I bought a 'dead man' prop from Lidl about 5 years ago, which finally broke a few weeks aga. Well pleased to find they had them back on offer
- but a completely new design.
Instead of a sealant gun type trigger it has a ratchet & will apparently hold 60 kg. Great buy for £10.
Also got a rather nice set of allen keys for £5. Well worth checking out the Lidl website - the offers seem to be variable depending on area.
Thanks for that, Dave: something like that could obviously be useful, though I'm having a slight problem visualising what would constitute a 60kg load, even when I translate it to nine and a half stone. What did you find yourself using the old prop for?
Bert
They are incredibly useful. But I suppose difficult to store if you don't need them often - ie for DIY.
They're one of those things that if asked to guess the price I'd have put it at three times the actual one.
Things like plaster boarding a ceiling on your own. Putting up cornice. Spanning between two walls and leaning a ladder on. Although the last one with care. ;-)
My only use for such props is to assist when putting up plasterboards on ceilings. Even with two of you plasterboards can be tricky to hold in place and fix.
mark
Thanks to everyone for the replies. Plasterboard and such is one of the uses I was considering. Off to Lidl's, then...
Bert
The Fugenboys,(?) silicone spreader things coming back in.
Got some last time after reccomendation here, fantastic, so much neater than the wet finger method,
Cheers Adam
At one time I was considering increasing the height of the joists in the roof, using parallel, plated timbers, to fit more insulation under the boards (only 75mm atm). I would have propped each ceiling in turn, with 2 props (so about 60kg), so that my weight didn't cause so much bowing. The joists would then be nearer to straight and the load shared more to the new timbers.
Did't do it in the end as my circular tuit wouldn't fit through the hatch!
Plasterboard on ceilings, holding up timber when repairing a pergola, supporting a shed roof whilst re felting - all sorts really.
Thanks very much, Dave and everyone else. Sounds like a really useful device, especially at that price.
Bert
If you've ever cut bits of wood to make a prop you'll love them. Within the limits of their adjustment, of course.
I was just about to.
I don't doubt it, though I might screw the base to a larger bit of wood, just to be sure it stays in place if I blunder into it.
Bert
They have rubber 'feet' either end on a left and right hand thread. With that wound up so the plasterboard is firm on the ceiling, it would take quite a blunder to move it.
Though the new design *looks* quite vulnerable to sliding the "lock" to "unlocked" ... not sure if that's true or not
Ah - I've not seen the new design. Mine are several years old.
Picked up a couple this morning, and the new design is quite good, the slidelock, is just that, a lock for the ratchet, but as well as sliding the button over, you have to depress the ratchet lever to retract the prop, so bumbling into the slider won't easily dislodge it.
The head and foot seem considerably smaller than I remember on the 'trigger' version.
Just had a quick test under the garage joists ... getting the new style into position is quite easy, unlock the slider, extend pole to nearest ratchet stop (about every 3/4"), lock the slider, then twist the pole stem (the head and/or feet extend on screws) to tension it firmly into place.
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