UK to Slovakia

Of course mans best friend will always be his dog. There’s something very special and unique about unconditional love and affection; something we humans just can’t seem to master.

However, this post isn’t about dogs, it’s about ‘the next’ mans best friend i.e his tools.
Electronics has been a hobby of mine for a very long time, so although I’m quite adept at juggling a printed circuit board, soldering iron, solder and sub-miniature components between two hands, I have never really been known for my finesse or dexterity.
When it comes to repairs, home improvements, DIY (call it what you will), my wifes tells me I’m completely useless. Apparently I revert to some Neanderthal Man state and ‘the job’ always involves the use of;
a) Hammer
b) Silicon Sealant
c) Hot glue gun
If it involves the tightening of nuts, the wrench has to be 6 metres long and I have to be swinging on the end of it to make sure it’s ‘tight’ enough.

In fact it is something of a standing joke now that if Zoe needs anything ‘fixing’ she just asks me “fetch the silicon” or “heat up the hot glue gun” or some such piss taking remark.

Why not though? Everyone has a hammer and it should be compulsory to have the other two items in any real mans toolbox.

Before we left the UK I put laid a new wood laminate floor and the required me to fix some pretty architrave to make a seemless joint between the floor and the wall. I calculated the cost of screws, the effort required to drill, plug and then screw in the screws and it just didn’t make any sense. For a couple of 99p I bought big tube of silicon sealant and use that the fix the architrave into place - no unsightly screw heads, no sweat, blood or tears and the job was completed in about 15 minutes!
Of course you can now get a product called ‘no more nails’, which like silicon sealant, comes in a tube thats excreted onto the surface and acts like a glue, purportedly with the strength of a normal screw fixing. The only drawback is it’s 5 times the price of silicon sealant and of you change your mind and want to disassemble the joint, one or both items gets completely destroyed. If it’s joined with silicon, you just stick a sharp Stanley knife between the two surfaces and pull them apart as you cut - any residue you can peel/rub away and unlike ‘no more nails’ you don’t need a hammer chisel.

If you don’t think silicon sealant is very strong, your wrong! My old 6 foot (tall) x 2 foot x 2 foot fish tank was nothing more than quarter inch glass and silicon. The gravel weighed over half a tonne (500kg) and the weight of the water (500 gallons) was around 2 tonnes (2000kg). The height of the tank give approximately 2.59 psi per foot of pressure.
In short, it strong enough!
It’s water proof, usually doesn’t deteriorate when exposed to sunlight like a lot of glues etc.

I’m also partial to my hot glue gun - perfect as a silicon sealer substitute if you don’t have time to hold the bonding surfaces in position to wait for it to harden. The last time I used mine was when I installed Zoe’s stainless steel kitchen utensil bar in our new flat. The things six foot long and although I had drilled and plugged the wall at one end for the mounting bracket, I couldn’t penetrate the wall far enough at the other end of the wall to get a rawl-plug in. I think there was some metallic object in the way judging by the way the drill bit was glowing cherry red, a water or gas pipe most likely so I didn’t force the issue. Normally I would have done the job properly and re-sited the bar after using my metal detector but this isn’t our flat, it’s rented, so I was committed to using what I had or risk complaints from the owners about holes in her wall tiles
No problem though, squirted some hot glue gun glue into the shallow depth hole and on the back of the mounting bracket (after making sure the wall tiles was clean), tightened the screw fixing at the other end and then to support the dodgy end with the shallow hole, wacked in a plastic rawl-plug to take the vertical wieght.
Once the glue had set (about 15 minutes) I just used a sharp chisel to slice of the protruding bit of plastic rawl-plug and the job was finished. I did give it a tug to make sure it was OK but it’s currently holding utensils with a combined weight of about 15 kg with no effort at all.