Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[Steve Maskery]

Thanks. Ouch. I hadn't banked on that.
I do have a tame leccy, I think we need to have a Little Chat.
S

 

[MMUK]

One thing to bear in mind, Steve, is that the total load of whatever machinery you have cannot exceed 100A. Although I would recommend not exceeding 70A total load to allow for any start up surge currents. If you are anywhere near this figure, I would really recommend having it connected to a separate 100A incoming fuse and meter or you may find a shortage of power in the house/extension/sauna/whatever. Unfortunately this would incur some substancial cost as it would have to be done by your local electricity board. So, you may need to be strict with yourself on machines.

Another point to consider - Any machines you have that induce a start up current may well trip a normal domestic MCB. I would recommend that machines such as a STS or SCMS are fitted with a D Curve trip.


If you need any help on the leccy side, give me a shout.

 

[monkeybiter]

Another obvious consideration is that with a single user, even with the best equipped workshop, you are only likely to have a maximum of two or three motors running at any one time. [extraction + machine tool] Lighting shouldn't consume too much, nor would your much anticipated video equipment.

IMHO I wouldn't have thought that your maximum consumption would approach anywhere near 70A. How great are startup currents ?

 

[Steve Maskery]

I won't be using anything like 100A!
The biggest is my TS which does need a 16A supply, everything else runs on a normal 13A plug. It's not as if it's going to be a commercial workshop with lots of people using different machines at the same time.

Thanks for the offer MMUK, much appreciated.

 

[MMUK]

Phew! Although, due to the distance I would still use 10mm2 armoured cable for the supply straight from the meter with a 100A isolator. You could then probably be OK with another 100A main switch in the workshop consumer unit with maybe 2x 32A rings, 2x 16A "blue" circuit and a 6A lighting ring.

 

[Steve Maskery]

How would you deal with the conservatory? The main electricity box is now on an internal wall. It was an external wall originally, but the conservatory has been built over it.
S

 

[MMUK]

Without a pic it's not easy to give the perfect solution but I would probably terminate the armoured into a proper box on the outside wall and then run 10mm2 T+E through the wall, into the conservatory and along the wall to the mains and conceal it in trunking.

 

[Steve Maskery]

OK, that makes sense. Thank you.
S

 

[Steve Maskery]

More progress today. The root stumps are out, the trenches strung and that waste bit of concrete cut. The forecast for tomorrow is rain, rain, rain, but on Friday we intend to finish the digging and remove the rest of the blocks that have to come down.
I've ordered 1.5 cubic metres of concrete for 11am on Saturday and I could really do with one or two more pairs of hands, complete with wheelbarrows. We have two at the mo, plus two tampers, but the lorry only stays for 30 minutes before it dumps the rest onto the road. We have to barrow it down to the bottom of the garden.
So if you are not doing anything on Saturday and would like to work up a sweat, you would be very welcome. I know it is short notice, but we have to do it when we have to do it. I'm a few minutes drive from J's 27 and 28 of the M1, depending whether you are travelling North or South.
Ta muchly
Steve 07961 427955

 

[MMUK]

Aha! I'm trench filling with ready mix myself on Friday, just myself and near 4 cubes :shock: . If I've any energy left I could bob up for a couple of hours on Sat as long as it's not too early and there's a bacon butty + coffee waiting

 

[Steve Maskery]

There will be home-made soup and cake, at least. I could run to some bacon butties and the kettle is always on.
Is that a firm offer? I want enough people but not too many. There is no point in us getting in each other's way and I don't want people travelling unnecessarily, only to find they are redundant, but I don't want to be shovelling it off the road and having to clean up, either.
One more then chaps? Pretty please?
S

 

[MMUK]

Yeah, firm offer bud. I can have a goosey at your leccy proposal while I'm there. I've a second fix to do in Nuneaton but that can be done on the way home. Just PM me your address.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Team sorted chaps.

Four gentlemen barrowing
Two ladies tamping
And a partridge in a pear tree.
S

 

[paulm]

Who's going to take the pictures though Steve and make the tea and coffee ?!!!

Cheers, Paul

 

[Steve Maskery]

Here is a pic from a few days ago, just to show that I'm not just standing around with a camera watching Ray do all the work:

and the cutting of the concrete, although we haven't actually lifted it yet:

And so to today. We took delivery of some sand, cement, bricks and mesh this morning, but I forgot to photograph it, sorry. The we set to with our shuttering. We are using the rafters that came off the old shack. We took a while to get the lines right as we can't check for square with diagonals, there is too much old shack in the way.

The soil that has come out has been tipped into what was once a pond. It's nearly full, but the annoying thing is that the last lot of soil is not as nice as the soil we dug up a few days ago, so the best stuff is underneath the latest stuff. It's not awful, but it's not as good.

Then it was down with the rest of the RH wall. Very grateful for Cowboy Builder's Hilti, but even so the piers were stubborn.

The we just had to trim the mesh a little:

then cut a couple of tamping boards and we are ready for tomorrow:

Or at least we will be after I've made a cake and some soup. Quite frankly I'm ready for bed.

I don't know how Ray does this. This is crippling me and he has ten years or more on me. But he is stronger and has more stamina than I do. Right now I can hardly move.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow. 2 cubic metres arriving at 11am.

 

[paulm]

Ibuprofen Steve, best invention in the world, well, after malt whisky of course :lol:

If I know I'm going to be doing some serious work I usually take a couple (pills not whiskys !) before I start and then another dose or two during/after, helps a lot I find with stiffness/inflammation brought on by not being as young or active these days !

There's a lot of work being done there, interesting to see it develop, thanks for keeping up with the postings.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well...
Concrete ordered for 11am, everyone here and ready by twenty to. At 11.10 the phone went. "We're running a bit late. Will a quarter to twelve be OK?". As if I had a choice. 12 o'clock. 12. 15. Still no concrete. I ring, get the answerphone. Grrrrr. Twenty to one the phone goes. "We're on our way, we'll be ten minutes."

So we had some Thai carrot soup and waited. They eventually turned up a few minutes before one, two hours late.

However, it was not time wasted:
Ray, Bob and I knocked down some more of the back wall and stacked the blocks on the neighbour's garden. They want some of the blocks so that suits me fine.

Charlie and Chris restacked some of my wood out of the way:

and Thérèse (That's like Theresa only posh French) cut up some firewood for me:

Incidentally, Thérèse is the only lady I know who owns has her own concrete mixer...

SO when the lorry finally turned up we had achieved quite a lot, just not what we had intended.

But then disaster, we were a bit short:

So Ray mixed some by hand, while the others hosed down the wheelbarrows and shovels. There are no pics of that as I was busy in the kitchen making some rather excellent bacon and egg sarnies. And so, after they were demolished as well as my triple lemon cake, we were left with:

So all's well that ends well and I got 15% knocked off the bill.

As Ray went, he called "See you tomorrow for some bricklaying. That'll be easy compared with this".

 

[Baldhead]

Looking good Steve, hope you remembered to place a time capsule under the concrete, if not you'll have to dig a bit up

Baldhead

 

[Steve Maskery]

I'll post a proper update later, but we've been busy with the shuttering for the slab. The big pile of blocks in the centre has now all gone so we were able to measure our diagonals. They are the same to within 5mm! Result! Considering we did that with string and Pythagoras I'm pretty impressed.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to ask if anyone is available tomorrow for a couple of hours? Concrete is arriving at 11.30am and I could do with one more pair of hands. If not, we'll manage, but there is more than twice as much as we took last week.

Anyone feeling strong?

 

[Racers]

Hi Steve

I will drag my son round with me.

Pete