What "man jobs" have you done today?

Rewired my bathroom lights. They are MR16 12v so I thought I'd run 4 leds off one transformer (previously one per light as they were 50w halogens). The rewiring wasn't too bad, but kneeling on joists is painful and some bright spark ran some copper pipes over the top too. Anyway changed the wiring and put 4 leds in (they state ac or dc) and they flicked on for a split second then off again. Further research shows this is due to the low current draw, so I've dropped down to 1 halogen 50w and 2 5w leds while I wait on a decent led driver to be shipped. I'm now running a 60w transformer at 60w:eek:, but only for a couple of days and not for long at a time. I'm hoping I can just swap the transformer for the driver and all will be well. I'm going to have 20w of leds running off a 45w driver so shouldn't get too hot. I'm beginning to hate electric stuff though :p.
 
It's not something I did today, but I recently installed one of these into the light switch for the loft lights. Previously it was difficult to find the switch in the darkness but now it's a doddle:

BYcn7ba.jpg

It's not quite as retina burningly bright as the image suggests, it's quite a gentle blue glow.
 
It's taken me about 4 weeks in total... working evenings and the odd weekend but chuffed with the end result...

Fair bit of tidying left to do..repaint the walls and build another one in the other alcove before the carpet comes...

It's got three pullouts inside - one full width keyboard tray and two pull outs for the printer and scanner thing..

£400 in materials and hardware and lights... versus about £1500k for a cabinet maker.

 
itsallaboutyou said:
It's taken me about 4 weeks in total... working evenings and the odd weekend but chuffed with the end result...

Fair bit of tidying left to do..repaint the walls and build another one in the other alcove before the carpet comes...

It's got three pullouts inside - one full width keyboard tray and two pull outs for the printer and scanner thing..

£400 in materials and hardware and lights... versus about £1500k for a cabinet maker.

Click to expand...
We're wanting to go full DIY to build a cabinet across our dining room wall. Will be about 3.5 metres so that's why I want to diy:D. Out of interest, why did you put a back on it? We were thinking as the walls will be a sort or primer grey (or chic shadow by its proper name:rolleyes:), were toying with wood painted white then an open back to give some good contrast. Obviously this is assuming the walls are reasonable flat:p.
 
Typical wonky walls! I made it in 25mm MR MDF, using a Festool Domino - glued and screwed. It’s basically a kitchen carcass.

The doors are faker - 12mm back with 12mm rails and stiles. Next ones I’m doing loose tenons.

I put the back in as I’m using the LR32 Shelf pins and as the alcove is nowhere near square - just made sense. The shelves c a be moved up and down as required.

I’d recommend a look at Peter Millard on YouTube - he’s pretty much the oracle I’m my opinion.

Only thing I wished I’d done was to paint it first.. but hey ho.

Give it a go!

edit - think about the spans of your shelves over that distance.

i built a 6m one in our back room, 6m x 2.2m high and used intermediate uprights - due to the sheer amount of junk that we put on them.

I think about 750mm is probably the max without some supports - metal section or torsion box type shelves. The kids climb up ours like an adventure playground.
 
itsallaboutyou said:
It's taken me about 4 weeks in total... working evenings and the odd weekend but chuffed with the end result...

Fair bit of tidying left to do..repaint the walls and build another one in the other alcove before the carpet comes...

It's got three pullouts inside - one full width keyboard tray and two pull outs for the printer and scanner thing..

£400 in materials and hardware and lights... versus about £1500k for a cabinet maker.

Click to expand...

Very nice, well done.
 
itsallaboutyou said:
Typical wonky walls! I made it in 25mm MR MDF, using a Festool Domino - glued and screwed. It’s basically a kitchen carcass.

The doors are faker - 12mm back with 12mm rails and stiles. Next ones I’m doing loose tenons.

I put the back in as I’m using the LR32 Shelf pins and as the alcove is nowhere near square - just made sense. The shelves c a be moved up and down as required.

I’d recommend a look at Peter Millard on YouTube - he’s pretty much the oracle I’m my opinion.

Only thing I wished I’d done was to paint it first.. but hey ho.

Give it a go!

edit - think about the spans of your shelves over that distance.

i built a 6m one in our back room, 6m x 2.2m high and used intermediate uprights - due to the sheer amount of junk that we put on them.

I think about 750mm is probably the max without some supports - metal section or torsion box type shelves. The kids climb up ours like an adventure playground.
Click to expand...
Oh I'd be using wood, but there would be a seating bench of maybe 1m wide in the middle, which will be the longest unsupported bit, although can always add brackets to the wall. I was going to ask about the painting, as I've painted a few built in cupboards and it's a ball ache. I've got my Mrs hooked on lego, so the rip shelf will be displaying the hp castle, the Disney castle and the diagon alley sets. Might get titanic too if there space.
 
theone8181 said:
Oh I'd be using wood, but there would be a seating bench of maybe 1m wide in the middle, which will be the longest unsupported bit, although can always add brackets to the wall. I was going to ask about the painting, as I've painted a few built in cupboards and it's a ball ache. I've got my Mrs hooked on lego, so the rip shelf will be displaying the hp castle, the Disney castle and the diagon alley sets. Might get titanic too if there space.
Click to expand...


My first efforts were in WBP plywood - very rough and the edges are notorious for splitting. I moved onto a nice quality birch plywood - but just ridiculously expensive now. With the ply - I found I was having to spend loadsa dosh on trim just to cover the edges. MDF is not like it was back in the day - very robust - light and a doddle to paint. Various primers available - but I stumbled upon Zinsser Bin a few years ago - coupled with an eggshell paint - it's pretty much indestructible. I didn't realise when I bought the paint that this stuff is fire retardant for like an hour too... no idea.

If you're painting it - you're not going to see the woodgrain anyway? Best thing I ever bought was a track for my circular saw.. absolute doddle.

We had been trying to keep this room kid free - but as we've got four - we've realised were fighting a losing battle! Only thing I'm gonna try is to make a dielectric mirror thing for a TV - dunno if it'll work - but seems simple enough. The other unit will pretty much be exclusively lego - at the request of our eldest.

Good luck!
 
itsallaboutyou said:
My first efforts were in WBP plywood - very rough and the edges are notorious for splitting. I moved onto a nice quality birch plywood - but just ridiculously expensive now. With the ply - I found I was having to spend loadsa dosh on trim just to cover the edges. MDF is not like it was back in the day - very robust - light and a doddle to paint. Various primers available - but I stumbled upon Zinsser Bin a few years ago - coupled with an eggshell paint - it's pretty much indestructible. I didn't realise when I bought the paint that this stuff is fire retardant for like an hour too... no idea.

If you're painting it - you're not going to see the woodgrain anyway? Best thing I ever bought was a track for my circular saw.. absolute doddle.

We had been trying to keep this room kid free - but as we've got four - we've realised were fighting a losing battle! Only thing I'm gonna try is to make a dielectric mirror thing for a TV - dunno if it'll work - but seems simple enough. The other unit will pretty much be exclusively lego - at the request of our eldest.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Track for circular saw? Might have to investigate, as cutting the lengths might be interesting otherwise:p. I wasn't thinking plywood anyway, I just prefer wood even if it won't be visible it just feels more solid, as I probably could get away without an extra support in the middle.
 
lewism said:
Very nice, well done.
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cheers mate - sorry missed this!


theone8181 said:
Track for circular saw? Might have to investigate, as cutting the lengths might be interesting otherwise:p. I wasn't thinking plywood anyway, I just prefer wood even if it won't be visible it just feels more solid, as I probably could get away without an extra support in the middle.
Click to expand...

aye - I’ve a Bosch plunge saw with a rail - I used to have a cordless circular saw - but swapped for the plunge saw as a) it’s a lot more powerful as it’s corded and b) much better depth control. If you’re only using it once in a blue moon - then have a look in Aldi at their version - it’s actually a decent brand just with their stamp on it, same for Lidl if I recall.

I can cross cut full sheets and rip them down with the rails. For smaller cuts I just use a handsaw or mitre saw - if I can be bothered hulking it out the garage - it’s not light!

I kind of bought into the Bosch 18v battery system and my OCD won’t let me change.. apart from the festool domino which is basically a very fancy biscuit jointer - with a price tag to match.

Timber has shot up astronomically - I rebuilt a section of our stairs - to fit in a loo - and it would cost roughly double now..

But deffo avoid the sheds if you can and go to a timber yard like Jewson or Huws Gray - slip the lads a few beers and they’ll cut it with no bother!

I use 2d auto cad to sketch it up and muck about in sketch up to see it proper.

also Google ‘sheet goods cut list optimiser’ and it’ll work out the best cut methods..
 
My Mrs has been looking at the new ring piece...for the front door. Ring doorbell 4 advanced posh thing.
Installed it and realised I'd benefit from an angle wedge thing to make it aim more at the floor because it only captures tall people when up close even with wide angle lens. I was limited as to where I could put it as I wanted to cover up old screw holes on the frame. So I'm going to get a downwards wedge to add to the existing horizontal wedge to angle it in more. May also get a rain hood thing for it as sometimes the drips over the lens affect the image. Now deciding what to do about chimes and echo dots and device notifications.

Setup sons new mic arm.

Changed the filter on the hot tap.

Installed our new integrated dishwasher.

Tidied the shed.

Disassembled the chairs we got down and built for Xmas so I could put them in the loft another year!

I've got to do the bulbs on the car this weekend. I'll probably chose a time when it's dark, raining and I'm hungover...standard.
 
Liquid_Entity said:
Put the pedals on my boys balance bike. It's a 3 in 1 bike where it starts off as a balance bike then you fit it with pedals and chain and when they get bigger you can make it bigger again so should last a good 3 to 4 years. Then it goes to my 2nd boy who's not even 1 yet. A good investment bike I'd say.

Click to expand...

What the Brand, might be a investment down the line.
 
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