On May 17, 10:50*pm, Huge wrote:
On 2013-05-17, The Medway Handyman wrote:









On 17/05/2013 12:33, Huge wrote:
On 2013-05-17, Lobster wrote:

However, I have to say my life-long love affair with bananas took a
somewhat downward turn when I visited a beer festival recently, and
spotted 'banana beer' on offer.

Well, you've got to try it, haven't you?

Sadly it proved to be probably the most disgusting stuff I've ever had
the misfortune to put in my mouth. *Who'd have guessed, eh?

Never had "Dr. Peppers root beer", eh?

Or Watneys Red Barrel...

Believe you me, Dr.Peppers is nastier than Red Barrel. A lot nastier.

I tried Peppers. It is very nasty indeed.

On Thu, 16 May 2013 22:44:50 +0100, alan
wrote:

First ever car Mk3 Cortina and around 6 years old when bought.

I thought it was a good idea to fit an after market oil pressure gauge.
After fitting, the gauge took about 30 seconds to register so I
concluded that I had a problem with oil pressure.

Removed the gauge adapter and asked a friend to start the car while I
checked under the bonnet. As the car started the contents of the sump
shot out of the hole in the adapter, missed my ear by a few inches, hit
the underside bonnet and descended again covering everything within a 3
foot radius.

My mate did exactly that with a MkII or a Mini, don't recall which old
heap it was. An impressive amount of oil, indeed.

On Thu, 16 May 2013 22:36:55 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

Called fire brigade but, luckily, it was all disgusting mess rather than
burning building.

Mum used to make banoffee pie quite often.
Part of that involves cooking an unopened tin of condensed milk for
a couple of hours in a saucepan of boiling water to turn it in to
caramel.

Kids should be introduced to kitchen appliances at an early age, but
under some degree of supervision.
My early experience of the Kenwood Chef involved sticking a knife into
the blade, snapping the blade of the knife (and the mixer), said
broken bits whirling past my ear with a deadly trumm noise and one of
them embedding itself in the doorpost.

In the same kitchen, the following year, my first foray into home
brewing involved following a recipe on Blue Peter for ginger beer.
It all went swimmingly. Right up to the point where all the dozen
bottles exploded in rapid sequence, late one evening.
The recipe had said nothing about releasing the pressure every so
often...
The bits of glass embedded in the ceiling and woodwork were a mute
testimony to the charnel house that kitchen would have been if the
bottles had let go during a busy period.

On 17 May 2013 21:50:19 GMT, Huge wrote:

Or Watneys Red Barrel...

Believe you me, Dr.Peppers is nastier than Red Barrel. A lot nastier.

Philistine; and you call yourself a Yank.


Irn Bru, Vimto, Cream Soda, all stuff to get you diabetic later.

SWMBO says "washing machine is leaking". Sat in front of it and realised
the standpipe was no longer coping with the outflow.

Cleaned as much as I could reach, bunged drain cleaner down it, hot
water, etc. Twice. Each time flushed it through with a quick wash,
interrupt, and forced drain operation.

Went to flush it once more, go outside, watch drain. Nothing coming
through. Eventually go back insode and splash my way across the utility
room.

Yes, forgot to put the drain hose back in the standpipe.

That was 30 minutes ago.

--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
My posts (including this one) are my copyright and if @diy_forums on
Twitter wish to tweet them they can pay me £30 a post
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

Painting the gable end of the off-shot kitchen. I managed to get all
the way up to about two inches below the top of the chimney. So, of
course, I balanced the step ladder on the wheelie bin to get the last
bit done. Just as I finished the wall started shooting upwards as the
wheelie bin went shooting into the garden.

Oooff!

JGH

On 18/05/2013 14:56, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
In the same kitchen, the following year, my first foray into home
brewing involved following a recipe on Blue Peter for ginger beer.
It all went swimmingly. Right up to the point where all the dozen
bottles exploded in rapid sequence, late one evening.
The recipe had said nothing about releasing the pressure every so
often...
The bits of glass embedded in the ceiling and woodwork were a mute
testimony to the charnel house that kitchen would have been if the
bottles had let go during a busy period.

Sounds like I got off lightly. My ginger beer made a good impression of
a foam fire extinguisher when I opened it. My mum was _not_ impressed by
the jet playing across the front of the cupboards.

Andy

jgharston wrote:
So, of course, I balanced the step ladder on the wheelie bin to get the
last
bit done.

:-))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))


--
Adam

Andy Champ wrote:

Sounds like I got off lightly. My ginger beer made a good impression of
a foam fire extinguisher when I opened it. My mum was _not_ impressed by
the jet playing across the front of the cupboards.

Just reminded me about a demijohn full of damson wine. It was
placed to ferment in a corner of a newly decorated bedroom, but
frothed so vigorously that the foam made it through the air lock.
As each bubble burst, it spattered the wall. The colour nearly
matched the emulsion, but was a somewhat darker shade.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Plant amazing Acers.

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
polygonum writes:
Using a chain lubricant that required heating for my motorcycle chain.

Put it on the cooker at a low setting, went outside to undo another nut
which was stuck fast. Eventually heard an odd popping/bubbling noise.
Kitchen black. Air black. Me black.

Called fire brigade but, luckily, it was all disgusting mess rather than
burning building.

Mum used to make banoffee pie quite often.
Part of that involves cooking an unopened tin of condensed milk for
a couple of hours in a saucepan of boiling water to turn it in to
caramel. This requires remembering to return to the saucepan
periodically, to check and top up the water level. Should you forget
to do this for some reason, you are reminded by the bang from the
kitchen as a can of caramel explodes on the stove. There were
caramel stalactites hanging from the ceiling over 20' away from
the cooker...

Nowadays, you can buy the caramel ready-made, but back then, you
had to make it yourself.

Many years ago my mother used to boil linseed in an open pan to make an
additive for the horse's feed, allegedly it improved their coat. Any
way, one day she had the bright idea of doing this in the pressure
cooker. Some where along the line she had forgotten that it increased in
volume quite a bit while being boiled.

The result was that the mass inside forced the little weight off the top
of the cooker that was the pressure regulator and a volcanic like
eruption of scalding hot linseed hit the ceiling. For sometime it was
impossible to get any where near the cooker to turn the power off.
Spectacular though :-)

She never tried this method again....................


--
Bill

On Tue, 14 May 2013 20:34:43 +0100, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

Mine has to be taking the waste pipe off the sink and cleaning it under
running water in the same sink without a plug in. Every single time.

:-) I was replacing sink taps and waste pipework on a sink a few weeks
ago. I closed the under-sink shut-off valves, replaced the taps (mixer
spout with separate hot/cold controls), then hooked up the hot feed and
thought I'd test that for leaks before doing the cold, as access to the
pipework was going to be tricky once the cold feed was in place.

I was quite proud of myself for remembering to put a bucket under the
sink in place of the non-existant waste pipe. What I forgot to do was
ensure that the cold tap was shut off. With my head under the sink so I
could watch for leaks, I reached around and turned the hot tap on - at
which point water decided that the path of least resistance was through
the not-yet-connected cold inlet, rather than the spout and into the sink.

Needless to say, the bucket wasn't in the way, but my head was.

On May 17, 12:33*pm, Huge wrote:
On 2013-05-17, Lobster wrote:

However, I have to say my life-long love affair with bananas took a
somewhat downward turn when I visited a beer festival recently, and
spotted 'banana beer' on offer.

Well, you've got to try it, haven't you?

Sadly it proved to be probably the most disgusting stuff I've ever had
the misfortune to put in my mouth. *Who'd have guessed, eh?

Never had "Dr. Peppers root beer", eh?


Is that just the regular stuff? It's effing disgusting.

--
Halmyre

I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mike

On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013 9:13:32 PM UTC+1, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

3/. It probably doesn't count as DIY, but the classic case of building
two left wings on a model aeroplane.


A friend of my father's mistakenly built two left sides of a boat (a full sized riverboat that was).

Robert

On Fri, 24 May 2013 14:35:06 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)

fx: collapses in state of helpless amusement



Nick

On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Bet it still hurt though?


--
David

On 24/05/2013 15:27, Nick Odell wrote:
On Fri, 24 May 2013 14:35:06 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)

fx: collapses in state of helpless amusement

Yup that did just about sum up our response... (on a solid wood floor
fortunately rather than a carpet)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 2013-05-24, John Rumm wrote:

On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)

Our varnished, cork-tiled bathroom floor is considerably darker than
the tiles were originally.

The instructions with the tiles & glue said to put enough glue around
the edges for some excess to squeeze through, then wipe it off. I
didn't wipe it off quickly enough, so there were dark bits around all
the edges. The Planning Committee said she thought the tiles were too
light, & why not stain them darker to cover up the glue stains?

So I carefully stained the sides, then worked down the middle strip
from the open window towards the door, but near the end I kicked over
the tin of stain, so I had to even the puddle out.

Fortunately, the varnishing later was trouble-free.

In message , Muddymike
writes
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mike

Been there, seen that.
I was working with a colleague in an office with a false ceiling, he was
tracing some cabling above the ceiling and stood on top of his steps,
turned around 2 or 3 times and lost his orientation. He too stepped
down on the side with no steps, it was spectacular as he fell across the
customers work station and landed on the floor. Amusing afterwards, but
not at the time!
--
Bill

On 24/05/2013 14:35, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)



Which reminds me - I was painting the ceiling, but as SWMBO was using
the stepladder elsewhere I was standing on the B&D Workmate with the big
tin of emulsion on it too.

I finish one area and go to slide it along a bit, but as the retaining
clips had long-since broken the leading legs fold inwards and the whole
tin of paint tips over my feet and the floor.

--
Reentrant

On 24/05/2013 14:35, John Rumm wrote:
On 24/05/2013 11:15, Muddymike wrote:
I was once working whilst standing on the top platform of a stepladder
having turned this way and that I stepped down on the side without any
steps, with paint kettle in hand!

Luckily it was only a 3 ft tall step ladder.

Mate of mine was painting a ceiling... stepped down from the ladder,
straight into a 15L bucket of emulsion ;-)


Doing some painting for a lady once, who bred some kind of rare cats.
She was paranoid about the cats getting paint on them & me getting any
paint on her newly sanded & varnished pine floor.

So she shut the cats in a room & issued strict instructions not to leave
the door open.

An hour later I see a cat walk through the paint roller tray, then all
along the floor.

She had left the door open :-)



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 10:03:23 AM UTC+1, Reentrant wrote:

Which reminds me - I was painting the ceiling, but as SWMBO was using
the stepladder elsewhere I was standing on the B&D Workmate with the big
tin of emulsion on it too.
I finish one area and go to slide it along a bit, but as the retaining
clips had long-since broken the leading legs fold inwards and the whole
tin of paint tips over my feet and the floor.


Despite being quite unconservative about DIY I couldnt think of much on stupid cockups. Well, there's the usual drill a buried cable, and measure twice cut it wrong once that we all have. And spilt paint.

On one job I drove pins in from the back to fix some timber that already had a single front fixing, only to realise after 20 or so that the pins were too short to actually enter the necessary timber

I recently put some sheet insulation in the shed on a shelf, it was being a bit awkward going in but a bit of waggle and shove and home it went. Thought no more about it - but next time I went down to the shed there was sheet insulation sticking out the back, and cladding lying on the ground! It turned out the nails had hardly any grip on the timber frame for some reason, I'm glad I decided to screw the frame together.


NT