Archive for the 'Making stuff' Category

Cutting-edge technology

Posted by on January 4th 2023 in In the garden, Making stuff
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We had to expand our range of wood-processing tools...

The reciprocating saw and the chainsaw, both Aldi/Ferrex products, are excellent bits of kit. I didn't need to buy any 20/40V batteries or a charger for them, as I already had those for other bits of Aldi/Ferrex equipment.

The reciprocating saw came with a general-purpose blade which will get used for other tasks, but for pruning and timber-cutting I'm using SabreCut SCRS644D and SCRS1531L blades.

For some strange reason the chainsaw was supplied with a 1.3mm gauge chain (91PJ045X) that was tight in the bar, so it was running hot and slow. I replaced that with an Oregon 90PX045E (1.1mm gauge) for a tenner and now it's cutting like a charm.

The Titan Pro Raptor Kindling Wedge was a speculative purchase, bought on eBay during the pre-Christmas sales, and it is proving to be brilliant. So far it's dealt with everything that we've tried to split, from 1" poles to 10" rounds, and it's much safer than a traditional hand-wielded splitting-wedge.

The rest of the tools were already in the stash, so no outlay there.

 

Going equipped...

Gath’ring winter fuel

Posted by on December 21st 2022 in In the garden, Making stuff
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We're having a wood-burning stove fitted next month, so we've been preparing for the big day.

All of this wood was locally-foraged and free, and no live wood was cut other than the trunks pruned from our hazels and buddleia.

It should help to keep our future heating bills at an affordable level:

 

We built this during the "big freeze"... two or three more days of foraging, sawing and splitting should see it filled:

"Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice"

Idle hands

Posted by on December 19th 2021 in Making stuff, Projects, Video (YouTube, Vimeo etc.)
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I'd stumbled across this Veritasium* clip about the behaviour of rotating bodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VPfZ_XzisU (don't ask why I was stumbling anywhere near there). Interesting stuff. I've lost count of how many times I've thrown objects into the air since watching it.

Then I watched the clip about using a domestic microwave oven to make plasma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCrtk-pyP0I

Chris was intrigued and we were bored (me with being more-or-less confined to barracks, Chris after far too many months of working from home), so we spent an hour or so nuking grapes.

Like most experiments, it was a mix of success and failure. Yes, we made plasma. No, we didn't contain it. The oven door now has a hole where said plasma tried to escape:

 

 

Maybe we should have watched this clip before we rushed headlong towards meltdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0u8Vtf2GoQ

Stay safe, have fun, and remember this: if the two conflict, always go for the fun.

🙂

* If you enjoyed those two Veritasium clips, you should have a look at the huge list of other interesting content there - there's something for just about anyone. I recommend the item that deals with the science behind tenpin bowling.

Torsional rigidity

Posted by on May 12th 2017 in In the garden, Making stuff

A couple of years ago a friend was dismantling his conservatory and, knowing how we like to re-purpose potentially-useful materials which are too good to chuck away, he kindly let me have a stack of unwanted used multi-wall polycarbonate roofing-panels. I duly stashed them behind the greenhouse for future use.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when it was both warm and windy. The greenhouse auto-vents were opening the windows but the wind was twisting them about because they weren't rigid enough. A few hours with a saw, some tape and a few screws soon saw them "faced" with polycarb, now they're nice and stiff and are defying the wind quite well:

 

Looking at the offcuts, and remembering that the long side of the greenhouse gets more sun now that the willow tree has gone, I decided to make some shades. They have been very effective at diffusing the sunlight, and so far we've not had any scorched plants. I might make some larger shades to deploy overhead for when the Sun's higher during summertime:

 

My over-the-road neighbour Chris helped out with the above, so as a thanks for his input he now has a nice new polycarb window in his workshop. Here are his pics of it:

 

There's plenty left for more re-purposing... I've a mind to see if it's any good for making cloches.

Cage fighter

Posted by on April 29th 2017 in In the garden, Making stuff
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Finished today - a job which we started two years ago but which was interrupted by unforeseen events.

We believe it to be bird-proof, unless they arrive armed with wire-cutters.

 

Now I need to turn my attention to protecting the strawberry troughs:

 

There's no peace for the wicked, it's said.

Affordable green housing

Posted by on October 4th 2016 in In the garden, Making stuff
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Take a few offcuts, a few screws and a bit of eco fence-paint.

Add a few hours of sawing, clattering and pulling splinters from fingers.

Result? Hedgehog house:

 

 

 

Needs an IR camera. And a hedgehog.
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