Wilko's adhesives etc

Please be fair and thoughtful in your opinions. No rants please.
thirdcrank
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Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by thirdcrank »

We had a minor glass breakage yesterday which needed temporary repair pending replacement after the holiday period. I was grateful to have been recently reminded by this from pete75 on the pannier repair thread, that I have some Gorilla transparent repair tape in stock, bought from Wilko's for another repair a while ago.

viewtopic.php?p=1080577#p1080577

This is brilliant stuff: really tough and with plenty of adhesive.

It had me thinking of other repair jobs I've done with stuff from there. Earlier this year my wife broke an inevitably expensive pair of specs when the unusual design of hinge pulled out of the frame. The opticians were talking about sending them back to the manufacturer with no guarantee of success, a certain delay and an even more certain repair bill. I got some superglue from Wilko's. Superglue is no big deal, of course, but they stock a big range and one item was a tiny dispenser with a very accurate nozzle. A tiny blob of adhesive and bingo! The repair is now the strongest bit of the specs. In £ per litre, an expensive way of buying adhesive, but just what I needed and just as important, readily available.

In short, if you need to fix something have a look at what they stock in Wilko's where you can compare a big range of choice.

I'll take this opportunity to repeat an earlier plug for their bike tools and spares. Not a sophisticated lightweight bike shop, but they have extended opening hours and plenty of branches so worth remembering if the alternative is abandoning a ride or even a tour.
Bonefishblues
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by Bonefishblues »

You are the MD of Wilkos and I claim my fifty pounds :wink:
thirdcrank
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by thirdcrank »

Perhaps I should have included the usual disclaimer, but I've not always been a totally satisfied customer. Earlier this year I ordered something to be picked up in store and after a long wait, I discovered it was waiting to be collected. When I went to collect it a very shouty manager told me it had been there for sometime and that she had personally telephoned to tell me. I knew that wasn't the case because I have one of those phones that lists a stack of calls received. I shop to buy stuff, not to have arguments.
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CREPELLO
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by CREPELLO »

thirdcrank wrote: Earlier this year my wife broke an inevitably expensive pair of specs when the unusual design of hinge pulled out of the frame. The opticians were talking about sending them back to the manufacturer with no guarantee of success, a certain delay and an even more certain repair bill. I got some superglue from Wilko's. Superglue is no big deal, of course, but they stock a big range and one item was a tiny dispenser with a very accurate nozzle. A tiny blob of adhesive and bingo! The repair is now the strongest bit of the specs. In £ per litre, an expensive way of buying adhesive, but just what I needed and just as important, readily available.
I've had a cracked pair of Optilabs frames which I've saved by bonding the lens in with superglue (I used rubber latex solution to mask the lens surface from the gassing of the glue), so the lens becomes part of the structure of the frames. It used to be Wilko's superglue I've bought, but I've found it troublesome in recent years - mainly that the nozzle was changed from clear to red plastic, which makes it difficult to judge the progression of the glue out of the tube. And that the tubes seem to persistently clog up/flood with glue and 'go off' in short time.
Canuk
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by Canuk »

Also good for brake cables. A good quality inner rear and full length outer for £1.89. I thought it was on $$S at first, serious bargains!
gbnz
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by gbnz »

Canuk wrote:Also good for brake cables. A good quality inner rear and full length outer for £1.89. I thought it was on $$S at first, serious bargains!


I'd agree, some of their cycling stuff and adhesives are good value and acceptable quality I.e. gear & brake cables, various glues I've had to use. And it was only today that I realised I'd have to dig out an old container of cheap chain oil from Wilko's - far more effective than any brand name lube at preventing rust.
PH
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by PH »

Canuk wrote:Also good for brake cables. A good quality inner rear and full length outer for £1.89. I thought it was on $$S at first, serious bargains!

Careful with the cables, some I've bought in the past have been SS inner and I picked one up a few weeks ago and it's galvanized. I wouldn't have bought it if I'd noticed.
A lot of the other wilkos branded products are re branded from big manufacturers and sometimes it's only the labels that have changed. It can be amusing to spot these and the price difference.
Canuk
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by Canuk »

PH wrote:
Canuk wrote:Also good for brake cables. A good quality inner rear and full length outer for £1.89. I thought it was on $$S at first, serious bargains!

Careful with the cables, some I've bought in the past have been SS inner and I picked one up a few weeks ago and it's galvanized. I wouldn't have bought it if I'd noticed.
A lot of the other wilkos branded products are re branded from big manufacturers and sometimes it's only the labels that have changed. It can be amusing to spot these and the price difference.


I'm pretty sure it's Clark's SS they are selling just now,on account of the packaging. They've got to be 350% cheaper than the identical Clark's equivalent!
PH
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by PH »

Canuk wrote:
PH wrote:
Canuk wrote:Also good for brake cables. A good quality inner rear and full length outer for £1.89. I thought it was on $$S at first, serious bargains!

Careful with the cables, some I've bought in the past have been SS inner and I picked one up a few weeks ago and it's galvanized. I wouldn't have bought it if I'd noticed.
A lot of the other wilkos branded products are re branded from big manufacturers and sometimes it's only the labels that have changed. It can be amusing to spot these and the price difference.


I'm pretty sure it's Clark's SS they are selling just now,on account of the packaging. They've got to be 350% cheaper than the identical Clark's equivalent!

Maybe you got lucky with old stock, I don't know when they changed, or maybe new stock and they're changing back, I hope so.
The ones on the website are described as galvanized
http://www.wilko.com/bike-parts/wilko-u ... vt/0431576
colin54
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by colin54 »

I like Wilko's too the only duff thing I've bought there was a small vice to clamp to a table, a truly cheap

and nasty thing,the jaws didn't meet squarely and the screw thread was rubbish.

I use their Citrus Degreaser which is effective and pleasant to use ( in the bike section ).
http://www.wilko.com/all-bike-parts+acc ... vt/0342669


I like a bit of harmonica and I was most impressed to go into a Leeds branch once to hear Sonny Boy

Williamson's ' Help Me', ( I Can't do it all by myself ) playing as background music which

I thought was pretty inspired programming for a DIY supplies shop.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1rM0i-TG6g
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deliquium
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by deliquium »

colin54 wrote:I like a bit of harmonica and I was most impressed to go into a Leeds branch once to hear Sonny Boy Williamson's ' Help Me', ( I Can't do it all by myself ) playing as background music which I thought was pretty inspired programming for a DIY supplies shop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1rM0i-TG6g


^ 8) Ace :D
Current pedalable joys

"you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles"
pga
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by pga »

Wilko is good for bulk bird seed and HP printer inks. I think the click and collect prices for the latter are cheaper than the in store ones.

The chain grease is made by Weldtite.

The small plastic bags for loose ironmongery are very useful for keeping a mobile and cash in on rides. The large size looks ok for folded maps or route sheets.
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Si
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by Si »

I got a p*nct*re repair kit from Wilko - the glue tube was totally devoid of glue!
thirdcrank
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by thirdcrank »

Si wrote:I got a p*nct*re repair kit from Wilko - the glue tube was totally devoid of glue!


In view of my recommendation of Wilco's as a good place to try if problems occur while out on a ride, that's really bad news. :(

By coincidence, I was in our local Wilkinson's yesterday morning. A single mum who's a member of my family had a baby-buggy with almost flat tyres. Leaping to the rescue - to the extent that I can leap to anything :oops: - I found it impossible to do anything with my wide range of bike pumps because the clearance between the (Schrader ) valve and the centre of the hub was insufficient to get any of my pump heads in. I decided that a traditional flexible screw-on connector might be squeezed in so off I went to Wilko's. Bingo, a cheapo pump with a flexible schrader connector for two quid and when I tried it, it did the job. :D Incidentally, had I needed a replacement 12" innertube for the buggy, they had one in stock.

An episode like this makes me feel uncomfortable because with a lifetime's experience of tyres, innertubes and pumps I was initially stuck. I've read the buggy's instructions and although there are plenty of line drawings showing how to assemble it and plenty more backside-covering cautions which almost amount to saying it's dangerous to put a baby in a pushchair, I could see nothing about the need to keep the tyres inflated and even less about how to do it with such a poor design. From googling, I find that the current official replacement tube has a curved valve. Reading Amazon reviews, I found these were split between people who found the curved valves a blessing and those who expected an exact replacement for the original straight valve and were disappointed, although I don't know how they had been inflating them. How can something that should be simple be made so complicated?
PH
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Re: Wilko's adhesives etc

Post by PH »

Si wrote:I got a p*nct*re repair kit from Wilko - the glue tube was totally devoid of glue!

I think you just got unlucky. The puncture kits, like some other cycle stuff, are rebranded Weldtite which has a good reputation. I've only used Wilcos puncture kits for at least a decade and haven't had a bad one yet.
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