The DIY thread.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

There’s some great stuff on this forum about things people have made or done themselves, the sorts of things you often pay for but you can do yourself.

The drum, the shed, the 3D printer, the food smoker, the plating thingy are just a few that spring to mind recently. There’s a wealth of knowledge here about all sorts of stuff. So if you’ve done something, made something or have a question about something you think you could do yourself stick it here.

Warning I have an ulterior motive my house is falling apart and you’ve all proved yourselves more useful than YouTube so I may have more questions than contributions

[MarkW]

I made this hall table a couple of years ago (complete with hand-cut half-blind dovetails, no less ):

 

 

 

 

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I love it. What’s a half blind dovetail?

[Via]

Love building / doing up things, sometimes it can cost more but so much more worthwhile.

Biggest build I did was converting old metal frame bunk beds into a hydraulic press, don't have it anymore as had to get rid of it when I moved but managed to find a picture...

 

 

Did its job and was effectively free.

I've got an old (pre WW2) bench drill I want to restore when I've got the time, that said nothing wrong with it and still gets used but would like to get it back to like new.

Plus the smaller stuff like 3D printer, have also made a hands free telescope focuser, uses a small stepper motor connected to arduino board and rotary control so stepper motor mimics rotation of rotary control which is then mounted on telescope and drives focus knob with belt... When focusing on far object can be a nightmare as touching telescope results in a wobble so no need to touch it with that.

[Guest]

I love it. What’s a half blind dovetail?

 

A half blind dovetail doesn't go all the way through so the front of the draw looks like an unjointed piece of wood until you open the drawer and can see the side.

OTOH, I once attempted to do woodwork when well on the way to being half-blind....with depressingly predictable results...... WARNING... beer & chisels don't mix well....

[Bender]

Ohhh I made a hall table too, mine is a bit more industrial, here it is with 100kg of stone chippings on it, I tend to make things on the robust side

Just to add it would easily have taken another 8 bags lol

[mikestrivens]

The birds nest of wiring detracts from the table making skills

[Bender]

The birds nest of wiring detracts from the table making skills

What can I say, ours is a lived in house lol

Yea I need to move the gravel too

[Tiggie]

I was going to post a picture of a shelf I put up but I'm feeling quite inadequate in the face of the competition

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

I was going to post a picture of a shelf I put up but I'm feeling quite inadequate in the face of the competition

 

Do it, when I finally post something I can guarantee you it’s going to be very lame. One of my thermostats is bust so maybe a picture of some wires

[Via]

I fooking hate wiring, I have few servers and NAS drives in cupboard under stairs and despite rarely getting touched seem to tie up in knots constantly so decided to wall mount plugs and switches to keep it tidy, worked well...

 

 

On nerdy side of DIY, the little trongle box in that pic is an old android tv box repurposed running armbian and is now my network monitoring box, uses hardly any electricity and ran over a year without a hiccup until I pulled power cable out yesterday

[NeilM]

I fooking hate wiring, I have few servers and NAS drives in cupboard under stairs and despite rarely getting touched seem to tie up in knots constantly so decided to wall mount plugs and switches to keep it tidy, worked well...

20190314_191325.jpg

On nerdy side of DIY, the little trongle box in that pic is an old android tv box repurposed running armbian and is now my network monitoring box, uses hardly any electricity and ran over a year without a hiccup until I pulled power cable out yesterday

Never pass part P with that

[Bender]

I fooking hate wiring, I have few servers and NAS drives in cupboard under stairs and despite rarely getting touched seem to tie up in knots constantly so decided to wall mount plugs and switches to keep it tidy, worked well...

20190314_191325.jpg

On nerdy side of DIY, the little trongle box in that pic is an old android tv box repurposed running armbian and is now my network monitoring box, uses hardly any electricity and ran over a year without a hiccup until I pulled power cable out yesterday

 

See its not just me

[Stu]

I made This

[Tiggie]

I made This

 

[Stu]

And to keep in with the thread I do as much DIY as I possibly can if I don't know how to do it I will learn and give it a go!

a few before and after of our recent kitchen! the only thing I didn't do was the gas plumbing!

 

[Bender]

[mention]Stu[/mention] I should just take a vid of our house, I did our kitchen too, floors, plastering, plumbing and gas, it's in the other room I can't be arsed to take a pic , I didn't have a big enough router or a jig for the benches so they were the only outlay tool wise.

Ohhh nice kitchen btw

[Stu]

@Stu I should just take a vid of our house, I did our kitchen too, floors, plastering, plumbing and gas, it's in the other room I can't be arsed to take a pic , I didn't have a big enough router or a jig for the benches so they were the only outlay tool wise.

 

Oh thats another thing I don't do! plastering! well I do but that kind involves alcohol!! or is that getting plastered

I bought myself a worktop jig but "borrowed" one of my brothers routers.......I still have it

[MarkW]

I love it. What’s a half blind dovetail?

 

As Speedy said, it's a dovetail joint that can be seen from the side but not from the front, like this:

 

[SometimesSansEngine]

Well this pales ridiculously in comparison to others here, but I mentioned it the other day and I'm going to dine on it some more because you're talking to the guy who did food technology rather than any materials type tech at school

I made a wood log store using pallet timber

 

 

I then bought a job lot of wood to season off a tree surgeon and quickly ran out of room so built it a little brother

 

 

It probably isn't much to most of you, but I was just chuffed I did it for an all in price of barely double figures! (pallets were free and just had to be carefully dismantled, had to buy some featheredge board for the roof) Log stores are often sold for silly money (IMO, for what they are)

[Stu]

[mention]SometimesSansEngine[/mention] I too need to make a log store and have just stole a load of wood from another brother (as you can tell we steel all sorts off each other )

I have looked at log stores and as you say they are bloody expensive for what they are!

I just need to figure out a position for it in the garden not too far from the garage where the wood will be getting burnt

 

[MarkW]

I bought myself a worktop jig but "borrowed" one of my brothers routers.......I still have it

 

You can never have too many routers! I had several, but my D-handle Makita, massive table-mounted Makita, Bosch palm router and a couple of others all got nicked.

The only one they didn't take was my massive and much-loved Bosch beast that was at home at the time:

 

[Stu]

I bought myself a worktop jig but "borrowed" one of my brothers routers.......I still have it

 

You can never have too many routers! I had several, but my D-handle Makita, massive table-mounted Makita, Bosch palm router and a couple of others all got nicked.

The only one they didn't take was my massive and much-loved Bosch beast that was at home at the time:

IMG_1624.JPG

 

Thats what my brother says!

He has different ones for different jobs! probably like yourself

I think at last count he had 9! now 8 as his makita is in my garage

[Bender]

I only have the 3 routers, do I need more one cost £8.00 in a sale at bnq it's a tad bigger than a palm router but it's just small enough to use for door hinges etc, I have just been given a free dewalt one that's been sat in someone's loft for 20yrs, brand new and never used, can tell it's old it's in a metal box.

[mention]SometimesSansEngine[/mention] I found myself in same situation with wood store, busy collecting wood for the 10ft version of my little one

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Very nice stuff on here.

I need a wood store, I think sometimessans design might be more within my grasp