Thread: Show us your bodgy DIY

I would think that if you've twisted a blade, then you're buggered.

I'm not sure what's twisted or not, to be honest, just that the blades have a slight gap between them when closed with the bolt fully tightened, so are pretty useless for the task of bush trimming.

^ Best just use them for gardening then.

No need for that sorta hi-tech wizardry.


Open garden shears.

Place on ground.

Place one foot on the handle.

Place the other foot on top of the higher blade with all one's weight.

Bounce a little bit.



Do a little dance

Make a little love

Get down tonight



Sor'id Guv.

Lately one of the dogs has been chewing the 'dog sofa' and pulling out foam and springs and making a right mess. This hasn't happened for many months and since Lola is the new kid on the block, she had a few bollockings.

But, then I had reason to suspect Maya... who did this as a puppy but not for a couple of years now, and I noticed that every time I yelled at Lola, Maya hid under the car. Neither was caught red-handed and I suspect they egged each other in during their games and just couldn't help themselves.

Most mornings I've been clearing up the mess... wondering why someone else couldn't address the issue while I've been sick, but no, this was obviously another one of my jobs.

Today it happened again and I thought bollocks to it, I'll bloody fix it then.

I used to sew on these tough latex patches but that's hard work, and besides we've run out of the latex now. So I stuffed the hole with some old T-shirts and sewed on a tea-towel to keep it all in. This was never going to be one of my invisible repairs, anyway.



Not a bad job, even if I say so myself!



And now I can read the tea-towel and learn about Aussie culture while sitting with the dogs on their sofa!

From a Thai DIY Facebook page

The villa has a well.

A surprisingly deep well, having never actually seen inside a well before.

Standardly made with concrete rings/hoops, and a concrete fabricated lid.

The water pump does a mighty fine job of pumping up water from the bottom into a big water filter that then gets pumped into the bathrooms and kitchen. No water bills, so must have saved like 1800 baht or so over the last 9 months. Ching Ching.


The thing is, the top ring actually starts up above the ground, so is really not needed.


So, I could get some wood, and nails, and shit, and put together a big cover and roof etc so it looks like a big Disney wishing well.

So the plan is to take off the lid, pull off the top cement ring, put the lid on the new top ring that's just above the ground, then smash the shit out of the cement ring that's been removed, then throw the rubble into the neighbouring plot.


Not into fugly cement ring tree pots.


So. Before it's removed and ready to be smashed into smithereen-ios. How easy is it to smash up a concrete ring?

I've got a 300 baht hammer and 700 baht drill, if that helps.


Buy a metal spike, sledgehammer and hand insurance?

Or are they not even enough for the might of a concrete ring?

3 days and still no power at Casa-Looper so I am still on generator

The weird thing is that when I plug the genny into the main board back-up inlet supply it trips the safety on the genny after about 10-20 minutes even with zero load.

Something wrong with the circuit. Maybe an earth issue. Not sure if the earth is connected to the earth spike when the main switch is flipped from mains to back-up

Not sure if I need to earth the genny separately

So instead of the main board circuit I have instead got a spiderweb of extension cables and powerboards distributed round the house.

This however will not run the AC in my bedroom. But I had the ingenius and cunning plan of hacking a supply to the AC...

I remembered that when the blokey installed the main bedroom AC he tapped into the power from the back of this socket in the garage. Without actually opening it to look I speculated that it might be possible to run a supply to the AC circuit through one of the plug sockets as an inlet instead of an outlet.

So I jury-rigged a male to male socket with electrical tape and tried it (taking care to switch off the trip switch for that circuit on the main board first so it was isolated)

And by jimminy if it didn't work...

Cold AC lastnight for the first time since Crimbo

That is downright fucking dangerous, not bodgy.

^It's only dangerous if you don't know what your doing.


Power finally back on so time to pack this bad boy away.

They make a bit of a racket so better safe than sorry from an opportunist thief following his ear when left unattended, once the power goes out across a big area, when they sell out at the hardware store like hot cakes.

Originally Posted by Looper

^It's only dangerous if you don't know what your doing.

Back in the 80's.

A cousin of mine was killed as his bodgy father made power lead exactly like that.

It was left plugged in my cousin not knowing picked it up.

My uncle did 3yrs in jail.

^I will take humble heed of this sage advice Fondles and keep my electrical experimentation unplugged in the company of guests.

Glad to see you are still in the land of the living after yer op.

Originally Posted by Edmond

The villa has a well.

A surprisingly deep well, having never actually seen inside a well before.

Standardly made with concrete rings/hoops, and a concrete fabricated lid.

The water pump does a mighty fine job of pumping up water from the bottom into a big water filter that then gets pumped into the bathrooms and kitchen. No water bills, so must have saved like 1800 baht or so over the last 9 months. Ching Ching.


The thing is, the top ring actually starts up above the ground, so is really not needed.


So, I could get some wood, and nails, and shit, and put together a big cover and roof etc so it looks like a big Disney wishing well.

So the plan is to take off the lid, pull off the top cement ring, put the lid on the new top ring that's just above the ground, then smash the shit out of the cement ring that's been removed, then throw the rubble into the neighbouring plot.


Not into fugly cement ring tree pots.


So. Before it's removed and ready to be smashed into smithereen-ios. How easy is it to smash up a concrete ring?

I've got a 300 baht hammer and 700 baht drill, if that helps.


Buy a metal spike, sledgehammer and hand insurance?

Or are they not even enough for the might of a concrete ring?

You don't need a spike. Just a long handled hammer

https://youtube.com/shorts/61WdPd8QB...3KyNHSRbaVwn4A

Originally Posted by Fondles

That is downright fucking dangerous, not bodgy.

He thoroughly taped the leads. All the same length. I've seen far worse.

^ Yeah, but you've only got 120 volts over there.

Originally Posted by Backspin

He thoroughly taped the leads. All the same length. I've seen far worse.

If you really think my post is bout the usage of tape..... well that really does cement just how fucking stupid you are.

Nothing bodgy to report - yet.

This team has just completed a new staff accommodation block, gym and recreation area at MrsP's workplace so at least knew they worked ok, this is a cash labour-only job she was able to order materials, steel and tiles through work.

Builders turned up as planned 9am; a team of five which includes a wife, plus a two-year old.

Into action quickly, the coloursteel roof off the carport was first task. This gave easy access to a strip of the house I hadn't painted, tapering from 1.2 down to .6m between carport roof and eaves of main roof and Mrs Builder was quite happy to paint, so much so she agreed to continue the length of the frontage over the balcony. Despite having three lightweight Thai women here none had shown any interest in painting. Second coat going on tomorrow.

All steel. Two new 100x100 posts to allow for the additional 3m length, then a full new set of purlins to match the requirements of the 1.5m tiles we've chosen rather than go with coloursteel again.

They're very noisy, left them to it and went to the beach. Bought a 25b icecream for the little girl that's the bonus payment sorted.
Managing budget - we'll get this stage completed/paid then there's a quote for a 4x3m storage/laundry room to be built mostly under this new part.

May use someone else, cafe near us has had a brick and aluminium add-on room recently, I like the round windows they've used and the brickwork is appealing change from plaster over concrete.

I do anticipate something bodgy, there just has to be something. No electrical work yet, so there's hope. But as MrsP is the one who gives them contracts I'd like to think we'll get a decent job.

Round windows seem to be 'the thing' lately.

^ Try as I might, I just cannot stop the gardener from throwing stuff over our wall into the vacant land that surrounds us.

I don't mind any organic garden waste going over (and lots of organic dog waste), but have sent him out several times to pick up plastic bags, old plastic plant pots, broken roof tiles, etc. He just can't seem to help himself and just naturally throws stuff over the wall without thinking.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Try as I might, I just cannot stop the gardener from throwing stuff over our wall into the vacant land that surrounds us.

There was a photo thread by a poster called Fred on a forum that I think doesn't exist any more, that I showed to my mother in 2014.

He did a lot of photo threads of life in Indonesia.

A crew of guys were hired by a rich bloke to clear out the canal/river behind his garden.

They spent 2 days out on boats clearing out all the crud and rubbish. There were weirs/dykes or whatever separating the different sections.

They finally finished after 2 days and had a mountain of rubbish that they had cleared out. So what did they do with all the rubbish when finished.

They threw it all into the next section of the canal.

Job done, they were paid to clear his section, and clear his section they did.

Originally Posted by Fondles

If you really think my post is bout the usage of tape..... well that really does cement just how fucking stupid you are.

It's already cemented, on a plinth with a blue commemorative plaque on it.

Nearly did meself a mischief lugging this barsteward up the steps to replace my fridge that got fooked by the brown-out storm current fluctuation over Crimbo.

Don't know if a hernia or a spinal disc injury would be worse but I had a feeling I came close to one or t'other.

Bodgy paint

Had three x 9 litres of house paint mixed at Thaiwatsadu, however soon as we saw the paint blobs on each lid obvious Mr Mixer had read the wrong paint code - as per the circled colour/number on the colour chart I'd handed him.

Apologies from the woman who appeared to be supervisor of the ten or so staff loitering, playing on phones at end of each paint company's aisle.

Mr TOA may not get his next bonus. Hope that almost 5000 baht of waste paint doesn't become a salary deduction. He didn't look too happy while she watched him start again.

Way back in my NZ handyman days, paint stores would have bins of paint mixing mistakes on sale at about 25% full cost, never seen similar here.