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Not strictly a general woodworking topic, but as heavyweight cordless equipment gets more common, there once more seem to be almost more different battery types than there are makers! I've been looking at cordless chainsaws, and it looks as if each of the makers has their own "standard". Has...

I have a couple of Stihl strimmers, an FS200 which runs like a train, but is getting too heavy for this ancient guy and a much lighter FS66, which runs well when it wants to, then refuses to start, or dies unexpectedly. Suspect there is some sort of carburettor problem. Looks like a Chinese...

Any of you clever people on here ever dismantled a Mira 903:36 cassette off an old (pre-2002) shower? Mine has got steadily stiffer and stiffer to turn on/off. I've tried silicone lube on the thread of the on-off bit, but no difference. The problem is obviously inside the cassette. A...

Down the side of many motorways, there are French drains to carry off surplus water. For those not familiar with these, they are basically open channels filled with coarse gravel. Over time, they obviously get silted up and need cleaned. Some 30+ years ago, the son of an old friend/colleague...

I'm sure this has been asked before, but search doesn't seem to find anything useful. Daughter in the US needs me to replace the bracelet mandrels made some 20 years ago (they get a bit battered - see pic). The originals are hornbeam, which has the requisite tight grain and hardness. The one...

These have probably been covered elsewhere, but can't find a specific answer to my question. My cheap seconhand Hyundai battery chainsaw is getting a lot of use at the moment, so I'd been wondering about getting a spare battery. Seems they are no longer made for this saw, so beginning to...

At the risk of setting off diatribes about the sins of cyclists, can I pop my head above the parapet and ask a question. Wife and I have been fairly keen cyclists for years, though latterly we decided the years indicated electric assistance for Aberdeenshire hills. Unfortunately, one of the...

Recently got the chance of a very reasonably priced electro-hydraulic log splitter, to ease the task of splitting the wood from the five fir trees. Seemed to work well, but was a bit of a pig to move around, as it's heavy and the single leg has an unerring aim for ankle/shin when moving it. So...

My deWalt 9135 charger seems to be terminally ill. It's the one that takes the old style batteries (the ones that plug up into the drill handle) AND can take the backward compatible Li-ion batteries. The light on the right of the charger is doing two flashes/pause/two flashes; looking on the...

A while back, posted some pics of a hog house I'd had to make for daughter to appease her conscience over stabbing the hedgehog in their compost heap while she was turning it. Hog made a full recovery and uses the house every day. So now had to make a cat-proof feeder for it, as on the advice...

We have had to have 5 big Picea abies felled for safety reasons after the shock of Storm Arwen, so now have a pretty significant stock of trunks, everything from abour 28" diameter down to 8". (hence my questions in another post about my Stihl 048AV!). All piled up against our garden dyke at the...

Son in Law in Michigan was offered some beech from a storm casualty, and sent me the pic of the first trailerload. He wanted to know what caused the sudden colour change in the cross section, and this set me wondering about the nature of the change from sapwood to heartwood. In these logs...

My old faithful beast of a Stihl 048AV has been languishing while I've dealt with health issues, but is now needed to deal with some monster Picea abies that had to be felled as being a danger. So of course it won't now start and investigation suggests a dead ignition module. Trouble is it's...

My ancient ride-on mower/lawn tractor lives in a garden shed some distance from mains power. Does anyone have any experience of solar powered battery chargers which could be used to keep the battery topped up during longer layoffs? Yes, I know I can (and do) lug the battery to a charger, but...

AZ dust/chip extractor, with Axminster fine needlecloth filter. Been replaced by a fixed system, and now taking up too much space. Goes in the back of Golf, or could probably deliver within North of Scotland for the cost of the diesel, and weather permitting! Would like to get £60 for it.

Any electronics whizzes out there who can help with a dead remote for our garage door? It's got a Marantec opener (door is too heavy for an oldie to open!) and one of the remotes died several years ago. It was obsolete then, and like a twerp, I didn't get one of the programmable ones to pair...

Two TV programmes which I try to watch are the Repair Shop on BBC and Salvage Hunters - the restorers on whatever it is. While both show some very impressive work, both the title sequences really annoy me. In each case, a pile of fine dust is shown on a surface and then blown towards the...

Anyone know where I can get an 8mm (NOT No 8) plug cutter for occasional use? Over the years, have accumulated most sizes, except for 8mm, which was needed yesterday. There seem to be various cheap sets, which are probably the best solution, or single cutters for silly money. Anything else?

A week before Christmas, daughter in the USA requested a pair of pitch pine finials, to grace a pitch pine bed frame which her husband has yet to make. The reclaimed piece of pitch pine that came to hand gave rise to a lot of 6mm offcuts, so the idea of a parquetry tray appealed to her. The odd...

Our local botanic garden saves itself some money on disposal of greenwaste by allowing members of its Friends organisation to remove any timber fellings/thinnings. Some time last year I picked up a load for firewood and left it to dry. Cut up one of the lengths yesterday and was surprised at...