joe90

+1 to all the above, my flooring joists were spec at 600ctrs but my builder, like me, always go 400. Floor is soo much more solid.

I love being retired, always busy with what I have, buy stuff on toolstation or Ebay most days. SWMBO says I am not a social person, she is dead right, spent last two days digging a 40m French drain (with JCB) As the ground is finally dry ?, if it does rain I have multiple garage projects to get on with. It’s people in flats with family I feel for.

Cool, I love it, oh how I would love to do that. Looking forward to your next project and welcome to THE forum.

I agree with @PeterW about your gut feeling, as some on here will know I had a brilliant builder, local, well recommended and when I met him I felt completely at ease, so much so I did not get any other quotes ( tho I don’t recommend that ). My builder had a project manager but I was not charged fir his services in the quote but frankly as a retired builder I did not need him but I did call on him on a couple of occasions to discuss on a couple of technical points. Some firms quote fir even the silliest of things!!!,

stone with no fines (sand or small particles) allow any moisture to fall through so the timbers remain dry, as long as it’s not the lowest part of the garden that floods ?.

Fir insulated plasterboard I always use an old saw, put the board on something like a few Tesco crates or similar to support all the bits then cut away ?.

I find a belt sander removes more than an orbital sander, mind it looks a bit flaky so might not take a lot of sanding. Give it a go by hand and see how “sound” it is. Try https://www.toolstation.com/aluminium-oxide-sanding-roll-115mm/p59877

Is there any way of digging a French drain round the outside and letting that drain somewhere downhill? That would keep any water level below the timbers, if not you could jack it up but not sure if floor timbers were man enough?. Can you dig a test hole to see what’s underneath?

Just make sure it’s well supported to stop bits snapping off ?

That’s an awful lot of compost! But water to 140’ !

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/how-make-hot-compost ? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290LTRS-PLASTIC-BARRELS-DRUMS-WITH-A-LID-FOR-SHIPPING-STORAGE-CALL-US-TO-ORDER/352643375922?hash=item521b2ee332:g:PCoAAOSwBY5dzOi9

it’s said they even compost food which should not be put in a normal compost heap, I too fancy making one and have some PIR insulation left over from my slab ?. I guess it would need a solid liner, council bin???.. I used to make leafmold, just bundled a load of leaves in a plastic compost bag, brick on top and leave fir a year or two.

yes, I like that as well!!!

I think I saw STD stamped on the cylinder, measured the bore with a vernier and very close to the 80mm as std. not sure on gudgen pin fixing, could not see any circling on the piston so guess it’s sweated!. Think rings are the way to go.

yes mate, checked that, even found my lapping paste and sucker to polish the valves in. Knackered rings! Yes sounds right, I can get a set for £24, piston and rings cost £64 (plus delivery). I did not know about gapping new rings ?. Al least if it’s working I can sell it afterwards I suppose ?

this is what I did but with hand cranking (difficult as you need three hands!). Interesting about gas, I knew petrol engines will run on gas, but diesel???, some sites also recomend hot air or warming the pot somehow. I can buy all sorts of bits, pots, piston, rings etc but not sure I want to spend money on it!

I like the galvanised corrugated look like many original Shepard’s huts but it’s not every bodies cup of tea!.

no been using that since I bought it but ALL the advise online is NEVER use it as it causes so much damage. @scottishjohn will be along in a mo to explain why!.

I have used a very good quality (powered) chopsaw on a site and it proved very accurate and did very good 45’ mitres, I could not afford one of those but another chippy on site was good enough to let me use his ?, perhaps hire one fir a day?.make sure it’s a double mitre Saw and cut the board flat .

yes, I found a manufacturer of piston rings (that’s all they make) and they had over 200 pages of piston ring dimensions for Nearly every engine made (Including 60 year old Petters) so I had data to reference (what did we do before the tinternet eh?).

Why not try one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/9011365381?iid=132105346239&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=132105346239&targetid=879667141355&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9045293&poi on another matter, internal corners. I gave up doing 45’ cuts on these years ago, I now instal A full board to the longest wall then using a profile tool https://www.amazon.co.uk/Profile-Gauge-Accurately-Shape-Woodworking-Tiling/dp/B00AJ6VK4A cut the second board to fit with a jigsaw. Cut that board a bit long then cut to length after the joint fits well. I find the corners fit much better this way.

18mm ply for racking is overkill IMO. On studding I would have thought 11mm would suffice, go 15mm to “hang” stuff on if you want. What are you going to clad the outside with? (I had plans to make a Shepard’s hut, even bought some cast iron wheels for it. One day eh!).

brill, not sure I want to be bothered (or can) to do all that, it’s going as soon as my landscaping is done and I will simply have a carry all on the back of my furgie (which is electric start ?) for any carrying stuff about.

if it were insured, maybe.

Thanks guys, spent the day stripping it down, valves ok, bore etc ok, so took the injector out (don’t think it’s been out since new) and tested it and that works just fine (that surprised me!). Got blisters on my hand so don’t fancy cranking it again tonight ?, still feels low on compression, @scottishjohn will try that tomorrow. edit, just remembered, when I measured the rings in the bore there was about a 3mm gap but docs on the tinternet says should be about 14thou ?.?.?.. other measurements were not bad for 60+ years wear. answers on a postcard to ..........