What are you.planning on DIYing this year? Large or small I’d love to hear about it. Is it something you’ve done before or something out of your comfort zone?
I’m planning on building some wheelie bin storagefor the from of the house that’s on a bit of a slope. Never done anything like that before. I’m going to get a wood blade for my angle grinder as I cannot cut straight with a saw to save my life.
I’m sure it’ll end up looking like Homer’s handywork.
Before or after that I’d like to build a small work bench for the garage. But the possibilities are so much to decide on.
Survival, mostly.
But also I need to redo the kitchen, one bathroom, and fix three vacuums and a hair dryer, build a NAS, and a bunch of other shit I forgot about
I built a scrap wood ramp for the kids to jump when sledding last night because snow was predicted for today. Nothing like table sawing at midnight in the closed garage!
I hope it turned out well! My kids would love that.
Apparently the neighborhood kids are enjoying it and nobody has found a nail sticking out yet!
Just finished recaulking the bathtub. I hate the job with a passion. When we bought the house it had acrylic caulk and I’m still scraping that off 10 years later. Silicone went on well, so hopefully it will last a while.
Next on the list is to replace the guts of a toilet. It flushes ok, but takes forever to refill so double flushes are out of the question. I’m 80% confident that it’s the internals and not the water supply, but only one way to find out.
Plumbing I don’t dare touch, as I would almost certainly cock it up. So good lick to you.
I recently replaced the bath panel on our bath which was plastic and full of cracks and holes. It took me days and I ended up taking an angle grinder to the floor- it’s a long story.
Build a new desk. I’ll have to convince my father to weld the frame for it, however he wants it to be “extra tough” even if it would cost me the ability of disassembling it.
What or who are you doing on a desk that needs it to be extra tough?
Lighting up LEGO models. There is a lot of soldering involved (I don’t use manufactured lighting kits) and software development. This involves 3D printed “bricks” for the power connectors between the modules, software frameworks for connecting all modules with a central Mosquitto server over WiFi, layouts for control boards, etc.
Lots of non-LEGO work, but also loads of building - just yesterday I secured 170 plates 8x16 for the build of moon landing platforms.
I thought I was going to have to replace the steam & fart fan in a bathroom, but the fucker started working again so I’ve got that going for me.
In more voluntary projects, I need to finally make that desk I’ve been talking about for two years.
What kind of desk are you aiming to build?
Nothing special. Just a Plywood or Melamine Particleboard desk with pine legs and trim. I need to replace the Ikea tabletop and rickety trestle-legs I’ve been using for 15 years with something that has more lateral stability and a modicum of storage.
Fixing my old 3D printer who has been stagnating sitting on the garage for a couple of years.
Fixing my Cimbali M21 coffee machine who has been stagnating sitting in a cupboard for a couple of years.
Did I say I moved 2 years ago 😁 ?
And getting my sharing protocol out there (decentralized FOSS hosting basically).
There’s a few things I started in December but it’s been too hot to keep working on them:
-
Building a small clothes shelf for our bedroom.
-
Restoring my partners childhood bookcase. It’s must pine boards screwed together, but then painted sky blue and white. I’ve torn it apart, halfway through stripping it with a heat gun and scraper. End goal to make it something actually nice. I’ll cut it down a bit and properly finish it with shellac.
And other things I’ve been gathering materials for:
-
Gate. Our verandah has two staircases into the yard. One of them doesn’t have a gate so we’re always trying to keep our 18 month old away from it. A simple gate and latch will solve it.
-
Sun protection on the verandah. Because as nice as it is to sit outside, the angle of the sun through most of the day come straight in under the roof and it’s brutal. Got some shade cloth so finally will find some way to fix this. Affix it from the gutters to the deck posts somehow I guess. Needs to be removable because half the year we get 60km/h winds.
-
Landscaping. When we moved in 4 yards ago, the place had been professionally looked after. Nice path with decorative gravel in the backyard, I’ve let turn into grass and thistle - I trim it down but I need to dig it up and re-mat it. Front yard has a shale stone walkway that has cracked up and constant weeds growing through, so I need to take those up and re-concrete under it.
-
Most of our fences need tightening, the wire has come loose from kangaroos climbing through all the time. This is a tricky one, I haven’t had to fix fences before so not sure what I need to re-tension it and get it to stay that way.
Man, I’m tired just reading about all that work in the sun. Best of luck to you.
-
For cutting wood, my usual go-to for straight cuts is a miter/compound saw if it’s a fairly short cut. If it’s larger or longer but still thin (ie < 25 mm), and absolute straightness isn’t required, then jig saw free-hand following guide marks. If I do need it to be straight, then jig saw with a fence guide. And finally, if it’s too big or large or thick, then I’ll borrow a table saw from a friend.
Some would use a cordless circular saw before trying a jig saw or table saw, but I don’t own one, mostly because I can get more utility from the jig saw for weird angle cuts.
I have a jigsaw but find it’s more trouble than it’s worth for most things.
Hoping to buy a house and have more projects than I have time for! By the way, angle grinders are absurdly dangerous when used even slightly non-standard. Take a look please. https://youtu.be/o-imZgxAyIE?si=yTvJ1-KddA3duOvL Angle grinder rotation speed is enormous compared to circular saws.
I have trouble cutting straight with saws too. Switching to a Japanese pull saw has helped a ton, and they can be bought online for like $20
I wasn’t thinking of going that off piste with the angle grinder. I was thinking of using a blade like this https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-expert-multi-material-multi-wheel-115mm-4-1-2-x-22-23mm/102ky
Mostly as I didn’t want the expense of a circular saw. Although I hadn’t considered the different spin speeds between the two. It might be worth it to just get the saw.
My circular saw is invaluable to make quick, straight cuts. I just set a rafters square on the timber as a fence and cut along it. Or I use a piece of squared mdf as a fence if I’m cutting a longer piece.
I’ve never considered cutting wood with an angle grinder.
