I would just like to say

I had a bit of a look over lunch and found this table in one of my "how to build a kit car" books.
Cable sizes:
For side, tail, fog, flashers, radio and panel lamps. rating 8.75 amps. 14/0.3 metric or 14/0.012 imperial
Headlamps, horns, heated rear windows. rating 17.5 amps 28/0.3 metric or 28/0.012 imperial
Battery and generator 27.5 amps 44/0.3 metric or 44/0.012 imperial
Alternator charging 35 amps 65/0.3 metric or 65/0.012 imperial.
Earth wires need to be the same size as the live wire feeding the component.
For example 14/0.30, (1.0mm²) refers to 14 strands of 0.30mm diameter cable giving a total cable conductor area of 1.0mm².
So as @Hippo said, that is what you'll need.

(as .30 is the diameter of each strand, pi r squared gives us .15 x .15 x 3.14159 = 0.071
This times the number of strands (14) gives us 0.99 square millimetres so 1.00mm2.)

The resistance of one kilometre of copper wire 1.00 mm in diameter is 17 ohms. Just out of interest.
The thicker the wire the less the resistance therefore the less heat generated therefore the more smoke you can keep in the wire!!!

Tis important not the let the smoke oot of lectric and lectronic fings. If yer does they stop wuking. Bit like steam engines.

landowner said:

10Pcs 12V Car Truck Lorry Round LED Bullet Button Side Mini Marker Lights Lamp (EBay)

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Are you ok with the concept of connecting things up in series and/or in parallel?
I just noticed @Hippo mentioned wiring them up in parallel and don't want to be patronising but you never know!

This is a great thread which explains the benefits and disadvantages of wiring in series, or parallel or series/parallel.

You'll be getting used to the symbol for a diode by now! The funny arrow type thing which shows that the current can only flow one way through one.
10 lamps would prolly be too much for a single series circuit anyway.

Hippo said:

Tis important not the let the smoke oot of lectric and lectronic fings. If yer does they stop wuking. Bit like steam engines.

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And they can spread fires too, a bit like steam engines gone wrong!

boguing said:

I've come to the conclusion that dust sheets have gone out of fashion. Tried a different chimney sweep last time around, one small sheet, previous and future lays them all the way from the front door.

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That's a bit mad. Did Juan Sheet have a powerful vac or summat?
Plumber who came to change the stop-cock used a dual jobbie vac to mop up any watter that came out while he was doing the job. Never seen that before neeva!

Never inclined to sweep your own chimbley? Or do you have to get an invoice to prove it for the insurance?

DanClarke said:

The new loft ladder is in. My goodness what a mess they made.
They didn't put any floor protection down and smashed out lath & plaster and trod it in everywhere.
We have had a right mess to clean up.
But the thing is in and it is an improvement (but much steeper than the old ladder (which surprises me).
The access hatch is >1.5 times longer so you don't smash your back into the hole as you ascend/descend at least.
I could probably have done a better job of it myself back in the day, but I'm a bit past it now.

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Really don't understand this at all. If the loft hatch is longer then, provided there is enough room in the loft for stowage, you should have been able to have a longer and therefore less steep ladder. Unless it has been fitted in such a way that you physically couldn't get it down to the floor in a position where you could get on it to use it. Is the ladder permanent or is it a slide up one?
The one I fitted is a slide up one and I have to reposition it sometimes, making it steeper, if I need to get really big things through the hole. Can't you use the old ladder, or is that somehow defeating the object of the new hatch?
Mine is in three sections so I could make it even longer if I wanted, just by sliding the sections further out and locking them in different positions. But much longer and I couldn't get through the hole, which I gather was your problem.

Stanleysteamer said:

That's a bit mad. Did Juan Sheet have a powerful vac or summat?
Plumber who came to change the stop-cock used a dual jobbie vac to mop up any watter that came out while he was doing the job. Never seen that before neeva!

Never inclined to sweep your own chimbley? Or do you have to get an invoice to prove it for the insurance?

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They both use powerful vacs and there's no ash mess. It's just why wouldn't you chuck sheets down to save you having to take your boots off each time you come in and out? Edit, and just in case it goes a bit wrong.

And yes, insurance. Infuriating, it's got a nice easy to clean metal liner.

boguing said:

They both use powerful vacs and there's no ash mess. It's just why wouldn't you chuck sheets down to save you having to take your boots off each time you come in and out? Edit, and just in case it goes a bit wrong.

And yes, insurance. Infuriating, it's got a nice easy to clean metal liner.

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We are supposed to get our log burner's "chimney" swept once a year in France for the insurance.
Log burner is hyper efficient, stainless tube, flexi metal liner then stainless chimney sitting inside a decorative tile thing to keep the watter and the birds out. ( and there is only a 30 deg roof above it, to the chimbley, never hardly see any smoke coming out of it. )As you say, infuriating.
I might use a sweep once then keep copying the invoice and using Paint or summat to change the date.

Like I used to do on W's birth certificate so she could apply for jobs and get interviews. She did look 10 years younger than she really was! Yes I know it's illegal but I didn't change it on the actual certificate cos they only ever wanted a copy!
Mind now it's illegal to ask for the age, I think.
Funny how no one ever complained when they had to start paying her pension what may have looked to them like ten years early!! (Only happened in one case and I think a certain Japanese car manufacturer can afford it!)

Stanleysteamer said:

Really don't understand this at all. If the loft hatch is longer then, provided there is enough room in the loft for stowage, you should have been able to have a longer and therefore less steep ladder. Unless it has been fitted in such a way that you physically couldn't get it down to the floor in a position where you could get on it to use it. Is the ladder permanent or is it a slide up one?
The one I fitted is a slide up one and I have to reposition it sometimes, making it steeper, if I need to get really big things through the hole. Can't you use the old ladder, or is that somehow defeating the object of the new hatch?
Mine is in three sections so I could make it even longer if I wanted, just by sliding the sections further out and locking them in different positions. But much longer and I couldn't get through the hole, which I gather was your problem.

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It is a ladder of a fixed length, it has 3 sections that fold up onto one another. It was rather expensive but it is one that herself can operate all on her own without needing me to open the loft hatch or pull the ladder across the loft floor and down the access hole. It is mounted on the top side of the trap and you have to use a simple T-handled "key" to unlock it and to pull it down towards you.

DanClarke said:

It is a ladder of a fixed length, it has 3 sections that fold up onto one another. It was rather expensive but it is one that herself can operate all on her own without needing me to open the loft hatch or pull the ladder across the loft floor and down the access hole. It is mounted on the top side of the trap and you have to use a simple T-handled "key" to unlock it and to pull it down towards you.View attachment 329915View attachment 329916View attachment 329917

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Did you reuse the original ladder?
If so, and I cannot see from your pic the top of the ladder when fully open, it looks to me as if it is mounted a bit too high or a bit too far up the loft hatch.
I appreciate that the bottom of the top section has to not come too far along the hatch or it won't shut. But you could possibly move it down a couple or three inches without either of you having to take a big step to get into the loft and off the ladder.
Just a thought.
From the pics it does look as if the treads are horizontal.

Ere @DanClarke did yer see panorma on monday. Yer meter may be set to wuk on the wrong tarrif. Hence the double charge. Ask gaz and leccy.

Just sitting here calming down as I am driving myself round the bend.
As W is out for most of the day I took the opportunity to turn the water off at the mains and get on with the plumbing in the utility.
It was taking so long for the cold water to empty from the pipes that I had some lunch.
But went back in, messed about cleaning things up and re-orientated the cold pipe. It is now straight on and perpendicular to where the back of the unit will be.
So then I went off to isolate the hot water.
Can I do it? Can I flip!
Now it isn't as if I haven't done it before. Right in front of me are the fittings on the hot tap pipe that only I could have put on. I also did the hot tap in the kitchen and the downstairs loo basin and cistern which are also fed from the header tank. (A pro did the two bathrooms.)
There are various gate valves in the airing cupboard which contains the HW tank and sits directly under the header tank in the loft.
I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that it was one of two of the gate valves in there which are not linked to the central heating or power-shower pump.
I know for a fact that I have never been forced to block the outlet(s) from the header tank.
The gate valves are a pig to turn off, especially one which is right at the back above and behind the shelf W uses for sheets etc, and can only just be reached with me standing on a set of steps, while swearing profusely. But I have turned these off and this time waited for ages for the taps to run dry.
Nothing doing.
Checked in the loft in, under and around the header tank, not a valve in sight except the ball valve for the tank itself, and the one for the little tank for the central heating, which are obvs fed from the cold water supply. All this with the mains isolated just in case you were thinking the tank might be fed from it. It isn't.
If this was the first time I had ever done it I would understand but I have done this at least 4 or 5 times before. And the plumber who did the two bathrooms must have isolated it too.
At the moment my lack of memory of it is really infuriating me and preventing me from thinking straight. I really am thinking could it be that blasted gate valve at the back of the cupboard which is unbelievably tight, is just not turning off properly? I would have sworn that was the one I turned off before. The flow from the hot taps seems totally normal though as if the valve had not moved.
Thank God we are going out all day tomorrow, it'll take my mind off it.
Time to throw my tools and stuff around and have a play with the errant bulb holder.
Enjoy your evenings folks!

DanClarke said:

It is a ladder of a fixed length, it has 3 sections that fold up onto one another. It was rather expensive but it is one that herself can operate all on her own without needing me to open the loft hatch or pull the ladder across the loft floor and down the access hole. It is mounted on the top side of the trap and you have to use a simple T-handled "key" to unlock it and to pull it down towards you.View attachment 329915View attachment 329916View attachment 329917

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Its steep because they cut to much of the bottom rung, you alter the the top stays to limit the angle the hatch comes down then measure from the second section down to the floor and trim the bottom section to suit , i have fitted a few

boguing said:

I've come to the conclusion that dust sheets have gone out of fashion. Tried a different chimney sweep last time around, one small sheet, previous and future lays them all the way from the front door.

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Stanleysteamer said:

Neither of my grans could drive and only one of my grandpas, although he was in charge of many engine rooms on merchant ships crossing the Atlantic and other oceans!
Even my dad, not the most mechanical of blokes, knew how to use a starting handle and where to put your thumb.

Now, how many know how to start a car by retarding the spark???!!

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Yer whack it with 2 hammers

kevstar said:

We have cast iron gutters and that is what's on my planning for the garage, never see copper gutters. My high school had the choice of a swimming pool or a copper covered roof. Yer they got a copper roof.

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Cast iron is also good but needs painting also I found it to be a shallow profile so more fall needed have got a collection of antiques hopper heads in the UK in cast works of art

kevstar said:

Yer whack it with 2 hammers

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Far more subtle and with finesse than that!!

Wimblowdriver said:

Give the wiper rubbers a wipe with a damp cloth, surprising how much muck comes off. And wash the windscreen before the MOT.

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Wipe the rubbers with WD cleans and softens them

DevonGuy said:

See the gp, lay it on really thick and get on to allopurinol. You must be gout-free for a month before you start. Until then, paracetamol & codeine with ibuprofen will take the edge off it. My problem is that I can’t use ibuprofen tablets because I’m on chemotherapy and the combo isn’t good.
My brother has been on allopurinol for a decade and it has made life very much easier for him.

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Would not no if I have it with all the other ackes and pains