What have you done today thread?

[Yorick]

After several years firefighting the damp in the basement apartment, I decided to have a proper go at it.
New tenants don't move in for 4 weeks so plenty of time to fix it. Got sick of paint flaking off, and plaster coming off in places.

Small bedroom was worst so chiseled off the plaster where the damp was obvious.
Now need to get someone in to have a go at fixing it.
I've a few builder mates who say they've never been able to fix the problem 100%, even in their own house.

Let's see what happens.

20260408_173143.jpg20260408_173152.jpg20260408_173156.jpg

We were recommended some breathable plaster which reflects damp.
Was more like mortar and was a real pain to apply.
After first go it took an hour with sander and then a second finishing coat.
Then another hour sanding.

It's gonna work, just not pretty. We can hide the work behind furniture.

Next step is the mega-expensive breathable paint.

Luckily it's the second bedroom in the apartment so only for their guests.

20260421_170012.jpg (2.2 MiB) Viewed 1002 times

20260421_170023.jpg (2.28 MiB) Viewed 1002 times

20260421_170031.jpg (2.49 MiB) Viewed 1002 times

[Sunny]

Learnt how to, and then made by a hand an oak pegged mortice and tenon joint

Tomorrow we get let loose on the power tools and actual frame creation

Tapered peg & a slightly offset hole in the tenon to pull it tight?

Correct!

Today has involved plenty more mortice and tenon creating, on significantly larger beams

[KungFooBob]

Shower screen and bog roll holder fitted.

There's a towel rail and the inside of a window to panel, I need to work out a bath panel (I've got a spare sheet of white tile metro panelling I might use) and the skink to plumb in... I've only been at it since the 4th of April

[ZRX61]

Correct!

Today has involved plenty more mortice and tenon creating, on significantly larger beams

So what happens to all those structures the students make? Do they sell them off after you've paid to make them?

[Count Steer]

Shower screen and bog roll holder fitted.

There's a towel rail and the inside of a window to panel, I need to work out a bath panel (I've got a spare sheet of white tile metro panelling I might use) and the skink to plumb in... I've only been at it since the 4th of April

For some reason I now feel I must have a plumbed in skink.

little-skink.jpg (654.97 KiB) Viewed 945 times

[Skub]

45 years happy harried today,so we had a fine day out and abused our free travel passes to get wined and dined in that there Belfast.

It doesn't seem that long ago I perceived someone aged 45 to be old,nevermind married that long.

[Count Steer]

Sold 142 Shell shares. (Almost, completely fortuitously, at the day's peak price ).

More importantly, while pondering where to put the proceeds, wife says 'Just142? Just get yourself something nice'.

[Sunny]

Correct!

Today has involved plenty more mortice and tenon creating, on significantly larger beams

So what happens to all those structures the students make? Do they sell them off after you've paid to make them?

We (there are eight of us on the course) are collectively making one 3m x 3m 'garden room'.
He sells them after the course for the price of the timber apparently (at some point he said the timber we're using was about £2300, so presumably that's how much he sells them for), which would make sense, given they are going to have some areas of 'character' given our lack of experience

Anyway, today we got to play with many power tools - morticers and the like
And made corner 'jowl' posts, amongst other things.

[ZRX61]

Sold 142 Shell shares. (Almost, completely fortuitously, at the day's peak price ).

More importantly, while pondering where to put the proceeds, wife says 'Just142? Just get yourself something nice'.

About 12K? That'll get you a few nice old Kwaks

[derek badger]

Went to pick the eldest up from football training last night. And got given a box of Ducati bits. I was chatting to one of his coaches the other Saturday at a match and mentioned I'd bought an 848 recently. He said he'd had a box of bits in garage for years that he'd acquired while clearing out his Dad's shed. He thinks his Dad had been given them at some point and if I didn't want them they were going to the tip.



Ducati performance clutch and cover, crank cover, some gears, a headlight bulb and an ECU (off an 848). Not had a proper look through it yet.

[Count Steer]

Sold 142 Shell shares. (Almost, completely fortuitously, at the day's peak price ).

More importantly, while pondering where to put the proceeds, wife says 'Just142? Just get yourself something nice'.

About 12K? That'll get you a few nice old Kwaks

Sadly not 12k. I got £33ish per share so, after commission made about £4600. Dunno what the taxman will make of the gain though. They were the last remaining part of some shares that were given to employees as a bonus. Started out as one lot of company shares which then split into two. This lot became one company, which changed name, got taken over by National Grid then they sold that business on to Shell. The share certificates that were given out as freebies generated a box file full of stuff over the years!

Thanks to electronic trading I now have boxes of old Crest and share trading stuff to shred and no new paper dropping through the letter box.

I sold these because they were 'odd man out' sitting on a different trading platform. Decided to cash in on a high and maybe buy in again on my main trading platform when they plummet in a few weeks time......maybe.

Might just take wife's advice though.

[KungFooBob]

Treat yourself...

https://www.tudorwatch.com/en/watches/r ... 79950-0011

[Count Steer]

Correct!

Today has involved plenty more mortice and tenon creating, on significantly larger beams

So what happens to all those structures the students make? Do they sell them off after you've paid to make them?

We (there are eight of us on the course) are collectively making one 3m x 3m 'garden room'.
He sells them after the course for the price of the timber apparently (at some point he said the timber we're using was about £2300, so presumably that's how much he sells them for), which would make sense, given they are going to have some areas of 'character' given our lack of experience

Anyway, today we got to play with many power tools - morticers and the like
And made corner 'jowl' posts, amongst other things.

They do a 3-part timber framed building course at the Weald and Downland Living museum. Looks reasonable value too. But I was a bit surprised that the course mentions power tools and that they don't insist that it's done like they did in the 16-1700s! (Maybe 4 days wouldn't be enough with a hand chisel and manual drill )

https://www.wealddown.co.uk/events/oak- ... framing-2/

[derek badger]

Went to pick the eldest up from football training last night. And got given a box of Ducati bits. I was chatting to one of his coaches the other Saturday at a match and mentioned I'd bought an 848 recently. He said he'd had a box of bits in garage for years that he'd acquired while clearing out his Dad's shed. He thinks his Dad had been given them at some point and if I didn't want them they were going to the tip.



Ducati performance clutch and cover, crank cover, some gears, a headlight bulb and an ECU (off an 848). Not had a proper look through it yet.

So...

It looks like a dump valve and two sets of springs.
Dry clutch cover of a Ducati.
Wet clutch, case, cover, pushrod and bits of a Ducati.
Headlight bulb for a Ducati.
ECU for an 848 Evo.
Honda oil filter.
Some bags of gears and bolts.





































Anyone able to identify anything? Maybe he did a dry clutch conversion?

[gremlin]

No idea, but if you get all those bits, put them in a biscuit tin then roll it down a concrete slope it'll sound like a Ducati on tick over.

[ZRX61]

Large black nut doodad on the right looks like the fork cap whatsit on my '83 GPz11

Anyone able to identify anything? Maybe he did a dry clutch conversion?

[derek badger]

Bulb is from a car according to ChatGPT.

It’s a shared OEM component
Your unit (Philips XenStart D621 / 9285 141 294) is part of a standardised D1S xenon system used across many manufacturers.
The same part number maps to dozens of OEM references across brands like:
BMW
Audi / VW Group
Mercedes-Benz
Ford
Jaguar / Land Rover
These all share the same Philips D1S system and even identical part numbers.

[Silly Car]

Bulb is from a car according to ChatGPT.

It’s a shared OEM component
Your unit (Philips XenStart D621 / 9285 141 294) is part of a standardised D1S xenon system used across many manufacturers.
The same part number maps to dozens of OEM references across brands like:
BMW
Audi / VW Group
Mercedes-Benz
Ford
Jaguar / Land Rover
These all share the same Philips D1S system and even identical part numbers.

This is the first thing that sprung to mind when I saw the picture of the xenstart

[media] [/media]

[v8-powered]

Purchased a very fast milk float with a really good stereo.

[gremlin]

Purchased a very fast milk float with a really good stereo.

Ernie...is that you?