Home DIY

Oh yeah good point, never had a wooden door go on fire but there’s always a first time isn’t it

I have a cotech (from clas olson 5 year guaranteed) corded one. Bought for one job and has been used several times since. It has quick change and am still on the original bits. I did buy a ceramic cutter...cant remember from where but is brilliant

Edit: They were saxon blades. Also as @Bobbo said the ones I tried were all equally vibrationey, but not tried a fien one.

More like that the fire/heat melts the frame and the door falls out.

some foam remover to clean the bits where all the foam has got on the frame/wall/you.

That's why I use expanding foam tape these days.

https://youtu.be/Vj9fSK1kBAk

That and the three days I once spent cleaning foam from a newly installed resin bonded driveway after the worst apprentice I ever had accidentally managed to roll a can of it under a sheet of corex, sit on the can and make a fucking hole in it. I came out of the house to find him floating on a cloud of sticky shit only to then be chased down the driveway by the homeowner. Managed to get most of it off with solvent cleaner which got me VERY high but alot had already cured and had to be chipped off. I swore.lots.

Woh... Expanding foam tape AND a free velcro cable wrap!

I'm sold!

Work don't give me Apprentices any more as they all end up hating me because I make them do shitty things.

A) That's the point.

B) I don't do 'lunch' and they bitch about me not driving them to the nearest Golden Arches.

C) The last one left his iPhone on the dash and someone smashed the passenger window to nick it. And then tried to blame me because I told him he couldn't take his phone to a job because all he did was FB/Insta/Porn if he had it on him.

Fuck em.

I kept coming home to find the electricians apprentice with his phone duck taped to his head in a comedy hands free music setup.

Has this been resolved yet 🙄

Have carved time tomorrow am.

I don't think I ever came back on this, bought the kit and followed that vid and it all worked out much better than I'd achieved before, so thanks!

Excellent. I need to do some siliconing, maybe I will now.

My UPVC front door mechanism is really stiff, just the mechanism as it's the same when it's open. It's never been great ad we had the stone done outside which threw up a lot of dust so it's even worse now. Reading some conflicting opinions about the correct type of lube to use, some say silicone, some say graphite, there's obviously a lot of dust in there already. Is there any way to clean it first without replacing, and any [more] opinions on what to lubricate it with once it's clean?

Work don't give me Apprentices any more as they all end up hating me because I make them do shitty things.

Now imagine this frustration but multiply it by the fact that you are paying them, paying for their fuck ups and paying for the damage that they inevitably cause to your tools. Don't get me wrong when I had apprentices I did have some good ones but on balance it wasn't worth it for me.

I use 3 in 1 spray oil for the multipoint locking mechanism.

If it's gritty, it could be building debris, or quite often flakes of pvc from when the frame was routed. Remove the locking mechanism and give it a good brush off with a paintbrush and flush it with a load of spray.

Handles, 2 or 3 screws, pull off the handles and spindle.

Cylinder, remove the screw inline with the cylinder and turn the key to 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock to align the cam so that you can withdraw it from the gearbox

Draw a datum line across the strip and door edge, so you get it back in the same place.
Watch out for the screws that hold the centre and hook gearboxes onto the strip, many are torq, but some are pozi head machine screws. Other gearboxes are swaged into place.

Remove the screws that hold the strip to the door.

Pull the strip and gearboxes out of the frame. Sometimes they are quite tight, but check for missed screws before going mad.

Use a handle and spindle to work the mechanism and give it a thorough clean.

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Clean it out with brake cleaner, you don't want to add anything that can be made in to a grinding paste to the system. Then graphite powder.

Cheers, that all makes sense. So I shouldn't undo the torx screws and the gearboxes come out with the strip?

Might wait until it's not blowing a hoolie until attempting that.

That's the thing, the dust is already in there, from the building work.

As @ElephantBreath said, if the cylinder is gritty and rough to turn the key, graphite is recommended for lubricating it, but flush out with something that's not going to set, or collect more muck in the future.

So I shouldn't undo the torx screws and the gearboxes come out with the strip?

Exactly. If you remove a short M4 machine screw from the handle area or next to a hook, put it back in.
If your mechanism has screws holding the gearboxes onto the face plate, leave them in place and remove the complete strip as one. If after cleaning and lube, it's still poor, remove the centre gearbox and see if its the centre or hook gearboxes. If its the centre, you can get replacements for some, but not all.

Here's an
Top. Avocet mechanisms with the gearbox rivitted on.
Middle. ERA mechanism with gearbox screwed on
Bottom. ERA gearbox.

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Cheers guys, will try this tomorrow

Well I have had a new fireproof door and frame fitted, there seem to be the most pointless locking points. The catches come out when the door is closed, and open on opening that handle. There is no lift the handle to double or dead lock.

Will photograph and see what you guy think.

Is it this lock?
https://www.fullex-locks.com/fullex-fire-door-slam-shut-autolock/

If so, it's effectively lifting the handle every time the door closes and automatically throwing the top and bottom bolts.
Turning the key/cylinder throws the central Deadbolt and blocks the operation of the handles, like a common lift lever multipoint lock

Morning all

Sorry a very quick question for something that I hope will be easily rectified.

My toilet doesn't seem to want to flush - as in the handle is tough as nails and I risk breaking the damn thing.
Secondly - it seems to fill very, very slowly with water - as in trickle. To the point where it never actually fills up and just seems to be constantly making a racket, while using god knows how much water.

I've tried googling and yet I don't seem to be able to ask the correct questions.

Could anyone here help?

The gearbox on our equivalent multi-point locking system failed due to a moving part (a small cast toothed-bar) breaking. Finding a replacement took a bit of googling, measuring, and talking to someone at a locksmith on the phone while they measured up a replacement, but I did find one. I used silicone spray to get everything running smoothly, but having recently used graphite on our front door cylinder (grinding a pencil lead into the keyhole) I can vouch for that making everything very smooth.

My toilet doesn't seem to want to flush

What type of flush is it? An old syphon? Does it look like pic. 1?

If so, and you have to depress the handle multiple times for it to flush the plastic diaphragm in the bottom is ripped and you'll need a new one.

Or is the handle just really stiff but flushes on first go? You could slacken off the plastic nut on the inside of the cistern.

As for the slow water fill it's could be low water pressure, a stopcock/ quarter turn valve not fully open.

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Nope not that pic - more like this one below, only the flush is a handle and not a button.;

Strange that the slow fill thing happened at the same time as the toilet handle becomming stiff as nails.

Probably too late to the party for this one. Try a split batten/french cleat. Or some kind of keyhole hanger. If you're worried about the mirror being knocked up and out of the keyhole or off the split batten, you could opt for a locking keyhole like these ryman security fixings: https://absoluteproduct.com/ryman-hanger.html

You could also add a thin backing board to strengthen the whole piece, lots of small screws to hold the backing board on, and the board will give you extra thickness to use bigger screws for your mounting options.