'sup, comrades? i figured we could maybe do with a weekly DIY thread on what we’re working on, inspired by the rad “Show & Tell” thread from two weeks ago.
what do you have going on, what are you working on?
I’m tearing down a plaster and lath ceiling hung from beams to replace with sawn boards sitting on top of the beams. Not only are board and beam ceilings nicer to look at, I gain an attic floor. The boards are sawn from trees cut from the communal forest two years ago.
to answer my own question, i’m installing some rainwater catchment barrels at my house hopefully this week. all but one (we have four) were sourced from local folks. once these are installed, i have purchased a zero-pressure drip irrigation system and am going to try to have that installed before the first big frost, usually about two or three weeks from now where i live. there won’t be any water in it this season, but it will be ready to go in the spring - or so i hope!
Finished the transparent greenhouse roof I mentioned last time, but had to do some further modifications against high winds. Seems solid now though (fingers crossed).
Recycled/repaired a sofa and a workbench, next planning to build better kitchen furniture with the materials I have left so I can replace the old bedside table with a plastic box on top that currently serves as drying station for washed dishes, preferably before it dissolves into kindling.
Finally ordered parts for a new ram pump and laid out my existing but dismounted pump to reassemble and offer to others for testing and use. I really should get the one left in the stream before autumn rain makes it impossible.
Happy DIYing everyone!
I finished the poured concrete 45° blocks for my neighbor’s raised bed. I’ll post pictures soon, though it isn’t terribly nice looking since the local rabbits got to the new flowers before I could get a picture (they’re perennials so they’ll be back next year).
About an hour ago I ‘fixed’ our washing machine - the lid switch failed yesterday, which prevented it from draining. Great design btw. I disconnected it, and added a jumper made from lampwire so it thinks the lid is always closed. That let us finish the laundry and skip hiring a repair company. I could get a replacement switch online but I don’t really see the need, it’ll just break again someday and I don’t feel like the marginal safety benefit is worth it. Just leave the lid closed while it’s running.
Well, I was working on laying a 4in isolated flexible airpipe to go from the first floor, through an airshaft aside the chimney down to the first floor to heat the ground floor with the stove on the first.floor (our living and bed room). Bought a thermal camera to see results (and winter optimization) but nothing happened. Turned out the pipe had ruptured inside the air duct. Now have to redo the work… At least I do not have to finish it tomorrow
Finished the heating duct. Conclusion, do not move heat by air from a stove. It goes too slowly… I was disappointed on the heat gain. If you ever want to move heat, sigh, use water for more heatcontent to be moved.
I read your projects and see much ambition. Although it cost a lot of time, keep up the good work!
Finished the fence across the back of the adjoining lot. Can’t reach the owner of the property next door, so I had to get creative with building right up against their garage without risking damage. I’m just glad it’s done, now I can focus on other things, like panelling the master bedroom.
Still building a DIY tractor / excavator - racing against time, as autumn is rainy here and you cannot weld water. I need it to improve the road to where I live.
It can already maneuver, turn and raise the boom, lower / pull the bucketed arm (stick), but the excavator bucket is incomplete and the bucket tilting mechanism missing.
The remote control system is also missing (relays on a slow boat from China), so currently I have to control it via cables. Limit switches are missing, currently it’s unsafe to use for a careless operator. Later on, it will be remote controlled and limit switches will ensure it cannot break itself.
My own reason to choose remote control is convenience (better ergonomics as I can write pre-programmed movements and stay out of noise). If it works too well, I might send a recipe to a friend in Ukraine, with the suggestion of asking around - maybe someone needs cheaper mine disposal machines.
Hydraulic excavators are neat, but too expensive for me, and require far too much power. Thus mu excavator uses ATV winches (meant to pull a 900 kg machine out of mud) to drive and work. Some of the winches have been disassembled: driving uses sprockets and “08” roller chain, turning the boom also uses sprockets and chain. Some of the winches are intact however: raising the boom uses a winch in factory condition, and pulling in the bucket in also uses a winch.
A big corner has been cut to gain strength asymmetrically and reduce complexity: I assumed I’m never going to do a pushing movement with the bucketed arm. So, where old-fashioned cable excavators used a super complicated winch system to extend the arm, I use a boring simple gas spring. Near-zero pushing-out power to gain the absolute maximum pulling-in power.
I’ve got a few projects in the works, one of which was graciously donated by universal entropy over the weekend! The normal projects are fixing up a very overgrown back garden and redoing basically every surface of our soon-to-be main bedroom. The “spontaneous” project gifted by reality is redoing the inner mechanism of our toilet, along with fixing one of the seals.
More details on the garden: I’ve just been pruning stuff WAY back for months whenever I can. Despite the slow progress, it’s definitely a huge improvement. My goal is to have the back garden (or back yard as my American heritage calls it) ready for planting a proper food oasis in Spring. So far, I’ve got the flat space for garden beds cleared, as there was a truly massive hedge covering most of the garden. I’ve also pulled up some paving tiles and started removing gravel from the main walkway. More space to plant without these silly rocks. I hate gravel.
On the bedroom: My wood floors have been “acclimatising” for like, months, which concerns me a bit… hopefully no warping! I pulled the old baseboards/skirting boards off the wall ages ago (and then spent forever filling the holes and gaps underneath with plaster) in preparation for painting the walls a lovely azure colour, and it’s just been fighting to get the time to actually paint the dang walls. We haven’t even done the base coat yet, but maybe this weekend. I just started a new 4 day work week job, so hopefully that extra day becomes a DIY day properly.
The dreaded toilet: On Friday we woke up to no water because a main pipe burst in town. And then when we got water back, the toilet’s fill valve decided to compensate for lost time by never stopping filling. Doesn’t matter how high the float goes, it just doesn’t stop. We’ve also had issues before with the toilet seal leaking, so we’re killing two birds with one stone by fixing the seal as we replace the fill valve. Fingers crossed. Right now the two birds are killing us instead.
