What I Did This Weekend - In Pictures!

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
There are two sliding patio doors here, one is never locked - indeed, the keys are nowhere to be found. I replaced the Euro cylinder in the one which is locked with a thumb-turn one, some years ago, to make life easier. This left me with a cylinder that did have keys, and I could replace the keyless other one with that.

Ah, but, unlike more traditional locks, you are still required to operate a Euro cylinder to draw it out of the door, even if it is unlocked. This is because the steel operating lever is deliberately offset, to make it harder to just bash the cylinder out of the door.

This meant that I had to pick the lock.

It was disappointingly 'easy' - about four minutes - it might have even been faster, but the cylinder, having had little operation over the years, was a bit 'tighter' than is normal.

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I will now find the missing keys, of course.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
The other weekend we went down to Warwickshire to choose an olive tree from a gentleman who imports them from the groves of Andalusia.
It arrived yesterday.

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Managed to rope a neighbour into helping us to lift it in position.
It just needs to stretch itself out a bit but I think it likes it in its new home.


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Carole

Well-Known Forumite
Ooh I like the look of those jigsaws @Thehooperman , I'll definitely go and have a look. Thank you for thinking of me.
By the way, you say they are in the old Granvilles. Has it closed down then?
Husband and I had our first date and kiss in there.
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Ooh I like the look of those jigsaws @Thehooperman , I'll definitely go and have a look. Thank you for thinking of me.
By the way, you say they are in the old Granvilles. Has it closed down then?
Husband and I had our first date and kiss in there.

Yes it looks like it's closed and they're selling off the old artifacts in the window next to where the jigsaws are.

The jigsaws were over £20 but I can't remember exactly how much they were.
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Had a look around inside about a month ago, most of the good stuff had gone and they seemed to be asking a lot for what was left.
The wine glass chandelier wasn't for sale though.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
In view of the recent spell of dry weather, I've tended to do odd "outside jobs", but I have had a plan to shelve this area in the same manner as the other end of the Shed's back wall, at the other end of the new bench arrangement.

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We've had rain hovering out just to the west for a couple of days, so a wet day seemed likely to occur shortly and the shelf job could be done then, so I prefabricated the main parts outside a couple of days ago, to reduce the debris aspect and waited for the rain to make the decision for me.

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It rained a bit overnight and, although it had stopped by the time I surfaced, things outside were wet and I made the decision to do the shelves.

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These four shelves are (hopefully) at the same heights as the four at the other end of the bench, so, one day, the back wall can be shelved, without any (noticeable) steps...
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
Had a nice potter around the charity shops today...

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Me too.
Not that I needed any books, I’ve still got about 30 in my bookcase to read.
Favourite charity shops are both in Penkridge. The Wildlife shop (4 books for £1) and Beacon (3 for £1).
Beacon have more choice and sometimes if they are not busy they will bring more out from the back room.
I’ve realised, once I got home that I’ve already read some of these, but never mind, for 25p a book I’m not complaining.
They’ll just get redonated, win win for the charity and win win for me.

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staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
I give mine to Blue Cross shop in Stafford. Building up a pile of new ones that I bought from The Works online during lockdowns , ready to take when I venture into town again.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Well I started this job last weekend, and only just finished it. My radio room uses kitchen worktops as desktops, which are hinged to the wall. I put them in when I panelled the outer walls of the room so some future user could drop them down to use the room for something else. This was fine, but the worktops are only 60 cm deep so by the time you've stuck some radio kit on the bench, you don't have much room to work it from.
Initially I bought two small roll away tables to put in front of them, this was better, but the tops were 40 cm deep which shoved me just far enough away so that the operating position was uncomfortable. You'd be surprised at how important it is to be comfortable if you're hacking away on a Morse key. So I bought some 18 mm pine board, cut and shaped it to size, varnished both and fitted them to the roll away frames.
Only just finished, it was the varnishing that took the time. One coat both sides, sand down and second coat on top side. Lovely shiny finish. These are 30 cm deep and the positioning is now perfect. You can just roll them away if you have to work on the kit.

Before
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After
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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I've noticed that my customers' appetites have improved lately, so I decided to do a little batch production, to avoid running out.

They seem quite keen on the ground peanuts, so that was the recipe I followed.

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They were quite keen to observe the process and to become involved in the quality assessment procedures, so I felt it sensible to leave the pusher in the material chute, for safety reasons.

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Also, I decided it was time for the patio table to make an appearance in the outside world.

Last summer, it did have a wind-assisted excursion, despite being quite a weighty item, so I made a couple of little brackets from offcuts saved from the greenhouse bench job. These should keep it secured to the wall, in a fairly easily removable manner.

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The house is almost exactly east-west, so the Sun reaches the back wall at 7pm (BST), as seen last night.

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At some point, I may fit a small lamp under the eaves - we'll see.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I started this job last weekend, but hit a few problems and had to wait for some bits to come, so it's dragged on all week. My attempt at making and putting up a home made loop aerial from copper water pipe was fine, and it worked well. Alas the wooden support mount I made couldn't cope with the Atlantic winds of a couple of months ago, and it got blowed away. So I bit the bullet and bought another Wellbrook self supporting loop. Getting the pole down was easy but then I had to put in a bit of maintenance on it, reinforce the top and and mount the loop. These loop aerials are good because they have a head amplifier up by the aerial itself, and have less radio noise. You power this amp via the feeder but using a switched power supply to get your 12v dc introduces noise, so I'm going to use a motorcycle battery to power it. Pure, noise free DC. I got the pole and loop back up with only some minor severe back injuries ... :lorks: and ladder adventures. I've got the feeder down and through into the conservatory and now I have another weekend job sorting out some neatly boxed connections.
Wellbrook loops look nice too as they are polished alloy. Can't wait to see how it performs.
As for my homemade loop, I have an idea to put it up in the loft where it's protected. The possible problem being that the solar panel inverter is up there, and they tend to be a bit electrically noisy. Might have to figure out some sort of screening.

The 'Death' ladder ....
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View from the road.

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littleme

250,000th poster!
I started this job last weekend, but hit a few problems and had to wait for some bits to come, so it's dragged on all week. My attempt at making and putting up a home made loop aerial from copper water pipe was fine, and it worked well. Alas the wooden support mount I made couldn't cope with the Atlantic winds of a couple of months ago, and it got blowed away. So I bit the bullet and bought another Wellbrook self supporting loop. Getting the pole down was easy but then I had to put in a bit of maintenance on it, reinforce the top and and mount the loop. These loop aerials are good because they have a head amplifier up by the aerial itself, and have less radio noise. You power this amp via the feeder but using a switched power supply to get your 12v dc introduces noise, so I'm going to use a motorcycle battery to power it. Pure, noise free DC. I got the pole and loop back up with only some minor severe back injuries ... :lorks: and ladder adventures. I've got the feeder down and through into the conservatory and now I have another weekend job sorting out some neatly boxed connections.
Wellbrook loops look nice too as they are polished alloy. Can't wait to see how it performs.
As for my homemade loop, I have an idea to put it up in the loft where it's protected. The possible problem being that the solar panel inverter is up there, and they tend to be a bit electrically noisy. Might have to figure out some sort of screening.

The 'Death' ladder ....
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View from the road.

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Are you trying to attract pagans....
 
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