We finally decided the old open fireplace had to go this winter as burning a whole stack of firewood over 4 or 5 hours would only lift the room temperature by a measly one degree. Mostly because it had to heat over half a ton of bricks and concrete first! As much as we loved to look at the open fire, we really needed an enclosed wood stove which burns much less wood and provides much, much more heat. Prices ranged from a few hundred pounds up to a few …
When I looked down at my shredded glove I hesitated to take it off, because I couldn’t even feel my fingers and I was afraid of what I might find. We probably all remember from our school tech. classes not to wear a tie when using a lathe etc., but ties are not the only clothing you need to watch carefully when working with power tools. I was unfortunate enough to have an accident this week wearing gloves, yes the very same gloves I was wearing to protect my hands! I don’t …
Winter is almost upon us as I write this, and the temporary post I made to mark the edge of our driveway is in danger of getting run over one of these dark evenings. But with nothing in the store I liked the look of, I headed into the workshop to see what I could knock up out of stuff I already had kicking around; here’s what I came up with… I love pallet wood (who doesn’t?!) and Norway is awash with reusable jam jars (called canning jars, Mason jars …
Or not, as I found out this week….. I get asked to do all sorts of different things during the course of a working week, some familiar and a significant amount of stuff I’ve never done before. But this week I got stuck because I didn’t practice what I preach. A vertical blind was my undoing. I’ve seen them a hundred times, but obviously never really looked at them, never figured out how they work or how they go together. And what did I get asked to modify and fit …
Even if your spirit level is not very good. Something I was taught very early on in my building career was that spirit levels “tell lies”…. Now that was probably just my old boss talking, after I’d pointed out something he built wasn’t level, but in a way he was right. Spirit levels DO tell lies, about 0.15mm per M usually. Now that only adds up to 1.5mm in a 10m run which is not too much of a worry, but that’s when the level is brand new. After a …
Turns out I’ve been lighting fires completely the wrong way my whole life! We all know the method, you place some small stuff at the bottom, then some slightly bigger stuff followed by even bigger stuff in a pile, boy scout style right? Well, no. When you do it that way the small flames from the starting kindling ends up licking around all the bigger timber higher up, smothering the flames and creating lots of smoke. Sure it gets going after making a lot of smoke, but there is a …
My lawnmower stopped driving last week… We had completely redesigned our garden over the summer using over 12 tons of soil to give us much more grass (easier to maintain than weeds!) so imagine my dismay this week when my rather heavy lawnmower stopped driving….. The engine ran fine and it still cut the grass, if I pushed it! Ok, lets get the mower on the bench and have a look. First things first, take off the spark plug lead and tuck it out of the way. Why you ask? …
