Home DIY

The twenty quid or so ones seem fine. No use outside and not great in bright light but I've found the few I've used fine.

What smart water meter do you have installed?

A sensus m22 it’s not one that can be shut off remotely. I think. You are going to tell me they are notorious for over reading or something aren’t you? I can feel it ;)

Lidl one is fine. Comes with a little tripod too.

Ha ha. No, not at all. Was just curious as it seems a sensible thing to install and I haven’t

I have to cut a small hole in a wooden panel, possibly 12cm x 12cm at the most. The wood looks about 5mm thick and I presume it’s plywood. It was used to box in a gas meter (top tip for boxer inners - leave space for the valve handle!)
I was planning to mark out the cut on the wood, drill a small whole in each corner and then use a proper wood cutting disk on a dremel to do the cuts, does this seem like a reasonable plan?

I’m not sure a conventional saw will fit in the space and I have to not hit the gas pipe / meter as well.
Any better plan gratefully received.

Also any ideas for something easy to stick over this new hole that will give some room for the handle rather then try to build a box - some sort of junction box?

Plunge cut with oscillating multi tool.
Bit of tape on the blade as a depth guide

As Mr Smyth says, a plunge cut with an oscillating multi tool would be easier and give a neater finish. They're super useful to have anyway if you're doing bits and pieces of DIY. This will do the job, or go up in price/align with your battery system of choice as you please.

Ignore the #buyers. If a dremel is what you have that’ll work absolutely fine. Could glue or double side tape a small access panel in after.

Thanks, appreciated, I’ve ordered the screwfix tool linked to, I think i’ll have a few other bits of work to justify having it as well as the dremel

The twenty quid or so ones seem fine. No use outside and not great in bright light

I wish I'd known this as I've use mine a bit outside and it's very tricky. I read somewhere the green ones are better - which is what I went for, but Idk if that's true. That said I don't use it that often and my £15 aliex jobbie has been absolutely fine for everything indoors.

All that to say @Sheppz if you're buying primarily for an outdoor project you may have to spend a bit more, and check for that in reviews.

We have a selection of different sized floorboards to sell, left over from a renovation project.

They are all original pine floorboards from our Victorian house. Once sanded and oiled they look beautiful. All floorboards have been de-nailed.

They all measure 14.2 cm wide and 2 cm deep, and are of varying lengths.

We have the following lengths available (approximate measurements):

1 x 330 cm
1 x 250 cm
14 x 230 cm
7 x 190 cm
4 x 160 cm
8 x 115 cm
8 x 80 cm

• a box of off cuts smaller than 80 cm.
  
  

Should be enough to do the entirety of one room.

(If the 330 cm length is too long for you to take away we can cut this for you).

Collection from Homerton, Hackney.

Would prefer to sell as one lot but open to offers if only some are needed.
Can send photos if interested

Yes please! Got to sort my son’s bedroom floor, which has been wrecked by builders.

I’ll message you.

Paint Panther and a scraping, then a sanding, then boiled linseed oil. Briwax to finish which is pending once I've got the other chairs to the same stage.

Cheers all. I’ve managed to borrow a dewalt green from a builder buddy. Good info for the future tho.

when fitting a new front door do I drill it for locks first then paint it or paint it then drill it? I'm thinking the former then if I cock up the drilling I haven't wasted time painting it.

And following on, do I drill, fit, remove, paint, fit or just drill, paint then fit?

I did all the machining for locks & hinges first, painted in the workshop, allow to cure for as long as you possibly can then hang. I made the jamb too though, so didn’t have to trim on site.

I need to cut a bunch of internal doors to size. So, I think I need a track/plunge saw - my circular saw cuts are never straight :/

I really don't want to be spending GC money though. Any recommendations?

have a look at the Rutlands website

Clamp a straight edge such as a long spirit level to the door with two clamps, at the required distance from your cut line to allow your circular saw to run along it nice and straight. And buy a decent, high tooth count, circular saw blade for nice smooth cuts.

No outlay on spenny new tools, upgrade of your existing circular saw, win win...?

one of the great things about the plunge saw and track is how clean a cut they give. I think Peter Millard on YouTube has just done a review on budget track saws which might be worth a watch

Nice thanks I'll have a look

@si_mon628 I have done this quite a few times and I really never get a good cut. Maybe my technique is all wrong or the blade is shite, probably both.

I might get new blade. Its £20 vs ~£200 for a plunge x track and give that a bash first. Defo worth a try!

I did a lot of research on this and the answer was the MacAllister 1200W they sell in B&Q
https://www.diy.com/departments/mac-allister-1200w-220-240v-165mm-corded-plunge-saw-msps1200/3663602797579_BQ.prd

I got one from eBay for £77. The thing with plunge saws is however great they are, there's not much point if they don't run on decent track, and the MacAllister is Makita/Makita-style compatible. Whereas DeWalt (for example) make good saws but only fit their own weird track.

I've heard good things about the Rutland ones (and IIRC they're Makita compatible) but they are £180 and I wasn't convinced they were much better. If you want to watch some YouTube reviews Peter Millard is the man.

Freud blade pls or you'll make @dbr cry.

cobbled together a workbench for my 3d printing area out of leftover studs. thought i might have enough scrap ply to make the top but alas no. had almost exactly the right amount of wood though and ended up with 1 screw left from a box of 100.

will have to wait til i have £80 worth of stuff i need to order from wickes so i dont waste £7 on postage. i don't drive at all but sometimes having a van would be really fucking useful (more expensive than £7 to run though)

1 Attachment

Check local builders merchants, they'll often deliver free of charge