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Hi folks, I have a Stihl FS-55C brushcutter that ended up with a banana-shaped conrod. On disassembly I noticed some light scoring of the barrel so to be safe I ordered a new barrel and piston (part no. 4140 020 1203) along with the new conrod. I'm starting to put everything back together and...

Hi folks, My lawn has had a couple of red ants nests in for several years now. I've tried boiling water, bait stations, various granules, baking soda mixed with caster sugar - you name it. Nothing seems to keep them down for more than a week, so my assumption is that the queen is still down...

Hi folks, Either I'm really rubbish at Googling, or nowhere on the internet does it say what the bevel angle on a Stanley #220 block plane should be. There are dozens of sites that can't wait to tell me what the bedding angle is, but not the bevel angle. I guess I'm supposed to just know what...

Hi folks, I have a uPVC door that faces West, towards the prevailing wind. Whenever I get lots of rain and wind, the door starts to leak into the house, through the bottom of the panel seals, as per the photo. I've felt along the bottom of the door and can't feel any drain holes - should there...

I see all sorts of videos on Youtube where people make workshop furniture out of birch ply. What they use seems to be immaculate, with zero voids or surface damage. I can't find good quality birch ply in the UK for less than about £100 for an 8' x 4' sheet. The stuff you get from Wickes and B&Q...

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Hi folks, I replaced the perished fuel hoses on my FS-55 brush cutter at the weekend. On pulling the cord to start there was a metalling slapping noise and the engine locked immediately. It never actually started Stripping away the housing, I can get a socket on the pull start mechanism and...

Hi folks, Can anyone advise on the best (national) merchant to get exterior ply from? Wickes/B&Q etc. don't indicate whether their ply is WBP, so I assume it isn't. I think I'm looking for EN636-3 and can't seem to find it. I can find marine ply, but that's twice the price so not an option...

Hi folks, I want to put a removable fence post at the side of my house. It needs to be 4"x4" post with minimal movement (it will also support the latch side of a gate). It also needs to stand up to the wind like a fence post sunk directly into the concrete would. When the post is removed, I...

Hi folks, I have a Worcester Danesmoor 20/25 boiler. Yesterday it started locking out when I put the heating on. The amount of time between boiler firing and locking out varies but can be as short as five minutes. Putting the water heating on does NOT cause the boiler to lock out. Pipework is...

Hi folks, I've been suffering with a Ring floodlight cam for about three years ago. Initially it worked really well, so I bought doorbell and a chime as well. For the last six months or so, connectivity has been absolutely terrible. The floodlight cam drops out all the time, and I only realise...

Hi folks, My boiler is firing up at several points throughout the day and night. CH is switched off (as you'd expect - it's July), and HW is scheduled once a day, in the morning. I've noticed the sound of a pump running in my downstairs WC, which is where all the (boxed-in) pipework from the...

Hi folks I've been meaning to get round to making new wooden doors for my garage. Current door is up-and-over and I want to replace with double hinged doors. Is it better to use tannalised or untreated planed wood? Obviously the tannalised stuff will be more naturally rot-resistant, but also...

Hi folks, this one has me stumped. Every morning, from about sunrise, there's an irregular knocking noise in my loft. There's also sometimes a scraping noise, as if the tiles are being dragged against one another. The knocking noise is quite deep, as if someone was hitting a rafter with a...

Hi folks, After about a decade of putting it off, I'm biting the bullet and putting new estate-style gates in. One post will be on the boundary with my neighbour, who recently had his drive re-surfaced. I need my post to be butting right up to his drive, which means the hole (and concrete)...

So back in the good old days, you could buy PIRs with an L1 terminal which you could connect to a switch for an override. Nowadays they all come with the "feature" that you have to switch power to the light off and on three times to have it come on permanently, then switch it off and leave it...

Hi folks, I'm building a little lean-to bike shed in the garden. All gone well, now just building the ledge-and-brace doors. I was planning to use my brad nailer to fix the T&G door to the ledges etc., but with 15mm doors and 18mm ledges, a 32mm brad will poke through the back as soon as the...

Hey folks, I've been using Sketchup to visualise a couple of garden projects I've got coming up - first a large lean-to type shed to replace my battered old 5'x7' relic; and secondly a pretty sizeable garden room. The garden room is next year's project most likely. In terms of the shed, I'm...

Hey folks, So I decided it was time to invest in a compressor for various jobs, from keeping the old car tyres inflated to being able to clear out various things with a quick blast of air, to nailing the large shed I'm going to start building soon before Summer buggers off. Then I discovered...

I work away during the week, so I turn my HW and CH off at the control unit (Danfoss FP715). Once or twice I've gotten home at the end of the week and switched CH on to warm the place through, and the boiler doesn't fire, although the radiators tick away and get hot. If I put my hand on the...