Recent content by gtrance

Thanks for the advice. The frames had previously been painted. We did it ourselves about 3 years ago and it lasted about 6 months. I can see now from your advice that we weren't thorough enough in our preparations and skipped too many steps (not knowing what the steps were didn't help...

Many thanks for the reply. For the sander, I have a small eletric sander (it just vibrates), should this be sufficient or should I hire a belt sander? You mention 2/3 coats of quality exterior wood stain. I was thinking of painting the frames. Are you saying to apply the wood stain and...

Hi there, My 3 shop windows are in desperate need of re-painting. The frames are wooden, most parts are actually fine but the lower window ledge parts - the wood has all split and cracked and the paint has also split and peeled all over. The wood itself does feel dry, not rotten. My...

The backplate won't come off, its nailed to the drawer in two places, any attempt to prise the plate up causes it to bend and I can tell it will snap before the nails even begin to come out.

Hi there, i have a wooden drawer with a metal handle. The back of the metal handle is fimly fixed to the drawer. However, a small part of the handle has come off from the back plate causing, of course, the handle itself to come off. I have tried fixing the small part onto the backplate...

To do a full and complete defrost, I take it I turn it off completely and leave it for a day or so? This of course means I'd need to run my food right down to minimise the waste? Faulty thermostat sounds possible but is there some merit in what the guy says about if the ice is only building...

Hi there, We have a Beko Fridg/freezer. It is about 7 years old. In the last month of so the fridge has started icing up on the inside back wall. The ice only appears on the top half of the fridge section (the bottom shelf and the salad trays have no ice behind them) Along with this, some...

Thank you both for your replies. I had inspected the cable and it was okay. However last night I undid the plug and then opened up the box panel on the mower that the lead goes into and sure enough, one of the cables had broke off inside. I've re-attached it and it's working fine. Thanks...

Hi there, I have a Quaclcast power-trak electric lawnmover. http://www.qualcast.co.uk/rotary/powertrak34.html End of summer last year it stopped working. I was mowing the lawn and to begin with the engine sounded like it was fading out before coming back again. Then it cut out...

Just wanted to add my success story. I've got a hotpoint wf541 washing machine. Few weeks ago, all the lights started flashing for 30 seconds. After this the machine would work fine. But about 10 days later, the lights would flash constantly with no buttons responding. Phoned Hotpoint...

Thanks for the reply. A bit more googling and it appears I will need a desoldering wick to desolder the old cap? Is there a way to desolder the cap off without a wick? Otherwise I'll have to order a roll off ebay and wait a few more days.

Hi, The washing machine has stopped altogether now. The lights flash constantly until I turn it off at the plug. So I've bought a soldering iron and the capacitor from Maplin. Before I pull the machine out (which is very difficult and blocks the kitchen completely), is there anything...

I did remove the fuse from the original TV plug to replace the fuse in the extension plug. So now the cut off TV plug is in the bin without a fuse. Good point to bring it up though, I can see the potential safety issue. In regards to the power leads I could have bought, I don't think I could...

Thank you both for your help. I've wired it up and it's working fine. No loud bangs or electric shocks so that's a good sign! Maybe I'll look into re-wiring the complete downstairs now I'm expert :lol:

Thanks for the fast replies, By leaving the earth wire in the connector in its own little metal thing screwed down, does that count as having it insulated? Or should I disconnect the earth wire from the connector and wrap it up in tape or something? ban-all-sheds, yes I should have just...