- Thread starter qwakers
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My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.
3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.
The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.
Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.
The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.
I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.
I keep a handful of these in my fasteners box for plasterboard.
Fixed grandkids 50cc quad bike yesterday, carb was greened up, exhaust box broken off bracket and pipe. All back together, set up and running lovely, just before the rain started. Happy grandson, especially when I removed the throttle limit screw.
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We had similar when I used to help a mate run mini-bikes at country fairs, anything with a gearshift would be put in first gear and the shifter removed and those without had the throttlestop screwed down, come the end of the show we would "de-restrict" them for a quick razz round before loading them on the van, we would get a few kids come running back to have a go on the faster bikes
Morrisman
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They might have worked, but the wood I needed to attach to the wall was a good 1 1/2” thick, so probably not enough thread in the screw.
qwakers
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these are worth keeping around for stuff like that..
www.macdonaldplumbingsupplies.com
Plasterboard Fixings Red 18mm - Pack of 25 GP1825
Simple and speedy, the slim gripping wings and outer collar work together to provide a strong, secure anchor. Just drill, tap, turn.
www.macdonaldplumbingsupplies.com
The_Yellow_Ardvark
https://www.death-clock.org/
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Screwfix twin screws do fit.
Do it all the time.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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Spot and dab plaster board is evil , I found rubber Rawlnuts with the screws are ideal for such jobs but are not cheap . so are hammer fit window frame fixers or chemical anchors with gauze top hats to contain the resin fill .My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.
3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.
The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.
Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.
The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.
I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.
In 1981 the gas board monkey's fitted our four Baxi Bermuda balanced flue heaters through a plaster board inner skin , vapour barriertjhen across the 70 mm void then into brick that skinned the outside of the home . They used copper tube to make the sleeves to reach through the board & void .
Lovely job two weeks later the brick skin had split in every brick where they had used steel Rawl Bolt anchors in the brick
ajlelectronics
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Thought I had blown this expensive display up! Finally got it working, possibly a dry joint being the culprit.
Dcal
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Today I fixed a small leak on the washing machine.
Simple repair, just needed to tighten the inlet pipe.
How and ever, the machine is 900mm above the floor and there isn't much room.
It seemed a good idea at the time (30 years ago) but now I'm older and weaker, it's getting more difficult to drag it out to get access to the back.
However there are some advantages to being a hoarder and I bought a lifting table on here from @Dozzer (many thanks) and I did think at the time it would be useful for this very purpose. (Amongst many other)
Not easy to get a proper photo but you should get the idea. The table didn't extend to the height I needed, so a pallet and some 4 x 2 was pressed into service to increase the working height.
To make it easier to slide the machine out, I added some galv sheet.
It still didn't want to slide so the real hoarding came into play and I remember I had some small bridge bearings that I saved from the skip with no real thought as to why.
With a couple of small square plates, to spread the loads from the feet, they worked a treat and the machine slide out easily. I had to reposition the bearings a couple of times but it was all very straightforward to move.
I was then able to lower and move the machine to get full access.
Then, just reverse the procedure to get it back in and job jobbed.
Simple repair, just needed to tighten the inlet pipe.
How and ever, the machine is 900mm above the floor and there isn't much room.
It seemed a good idea at the time (30 years ago) but now I'm older and weaker, it's getting more difficult to drag it out to get access to the back.
However there are some advantages to being a hoarder and I bought a lifting table on here from @Dozzer (many thanks) and I did think at the time it would be useful for this very purpose. (Amongst many other)
Not easy to get a proper photo but you should get the idea. The table didn't extend to the height I needed, so a pallet and some 4 x 2 was pressed into service to increase the working height.
To make it easier to slide the machine out, I added some galv sheet.
It still didn't want to slide so the real hoarding came into play and I remember I had some small bridge bearings that I saved from the skip with no real thought as to why.
With a couple of small square plates, to spread the loads from the feet, they worked a treat and the machine slide out easily. I had to reposition the bearings a couple of times but it was all very straightforward to move.
I was then able to lower and move the machine to get full access.
Then, just reverse the procedure to get it back in and job jobbed.
Blue Chips
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Spouse found a nice old gauge for me for a few bucks whilst browsing in an antique shop. She knows I like vintage/antique industrial items, and this also bore the name of a local company. The glass was missing, and it looked pretty rough, but I was optimistic that it would clean up...and I have a hard time turning down any new additions to my growing pile of old metal stuff.
It turned out to be an easy fix. Cleaning the face, touching up the hands, polishing the brass, and cutting a new 'glass' from some polycarbonate sheet took a total of an hour and 15 minutes.
It turned out to be an easy fix. Cleaning the face, touching up the hands, polishing the brass, and cutting a new 'glass' from some polycarbonate sheet took a total of an hour and 15 minutes.
Red'n'Black
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Great job. Any idea what it came out of?
My first thought was an aircraft, but 70,000 ft sounds like a lot for something of that vintage...
My sister asked if I could pop round and screw a couple of pieces of wood to her wall, so she could put a stair gate in. Sounded simple, so I grabbed a bunch of various size screws and a couple of battery tools and went round.
3 1/2 hours later it’s done….. and I’m absolutely knackered. My diseased bod seems to get weaker by the day.
The hard part was fastening to plaster board wall. She bought some of those little spring butterfly fixings, but the plasterboard was fastened up by the blobs of cement method, meaning no room to use them, there was but a 3/4” gap.
Loads of head scratching, puffing and panting, and I went back home and got the big hammer drill, some hefty 4” screws and big rawl plugs.
The wall behind the plasterboard drilled horribly, just seemed to break up as I went into it, starting with a smaller drill and working up. But eventually I got four big plugs in, and carefully tightened down on the huge screws. Amazingly all four got a good grip, and the wood batten appears rock solid.
I slept for five hours straight last night. Not done that for months. The sleep of victory.
Washing up liquid - applied liberally under the feet and where they will be sliding.
Works even better to get it back as it simply dries - might not work quite so well on ply, but on lino, tiles etc - non more trying to rock the thing under a worktop.
Blue Chips
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I don't know what it was used for. I was trying to find a catalog that I could browse through. I found a couple of their older catalogs for sale on eBay, but I don't want to buy them just to look this up. W. L. Blake & Company date back quite a ways; I don't know how far back, but I did see some office correspondence for sale on eBay dated 1891, and the letterhead said "Manufacturers Agents for Railroad, Steamship, and Mill Supplies."
Interesting that it doesn't say what units are used for the altitude measurement. Maybe it's some kind of 'equivalent' altitude, or ???
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Blue Chips
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Thanks @Onoff. That looks like a virtually identical gauge, other than the company. Since it was manufactured or sold to a boiler company, it seems logical that it could have been used on a boiler or on some kind of steam equipment.
I just tried applying some air pressure to the gauge. The mechanism seems to be working smoothly, but I have NO idea if it's even reasonably accurate anymore. When I applied exactly 35 PSI of air to it, the gauge read 64. The closest pressure unit equivalent to 35 PSI I've found was 71 inches of mercury, which isn't terribly far off, considering that the gauge is probably way out of calibration. Inches of mercury is/was commonly used to measure atmospheric pressure, so that would be a possible unit for an 'altitude' gauge. Maybe one of our steam afficionados would know more about it.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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That's exactly how I set in and also replaced both 12 kg washer & later on our 7 kg condensing dryer out in the mancupboard .. giving a light smear of washing up liquid on the top side of the plastic sheet make it slide in & out of the platform a lot easier as well as allowing the machines to be slide backwards off the sheet.
Calculate it so that when fully back the rear feet will be off the plastic sheet by about 1/2 an inch , so all you need to di is gently raise the front and pull the plastic sheet free.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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Pressure gauge for engines & vacuum brakes so pressure can be adjusted ???
Finishing off this concrete floor at the back of the workshop,i laid this in 1997! a round tuit.some lengths of 6 round was salvaged from a tube paint rack I last used in the nineties in order to bond with the original pour,then a length of angle,suitably tensioned to the end stanchion to act as an edge finisher,also with spikes. All vibrated with the poker.
