WorcsWuss

The specialist joinery shop we have used in the past has used ordinary aerosol lacquer for car bodies from Halfords for some of their stuff. I would imagine that any substance [wax, oil etc] you apply first would react with the lacquer so I guess a good fine sanding and 3 or 4 coats of lacquer would be a good place to start experimenting from...? Taskworthy: Home

Fortunately it's only a diddly one, under 40 quid I think.... So it's cost me the same as a Stein retriever! Ar&e!

Should do.... not sure what the cost of a replacement vice will be though!

Footnote: Hook end is not the profile I was aiming for, was after something far more compact but, for the same reason that this contraption hasn't worked out as cheaply as it should have, I could only go so far before catastrophe!

I quite fancied one of those telescopic Stein retriever thingummies but to be honest I thought it a bit rich for me. So, being a resourceful sort and having a shedfull of junk I decided to fashion one for myself. It's a short telescopic paint roller handle from Travis Perkins which I straightened out a bit, cut a bit off, bent some more and then buffed the tip smooth with the Dremel. Length of accesory cord & a Stein tool clip in the other end et voila! 540mm long closed, extends to 920mm. Handle & pole are aluminium & hook end / 2nd stage extension is stainless. Not perfect but I'm sure it will be just super for what I want!

I wasn't... but now you mention it, I will be in 2 minutes... stuck at home with the kids while wife works! Bah humbug...!

Hmm... I have one of those tucked away back at home..... might drag it out and see if it still goes.... be useful to have a big saw around and would certainly be cheaper than a 660...

In the construction industry, the CDM regulations place a legal responsibility on clients to employ a contractor with suitable working practices and insurances. If they do not they must share liability in the event of something going wrong. While I'm dead against further regulation and bureacracy, you have to ask, if customers were to face legal action should something go wrong as a result of work being carried out by someone of their asking without adequate insurance for instance, would it drive cowboys out a bit further or make no difference? Maybe... But as was suggested, would you want to work for the sort of people who would rather take a risk on someone not knowing what they're doing than pay someone to do it properly? In honesty you probably wouldn't, because you'd probably find them to be just like the cowboys they usually employ...

It's not a panda hat, and they weren't white trainers.... the monkey up the tree is actually a very rare white koala wearing a human mask [which has slipped] and those are his white feet... This is why he demonstrates such prowess when nimbly navigating his way around the tree with no safety equipment [deployed usefully] whatsoever.... Obviously... Additionally, koalas are yet to master the art of chain sharpening...

I got a new Silky from mother-in-law.... And a woolly hat with ears and plaits from my wife, which I haven't taken off... and she's now threatening to throw it out the window of a moving car. And many CD's, DVD's and socks, and slippers and a woolly-pully. Oh, and 18 holes of golf & a meal, also from mother-in-law....

I feel it! I was 12m up an Oak a couple of weeks ago and was quite happy until I cut a piddly little whip off which was curved round behind me so that I could spike up a bit further.... the sensation of not having something close in my peripheral vision made me feel a bit bloody queasy for a few minutes. Fortunately [?!] I was climbing for our electricians so that we could get some floodlights up and with their 'encouragement' from below ['Come one, it'll be Christmas soon!'] I soon steeled myself to crack on. Fear is a natural reaction to any situation we are not used to and can only be overcome by making ourselves used to it.... If you can climb 25 metres on a windy day in an open crown, 12 metres on a still day in a dense crown will be a piece of cake... I'm hoping to be able to rope Drew into coming with me for a climb when he comes back this summer..... As others have said, I think the benefits to climbing with someone with that level of experience and ability are huge...

I have S12 HAM [currently on retention & waiting to go back on something] and the missus has 'NJ 51 HAM' on her car... She's NJ Ham & I'm Simon Ham. Mine was a birthday present from my parents when that plate was released [too tight to buy 'S1' I guess!], I bought the other for my wife earlier this year when we had our latest [and last!] child... They're quite naff when I think of it but I do like them... in the sea of anonymity that is modern car styling at least I can find our cars in a car park!

I always wear gloves to climb in, use the chainsaw, prune the roses and stack small bales. I never used to bother and referred to anyone who suggested I wore them as a fairy. However I was a bit of a tosser back then and I now use ordinary leather saw gloves on the ground and in the garden and Youngstown work gloves when I climb. They're not waterproof though so are pointless in the wet, but on dry days they're brilliant. Don't last very long but are grippy and quite 'slim fitting' so knotwork is easy...

I run down on a straight forward Mammut 8.... much less effort than controlling a hitch and way more fun.... and cost about 12 quid.... an SJ is about £180 isn't it...?

Hard work and dedication equals time, no matter how hard you go it's time which has those effects... you can't get that fit from an hour a day..... My wife used to kickbox semi-pro and she trained a lot but wasn't like these guys.... [i'm sure they do have jobs, but I'd be surprised if they have time for anything else!] I fancy a go on the little bars the guy was swinging on.....!

Ha, they are some double hard bast*rds! Mind you, if all I did was ponce about in the gym all day slathering olive oil all over myself and being generally homo-erotic, I could eventually probably be that hard.... albeit shorter.... On reflection though I think I'd rather have my full and varied life than be able to suspend myself upside down from my chin....

Wow....anyone read the comments below the photos....? Just when you start to think you're a bit of a geek, along come a group of people with an interest which completely out-nerds you.... Great trucks though.... but watch out for the axles ... or something....

I have to admit I am trying to sharpen up a bit... I'm still carrying some 'baby weight'... my wife says this argument doesn't wash but I'm definitely a bit wobblier since we had No3.... I do still 'feel young' at 31, despite having 3 kids and having to act like a 'grown up'.... Age is what you make it.... I'm quite happy wherever I am but one thing I will say, thank god I'm not 14 again..... what a horrid age that is....!

Risky strategy....! A friend of mine did that and ended up with his accounts frozen by the revenue and losing his business! [Although I don't think the accountant was actually any good..... ]

It's not so much the pulley as the friction hitch you use with it which makes it easy.... The 'hitchclimber' is essentially a tending function but the arrangement of the holes on the pulley allows everything to stay nicely in-line and be connected thus.... A VT or distel are much smoother running hitches than a prusik or a blakes.... I've not climbed on a proper HC yet but I've researched it quite heavily and would really like to try..... I've tried to set up a 'faux HC' using the components I have to see if I should invest in the pulley & E2E cord....

That's how I understand it.... so if the buyer of the trailer in the OP is VAT registered and buys it 'with no VAT', they can't claim it back nor add it on if they sell it. The VAT has been paid on the new price, the revenue are happy because they've retained VAT at it's highest value, once it's 'dropped out' of the system it can't then become 'VAT-able' again...?

Mad as a wheel....

This thread feels like logjam..... There's no doubting that this kid is an a-hole, he's got no manners or respect and is fairly typical of the sort of indifference we're producing in our youth. But no-one can argue that the big guy wasn't TECHNICALLY and LEGALLY in the wrong. Sadly 'morally' carries very little weight in present legal thinking.... However, while what the big guy did in this instance can easily be argued for, the kid was openly vile, there is every chance that what he did may have been wholly inappropriate or could have had tragic consequences. I don't want to sound like a liberal.... I'm so far to the right I've fallen off the edge, however, the way this country operates is NOT the way of the 'vigilante' - it's the same reason that the riots achieved nothing, you can't get your way by throwing your weight around. It was easy to foresee this outcome the second this story came to light. Punishment is in the hands of the law, however effective - or ineffective - that may be...... I still maintain that the route cause of this whole debacle was the guard on the train handling the situation in a wholly inappropriate way and if I had my way, he'd be sacked for allowing one of his passengers to 1, lay a finger on another and 2, do his job for him in a way that I'm pretty sure isn't in the staff handbook anymore... If he had said, 'No thanks' the big guy wouldn't now be in the pot. I don't dispute that the police are generally a waste of time. But the big guy set himself up for a fall the second he got 'physically' involved. It's really difficult to argue in a court of law that not being able to present a ticket for a train is a greater crime than picking someone up and throwing him off said train.... Whether you agree with it or not you have to accept that this was the only possible outcome from the legal system we have in place..... All that is open to debate is whether you think that's right or wrong. Personally I think in THIS INSTANCE it's wrong, however generally it would be a very dangerous direction to take.... who draws the line... if you run over a few days on your car tax is it OK for someone bigger than you to drag you out of your car and take the keys off you....?

Hang around outside a 6th form college and chat up some students.... kill or cure.....

Get yourself a split tail then rather than lengths of friction cord. 2m is quite a lot... the friction cord I use for my VT is less than a metre. If you're climbing open the basics are thus: Climbing line Split tail A crab That will get you in the tree, but it's MIGHTY hard work, and you have to untie your line to get off the rope, add another crab [1 for the split tail & 1 for the line] and you can clip in and out at will. You should consider adding self tending to your hitch [small pulley, another crab & a short prusik loop]. That way all you have to concentrate on is body thrusting rather than thrusting AND advancing your hitch. Good vid on DdRT open hitch set up here..... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1RSzKkBOWc]Ascending - Doubled Rope Technique - YouTube[/ame]