Two for the price of one today… Just been outside to put the winter tyres on the mother-in-laws car this morning (oh the joy of working on a brand new car! No big hammers needed lol!) and I thought here’s a couple of things I do that might be useful to you…. Put your wheel nuts in a container (and not on the floor) Wheel nuts pick up all sorts of grit and muck (especially if they are lubricated) and could give you a false reading on your torque wrench …
Or Your House is Plant Food… It’s not paranoia if it’s true, and believe me, mother nature is out to get your stuff. It wants to turn it into plant food and it’ll succeed unless you stop it with regular maintenance. For example, three weeks ago I received a call from a regular client who wanted me to look at the trims around the balcony on his house. They need painting he said. Fast forward three weeks and I’ve replaced 5 of the structural beams, all the decking, all the balustrade and …
I needed to set up a long string line today (8m or about 26′) to screw a timber base plate to a wavy concrete wall in foul weather and I couldn’t really see if the line was clear or not. Bearing in mind that a line has to be two things to be helpful: Very tight and clear of obstruction. If you have those two things, then a string line is the simplest, most useful tool on the job to get stuff dead straight. Trouble was I just couldn’t see if …
The following is a modified excerpt from the FAQ section at the end of my little book about working with lath and plaster ceilings….. (search for lath and plaster on amazon or click on the image of the book… ) A question I’ve been asked a lot is……. Can I remove the ceiling but leave the cornice in place? And the answer is: yes, you can remove the ceiling and leave the cornice or coving in place with a little bit of skill and a good dollop of luck. You’ll just need to …
To Remove a Knackered Gear or Bearing Before fitting new bearings or gears onto a shaft, you must first remove the old ones and this is often difficult because many gears or bearings use what engineers call an interference fit. It’s called ‘interference’ because the two parts ‘interfere’ with each others space, i.e. one part is fractionally bigger than the space allowed for it and when the parts are pushed together under great force the resulting friction creates an incredibly tight fit. The best way to remove worn out gears …
Old and unwanted gas bottles are just ideal for a small firepit Open firepits are all the rage these days as we try to maximise garden living on those ‘not quite warm enough’ evenings and lets be honest, there are plenty of those! I saw an ‘open dish’ type firepit in a local store but it was on sale for rather more than I’d like to pay, (I am a bit cheap) but then I thought I could see a similar shape in an old steel gas bottle, hmm…. Here …
From a section of a rotten tree… OK, I have to be honest, the title of this post is a little misleading because I didn’t actually make this particular nest box; the woodpecker did! (I’ll give you a tip later though for yours). Let me tell you the story. Last week we had some unusually windy days and on the final stormy day a pair of old rotten trees blew down over the stream at the bottom of the garden. One of these trees was our ‘woodpecker’ tree. An old, …
