Mildewed Bathroom ? No Problem !

We’re in my friend’s Brighton flat again. Anyone who’s ever lived in the city will know that the beautiful Edwardian/Victorian houses are prone to damp and that especially in the bathroom, keeping on top of mildew growth is a part of life. Part of the reason that the flats in Brighton tend to be damp is the fact that the buildings are generally built from the beach itself. This means that the walls are full of salt which draws water from the air. Add to this a total lack of damp courses and poor ventilation and you’ve got a recipe for at least mildew growth and at worst dry or wet rot.

My friend’s flat is generally pretty good in that it doesn’t suffer from rising damp. But it has been rented out for the last few years and the walls of the bathroom have a severe case of mildew growth.

Things are so bad that the paint’s starting to peel off the walls and there’s more mildew behind the peeling paint. Basically we are looking at inadequate ventilation and a total lack of maintenance (otherwise known as cleaning!)

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 1

First up we’re going to wash down all surfaces with a fungicide wash using a sponge. Wear adequate protection while you do this, gloves and a facemask are essential to stop you breathing in the fungus and protect you from the fungicide.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 2

Next we remove all the old mildew stained paint from the effected walls. Large areas of paint came off when we washed down the walls so now we’re going to remove the rest of the paint using a metal scraper, sponge  and diluted fungicide solution in a spray bottle (diluted about 50/50 with water). This is unpleasant tedious work but it has to be done if you want the finished job to look good and stay looking good. Some of the paint comes off easily, some of it takes a significant amount of work. We took 2 days off and on to get the 3 affected walls completely stripped back to bare plaster.

Part way through scraping the old paint off the walls

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 4

We now re-wash the stripped walls and woodwork with fungicide, clean all surfaces with water and leave everything to dry out fully (24 hours).

Our fungicide of choice !

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 5

Unfortunately scraping off the old paint has revealed short sections of the galvanized steel corner strips which should be covered by plaster. The fact that they are galvanized means that they shouldn’t rust, but to be on the safe side we are going to prime the whole corner edge with universal primer. This is an oil based primer suitable for metal, wood or plaster and will stop the metal from rusting when the water based paints are applied.  Obviously water based wood primer is suitable for this job. We apply 2 coats, just along the very edge of the wall from skirting to ceiling. Each coat takes 16 hours to fully dry.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 6

While we are waiting for the universal primer to dry, we fill any blemishes in the walls and ceiling with Polyfilla. Ployfilla can be sanded flush after 2 hours and primed after 24 hours.

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 7

We now paint the walls with one coat of “damp proof paint”. This is really a misnomer since the paint doesn’t really damp-proof the walls, what it does is stop the black stains left by the old treated mildew from showing through the new paint. Once the damp-proof paint has dried the mildew stains should be barely visible – if in doubt apply a second coat (in our case one was enough)

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 8

The damp proof paint takes 24 hours to dry. During this time we clean the woodwork using 100 grit sandpaper and wooden sanding block and apply 2 coats of water based primer undercoat (4 hours between coats).

Mildewed Bathroom Facelift Step 9

So with the preparation done we can proceed with the fun part of redecorating. It is important that we use bathroom paint instead of normal emulsion paint. The bathroom paint resists condensation and mildew and, most importantly, can be scrubbed clean (coz with the best will in the world – Brighton bathrooms attract mildew). My preferred sequence is 2 coats on the ceiling followed by two coats on the walls and finally a gloss coat on the woodwork.  Don’t try and skimp and do just one coat, after all the effort we’ve put in to get this far it’s worth the second coat to ensure a perfect, longer lasting finish.

The redecorated bathroom

There we go, a dingy mildewed bathroom has been transformed into a pleasant place to be !

How To Replace a Broken Sash Cord

Antique sash windows look great but they often need a bit of TLC. If you live in a rented Victorian house with sash windows it’s pretty common to find that the windows don’t move properly and if they do move they either move awkwardly or just won’t stay up once open. Both these symptoms are due to broken sash cords.

What are sash cords exactly ? Sash windows slide up and down in their frames and should stay in which ever position you choose -  seemingly by magic. Actually there’s no magic involved, each part of the window has a cord attached to each side of its frame which runs up and over a pulley and is connected to a cast iron counter weight. That’s 4 in total for a typical window.

On this window, in my friend’s flat in Brighton UK, one of the sash cords for the lower panel has broken. This is how we fix it.

Sash Window Repair Step 1

First we remove the decorative strip which holds the lower window panel in place. We use a hammer and chisel to do this. The trim strip splits as we remove it, which is pretty normal, so we will replace it with new wood.

Sash Window Repair Step 2

We can now disconnect the panel from its weights and lift it out of the window frame. Obviously in this case since one cord is already broken we only need to disconnect the other one.

Sash Window Repair Step 3

Next we disconnect the cord from the lower panel and lower the iron counterweight down inside the window frame.  Then we prize out the 2 pieces of wood which cover the space containing the weights  (one either side) see photo.

Sash Window Repair Step 4

Now we carefully lift out the counterweight and detach the broken cord.  We thread the new replacement cord through the pulley and tie it to the cast iron counterweight which we place back in the window frame.

Sash Window Repair Step 5

If, like me, you damaged the trim strips when you removed them now’s the time to cut new ones to fit.

Sash Window Repair 6

Replace the Wooden panels which cover the space where the counterweights are.

Sash Window Repair Step 7

Next we replace the window panel in the frame, attach the sash cords each side of the panel and replace the decorative strips. Remember to make sure you knock the nails in so that they are below the surface of the wood. You then fill the small hole with polyfilla, by doing this you ensure that the nail head won’t rust and stain the paintwork later (see handy hints post)

Sash Window repair step 8

The final step is to that the window slides up and down in the frame correctly.  Luckily all is well so we now proceed to make good and prime the window frame ready for redecorating.

How to Clean a Grungy Electric Guitar

Each time you play your guitar its a good idea to wipe down the strings, neck and body of the guitar along with the metal parts using a soft clean cotton cloth. This both keeps the guitar looking good and stops the strings from corroding. This helps keep the strings sounding bright for longer. Also corroded strings will wear the frets more quickly.

With the best will in the world, eventually the guitar will get a dirty build up on the fretboard and handling marks on the body. This needs to be cleaned off now and again.

IF YOU DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS POST PLEASE READ THIS !

Q. Why shouldn't I use furniture polish on my guitar ?

A. Furniture polishes contain solvents and silicon. Some guitars (Gibson, top end Fenders and some other makes) use a thin Nitrocellulose finish which is softened and damaged by the solvents. The silicone in the polish also causes problems if the guitar needs to be refinished.

To be perfectly honest, if you have a cheap guitar with a poly finish and you aren't worried about future repairs being invisible you may as well use furniture polish on your guitar rather than buy specific products.

So what should you use to clean your guitar? The best thing is a dampened soft rag (an old T-shirt is ideal) it should be damp but shouldn't leave the guitar surface wet.

This guitar is about as bad as it gets. Apart from not being wiped down very regularly, it's been put away in its case after a gig, wet with sweat and left there for a few months. The result is that the guitar's finish is dull and stained to the point that a damp rag won't suffice. The fingerboard is grimy with a build-up under the strings and the frets are tarnished. This guitar definitely needs a bit of TLC.


When working on your guitar you should always be careful protect it from knocks and sharp objects. This photo shows my improvised "Guitar Tech's Workstation" which helps protect the guitar from accidental damage as you work on it.

Step 1

We remove the strings and wipe down the entire guitar with a barely soft, damp, cotton rag. Notice that since this guitar has a tune-o-matic bridge, as well as removing the strings , we have also removed the bridge and stop tailpiece. This is to ensure that they don't fall off during the cleaning process and avoid damaging the guitar's finish.

Step 2

Since this guitar has a rosewood fretboard, we are going to clean it with a few drops of “Lemon Oil” applied with a cotton rag.

A note about “Lemon Oil”

Many guitar shops sell lemon oil as a “fingerboard conditioner” which ensures that the fretboard is “correctly hydrated with natural oils”. This is not the case, although it smells nice and gives a glossy sheen to bare wood fingerboards it is a mineral oil like diesel or gasoline and be used sparingly to clean the fingerboard and the excess wiped off completely.

Bearing this in mind we use a few drops of  lemon oil and rub vigorously to remove the grime and dirt from the rosewood fingerboard. Once the fingerboard is clean we completely remove the excess lemon oil with a dry rag ( as always old T-shirts are my rag of choice ). If the fingerboard has accumulated a lot of dirt you may need to scrape it off. I have found that old credit cards are excellent tools for this job as they shift the grime without damaging the wood of the fingerboard.

Finished maple fingerboards should be cleaned with a dampened rag.

Step 3

This guitar's frets have tarnished very badly and have a greenish oxidised surface. We now proceed to polish the frets. First totally mask off the pickups using the widest masking tape available in our local hardware shop. This is very important since we are going to use wire wool to polish the frets. During the cleaning process the wire wool sheds tiny wire scraps. Since the guitar's pickups contain magnets, these tiny pieces of wire would stick to the pickups.

Once the guitar's pickups have been masked off (see photo) we proceed to polish the frets using a small pad of “0000” grade wire wool dampened with a few drops of lemon oil. Polish each fret individually working back and forth along the fret. It should only take a few strokes to clean each fret – don't get carried away here ! Take special care not to damage the guitar's finish in the area where the fingerboard is fixed to the guitar body.

If you need to polish the frets on a finished fretboard you should mask off between the frets to protect the guitars' finish from the abrasive wire wool (see this previous post). In the case of rosewood or ebony fretboards there is no need to mask off between the frets.

Once the frets have been polished we clean the excess lemon oil off the fingerboard.

Step 4

Once the fingerboard is clean and the frets shiny, we wipe down the guitar with a clean cotton duster. Since the finish on this guitar has been dulled by sweat we are going to use a cream cleaner which we are sure will not damage the guitars finish. I use a few drops of “Planet Waves – Restore” on a soft rag applied gently with a circular motion and then buffed off with a soft, clean duster. You shouldn't do this too often since nitrocellulose finishes are quite thin. If the guitar's finish is damaged or chipped then you should take care not to apply the cream cleaner to bare wood.

Step 5

We now apply a small amount of graphite grease ( Stewart MacDonald Guitar Grease) to each groove of the guitars nut. This helps keep the guitar in tune by lubricating the strings where they pass thru the nut preventing them sticking. I have found that the best tool for applying the grease is a short section of old guitar string. Scrape a tiny bit of the graphite grease from the tub with the tip of the string (see photo) and insert it in each groove of the nut.

Step 6

We now refit the bridge and tailpiece and fit new strings to the guitar. We then tune the guitar and check the “intonation” and “action”. When I have time I'll write another post which explains in detail how to adjust and check the intonation and action of your guitar.

How to Repair a Leaking Toilet Seal

This month we’re back in the bathroom with a leaky toilet. This time it’s an external leak (meaning that there's water on the bathroom floor) which, as we saw in the previous leak detection post, gives 2 basic possibilities:

1.       Leaks from the cistern – the toilet leaks and refills continuously causing an ever increasing amount of water on the bathroom floor.

2.       Leaks from the bowl or outlet – the toilet leaks during or after the flush leaving a small puddle on the floor. The quantity of water is limited since the cistern doesn’t refill.

The possible sources of these types of leak are:

1.       Leaks from the cistern

a.       Cracked or damaged cistern

b.      Leaky seal between the cistern and the pan

2.       Leaks from the bowl or outlet

a.       Cracked bowl

b.      Leaky toilet seal or flange

Cracked cisterns or toilet bowls can be repaired with an epoxy filler or repair-all type putty.

Damaged seals or flanges need to be replaced

Sometimes a good seal leaks because the cistern or bowl isn’t firmly fixed in place leak because of movement.  Check the bolts which hold the cistern to the bowl and the bowl to the floor are correctly tightened.  A toilet or cistern which rocks will often leak.

Visual inspection will show which of the causes mentioned above are to blame.

In this case we find drips coming from the toilet pan outlet seal. Closer inspection reveals that the rubber is perished and cracked. The solution is to replace the seal with a new one.

How to Replace a Leaky Toilet Seal

Toilet Repair Step 1

Fill a bucket, the sink and the kettle with water. We’re going to turn off the water at the main stopcock so we’ll need water to clean up, wash our hands (believe me you’re going to want to wash your hands several times during this process!) and of course make a cup of tea!

Toilet Repair Step 2

Turn off the water at the stopcock – there may be a small tap mounted on the wall at the inlet to the cistern, but in my experience these valves frequently leak. It’s always best to turn the water off at the stopcock.

Step 3

Flush the toilet to empty the cistern, undo the two plastic wing-nuts which connect it to the toilet bowl and lift the cistern clear (empty any residual water into the bath or the toilet and put the cistern carefully to one side)

Step 4

Remove the seal between the cistern and the toilet bowl. Depending on its condition you can either re-use it or replace it with a new one (Even thou the existing seal didn’t leak I decided that it would be a good idea to replace it with a new one when reassembling everything – preventive maintenance)

Step 5

Unbolt the pan from the floor. The are two bolts which fix the pan to the floor. We use a 10mm spanner to remove the cap-nuts. It’s possible that the nuts have corroded onto the bolts in which case the bolt will most likely release from the rawlplugs in the floor. If by a stroke of bad luck they don’t release easily from the rawlbolts in the floor then you may need to cut the nuts off using a dremel (or similar tool) and mini cut-off disk.

Step 6

The Toilet pan can now be lifted clear of the 2 fixing bolts and pulled away from the waste pipe.

Step 7

Tip the water from the toilet bowl into the bath.

Step 8

Remove the damaged toilet seal and (in order to ensure that the new seal seals) clean up both the outlet from the pan and the entrance to the waste pipe. Believe me, you will want to wash your hands after doing this!

Step 9

Remove the bolts from the floor; this is best done with mole grips. Take care not to damage the threads when doing this.

Step 10

Fit the new seal to the waste pipe and slide the toilet bowl into place, taking care to make sure the seal seats correctly against both the waste pipe and the exit from the toilet bowl.

Step 11

Replace the nuts and bolts which hold the toilet pan in place. Tighten down each side bit-by –bit to make sure that the toilet is correctly aligned and firmly seated.

Step 12

Empty the bucket of water into the toilet to perform a test flush and ensure that the new seal doesn’t leak. If it leaks, it will be necessary to disconnect the bowl again and re-seat the seal.

Step 13

If the toilet doesn’t leak then we proceed to re-connect the cistern and open the stopcock.

Step 14

Perform a test flush to make sure that everything works correctly and that there are no leaks.

Step 15

Clean up any mess and wash your hands!

Alternative Types of Toilet Seal

The rubber seal shown in the photos is very common. You may also encounter more elaborate seals or the old fashioned wax seal. In the case old the wax seal we simply cut the donut into two pieces, insert the two parts into the gap between the toilet and the waste pipe. We then use the heat from our hands to mold the wax into place until a hermetic seal is formed. The other plastic seal is simply inserted into the drain pipe and the toilet is slotted into place. Another possibility is that the toilet sits on-top of the waste pipe and there is a seal in a flange which is fitted into the floor below the toilet. These types of seal are similar to those which we have seen and the symptoms and replacement process are basically the same as described above.

Repairing a Peavey Bandit 112 Guitar Amp

Today were going to look at a fairly common and easily performed amplifier repair.

The amp in question is a 1980's vintage Peavey Bandit 112 Soloist Series 100W guitar combo and belongs to the singer/rhythm guitarist in my band. Unfortunately at some point between our latest gig and its arrival back at our practice room the control knob for the lead channel level has been snapped off. This is an unfortunate but not too uncommon occurrence which can be attributed to careless handling or bad loading of the van after the gig. On these occasions tiredness / the euphoria after a successful show / overzealous helpers and perhaps a small quantity of alcohol can lead to these sorts of careless mishaps !

So now on to the repair.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 1: Remove the Amp chassis from the Combo.

IMPORTANT - Before working on the amplifier we double check that it is disconnected from the mains electricity supply ! (ie. Make sure you've unplugged the amp from the wall!)

Next we remove the back of the combo ( undo the 4 screws ) to allow the amp chassis to slide easily out.

Then  we undo and remove the power cord retaining clip and unplug the cables that connect to the speaker and the reverb unit (making note of how they need to be reconnected to avoid any errors later on).

Now the combo is laid face down and the 4 screws which attach the amplifier to the speaker housing are removed and the amp chassis is lifted out. All screws are put to one side to avoid misplacing them.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 2: Remove the circuit board from the amplifier chassis

Next we remove the plastic control knobs from all the potentiometers and remove the black retaining nuts (11 in total)

We also remove the retaining nuts and washers from the 4 input/output jacks on the front panel.

We then unplug the connecting cables which run between the metal housing and the circuit board (4 connectors in total) taking note of the correct positions for reconnecting later.

Once this has been done the 6 black screws which attach the back cover to the amplifier chassis are undone and the circuit board can be slid out.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 3: Remove the faulty potentiometer.

As can be seen in the photo below the potentiometers are mounted directly on the circuit board and are supported by a small metal bracket which is also soldered to the circuit board. This is so that the circuit board can be assembled as a whole in the factory then easily mounted in the chassis as a single unit.

To remove the pot from the circuit board we carefully desolder the 7 tabs using a soldering iron and a solder sucking pump. The pot can then be lifted off the circuit board.

Once the level pot has been removed from the circuit board we confirm that it is a 10K linear pot.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 4: Buy a replacement potentiometer.

Unfortunately my local electronics store didn't have the exact replacement part.  Normally I'd purchase the original replacement part online if available. But in this case the amplifier needs to be fixed before our next practice session so there isn't time to wait for delivery. This leaves the alternative of buying a standard potentiometer of the same value, size and type and mount it directly on the amplifier chassis with 3 wires connecting it to the circuit board. As can be seen in the photo we also need to cut the shaft down to size. It's a little bit more work but saves waiting, a little money and will be not be noticeable once the amp is reassembled. Obviously we have to use a pot of the same value otherwise the amp's performance will be affected !

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 5: Connect the replacement potentiometer to the circuit board
First we solder three short, insulated wires to the connections on the circuit board. As you can see in  the photo I've used different coloured wires to avoid confusion when connecting them to the replacement pot. I've also made sure that the wires aren't overly long , they just need to be long enough so that the pot can be fitted to the amp chassis in such a way that the connecting tags won't touch any other components or the metal chassis itself. I then solder the coloured wires to the corresponding tabs on the pot.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 6: Mount the Circuit board in the metal amplifier chassis.

This is just the reverse of the removal sequence with one additional stage which is to connect the new potentiometer to the metal housing. Care must be taken to ensure that the pot doesn't turn while the retaining nut is being tightened. The photo below shows how the final repair looks - all neat and tidy on the inside and totally invisible once the amp is reassembled.

Peavey Bandit repair - Step 7: Re-fit the amplifier into the speaker housing.

Once again this is just a case of reversing the removal process, taking care that everything is reconnected correctly.


Peavey Bandit repair - Step 7: Check that everything works OK.

Once everything is back together and we are happy that all the parts are connected as they should be we plug the amp in, connect a guitar (in this case a Fender Telecaster) and make sure that the amp works as before its accident.

How to Make a Custom Freestyle Fin for Your Windsurf Board.

Cutting down your fin is often considered a kind of “right of passage” along the road to the Nirvana of windsurfing freestyle. Today we’re going to look at how to do it as we convert an old (and fairly well worn out) wave fin into a short custom freestyle fin.


Why is a short fin useful? The super short fins used by freestylers allow them to slide thru the spinney rotational moves like Spock 540s without catching and tripping the board. The downside is that they give less lift and may make the board less easy to carve for the more “old school” tricks like carving 360s.



Since getting my Tabou freestyle board I’ve started trying to do Vulcans. At the moment I’m at the point that I can get the pop and start to get some rotation but then either land across the wind and  trip or go flying “out the back door” .Alternatively I sometimes land and the board somehow slews back to the original direction ( so it just looks like a dodgy downwind pop ! ). I hope that by using a smaller fin I should be able to carry on sliding, continue that rotation and be able to start working on the hand change. Perhaps I should continue with my existing 21cm fin because it’s not excessively large. But hey, I’ve got on old fin that hasn’t been used in years and I fancy experimenting.



How short ? Most production dedicated freestyle fins seem to be 18cm but I’ve seen people using fins cut off shorter. I could just cut off the boards existing fin to 18cm but I don’t want to risk messing up a perfectly good fin for this experiment and potentially have to fork out 80€ on a brand new fin if I don’t like the results. So I’m going to cut down an old 19cm wave fin. The idea is to remove the trailing back section and round it off to an elliptical tip. I’ve marked out my design in pencil on the fin and once I’ve removed the trailing section of fin (to improve tracking when sliding backwards)  I reckon I’ll probably end up with a 16cm fin ! This is slightly shorter than I would have liked but it’ll be an interesting experiment.  I’m really thinking that If I can still get up wind with such a small fin and carve and pop ok then even if I end up buying a production freestyle fin from someone like Tarifa Fin Company then at least I’ll be doing so in the confidence that the fin will be big enough (something that worries me a bit at this stage – even tho I am using my existing 21.5cm fin with sails up to 6.5m whereas most freeride boards come with a 35cm fin for use with this size of sail, the step down to 18 or less still seems pretty drastic)



Why an elliptical tip ? A lot of freestylers seem to just cut their fins off strait and leave it that way. In fact that’s what the previous owner did when he cut down the fin which came with the board from 23cm to 21.5cm. But all the professional designs I’ve seen have rounded or elliptical tips ( check out MFC , K4 or Tarifa Fin Company fins and you’ll see what I mean ) . I think that this is to reduce turbulence especially when the board is carving and drag. Apart from rounding the tip off I’m also going to thin the tip off for the same reasons and to hopefully reduce unwanted “spinout”. I think that one good thing about cutting down already short fin is that the chord thickness is fairly narrow whereas if you cut down a longer slalom fin you have the advantage of a more vertical foil (early planning) but the fin ends up very thick and stiff. I’ve also noticed that both K4 and Tarifa fin company freestyle fins are swept back anyway compared with the MFC freestyle pro (which is pretty much the industry standard). So hopefully this will work out ok.

                           A "Proper" Freestyle fin from the Tarifa Fin Company 


So enough of the theorising and procrastination. Let’s get down to work !



Step 1 – Mark out the fin and cut it down.



Two straight hacksaw cuts get rid of the bulk of the material. A couple more cuts and we have the basic shape.

 Step 2 – Round off the outline and thin down the tip of the fin

First we round off the outline with sandpaper backed with a plywood block, and then we mark the centreline of the foil with a pencil line to help keep everything symmetrical as we thin down the tip. We then use coarse then fine grade sandpaper to give the fin the desired profile. NB. I have actually done a fair bit more sanding since this photo was taken but unfortunately forgot to take another photograph of the finished fin.

Step 3 – Seal the fin

Since this is an old fibreglass fin I decided to seal the bare fibreglass with superglue. A G10 fin wouldn’t need this final stage. The bared material is painted with several coats of superglue. We then leave it to cure fully overnight before sanding the surface smooth with 240 grit sandpaper.

Step 4 - Go Windsurfing !

Hey presto a new custom freestyle fin! Looks like it’s going to be windy this weekend so I’ll be able to check it out and report back.

                  Another "Proper" Freestyle fin this ones from K4 Fins in the UK 

How to Re-Grout Bathroom Tiles

This month we’re back in the bathroom to re-grout the shower cubicle. When we moved into this flat it had already been modernised a few years previously and the bathroom is in pretty good order. The only thing which lets it down is that the grouting between the mosaic tiles in shower cubicle was in a pretty bad way. Large sections of the grouting were missing and what remained was pretty well yellowed. Fixing this up is a quick and easy job which will give the bathroom a new lease of life.




Step One – Surface Preperation

The first step is to remove the loose / ageing grout. To do this we first spray the grouting liberally with a lime scale removing cleaning product (In this case Cilit Bang) and leave it to sit for about 15 minutes  (about 3 times the time recommended for the normal use of this product)



Now we scrub the grouting vigorously with a large scrubbing brush and rinse down thoroughly with clean water. This removes any loose grout and cleans up what remains. At this point it becomes clear that the mosaic tiling of the bathroom ids actually large tiles with grooves moulded in them which are then filled with grout to give the appearance of a mosaic. This is obviously a lot easier to install than a real mosaic and looks really good once the grout is in place.



Next we let the wetted surfaces dry thoroughly overnight.

Step Two – Apply Grout

Now we are going to apply the new grout. This needs to be mixed thoroughly with water in a suitable recipient following the maker’s instructions. Typically 3 parts grout (or white cement) to one part water. You will probably need somewhere between 1 and 2 kg to re-grout a shower booth.



We apply the grout generously to the tiles making sure we more than fill all the grooves with grout. You should only apply grout to about 1 square metre at a time. Then we remove the excess with the rubber float. Note: The float should always be moved in a diagonal direction in order to leave the channels between the mosaic tiles filled by grout. Repeat this process until the entire shower booth has been grouted.



Next we take a dampened sponge or cloth and gently wipe along the lines of grout to give a nice u shape profile between the tiles. We now leave everything to fully dry for about 8 hours,



As the grout dries it will leave a slight haze on the tiles. This haze can be removed by buffing the tiles with a rough, clean rag once it is dry (minimum eight hours – according to manufacturer’s instructions). Don’t worry if there is areas where excess grout has remained stuck to the tiles, this is a pretty common occurrence – especially if it’s your first attempt at grouting and can be easily remedied.



Step 3 – Remove any excess grout and polish the tiles



How to remove any excess grout from porcelain tiles



The next day we can proceed to remove any excess grout which was inadvertently left stuck to the tiles (don’t worry there always seems to be some that you overlook and it’s easy to fix).



I’ve heard of people using mild acids or vinegar solutions to do this. Personally I’ve had great success using a scotchbrite green plastic scourers backed by an off cut of plywood to clean the grout off using the same lime scale cleaner that I used at the start of this process. Just apply a little of the cleaner to the tiles than scrub gently in a circular motion till the excess grout is removed and rinse thoroughly with water. Hey presto a total of about 4 hours work (spread over 3 days) and the shower room looks like new !

Fixing up a cheap electric guitar so it plays like a more expensive one !

A friend of mine called me up last week to ask if I’d take a look at a guitar for him. Apparently his girlfriend had bought him a cheap Stratocaster copy online for his birthday but the guitar was totally unplayable. He was pretty stressed because he didn’t want to tell his girlfriend that she’d wasted her money!!

To be honest I was surprised how bad the guitar was! I understand that it was very cheap, but it was truly unplayable. I was especially surprised since it is a Yamaha guitar, albeit their most budget model. I’ve played several Yamaha guitars over the years and they’ve always been good instruments. In fact I have an old Yamaha Pacifica as a reserve electric guitar. Actually this guitar was so bad that I suspect that is probably a factory second or a knock –off copy or such being sold online by an unscrupulous dealer.

Whatever, in the end it only took a couple of hours work to get it playing pretty well (in fact once I’d finished with it I had it pretty much set up to the same specs that Fender set their guitars up to when they leave their factory !) Anyway, here’s how we fixed her up.

First of all I tuned the guitar to pitch and tried to play her. Terrible, even with the strings set pretty high from the fret-board it buzzed and rattled and at some frets totally fretted out.

My first step was to try and straighten the neck using the truss-rod. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the truss-rod worked and that I could get the neck almost totaly straight under string tension. In fact you never really want a totally straight neck on a guitar, a slight relief is necessary to allow for the curve of the vibrating string. Most importantly, the neck wasn't twisted ( a twisted neck can often be fixed , but its a lot more work).

So now with the neck acceptably straight I proceeded to check the frets to see if they were level. A quick check with my Stew Mac fret gauge showed that the frets had never been levelled or dressed in the factory. (Note: This is hardly a surprise with such a cheap guitar; even fairly expensive guitars need to be taken to a Luthier to have the frets dressed if they are to play at their best.) It also showed up the reason why the guitar was unplayable: Frets 2 and 19 where ridiculously high, to the extent that I thought that maybe they weren’t correctly seated, they where. Actually I suspect that the other frets had been inserted with too much pressure and for some reason these 2 frets had stayed high.

This photo shows how we check the frets for level, we test 3 frets at a time - if the middle fret is high then the guage rocks, if not it stays firm. Please note that this photo is taken on a different guitar and with the strings removed.

Step 1 – Level the frets.



Since this guitar ( as is the case with most Stratocaster copies) has a screw on neck. The first thing to do is remove the neck (actually the first step is to remove the strings then the neck). Next we remove the plastic nut and re-straighten the neck sighting down the fingerboard with a straight edge. (Note: we want the neck as straight as possible at this stage). Guitar fret-boards are normally made of a hardwood like maple, rosewood or ebony. In this case I noticed that the fret-board was made of a softer wood dyed black to look like ebony. This is probably why the frets were so bad.

Once the neck is removed and straight I tape off the fingerboard with masking tape to protect it while I level the frets. Many luthiers use a metal file mounted on a wooden handle like the one in the photo below to do this. I find I get better results more quickly using a metal spirit level with sandpaper stuck to it. This has the advantage that it is almost as long as the guitar neck so it helps prevent you from sanding more in one place.

First I concentrate on numbers 2 and 19 (always working in the direction of the strings line and checking for level and profile) to quickly bring the two high frets down. Once the 2 rogue frets are about the right height I ink up all the frets with a marker pen and then work very carefully to maintain the correct profile. If you work carefully you should just need to keep sanding until the ink has just started to be removed from the lowest fret . At this point all the frets should be at the same height. We check with the straight edge, until we are totally happy that the frets are levelled.



Step 2 – Re profile the frets



Guitar frets are a half moon section. But the levelling process will have caused them to be flattened off. Flat frets rattle and play out of tune. So the next step is to round the frets off using a special small file with a rounded face (see photo). Whilst doing this you should keep checking that you maintain the correct fret-board radius using the plastic radius gauges (mine came off e-bay). Once the frets have been rounded off you should polish them up using different grades of emery cloth, wire wool and finally metal polish.





Step 3 – Neck back on



Once we’re happy with the fret job, we remove the masking tape, replace the nut and bolt the neck back on to the guitar. At this step I check the neck angle using the straight edge and find that it’s not as it should be. This is easy to fix on this type of guitar using card shims in the neck joint.



Step 4 – Final setup



Next we string the guitar up with a new set of strings ( I prefer ernie ball 10 guage) and bring them up to pitch. She’s already starting to play better, no buzzing or choking strings. But the action is still high, so we adjust the neck relief with the truss rod and the individual saddle heights using Allen keys.



Step 5 – Play and enjoy



Considering how cheap this guitar was, I was very pleased with how it played once we’d fixed it up. If the guitar were mine I’d probably have made a new nut for it too which would have seen yet more improvement.

Fixing a Tabou Freestyle Windsurf fin

Last week I bought a new (to me) windsurf board - A 2007 Tabou Freestyle 100

Its a great board and in good condition with just a few of the cosmetic scuffs which are typical of boards that have been used a bit.

The fin with its old rusty lug

The fin (which has been cut down to 21cm) is missing its retaining screw and also the lug which runs in the finbox must have been lost at some point and the previous owner had replaced it with a bit of steel tube which has all but rusted away !

The retaining nut and bolt can be easily bought at either the local windsurf shop for €5 or at Decathlon for €1.99 - no prizes for guessing where I bought mine !!

Unfortunatley the stainless steel lug which goes at the other side of the fin seem to be unobtainable - at leat I couldn't find any. So a trip to the hardware shop was in order. The options here were either buy a length of stainless steel rod - which they would have to order and which would cost a few €uros or buy the longest 5mm diameter stainless steel bolt that they had, which had a long enough unthreaded section to make 2 replacement stainless steel lugs. Total cost 30 cents and a few minutes work to cut the screw down, file the lugs to size and round off the sharp edges - 15 cents each , not bad.

Cut the stainless steel screw into 3 pieces

Then File smooth and check for length

It was then necessary to carefully drill out the reusted in remains of the previous replacement, insert the shiny new lug in the fin , add a drop of superglue to stop it from slipping back out again and hey presto ready to go windsurfing !

The finished article

Some windsurf fins ( wave and custom freestyle)

Now we just need a bit of wind to try this thing out !

Bringing an iPod Nano Back to Life !

The other day a friend gave me her iPod Nano (G4) to repair. She described the symptoms as:

“It just stopped working...  When you plug it into the computer the apple icon appears momentarily then the screen goes black again. I've tried charging it from the computer and the power supply but it doesn't do anything. Do you think you can fix it ?”

The first thing I did when I got it home was plug it into my pc and the results were pretty much as my friend had described. It didn't launch iTunes and wasn't recognised by iTunes when I launched the program manually. An Apple fan would say “It failed to mount” or some such jargon.

The next thing I did was look to see if the iPod was recognised by Windows. Sure enough it appeared as an external hard drive (in this case G:) and the music files and photos where in tact. But the iPod's screen remained blank. At this point I decided to reset the iPod. This is done as follows:

1. Switch the hold button on and then off again (the small button on the top of the device).

2. Hold down the centre button and the menu button simultaneously for 10 seconds.

Hey presto ! The iPod is now recognised by iTunes while connected to my pc and the screen comes to life an it will play music. Unfortunately it dies as soon as I eject it from Itunes and disconnect it from the pc.  This makes me suspect that the battery is flat and I leave it connected to my pc to charge.

So after 3 approximately hours of charging the battery still appears to be flat, i.e. the iPod stops working and the screen goes blank as soon as it is disconnected from the pc. This gives the impression that the battery might be faulty ( it should be nearly fully charged after 3 hours). But previous experience with my own 60GB Ipod tells me that it might just be a software problem so I decide to restore the original software on the device . This is done via iTunes on the pc.

 Still no change (apart from the fact that I've just wiped all my friends music and photos off her iPod !) the Nano still only works when plugged into the pc – interestingly it ONLY works when connected to the pc and NOT when connected to a power supply ! To me this is also suggests that it is a software problem rather than a flat battery.

Another thing I've learnt from my iPod is that the hold switch works via software and therefore consumes current (There was a software update a few years ago which caused the button to stop working on my iPod for a few months). So I leave the Nano with the hold switch active overnight to run the battery down ( even though it looks like the battery hasn't charged up at all anyway).

The next morning it still seems to be dead, nothing responds. So I plug it back into the pc, this time Itunes launches automatically (as it should ) and all seems well ! I update the Nano's software, synchronise some of my music collection onto the Nano and leave it to charge for 4 hours. Now when I eject the iPod from iTunes and disconnect it, it works :-)

So there we go another iMystery solved (until the next time !!) and one happy friend !

If the above procedure doesn't fix your iPod Nano then the next step would be to change the battery. You can pick up replacement batteries (complete with the tools required to do the job) pretty cheaply on ebay. Alternatively you could take it to an iStore and get it done by them.

Please note: In these photos the iPod is connected to my netbook. According to the Apple website you shouldn't try and connect iPods via the USB port found on some keyboards or using a USB hub because it may cause problems due to lack of power