What "man jobs" have you done today?

[BennyC]

Lounge door had been re-hung and butchered a bit so cut some shims and filled for a first pass. A bit rough but will fill and then sand when it's eventually repainted. Less ghastly to look at for the time being anyway.

Cheap cast iron rad popped up on marketplace (£50) so quickly fashioned a stretcher out of some 2x4 so that it could be laid down and slid into the boot over MDF, before being strapped down. Blocks of wood pictured were placed beneath the stretcher so it could be picked up easily. 'Only' 90-100kg this one , which is considerably lighter than the one in the lounge.

Needs a bit of TLC and a respray, will pressure test and replace the bushes and seals.

 

[BennyC]

It would have been easier for them to just use a full tile and butt the bath up against it than cut tiles all along the bottom edge

Presuming the wall is perfectly straight! I agree, we did this with my O/H's bathroom though caulking down that edge does use a considerable amount of silicone. I'm not sure which is deemed technically 'correct'.

Easier to get the bath out your way if you ever need to, as tiling once it's in to all three sides mean it needs to be slid out or dropped and slid out.

 

[Martynt74]

Had the week off work last week and my wifes been looking at tables which were expensive. Man maths came out and i bought a load of tools (which i needed anyway as sold them when leaving the UK!)

Her table was fairly straight forward, however i ordered some 75x75 wood for the legs, she then said it was too chunky so i went and bought some 3x2, cut it all and cut some recesses on the table top for the tenons to fit into (finally got to use the bargain 18v Dewalt router i picked up the week before leaving the UK which was only £100 ), only for her to say they looked too thin and she wanted the original wood but to fit it at an angle. This meant the original mortices weren't in the right place

I then realised my chisels are absolutely junk as i threw them into a toolbox when packing up and didn't have anything to sharpen them. Since the legs were angled at 15 degrees i bailed at cutting new tenons at an angle because i was being lazy and used dowels. Not having a dowel jig i just drilled a bit of an offcut and used it as a template. Drilling was slightly off, but it worked alright with a bit of effort.

Legs are currently being painted black and then the top will be waxed.




Also decided to finally replace a piece of MDF offcut i've been using as a desktop for ~2 years. I saw a really cool video on Youtube where someone painted some OSB and then sanded it down so that the paint only really holds into the gaps between the pieces. It's a really fine balance though when you can easily chase perfection and think a bit more sanding is needed, only to go too far and have some tearout. Quite happy with how it looks, but needs more finishing and sanding/painting on the edges.
Most people on Youtube also finish with epoxy resin, but i'm just going to use polyurathane. Annoyingly some leaked in the car which is extra annoying as it's really expensive here in Spain at €28 for a 750ml tin

 

[Richie]

Presuming the wall is perfectly straight! I agree, we did this with my O/H's bathroom though caulking down that edge does use a considerable amount of silicone. I'm not sure which is deemed technically 'correct'.

Easier to get the bath out your way if you ever need to, as tiling once it's in to all three sides mean it needs to be slid out or dropped and slid out.

Every day is a school day - I assumed (not being a plumber) that the edge of the rim of the bath is butted against the wall (perhaps a mm or 2 away). Are you saying that the tiles are meant to sort of "sit on top" of the lip of the bath rather than the bath lip pushing against the tiled wall? (I hope I am making sense)

 

[200sols]

Every day is a school day - I assumed (not being a plumber) that the edge of the rim of the bath is butted against the wall (perhaps a mm or 2 away). Are you saying that the tiles are meant to sort of "sit on top" of the lip of the bath rather than the bath lip pushing against the tiled wall? (I hope I am making sense)

Bath should be set in place first and then wall is tiled from the bath. Usually can't just start on a full tile because often it will leave odd cuts elsewhere in the room.However no excuse for leaving a big gap, usually it's just a 2mm gap.

 

[Richie]

I got a yucca tree about 17 years ago (it was likely 3 years old itself so its now 20 years old).

It got too tall and unwieldy so, around 4 years ago, I took the top branches off of it, leaving it as 4 stumps attached to the main trunk.

I then potted the decapitated branches to see how it went. The original tree started sprouting fresh branches and the 4x "child" branches developed roots from bare stumps.

After a couple of years, I lopped the top off the child branches and potted 2x branches together... These also sprouted new growth


Anyways, the original tree has been in the same pot for nigh on 20 years and NEVER been repotted or put in a different pot so I thought I would sort things out... How's this for a rootbound plant?

So I took a mini saw to the root ball and removed the bottom 1/3rd of it as well as some from around the sides. Teased out the roots a lot and then got to repotting it and its "children" into proper pots:


Final result. As you can see, for being rootbound, this thing has done remarkably well (original pot for the big one is now housing one of its "children" - middle blue pot with integrated bowl)

These things just refuse to die

 

[Simps]

These things just refuse to die

I bet my good lady would manage to kill them.

 

[LuckyBenski]

These things just refuse to die

You just can't kill them it seems! My mum has one she's had since I was small so probably 30+ years, we've cut it to a stump at least once. It's currently about 4 feet long, but for a time it grew horizontally towards the window. It then curved up to rest on the windowsill and bushed out. Amazing thing.

 

[BennyC]

Ripped the kitchen out and decided to live dangerously and cut the hot feed whilst live as the iso valve wasn't playing ball and I hadn't ventured in to the loft to realise there was a gate valve on the tank which would have sufficed. Nothing quite like it to get your heart rate up and adrenaline going it then transpired the (very old) valve would then isolate

Took all the tiles that came off the wall to the tip and then went to Screwfix for supplies.

Ceilings in both rooms coming down on Friday/Saturday and then roof-tiles off the pitched area as best I can before the cavalry arrive to get cracking on Monday

 

[doodah]

Convinced I found new types of life in the pipes under the bathroom sink after dismantling them for a clean, absolute vile textures and smells.

No wonder splash back from sink u-bends is an issue with bacteria in hospitals.

 

[marinersfan]

Slathered some linseed oil on the patio doorstep.

 

[zom247]

Finished the top part of my patio yesterday. Removed old grout, cleaned, power washed, sealed and new grout in (over the space of 2 weeks). Used Sika FastFix and compacted it all down this time (installers just brushed it in and left when it was done). Spent over 6 hrs on my knees and really feeling it today, still got the bottom half to do but that can wait!

 

[Werewolf]

Did some gardening.

Planted 3 hazel saplings, I've got another 8 to go in tomorrow

We've had some hazel trees at the bottom of the garden since the house was build, but they're not producing as much now (I suspect in about 10 years we may need to have them taken down), so I thought it was better to plant some saplings and let them have a chance to grow before a bit before anything has to be done with the existing trees.
I'm also hoping they'll help hold the bank of the stream together as they grow, as the council have steadily removed all the trees from the opposite bank and you can see how it's allowed a lot of erosion.

 

[Mysterae_]

Made some homebrew weedkiller to try out it's efficacy .

5L white vinegar, cup of salt and a few squirts of washing up liquid, less than a fiver to make. Compare that to the backup plan - the Gallup weedkiller at £20 for 5L. Seeing as I probably need another 20L I do hope the homebrew works, I'll know in a day or so.

Not forgetting the Makita 18V sprayer, because manual pump sprayers are for sadists .

 

[DJ_Bucho]

Keep us posted "Mysterae_" I've got some weed killing to do myself, and I've been putting off buying the proper stuff as it's not cheap.

 

[Armageus]

Made some homebrew weedkiller to try out it's efficacy .

5L white vinegar, cup of salt and a few squirts of washing up liquid, less than a fiver to make. Compare that to the backup plan - the Gallup weedkiller at £20 for 5L. Seeing as I probably need another 20L I do hope the homebrew works, I'll know in a day or so.

RIP ground. Vinegar and salt will do more harm than Glyphosate ever will.

If you're worried about cost then you've bought the wrong product as that looks like ready to use (i.e. pre-diluted).

What you need is https://green-care.co.uk/product/gallup-hi-aktiv-490g-glyphosate-5ltr/ and at recommended dilution rates that will probably last you a good few years.

 

[JRJ]

Made some homebrew weedkiller to try out it's efficacy .

5L white vinegar, cup of salt and a few squirts of washing up liquid, less than a fiver to make. Compare that to the backup plan - the Gallup weedkiller at £20 for 5L. Seeing as I probably need another 20L I do hope the homebrew works, I'll know in a day or so.

Not forgetting the Makita 18V sprayer, because manual pump sprayers are for sadists .

18v Sprayer (Quickly browsing the Dewalt catalogue)

 

[b0rn2sk8]

18v Sprayer (Quickly browsing the Dewalt catalogue)

I did exactly the same, it looks like they do one but not in the U.K.

 

[marinersfan]

Keep us posted "Mysterae_" I've got some weed killing to do myself, and I've been putting off buying the proper stuff as it's not cheap.

I've been using boiling water as we have a dog who thinks he's a police drugs dog. So as much as he's a pain in the arse I'd rather not poison the little plum.
Stuff does grow back, but it does kill off a reasonable chunk of stuff.

 

[JRJ]

I did exactly the same, it looks like they do one but not in the U.K.

Yes much to my disappointment, that and the chainsaw I'm planning on getting would have completed my garden setup