Ever had that satisfied feeling with overkill ?

[Jethro]

(following on from a comment in another thread).

Have you ever put up with something, maybe made numerous temporary repairs, and then snapped and threw total overkill at the problem ? And then stepped back and thought "Now break you ****er" ?

Here's a recent example : we have a bird feeder, which I hung off a nail on our fence. It used to keep getting knocked/blown off, and I tried bending the nail, and then changing it for a cup hook (which didn't work as it was too close to the fence then).

Finally after a few weeks of this I snapped, and spend a few minutes rummaging in the garage till I came across an old shelf bracket. I screwed that to the fence (3 screws !) , made an "S" hook to hang the feeder from, and it's stayed up since.

It's hard to define the smugness I felt when I stepped back and thought : "NOW fall down - I dare you !".

I've had a similar feeling replacing compression joints with soldered ones too ....

[John Rumm]

That's blown it, fence will fall over now.

[Jethro]

LOL ! Reminds me of when I used to repair cars, and we'd have a leaking wheel cylinder. We'd replace that, only to find the other side leaked. Replaced that and found the master cylinder leaked. Of course making one part of the system stronger just put more pressure (literally) on the weaker (older parts). Which is why a good garage should change things like that in matched pairs ....

[TheScullster]

"Jethro"

Not quite the same, but I am re-furbing a 1970s toilet, keeping the old cistern and boxing it in. Noticed that the cistern only "perches" on about 1-1/2" of support bracket (it is ceramic cistern sitting on an angle bracket). Despite the fact that it had functioned quite happily on this for 30 years, I removed and cleaned up the old bracket, refixed it with big srews and added 2 more brackets just for good measure.

Phil

[manatbandq]

Then they just get accused of ripping you off for unnecessary work ;-)

MBQ

[Jethro]

BTDTGTTS ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Towards the end of my car fixing career, we used to replace the lot.

All cylinders out, check for corrosion, reseal if possible otherwise new units, new pipes..

[Jethro]

I rarely had to replace metal pipes (shame, as we were one of the few garages that had the flanging kit to make them ourselves).

I occasionally changed the rubber hoses, but never saw one leak.

Never had a caliper leak (seize yes).

Changed quite a few brake compensators (which had the same caveat as the rear wheel cylinders).

[Bob Eager]

I put up some no-very-big kitchen wall cabinets. With three inch Rawlbolts.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I remember the plans/BCO called for 2.2m deep strip foundations at one point. The digger ended up gouging down to over 3..we said 'sod it' and tipped in more concrete.

[Lurch]

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 03:26:01 -0700, Jethro mused:

I've just fitted a 48 way consumer unit to a 3 bedroom cottage in the middle of nowhere.

There's loads of stuff in this house that's overkill, or just plain daft, but it all works. ;)

[Cicero]

=================================== I guess Al Capone would have said something similar:

"NOW get up - I dare you!"

Cic.

[Owain]

I once wired a 2m phone extension in 6A flex.

(It was what was handy)

Owain

[Owain]

Making it now a 2 bedroom cottage with wiring cupboard?

Owain

[Lurch]

On Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:45:42 +0100, Owain mused:

Heh. I actually had to take a door of its hinges to fit the board in. The back door is currently leant up against the wall in the kitchen extension.

[Andrew Mawson]

Yikes, who sells 48 way consumer units? I'd have thought splitting the load between several would be a good plan. My current house has 5 consumer units, namely 'Ground Floor', 'First Floor', 'Top Floor', 'Holiday' and 'Workshops'. Most are self explanitory but the Holiday box powers the fridges, freezers, PABX telehone exchange, energy monitoring computer, Alarm, security lights, doorbell etc So if on holiday all is powered down except that one. Makes working on things very easy.

AWEM

[Lurch]

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007 23:21:07 +0100, "Andrew Mawson" mused:

No need, if it can all go in one then it all goes in one. The load is still limited to the 100A in the service fuse and the board is rated at 250A so I think it should be safe enough.

It's actually a 3 phase board linked for single phase use, loads easier than fitting 3 or 4 boards.

[Andy McKenzie]

In my experience one of three things will now happen - either the fence will be blown down in the next gale (the added resistance of the bird feeder being the tipping point), or you will decide that the bird feeder is in the wrong place, or with highest probability, you will bash your head on the shelf bracket that some twit screwed on in the garden. Its called Karma - and you can't win!

Andy

[Mary Fisher]

Or would if there were a mains power supply ... :-)

Mary

[Lurch]

On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:00:09 +0100, "Mary Fisher" mused:

Hence my huge UPS's. ;)