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It never ends... the DIY thread! (Read 61525 times)

SA Chris

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#200 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 10:20:39 am
Makita to be compatible with your cordless fan surely?

cowboyhat

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#201 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 10:45:45 am
Surely Milwaukee for a man of your taste and refinement.

I've no idea if this is a serious suggestion. the NOTHING BUT HEAVY DUTY line doesn't scream suburban garden.

Is the makita fan better than one by the other brands? Also not sure the fan should be starting point, bearing in mind how much actual climbing I do and lack of home set up.

spidermonkey09

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#202 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 10:52:53 am
Pff, Milwaukee...the discerning carpenter should opt for Festool!

I always thought they were much of a muchness. Hard to go to wrong with Makita I think.

teestub

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#203 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 10:57:05 am
The Makita fan is just near ubiquitous as I think a lot of people had Makita batteries already and they are east to get hold of. Milwaukee do a v nice fan too
https://uk.milwaukeetool.eu/en-gb/m18-air-fan/m18-af/

They are the ‘nice but pricey’ end of the spectrum with festool and hilti sitting somewhere above! 

SA Chris

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#204 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 11:05:37 am
Also not sure the fan should be starting point, bearing in mind how much actual climbing I do and lack of home set up.

Sorry, made in jest. All the wads seem to have the Makita ones hence the comment.

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#205 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 11:45:57 am
I've used Makita and Dewalt at work. Not much in it, but Makita does throw out a few duds in the very cheapest end of the market. All of the "better" stuff I have has been very good, but I have a shit drill that's been back to Toolstation once for a wobbly chuck and developed another one fairly quickly again but I just never got round to fighting that fight, so it just annoys me all the time. The batteries seem strongly resistant to degradation.

Would avoid Ryobi based on the one sander and jigsaw I bought (mains powered) both work, but are just a bit annoying with some obvious bits of value engineering (i.e. cheap shit bits).

WTF is a portable Wentilator?!?!

SA Chris

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#206 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 11:52:07 am
I've got 2 identical Makita electric drill /  screwdrivers (one bought second hand on here, from underground?), one of the chargers and one battery are duff. Had them 10 years though, of intermittent use.

36chambers

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#207 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 12:01:42 pm
My strimmer and hedge trimmer are both cordless Makita. No complaints with either of them, but I've also got nothing to compare them to... hope that helps :strongbench:


cowboyhat

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#208 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 12:09:27 pm
I'm hoping that the intermittent use aspect will be evened out by just getting one or two batteries that will serve mower, strimmer, drill, fan, hedge, etc.

The guy in screwfix suggested Titan. Ryobi seem to have a bigger range of consumer orientated garden products which is appealing.

A lot of people seem to be saying, Makita, cant go wrong etc.


'Portable Wentilator' is Martin Keller as 'Keto' is Dave mcloed. I listened to a podcast wherein he used the phrase portable wentilator every thirty seconds for two hours. He also said he'd spent the regulation 10,000 hours not in training overall but just on one problem.

SA Chris

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#209 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 12:27:05 pm
I've got 2 identical Makita electric drill /  screwdrivers (one bought second hand on here, from underground?), one of the chargers and one battery are duff. Had them 10 years though, of intermittent use.

just checked, they are Hitachi! sorry.

nic mullin

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#210 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 12:45:51 pm
The guy in screwfix suggested Titan.

Titan stuff is pretty cheap and cheerful, has some flimsy bits, but works ok for casual use. I think it comes with a 2 year warranty as standard. I had one of their cordless combi drills, the drill and batteries were fine over nearly 2 years of pretty heavy use, but the charger stopped working. Screwfix replaced the whole thing under warranty. I think MacAllister is the same stuff but in different colours.

webbo

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#211 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 12:48:00 pm
The guy in screwfix suggested Titan.

Titan stuff is pretty cheap and cheerful, has some flimsy bits, but works ok for casual use. I think it comes with a 2 year warranty as standard. I had one of their cordless combi drills, the drill and batteries were fine over nearly 2 years of pretty heavy use, but the charger stopped working. Screwfix replaced the whole thing under warranty. I think MacAllister is the same stuff but in different colours.
I have a Ryobi driver and an extendable hedge trimmer both battery. I bought a second battery when I took my board down so I would always have a charged battery.
Used them both last year when I put the current board up however when I tried to re charge the newest battery early this year it wouldn’t charge. I probably only used it 4 or 5 times but with months between use. Whether that effected it I’ve no idea but I would be a bit wary of buying more of their stuff now.
The old battery is still fine.

tk421a

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#212 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 01:01:34 pm
Titan's a screwfix own brand I think.
Lots of setters have Makita as they do a hydraulic impact driver that's much quieter than normal impacts.
Haven't had any issues with any Makita's I've had beyond normal wear and tear. Out of warranty repair was straight forward if expensive (though pretty much all the internals got replaced).

Teaboy

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#213 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 01:21:35 pm
As a DIYer rather than a pro I’ve always been happy with own brand stuff (McAlister, Ryobi and Ebauer) but my Ryobi impact driver seems to blow the last battery and when I bought a replacement it did the same again in a very short space of time. I’ve since bought some DeWalt stuff which seems good and reckon earns me more kudos from visiting trades people so I don’t get so ripped off!

Fultonius

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#214 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 01:44:45 pm
Oh, further thought... 

I do some volunteer work for the Glasgow Tool Library - we see all sorts of donations and have to try to get them into serviceable condition.

I order of the most commonly donated AND most shit to fix / adjust / sharpen / find parts for are:

- Parkside :  Just don't, they're shit out the box, do you a few jobs and then sit around rusting. When do you do go to use it, it'll be out of adjustment, the switches will break and the plastic will go gummy/sticky. Utter shite.

- Titan : marginally better, but still are built to cost. Fine for the odd mains corded tool, but I wouldn't invest in them as a brand.

Powercraft - they seem marginally less of a PITA to fix than Parkside, but still - I'd put them in the "might use them 3 times a year" category.

Einhell: Hmm, seem ok when new, but they also seem to be a fiddle to adjust and find spares for. Possibly one notch better than the above.

We've seen quite a few broken Ryobi petrol garden tools.

Clarke's can be hit and miss, but they do usually seem somewhat fixable and adjustable. If you get them from Machine Mart they're pretty good on warranty etc.

On the "nice to repair side":

Ancient Makita - pop out the brushes, pop in new, tweak a few things, clean and bingo - another 10 years of service. I know brushless is generally better, but once you're fried those IGBTs (power circuit) they're gubbed. Advice for anyone with brushless tools - never keep the trigger pulled when they're stalled out....

Also, we have 4 brand new and various second hand Dewalt tools - drills, SDS hammer etc. Their boxes/carry cases are usually nicer than Makita (my pet hate with Makita is the really annoying plastic clips on the tool boxes - you need a screwdriver to prize them open!!) and the drills get used all the time and just keep on trucking - seemingly indestructible!

I'm not sure I'd personally bother with battery garden tools, but that's maybe just me. Can you share/borrow from neighbours or a tool library? In fact, if there's a local tool library, they're probably overflowing with donated Flymo's, so maybe just get down there and offer them a donation to relive them off one?

As per Teaboy - Erbauer seem to be at the upper end of the home-gamer market. I've got a sander my dad bought a few years back and it's taken a pounding, but still working ok.

cowboyhat

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#215 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 04:33:15 pm
Thats useful cheers. Our street has a tool share type thing but its more for unusual items like very tall ladders. Its a lot of old folks who likely have a cable version of all of these things but I guess I'm thinking more long term, and ive already cut the grass once with cables, extension lead etc. Thats the catalyst.

Ryobi and Milwaukee have the same parent company.

Couple of longish (american) comparisons ive read say Makita is a bit better, but the bundles and offers on Ryobi make it five times cheaper or whatever so it becomes the winner.

While i'd love to say I'm driving a Raptor to site everyday, growing a beard, eating omlette and chips, smashing 10 hours of raw man xtreme power tool work; were actually talking about light domestic use. Even 'Prosumer' is stretching my ambition.

Somebody's Fool

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#216 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 04:58:21 pm
Push mower?

Every time I use mine I wish I had a bigger lawn. Lovely bit of kit.

cowboyhat

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#217 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 15, 2022, 05:07:28 pm
Where do the bits go? My grandad had one. Anyway I need the other stuff more really.


Paul B

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#219 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 17, 2022, 11:39:42 am
I've been pleased with my Erbauer EX range. I've got sanders, a track-saw, their brush cutter, SDS drill and most recently a small hoover to try and make my car less like a bin after site visits.

I've got a reasonable amount of strimming to do as the garden is bounded by drystone walls and one 5ah battery just about does the job.

I didn't buy their lawnmower as at the time you couldn't buy a replacement blade which you now can

It's also worth remembering that you can now buy converters to fit various batteries onto different manufacturers.

I'm still very underwhelmed by my Bosch Blue hammer drill and impact driver set. I used Probes' DeWalt and it was in a different league.

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#220 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
September 17, 2022, 11:58:55 am
We got a Makita SDS recently, amazing easily to drill solid walls, and makes me wonder why I wasted so many years pressing a cheap hammer drill into the wall!

Also used a Ryobi Impact Driver 18v that did good when building a woody. Although I need bigger battery than the 1.5ah.

Fultonius

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#221 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
October 07, 2022, 09:00:44 pm
We've got a bit of an odd one in the kitchen. 4 x 230v LED spots (so no transformers, just mains wired). They're wired up in a ring (parallel if I remember correctly)

One of them recently went dim and flickery. When we turn them off, it stays on marginally longer than the others before fading. Check voltage L-N across the fitting and it's 23v...

Not really sure what the craic is. Tried 2 new bulbs and they're both the same.

nic mullin

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#222 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
October 08, 2022, 08:08:21 am
Does the wire to the fitting run next to another live wire? If so it could be capacitive or inductive coupling between the wire to the fitting and the other wire causing you to read a voltage. If your meter has a low impedance mode (or if you can borrow another meter that has a lower input impedance) try testing with that. If it’s coupling from another live wire the voltage should disappear when measured across the lower impedance as there will be very little power being coupled in. If this is the case the voltage is nothing to worry about and is unrelated to the bulb issue.

For the flickering/slow turn off, I’d guess at corroded contact in the fitting (most likely given it’s in a kitchen so humid) or a poor/loose connection at the switch or fitting. They’re not on a dimmer are they?

Obviously usual health warnings apply.

Fultonius

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#223 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
December 24, 2022, 04:37:57 pm
Anyone good with boilers? We've just had ours checked as it was dropping pressure over time, but recently got a bit quicker. It's now settled again...

So, here's what we know and symptoms.

No radiators have leaks or air.
We don't typically see any signs of water coming out the overflow*
I checked and adjusted the expansion vessel (it was at 0.7 bar, upped it to manuf. Spec).

Pressure drop usually takes a month or so, but happened twice in a week during the cold spell.

Gas/boiler engineer thinks it's the PRV...but....I'm not so sure....

This is where my lack of understanding of the system and how they relate to the symptoms comes in.

If it were the PRV, why does it only open when the cold water filling loop is open? When it's hot and running at 2.3bar, the PRV is closed and no water comes out the overflow. Is that system separate? Is there a non return valve between the hot side and filling side? If so, is that not the issue?

Or, is it always expected that there will be a bit of pressure loss past the NRV, but the PRV will stay closed up to a higher set point than the expected system pressure when hot?  What am I missing?

James Malloch

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#224 Re: It never ends... the DIY thread!
January 09, 2023, 10:17:38 am
Has anyone replaced a lock on a PVC door?

We have a normal lock on our back door and I’d like to change it to a thumb lock so it’s only got a key for the outside.

Changed the front door myself a while ago (mortice lock) after a locksmith said it was easy and not worth paying his call out fee (very nice of him). But he said that the PVC door ones are more difficult and maybe not one to attempt on my own.

But if it’s not that bad I’ll maybe give it a go…

 

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