What "man jobs" have you done today?

HardwareGeek · 10 Sep 2013 at 20:15

DogsBody said:
doing it that way will be more of a PITA because of the distance between the 2 lights and the fact that the wire will need to be run through several joists and would need either a huge piece of plasterboard removing or several smaller ones.

I have spoken to the sparky who installed the electrics and he thinks he can call round tomorrow (he needs to repair a dimmer switch that is broken anyway) so hopefully he can just sort it, the cables are run for him which is the fiddliest bit I guess.

For normal wiring you would have 2 (maybe 3) wires going to the old light
1 - feed / loop which is perm live and neutral (x2 if this is not the last light in the circuit)
2- switch, takes perm live to switch and switch live brings power back from switch to turn light on

if yours is wired this way, the most common way, then cutting into 1 cable you find in the ceiling will not work, from your description sounds like you have cut into a loop cable, perm live and neutral.

The only way cutting into 1 cable would work would be if your lights are wired "loop in at the switch" rather than at the light, this would mean that you have a neutral and switch live going from the switch to the light, and so cutting into this would work

you can tell if you have loop at the switch because you would have neutrals in a choc block behind the switch

valve90210 · 10 Sep 2013 at 21:57

MOOGLEYS said:
It's an original 20XE No cat or lambda sensor and 156bhp over 150bhp of the C20XE.

Very fun engines! Not as much power as the Let but so much more of a raw and naughty power! Mate had one in an Astra gsi, was excellent fun!

MOOGLEYS · 10 Sep 2013 at 22:13

valve90210 said:
Very fun engines! Not as much power as the Let but so much more of a raw and naughty power! Mate had one in an Astra gsi, was excellent fun!

It will look a bit like this when finished and be bolted into a 7. Should be very naughty....

valve90210 · 10 Sep 2013 at 22:18

That will be an awful lot of fun!

DogsBody · 11 Sep 2013 at 00:48

HardwareGeek said:
For normal wiring you would have 2 (maybe 3) wires going to the old light
1 - feed / loop which is perm live and neutral (x2 if this is not the last light in the circuit)
2- switch, takes perm live to switch and switch live brings power back from switch to turn light on

if yours is wired this way, the most common way, then cutting into 1 cable you find in the ceiling will not work, from your description sounds like you have cut into a loop cable, perm live and neutral.

The only way cutting into 1 cable would work would be if your lights are wired "loop in at the switch" rather than at the light, this would mean that you have a neutral and switch live going from the switch to the light, and so cutting into this would work

you can tell if you have loop at the switch because you would have neutrals in a choc block behind the switch

Having read that I honestly have no idea.
Behind one of the switches has choc blocks but haven't taken the other one off the wall.
I would try and make sense of what you have written here except the spark is coming tomorrow so it will be just easier overall to leave it to him.
I do appreciate your help though it would have come in handy if I had to troubleshoot this myself

Indie · 11 Sep 2013 at 10:03

The Blackboard is finished! woop, i'll post a pic tonight!

ahar · 14 Sep 2013 at 20:32

Been topping up the loft insulation today - itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy itchy!

Participant · 15 Sep 2013 at 09:10

Installed a replacement electric shower in the ensuite after the last one gave up:

Triton Trance II 9.5kW. Was somewhat hampered by the locations of the existing water and power supplies in choosing the make and model.

Not a fan of electric showers but this one seems better than others I've tried. No way to get a combi-fed one without ripping off loads of tiles unfortunately.

BigBoy · 15 Sep 2013 at 09:35

Painted my freshly plastered kitchen yesterday, runny runny paint and brand new vinyl on the floor is not a good mix. Mrs was going mental at every little bit that hit the floor!! Silly woman, water based paint Ffs!

DogsBody · 16 Sep 2013 at 09:34

filled and sanded 5 holes the electrician made to wire my additional kitchen light in, and my god the dust. me and the missus spent about an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon completely cleaning every item and space in the kitchen because it was everywhere

Wired the power into my shed now, got the sparky to connect the armoured cable to an RCD box in the shed whilst he was here and I wired up 4 sockets and a couple of lights, 5 foot strip light in there certainly lights the things up now

Then installed a workbench using an offcut from the kitchen worktop.
got another one to install tonight to stand the tumble dryer on

Hostile-17 · 16 Sep 2013 at 10:37

put up shelves in nursery & office, replaced a single socket for a double so the Tumble dryer can be fitted in the utility.

Defcon5 · 18 Sep 2013 at 20:25

Been tiling my toilet last 2days, never tiled anything before!

Removed the toilet to go under it and everything

topgun23 · 19 Sep 2013 at 00:16

Defcon5 said:
Been tiling my toilet last 2days, never tiled anything before!

Removed the toilet to go under it and everything

Sounds like its gone well though. Attempting this myself soon so fingers crossed. Anyway today I raked out the old grout on one wall of the bathroom ready for a fresh lot.

Jonnybmac · 22 Sep 2013 at 01:22

Jonnybmac · 22 Sep 2013 at 01:23

godinman · 22 Sep 2013 at 10:43

More of a 'to do'. I've been building a new kitchen (cabinets, built-in bin etc) from scratch (well, pine) so today I'll be making a start on a corner 'L' unit.

I'll post some pictures up in a bit, so far it's cost me £200 in wood and probably about £100 in tools. Not bad considering a new pine kitchen seems to be £1000's of pounds for something not built particularly well.

topgun23 · 22 Sep 2013 at 14:56

Be great to see the pine kitchen pics, thinking of doing something similar myself, but with a kitchen island.

helpimcrap · 22 Sep 2013 at 15:30

Last week took out old washing machine and unhooked it. Yesterday bought a new one and fitted it. Today i did my first wash with fabric conditioner.... Could i have my 'man card' back please? Lol Next job is to fit outside tap after i removed it couple of years ago.

godinman · 22 Sep 2013 at 15:50

I'll post some up when it's completed, luckily I'm keeping the doors off the old units so my 'carpentry' won't really be visible most of the time.

Maccapacca · 22 Sep 2013 at 16:39

4 hours mowing, digging over, weeding and generally tidying the garden for winter.

What "man jobs" have you done today?

Tea Drinker