Lock-down projects

[Verena]

@Sean, yes I used just needles - pine needles
o come on, someone had to say it

A home made hammock, nice one!

[Bearbonesnorm]

I'd almost forgotten just how much work there is in a bike when you're making stuff that should never bolt together, bolt together. Should pull it apart for final welding this week. Then put it back together to see what I've forgotten to do before taking it apart again for paint, coating, polishing etc. Keeps you busy I suppose.

[ledburner]

I'd almost forgotten just how much work there is in a bike when you're making stuff that should never bolt together, bolt together. Should pull it apart for final welding this week. Then put it back together to see what I've forgotten to do before taking it apart again for paint, coating, polishing etc. Keeps you busy I suppose.

A mate of mine has built a kit car from scratch, just a out every thing from scratch, chassis wise. That his side project. The 'meaty' one is a twin seat prop plane for doing stunts n displays. I helped him as putting anvil in place his instructions 'just nod your head when ready, I'll hit it' . Engine in air fram and panel all beat & rivited in place. Wing un bolt for transport.. He is now a commercial pilot and was, aero technician. So I take up his offer for lift over the Pennines...!

[Bearbonesnorm]

A plane. That's a proper project

[ledburner]

A plane. That's a proper project

[Bearbonesnorm]

Now you're talking

[Borderer]

I was a bit intimidated by this thread until I saw that there were some non-bike projects in it too. So here's what I have been up to during lockdown - it's all house stuff I'm afraid.

We moved out of our tiny flat into a much bigger one just days before lockdown. As I don't earn enough for a mortgage the only way to do this was to get a 'let-to-buy' mortgage on our old place (which I had bought cash at auction for £22k). This then allowed us to buy the new one but meant keeping the old one and renting it out. The mortgage cost was very low so I will make something on the rent.

As soon as all our crap was moved out of the way in the old place I redid the bathroom and decorated everywhere. Our friends had become homeless during the crisis and were literally living in a garden shed, so they moved in and seemed very happy with it.





I then turned to the new place and the staircase. In general the new flat had been last decorated in a style which I call 'care-home chic', probably in the 1990's.

The stair carpet really irked me so I ripped that up and found that the treads were actually quite nice pine. The risers were just plywood though. So I just sanded the treads and gave them 7 coats of Diamond Hard varnish. It was a bastard of a job as it was all hands-and-knees and I also couldn't buy a decent dust mask anywhere thanks to Covid. The rest I painted in a matt dark grey. I'm pleased with the result. I did buy some marine anti-slip pearls to put in the top coat of varnish but didn't use them in the end. As I deliberately didn't rub down between coats the varnish is slightly textured and so it's fine to hurtle down the stairs, even in socks (Joe puts this to the test daily). The final cost was less than £100, including the flooring for the half landing.





At some point I will rub the doors down and use a pale wax to try to make them a bit less ginger. I also have nice black door handles to fit.

Then I wanted to get the dining room done in time for Christmas. Daft I know, as it's just Joe and I but it gave me a target to work to. This wasn't as simple as just decorating. The living rooms in the flat are upstairs to make the most of the views, but in a poorly insulated loft conversion. An oven in summer and a fridge in winter. So I had to cut out part of the ceiling to insert insulation in first, then re-plasterboard and make good. A horrible, messy job, but hopefully worth it. We also had to move radiators, sockets and so on, then lay new flooring.

Here's what the room looked like before:



And here it is now....



I will paint the skirtings to match the walls later, but just ran out of time before Christmas. I fitted new lights over the table. I bought a six-head cluster light and split each light off it and wired it into its own rose. I sprayed the roses with cement paint as they were a bit white and shiny. We have three over the table and three over the worktop in the kitchen. I like it that they match. The price worked out at £11 each which was much less than buying individual lights. The shelving was given to us by friends. It's just there temporarily at the moment as we can't get to Ikea to buy what I want. I have seen Billy bookcases that have been properly built in and the joins covered with beading and it looks amazing - you wouldn't know it was so cheap!



The faux panelling was a bit tricky but now its there I quite like it. It goes well with the vintage style rad which was £68 off ebay. The plan is to cover the upper part of the wall in black and white family photos, but I haven't got round to printing those yet.

The table was also a bargain at £100, probably because it had woodworm in places. I treated that and painted the legs dark grey again (gotta use up that tin!) I think the top might actually be oak as it just about fucking killed Joe and I getting it up the stairs. The chairs were something like £20 for the six off eBay years ago. The armchair was off freecycle. The lamp is made from an old 50's hairdryer I got on eBay, also years ago.

The flooring was also very cheap as I got it on a B&Q bargain weekend back in February. I think it was £6sqm plus the underlay. It's really chunky stuff - not at all thin and bouncy. I like it a lot so far.

We are pretty happy with the room now. Still more to do to finish it and plenty more in the rest of the flat to keep me busy.

[ledburner]

.... So here's what I have been up to during lockdown - it's all house stuff I'm afraid.

We moved out of our tiny flat into a much bigger one just days before lockdown. .... the new flat had been last decorated in a style which I call 'care-home chic', probably in the 1990's.

Post care home chic, classy!
It looks very smart.. Insulation a bugger....

Team effort hot scraping, sanding & chemical striping 10 layer of paint of old back door...

I painted the inside kitchen door, which was the old back door before the extension was built beyond it.
Under all the paint, we discovered nice moulding, previously filled with paint.. I only said it needs doing for the last 5 years. Well that was long enough for wood to settle down as had developed a longitudinal bow, now gone!

[Borderer]

Nice find. I have always just sent doors away to be dipped and stripped when they are that bad. But that's maybe not an option just now.

[ledburner]

Nice find. I have always just sent doors away to be dipped and stripped when they are that bad. But that's maybe not an option just now.

Hot air gun & paramorse (or the better trade equiv) chemical stripper. Like nitromorse but evaporates Leaving solid residue.* Goggles, gauntlets needed. We also discovered this a few years ago. It was flat across the face, fill with 90 years of paint, so a real surprise.
(the door way on right was for fire regs, but we wanted to keep the archway.)

* Take, all precautions with old paint, it may contain other toxic metals beside lead. Minimise dust.

[Borderer]

Nice arch. Yeah I would want to keep that too.

I forgot a couple of other things I made during lockdown. The first was a crappy little bookcase for some of Joe's books that were too big to fit on the regular bookshelf. It's just cobbled together from free scraps that get dumped outside Ikea and was intended to be painted but Joe won't let me as he says he likes it as is. It was only intended as a temporary solution but he likes it so it has stayed.



The other was a home for Joe's shop, which was rapidly taking over the living room. Again it was made from scraps of wood that came out of skips or things friends had given us. The cost was £20 for the worktop and £10 for some funky led lights. We managed to make the whole thing from things we had already and didn't have to leave the house once. He is very pleased with it.

[psling]

Good work! Love it when things are repurposed


[3rd shelf up, essential 'reading' collection ]

[Borderer]

[3rd shelf up, essential 'reading' collection ]

My favourite shelf

[Verena]

Nice arch. Yeah I would want to keep that too.

I forgot a couple of other things I made during lockdown. The first was a crappy little bookcase for some of Joe's books that were too big to fit on the regular bookshelf. It's just cobbled together from free scraps that get dumped outside Ikea and was intended to be painted but Joe won't let me as he says he likes it as is. It was only intended as a temporary solution but he likes it so it has stayed.



The other was a home for Joe's shop, which was rapidly taking over the living room. Again it was made from scraps of wood that came out of skips or things friends had given us. The cost was £20 for the worktop and £10 for some funky led lights. We managed to make the whole thing from things we had already and didn't have to leave the house once. He is very pleased with it.

Clever stuff, looks great

[Borderer]

Clever stuff, looks great

Thanks

[ledburner]

Bordererer it all looks good.!
Stu,
How the bike getting on the aero I saw today.
It will be finished this year & the a year to pass, all certification. So hopefully certified by 2022.

[Bearbonesnorm]

That really is superb. What engine's in it?

[trob6]

Well not strictly lock down as we started it in January 20.

I built the original when I built my garage as a workshop for my wife when she used to do marquetry but couldn't make it pay so it ended up as a bit of a dumping ground.

Our son is now 16 and him and his mates started using it as a place to hang out but it wasn't really big enough for them so I thought we could extend it and put a proper pitched roof, teach my son some new skills as we would do it all from the groundworks up.

Starting in January was not the best and there was a little complaining about the cold but I told him that if we start now it will be done my summer, little did we know what was coming!

Most of the construction was done during lockdown and he learned a lot, it was great to work with him and see what he was capable of.

The structure was just 4x2 framing with polystyrene insulation and breathable membrane on the outside with Douglas Fir cladding that I made ( I'm a self employed woodworker ) I made a little opening window for the gable end as they are teenagers and and I expect there may be some smoke signals at some time!

Internally we used Osb for the wall covering or Hipster board as its become so trendy with the bearded ones, all the wiring is surface mounted so its easy not to put a screw though it. We have a signal booster thingy in there so there is wifi as teenagers need it as much as they need sleep.

It has been used a lot inbetween lockdowns with his friends, his best mate comes round every day, well he did before this current lockdown! but only one party so far, he is in there now as I type listening to music to loudly and eating chips

[numplumz]

Good post getting some ideas here.
I was bought some nice fork cargo bags for christmas and I have a stash of Aluminium test gas bottles I was trying to find a use for.
Being over 2 Kilo in weight and 7mm thick I slimmed the bottle down, split it and roughly bent them into shape and added a few strap slots. Happy with the result and weight.
Next up I will probably make a 2 litre pop bottle frame cage out of one, as I've been using a homemade plastic one this past year and love it. Oh and work on some kind of furnace to melt all this scrap ally into usable bars.





Any other ideas for making stuff out of those chunky bottles, one I have is a travel shovel scoop.

[sean_iow]

Do you put a milling bit in the lathe to slot them? It was worth staring this thread just to learn that

Also, can people stop posting tales of their amazing decorating and construction projects* as Jane will wonder why the total of my achievements is writing on old wiggle boxes and moving the vice whilst the house remains untouched

*Only kidding, great work by all, keep them coming.

[Borderer]

Also, can people stop posting tales of their amazing decorating and construction projects* as Jane will wonder why the total of my achievements is writing on old wiggle boxes and moving the vice whilst the house remains untouched

You made a trailstar for a monkey. You are hereby awarded the rest of the year off.

[Borderer]

Trob6 your shed is better insulated than my house

[trob6]

It was quite cheap to insulate with 50mm polystyrene and warms up pretty quick with the electric oil fired radiator, it will make an excellent additional bike workshop if he ever moves out
Tim

[Bearbonesnorm]

Any other ideas for making stuff out of those chunky bottles, one I have is a travel shovel scoop.

Similar lines Jack - I've just crayoned out a down-tube mounted crud catcher come trowel

[thenorthwind]

Nice one Tim.

I'm impressed you got the roof on straight with your choice of on the job refreshment