What I have fixed today

[duke]

Nice kitchen, I can see why the blinds are needed. Our West facing garden window in the kitchen is a must also to block the light. Your blind make ours look junky.
What wood is the counter?

 

[Windows]

Nice kitchen, I can see why the blinds are needed. Our West facing garden window in the kitchen is a must also to block the light. Your blind make ours look junky.
What wood is the counter?

Thanks. The blinds are William Morris’ Strawberry Thief design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Thief
It’s East-facing so a lot of morning light.
The counter is cherry.

 

[TrimTheKing]

I’ve been struggling a little getting up and down onto my sawhorse which doubles up as a step up, 18” repeatedly dozens of times, and I’d had enough so I’ve added a step to one side, I can still saw along the other.
Should have done this a long time ago as it’s a real game changer.

View attachment 54143View attachment 54144

Should have said that I’ve damaged a tendon in my calf which hasn’t helped!
Step doesn’t look half way up the leg but it is.

Does that not make it liable to tipping towards you as you step on it if you're not careful?

 

[TrimTheKing]

Negative take on a chopsaw so it doesn’t pull the wood up.

Pete

By circular saw I think he means hand held, not tablesaw. I could be wrong though.

 

[Cabinetman]

Does that not make it liable to tipping towards you as you step on it if you're not careful?

Most observant of you! Not very much and if I’d made the step a little shallower it wouldn’t at all, just have to remember not to stand on the outer edge, luckily I made the horses nice and wide, the tops are almost 7” so good as step ups as well as saw horses.
Ian

 

[Windows]

Reattached a loose fascia board to the front of the workshed.

Took a hook off the shower room door that had never sat flat and sanded its back to level it.



Then painted it along with a couple of other items.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yesterday our log splitter went bang. Magic smoke. This is a crucial bit of kit as we have 7 trees to break down, plus 2 small dead ones to fell still. This is a truly vast amount of wood for us. Willow (huge), pine * 4 (huge), cherry, apple.

Capacitor had exploded. Literally. Foam pumped through the case and went solid. River shop delivered a new on inside 24 hours for £7 inc and I fitted it today. Two barrows of logs split (pine is a devil to split cleanly) before the rain came. Mrs AJB was elll impressed

 

[Woodbloke]

Mrs AJB was elll impressed

Winner - Rob

 

[Phil]

We have lived in this house now for nearly 10 years, bought 2013, built 2014.

The bathroom basins have these pop-up plugs. Nice. Easy to screw off and clean the drain hole.

The one bathroom basin started draining slowly, generally from hair getting stuck.
Easy fix, screw off the top. Easy ...... the flipping thing was stuck, would not budge.

Fetched a persuader from the workshop, gripped it, and o cr-p it broke off.


No way the mechanism was going to be removed other than replacing the drain unit.
Which involves emptying the cupboard below, unscrew rubber drain pipe, unscrew the drain unit from basin and fit new unit.
Also involves me lowering my bulk to the floor to do the job. Knees already complaining.

Some lateral thinking, discussed solution with the bathroom boss, which she agreed.

What do we have? the old fashioned rubber plug at a fraction of the cost of a new popup.



Will now also tackle the second bathroom which I use.

 

[Moulinabois]

Yesterday our log splitter went bang. Magic smoke. This is a crucial bit of kit as we have 7 trees to break down, plus 2 small dead ones to fell still. This is a truly vast amount of wood for us. Willow (huge), pine * 4 (huge), cherry, apple.

Capacitor had exploded. Literally. Foam pumped through the case and went solid. River shop delivered a new on inside 24 hours for £7 inc and I fitted it today. Two barrows of logs split (pine is a devil to split cleanly) before the rain came. Mrs AJB was elll impressed

I like burning apple and cherry but never bother with willow (of which we have loads) as it burns too quickly and doesn’t give off much heat. Having heard that firewood is now 80 euros a cubic metre here, maybe I’ll be saving the willow in future

 

[Lurker]

Phil,
We have the same sort of plug.
Never considered that that could happen.
So….. next time I remove the top, I’ll give the thread a dab of silicone grease.
Thanks!

 

[fuse]

Hopefully finally diagnosed an intermittent puncture in the van tyre.
It will remain fully inflated for weeks
Then will be completely flat in a few hours.
I thought it would be a nail or screw that acts as a valve when its pressed against the road but shuts when not.
I used soapy water but could not find anything.
But by chance saw the bubbles emerging all around the rim on both sides.
It explains the leak but not the intermittent nature of it???
Plus its strange its only started doing this after a year
I ve marked the position on the ri m to keep the balance and get the tyre off to clean the rim up and hopefully it will seat nicely with some tyre soap.


Update.
Had to use Brillo pads on the bead and rotary wire brush on the rim to get it clean
Treated the rim with oxalic acid to kill the corrosion.

Tyre seated perfectly and now stays inflated

 

[Windows]

The bolt on the bathroom door hasn’t lined up with its keep since we bought the place. So today I unscrewed the spacer block attached to the door frame to which the keep had been attached, turned it upside down, and reattached it using the same screws & screw holes. Everything is now aligned perfectly. I can only assume that whoever installed the bolt & keep & block measured everything correctly then installed the block upside down for their own amusement.

 

[Windows]

Added a gutter to a shed along one side which then turns the corner to a downspout at the back.

 

[Windows]

Made an accessible coat rack. 2x2 cut in 3 pieces: 2 vertical and 1 horizontal. Laps at 1/3 depth (screwed from the back) so that the horizontal sits in the verticals. Top of the verticals screwed in to to a ceiling joist in the back entrance way. Coat hooks attached to the horizontal.

Now my wife can reach some hooks. Existing hooks are attached directly to the ceiling joists so not very practical for a woman of normal height. Rough stone walls not good for attaching hooks to directly.

It’ll be painted eventually.

 

[shafiq]

Not quite got a picture of it. But, work in progress of my 70ish year old neighbours gate. She had a stroke about 4 years ago and slowly been recovering.

Gate is knackered and for some reason council haven't ever been out to repair it. Anyway, the socket that holds the top hinge is/was out of the brick wall/post. First I attempted cement in a tube, but probably didn't allow enough curing time and 48h later a decent tug and it was back off camber.

Now (the other day) I mixed some cement for my bricks indoors so squeezed some into the socket and propped gate up using one of my paving slabs. Seems to have worked as its now 4 days in and feels solid. Next I'll chop out a bit of rotten timber, replace and then screw back her latch/handle. So hopefully next time she goes out to yhe shops its even easier.

Pics incoming..m

 

[Windows]

Finally added a light switch cover (Hue control holder) to the last major light switch that didn’t have one. The original light switch was installed very close to the door frame, so there wasn’t enough room to the left of the switch for the covers that I bought.

I considered creating a custom cover out of wood, but then decided to hacksaw the left edge off the purchased cover and now it fits. The door frame hides the raggedy open edge of the cover following my hacking.

 

[duke]

I have lost count of the number of times the need to trim electrical face plates.

 

[Windows]

I have lost count of the number of times the need to trim electrical face plates.

First time for me. Took me about 7 years to work out it was the easiest option.