six-point socket's tidbits of Home Improvement, small projects and other stuff.

[six-point socket]

Hi all,

I thought I start a thread to collect all of my smaller projects, small day to day tasks and so on.

So I posted some tool reviews and now I think it's time to show some of the stuff I have done over time. Please keep in mind that I'm not a professional by any means, I do not offer services or sell stuff of any kind to 3rd parties - everything I do is solely for my personal projects.

Preface to this is as follows: I was remodeling my basement and put tiling on all floors, to gain space I moved the doors out - they had to be cut anyway. You will notice that this is a pretty old and cheapish door, the problem in my basement is that not 2 doors come at the same size - they are all different. Since these doors serve no real purposes for me I decided against having new ones build. Then, after moving the doors a few times around I left one standing upright by accident - of course a little wind came up and blew that door right to the ground. Of course it didn't fell flat to the ground but into something pointy that destroyed a nice section of the door leaf.

Taking into consideration what I wrote above - I couldn't simply buy a new one - and if I had someone custom build it for me, I would have wanted all doors to look alike. So I decided to repair it myself - after all, it's just a basement room door.

Stupid me didn't take a picture of the damaged door leaf, so we start with a picture where I had already cut out the damaged portion and put in a piece of MDF. The cut was made with a Multicutter and I glued in a support structure made from wood dowels for the little piece of MDF.

[attachimg=1]

Next I applied wood filler

[attachimg=2]

Then started the process of sanding. (Of course I used a dust extractor during sanding)

[attachimg=3]

more sanding

[attachimg=4]

And then the final layer of paint.

[attachimg=5]

Personally I think this turned out pretty well, not so "Quick and dirty" after all and might be an Idea if you face a problem similar to mine.

During normal lighting you won't see no see the formerly affected portion - if you search for it under direct lighting you can find a fine line on the right side.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Don't know where to post 'em, so I'll add them here. Some pictures from today. (Installing some Kupa pipe, new outlet...)

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[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Still don't know where, or even if I should little pictures like this, but anyway.

Installed a new outlet for a stand mixer, used the CXS to drill through the tiles, then the Bosch to drill into the wall, and then again the CXS to fasten the outlet's screws. The other stuff was used for the electrical work that had to be done.

[attachimg=1]

Kind regards,
Oli-bakingsnickerdoodles-ver

 

[six-point socket]

So here are a few pictures from my basement renovation earlier this year.

The room serves as dry-food storage and additionally houses a freezer and a 2nd fridge.

First I wanted to make the very ugly insulation of some remaining heating pipes disappear, secondly I wanted more light in the room.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Love working outdoors, even well before spring.

[attachimg=3]

Not so easy when you have to work around a running fridge and freezer

[attachimg=4]

Almost done.

[attachimg=5]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Cheese]

Looks good Oliver, huge improvement.  [thumbs up]

Are those recessed lights LED's and if so who makes them? They seem nice and thin and seem to produce a lot of light.

Liebherr...that brand just became available locally about 2-3 years ago.

 

[six-point socket]

Hi Cheese,

thanks!

Honestly, I have no idea who the manufacturer of those recessed lights, or better, the "housing" is. I had them lying around from another project. I originally put them in a self made wooden holder to light up a wall in my home theater from behind a couch. When I remodeled that room, I went for a professional solution but never threw the lights away, thought I could use them. Turns out to be true, so I used them for my basement renovation/remodeling.

The lamp/illuminant itself is indeed LED. It's manufactured by Osram -> LED STAR MR16 35 36° 5 W/827 GU5.3 http://www.osram.com/osram_com/products/led-technology/lamps/professional-led-reflector-lamps/parathom-mr16/index.jsp

Fit's all standard housings, but need's quite a bit of height.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

During basement remodeling I had just finished the installation of a new light in one of the basement's hallways and basically all I was left to do with was cleaning two old outlets.

[attachimg=1]

Of course, that would have been to easy. Basically out of nowhere, the announcement of a new hallway cupboard came from my significant other.

So the light had to travel to the ceiling above. Since I didn't know if there were any additional wires in that wall (it has outlets on the other side, too...) I started to search for live wires and safe places for my pipe clamps. You can also see a small, although purely "optical", mistake I made. I should have drilled a hole in the backside of that small junction box, instead of getting the existing wires (power supply) in from above. Would have been a cleaner look.

[attachimg=2]

Then moved the light to the ceiling.

[attachimg=3]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[tjbnwi]

Next time you have to do a surface mount raceway look at using Wiremold.

Tom

 

[six-point socket]

Did a quick search on Wiremold - definitely an interesting product, legrand seems to have quite a few nice products! I will consider it if I ever have to install a visible raceway outside my basement. (I'm not a big fan of visible raceways...) Do you now if Wiremold/legrand stuff is rated for use with 240V?

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Found another picture taken while setting up that cupboard.

[attachimg=1]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[tjbnwi]

Did a quick search on Wiremold - definitely an interesting product, legrand seems to have quite a few nice products! I will consider it if I ever have to install a visible raceway outside my basement. (I'm not a big fan of visible raceways...) Do you now if Wiremold/legrand stuff is rated for use with 240V?

Kind regards,
Oliver

All are rated for line voltage except the low voltage line of Wiremold.

Tom

 

[six-point socket]

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Hiring a pro.

So after installing sheetrock myself in the storage-room, I decided I would hire a pro to do the basement's hallways. What I can say is that I will be much more careful who I'm hiring in future.

Here's one of the episodes that left rather amused, than actually angry.

So, I told the pro that I would install 2 switches, 2 single switches. I drilled corresponding holes into the wall to make additional space for my installation needs. (I would have marked the center of the holes I need on the sheetrock, but my pro insisted that wasn't necessary, he knows how to meet the holes...)

Well, the result:

[attachimg=1]

Of course, he didn't meet the holes and also didn't leave enough space between the holes for two single switches.

I rectified this myself after all was done and the guy out the house.

[attachimg=2]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Cheese]

Hi Oliver,
I have a question for you. Is it common in Germany/Europe to use the screw barrier terminals to connect wires together? As per your picture in a previous post.

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In the states, we've used wire nuts for years and increasingly I am now using the Wago push-in connectors or Wago lever connectors.

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[attachthumb=3]

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[six-point socket]

Hi Cheese,

There are a couple different answers to that.

If you, like me, life in an old house built in 60'ties you will encounter a lot of those screw barrier terminals. It is what was used.

Today, and I'm speaking solely for Germany here, those screw barrier terminals are solely permitted for the installation/connection of lights. (Hence their German name "Luesterklemme/Lüsterklemme" "Luester" or "Lüster" = chandelier and "Klemme" = connector) (And as you can see in that picture, I installed a light ) The, lets call it basic variant of these screw barrier terminals is not rated for higher amps. (Only between 2,5 - 6 Amps which is suitable for lighting, as the lamp/illuminant limits the drawn amps)

Now it get's tricky because basically the same product, although rated for higher amps, exists under a different German name: "Dosenklemme" -> "Dose" = junction box "Klemme" = connector. Those may be used for other applications than lighting.

Personally I install lighting with the correct screw barrier terminal and make sure no wires are exposed/screws are fitted correctly. I rarely use the the junction-box type for other applications, if I do, same caution is applied as with the others.

As you, I do prefer Wago connectors for all lasting connections. If installed correctly, they offer the crucial benefit of having no exposed parts that could conduct electricity/current whereas screw barrier terminals (under certain circumstances) do.

I'd say, nowadays Wago is far more common than screw barrier terminals (except for lighting). And Besides safety, they are quicker and easier to install, too. All pros I know, use them - so do I.

I've seen wire nuts, but have not found one in my house.

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Cheese]

Thanks for the answer Oliver, it seems that even the rules and regulations in Germany can be dodgy at times. [eek]

So the Lüsterklemme and the Dosenklemme look alike but have different amperage ratings. Are there any exterior markings to differentiate the 2 connectors?

Why wouldn't you just use Wagos on lighting instead of the Lüsterklemme?

 

[six-point socket]

Oh, absolutely  [eek] [scared]

Well, foremost it's habit and convenience. Convenience because a lot of the wiring coming out of the walls and ceilings is pretty short, because they have been cut at least once or twice during the lifetime of this house, so I didn't want to use the "permanent" Wago connectors, chances are high the wires break if you have to remove them for whatever reason, and then it gets really iffy. In many instances there is not a lot of space, so you can't simply add some extensions, which would then require 2 Wago connectors per line. Of course, now with the Wago lever connectors that isn't an real issue anymore.

As a rule of thumb: if it has 2 screws it's generally a "Lüsterklemme", if it has 1 screw it's a "Dosenklemme".

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Picture especially taken for [member=44099]Cheese[/member]  [big grin]

[attachimg=1]

--

The Festool collection grows... CTL SYS arrived today.

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Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[six-point socket]

Today's two small projects.

1st repairing the outlets on my patio.

2nd preparing christmas decorations.

So, after removing a plant on my patio, the outlets close by became loose and I had to make a new tray for them.

Setup.

[attachimg=1]

The situation.

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Checking if the outlets can be re-used. (1)

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Checking if the outlets can be re-used. (2)

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Preparing to cut my tray.

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Countersinking, back.

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Countersinking, front.

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Fitting to wall, after having cleaned the outlets.

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Finished.

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Now the second part. I bought three lanterns I want to setup in front of the house sometimes after Thanksgiving - since the lanterns are very lightweight and could easily fall over or get stolen, I bought round stone plates to affix them to.

Setup.

[attachimg=10]

Drilling through the baseplates of the lanterns.

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Drilling the stones.

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M6x30.

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Finished lanterns.

[attachimg=14]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[Staniam]

What a cool thread to read while sitting at the dinning table to eat breakfast and drink my coffee. It's cool to see little home DIY projects on here. I love that 12v Bosch drill, every time I see it in think about getting it again and replacing my CXS with it  [eek]. I just love how compact and smooth it is. Kind of big words considering how in love I am with the CXS.

Keep posting pictures!