Steptoe

you could always use one of those cctv doorbells and make a remote locking system on the cupboard using a RPi or arduino or similar, shouldnt be hard to do using a solenoid or similar,

would 'patch repair' work? that stuff sets like marble,,,,,, there are a few varieties of it, depending on how fast it needs to go off etc, some of the stuff I've used can go off in literally minutes, [ <5mins ] or other stuff that takes days almost,

yep, one surefire way of destroying your sds, half of one hole and I went to the van and got the combi out, [oh, just read that back, so it does appear that you actually can have HALF of a hole,,,,, ]

now, the other aspect is, what is your deterioration yield of your PV panels and efficiency of the inverter going to be after 20 years? its definitely going to be a lot less than 20% and 80% respectively.

siegen make some reasonable decent hand tools, spanners etc, so if thats anything like them, then prob not bad at that price, then again, that silverline is probably the same generic stuff as all the other cheap stuff so not a bad buy either, just treat it as a consumable,

I think , @ProDave its still the intrinsic nature of how people in Ireland work, both North and South, everyone helps each other out, and friends are for life, jeez, the best man at my wedding (the guy that flew over and done my plastering) , whom Ive known for over 25years, is actually the son of one of the family that grew up next door to my mum when they were kids, maybe thats why I find living in England a very strange place, I've lived in quite a few places i the world, this is probably the only place Ive ever lived where I feel like a stranger in a strange land,

I dont honestly think we ever entered a housing recession, it was just the realisation that houses were overpriced, we bought our house at xmas 2007, for what everyone told us was a very large percentage below market value, no it wasnt, it was its value, the seller was asking too much, we actually bought it for over 25% below what he was originally asking for it. guess what, a few months later, most of the houses in our close were now valued a good few thousand below ours, our house is now worth perhaps what the original vendor was asking for it, but that is purely down to us modernising and improving it, right now, houses are selling for their worth, maybe there will be another artificial boom, but I think most have been burnt already too short a time ago

I wouldnt think a builder supplying materials can build too many houses a year without hitting the VAT threshold, I may well be wrong though.

oh yes, I'd wholeheartedly agree, I was working away and found myself in need of a level, I'd left mine at home, a visit to local large diy chain saw me leave with a rather shiney looking Stanley laser level for just over a tenner, I didnt expect too much from it, I was surprised, it was actually quite accurate, until it got knocked off the level stack I'd built on the worktop to level out my sockets, so, it fell a grand height of 150mm, was about 2" out over 3m after that,

by whom? may I ask.?

I didnt say labourer, i said Labour only, ie, not supplying materials

VAT,? you pay VAT on everything,! makes not one jot whether the builder is vat registered and adds it on or not, if he doesnt add it on, its just built into his bill, as he has already paid the vat on the materials anyway, if you buy the materials, then you have paid the vat , the ONLY advantage of having a VAT registered builder is if you can claim the VAT back, if a builder is NOT VAT registered then there is a big probability he will be labour only.

mate of mine built his in 6 months, after land cleared, just him and a few mates, as and when he needed them, weekends mostly, BUT, he did have use of most plant from building firm he worked for when he needed it at weekends, so that doesnt really count as a normal self build, bloody luxury to have help like that for virtually free,

Have you guys never drove proper old school tractors, ? Little Massey 165 multipower (or its baby brother the 135) Hand throttle as well as foot throttle, and two foot brakes, one for each rear wheel so you could turn it on itself, And the requisite two gearboxes of course, I'll bet a few of the Irish lads (&lasses) learnt to drive on something like that,

Nothing wrong with the 140 series, as long as they are RC model, As above , don't forget the CO detector,

FFX sometimes have good deals on,

ah right, sorry, I thought you could put it through the house, I find best deals for 200£ + tools are often either via knowing the sellers and getting ex-display / demo stuff, or the trade fairs last day when they really dont want to take stuff back home.

thats only a quick google, and surely you would be able to vat reclaim ?

I dont think he got a bag with his, but he did get 2 rails, he may have got it at one of the trade shows, (?) surprised me really as he has no other makita gear, that was only reason I was talking to him about it.

here you go, first one I got on google https://www.angliatoolcentre.co.uk/makita-sp6000-plunge-saw-pid8091.html

jeez, they can be bought for well under £350 a joiner I work with got one just before xmas for iirc 220£ + vat , (may have been a different model though )

Not everyone is English!

You should be able to get a generic replacement for about a tenner, or thereabouts.

I've a clas ohlson bottom cab, would rate it easily as good as halfords Ind, have a halfords mid box, the normal pro one as it had more drawers than the Ind, and a 20yo Britool top box, which is a generic box like draper, etc, but much better than the cheapo Clarke , sealy, American pro rubbish, Had a Beta set up a few years back, that was the best of the best, makes snap on look like machine mart, lol. My mate has a good no name 900mm box, cost him under £600 couple of years back, I'll see if I have a pic of it somewhere.

Halfords, pretty decent chests tbf, another surprisingly good piece of kit is Clas Olson,