the house and to the neighbours via the carport etc...etc. To stop this I've installed a 20cm strip of polycarb along the face at the top of the fence line. Completely stopped her. Nowhere to stand. Kitty not keen to jump 3m directly to the ground (over the fence) simply to get out of her favorite playground. Mission accomplished.

The strip is literally invisible from a distance at certain angles. Here you can see Pix' up the tree, but not the clear guard.

Up close you can see the panel.

And it's visible with the sun behind you also.

Such a happy tree kitty

Cat on a car seat, that's become a cat seat...surrounded by cat-5 cable... :D

Poor mans valve spring removal tools

I only have access to a very old clamp-style spring compressor. This requires the head to be off the car unlike an overhead spring compressor or hammer-tube gizmo.

Also, my springs are below the top of the head, so the compressor needs an extension which I don't have, and is sorta' a specialised tool.

So I made a compressor extension out of plastic tubing which exploded. I upgraded to a piece of modified brass tube. That works pretty well.

I then created a magnetic-hammer-tube gizmo to get the keepers off. Wow that works well. Unfortunately I don't have the insertion tool, so I still have to use the clamp-compressor to get the keepers back on. Still a massive speed upgrade though.

A modified piece of scrap tubing will act as an extension to the spring compressor

It's really awkward to use, but does the job.

So I made a classic hammer-magnet keeper release tool. Two hard drive magnets are taped to the end of a piece of scrap tubing.

You place it on the end of the spring and give it a good hard whack with the hammer.

The cap and the keepers explosively jump off, but are retained by the magnets.

Two keepers snugly held inside the tube thanks to magnet power

...so that sped things up a lot.