Today's DIY

[Huge]

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Hateful, isn't it?

[Huge]

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That was a few days ago's job. Plugged in my rechargeable inspection lamp, big blue flash, MCB trips, RCD trips. That's broken, then.

Rummaged in junk box until I find a 6V wall-wart. Cut the connector off that and the connector off the lamp's wall-wart. Solder them together appropriately, some heat-shrink tubing and Robert's your father's brother.

Interesting that the carb cleaner I was using on the lawn mower has etched the front of the lamp, though.

[Bill Wright]

What, underpants?

Bill

[Dave Liquorice]

Mowed "lawn" and paths through the unmown rest of the in bye.

Cut channel to expose cable to wall light so new fitting can be 6" higher.

Filled vacated channel. Filled similar exposed channel above another wall light.

Cleaned mower while waiting for filler to partialy set before polishing smooth. Waited a bit more.

Looked for my nice side snips. Fitted new wall light.

Looked for snips. Made better jig for tying Monkey Fists.

Looked for snips.

Still not found snips.

[S Viemeister]

Yes. I will definitely order one to play with - perhaps I can find a way to mount them without Velcro - and without letting the midges in. I've found dead midges stuck in the Velcro - they tried to get in, but couldn't make it all the way through. Much worse than flies and mosquitoes.

[Graeme]

In message , Huge writes

Replaced a blown number plate light in the car. Onboard computer usefully told me bulb had blown. Computer now says offside rear brake light blown - but it isn't. *sigh*

Spent a sizeable chunk of the remainder of my life looking at electricity prices

Slapped wallpaper paste on lots of bits of ply. Later, added paper.

Took load of junk to the dump, including plasterboard offcuts. Much sucking of teeth. Nah mate, they gotta go to the recycle centre 25 miles away. Look of dejection. Oh, chuck 'em in mate. So I did :-)

Cut hedge. Managed to slice through cable. Twice. Bugger. Reminds me of old school reports. Lacks concentration, must try harder :-)

[Huge]

What do you do with the unmown bits? Only, I have a 1.6 acre paddock and I've been considering not mowing all of it - just meandering paths through it. But what happens to the unmown bits? The bits of the paddock I can't mow because they're too steep are being taken over by thistles, nettles & docks.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to move a wall light in the kitchen so the freezer can go in there. Or at least, I need to put it on the list.

I lost and found (on top of the wheelie bin) my large screwdriver yesterday. I don't specifically look for these things, just keep an eye open while I do something else.

[Huge]

The screens at my previous house, mounted on Velcro, stood out from the frames because of the thickness of the Velcro, and flies could get past them. (I didn't put Velcro all the way round - just pieces every few inches.) I filled the gaps with draught strip which solved the problem, but was never a very satisfactory solution. What I really wanted was the "turn button" style clip to hold the screen against the frame.

And blow me down if some more Googling leads me to;

That's annoying. I'd have to dismantle the screen I fitted yesterday to fit these, since I've made it to fit snugly into the window reveal.

[S Viemeister]

They look ideal - but our windows are uPVC double glazing - would screwing those clips into the frame damage the structure in any way? (This house is the only one we've lived in which didn't have old-fashioned wooden double-hung windows.)

[Huge]

Which were uPVC, BTW. We have wooden casement windows here.

I don't believe so, but you will end up with holes in the frames which essentially cannot be repaired should you so wish.

[S Viemeister]

Probably worth the risk, though, to keep out the vicious Highland midgies.

[Huge]

Might be worth experimenting with citronella or limonene, also. I used to paint the edges of the open windows (I expect there's a technical name for it, but I don't know it - return? reveal?) with citronella oil in the autumn to help keep the cluster flies out.

[Andy Burns]

Me neither

This is useful stuff for sealing holes/gaps in uPVC

[Huge]

Thanks. Noted.

The problem is that the tiny mark where you filled a hole will, in your eyes, be 3 feet across and flashing DayGlo orange!

[tabbypurr]

They won't diappear, but you could repair them using domed screws, white plastic blanking plugs sold for screws, etc.

NT

[Andrew]

My grandma used to do pottery and made some fantastic glazed, pottery dinosaurs 60 years ago when we were kids.

She used grandpa's aertex underpants to give the 'hide' a knobbly appearance.

[Andrew]

Most recycling centres should have jumbo bags to collect plasterboard. Sending it to landfill is a bad idea, because it reacts with something in the soil and emits H2S.

And most recycling centres charge to take rubble and other builders waste now. £4 for a rubble bag in West Sussex, or £4 *per* builders waste that cannot go in a rubble bag.

[S Viemeister]

I'm pretty sure I have some of that stuff around, somewhere. I may try that.

[S Viemeister]

And I have some of those in my bits-and-pieces box.

[Capitol]

Last week, Car battery possibly clapped, car computer misbehaved. Dug out code reader, read codes and digested information. Found out yesterday that locally no car spares place apart from Halfords opens on Sunday and they don't stock the rather special battery. Yesterday afternoon, my new all singing dancing cellphone committed suicide(battery failure probably). So, today, ordered new car battery and collected it and fitted it without problems. Car computer now seems to have stopped misbehaving after a half hour trial run. Also recommissioned old cell phone which of course used a different size of sim cards and it is now back in it's old case and working OK Still need to reload some apps for full functionality.

Just about to wash car as rain forecast for tomorrow. Did lawn on Sunday, tested out caravan car combination Saturday ready for another holiday. Still checking out recovered sat nav which appears to work. Becoming expert at factory resets when the charging system misbehaves.