Home DIY

Used engine oil is considered pretty toxic. It could take quite a while to dry and in the meantime might find it's way into the water table. It's probably no worse than creosote though.

I'd be surprised if it got washed off into the water table. But I guess it comes down to how long it has to dry.

It's definitely something I've always been caution of when changing my bike's oil. So yeah, good point.

I know it's very difficult to draw direct links between contact with chemicals and cancer etc. but I've seen enough to convince me that years spent smoking while working with oily engines etc. could contribute to an early demise.

Look at the Californian laws for labelling these days and almost any product that contains engine oil or similar has a could cause cancer label on it.

I wouldn't want to paint with it anyway, it's not really the right consistency and unless it's an airless day you will get it splashing about. When I say the water table, I just mean it's gets into your garden soil, from there I guess it will get into the water table eventually. It might be unfounded fears but I hate old engine oil with a passion!

You're probably right.

Anyway I still have a fuck load of the fence panel paint already bought, wating for my motivation to recover.

When you are painting rough surfaces with a bit of wind about it's tricky. It's difficult to get the surface to absorb the paint without loading it so much that it drips, runs or curtains. If you use a larger 4" brush with a decent pre flogged acrylic tip it can help to make it less painful. Spray is an option since you can get an hvlp setup for very little money these days.

larger 4" brush with a decent pre flogged acrylic tip

Cheers.

I did say to Mrs. H that we should consider getting a special, brush. But as usual the response was "nah. we've got that big brush. it'll be fine". In fairness I'm sure a big factor is how dry and worn the shed is. That side I posted is the one hit the hardest. The protected side has been a bit easier.

Make sure the job takes all summer and blame the brush :)

It's like painting textured walls, it takes a lot longer than smooth. You have to keep pushing the paint in different directions which gets it into the crevices but it can create a streaky finish so you end up needing more coats. First coats of any paint always take a lot longer anyway, just accept the reduced coverage and plan to paint extra coats and the whole thing gets easier. Acceptance is the key, all the time you hate the job and try to finish it quickly the further away the end seems.

If you think the shed it too dry then you can adjust some of the parameters by watering down the paint or wetting the surface. It's easy to get stuck struggling with a combination that doesn't work in different climates, exterior work is particularly sensitive to that. I've had days when I'm fighting the paint all day, next day you add something to it or the weather changes and it's a completely different beast.

Either that or burn the lot and get a man in to put up a new shed and fence. Job done.

Speaking of staining wood; This week I've been staining some old wooden outdoor furniture using some water-based acrylic stuff.

I'm putting a lot of effort into getting a nice even coat, but once it's fully dried I'm finding that my application has been far from consistent. And then it's too late to do anything about it because it's water-repelling, and extra coats just bead up.

Any tips or tricks? Or is this just a case of getting more experience?

The tin of stain suggests wiping down the wood with slightly soapy water, which I haven't been doing. Would slightly damp wood help with consistency?

I've had the best results with a wipe on/wipe off approach, though it requires a lot more coats and effort. I saturate the surface, wait a minute or two and wipe it off, no brushes involved in the process. Obviously wouldn't work so well on vertical surfaces and pretty wasteful, but oh so easy...

Alright, I'll give that a shot then, thanks.

Get a good supply of rags/paper towels for the process.

4 coats on the shed and still going

you're doing it wrong

In what way? And what's the solution?

The first coat simply disappears when you apply it. Then each successive coat builds up.

The existing colour is a dark red and the new colour is greyish. The weathered side is very dry and malnourished. The protected side has been much easier.

adjust some of the parameters

I had wondering about wetting down the surface at the time. At this point it's a bit late though.

I need to fix the windows too as they are badly dried and bowed(sp?). Is there a way to work around the dried battons that hold the window pane in? Or should I just be straighting everything up and add some putty?

I know this isn't helpful but I'm surprised there isn't some sort of dipping service for this sort of thing.

Aside from the tips that have already been mentioned it's not an easy thing to do. It's just the more experience you have the less likely you are to end up with a streaky mess. As withered preacher mentioned you should be applying thin coats with cloths. I like mutton cloth for this job. Any brush application will be more likely to overload the surface in some areas, there are foam brushes which some people like.

You are not applying much at all but slowly darkening the wood in as even a manner as possible. Make sure you don't go over your work once it's started to dry until it's fully dry that way you should be able to take an entire coat off if it goes tits up by using a wet cloth (before it's dried). Don't let it dry if you think it looks streaky. Normally it drys very quickly. If you are watering the dye down to make it easier to work with it will take longer to dry and it needs to be very well mixed. I found wetting the surface made it worse, that might just be my technique though.

It's then equally difficult to know when you should apply the varnish especially if you don't have any test areas as it will change the depth of colour.

Sometimes you tend to judge the results too critically as well. I'm sure there are a lot of not so even professional jobs if you shine a very bright light on them. Just bear in mind it's a craft, you can't always avoid the human element with a hand polish, sometimes it still ends happily :)

with a hand polish, sometimes it still ends happily :)

A life lesson to us all... :)

That's great advice, thanks!

One thing though, the stuff I'm using dries waterproof, so if I try putting a second coat on, it just beads up and I have to wipe it off entirely.

Should I be using separate stain and varnish?

In what way? And what's the solution?
The first coat simply disappears when you apply it. Then each successive coat builds up.

That's just how it is, gotta build it (back) up if it hasn't been done a long time / if it has seen a lot of weather, 4+ coats seem a bit much though.
Without seeing it it's hard to judge yet in general I'd probably sandpaper the surface and prime it before coating again.

Separate stain and varnish is one approach, that's usually the approach favoured by the pros. Problem is that stain on it's own is very difficult to adjust on the first coat, it really soaks into the grain. In that case you need to very carefully blend or choose your base stain and apply it with some confidence then look at where you are. You can adjust (except making it lighter) from that point with stain in varnish to the point where you are using only clear varnish. This is really only for fine furniture, things like floors are a slightly different technique.

If you are doing multiple doors for example you need to be very careful to get a similar technique on each door, that's complicated.

For fine furniture there's also something called grain filler which allows you to get a piano gloss finish, that also makes dye/varnish application easier in some, respects harder in others.

It's such a huge subject and a lost art in some ways. Contemporary joiners are keen on spraying because it makes it easier to get consistency on the large areas that are a requirement of modern furniture.

I might be moving away from describing what you are trying to achieve but a lot of the techniques are covered by French polishing where you use a 'rubber'. I don't know why the subject is so ripe for double entendre :)

All of that above and I didn't really address the question!

It shouldn't be beading up, water based should stick to water based. You might need to key the surface with a very fine (250 grit or above) sandpaper. If you let me know the brand and product that you're using I might be able to help a bit more.

Taps/shower bits. What’s good and what’s shit? Local showroom has Flova and Just Taps Plus stuff but Mrs Hammer is dubious about the cost (circa £1k for a 2way shower setup and basin mixer tap).

Dunno about UK stuff but generally don't get things that are cheap as they're often shit IME. Very irritating having to get new stuff every three years. That said, f*cking £1k for a f*cking shower + tap sounds f*cking expensive to me.

Edit: we have this. Has worked fine for about 8 years

http://swedishshowercompany.com/index.php/project/mora-mmix-shower-system-kit-7313020011db-470-00/

Yeah pretty crazy price for that kind of stuff, £1000 is about 1/5 of what our whole bath reno cost a few years ago!