That axe looks brilliant ..i need one of these
I love to have a mini project on the go. I like to put my hands to good use and enjoy learning new skills along the way.
I guess that there are plenty of similarly minded gentlefolk in the TZUK family and thought an ongoing thread to share your weekend mini projects might be fun. So please continue the thread with your own mini projects, they might inspire others
I’m not talking house extensions and rebuilding old Jag E-Types, just the mini projects that you have been enjoying.
To kick things off this was my mini project this weekend.
First I stripped all the varnish from the leather handle of this Estwing Axe until I had raw leather. Then burnished with gum trag until a mirror shine was achieved few coats of beeswax and the handle was sorted.
Then I made a one off sheath for the axe from some horween leather that I’d bought and made a couple of watch straps with. Saddle stitched with a Sam Browne stud for the strap. I think I t turned out pretty well.
Axe sharpened and head brushed to make it look nice and the mini project is complete. Just a few hours, but an enjoyable little weekend project.
Let’s see what you’ve been up to.
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That axe looks brilliant ..i need one of these
Very nice, and a great idea for a thread. Sadly my only contribution this weekend would be fitting a new chain to the chainsaw; hardly newsworthy.
What did you use to produce that brushed finish?
My mini-project this weekend was to repair the wiring loom on my MGB.
Whilst trying to trace an annoying vibration around the metal dashboard I inadvertantly caused a short- circuit and melted the insulation off a wire for approx 2 feet. Had to do a lot of stripping out to remove the wiring loom, asses the damage, and replace the fried wire. A definite case of shooting myself in the foot, £40 on new parts plus a few hours work to rectify my own careless error. Shit happens!
Paul
12hr night shifts Saturday and Sunday (just finished woohoo), looking after my new lab pup, helping the kids with homework, cleaning out the rabbit hutch, chopping logs for the wood burner, cutting the grass, dropping off and picking up the youngest at a party etc etc.........that was my weekend mini project🙄
Axe looks excellent by the way👍
Lovely looking job. My "mini-project" this weekend, if you can call it that, was to travel up to Swindon to see my son and then on to Stratford-upon-Avon to compete in a Sprint Triathlon. My son suggested we visit "Steam", a museum - so we thought. Actually it was fabulous and I highly recommend it to fellow enthusiasts of steam engines. I never realised the Swindon Works even existed, never really stopping to think that these massive things must have been made somewhere! I might search to see if there's a separate thread on it and if not, start one. Anyway Steam was a great place which we thoroughly enjoyed, and Sunday was flippin' cold on the bike in wet trishorts and a shirt. All-in-all a great and tiring weekend.
I annealed some .303 cases then fire formed them to .410 using cornflour, also milled out the .303 and some new magtech .410 to accept shotgun primers instead of pistol primers.
mike
I put a a shelf in the bike store at the front of the house, also installed a PIR light in there, then installed a light in the under-stairs cupboard.
All of this is related to a bigger extension I've had built and is now finished.
On Saturday I finished scarifying the rear lawn, did the front last week. Then re-seeded it with a drought resistant blend of grass seeds including Kentucky Blue Grass. It was then all washed in with the rain on Sunday. Hopefully good results in 12-30 days.
Sunday included draining the water system in top floor to get rid of a pipe hammer problem, having read about the fix on the Internet. It actually worked (for now at least). Then bled all the radiators, tidied the log shed, wrapped and boxed lots of apples for storage and continued writing my "Watch Catalogue"
Winter is coming!!!
Nothing exciting, but all necessary to earn the necessary brownie points with the wife.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Another nice little project. An old record plane that either would either have been bought by my father or grandfather. Rusted and missing the front handle.
First a dismantle and clean then a soak in citric acid to remove all the rust. A dry in the oven and ready for a rub over with very fine wire wool and an oil.
Blade sharpened and honed to razor sharp.
Reassembled and new front handle added. I stripped down the rear handle but it’s clear that the new replacement handles are made from different wood. So I might strip the front handle of varnish also, stain both handles to the same colour then revarnish. But that will be a project for another day.
Nice to have brought an old knackered tool back to life and all for very little effort.
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Eheh I would assume some gun related stuff
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Man that’s stuff is looking better than new... tremble doors :)
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Replaced the central heating pressure gauge. Bled all the radiators (again). Done the ironing and just about to drive my son to Melksham for his Colts game.
Last years match resulted in the ref being cited along with both teams head coachs for conduct unbecoming. Hopefully this year things will be less tense.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Superleague grand final yesterday so my weekend project was to meet my mates at 10am for “Budweiser Breakfast” and go to Manchester to turn £120 into £0 between Deansgate and Old Trafford.
Today i’m gonna spend recovering.
Excellent work. I love restoring old tools, they're invariably far better built than modern tools and it gives me pleasure bringing them back to good use.
Hardly a mini-project, but I've just got rid of 2+ tons of rubble by hand from a gardening project into a trailer and then to the recycling centre. I think my neighbours will approve as it was piled up out in the road, however next week I'll be demolishing the wall behind for rebuilding and that's going to require 6 one ton bags of stone left in place...
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I completed a quick little project yesterday that I have been putting off for a few weeks.
The furniture on my Mini 14 was cracked so. Off it came a bit of a clean up and replaced it with a more modern type of furniture with a 6 position stock and rails above and below the barrel.
Just need to refit the bipod and scope now.
Before (top rifle)
After.
I do prefer the classical original look but it will do for the time being.
I tend to do all smithing on top of the gas stove, it winds SWMBO right up!
Last edited by Sinnlover; 14th October 2018 at 11:12.
Is the LE a mark 5?
Weekend log store project done. Now just need more logs.
Just a couple of observations.
Because logs are round they tend to 'spread out" when stacked, not a problem, however they will push the sides outwards, which might cause the wall of your house and shed to become a bit damp.
I also notice your sloping roof. Does it extend over the rear wall? If not when it rains it will just deposit the run off down the back of your log shed, especially as I cannot see any drainage.
Otherwise excellent use of the space.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Thanks fella.
There's a 2" gap to the house wall. If it bows, it'll fail first and fall apart but I've built it strong and it's solid so I hope that won't be an issue.
The felt goes up to the neighbour's wall and then slopes up slightly. The run-off should drain to the side. I can put flashing up if it becomes a problem.
There's a gap between the house and shed and the neighbour's wall. This also allows for drainage as we are on a hill. I have left a gap beneath the store for drainage by supporting the base of the store only on front and back.
Unfortunately I had to make massive compromises on the design of this due to the only space available. This store replaces an old more traditional one which was long and about 3' high but was removed for an extension on the side of the house. My biggest concern is that the height will allow rain in towards the bottom of the store because the overhang from the roof had to be kept short due to the window at the back of the house.
Overall though I'm quite pleased with it and when full will hold about 2 cubic m which is enough for our occasional use of a small burner in the lounge.
Good weekend for me, out yesterday and took 4 pheasants which are now hanging, now off for some fishing out of shoreham, so hopefully will be cleaning a few later, will leave the birds til tomorrow!!
mike
Some weekends over the last 12 months or so have involved cleaning, polishing, replacing rubbers and electrics, and reassembling recovered ships lamps and portholes (minus the electrics obviously!) The impetus was giving away a very large cleaned and polished porthole to a friend and colleague. In doing so I realised I had quite a bit of this sort of thing gathering dust in boxes in the attic space of the garage. With one exception, they were all recovered on dives from the early 90s until around 2010 and, yes, they were all declared to the Receiver of Wreck. I try to give them a sympathetic polish so they don't look as though they were knocked out yesterday but leave some of the dents, dings and other marks.
The polishing wheel and a lamp part way through restoration:
A close up of the lamp disassembled with quite a few hours left to finish:
And what it will look like when finished. This one I completed last year:
A large 'Starboard' lamp (with the green filter removed, now reinstated) also finished last year:
A smaller lamp given to my 11 year old nephew:
And a couple of portholes. The first one is huge and very heavy. I replaced the glass as it was badly etched; it's 1.5" thick and getting that made these days isn't easy, or cheap!:
The second around 18" in diameter (glass around 14"):
Some great projects
Love those bits of ships. Really cool.
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After a few aborted attempts I’ve built a personal vpn, using Ubuntu 18.04 and OpenVPN, I also built a pi-hole dns server. Next step is a cloud flare dns over https.
And to prove I’m not all geek I was in Arundel yesterday with a bunch of pals from midday visiting the fine ale houses.
A Mini mini project. Picked up a gen 1 (r53) mini cooper s the other week as a cheap replacement car when I return my current lease. Decided to give it a service which soon turned into a major service. Since that involved removing the supercharger I thought I might as well fit a reduced pulley.
Next weekend the project will be trying to remember where all the bits go.
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Installation of a couple of security cameras at home. Lovely little weekend project.
I was doing a survey in a school yesterday and got chatting to some guys putting security throughout the school and they recommended the Hikvision system. I went shopping straight after!
Are you running the cctv through homeplug network or fully wired? I ask as I have been planning on a camera on the garage so it would be difficult to wire in fully..
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Aerated the lawn, and then applied feed and weed. Knackered now, according to my phone I walked 6Km!
Up on the roof for a couple of days cleaning out all the valleys and gutters and generally getting things ready for the winter. Not been done for a few years really so quite pleased with myself.
Oh and also managed to re-seal the boot seals on the SL - been meaning to do that for about 6 months!
Some lovely projects on here - I liked the old plane being brought back to life and the ships lanterns etc.
I'll have to think of something more worthy than cleaning the gutters for my next addition to this thread.
Lovely hatchet.
Just a little design work. It always takes longer than one expects (hopes?).
Now I just have to make a physical realization of it.
Best wishes,
Bob
In my setup, the cameras are hardwired to the dvr by a coaxial cable. The cable supplies both the power and the data. The cameras are fixed to the soffits so all I did was drill a hole to feed the cable through the soffit. The dvr is powered by a mains connection in the loft. The internet connection is done by the powerline adapter. I downloaded an app to my phone and can watch the feed on my phone anywhere in the world.
If you have power in the garage, this setup should work.
Working on a new folding knife project at the moment. No pictures yet unfortunately but hopefully when the mess clears and something emerges!
The hour change, together with the arrival of colder weather meant that I dug out my ancient plug timer, to set my hall light to come on when it gets dark. You know, one of these horrible things, which are a pain to set or change as the hours of daylight shorten.
I had a look on-line and while not wanting to go the whole hog of Amazon Echo or Google Home, I found these "smart" plugs on Amazon at a tenner a pop.
I downloaded the controller app (Smart Life) to my phone and tablet and set them up on my wifi network. It only took about 15 minutes to get them connected and scheduled. I can now remotely control my lights and heating from anywhere. They can also be programmed for sunrise/sunset and temperature changes outside based on location. Some more playing experimenting is required but I've been impressed with them so far.
I spent the morning teaching gun safety to my friends 8 yr old son , he learnt quickly and had some great shots at 6yrds with a HW45.
mike
Nice little project this weekend, and one I’ve been meaning to do for a while.
Rebuild and refurbish the leaking brake master cylinder on the Triumph.
Removed from car, dismantled, cleaned, new rubber seals and rebuilt. Put back in car.
Just need to bleed the brakes, but I’ll do that another day.
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Thank you. I was a little anxious but did check when plugging in my convection heaters, my flat doesn't have central heating. The enclosed manual does include use with "portable heaters" and the wattage of the heaters is below the recommended level of 2,000. I generally don't like it too warm anyway, and use the heaters to take the edge of the chill. The last thing I want to do is come home to a real fire.
Just wanted to let you know that I set the switch up to do this. You set your location, which in turn enables the timing of sunset and sunrise to be known. You can then program a "smart" event for the light to come on at sunset. You then set a separate schedule for the light to go off when you want. That's a much better solution than changing things manually and adds a nice randomness to the event.