• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Search results

  1. G

    Why I don’t do car engine maintenance any more

    2 years in, I can recommend the 2018 Volvo V40 T3 petrol that I found for the wife, after many debacles with a Discovery 3 and 4. The criteria were: Easy to work on (I do all the maintenance/repairs). Low mileage. Petrol. Not from the North of Scotland (rust). Ours was shipped up from...
  2. G

    Why I don’t do car engine maintenance any more

    Good. The other problem is, the oil pump drive was also a wet belt, so it may be worth checking they altered that, too.
  3. G

    Interesting YouTube electrical fault video

    It didn't look like a direct live - voltage was down from 230V and dropped as appliances were plugged in, suggesting a high impedance source. Switched live from thermostat probably activates a relay in the boiler. So the errant voltage source, at least on the neutral plug pin, was probably via...
  4. G

    Why I don’t do car engine maintenance any more

    Is that the EcoBoom, with the wet timing belt which degrades and clogs the oil pick-up? I would steer clear, if so. Post crossed with Spectric saying the same thing.
  5. G

    Garlic press

    I do exactly this after seeing Rick Stein do it, because although we have a garlic press which works well, I can never find it intact. My wife has many talents, but storing things logically and systematically is not one of them. She’s banned from cleaning up the big mincer since the last time...
  6. G

    What I have fixed today

    Where there’s a will, there’s a way… Part of the unwillingness to buy a new machine is that I don’t know which brands to trust any more. A friend of mine brought me her newish and hardly-used Miele vacuum cleaner to fix recently - shorted armature. New motor - £250. New machine - £280. Into...
  7. G

    What I have fixed today

    Our washing machine is now a hybrid of parts from three broken ones, including one we bought in 2007. Anything to stave off buying a £900 machine that looks like it belongs on the ISS, like t’wife wants. Also allows a satisfying answer to: ‘why are you keeping all these broken appliances?’
  8. G

    SCM T110 spindle moulder shaft

    Ok, thanks. I’ll see if it sells as is, then maybe test hardness with a file and go from there.
  9. G

    Hunting Open Season

    What’s the meat like - venison? My favourite is Sika, but I’m not sure if you have them out there.
  10. G

    SCM T110 spindle moulder shaft

    I have this 1.25” shaft from my old spindle moulder (L’Invincibile!) hanging about. Any idea how much it’s worth? I could probably take it down to 30mm if that would make it more desirable.
  11. G

    Thorn? That’s not a thorn!

    I met an old hedgelayer who had boots with steel plate in the soles for doing blackthorn. I can’t find any online, so they might have been home-made.
  12. G

    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Re: spreading - the left wall backs onto that room coming off at 90deg (second pic), which is lined inside with OSB. There should be plenty of stiffness there. The right wall could be braced from outside, and will also get diagonals to the intact trusses, and possibly some support from the lift...
  13. G

    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Thanks for the suggestions and caveats.
  14. G

    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    One more detail. Here is the Landy lifted up into the truss, showing not all of it has to be removed. Orange highlighter shows minimum theoretical removal, but more clearance would be needed for wing mirrors, opening doors, etc.:
  15. G

    Modifying roof trusses to increase height for a two-post lift

    Here is the area. If you start counting at the back truss, above the doorway, I need to remove all members of trusses 2 and 3 (ideally 4 as well, but not essential), apart from the top rafters. The roof is box profile with ply underneath. Approximate position of the trusses arrowed: Looking...
  16. G

    Saying goodbye to some mature trees = sad but necessary.

    Yes, it will ‘coppice’ vigorously. If you manage it properly, you could harvest straight spars every few years that are handy for garden poles, etc. A pickaroon is a very handy tool for flicking logs around, and doesn’t take long to make.
  17. G

    Saying goodbye to some mature trees = sad but necessary.

    Willow is quite incredible - it will sprout from felled trees or even firewood logs if left on the ground. You can make a quick willow hedge just by laying the tree down where you want it. The upright shoots can be laid/pleached/woven in years to come. I made a pickaroon using a slightly curved...
  18. G

    Openreach full fibre

    What is? You’re welcome to pop in and inspect the workshops; if not, I’m happy to recommend stuff to do/see.
  19. G

    Openreach full fibre

    I had it done (FTTP - fibre to the property) this time last year. It was done in three stages, for whatever reason - ducting by the road, with buried splice box near the house. Second team dug my fibre cable to the house. Third team poked it through the wall and to the ONT (optical network...
  20. G

    The problem with old houses - part 2

    There’s a stables block at my new place, which is now my workshop. Some basic electrical testing* showed an earth problem, traced to a junction box where the earth was simply not connected through. It had been connected - it was stripped back and the right length, and you could see the clamp...
Back
Top