Fettling

[JumboBeef]

Who likes to fettle? What do you do when you are fettling? (Big/important jobs don't count as fettling!)

Last week, I installed a third (LED) high level brake light on my W124 Estate. Today, I have added an extra 12v socket (hidden) so I can plug my TomTom in without leaving the ashtray open.

Fettling jobs to do: replace bulb behind passenger air vent.

What do you do when you fettle?

 

[greggster]

i fettled with my work van yesterday - added a bit of ply lining so the sides don't get damaged. Drilled all the holes etc, insulated it then put a screw through the side of the van. Booked it into the bodyshop straight away. B*****r t**s w*******

 

[lynall]

Im a born fettler not long fitted block heater, then injector problem, now got a leaky rad to change i wonder what will happen/ fail next?.
Fitted heated seat and plugs and leads to wifes car, got susp arms and discs to replace.



Lynall

 

[gina2201]

Just washed and waxed today, so not really fettling, nothing if that to do (yet!) Ummm....

 

[JumboBeef]

got susp arms and discs to replace.

Big/important jobs don't count as a fettle Fitting a new stereo/extra lighting/replacing an unimportant dash lamp/cleaning your vanity mirror, all count as fettling

 

[greggster]

i just polished the kettle whilst waiting for it to boil, i think this is a definite fettle!

 

[KNU7S]

i just polished the kettle whilst waiting for it to boil, i think this is a definite fettle!

Fettle a Kettle? is it metal?

 

[AANDYY]

It must be metal, petal

Stop now it's getting silly...........

 

[KNU7S]

It must be metal, petal

Stop now it's getting silly...........

It is metal petal or else he could not fettle with a kettle lets let this link settle about a man that can fettle with a metal kettle petal

 

[greggster]

its more of a chrome dome type of kettle actually

 

[KNU7S]

its more of a chrome dome type of kettle actually

I could fettle a chome kettle the same way i could fellte a garden gnome at home all alone (that sounds wrong for a start) or polisha chrome dome all alone (thats worse)

 

[popuptoaster]

i dunno really, i count fettling more as adjusting and hoaning an existing modification rather than adding something, fitted a new head unit for my ICE last week, wasn't hard though as i have amps and stuff in the boot already wired in so just had to plug the RCA's and power leads in and set up the screens and reversing camera, next mod on the list is to fit the leather interior i picked up thursday, need to make up adapters to fit the seats to my car though and run all the extra wiring to power the seats, carpet will need fettling to get it to fit though as its from a totally different car!.

 

[johnsco]

Fettling to me is general maintenance, doing the jobs that need doing and seeing to the things that need seeing to (Behave yourselves !!!)

Having worked most of my days in Yorkshire's metal-bashing industries, we would refer to the maintenance / repair of a piece of production kit as "fettling it up for another 12 months" ... Although, in our case, it might have been another 20 years.

Some in Barnsley (not my home town) refer to it as nackling.
My mate Malcolm will tell me that he saw me underneath the car "nackling it"

The main purpose of fettling it (or nackling it) is to see it ackling properly.
In other words, it's running well.

Cheers
Johnsco

 

[verytalldave]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fettle

 

[JumboBeef]

Well (as I started this thread) I would say fettling is doing something you want to do to your car, not something you have to do to it.

 

[johnsco]

Well (as I started this thread) I would say fettling is doing something you want to do to your car, not something you have to do to it.

It could be either in my case

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Back in the day when I was an apprentice, I was taught at college by a Northern lecturer glorying in the name Jones.

He described fettling as filing off the rough edges of castings fresh from the mould.

 

[Deleted member 11979]

I hit the lower body cladding of my sl to get it to fit right, it took me 3 seconds and I needed no tools, is that a fettle?

 

[johnsco]

Back in the day when I was an apprentice, I was taught at college by a Northern lecturer glorying in the name Jones.

He described fettling as filing off the rough edges of castings fresh from the mould.

That is my understanding of the proper meaning of the word - fettling.
I have worked in Craven-Fawcett's foundry in Wakefield (now a housing estate) and in Hargeaves Foundry in Halifax (still up and running).
In both places fettlers were employed to remove the rough edges from castings as they were removed from the sand-box moulds.
They did this with air-driven grinding wheels.
It's a pretty grim, rough-****d job to do.
Seriously-hard work, eye-protection, ear-protection, dust-mask, protective gloves and overalls, safety boots
Filthy, horrible job, with sharp filings and sharp lumps that have been ground off the castings all over the place.

The sort of thing you could spend all your life avoiding.

I also spent many years at the Copper Works in Leeds, where extruded shells were fettled by a gang of lads using hand-held rotary filing wheels (You don't grind copper, brass or other copper-alloys).
This was to remove blisters and rough surface before the tubes were drawn through dies.
Again, another job you could spend all your life avoiding.

The fettling we do on our cars is pleasurable, by comparison.

 

[trapperjohn]

Also worked in a forging plant where job card had - 1st and 2nd Fettle - Ah days gone by and best not repeated. If you were late for shift (me, never) or the foreman just plain didnt like you, you fettled for 8 hours - not a pleasant way to earn your corn. Now the meaning of the word has changed outside of forging plants to one of a pass time or niggle fixing.