This one didn't work out quite so well. I rescued a table saw from a skip outside someone's house (don't worry, I asked). When I got it home, it turned out to be broken. I stripped it down to the motor, where I discovered that the gear attached to the shaft had sheared right off. No way to replace it, as far as I could tell, so I gave it to someone else (having explained the fault to him). I think he was going to salvage a few parts and scrap the rest.
My employer threw this aluminium trolley out because one of the swivel castors had lost its ball bearings, making it wobbly and difficult to steer.
I couldn't see a way to take the casing apart so did a bit of research and found a suitable replacement castor (100x30mm wheel, rubber on steel centre, plate fixing with 80x60mm hole centres) for sale on eBay by A&L Castors. Because I wasn't sure that the new part would be an exact match, I replaced both swivel castors.
It turns out the bolt holes are not quite in the same place as the originals, but they're close enough. Now I have a working lightweight folding trolley for the cost of £17 in parts. These things cost about £150 to buy, so it was worth fixing.
I couldn't see a way to take the casing apart so did a bit of research and found a suitable replacement castor (100x30mm wheel, rubber on steel centre, plate fixing with 80x60mm hole centres) for sale on eBay by A&L Castors. Because I wasn't sure that the new part would be an exact match, I replaced both swivel castors.
It turns out the bolt holes are not quite in the same place as the originals, but they're close enough. Now I have a working lightweight folding trolley for the cost of £17 in parts. These things cost about £150 to buy, so it was worth fixing.
The final part of the shed project: replacing the windows.
The original plastic panes were in a sorry state. Years of UV exposure had clouded the plastic and made it very brittle. Note the cracks covered up with gaffer tape in an attempt to maintain watertightness.
The new glass. I was surprised it was so cheap. The sawmill had just taken a delivery of new glass and had a huge pile of the stuff. They don't usually sell it directly to customers but my man let me have three panes for a fiver.
First pane out. The wooden retaining strips were removed with a bit of encouragement from a pallete knife and a flat-bladed screwdriver.
First one done. The glass was exactly the right size (18"x24" seems to be a standard size for sheds) but was slightly thicker than the plastic (3mm vs 2mm, i think) so the wooden strips didn't go back on in exactly the same place. I used the original nails to re-attach the strips.
Hammering next to glass is a bit unnerving, but once you get the knack it's fine. The guy at the sawmill told me to always slide the hammer along the glass. Since it's already touching the glass it's less likely to bounce back and smash stuff.
...and compared with the other two.
Two done!
All done, and just in time: partly because it was starting to get dark and I couldn't actually see the last few nails; but also because the next day our nice spell of weather broke and it pissed it down.
There's a shelf just below the windows and now that there's some proper light going in there during the day I can start thinking about getting some crops ready for next spring. I'm going to start with some garlic and see how it goes.
The original plastic panes were in a sorry state. Years of UV exposure had clouded the plastic and made it very brittle. Note the cracks covered up with gaffer tape in an attempt to maintain watertightness.
The new glass. I was surprised it was so cheap. The sawmill had just taken a delivery of new glass and had a huge pile of the stuff. They don't usually sell it directly to customers but my man let me have three panes for a fiver.
First pane out. The wooden retaining strips were removed with a bit of encouragement from a pallete knife and a flat-bladed screwdriver.
First one done. The glass was exactly the right size (18"x24" seems to be a standard size for sheds) but was slightly thicker than the plastic (3mm vs 2mm, i think) so the wooden strips didn't go back on in exactly the same place. I used the original nails to re-attach the strips.
Hammering next to glass is a bit unnerving, but once you get the knack it's fine. The guy at the sawmill told me to always slide the hammer along the glass. Since it's already touching the glass it's less likely to bounce back and smash stuff.
...and compared with the other two.
Two done!
All done, and just in time: partly because it was starting to get dark and I couldn't actually see the last few nails; but also because the next day our nice spell of weather broke and it pissed it down.
There's a shelf just below the windows and now that there's some proper light going in there during the day I can start thinking about getting some crops ready for next spring. I'm going to start with some garlic and see how it goes.
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