I spilled some oil in my garage the other day and with nothing obvious to mop it up, I brushed some sawdust from the other side of the garage onto it. When I swept up the oil-soaked sawdust, the floor was amazingly clean.

A tip courtesy of Hugh: To deter people from stealing extension leads from campsites, gardens, etc, wrap a bit of electrical tape round them in a few places. This makes them look old and repaired – which makes them unattractive to most passers-by. Most people only want new ones or ones in good condition!

If you suffer from cold hands while working, but find that gloves inhibit your ability to handle tools or materials, some manufacturers make fingerless gloves that may help. But these can be expensive, so what are the alternatives?

If you want to add any information about resources or helpful websites onto this page, please email the details to adminmensshed@pentlandsmensshed.org.

Drainage holes are required in most flower pots, so if you have ceramic ones that don’t have holes, here are some pointers as to how to drill them, courtesy of a number of members:

Protect yourself from slips and falls on ice and snow

Icy roads and pavements can make it difficult and dangerous – not to mention unpleasant – to get around in winter. But Iain points out that he and his wife have enjoyed walking even in the coldest, slippiest weather this winter (2021) because they have used ice grips.

By The Alchemist

We all know that ultraviolet light in sunlight is absorbed by the skin and is used by the body to stimulate the production of the beneficial Vitamin D and also melanin which, with modest doses of UV, causes mild tanning. However, too much UV is bad for the skin, causing premature aging, reducing flexibility, creating wrinkles and lots of freckles and making the skin look like leather.  It can even be deadly by causing melanoma, a particularly nasty form of cancer.

By the Alchemist – turning junk into ‘gold’!

From time to time we all need non-metallic (e.g. plastic, rubber, even wood) washers. A recent example for me was bolting some steel brackets to the frame of an aluminium greenhouse.  Due to the possibility of bi-metallic corrosion, especially in a wet and humid environment like a greenhouse, it is a good idea to electrically isolate the dissimilar metals with a non-conductive washer – in this case I used plastic.

If you are looking to seal timber before painting it, Stewart suggests using PVA glue.

Someone asked about cameras for installing in bird nesting boxes, hedgehog houses, etc. Here are some thoughts from Shed members: