Miscellaneous DIY Projects (or bits of jobs)

[Stanley]

That's good Kev. Nice when you are satisfied it has all settled in and becomes part of the background. Just as all utilities should be!

[Stanley]

Ian has finished my gate and hung it. It's a very good job, swings perfectly and closes sweetly. I'm very pleased with it.

[Big Kev]

Nice job

[Big Kev]

Anyone got one of these hidden away in the depths of a cupboard or attic? It doesn't need to work, I just want to use it as a speaker cabinet so will be stripping out any internal gubbins and fitting new speakers. It'll look a bit more interesting than the bookshelf speakers I currently have in the front room.

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[PanBiker]

Might have if I can find it Kev, it may be in the cock loft. Four access doors and I don't know which one it will be behind.

I have a Bakelite cased Bush DAC 90 but I refurbished that as a runner, I still fire it up from time to time.

I see on Ebay that some of that marque are changing hands for between £50 - £150

[Big Kev]

Might have if I can find it Kev, it may be in the cock loft. Four access doors and I don't know which one it will be behind.

That would be grand if you do find it Ian. Don't go looking especially, it's just something I fancy doing

[Big Kev]

I have a Bakelite cased Bush DAC 90 but I refurbished that as a runner, I still fire it up from time to time.

I see on Ebay that some of that marque are changing hands for between £50 - £150

[PanBiker]

Might have if I can find it Kev, it may be in the cock loft. Four access doors and I don't know which one it will be behind.

That would be grand if you do find it Ian. Don't go looking especially, it's just something I fancy doing

From memory I think it is behind one of two that are the easiest to get at. I also think it is a model with a lift up hinged display on the top, you may be able to rewire that with LED lamps to light it up. It would look quite nice like that as it would light up all the old station names.

Here is my Bush DAC90, I love this radio, it was produced in smaller quantities in cream Bakelite as well, I prefer mine though.

[Big Kev]

That's a grand looking bit of kit.

[PanBiker]

Might have if I can find it Kev, it may be in the cock loft. Four access doors and I don't know which one it will be behind.

That would be grand if you do find it Ian. Don't go looking especially, it's just something I fancy doing

Here we go Kev, yours if you want it. It was where I thought so reasonably easy to get at.

This is a Murphy BA228 battery/mains portable released in September 1954. It has a sticker on the back to say that I refurbished it in September 1987. It's valved of course and the batteries are no longer available so I think the refurb was just to the mains side of the power supply. It used to work but doesn't now. I suspect all the capacitors will have finally dried out over nearly 70 years. It cost £17.5s in 1954, Purchase Tax and Batteries were extra! You also had to take a nice long length of wire with you as it needs an external aerial. Two band MW and LW with a flip up tuning dial. The cord drive for the pointers has given up the ghost, no power so the dial lights don't work. Case is faux leather and Bakelite. My sticker also says it was covered by Trade Serve Sheet No: 1325.



Here it is with the dial flipped up. You could probably make this light up with a few battery driven LEDS



Back view, the radio has a clip on back cover. I have coiled the fixed mains lead up inside.

[Big Kev]

Oh wow, that's spot on. Thank you.
Will you be about on Thursday?

[Stanley]

Oneguy strikes again. Lovely to see people being nice to each other.....

[PanBiker]

Oh wow, that's spot on. Thank you.
Will you be about on Thursday?

Not sure Kev, might be doing my cross distribution down at Gill. Certainly will be later in the afternoon as it comes too dark by then. I will PM you my mobile number so you can check if we are about. Still have to get my crosses yet from Callum the Poppy organiser.

I will cut the mains lead off so that you are not tempted to plug it in. Old stuff like this should only be run through a variac for testing etc. I thing there is a selenium rectifier in the design although it looks like I may have bypassed that as I fitted a new tapped transformer for the heater supplies and its screwed down where the batteries are supposed to go. It would have had two separate dry cells or a combination HT and LT dry battery. I checked on Ebay and I can only find one listed, a bloke is asking £45 for a tattier version for spares or repair. Mind you he has been asking since last April!

Free gratis to you of course, light it up.

[Big Kev]

Nice one, cheers Ian. It probably won't be until later in the day but I'll check in first

[PanBiker]

Any time after 4 will probably be fine Kev. It's hard going on the uneven ground in the churchyard definitely dodgy if its coming dark. We tend to try and get as much done in the mornings if we can.

[Big Kev]

Thanks again Ian. I've got it home and stripped out the gubbins on the dining room table, the 70 year old Celesteon speaker has a fair old magnet on it There's plenty of room to get some leds in there too, I reckon I could strip down one of the solar powered garden lights, the small ones that stick in the ground, and put the solar panel on the window cill.
I've kept the knobs and original speaker grille with the hope of reusing them in the build. I have a pair of 100 watt 6in speakers, from a Bose subwoofer cabinet, and the tweeters and crossovers from a pair of bookshelf speakers. The intention is to fit the woofers in the bottom and utilise inch and a half plastic wastepipe as reflex ports to the rear of the grille. My only concern is the grille will 'buzz', I may have to use the black cloth from the donor bookshelf speakers instead if it does. The tweeters will mount in the centre, between the bass reflex ports all hidden behind either the original grille or the black cloth.
Being so close together won't give a very wide stereo separation but if I angle the tweeters outwards, at 45 degrees, it should bounce off the walls to give a bit of 'depth'. I may even make them adjustable so I can 'tweak' them.

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[Stanley]

I've had mail this morning. I ordered a set of castings yesterday and they are with DPD and due for delivery today.... They must be desperate for business.....

[PanBiker]

Kev regarding lighting up the display. Some of them had a perspex kind of light diffuser along the top bottom or sides that the display lamps shone into. Any evidence of this or could it be that it wasn't lit at all?

[Big Kev]

Kev regarding lighting up the display. Some of them had a perspex kind of light diffuser along the top bottom or sides that the display lamps shone into. Any evidence of this or could it be that it wasn't lit at all?

There looked to be some tiny bulbs in there, I'll post some pics when I'm back home.

[PanBiker]

I have just replaced all the knobs on our cooker. A couple had split and the plastic broken so they no longer gripped the shafts. Searching for the correct replacements, I found that they were a bit like hens teeth, no longer available on quite a few spares sites. The odd sites that still had them they were priced at about £14.00 apiece! Thinking that it would probably be foolish just to replace the two duff ones, (a distinct possibility that others would fail) I opted for a compatible universal type which came in at less than £4.00 apiece. They are silver to match the originals but slightly bigger on the diameter, the knobs are separate to the shafts of which there are numerous different ones to match to the types on the cooker. I will probably have to cut about 3mm off each of the shafts to get just the right spacing for operating the safety thermocouples on the burners. They are spring loaded shafts and you have to hold the knobs in for a short while after lighting the burners. They look OK and will certainly be an improvement over the busted ones.

[Tripps]

Ian,
How did the bee keeping venture go? A success I hope.

[PanBiker]

All good David, Jack has done his first season and the hive is now in dormant mode. He still goes up to keep an eye on it for any evidence of invaders, (nasty insects or rodents).
The reduced colony is pretty self sufficient over winter, the remaining workers alter their metabolism to suit the outside temperature and regulate the inside temperature of the hive. Over wintering is accomplished by introducing supplementary feeding by the way of fondant blocks so that there is no risk of the hive starving, the majority of the workers will have died off and she just maintains a small retinue from her normal colony of 20 - 50,000 to keep the hive viable.
In Springtime when it starts to get warmer, scouts will be sent out to see if its time for the Queen to start laying the next generation and the cycle starts again. All fascinating stuff.

[Stanley]

That brought back memories of when my dad used to keep bees.... Lovely!

[Big Kev]

Replaced the freestanding shoe rack with a couple of shelves, made use of some leftover flooring. A bit of sanding and some paint on the trim, sorted.

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[plaques]

Mrs P 'suggested' that she would like one of those Tiffany type chandeliers. No problem all you have to do is...
Switch the power off. Take the old one down.
Get a ceiling rose paint it then glue it up.
Assemble the new chandelier.
Hang it up, reconnect the wires and switch the power back on.

Voila. 10 minute job.

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