Tea? Coffee? Cake?

[Maker of Things]

So, what would you like when you are making or fixing?

Me? A coffee (no milk) in the morning and then Decaff Earl Grey tea.  Cake is always welcome, especially home made.

[nikki]

In fizzPOP v1.0 days Choco Leibniz^[1] and chips became somewhat canonical. At the recent Maker Nights at The Public I took it upon myself to ensure there was a ready supply of Jaffa Cakes.

Not so good for the diabetic makers amongst us 

We'll need an alternative (or perhaps an addition) next time around, methinks...



[1] More chocolate than biscuit

[Arch]

Generally, it's tea for me, white, no sugar.

Cake? Why, yes please!

My Mum likes Choco Liebnitz. She's a bit more restrained than I am, so she can do this wierd thing where she only eats one at a time. She can eat less than a whole tube of Pringles too. Bonkers!

[Maker of Things]

<reboots kettle>

Anyone around for a cuppa?


Well today was 'fun'.  Why is it the people who know least about a task often have the most to say about how it should be done?
Still, at least the workshop time was productive, despite having to modify the inlet pipe on my chip extractor to reduce a restriction to the flow of wood chips.
4" soil pipe elbows has a much better through flow then that flexy spiral wired stuff.  Just need to sort the rest of the pipe run.

[Maker of Things]

I got a new toy today.

A Bosch 18v drill with 13mm chuck, hammer action and two 18v 4ah lithium batteries. £230 from Axminster Tools.

The specs say it is a really good drill, it will be put to work and we shall see if it is as good as other Bosch tools I have owned.

The only downsides so far is that the drill doesn't have screw driver bit storage in the body so I will have to hack some with Sugru, and the box doesn't have enclosed storage when the lid shuts so any loose drills and driver bits will rattle about inside.

[NigelRen]

My 'latest toy' is a piece of 12x10" board    Not quite in the same league I know - but I haven't done any oil painting for a while, so I'm going to have a go on that.
I will save you the photograph of it - perhaps when it's finished but at the moment it's undergoing several coats of white paint.

[Maker of Things]

Look forward to see what you paint.

I've never been much of an image artist, I can sketch but I prefer working in 3D.

Today, whilst consuming much tea Arch and I got on with some more work on the house.  Arch PVAed the fresh plaster in preparation for painting while I changed some plumbing to fit two replacement (as in not leaking) radiators and then cauked all the gappy and slightly rough internal edges.

Then while Arch painted some cupboard doors in the bathroom I started sorting the missing floorboards and moving the consumer unit up an inch for clearance.

By next weekend we should have paint on the walls and all the floors down.  Maybe even skirtings and architrave, if I am not too busy on paid work.

[Maker of Things]

I was really getting fed up with my new Bosch drill.  As fantastic as it seems to be it lacks driver bit holders so I am constantly ferreting about looking for that No2 Pozidrive amongst all the other driver bits I keep with the drill.

My last drill, a Dewalt, had one bit holder that I used for a flat/No2 Philips bit, and two Sugru bit holders for No2 and No3 pozidrive bits.

So I needed the same for the Bosch.  Unfortunately my pack of Sugru is now out of date and useless.

My solution was to dig out an old Black and Decker rubber bit holder strip and use that!
The Bosch has a belt clip on the left of the battery and a matching captive M4 nut on the right hand side for swapping over for left handed trades.
I inserted a bit of dowel into one of the holes in the rubber bit holder strip and drilled a 4mm hole through it.  I then screwed it to the right side of the drill and loaded it up!

Perfect!

[Maker of Things]

<shlurps tea!>

I have abandoned the Bosch blue drill box.  Great box but too big and doesn't have 'captive' storage inside for loose drill bits and accessories.  Everything just rattles about inside when I pick up the box.

The Bosch drill, spare battery and charger fits inside my old De-Walt drill box with only minor mods to the plastic brackets inside the lid.  It is much neater and easier to carry.
Also the De-Walt box has rounded corners to reduce the instances of 'OUCH!' on the sides of my knees and thighs.

I have sprayed the lid of the box in Yellow so that I don't accidentally pick up the wrong De-Walt box, of which I have many.

[Arch]

<shlurps tea!>

I have abandoned the Bosch blue drill box.  Great box but too big and doesn't have 'captive' storage inside for loose drill bits and accessories.  Everything just rattles about inside when I pick up the box.

The Bosch drill, spare battery and charger fits inside my old De-Walt drill box with only minor mods to the plastic brackets inside the lid.  It is much neater and easier to carry.
Also the De-Walt box has rounded corners to reduce the instances of 'OUCH!' on the sides of my knees and thighs.

I have sprayed the lid of the box in Yellow so that I don't accidentally pick up the wrong De-Walt box, of which I have many.

Ooh, does that mean you have a large, possibly organisable, box going spare?

[Maker of Things]

Ooh, does that mean you have a large, possibly organisable, box going spare?

Maybe, not sure if I will have another use for it just yet.

I found that the box can be bought on its own for £40.50! 
And they come in different sizes.
http://www.axminster.co.uk/bosch-bosch-l-boxx-storage-system-cases-prod836801/?src=2007_wk9

[Maker of Things]

Not sure if this would count as making something but today I spent the afternoon in Colin Crichton's Polygon Studio.

I was lending my ear to some tracks he had collaborated in for a critiquing session.  After nearly 4 hours we had made notes and remixed 3 tracks identifying the good and bad points and parts that will need re-recording or rewriting.
Then we set to critiquing some of his solo work as the 'Can Guru Project' which needed fewer changes.

It was good to be back in the recording studio working on music, something I haven't done enough of recently, with Colin.

I count myself as a layman when it comes to music having not played since I finished with my band back in the mid 80's. 
I found I was better at making the equipment then I was at playing.  I built the band's PA, my own 60W 'W' bin bass speaker amp, an active bass guitar running on +-15v, a quadraphonic fretless bass guitar, and an electric violin.

Maybe I will play again one day, but I should buy shares in ear defenders first!