There are Brass Washers on Tinos
This new seat has been made using the size of washer I need for my stairs.
Brass Washers in a Seat on Tinos
I didn’t have any chance to search for a hardware shop on my trip, so I didn’t buy any. But at least they exist.
Back To The Sixties
In 1965 when I went to Liverpool University, the Electrical Engineering and Electronics building was brand new.
It appears to have worn reasonably well and is just how I remember it all those years ago. So bits have been replaced and it’s been redecorated, but it is a real credit to its creators, which you can’t say for many of the buildings of the time.
It’s still contains all the original prints too. Some of which I seem to remember.
However the infamous legend by one painting has been removed. It had been beautifully typed and framed and said something like. “Unfortunately, we were unable to afford a painting by this artist. ut he was kind enough to sell us the rag on which he wiped his brushes!”
After the lecture, we retired to one of the staff’s room and I was pleased to see that he still had a genuine blackboard with real chalk on the wall.
How civilised!
Ftustrating IKEA
I need some rails and drawers for two built in wardrobes. At present they have some useless fittings that were built by Jerry, the builder.
IKEA do some nice standard fittings, but they don’t come in a width to fit my wardrobes! They are just five centimetres too wide! They make them to fit a range of heights, but why not widths?
It is all so frustrating as getting ones made to fit will cost a fortune and probably won’t be as nice as those from IKEA.
Shoreditch Station is Sold
The old Shoreditch station was put up for sale a week or so ago, with a guide price of £180,000.
But it now appears to have been sold for £665,000. Do some have more money than sense? Or does it show that the property market is recovering?
How to Make Dome-Headed Bolts
As I have said several times on this blog, the builder of my house was possibly named Jerry. His worst piece of work was undoubtedly the staircase, which instead of using brass nuts and bolts, as probably specified by the architect used brass painted steel ones.
I have got part of the way, but to fix the staircase to the floor of the house, Jerry used Rawlbolts, which couldn’t easily be replaced, as they were set in concrete. I got this far and you can see it looks a bit better but some are round one way and others the other.
In the end I decided I wanted some dome-headed bolts. But just like the perfect woman doesn’t exist, the perfect bolt doesn’t either. Although there are some good ones about.
So I had to make my own. I started by purchasing some 10 mm. mild steel studding from Thomas Brothers at Archway. I used steel rather than brass, as this might give less trouble with dissimilar metals in contact causing corrosion and anyway Thomas Brothers don’t sell brass studding. They also were kind enough to cut the studding in half, so that I was less likely to poke someone’s eye out on the bus home.
I started by securing the studding in my Workmate.
Studding Secured in the Workmate
I then sawed off an appropriate length using a standard hacksaw, The stud was cut to be perhaps two centimetres longer than the steel bolt I wanted to replace.
The Cut Length of Studding
The problem with cutting any screw threads is that when you cut it, you damage the threads and nuts are difficlt to fit. You can mitigate the problem by putting a new blade in the hacksaw, but you really need one of these.
Hexagonal Screw-Cutting Die
It is a 10 mm. hexagonal scre-cutting die, that effectively cuts threads in round bars. Or in this case recuts damaged threads.
My father had lots of these, although his were round and were held in a special wrench. But because they are hexagonal, you can use them with a good ring spanner to cut the thread. I’m doing just that here, after first mounting the cut stud vertically in the Workmate.
Recutting the Threads
I actually turned the die from one end of the stud to the other to make sure that all damaged threads were repaired. All I had to do then, was screw a dome-headed nut onto the pristine length of studding.
A Dome-Headed Bolt
They are now all installed in the staircase.
The Bolts in Place
You can’t tell which ones are my fakes and which are the ones the builder put in the right way round. Or was it the wrong way?
He didn’t put them in level either!
The Last Bolts
Every time I go up the staircase these bolts annoy me.
Brass Painted Bolts on the Stairs
On the other side of the stairs, they have used Rawlbolts, but here they don’t have any identification on them. So I took one out to have a look.
Brass Painted Hexagonal Screw
This was not what I expected. But it will have to do for the moment.
The Boiler – Sorted
When nPower changed the gas meter, they told me to get the boiler serviced. Over the last few days, it has not been performing well and I’ve been cold, so yesterday I phoned a number on the boiler and the engineer rang me back this morning to say he could come round at 10:00.
He’s just left and the financial damage wasn’t too bad, considering that the boiler probably had never been serviced since it was installed. Nothimg else in this house has I suspect! And they’ve managed to lose all the manuals too!
I would certainly call Accurate Services on 020-8523-1121 or 020-8531-4411 again!
The Spirit of Boughton Lives
I’ve mentioned Boughton before as a sense of great hilarity and a running joke between my father and myself.
But his methods are still alive and well and hopefully dying in this house, as the staircase showed.
Just look at how the worktop is mounted using the fridge as a base.
Boughton Lives
Note how the door has collapsed and broken. Partly, this might be due to the hanging of the false front on the fridge, but mainly it’s because everything fouls everything else and just shutting the fridge puts enormous strain on the door and the hinges. Incidentally, the raised screw is down to me, as I removed the false front before it broke anything else.
If I can get the fridge out, I’ll fit a new one, as a new door alone costs the same as a whole new fridge from Currys, John Lewis or someone else equally reputable.
Let’s hope the geyser who did this, built his own house and it collapses into a heap of firewood and bricks, whilst he’s out shopping with his family.
The Improved Staircase
I’ve now replaced a lot of the bolts with brass ones and I think it looks a lot better. But then I’m biased.
Here’s what it looked like.
The Old Bolts
This picture was taken today from a similar angle.
The New Bolts
Note the domed heads of the brass nuts, all round the same way.
But it’s not all perfect yet, as this picture shows.
Not All Perfect
I need to get some special bolts made with domed nuts as heads. This shouldn’t be too difficult. What complicates matters is that the steel is held to the floor using Rawlbolts, so how Jerry got two backwards I don’t know. I suspect that the best way to deal with the problem is to screw the new bolts in using some strong bonding agent.
Fixing the Stairs
I’ve found that the solution to my staircase is to replace the nuts with dombed brass ones like these.
Brass Dombed Nuts and Washers
They look much better and as they cost a couple of pounds each, you get a much better cosmetic effect for not too much effort. If you need anything like this I can recommend Clerkenwell Screws in the Clerkenwell Road.
I also bought this screwdriver there.
King Dick Super 2000 One for Six Screwdriver
It fits all six types of Phillips and Pozidrive screw, so now you only need one screwdriver for cross head screws. At just £8.99, this King Dick Super 2000 One for Six is very much a bargain.
The Anonymous Widower 