Recent content by Sideways

Both my Bosch cordless and Metabo grinders have that excellent system for rotating the guard just by pushing a spring loaded catch. It's a must. The little old Makita didn't, nor did a Fein grinder I used that was otherwise smooth and powerful for it's size but had a very poor version of the...

You are very welcome here. Thanks for introducing yourself 👍

Sharing this cautionary tale just to make you think: Angle grinders were never high on my radar as a DIYer mainly interested in woodwork, but after becoming interested in restoring old machines I found myself using them quite a lot with cutting discs and for surface preparation with wire...

That's a really useful photo Brian, thanks. I would like to try a #3 properly but the only time I've briefly used one I just couldn't get my hand in it and found it annoying using it with 2 or 3 fingers in the grip and 1 or 2 sticking down the side. I didn't waste any more time on it. The...

I think it's not just the big blades, although those are much wider than normal at the front and heavily relieved to be only as wide as a standard blade at the back. I assume the way the moving column is supported and aligned throughout it's stroke is the key and the blades firmly clamped to it...

@Spectric I owned a predecessor of yours, the old GST60PBE for decades. It was a reliable jigsaw but blade clamping and the rear roller guide didn't make for a reliable 90 degree or any other angle cut. I bought a Mafell P1CC from another member here on UKW and it's very impressive. I use my...

But then again ...

Good news, thanks for the update ! For your cameras, how about trying those corkscrew type tent pegs and a string tether ? You might get some fun footage of the fox trying to drag the camera away - at least until they work out a way to do it :)

Back in the day our electronics development labs had many millions of pounds worth of prototype equipment and several full installations used for testing and fault finding. We had halon fire suppression that was turned on when the labs were unattended just as you describe. It displaces oxygen so...

Is the chuck properly screwed onto the spindle ? For a reversing drill I'd expect to open the jaws wide and see a pozidrive screw at the bottom of the jaws. That will have a screw thread opposite to normal, so drive it clockwise to unscrew it. Then with the drill in low gear make sure the chuck...

Our neighbour shared some clips of hedgehogs in the garden the other night caught on a wireless security cam that she unhooked and placed where it could see them. Great fun :-)

200 ohm resistors then :) Or get really wild with an NE556 dual timer and few passives. One timer to give you a pulse every minute, triggering the second to give you a 5 second long pulse for the power bank to detect. A schoolkid would probably design you something with an arduino, fully...

Simplest of all would be a 200 ohm resistor across the output of the power supply. That will drain 25mA from 5V and dissipate 1/8 Watt. Use a 1/4 or 1/2W resistor to allow for the fact that you will be putting it in something and not leaving it in free air. If on a trail cam, LEDs are...

Your camvac is 1,2,3 vacuum cleaner motors in a tin can. It's perfectly good for hoovering up. Would it save space and your hard earned cash to just buy a long hose that can reach everywhere without dragging the camvac around ? If you are set on the Metabo, for an extra £40 I'd probably take the...

The TS55 was my first tracksaw so I bought an 800 and 1400 rail and the Festool joiner bars thinking versatility. I quickly realised that 1400 was annoyingly short for cross cutting 8x4's and 2200 was just barely usable for the rips. 2x1400 = 2800 would have been OK but having 1600/3200 is...