Nobody’s project corner.

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@drivesitfar

That is really a beautiful job you did with the edges. Lot’s of sweat & work (especially the hand mixed concrete, and yeah, I’ve done that as well …), but it definitely paid off.

Thanks for explaining the numbers, that makes sense - I just had never heard fertilizer being referenced like that. But that might be because we get our supplies at a big box store type garden center where the average home owner shops, not from a ‘professional’ supplier. I will see what products I can find locally to get the lawn going.

Again, thank you very much for explaining all that in detail! And thank you for the advance credit regarding the possible outcome of the gardening adventures!

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#11 Screening compost, re-assembly of composter, compacting soil.

Another great day to do some stuff in the garden. Since that little patch from #10 needed a lot more soil, I went and screened the compost that was ready for use.





Dismantled the composter the deeper I got and finally had everything screened. Time to generously cut back the ivy and dig a bit around the composter’s place.



I got 8 loads from the composter.



Compacting with a very old roller made from concrete and bend steel plate. We ‘inherited’ this from the pre-owners of the house & property.





Still quite a bit of soil missing, but there is a bit more I can screen and re-distribute next to the composter that was overgrown by ivy.



Also spread some at the worst spots of the lawn.



A little early to seed, still quite a bit more soil needed. This is what the patch looks like right now. Will definitely wait for some rain, then add soil and compact again, then seed.



Called it a day as the ‘Apfelstrudel’ was waiting for me.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#12 More manual screening and leveling in the composter area.

12.1

So this is what I was left with at the composter area after I called it a day last Saturday. Today at roughly 10:30 AM I picked up spade & shovel again.



So lets jump right into it.





At this point I realized that many moons ago, I had thrown 2x3 slabs next to the composter as designated screening area. Over time that became more of a dumping area and ultimately lead to the state shown before. I have no one to blame for this than myself.



Then I got a visitor. Normally these birds take off the second they anticipate you might ever so slightly move in their direction. But with ground/soil work, they get really bold. It’s like they know exactly what you are doing and that that will result in their best chance to catch many earthworms. This fella came back multiple times.



By about 12:30 PM my soil stack looked like this. And I had made some visible progress, advanced through the soil.





At about 13:40 it had again visibly grown larger.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

12.2

Next came the incredibly tedious work of cutting the ivy and especially getting all the old, dry, branches out.







At about 15:00 I had prepared the raised bed so I could use a portion of the screened soil to top it off.



After that, it was time to at least start distributing another portion of the soil on the lawn and get the composter area a bit more level.





After that I called it a day.

And here is another picture, how I many, many moons ago envisioned the use of those 2x3 slabs. Currently I’m debating with myself if I’m going to level those slabs for the intended use or not. I have some ‘sharp sand’ to set them, but I don’t know how much use I will ultimately get out that spot.



Kind regards,
Olli

 

[drivesitfar]

Looks like you’re definitely getting your exercise while making a ton of progress. Nicely done.

Here’s the fertilizer I put in my grass every 6-8 weeks during our winter (November thru February) and about every 3-4 weeks the rest of the year.

Grubb killer I’ve been applying once in March/April and again September/October that seems to work the last 3 years. As noted before I dug out my maybe 5 year old lawn including top soil full of grubs and replaced with garden mix and new sod.

Anyway here’s the fertilizer, grub killer and the little hand spreader.

It’s been a very early spring here which I’m guessing is also why your yard has some color too now.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@drivesitfar

Thank you very much! That spreader looks like a really nifty tool! I had one of those spreaders that you either drag behind or shove - and that never worked to my full satisfaction. Couldn’t find a setting that was quite right.

I’ll see if I can find such a spreader here, should be very useful.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[swsman]

Olli,

I know you reside in different part of the world, perhaps you can find something like this via Amazon.

I have and use this one to spread the grass seeds. Feed rate can be adjusted, and it has an extendable arm rest.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@drivesitfar , @swsman

Thank you two very much!

Will pick up this one, next time I’m at the local big box store, they have it available off the shelve. (But this Austrian store has a nicer picture, lol.)





PS: Screening area leveled.



Kind regards,
Olli

 

[drivesitfar]

Ollie: it's far from a perfect spreader, but if you can use it when the wind isn't blowing it works pretty good. I can't recall the setting I use but with my small yard I just try to get some coverage so i might make two passes and maybe save the last bits in the bin for the edges.

since I quit using weed and feed and hand pick out a few weeds (also keeping weeds out of the flower beds next to it fairly often) I haven't had any issues. I have a mole or two that run around in our flower beds and occasionally they pop their heads up in our lawn, but since they don't have any food (grubs was their main meal) they move on quickly so I don't have to get the traps out.

good luck!!

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#13 Patching the patch. - Quick update.

I distributed all the leftover soil throughout the garden and got the patch to the point that I could seed.







Then I got this.







Used it with the grass seeds for the very first time - very happy!





Kind regards,
Olli

 

[drivesitfar]

I rarely plant or spread extra seed cause the birds and squirrels eat up most of it. That said if you don’t have those issues I hope it grows quickly. When I have put in seed I usually put topsoil or a peat over the seeds which helped in my area.

Glad you were able to buy the little spreader and even more happy that it worked ok and you liked it.

It looks like you did amazing job in prep so now just to wait a bit and start mowing soon.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#14 Downstairs ‘guest-bathroom’ window repair.

14.1

One of the lockbar of our decades old euro turn/tilt windows broke, it wouldn’t lock in tilt position. After quite some research I found a manufacturer selling aftermarket/ 3rd party parts for these locking assemblies/ windows that are long out of production.

New & old.





Disassembly.





So when this then popped out, I knew that was going to be the ‘lynch pin’ of the whole repair in the end, and it would be the deciding factor between failure and success.



Important information on the next steps: After I knew who the original manufacturer of the locking assembly was and also the correct German term for the locking bar - I easily found a video on YT showing this repair. What I saw made sense so I followed these steps.

Set up in vise and drive pin out.



Just beautiful how the peened/riveted rim separated from the pin.



As expected, as it happened/ was shown in the video as well: One part bend a little. But as easily bend back.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#14 Downstairs ‘guest-bathroom’ window repair.

14.2

Next this needed to get back together - utilizing the new parts.

Old parts re-used and oriented correctly.



New lockbar needed a little tweaking, there was a burr inside that needed to go.



Stacked together for a dry fit.



Pin peened/ ‘riveted’.



And back assembled and installed to the window.



Happy to report, works like a charm. And without adding too many words, getting that assembly back in was quite some fumbling and hustling with tape and such … But it worked and no tape was left in the mechanism.

Normally you would take out the whole lock assembly that goes all around 2 sides of the window … Probably remove/ separate the wing from the frame as well. For reasons that lie in the past, that would have been quite a job on its own, so I’m happy that part popped out when it did, and I was able to get in back in - as is.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#15 Quick planter coaster for the patio. (First ‘project’ in the ’project workshop’ after the makeover.)



A lot of times when starters inquire about manual miter saws, on our side of the big pond they get told to forget anything that doesn’t say ‘Ulmia’ on it. Or, if absolutely necessary to purchase now/ without hunting down a deal, to get one from the ‘Küpper’ lineup, which are still in production. For the few manual cuts I make, I decided to get Stanley’s manual miter saw. Now make no mistake, this is neither a ‘Küpper’ nor let alone an ‘Ulmia’. But I would still recommend this saw as a value for money purchase if you only make very few manual cuts a year. I’m using the Stanley for 7 years now - almost to the day, I checked - and it has not disappointed me.





Drilling.



Countersinking.



Aligned & screwed down.



Layout/ aligning of the the feet.



The feet are some leftover spacers, washer and pan head screw.





With the other two I made immediately after finishing the deck/ patio a couple of years ago. They make quite the difference/ give peace of mind in terms of keeping the deck nice.



Fun little project.

Everyone, have a great time!

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#16 Old oak dining room chair repair.

16.1 Part one

Our current dining room chairs are being picked up by the upholstery specialist for some work, so we/ I needed to get the old ones from storage and ready to be placed in the dining room. One has suffered damage, I have no recollection on how or when - but it is what it is. Since we need 6 functional chairs, I went and rectified the damage.

As it was:







Taking out the first strut where the plaited seat goes on. All of this had to be done, trying not to cause any more substantial damage.



Then I went for the damaged cross member. “Tickling” out what I, at this point in time, still believed to be dowels.



Grab & pull.



Surprise. Just blinds. (And one less worry!)



Carefully removing more of the struts.







Will continue in 16.2

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#16 Old oak dining room chair repair.

16.2 Part two

Clear view on the actual damage, these old tenons have to be removed.





Carefully heating the still intact joints & driving them apart.



Came apart wonderfully.



Measuring depth on the intact mortises to set drill bit for drilling out the broken tenons.



Double checking that my 8mm drill bit will be ok to remove most of the tenons without cutting into the mortise.



Setting depth with some FrogTape.



Flattening the broken tenons for drilling.



Drilling.



Nicely weakened.



Will continue in 16.3

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#16 Old oak dining room chair repair.

16.3 Part three

Cleaning out the rest of the tenon from the mortise with a chisel.





When taking the chair apart, a little damage was caused. Time to glue that little chip back in.









Time to flatten the old tenons on the crossmember.





Drilling into the crossmember for dowels.



Will continue in 16.4

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#16 Old oak dining room chair repair.

16.4 Part four

Filling the old mortises.







Little splinter that came loose while taking the struts out fixed.



Filling the radiuses and a gap or two.





Flattening.



Final touches before drilling.





Will continue in 16.5

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#16 Old oak dining room chair repair.

16.5 Fifth and final part.

Marking.





Drilled and dowels in.



Now it needed to go all back together, and that rather fast.



Struts back in.



Test fit. Works! Now it just needs a little wax on, wax off love and it’s good to go in the dining room.



Hope you enjoyed the repair.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[stinkity stoink]

Very nice save !!

 

[larry4406]

Nice work!

I spied that Rali Press and went off on a detour trying to figure it out. Never seen it before. Nice vise like tool. Being Swiss made I am sure it is well made.

RALI press Evolution 1460

Simple and screwless immediate adjustment

rali-shop.com

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@stinkity stoink Thank you very much!

@larry4406 Thank you very much!

The Rali Press Evolution is worth its weight in gold, honestly. Very, very versatile. You can clamp work pieces in front of the workbench or on top of the workbench. You can use it to mount a classic Black&Decker Jobber as well as clamp down a real vise with a little custom made holder/plate. Ideal for me, who does neither fit the classic “woodworker” or “fabricator/machinist” shoes. It’s also a very low profile setup that doesn’t get in the way. Running it for about 5 years now. Very happy, quality is great - just as one expects it being Swiss made.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[rharman]

That Rali Press is really interesting. Had I come across it 20-25 years ago, I might have grabbed one. Now, no way I can justify it. It would be nifty to have though!

Very nice work, Olli.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

Thank you very much @rharman !

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#17 Landing of outdoor basement staircase.

When I build our new deck on the roofed patio, I left the landing of the outdoor basement staircase alone because I didn’t want to mess with the height of the landing. Now it’s four years later and most of the old patio/ staircase landing was severely broken, so I needed to fix that.

17.1 Removal of old natural stone tiles, clean cut at the joint, prep work & priming.

Here we go again.



Removing barely adhering natural stone tiles.



Frame for the doormat out, will be reused.



Clean cut where I will meet/ join to the original height of the old natural stone patio. Normally I would have used a dust shroud when making such a cut, but I needed to get as close as I could without removing the deck. No guard was absolutely ruled out, so the half/ grinding guard it was. + FFP2 mask and vac as close by as possible.



Prepping the surface for primer with wire brush.



All prepped.



Stirring the primer.



Generously applying primer. Floor mat frame back in.



Will continue in 17.2

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#17 Landing of outdoor basement staircase.

17.2 ”Pouring” new landing & texturing.

We decided to simply “pour” a new lading - meeting the original height - and lightly texture that. The stairs will be replaced someday eventually - then we can have a landing meeting the deck.

With it being 32 degree celsius (89.6 F) I decided to mix in the basement and do a rather wet mix.



“Poured”. Run out of material so I couldn’t fill the floor mat cut-out completely, but that was expected. A little bag purchased next week will take care of that.



Had to deal with some rain in between. Being prepared is everything.



Texturing.



Time to let it cure. - Finished for the time being.




Will fill the floor mat cut-out to appropriate height next week. Then purchase floor mat. And this will work perfectly fine until the stairs are getting re-build/ renovated.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[larry4406]

Nice work!

Our house we lived in Frankfurt AM had a floor mat frame recessed into the foyer tile at front door. Was very smart.

50 years ago this summer we left West Germany after living there 5 years (1970-75).

 

[NUTTSGT]

I don't anybody is ever going to accuse you of sitting still. Nice work.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@larry4406 @NUTTSGT Thank you very much!

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#18 (Fail) Kitchen Aid Artisan two bay toaster fix.

We have a couple of Kitchen Aid appliances that we are generally pretty happy with, but lately the two bay Artisan toaster has been acting up. It goes on and off on it’s own, sometimes toasting a full cycle to whatever the time selector has been left at, sometimes just driving the lifts up and down 3 times in a row. … Obviously that is very dangerous, so it was immediately unplugged after the discovery.

It’s an older unit, long out of any warranty - so I checked the internet and found that sometimes this issue is the result of either dirty lenses of the photoelectric barrier (for automatic toasting/ “bread in” detection) or an issue with the main button.

I figured it’s worth my time to try and see if cleaning of the photoelectric barrier‘s lenses and some visual inspection/ cleaning of the button might do the trick.

18.1 Trying to open the toaster results in ”making” a tool.



Gotta love recessed “security” screws.


Obviously the bits I have will not reach the recessed screws.



They are the simple “spanner”-type “security” screws, so a tool is rather easily ”made”/ modified. Looking through my toolbox I found an older Snap-On mini Instinct handle type slotted driver that has a broken and bend tip due to some misuse. It was tool I didn’t buy off the truck, but had someone from the US purchase for me online and ship much earlier in time. I kept it to *****, poke … Now it’s time had come to shine once more.





Setting it up in the RALIpress.



Squaring up the tip & cutting the notch. (And yes, doing this on the still very thin blade will come back to bite me during re-assembly of the toaster.)



Works (for now!)






Will continue in 18.2

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#18 (Fail) Kitchen Aid Artisan two bay toaster fix.

18.2 Finally opening the toaster & work. (Just for good measure: DO NOT DO THIS WITH THE TOASTER PLUGGED IN !)





The photoelectric barrier (main focus). Something that caught my eye, circled in red, is the black residue on one of the electronic components on that board.



Cleaning the photoelectric barrier





Cleaning the main button.



How the photoelectric barrier works/ detects “bread in”.

No bread in.



Bread in.



Before putting the lid back on, testing it is bonded/ protective earthing works correctly.



Will continue in 18.3

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#18 (Fail) Kitchen Aid Artisan two bay toaster fix.

18.3 Fixing the ”shop made spanner tool” and reassembly.

I should have ground back more of the tip in first place, as the prongs were a little too thin. One broke during reassembly. Here shown, with the rectified version of “shop made spanner tool”.



This time also, much better seating in the spanner drive.



Reassembly.





I proceeded to test the toaster and after being plugged in for 5 minutes it started acting up again. So this did not fix the problem. Spoke to the service center, and this one will probably go in for a repair in the coming days.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#17 Landing of outdoor basement staircase.

17.3 Finishing floor mat recess & coating.

Primer applied to floor mat recess.



Filled to height.



Dried and masked for coating.



Prepare to apply coating.





The coating is applied in 3 layers. 1st coat is thinned with 10% water, 2nd coat is thinned with 5% water, 3rd coat is not thinned.



Edges first.



All coats applied.



Masking tape removed.



Fully cured.



Will continue in 17.4

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#17 Landing of outdoor basement staircase.

17.4 Finishing touches and ”floor mat” from grating.

To keep that landing cleaner I decided to use some fine gravel around the water tap and old stone BBQ.

Cutting a water permeable but weeds stopping liner.



The fine gravel.



Filling.



Finished.



Time for the “floor mat”

Your friendly Binford Tools sales rep. off-duty, fiddling with some project. More power *grunt* *grunt* *grunt* (Oh, and please don’t tell Mr. Binford about the Snap-On cap …)



Leftover piece of grating, marked & ready to cut.



Cutting.



Cleaning up the edges.



Applying zinc spray/ coating.



Finished.



This will do until the staircase makeover. #17 finished.

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[drivesitfar]

Looks amazing. Nice work!!

What blade do you like to use when cutting metal with your hand grinder??

Sorry I just checked your other thread and you did a big post on your cutting blades so I’ll read they and thank you in advance for your thoughts. Thanks!!

Have a great weekend!!

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

@drivesitfar I’ll gladly answer here as well.

Currently I use the Klingspor K 960 TX Special Ceramic. It’s easy to get through my #1 tool supplier and holds up much better than the Bosch Standard for Inox - that I wasn’t really happy/ lucky with.

Manufacturer’s product page: https://www.klingspor.de/en/products/kronenflex-cutting-off-wheels/k-960-tx-special

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#19 ”Potting table” conversion for the material shelter

My better half asked me if I had an idea for making her a small potting area/ table, with a small container for potting soil, in the back of the garden where the temperature doesn’t rise as fast as on the patio (where we have a nice potting table) and generally is a lot of shade.

Looking at the small shelter for gardening materials/ bagged soil I build years ago, I thought maybe I could convert that into something suitable.



I had an idea in my head, and on Saturday I had to make an urgent trip to the big box store to pick up a light switch as one in our hallway was about to fail. I took the extra minute to get a sheet of Egger OSB 3 board. (https://www.egger.com/get_download/...ealth-declaration-OSB3-English.pdf?country=DE )

19.1 Cutting to size, cut out for Euro container, holes to mount Euro container.

Cut reference edge & cutting to width.



Cut reference edge & cutting to length.



Euro container cut out.







Drilling holes & countersinking.







Will continue in 19.2

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

#19 ”Potting table” conversion for the material shelter

19.2 Mounting Euro container, add bracing, mounting table - finished project.

Mounting the Euro container. Very tight fit in terms of fitting the nuts and washers.






Used a strip of tape over each bolt to hold in place while working.



Add some bracing. Not that I expect this to carry a lot of weight, but the 18mm (0.71”) OSB will fare a little easier through time with some added bracing.





Time to mount to the shelter. Had to make a little recess for the middle beam.



Finished project.



Kind regards,
Olli

 

[WoodsTruck]

Nice job on the work station.
I have had good luck using these combination bits. They are tapered to match the screw and countersunk all in one motion.

https://www.amazon.com/FTG-Maximum-Torque-Adjustable-Countersink/dp/B07PQ9X9T4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Jgaz]

Nice job!
I especially liked your use of the track saw for the plunge cuts.

Ive never used one, (just a circular saw with an edge guide) but I’m starting to look more at a track saw. I think with my current cabinet pull out shelves project it would make things easier.