I have a decent sized (8m x 5m) timber garage already but it’s not in the best condition and is not tall enough to get the cars in. So let’s rebuild it but bigger!

Plan is to knock this one down and extend the slab to then create a 9m x 6m building which will allow me to have two cars in side by side and still work on them. Planning permission (it’s not permitted development) is going in this week 👍🏻

This is the current garage, complete with lean-to and hot tub - both of which are due to go in the very near future. All being well I will extend it to the rear and at the other end where the trailer is.

I decided to have a go!

I scanned the underside of my 90 - just to make sure it will fit, and designed these.

Manual version

Motorised version.

My plan was to interface the motor to the interior light so the steps deploy when you open a door.  This version has the advantage that it can be tucked up behind the sill - more protected and invisible.  The manual version has to hang 30mm lower  & 20mm further out so you can step down on it to unfold it.

I showed it to a couple of people & the general reaction was it should be manual!

Manual version folded

Electric version folded.

I'm a bit torn between the two to be honest!  

Most of the field coil/armature testing in the LR manual requires the use of 110V and a light bulb.   

Actually, can you still get ordinary light bulbs for a/c?

I have a detached double garage with electrical power (has its own consumer unit) and two single doors.  It measures about 5.7m wide and 5.8 long.  The rafters are 2.9-2.4 m above the relatively flat floor (the few inches around the edges slope up an insignificant amount due to the concrete shrinking as it set).  The doors are the problem - they are a little narrow (the RRC gets in, but it’s fairly tight through the door) and the 109 can’t get under the up-and-over doors as they fill the top of the aperture when open, giving bang on 2m vertical space.  The lintels are at 2.19-2.2m, widths between pillars are 2155mm and 2170mm (not measured at multiple points, so will have some variation).

There is plenty of space between floor and rafters for the 109 with its rack fitted (it stands at just under 2.27m), but getting it through the brickwork aperture will have to be done by using dolly wheels with solid rubber rims or steel wheels with flat tyres(swapping wheels is far easier than getting that rack off and on again).  Fitting slimmer, higher lintels, including having an I-beam run above the roof joists with hangers to hold the roof up so that the door apertures can be raised then brings me to the soffits, which would clip the roof rack, and changing them along with the lintels becomes prohibitively expensive and invasive.

So, a pair of sectional doors, much like the one John fitted to the extension of his garage in his 2014/2015 thread seem to be a good solution as they will clear the entire brick apertures without huge additional alterations to the garage structure (and would allow the 109 normal entry should the rack be removed).  I could conceivably have the centre pillar between doors narrowed to allow slightly wider doors, but that isn’t entirely necessary, so would depend on cost.  Simply cutting the brick would look terrible, so it’d probably need complete removal and replacement.

The suggestion of outward hinged doors set to accommodate the driveway slope was a good one, but would make opening the doors difficult with the 109 parked on the driveway as the drive isn’t long enough to leave a huge gap between vehicles and doors, plus I fancy the weatherproofing and security of the sectional doors.  There was a suggestion to regrade the driveway to remove the slope, but the photos should show why that isn’t on the cards.  My driveway is hardly pristine, but not in a state that warrants great expense, and it meets a crossing section of drop-kerb pavement that is sloped the other way to prevent water runoff of the road entering the driveway (there are two grated drains in the low point of the road immediately in front of that sloped pavement - the road and pavement share the same block paving, but the distinction is the V formed by the road sloping towards my drive and the pavement sloping away from it to make a shallow berm).  Trust me, I love the idea of a level driveway, but it’s not economically feasible as it’d include removing the pavement and fitting drain channels similar to those in front of my doors to the road to feed into the big drains, and would could introducing a flood risk to my garage.

Any recommendations, suggestions or pointing out what I have overlooked or not considered would be most welcome.

My old tyre inflator just died on me.  I had a few tyres (the low profiles on the 109's slave wheels) and it ran a bit slowly for a few seconds and the blew the fuse.  The second fuse blew immediately.  I suspect the motor has seized, or more likely, shorted internally. 

I'm wondering whether it's worth opening to try a repair, or whether they are made in such a way as makes DIY repair unrealistic.

Assuming the former, does anyone have any tips on how to do it (looks can be decieving), and if the latter, any recommendations on a sensibly priced, decent brand (ie not ARB)?

What's the easiest way to tackle this?

I've got grinders, recrip saws, and a plasma cutter. And a lathe. And a hack saw.

what is it ? 

My eyes aren’t what they were and I really struggle with the 32nds, 64ths, 10ths, 20ths, 50ths etc 

Ive looked - but the only one I found that fit the bill was a starret one that was ground on all faces and a fortune.

Well I was surprised to see that a new kit is about £18 on eBay, whereas I was expecting closer to £40. The Turner sourced one (from China) is a staggering £120.

The question is, are there any snags with a kit such as this one, currently on offer with voucher, for £16.42?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/156330879278

Thank you

I've had bare concrete (cold and dusty) and painted (still cold but easy to clean) before. While the idea of a bit more insulation and comfort is appealing, the main reason I'm considering something else is being able to lay it much sooner and get everything back in the garage. I'd love to put down PVC floor tiles, but I think I'd be doing well to get them for £600. Good epoxy paint comes in at around £230 with anti-slip additive or a little less without. 

Rubber matting is potentially a middle road, though cost is massively impacted by how many rolls I'd need across the width (just off to measure it and see if any of the widths I can find would do it in two lengths).

I'll rarely if ever have a vehicle in there, so durability is less of an issue than it would be if that weren't the case.

I decided to throw this up as it may be of interest to some..... now for those that suffer OCD I'm eclectic so I chase an idea till another pops into my head or I get distracted so this thread will be like most of my projects a bit all over the show lol 

So to get the ball rolling here is a little design project an Automotive wire coil rack, I've got to do a new loom for my 40 series cruiser so I figured why not sort the rolls of wire so ordered a heap of new wire (30m rolls) and here's what I came up with since there isn't anything that really fits the bill on the market 

Made from a couple of sheet metal hammer forms and I'll have to machine up a new dimple die to make the spindle holder section 

I designed a hook into one end so I can clip it over the end of the MDF top of the bench and stand it up when I want to do loom work on the bench, stackable with a handle and it will hold 12 30m rolls so I'll need 3 or 4 of them 

This is how it will sit on the end of the bench 

I moved house a year and a half ago and now have a single garage and space in the garden to build a shed. The garage will have a large workbench (I already have some 900mm deep worktop for that) as well as all my tools. The shed will be where all the Land Rover parts will be stored along with bikes, garden tools etc. I have collected a lot of wood for the shed build and bought framing wood and shiplap. I also have some racking to go in too, so this will govern the roof height, but I'll put plans up of the shed later.

The first step will be to build the shed as the garage is full of wood! There's a 9 foot square in the bottom corner of our garden which is sunken by 80cm.  I was and had designed a shed to fit in this area with adequate access last year. A kitchen decided to get built first and then the weather turned cold and wet. The kitchen is done and what a great job my wife has done as she has painted all the old and new units, I fitted them all and leveled them and got a mate to install a new work top.

As the driveway needs extending and we are having some chimney tops removed, we will have some rubble and soil to shift. This then led to an idea of filling in the sunken area in the garden to then create privacy and to build a bigger shed. Now a bigger shed is always a good idea and privacy is good too. So I now need to tweak my design to lengthen it a bit.

So I need to build a retaining wall around two sides and tie them into what brick walls are already there. So my first question is what type of retaining wall do I need and how do I make it strong enough as there will be a lot of soil behind it and a heavy shed pushing down on said soil. The existing wall to the left looks like a double skin brick wall, but the other wall is only a single wall of breeze blocks. I had also thought about incorporating brick pillars that jutted out form the wall at 90 degrees to sit part of the shed on. I've also seen long steel posts that allow concrete sleepers to slide in. All I want is a strong solution which isn't going to crumble and damage my shed that I've built on top!

So fire away with your suggestions, I look forward to hearing them!

Regards

Steve

I notice that a lot of the copies still seem to label what they are selling as helicoil. Has it become like the word ‘hoover’ I wonder ?

Also - what are people’s thoughts on these?

Mrs. Jon asked what I'd like for Christmas a while back, and I was vaguely thinking about some money towards a 3D printer. I quite fancy being able to go print up widgets or whatever is needed, but really don't know what's a good one or what's a bad one...

Any pointers on where to start - for a 'hobbyist' level printer how much money do you need to spend, what features are a must, what do you need to look out for?

Thanks!

Jon

I have a set of SGS skid trolleys for moving vehicles around a workshop - the ones that buckled previously and were repaired with reinforcement.  They are still causing some trouble though - the castor wheels refuse to pivot with the vehicle’s weight on them, so moving the vehicle becomes impossible.  I have to jack the axles up to relieve the pressure, aim each castor wheel by hand, lower the car and then push the whole lot where I want it, and even then it resists.

I don’t know whether the problem is poor quality bearings in the castor pivots, the metal wheels or a combination of both.  Since the vehicle generally only needs to move laterally, I’m considering replacing the castors with fixed wheels with solid rubber tyres.  It’s not as cheap as you might imagine, as I’d need 16 wheels at a typical price of £6, so is roughly the cost of a new set of the same trolleys.  
 

For a fair bit more expense, SGS (and others) make hydraulic lift trolleys, the HD type being rated about 50% higher than these, and those come with castors with rubber wheels.  It’d be nice to be able to fit or remove the trolleys without resorting to the jack, but isn’t essential.  What needs resolving is this resistance to rolling.

So, my questions are these: is the resistance to pivoting being caused by solid metal wheels with flat rims on a slightly uneven (not rough) concrete floor, would castors with solid rubber tyres with rounded section pivot more easily, or do I need to go for the fixed axis wheels?  £440 would be an acceptable outlay if it is going to cure the problem as well as making the fitting and removal easier, but not if the trolleys still won’t roll like the existing set.

What I'm wondering is whether I'd be wise to install and inspection chamber by the house or whether that's just adding a weak point. The garden slopes up from the house, with both outbuildings behind it, so the low point in the ducting is at the house. I'm guessing this is likely to fill up with water over time, if only from condensation? An inspection chamber would give me a point of access to do something about that, and also physical access before the rise to the loft when drawing cables. Both of which seem like a good idea...

Or am I overthinking this?

I can't think of any way to provide permanent drainage from the bottom of the duct that wouldn't be more likely to let water in?

Draper one gets good reviews. It's low resolution (but probably just being honest).

There are plenty of randomly branded Chinese ones on the usual market places. £20 will buy a dual camera USB one that'll plug into a phone (which immediately means you've got the ability to record and take stills, something most cheap dedicated units don't). They usually claim high resolutions, but judging from reviews is the usual story of a high resolution data stream with a 720p camera on the front of it - so basically about the same as the likes of the Draper. Still perfectly adequate. 

Those that use the UseePlus app appear to use a proprietary protocol, but also seem to have better picture quality from the reviews (I would imagine that's down to the hardware they're all repackaging rather than the protocol itself). There's a Linux driver project for them, but good chance if the app is discontinued they become (practically) unusable with a phone. But they're cheap enough to maybe not care about that...

It'll be used for drains and the like, so needs to be waterproof with a decent length flex - 5m should be adequate.

I'm hoping to find a second hand one, but if that fails, I'll have to make it work somehow. 

The space is tight if I reuse the shaft, and it has tracks for the bearings. 

My current thinking is to bore out the pulley to the outer thick part, and make a new shaft that's a bit longer. 

And put new metric bearings on. 

I don't know how to retain the bearings in the pulley, on the shaft nor what type of bearing to get. 

I also don't know what type of steel to make the shaft from. 

I imagine that the pulley rotates at 15,000 rpm or so. It's the idler on the V8, and there's a 24V generator at the other end.

Looking for something that has a selection of sizes of Phillips, Posidrive and flat - Torx would be a bonus.

This is somewhere between a setting-out of what I intend to do, a wishlist and an invitation for ideas on any aspect anyone cares to offer a view.

I have a very clear idea of what I want it to be inside. I've always 'done up' every garage I've had to be a clean, orderly working space but this is my first double, so I can actually have storage that follows that idea. I'm already committed to a new door to be able to fit the car's height, so that's £2k spent without trying. I don't like exposed brick, so all the walls will be painted white and the floor wil be a light gray. I'll board out the rafters to create storage above and look to replace the lighting. I'm thinking multiple (12+) spotlights would give a more useful spread of light than the usual strip lights. As I intend to valet cars in there regularly, I want bright lighting. Looking for ideas/alternatives/suggestions...

In terms of layout, I want a work bench on the back wall with space for my two tool boxes (think single fridge-freezer dimensions rather than those snap-on monstrosities you can get) and then as much built-in cabinet space as I can without ruining the interior space. I'm unlikely to need to park two cars side by side, but I would want the space to park in the middle and take out the half shafts without struggling, for example.

I'm particularly keen to know what people have used as cabinets. In the past I have had these US Pro Tools cabinets:

While they looked smart in black, they were utter carp for build quality. They were thinly constructed and the inner shelves would regularly fall off their pegs.  This is where I'm looking for recommendations as it's impossible to tell if you're getting good quality units online, occasionally you can get lucky by not going for a big name brand.

There's options like these units from SGS, I've bought an engine crane from them which needed fettling just to work normally, but I doubt they make these things themselves. I like the idea of an integrated work bench and storage underneath, but it would take 1.75 of these units to fully kit out the back wall... which at £2k each, is not realy an option.

Other, more common options are like this which would allow me to pick the units that go around it, not getting stuck into one supplier's configuration for the whole thing is appealing and probably cheaper overall.

For larger items/spares, things that won't go in a drawer or would normally go on a shelf, I'd like to use cupboards like these. I had old, tatty office tambours in my last garage which worked well and were robust enough for the environment, two of these along the side wall would be a neater version.

Something for another wall is these 'skips' (I don't know what they're called) that I mounted last time. I screwed on a black-painted plyboard panel and then screwed these racks onto them, purely because it meant 8 holes rather than 800 for the racking which the skips mount to. Having ready access to bolts/washers/nuts/etc without having to rifle through boxes is something I'll not want to lose.

So that's probably enough to start, I need the exact dimensions to work with and then I'll probably do a plan layout in Excel where it's easier to do things as a scale drawing.

I've almost always treated them as a fire hazard. Seems that was wise...

The almost bit is that I had them in the house last month when I was painting my daughter's bedroom during a cold spell. The corners of the room were too cold and the paint was washing off the wall with condensation, pointed one at each corner, got and kept the wall nice and warm (and made the spaniel's day). But they were on continuously, including overnight, for a few days. Only noticed the back of that heater when I put them away afterwards 😬

I'm now wondering whether to carry on using them - I mean, I thought they were a fire risk before. Now I know they are... What's the difference? 😆

This is the first step in a bigger project, which I'll post here if/when it works.  I'm planning on building a Radar based Adaptive Cruise Control which controls the vehicle through the built-in +/- cruise buttons.  For this to work, it needs to know if the clutch or brake are pressed - hence this discovery process.

The project is here: https://github.com/SimonRafferty/Land-Rover-Td5-Arduino-Diagnostics 

If I were to go this route, has anyone a suggestion for what grade of steel to use? The existing rod is forged steel, the engine is from the 1940s.

All my battery stuff is DeWalt so thats where I'm looking but the question crosses all brands as there are different shapes out there.

Body Grip:

'Normal' type one:

Anyone got either type and hate it? Love it? Wish you'd stuck with one over the other? 

It seems that the body grip type is a case of setting the speed and then its an on/off switch, rather than the variable trigger on the other type.