djbobbins

Got my Aldi saw delivered today. Oregon bar and chain, file, mixing bottle and tools included. More metal on it than I was expecting (oil tank and dogs metal for example, dogs also removable (so could be replaced I guess). Fuel and oil in, bar on, primed the carb with the fuel pump - it fired on the second pull and started on the half choke next pull after that. Brake works, it ran up to full revs smoothly - unfortunately I’ve got no big stuff to cut at home but will test it on some ash crowns over the next few weeks - they are the tops of stems at about 14” diameter so will give it a reasonable run out. Up to now, looks alright though.

In fact, I just did! Will post a review when it gets here...

In fact, I’m quite tempted to get one of those myself!

At risk of going to the other end of the scale, if it is just for domestic stuff, what about one of these - less than a hundred sheets and if it sh*ts itself in the first three years, back to Aldi for the money back. If it survives the three years, that sounds like cheap logging to me. I had a similar previous 16” Aldi special and did plenty of logging with it... Petrol Chainsaw | Scheppach Chainsaw | ALDI UK WWW.ALDI.CO.UK Keep your garden in top shape this summer. Buy yourself a new Scheppach petrol chainsaw and make quick work of cutting, pruning and felling. Shop online

Petrol or electric? I have done plenty of domestic stuff with my £50-ish Titan electric saw from Screwfix. Downsides are that it is only 16” and needs a 230v supply. Upsides are low maintenance, no fumes, quieter than a petrol saw when in use and instantly silent when stopped. Maybe one of those and a petrol saw for bigger stuff??

I wondered how long it would take until that got brought up :-) I was sufficiently well-endowed enough to fill a pram twice over, which was enough for me!

Anyone else noted changes to footwear sizes? As a teenager I used to be a size 9.5 - 10; I once bought a pair of size 9 shoes and they were so small I ended up with blisters after only an hour or so of wearing them. Now I can buy size 9 shoes, walking boots, ski boots or trainers and they fit comfortably. So are my plates shrinking after 25 years or are footwear sizes evolving??

When embarking on a project and breaking something along the way... “we’re doing one job and making three”. That one has stuck with me.

If the brickwork needs repair anyway, why not (with agreement of the client) chop the bricks out from the inside, let the whole lot drop and then leave the client to get the builder in to rebuild from the inside. It is so far up that the quality of pointing on the exterior wall isn’t going to be a visual issue.

It’s a maximum two year sentence, he’s already served two months before the appeal succeeded. Assuming they don’t want to make a living martyr out of him, I reckon they will sentence him to about 18 months, of which he’d actually serve about 8 unless he is a very naughty boy. Since he’s already done two months, I reckon he’d actually do another six months tops. How many times will he have to pick up the soap in the shower in 180 days?

Not sure if I’ve posted this before, but something made it cross my mind today... What’s the difference between a dog and a fox? About 8 pints, normally!

I thought the aim (until today’s announcement at least) was to stop the sale of new combustion-engine only cars by 2040? IMO this still leaves a lot of wriggle room for politicians / pragmatism (?!) for plug in hybrids and EVs with a range extender. I went for a self charging hybrid when I last changed car, to be honest mainly for company car tax reasons but also because I fancied an automatic owing to having a dodgy left knee. Mine is the Kia Niro, same car as the Hyundai Ioniq underneath but different styling on top. Had the PHEV been on sale when I changed, I would probably have gone for one of those - the range of ca. 30 miles would be enough for my round trip to work, but with no range anxiety or frustration at not being able to do longer journeys for holidays etc. The self charging hybrid is working out alright, fuel economy in general is nowhere near the quoted figure but if driven carefully I have had 74mpg for a door to door 100 mile trip, so not shabby either for a 5 seat car.

I like the idea of that - a log rocket stove...

I was rudely awakened at 2am this morning by two Man United fans playing football with a hedgehog in the street outside my house. I was upset and disgusted by this, I was just picking up the phone to call the RSPCA when the hedgehog scored.

It’s that time of year again... If anyone has any arisings (softwood is fine with me, of course some ash would be great too!) in Warwick I will gladly pay in beer tokens. I foolishly got rid of my towing car a couple of years ago but could collect MPV-full locally or will add extra tokens for stuff to be dropped on my drive (Hatton). Timon on here kindly sorted me out when I had a trailer but unfortunately Arley is a bit far to travel when it’ll just be what I dare load into the wife’s Zafira, versatile old bus that it is...

This was it, in red livery, before I was born.

Not that one but I remain curious about a similar yellow beast (“Bertha”) that Bill Cheetham at Lake View Garage near Leek used to have as a recovery truck. Also done in a fetching shade of yellow!

Sorry to use coarse language, but that point about prices going up because of less units being sold is generally incorrect. The wholesale price of electricity has fluctuated in recent years but isn’t significantly different now to what it was 10 years ago (in fact, in 2008 there was a period when wholesale prices went crazy). Actually, on windy or sunny days, particularly in summer, the wholesale price goes down and is occasionally negative - i.e. generators are having to pay to put their energy onto the grid. What has changed with the advent of renewables in the UK is that of your price of domestic electricity of (say) 15p per kWh, about 4p is being paid by your supplier and is ending up going as subsidy for wind farms and solar panels which were installed when subsidies were much higher than they are now. More money is also being spent on balancing the electricity system (as AC can’t be stored), transporting electricity from a larger number of wind farms around the grid, plus paying owners of coal and gas power stations to keep their plants ready to run for the smaller amounts of time when they are really needed. This latter part is done in a competitive auction process and plenty of assets have already closed. Coal and gas stations have to pay two different carbon taxes already. For what it’s worth, despite the change in the make-up of the price of electricity to the end consumer (and the general increase in levies and subsidies) prices in the UK remain much lower than in most of Europe. From memory, I think we are about the 12th cheapest out of the EU 15. German domestic electricity is about 30 cents per kWh; the big difference is that they are making a better job of building efficient houses - standard build when I last saw a German building site was 300mm cavity filled with polystyrene blocks. As such, we use more electricity and have higher bills, despite it being cheaper per unit. And will continue to do so, until we get more efficient.

Just had a look on the website, I could see various DIY tools in the offers for tomorrow but no bandsaw (despite it being in the header picture). Any info on price, physical size, motor size etc? For what it’s worth - the Lidl tools i’v3 had in the past have always been alright for my own domestic use; I’ve got no experience of trying them on heavy duty work though!

I’m not a sparky, but maybe something like this... https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/soft-starts/1756257/

DRU44MF comes top of my list, mainly ‘cos that’s the one I shelled out my hard-earned on about 6 years ago!

So... looks like I might be lucky enough to get circa £450 in Amazon vouchers as a one-off bonus from work!! :-) Before my wife decides to spend them on garden furniture or the like, I was wondering if anyone can recommend a domestic splitter? Ideally I’d like a vertical splitter so as to reduce bending over, or at least a horizontal one I can put on a stand. Any recommendations? Or should I just buy a telly instead? ;-)

Little Johnny is out for the day with his grandad and after a few hours, nature calls. They head to the gents and whilst standing by the urinal, little Johnny points at his cock and pipes up: “Grandad, my Daddy has two of these!” Grandad is a bit surprised and tells Johnny that “you must be wrong, no-one has got two willies.” But little Johnny knows better and is not to be convinced: “No grandad, Daddy has definitely got two. A little wrinkly one like mine and yours for doing a wee-wee with. And a big purple one for cleaning the au pair’s teeth!”

Got to provide your own tools though which I bet includes a high pressure jetted, potentially CCTV setup etc. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the quoted numbers are actually based on some kind of projected income for running a franchise. If I’m wrong though, I agree - lots of money for dealing with sh17...

Why did the baker have smelly hands? Because he kneaded a poo...