Home DIY

Anyone recommend a decent mitre saw for around £150?
Will be for general diy, skirting boards etc.
Are the erbauer ones decent?

Get the one from Aldi. It's such good value.

I've been using it for 2 weeks and it's like a £600+ one from the big brands.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/scheppach-sliding-compound-mitre-saw/p/705782387306000

Cheers, will give it a go.

Tung oil fucking stinks, but I think Boiled Linseed is the one with the fire risk.

I want to move a plug socket and also run a spur off to create an extra socket. Am I allowed to do this or do I need to get an electrician in to do it?

It said that on the tin but I dunno ¯_(ツ)_/¯

As long as you're not creating a new circuit and are 'competent' then fill yer boots. However if the existing socket is already a spur then you can't add another socket.

Same on my tung oil can... Not sure wtf you're supposed to do with the rags but I hung mine on the washing line outside until they got rained on and dried out again.

Well done to everyone fixing stuff at home. My joinery skillz haven’t improved much. But the parquet floor throws up some nice surprises, frankly more luck than judgement Sawdust will just have to fill the horror gaps ive created..

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Gawd I hate niches..

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Thats my weekend sorted then!

ffs I thought it had shut already. I'll head down this eve

Got a karcher k5 40% off

And some other bits all good value. 20% off F&B is good too as needed another tin.

Anyone got any recommendations for bin stores? I've decided that my recycling bin is an unsightly blight on the front door, even if the blue top does pretty well match the newly repainted green-to-blue front door. And the green waste bin is going to have to go somewhere too. I was tempted by a VidaXL stainless jobby, but I'm slightly less tempted now that they've said that they don't sell spare parts, at all, and have no plans to do so for the foreseeable future.

The lavender has now gone - it had got very woody - and has been replaced with new lavender bushes, but they're only about 6 inches tall. That means the recycling bin is pretty prominent, and it's not exactly a thing of beauty and a joy for ever. In fact, it's pretty fugly. And I think a nice ironstone pot with a fig tree it in would look pretty good in its place...

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in bury (and i think rochdale) we have four wheelie bins and proud of it. nothing to hide.

Yeah, but I wanna fig tree inna pot by the front door. Which means I need to move the bins into the front garden next to the driveway. And that's about to become My Formal Rose Garden. And I don't think wheelie bins are really in keeping with the prevailing aesthetic.

Dispose of your rags carefully because they can spontaneously combust, lol.

Right thing to do wrong wood treatment. It's boiled linseed oil that can ignite rags not tung oil.

Put them in s jar of water and throw that out, but basically anything other than crumpling them up and leaving them on a workshop floor mixed up with plane shavings will do.

When linseed oil off gases there is an exothermic chemical reaction. This is enough to ignite a rag that is covered in oil if the rag in question is crumpled up.

@chrisbmx116 is the expert.

It's a bit hard to think what would look good as we can only see a pic of the door.

Idk what your situation is, but we put stuff in our bins daily, so it would have to be something with an opening top so you're not wheeling it out, opening, wheeling back all the time.

Maybe a wood structure with a living roof made of that low growing cascading rosemary that is on counterweights to make it easy to open and smart use of magnets to lift the lids up when you lift the roof.

Looks like I'll be spending Sunday finishing a new timber floor in my flat.

My plan is:

1. Hire a sander and give it a very light once over with a fine grade to take off any minor imperfections and footprints /other dirt

2. Osmo Polyx oil.

Anything I'm missing? This is for a hallway and kitchen, so high traffic areas with possibility of liquid spills. The floorboards are a softwood. There's many options of oils etc, what to choose - matt, satin, other? Should I varnish (I assume not)?Quick drying time is a priority.

I like Polyx because it's a piece of piss to apply. Brush it on round the edges and do the rest with a roller. 24hrs later give it a light rub over with a non abrasive pad (although I just used a new scouring pad from the kitchen), which will lift off any dust or hair that has settled as it dries. Be careful at this stage as it will still be gummy in places so do it barefoot and don't kneel on it with your trousers as it will leave a mark. Repeat 2 or 3 times as needed.

Floor sanders can be quite unforgiving/take a bit of getting used to. Edge sanders in particular can really gouge out the floor if you're not careful (which is a separate point, that you really need both an edging and a drum sander).
It all depends how level and even the boards are once they're down. If the whole thing is in good nick and there aren't any proud edges or bits of damage that need taken back, I reckon you could do it with a belt sander and a detail sander for the edges. I did my hallway with a belt sander and that was on reclaimed beech that needed a decent bit of sanding (and is more edge than open floor). Although in a big open room a proper drum sander may be more practical
How big is the floor? I hired an edge sander in the end as the beech was too tough to be sanded even with a random orbit round the edges.

Main tips for sanding would be to work methodically through the grades of sandpaper and don't go too fine, as this will actually stop the Osmo absorbing - 180 grit should be plenty.
Sand with the grain, IE the sander should be going up and down along the length of the boards.

I also much preferred using a belt sander because I had it hooked up to my extractor which massively reduced the amount of dust produced. The edge sander I used got dust fucking everywhere, even when hooked up to the extractor. Be prepared to seal off the rest of the house completely when sanding as it's a horrible and messy process. I don't know what the going rates are near you, but getting professionals in to do the sanding often isn't a bad idea just because they'll create so much less dust and mess (and it saves you faffing around hiring sanders etc).

Be aware that no matter how careful you are, you'll fuck up bits of it if it's your first time doing it.

Also, Polyx takes about 2-3 weeks to fully harden, and you'll want to be pretty careful about not walking on it for the first 2-3 days. Clean bare feet are pretty essential during this period IME.

Got any photos of the floor?

How big is the floor

25-30m^2.

Thanks for all this, fantastic advice. No real photos of the floor as it's being installed right now, so I'm out of the flat for the day. The work started yesterday and they did install some of the new boards. I had a look and it's pretty flat. I guess one option is to very lightly sand off any dirt etc then try a coat of oil, if the finish is ok then go ahead with subsequent coats but if not I could pay someone to sand it for me...

seal off the rest of the house completely when sanding

Definitely do this.

Think professional hitman (or woman).

You want the dividers between any areas you're not sanding to have plastic sheeting curtains - if it's a staircase do the top and bottom.

Cheers. Currently thinking I might have a look first thing tomorrow and see how flat it actually is. I mean I'm expecting it to be pretty darn flat, but I am a perfectionist.

Hoover before any sanding too btw. And hoover lots before applying any oil. And hoover between different grits of sanding paper if you have the time.

I'd also take the time to strategise how/when you're going to finish it, as you really don't want any traffic at all in the first 12-24 hrs. And you'll be doing it 2-3 times.

On the flip side, it's a floor - so you'll probably forget about any imperfections fairly quickly.
We went for clear semi-matte, and I was happy with that. It will yellow the wood quite a bit. I'll dig out a photo in a bit for comparison (although that's on Beech rather than pine YMMV etc).