Home DIY

What are you cutting with & against?

Just a standard hand saw with a bit of masking tape around where I'm cutting.

For some reason reverse cutting comes to mind

You could score along the bottom face to pre-cut the wood there - maybe a very shallow cut with the saw held parallel.

You could try scoring with a stanley blade first. I reckon it'll be tricky with hand tools.

Are you up to the sealing/painting part yet? I've just finished redoing our floor and skirting. This is next on the list, any tips appreciated :)

Not yet. I mixed up a really stiff consistency of rapid set repair mortar and filled the gaps, having removed most of the loose material first. The stiff consistence was to try to reduce the tendency of it to run into the floor void - I couldn't guarantee there was an adequate grout stop/ tray under.

Where I needed to create formwork for the sides I used some timber, lined with shiny cardboard which I generously coated in vaseline as a release agent. It seemed to work well.

While the grout was setting, I gave the surface a few mists with a water spray bottle and worked to improve the surface finish, first with a trowel and then with a damp sponge.

The result looks adequate, but its not fine presentable work. It will however be under our cabinets so thats good enough for me, the main concern was that a cabinet leg might want to rest on a rubble-filled hole :)

We are waiting for it to dry out properly before sealing/ painting. I'll get some photos.

Got it, thanks.

Yeah I was thinking the same. I'll try and remove a section and see if it's obviously 2 separate beads.

Cheers, scoring sounds like a possible. The other issue I had was after the cut trying to take small amounts off to fit neatly, planing also seemed to tear up the melamine.

Finished my final bit of lockdown carpentry today; creating a small cupboard at the bottom of my bookshelves to disguise the diagonal part of the stairs, and hide the general wonkiness of the wall there. I got a bit carried away with the doors and ended up making traditional panel doors from pine, and fitting 3 hinges just for looks, which made everything just that much harder to fit.

There will be some filling and painting to hide the screw and the joins, but for now it all needs to be removable.

Looks great!

Fair enough! Thankfully this one won't need repairs, just looks a bit shabby. I dread to think what the ones downstairs will be like when we get to them. They've been tiled over in a bad way.

What’s the forum recommended stain blocker/sealer?
I’ve got some yellowing coming through on a ceiling and coving.

Zinsser Cover Stain is the usual recommendation. Worked well for me.

Zinsser Cover Stain is as aggi has mentioned a good one. It's available to brush on or spray. The spray is great if you can contain the overspray and in some cases you can avoid painting the ceiling. Paintable version needs turpentine clean up for the brushes. White spirit doesn't work.

Thanks both, will give it a shot.

Hafele catalog would have them. Have you measured the cup size and are there any names stamped into the metal?

Also, whats the problem with the ones in the picture?

Speaking of Hafele, any ideas where is good to buy their stuff from if you're a DIYer? They have quite a lot of useful stuff but I always end up trawling around for somewhere I can actually buy it from.

I've found that Rustin's does a better job than the Zinsser version. Covers better and requires fewer coats.

No stamps I can see, thanks for the tip, will try hafele.

Those in the pic are fine, its the ones on the other cupboard that have broken.

Tricky to answer as I have an account with them. SDS in Battersea can get anything in their catalog, probably a lot of architectural hardware suppliers that can order from them or already carry it in stock.

They are trying to make their order process more friendly for small orders but they used to make it expensive to get a few small bits.

Shots fired :)

I should try the Rustin's. I am trying to convert to UK made products. Mostly because of the environmental impact of transporting paint or fillers. The decorating industry has embraced a lot of foreign products in the last 20 years.

I think it would be a very special hand saw to manage not to shell the edge.

Some track saws have a special setting to score melamine before full plunge to cut it. That works very well but I still use a special blade which has rounded teeth in between more normal types.

When you think about how the 'set' of a saw scores and gouges it's not surprising the melamine shatters. I have had slightly better results with Japanese pull saws but the melamine coating is pretty rough on those.

search term 'corner cup hinge'

https://www.hafele.co.uk/INTERSHOP/web/WFS/Haefele-HUK-Site/en_GB/-/GBP/ViewParametricSearch-SimpleOfferSearch?SearchType=all&SearchTerm=corner+cup+hinge

There are a lot to choose from but you are best placed to narrow it down.