Tag Archives: Bosch

Wednesday 22nd July 2015 – I DIDN’T MANAGE …

… to beat the alarm clock this morning. It was a little more difficult to crawl out of my stinking pit this morning.

Still, I had breakfast and had the usual several hours on the computer sorting out a few things that have been hanging around for a few years. I also had one of these telesales people on the phone trying to sell me window shutters and I kept him on the telephone for 30 minutes.

After lunch, I attacked the bathroom ceiling and I can now say with complete assurance that it’s all finished. It didn’t seen too much trimming either, much to my surprise. Just a case of nipping off a couple of edges with a mallet and chisel.

I was half-expecting to have to trim down a full length of board, so no-one was more surprised than I was about how good the fit was. I couldn’t have done it better had I measured it up purposely.

The bathroom ceiling is lower than the ceiling on the landing so it needed an end-piece. A rummage around in the barn produced an offcut length of floorboarding that was soon cut down to size (I’m as impressed with this new circular saw as I was with my galvanised steel dustbin) and trimmed to fit, and then sanded off with the belt sander. And it’s come up a treat, that’s for sure, fits quite nicely and looks quite good as well.

I finished off the afternoon by tidying up in the bathroom and that’s almost completed. If I can finish that off tomorrow and do the masking off, I can start to varnish the ceiling. 3 coats of that and I’ll be ready to do the tiling.

For tea tonight I made a mega-red-pepper-and-lentil curry to keep me going for the next four days, and I’ve noticed that I seem to be overrun with ants in the verandah and the downhill lean-to. Where have all of these come from? Is it a coincidence that we had another brief shower of rain earlier in the evening?

Monday 6th July 2015 – NOW HERE’S AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

Our Hero – “is it tomorrow that we are recording at Marcillat?”
Liz – “that’s right – at 09:30”
Our Hero – “ohhh” … pause … “I suppose that I’d better go home then”

Yes, the Bane of Britain has done it again hasn’t he? Gone to Marcillat on the wrong day. Still, it could have been worse. It was a nice drive out and in any case, at least it was a day early and not a day late.

And I’d been on my travels in the night. I was in Glasgow, the funniest city in Europe (everyone who goes there comes back in stitches) organising some kind of football training, and then I’d taken the Metro with Strawberry Moose. The train was stuck in the station for a while and so, knowing that I would awaken as soon as the train set off, I allowed myself to go into a deep sleep. But before I did, I took my trousers off and hung them over the back of the seat in front. Sure enough, I awoke as soon as the train moved, and I prepared to alight at the next station. But I couldn’t find my trousers. There was a pair of shorts there but they were nothing to do with me. Of course I made a fuss and the lady driver told me that seeing as how we hadn’t reached the first stop, no-one could have alighted from the train with my trousers. However, a couple of people had boarded the train and alighted before it had set off. I carried on the argument and a couple of the passengers started to become agitated. But none of this was finding my trousers.
Ironically, I’d been reading a little about the Glasgow Underground yesterday evening and also something comnected with North-West Glasgow and the Underground, which was where all of this was going on.

My morning wasn’t wasted though, as I did two more radio programmes – or, at least, half-done them. These are the rock programmes for Radio Anglais and I’ve done the miscellaneous programmes for two more months. I just need to do the two live concerts and find a radio commentary for one of the programmes.

After lunch, I made the shelf that will fit between the door and the stud wall by the beichstuhl. And the new Bosch circular saw – nice and lightweight, it cut through a pine plank as if there was nothing there. A nice neat cut, no need to sand it down, no whining, no rattling, and the inverter showed no sign of distress. This was the best circular saw that I’ve ever used (and so it ought to be at the price that I paid for it) and if it lasts the pace (because one or two people are a little sceptical about it) it’ll be just the job.

I also cut down a 300mm plank into 2x150mm planks, and the circular saw hardly broke wind doing it. But do you remember ages ago when I told you that the 600mm pine planks were actually 605mm? Well, the 300mm planks are actually 295mm. So much for Brico Depot’s precise measuring.

I had yet another shower to cool me down afterwards (I’m having my money’s worth from the home-made solar shower) and made a mega-red-pepper-and-lentil curry for the next 4 days. I may as well start the week as I mean to go on.

Thursday 25th June 2015 – I’VE NOT HAD A VERY GOOD DAY TODAY

My little circular saw has packed up today, which is something of a minor disaster. The bearings on the rotor have gone and so the blade won’t turn even though the motor is going round. And the big old one that I have from years ago, that’s not doing anything at all.

All of this is rather unfortunate as I was in the middle of trimming down the door for the shower room. The Ryobi Plus-One circular saw cut some more but then the lithium batteries went flat (no hope of the old ni-cads powering the saw) so in the end I had to fit a guide and then finish cutting it down with a rough-cut handsaw and tidying up with the belt sander.

That was all rather a shame as I was well on my way to finishing the fitting of the door. I could have had it hanging tonight if everything had gone as planned. As it is, it’s going to take a while to finish off now.

I’m disappointed about the saw. It’s a little 650-watt machine that runs perfectly off my solar power system – most of the other ones are far too powerful and consume too much energy. I’ve had this little one for quite a few years and it’s done me proud. I’m not sure where I’ll be able to find another one like it.

This morning I was up yet again before the alarm and managed a good morning on the internet. I’ve restarted the web site again seeing as how I’ve finished (for now) the radio stuff and I want to catch up, seeing as how I’ve done next-to-nothing on it for ages and there’s a lot to do.

cutting lets fitting hinges door frame shower room les guis virlet puy de dome franceOnce I’d organised that, I went off and cut the lets for the hinges into the door frame. That took ages and I had to sharpen the chisels a couple of times. This floorboarding that I’m using to make the door frames is pretty tough stuff.

And then we had the saw issues.

I’ll have to see what I can find on Saturday when I head off to Montlucon for the tiles. If there is one about anywhere, it will be in Montlucon.

UPDATE
Having a look on Amazon, there’s a 600-watt circular saw on special offer at €62:95 – and it’s a Bosch. If I’m going to have low-powered lightweight tools for what I’m doing, I’ll probably be better-off with something high-quality like a Bosch rather than a cheap generic model at half-price, and so I’ve placed my order.

It’ll be here on Tuesday. I hope that I will be too.