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Spent many years using a Mountfield sickle bar machine on experimental plots. It had a huge Villiers 25 engine and was unstoppable. The later Allens, with, if I recall correctly, a smaller Villiers, were OK, but all suffered from a "back to front" clutch mechanism, which would refuse to...

Wheeled strimmer. But don't get the Hayter one from some time in the 1990s with that ******** Tecumseh engine. Local community council has one and I reckon I've probably spent at least as much time trying to fettle that ******* engine as it has spent strimming.

Having a son-in-law in the next village who is a mountaineer helps!

Oh dear. Reminds me it's almost 60 years to the day since I last drove a Major.

Good thoughts. For the time being, a notice saying "Planted wild flowers, do not mow" did get him to come and apologise for destroying things, but suggestion that a bit less mowing would do no harm had no effect whatsoever. As someone mentioned in another thread "It's not easy being green".

Brilliant. Well done Jacob. I've been vainly trying to persuade our local community council to adopt a similar approach, but they have a "suburban garden" mindset which insists communal grass must be clipped to 20mm every week and flowers must be planted in regular lines in separate beds...

Just one warning; depending on the shape of your lawn and your age, a 22" mower can become a real pain. My 20 year old Hayter is self-propelled, so no pushing, but manoeuvering it in any confined space takes quite a lot of effort. Fortunately, it only usually gets used now to get the lawn down...

The deWalt diamond blade disc in an old 4" Bosch angle grinder made short work of slate that thick for various name plates etc. At worst, wear an N95 mask, preferably a powered respirator and do it outside.

When I was in my teens, a neighbour's rick went on fire (one of his kids illicitly smoking). Noticed it starting, grabbed one of those conical extinguishers and ran round with it. It worked as intended, but faced with a rick fire, would probably have been as effective if I'd pee-ed on it. Our...

Don't know anything about bow making, but since the inner side of the bow is in compression, holly should be OK for that? But not for the parts in tension.

I still treasure the comment from a guy at a local roup when I'd bought a yard brush. "That's a bargain, if you are sure it works". Doric humour.

Interesting; hadn't seen them before. As the years have caught up with me, am beginning to wonder about post mortem disposal of my workshop stuff. There's more, and more specialised, stuff than sons-in-law or local friends could need. Anyone had any experience of these auctioneers? Our local...

From limited experience working with holly (turning and the odd small box), I'd be very chary of using it for anything as highly stressed as a bike frame. It's not a very flexible, and quite brittle wood. If I were going down the route of a wooden frame, ash would be my choice. It's not as...

Sorry, longer than a day or two, but just found it in the end in a fairly logical place. It weighs about 300g, which seems to equate to £2.85 via Royal Snail parcels. Picture of the beast below. If you'd be happy with this lashup, let me know and I'll check there are no hidden tricks in...

Are you sure about that? Pretty sure my Avon was 20mm diameter and 2mm pitch, which most listings seem to offer. But if the OP can find a friendly man in the shed with a metalworking lathe, a new spindle with 3/4" by 16 would be a good choice since there is a lot of 3/4 by 16 (the old Coronet...

Fine; give me a day or two, as I THINK I know where it is, but then, often think that!

Pretty sure that somewhere around my tip (a.k.a. workshop) I have one that I cobbled together out of some tubing and the backrest adjuster knob off a 120 Volvo. Doesn't look specially pretty, but it worked and it would be your's for the postage if I can find it.

Makes our simple Balmoral tank look pretty crude. When we lived outside Milton Keynes, we had a wonderful guy who came round with an ancient ex-Water Board tanker, and was a fund of stories in the Blaster Bates mould. The guy who has just emptied our's had the biggest, whitest and smartest...

Feeling flushed(!) with success having just welded up the cast iron cover on one of the inspection chambers to our septic tank, I would suggest that welding should work. Needs preheating and the right sort of rod (there were some odd 2240 rods in my stash) but not too difficult. Or file/drill...

Daughter used to work as an adhesives specialist for Pilkingtons and is still doing odd stuff for them as a consultant. Which, while she was in the UK was useful, as she could get hold of specialist glazing products very easily and economically, but that ended when she was seconded to the USA...