Home DIY

They are good tools, I use mine a lot- including for shortening colouring pencils for a childrens party.

I used mine for making the back of skirting board concave so that it'd sit vertical against the wall. The dust was mega.

I posted this on the coffee thread but thought some people here might also be able to help.

Today I received a coffee machine from eBay, it turns on fine and heats up but when the power switch is turned off the main RCD to the flat is tripping. Does anyone know what might be causing this/how I can trouble shoot it?

I'd prefer not to send it back if it's a easy fix

Thanks

Edit: I just tired it in the other half of the house and it's fine so either me poking around / drying out the electrics inside (they weren't visibly wet but I put a fan on them for a bit to make sure) fixed it or the plugs in the kitchen are sketchy. The latter is pretty believable as when all 4 hob rings are on the cooker fuse goes. I'll have to try it in the kitchen tomorrow as my flatmates were fed up of the power going out.

Your boiler heater element may have shorted out.
That is known to trip the RCD on a Francis Francis x1, and other models have the same boiler.

So I had to temporarily take the flue pipe out of the wall above my bathtub. Flue pipe is fixed now and I am sort of able to redo it the way I had done it initially, which was expanding foam to keep the pipe in place, then grout to make it look OK.
But what's bugging me is that I had tanked the wall all the way up and over the expanding foam, even pasting some tanking goo around the base of the pipe.

No that the tanking seal is busted, how worried should I be?

NOW:

BEFORE:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7303/8755036582_2fced11201.jpg

Your boiler heater element may have shorted out.
That is known to trip the RCD on a Francis Francis x1, and other models have the same boiler.

Thanks, I think you were right but it was happening due to moisture in the electrics (the seller hadn't drained the machine that well so the box was a bit damp). It's now been dried out and is working perfectly.

Just bought this thing!

^oh...

the trusty makita packed up on friday, enter the new dewalt 717, yes, nice, very nice

Collective wisdom of lfgss required - we need to fit a blind and the window unit, which is plastic, extends all the way to the ceiling so I'm seeking advice on the best way of attaching the blind. Previously we had curtains in the room, and the pole only had two supports, one at either end, screwed into the plaster. The weight of the curtains caused these to come out of the wall (the house is Victorian and the plaster is pretty crumbly).

Is fitting the blind to the ceiling an option? Or should we attach a baton of wood across the entire width of the window frame, then attach the blind to that?

Any advice appreciated.

If you have access to an electronic stud finder you should be able to locate the framing behind the plaster, allowing a strong attachment point. Failing that, what about a couple of floor-to-ceiling poles (wood or metal) that would take the wall right out of the equation? Try to make it look like a 'design' decision.

I've got a piece of wall that's made of wood that is part of the original fabric of the house (so about 150 years old). I'm sanding it and it's coming up lovely, but there's a strip at the top which is narrow and set back, so it's too narrow to sand with an electric sander - even a detail sander is too big. I'll be temporarily taking out that wire by the way, obviously.

Any idea what the easiest way to sand it would be?

make a narrow sanding block out of a strip of baton?

Since it would visually stand out anyway (due to the obvious seam) I would just paint it after scraping any loose bits off - contrasting or same as ceiling. Are you staining/preserving the part you're sanding or painting it?

Been DIYing all weekend. I have absolutely muffed myself up with hammers, saws a chisel and bending over for 2 days.

I ain't cut out for this.

Wear your scars like a crown, even if (like mine) they're more an indication of ineptitude.

Speaking of DIY + ineptitude, was the forum aware that a chainring bolt/nut exactly fits the hole in the blade of a destroyed Microplane Pizza Cutter? This was the beginning of a re-build that led to what you see below. I also made a couple of washers out of some ULMW plastic stock and sandwiched them along with a square piece of aluminum bent corner to corner, made to form the handle/blade holder. I was kind of going for a soviet era aesthetic.

2 Attachments

Removing a radiator:

Is it as easy as all the internet chatrooms would have you believe? I need to paint behind it.

As long as there are shut off valves on the pipes then yes, when I did it it was fine. You will get some manky water spilling out so careful if you have nice flooring.

Just put this up:

A friend of ours made it for me based on the one some guy makes in the US. Very pleased with his work...

That looks fantastic. Taking notes of that for the home office!

I realised I haven't posted much on the diy thread recently, but there hasn't been many weekends this year when we haven't done work to the house.

Front garden is all but finished (1 1/2 fence panels left to paint, some hedges to plant in autumn) it was all grass before but we've stoned the whole lot, put a path in front of the house and now have parking for 3/4 cars.

Central heating is all in place and upstairs is completely re wired.

Next to tidy up the walls up stairs, after taking down picture rails, old air vents, cleaning cracks in plaster and adding sockets they are looking rather scruffy at the moment.

Got a chap coming to block up the chimney in our bedroom and cap the living room so we can still have an open fire - so far we've had 2 birds in our house!!

That looks fantastic. Taking notes of that for the home office!

Thanks... it does look great.

These are the shelves it was based on: http://www.theknifeandsaw.com/KSOptions.php?PC=2&II=2 but I got my friend to cut it closer to the wall for just a frame as the original is designed to fit a full bike w/ bars etc.

You can find their original dimensions / fitting guides here: http://www.theknifeandsaw.com/PDFs/FittingGuide_TheBikeShelf_Small.pdf and here: http://www.theknifeandsaw.com/PDFs/Instruction_BikeShelf.pdf if you want to get an idea of how to make one yourself.

Might seem an odd time of year to talk about this, but does anyone know much about wood burning stoves?

Specifically I like the use of space, and aesthetic of the art deco "French" style ones such as this:

But a quick Google seems to say that fitting anything without a CE mark is against building regs and is therefore verboten?

Most felt tip pens have a CE mark. Write CE mark on the stove with a felt tip pen => Instant compliance.

Pretty sure it's got to be an official CE mark, sellotape the pen to it.

Don't you live in a flat? You need a chimney for a wood burning stove.

if only you'd bought and installed prior to July 2013 > http://www.thestoveyard.com/pwpcontrol.php?pwpID=10060

but then there's always the self-certification route > http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/121124853982?var=gv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&_lwgsi=y&cbt=y&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=65