What I Did This Weekend - In Pictures!

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
A while ago, I picked up an old Aladdin lamp in the Hospice Shop - it needed a new mantle, so I got one from eBay, but never actually got around to lighting it.

Then I bought a second one.

I brought one of them away with me, but it seems to have been the second one, and I had failed to notice that the 'flame spreader,' the perforated 'thimble' that sits in the centre of the wick, was missing. This means that the exhaust, which is intended to cause the mantle to glow white-hot, doesn't flow in quite the correct manner.

Whilst tending the pub fire the other night, after the Scroggdogs, I noticed that one of the many accoutrements scattered round the place included a defunct lamp-base, complete with spreader, which has been borrowed for a test run.

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It's really quite effective, much brighter than the average oil lamp - something like a 25 watt bulb in the old days.
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
I have the base and shade holder like the 1 in the bottom photo. It must be well over 45yrs old now. We had an electric version too, but my nephew slung it out just after Mum died, little shit. Shades were in a deep red. Beautiful when lit.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I have the base and shade holder like the 1 in the bottom photo. It must be well over 45yrs old now. We had an electric version too, but my nephew slung it out just after Mum died, little shit. Shades were in a deep red. Beautiful when lit.
It's a very 'vulnerable' set-up - it really needs to be well away from people...
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Just looked at mine, it doesn't have the hookes to rest the shade on, it's a ring of metal that the shade sort of rests in, if you know what I mean.
We got them both from Bradburys the Potters in 1973.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The hooks on the one above are spot-welded to the ring, and not in a very dependable-looking manner - one seemed a bit suspect and ready to collapse - so, I drilled it through the ring and up into the arm, then hammered a nail in, to give me a bit more confidence in it.

If you do ever get it going, then do be aware that the exhaust from the top of the chimney is very hot - it needs to be venting into an open volume of air, with nothing solid for a few feet above it.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Not much point in clipping me. No money in it.

(Jimmy Fratianno was an ex-mobster who became famous in the 70's when he became an FBI informant. Books about him often refer to the killings he did (he probably did a lot more) and the wonderful term of 'clipping.' Much more eloquent that 'whacking, hitting, taking out or even terminating.' ) :heyhey:
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
very nice , i approve :)

i am looking for something similar , but i will be attaching directly to my wall and having mine as a 'floating' unit .
... just need to find the correct size now.
Before son went shopping for his at Ikea, he got the 'Ikea Place' app which let him position different ones to see how they fit . (Surprised what good quality the furniture is that he's got from there , looks good and sturdy , all the bits and bobs actually present in the boxes, and all the holes actually line up! ) Even if not buying from there, you can get an idea of what sizes would suit best.


Must admit though....son did the majority of the work putting it together. I was the expert at getting rid of the cardboard boxes :lol:
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Today has been a bitty, but generally successful day.

The pub that I currently frequent used to be run by someone with a rather formidable reputation - such that, although she died about twenty years ago, nobody has ever had the nerve to remove her name from the sign, or even from the licensing information above the door...

A lot of her bits and pieces are still where they were - this 'Wee Willy Winkie' candle-holder was in a state of some disrepair. An attempt to re-solder it failed, so a hidden bolt was used instead. And a new 'handle' for the stub-ejector was fashioned.

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The shelving above was, as I said, quite an efficient use of the 4' wide board - this is all the 'waste' from one shelf - two notches for the uprights, a piece out of the corner for the incoming electricity supply and a potentially useful plate from the end.

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I also have another clock job on the go - a 1931 Garrard, from before the time that their foray into wind-up gramophones led to them being better known for making electric turntables.

It's going nicely now, but the Westminster chime sequence is a bit out-of-phase - that can be an awkward thing to resolve.

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I'm running it without the face at the moment - but it looks very nice like that...
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
And, whilst the Sun was out, it seemed a good idea to do a bit more of the greenhouse stiffening.

My supplier had obtained one more length of aluminium angle, so I was able to do the two missing inter-house struts and one of the links to the block-built garage, the most important one, on the most exposed side.

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I also found the step-ladder that I left out there a month ago...
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Maybe some corner to corner to corner inside the square struts might be in order … I'm only saying this because when I attached some supporting struts to an outside porch to support a high aerial pole I'd fastened to the side of it, I noticed a slight side to side movement in strong winds (even though I've got the pole supported by stays.) So put in some cross cut angled struts which seems to have eliminated that. It's took some stick this last month and it's still there, but I'm beginning to think the way the weather is going I might need to consult Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
:eek:
(I searched my garage high and low for a step ladder that had been left out under said porch … but … I blamed a poltergeist. ) :raise:
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
bet it was buried under all those logs @Gramaisc :P
You can actually just see the top of it in the picture of the five struts - at the bottom, the white steel tubular thingy...

Although, it was rather more visible from between the houses, when fitting the struts.



Maybe some corner to corner to corner inside the square struts might be in order … I'm only saying this because when I attached some supporting struts to an outside porch to support a high aerial pole I'd fastened to the side of it, I noticed a slight side to side movement in strong winds (even though I've got the pole supported by stays.) So put in some cross cut angled struts which seems to have eliminated that. It's took some stick this last month and it's still there, but I'm beginning to think the way the weather is going I might need to consult Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
:eek:
(I searched my garage high and low for a step ladder that had been left out under said porch … but … I blamed a poltergeist. ) :raise:
I have considered a bit of triangulation, but it all seems very stable now - we'll see what bits I have left at the end.

The internals of the greenhouses have copious triangulation struts fitted many years ago.
 
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