On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:31:02 +0000, Chris Bacon
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:
"Dave" wrote:
"John Rumm" wrote...
Doctor Evil wrote:
http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/product_132.html

Personally I find that advert is bordering on the deliberatly
misleading...

You're quite right, John, it's an appalling bit of advertising - they should
have pictured it being used to fix quadrant beading or similar!

(from another article):
Bordering on? It's way over the line.
If I could be bothered, I'd write to the ASA and trading standards.

Well, you should do it. If these people make misleading claims, then
people who aren't "in the know" could be fooled, and buy something
inappropriate to their needs. It's your responsibility to complain.
Do it!



Nah. I have much bigger tasks at hand like exposing the National
Lottery for what it is - a front organisation for the Inland Revenue.

There's a marketing organisation if ever there was one. Getting
people to part with their money voluntarily to pay for things that
should be funded commercially or if not viable that way out of
taxation.

As it is, we have taxation for the gullible, and that really isn't
fair on the gullible.



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In article ,
[news] wrote:
Dunno. I bought one of those car starter packs with built in
compressor for 20 quid in Lidl, and have just seen the self same brand
in the Frost catalogue for 50 quid. Now Frost sell some high quality
stuff. Makes you wonder.

it does indeed. get a JT Frith cash and carry card, you'll be shocked at
just how much of a markup most UK stores have on items like that.

Thing is, Frost are mainly mail order - apart from an outlet in Rochdale
;-) - so can't have the overheads of a high street - or close by - store.

--
*Confession is good for the soul, but bad for your career.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article , Andy Hall
wrote:
This could be a marketing opportunity for them. If you can find the
marketing manager who did the nailer web page, you should have no
difficulty convincing him that Superbeam is something that they could
sell as a gizmo to make your car headlights brighter.

It's much better than that Andy: every day I get emails starting "since
buying your product my love life has been transformed ..."

Unfortunately I can't tally the senders with my customer base g

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:14:38 +0000, Andy Hall wrote:



We have had at least one story of a cheap angle grinder catching fire,
but in general rotating electrical tools as you say are more likely to
be inconvenient or be heavy or wear more quickly rather than failing
catastrophically.

Just to prove the exception to the rule :-), our small B&D circular saw
caught fire suddenly last week. OK B&D isn't the best quality but not a
cheap brand either. Luckily it was the spare one....

--
Holly, in France
Holiday home in Dordogne
http://la-plaine.chez.tiscali.fr

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:26:52 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message

The "Big Guy" tried
with the "Crown of Creation"


My sentiments exactly

I'd like to know what you're talking about ...

Mary




Mary, for somebody as close to nature as yourself, I'm surprised :-)

That's not at all helpful ... :-(

Mary



--

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...




Nah. I have much bigger tasks at hand like exposing the National
Lottery for what it is - a front organisation for the Inland Revenue.

What are you doing about that?

There's a marketing organisation if ever there was one. Getting
people to part with their money voluntarily to pay for things that
should be funded commercially or if not viable that way out of
taxation.

As it is, we have taxation for the gullible, and that really isn't
fair on the gullible.

What's worse, it seems to me to be largely a tax on those with less
disposable income than others - to fund things which are wanted by those
with more disposable income than others.

Mary

IMM wrote:

I went into Aldi today and looked at one of these nail guns. It immediately
disintegrated as I looked at it and exploded showering the shoppers in
shrapnel. Made a mess of the bread shelves. Appalling.


I like it! Probably the most civilised and appropriate response I've
seen in this thread for hours. Didn't know there was an ALDI in Camden
Town.

Regards
Capitol

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:41:06 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:26:52 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message

The "Big Guy" tried
with the "Crown of Creation"


My sentiments exactly

I'd like to know what you're talking about ...

Mary




Mary, for somebody as close to nature as yourself, I'm surprised :-)

That's not at all helpful ... :-(

Mary

Sorry Mary.

The reference was to perfection, and the suggestion that this was my
modus operandi. I indicated that although one might aspire to it,
achieving it would be a disappointment because then there is only one
way to go.

Perfect is a word like unique. It either is or isn't.

Then there came the reference to the "Big Guy" (taken by many as the
symbol of perfection) and the disappointment with mankind - originally
meant to be perfect as well - the Crown of Creation.

The concept is similar to the idea of the frog crossing the pond from
the lily leaf in the middle to the edge. He can jump as many times
as he likes, but each time only half of the remaining distance from
where he is to the edge.

The eternal question is whether or not he reaches the edge or if you
like perfection ...... Either way, should he keep trying?




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:43:37 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Andy Hall" wrote in message
.. .




Nah. I have much bigger tasks at hand like exposing the National
Lottery for what it is - a front organisation for the Inland Revenue.

What are you doing about that?

According to my accountant, the Inland Revenue passed redemption many
years ago......



There's a marketing organisation if ever there was one. Getting
people to part with their money voluntarily to pay for things that
should be funded commercially or if not viable that way out of
taxation.

As it is, we have taxation for the gullible, and that really isn't
fair on the gullible.

What's worse, it seems to me to be largely a tax on those with less
disposable income than others - to fund things which are wanted by those
with more disposable income than others.


I know. That's why it's no different to any other form of taxation.
It's simply that the Inland Revenue isn't quite as good as the Lottery
at marketing.

Yet people line up in their droves in the supermarkets and petrol
stations on Saturday afternoons, holding up people who want to buy
something worthwhile like food or petrol, and hand over their money
willingly.

I think I should set up in competition. I could give them a far
better rate of return.



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

"Capitol" wrote in message
...


IMM wrote:

I went into Aldi today and looked at one of these nail guns. It
immediately
disintegrated as I looked at it and exploded showering the shoppers in
shrapnel. Made a mess of the bread shelves. Appalling.

I like it! Probably the most civilised and appropriate response I've
seen in this thread for hours. Didn't know there was an ALDI in Camden
Town.

There isn't?


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Andy Hall wrote:
On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:25:25 -0000, "Dave" wrote:

I've got a cheepie 18g brad nailer that I've used extensively for
light duty work and it's never let me down... so I'd be interested
in Andy's experience of one blowing up being explained in more
detail, i.e. what actually went wrong, and should I be inspecting
mine for signs of wear in any particular area??

On the one that I saw, the mechanism jammed, then the clip holding the
retainer for the hammer gave way and both of these plus some nails
flew off at an angle. Some bits ended up in a wall about 2m away and
others were on the floor about 5m away.

Obviously lubrication is an important issue, but the hammers are a
consumable item, and especially if the tolerances of the tool are not
good will probably wear more quickly. I replace the hammers and
manufacturer's recommended parts as a matter of course according to
their schedule.

I would check these at least, and certainly investigate very carefully
if there are any instances of jamming. If there is a retaining clip,
then I suspect that that would be another risk item.

Thanks for the pointers, Andy - I'll have a close look next time I'm in the
shed!

Cheers!

Chris Bacon wrote:

As soon as you start making assumptions about safety of tools you've
never even *seen*, purely on the basis of price, you put yourself on
dodgy ground, and are exposed to ridicule, as has justy happened.

Yup, but it wan not Andy that was looking ridiculous though...

For reference I have used a Cosmo 18g brad nailer that looks pretty much
identical to the Aldi one pictured (except it is yellow), probably cost
about the same as well. (Cosmo seems to be a budget brand that SIP use
to badge engineer far east imports they are not prepared to stick their
own name on)

Quality was nothing special. Safety was a hard one to call - it did not
fall apart while in use. It did jam a few times, and after a few times
had managed to erode a portion of the nail guide slot as a result of the
jams. This I would expect in time to represent a safety hazard since a
nail could either be misdirected, or cause significant lateral forces to
be exerted should it "derail" the firing pin. It also does not have an
exhaust port that you can direct. This poses increased safety risks to
the user since there are times you will not be able to avoid getting the
exhaust blast in your face.

The quality of the nailing was variable. Nail setting depth would vary
with pressure, The firing pin (or blade in this case since it will also
do type A staples) will mark the surface of the wood unless the pressure
is spot on for the nail length, and wood hardness etc. So no practical
use for finish nailing.

--
Cheers,

John.

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Tony Bryer wrote:

On a product of this sort in this sort of store I doubt it - if
you and I go into buy one I would bet that there's a fair chance
we'd come out with this item only. Loss leaders work when they
lose 20p on one item and make £5 on the basket.

It is quite good for eye catching (given tool in question, pun not
intended!) headlines. You may not get anything else on that visit, but
it could make you aware of a shop you had not visited before.

I would guess that the weekly specials are deals struck with
suppliers who will cut very good deals for a guaranteed no
returns no promotional cost production run. We sell our
SuperBeam software for £149, but if Aldi would like to sign up
for 100,000 copies they can have them for £10 each g

If you wish to test sales at the price point by running a trial for
uk.d-i-y readers then let me know ;-)

(nice bit of software BTW)


--
Cheers,

John.

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| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
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"Andrew McKay" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 20:21:25 GMT, "[news]" wrote:

here she goes again, the old cheap vs expensive argument.

::PLONK::

Sad days when you have to put someone in the twit filter.

I'm sure you are in many of them.


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"RedOnRed"


Judging by your previous postings you're clearly a manual worker

You mean craftsmen and artisans, rather more useful on a DIY group then the
bunch of failed I.T. Prats, Victor Meldrew impersonators and wannabe rocket
scientists that normally post here.

--
Dave
*Learn from your parents' mistakes - use birth control.

Dave wrote:

You mean craftsmen and artisans, rather more useful on a DIY group then the
bunch of failed I.T. Prats, Victor Meldrew impersonators and wannabe rocket
scientists that normally post here.

Guess we should all be greatful you (being such a prolific and useful
poster) are here to help rectify that then.

BTW, which Dave were you again, don't recall seeing many of your posts
round these parts?


--
Cheers,

John.

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On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 18:34:41 +0000, Andy Hall wrote:

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 18:05:20 +0000, Holly in France
wrote:

Apparently they have decided to put
plasterboard onto the joists and battens on top, so that will make the
nailing a bit easier.

Do you really mean plasterboard?

Yup, see below.

Usually ply is the typical thing.

Plasterboard is quite often used like this around here. We hadn't seen it
before either but it does seem to work. It is layed on top of joists when
one wants a ceiling downstairs rather than seeing the bottom of the boards
above (in case of gaps appearing between boards if not T&Gd and also
provides thermal insulation and minimal sound insulation) The plasterboard
could be cut and set between the joists but that would be much more work.
It doesn't have any structural function (other than possibly having
rockwool etc sitting on it). The weight of the floor is taken on battens,
usually fixed directly above the joists.


One other aspect of this is the use of green oak and possible
movement.

That was my mistake in saying green(ish) oak. I meant newish really, ie not
300 years old and hard as nails which is more usually found here. It would
be better if I had these messages proof-read before sending them, but there
is no chance of that so I will have to do my best :-) Beams and joists have
been up over a year in well-ventilated conditions, any movement which was
going to happen will have happened by now. We used the same timber from the
same source, along with some cut from our woods and dried for a year in a
shed first, in our gite, it's fine. We have also done some experiments to
see how fast oak dries here, this timber will be dry enough.

One important thing with secret nailing of flooring is getting the
nails positioned consistently and well. The specialised nailers
essentially do that for you.

Well that's very interesting, thanks. I think the nail guns my husband has
seen wouldn't have been able to do that, that being one of the reasons he
thought doing it by hand would be better, in that the nail guns can be
inaccurate and split the tongue. Also apparently the tongues on this timber
are straight, ie not really at the right angle for secret nailing.

Exactly. They are made for this specific job. They get the angle
right and push the piece up and support it.

Yes, I see what you mean. Don't know whether such a thing is available
round here but we will investigate.

You can do some of this in other ways but they can be more time
consuming.

BTDT.

There are a lot of nails........

Yes, there are. As you said before, depends on the area involved. In this
case it is quite large so a flooring nailer would be a better bet. Having
seen various people working, I think it depends also on how skilled one is
with a hammer.


--
Holly, in France
Holiday home in Dordogne
http://la-plaine.chez.tiscali.fr