Skip to main content
It doesn't look like that much of a difference but it really is. I think that "mushy" feeling I was feeling was the resistance from my pick scraping ever so slightly on the sides of the keyway.
The bottoms of the Master and dollar store locks side by side. The dollar store keyway is perhaps a couple millimetres smaller than the one on the Master lock

The biggest problem I'm having with this new lock is that my tension bar keeps slipping like so:

the underside of a padlock with a tension bar inserted and turned on an awkward 45-ish degree angle

When it does this, it doesn't leave enough room for the pick to move around freely. I've tried a using a wider tension bar, but while it doesn't slip, it also crowds out the pick just on its own.

This is what the key hole looks unobstructed:

a view of the underside of the lock. There is a small notch on the lower right side of the keyhole that is causing the nuisance.

Any suggestions on how I should proceed?
CC: @🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)

@🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)

Just picked up a $3 "secure" lock from the dollar store. Let's see how long it takes me to get it open. I love how the diagram on the back shows six pins but I can tell by just looking at the key that it's four.
front view of a blue padlock still in the package. The lock is prominently features the word "secure" on the body.

Rear view of the same package featuring a diagram of the inner workings and touting the lock's various security features

#locksport
#locksport

@Kevin Davy @Dr. Amy, Psy.D.
a velociraptor
@Dr. Amy, Psy.D. @Kevin Davy

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
A five step illustration describing what is supposed to be an "adjustable ring with a single crochet in the ring". The first step is shows a strand of yarn wrapped around a crochet hook. The subsequent steps get increasingly complicated and confusing.

You probably don't need to be able to read #teeline to tell which item on my to-do list was cleaning (and re-inking) my #FountainPens.
My to-do list. All the entries are written in teeline (which looks like squiggles). All of the ink is Diamine Steel Blue except for one check mark which is in Diamine Wild Strawberry.
#fountainpens #teeline

@Mr. Funk E. Dude Yeah, there are one or two...
federation statistics from my server reporting 12,872 other known nodes (servers)
@Mr. Funk E. Dude

Life pro tip: do not leave 3D printed parts in a hot car...

Edit:

the phone holder from the previous post, bit kinda... melted with the support arm snapped off

Kitchener Public Library has discontinued their 3D printer program, but Waterloo Public Library hasn't.

In other news, I now have a custom phone holder for the car.

A black drawer-like phone holder sitting in an empty bay of a dashboard

Edit: autocorrupt

Encountered my first mask ban in Canada. I had hoped we were smarter than this, but I suppose I'm not surprised. I guess they value their bottom line over public health, but it's a vape store, so I suppose that tracks.

a notice banning hoods and masks

Edit: autocorrect

Edit 2: It has been pointed out to me that there is an exemption for medical masks in the tiniest font imaginable at the bottom of the sign... almost as though they don't want you to read it.

@Dr David Mills That's why I use this one.
an analog caliper in an open case
@Dr David Mills

@Kate McDonald Ask and ye shall receive.

The ink is Noodler's Blue Ghost ink. The pen is (I believe) a Noodler's Charlie (currently inked with Diamine Inkvent 2024 Good Tidings).

The aforementioned ink and pen. The ink is a large bottle with a translucent yellow-ish ink (which when used is only visible under UV light). The pen is a slim eye dropper pen. The pen is uncapped and placed with the nib end propped up on the cap to be all fancy looking and stuff.
@Kate

@Judy Anderson Here it is in daylight without the busy background.
The same pen roll from the previous post in better lighting on a plain white background
@Judy Anderson

Okay, I'm done making pen rolls. This is the first one I actually didn't eyeball and am reasonably satisfied with the finished result. Made an identical one for Katy. #FountainPens
Another pen roll. This one is made from a fabric with various cats on a bookshelf. There are six pen slots which are all filled. There is a fold-down flap on the top.
#fountainpens

Learned from the last pen roll and have significantly upped my sewing game. I made this one out of an old shirt that no longer fit me. (I swear it shrunk.) #FountainPens
A pen roll made out of a denim-like material. It has six pen slots which are filled mostly with LAMY Safaris as well as a caligraphy pen and a small eye dropper pen. The pockets and flap are both lined on the inside unlike the last one, and the pens have considerably more vertical space.
#fountainpens

I have never before in my life touched a sewing machine, but now that I have one, I decided that the first thing I'd try to make was a pen roll for my #FountainPens (one of them is a ballpoint, but we don't talk about that). There are definitely some things I'd do differently the second time around, but I freaking love this machine!
A (somewhat shoddily constructed) pen roll made of fabric with a wiener dog pattern. It holds three pens, a Parker GT Urban, a TWSBI Diamond 580, and a random ballpoint.
#fountainpens

Finally got the replacement barrel for my TWSBI Diamond 580 #FountainPen from the factory.
A notepad with "The Pen of Thesius writes again!" written in green (Pelikan Edelstein Adventurine) ink. The pen itself is uncapped and laid out on the page beneath the text with the nib end propped up on the cap.
#fountainpen

@Elena ``of Valhalla''
I have no idea whatsoever what you are talking about.
a drawer filled to the brim with various bottles of ink
@Elena ``of Valhalla''

I swear my hobby isn't as sketchy as the tools would have you believe, though it can perhaps be as expensive.
#FountainPens
A notebook sitting on a cluttered desktop. There is a letter with a wax seal hardening on it with a test seal on the notebook. There are also a metal spoon with melted wax residue along with a lighter and a blunt tip syringe in the shot.
#fountainpens

Does anyone in the #FountainPen community know how to dismantle a LAMY Z28 converter for cleaning? I found a video on YouTube that supposedly demonstrates this

but my converters look different than theirs. I suspect mine are of an older design. I suspect they're just missing the metal part, but I want to make sure I'm not going to break them by trying this.

This is what all of my converters look like:

A LAMY converter cartridge

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
www.youtube.com
#fountainpen

@Brian Sullivan
Three panel capture from The Office. First panel: Michael Scott speaking: "I was the victim of a hate crime today... Stanley knows what I'm talking about. Second panel: Stanley, looking annoyed, saying: That's not what a hate crime is. Third panel: Michael with an annoyed look on his face, "Well, I hated it!"
@Brian Sullivan

@ClaudioM Oh, yours sounds fancier. Mine's just a plastic box with some buttons and a clock. The clock is also wrong, which doesn't make me crazy at all.
a white heart monitor as described above. There are buttons labaled "event" and "enter" as well as two green arrow buttons pointing up and down. The time on the device is 10:57 and the battery seems to be at 71%
@ClaudioM

Okay, I got my #WEARINGEUL #Enki ink flowing nicely in my #LAMY Safari. It just needed a tiny drop of dish soap applied with a toothpick to the cartridge converter. It's still a really light colour, but I kind of expected that going in.
#FountainPens
My notebook with my somewhat sloppy handwriting. The ink is a pale blue, but no longer skipping. There is also a tissue with the ink on it. The ink stains are a pastel purple with blue edges.
#fountainpens #Lamy #Enki #WEARINGEUL

@Low Quality Facts
GODZILLA!!
@Low Quality Facts

For those unfamiliar:
My notebook filled with seemingly random squiggles

This is the progress I've made so far:
a photo of a handwritten page in Bay state Blur ink. The text starts out skipping quite a bit, bit improving toward the end. I'll do better alt text when I'm at a proper keyboard, sorry.

Please forgive my awful handwriting. I'm out of practice.

@smellsofbikes I've got a MicroSD card that has adaptors to turn it into either a full-sized SD card, or a USB drive.
@smellsofbikes

@donsimon
@donsimon

This weirdly reminds me of this scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

This was the best photo I could find.

Don't even get me started.

This website uses cookies. If you continue browsing this website, you agree to the usage of cookies.

⇧