New Blog – UlsterWalker

Hi all,

This blog is now dead, and won’t be updated again, however I have a new blog, which can be reached by clicking HERE.

I hope you like the new blog!!

Many Thanks

Keith

GSI Pinnacle Soloist – Update

Well I had promised to get back to this little cook set, and I suppose its about time I did to. I have used it on my last couple of outings and it is definitely a nice tidy little bit of kit. I have cooked a good bit of pasta, rice and couscous on it as well as using it for a good few brews, and am still to see any wear show up on it. The Teflon radiance coating actually works, something I was very sceptical of, burnt pasta and sauce seems to come off after a bit of a soak and a light wipe.

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The one issue I have had with it is trying to get my stove, a  pocket rocket, to fit into the set; one of the main reasons why I purchased the set was to have my kitchen in one convenient box. However it appeared to be an impossible task, with both the 220 and 125gram canister. It would appear that your stove would have to be very slim for it to work in this system and I was considering getting rid of my pocket rocket and replacing it with an Primus Crux, which has the ability to fold up and fit in the hollow bottom of the gas canister, a very neat trick.

L2R; Carrying bag/water carrier, pot with siliconized handle, rag/washer, pot cover/sipping lid/streamer, insulated mug with volumetric markings, 220g gas canister, stove pouch (holding dismantled pocket rocket and spork)

The solution, as extreme as it may sound, is to dismantle the Pocket Rocket by unscrewing the centre column so that it is in 3 pieces. In this condition it will fit into the stove bag with the telescopic spork and pack down with the rest of the cook set. I’m uncertain of how the threads will hold up to the screwing and unscrewing, however for the mean time it seems like a worthy solution, and will at least postpone my purchase of a primus crux.

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After finally figuring out how to fit my stove into the system, as fiddly as it is, this seems like the perfect cook set. Cosmetically the set is immaculate and shows little sign of wear and taken any abuse on the chin. I can’t see it letting me down any time soon.

Ti Respray pt2

Well after cleaning the case of paint I threw down a couple layers of metal primer, leaving 15 minutes between each coat and then left it for the 24 hours. The primer is light but, thick enough to cover up the light scratches left by sanding down the case. The smells of the primer is quite overpowering, and it is strongly advised to wear a face mask rather than holding your breath while laying a layer down and running away, as I was doing. The fumes are also apparently quite harmful, but that doesn’t really bother me too much, however it was the number one reason I avoided a self etching primer, as acidic vapours don’t sound to great to be enhaling without proper breathing aparatus.

As is usual I didn’t remember to get any photo’s while spraying and only have the results of a couple layers of colour paint. The outside has recieved around 5 layers of orange  and the screen surround the same amount of black, however I’m now out of “brilliant orange” and face the option of buying another can or painting the palmrest black, resulting in an orange exterior and black interior, still undecided on what to do.

The orange paint seems to have came out leaving an “orange peel” effect which may result in me actually doing some sanding to it, much to my disgust. I have to say I am rather worried about destroying any work donw through sanding the case.

The black on the other hand has came out far smoother, this may be down to it sitting in the sun prior to me spraying  it or possibly that itsa gloss paint. There are still some problems though that could be resolved through some sanding, however I have to wait atleast fortnight according to the can before trying to anything like that.

To paint the palmrest or get another can of orange paint, decisions….

Organized Mess, or just a mess?

After doing a bit more reading on what sort of paints to be using I finally took a trip to Homebase to see if their website had been telling the truth about the stock it was holding. Turned out they were telling porkies, but not to fear, Halfords were across the road so after a bit of consideration to which orange was going to be brighter I had my primer, paints, clear lacquer and some sand paper of various grades. My liquid electrical tape also turned up in the post, don’t think I’ve ever bought anything with so much documentation to tell you not to eat burn or smoke it, probably get you crazy high if you were onto that sorta thing (I in no way endorse doin such a thing, and you do so at your own risk). I’m thinking that I’ll have way too much black and might need an extra can of orange to finish the layers, however will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I finally began dismantling my laptop today in preperation for its new colour scheme. I’ve taken and put together many Ti powerbooks so am a bit blasé about the whole process, however now that Ive started I am starting to wonder whether just throwing all the different screws into the one box was such a good idea? Not much can be done about it either way, and if I can fix it now I can fix it later, I hope.

I took a bit of soapy water and cloth and sanding paper to take firstly the stickers which some mong had placed onto case, leaving loads of sticker residue, and secondly to take off the paint, to leave the bare titanium ready for priming. It was a bit more laborius than I was hoping, however its now lovely and clean, another 4 surfaces to go Actually looks so nice I would consider keeping it bare with a couple coats of clear just to keet the thumb prints off the ti. However paints have been purchased, and I’m hoping that the resulting paint job will be far superior to the industrial look of the bare titanium.

In the center is the infamous fragile hinges which break at every opportunity possible, Budha’s would be out doing 187’s if they had encountered them. You can also see the contrast between the naked titanium casing (shiny, right)and that which still has its coating on (left.) By the next time I throw photo’s up hopefull the entire case will be stripped and ready for priming, hopefully this is the most laborious phase, maybe Colorware are doing it at a reasonable rate after all??

Titanium Powerbook Repair/Respray

After a good bit of use, and more recently creaking under the use of only one hinge, my faithful titanium powerbook has decided enough’s enough.  The other hinge has decided to also fail (something which is notorious on this series of powerbooks) and so I’ve been forced to scour ebay for replacement parts, no hinges make a laptop pretty useless. Replacing the hinges is an absolute nightmare, I’ve tried and half succeeded before, so I was lucky enough to find one which the motherboard was fried but the LCD and hinges were still intact, however it didnt go as cheaply as I had hoped (always the way.) I have also found that some of the insulation on the LDVS cable has been cut through wear and tear, something I’m hoping to resolve with some Liquid electrical tape, pretty ingenious which looks just the ticket for the hair thick cables.

Thankfully mine is in slightly better nick

There are plenty of very good resources for repairing Powerbook’s, and also quite a few on painting them/PC cases, so hopefully it won’t be too difficult and with a bit of patience will work out well. Colorware professionally paint laptops, however they are rather expensive,  at $450 and up, I’m hoping to achieve mine for under £45 between primer, paints and clear gloss. Althought they have extrotienate prices, they do have a good visualisation tool, and I have decided on my colour scheme using it:

Looks pretty sweet I think, if it ever ends up looking like this is another thing altogether, however only time will tell. Will spend a bit of time tomorow looking for my paint, have sourced some on ebay which might do the job if I can’t find any locally, and will post my progres as I go along!

A couple of resources for people considering doing the same thing (plenty others through a google search)

Linear Case mods

Spooky’s paint guide

Lappy paint overhaul

Red pepper Paintjob

ModTheBox

Low Tech Paint Job

Happy modding