The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:
dmc wrote:
SNIP
I've never had a decent leccy screwdriver and used this as a chance
to buy. Wow....
Ended up with
https://www.screwfix.com/prods/94022...-Twin-Pack-12V
for 120 quid. Very pleased. Only downside is the small capacity
batteries
but with three and the included 20 min charger is wasn't really a
problem.
Same set I bought, well pleased with mine as well.
Impact driver was fantastic (cheers Dave 
). Driving in 90mm
turbogold
bolts with no pilot hole to make the frame. Rather surprised at how
many
many battery charges I got through - I'd guess probably 8-10 building
the frame, something similar screwing down the boards.
It does knock 7 bells aout of the batteries, I bought a Makita mains
impact
driver to alleviate the problem. Cost about £50, about the same as one
battery.
SNIP
Screwdriver bits:
I bought a 10 pack of screwfix PZ3 bits, expecting them to be
consumables on a job like this. I finished with the same one I
started with. Is this normal? (I generally take good care of tools,
and don't willfully abuse them, but thought this was strange.)
Heh, exactly the same here. I bought a box of 25 dewalt bits in the
screwfix clearance sale. 24 left in the box, one in the impact driver
still fine :-)
To those thinking of undertaking building one;
- buy a good screwdriver
Definatly. I'd recommend the impact driver as well tbh. Well pleased
with
mine although I guess with a bigger screwdriver it might not have
been so essential.
- have extra hands to assist with aligning boards.
Yep. Essential for getting the pergola uprights straight as well
Did you build that yourself as well?
- plan it well *before* starting
Yep. Google Sketchup was surprisingly easy to get the hang of for
mocking stuff up for SWMBO approval. Not used it in anger before -
will certainly
use it again though.
- it took me approx 30 man hours. (two of us; two good screwdrivers
with spare batteries)
Hmmm... Thinking about it it took me and my dad 5 days to get the
bulk of
it done.
Just need it to stop raining so I can build a step and a planter at
the front bring it down to the lawn. Then think about some treament
possibly. Deck
oil or something... Are you planning on doing anything with yours?
I always reccommend decking oil.
http://bogit.com/tmp/deck3.jpg shows the Frame
http://bogit.com/tmp/deck4.jpg with some of the boards on it.
Nice job that.
That frame is beautiful - shame to board it.
Seriously - nice job