Tilling the garden for a new lawn

Good for you! You are lucky to have water at all ... Here in London, our water comes from the Taklamakan Desert where the CEOs have their headquarters ... and we have a feeling that most of the stuff, they drink themelves ... perhaps due to the pressure they are under!

 

Well the water pump wasn’t much use, in fact there was no difference if used or not,

Also I discovered the sprinklers from Lidl are OK for a small garden lawn, but with mine the coverage/spread is just not large enough, and this was if only one was in use at a time, so all three will be taken back,

the pump being no use, I wasn’t able to use more than one sprinkler at a time, I ended up using an impact sprinkler I bought while I was in Italy around 10 years ago, has a Leakes (or two) around the head, but still works fine



so I’ve ordered an impact sprinkler from Amazon that should be here Monday,

I’m looking around to see what is available at a reasonable cost I could use to increase the flow rate of household tap water for using more than one sprinkler at the same time

What a transformation from when I first started









And this morning

 

Well, that's what happens when you do ALL the right things; certainly an example to me!

Re: your photograph (below), I examined it very carefully, hoping to express my alarm at a single item being out of place ... there isn't one! ... You should write a book ... and I would buy a copy for Mrs Lao's bedside table!

 

My shed looked like that for the first few weeks, now it's

 

I wish I could tell you what my shed looks like, but I can't get in ... I wonder why!!!

 

My shed would be beautifully tidy but I have to share it with two push bikes and various bits and pieces for bike maintenance.

 

@LawnAndOrder

I only discovered our water authority (Anglian Water) has been going round fitting water meters to everyone me included, not in operation yet, but I’m sure they’re getting prepared to flick the switch (on those who like me chose not to have them) when no one’s looking

I carried out some water tests this afternoon,

I got hold of a kitchen measuring jug (2Lt) and with the stopwatch on my phone I did a water flow test, I placed the jug under the tap and simultaneously switched on the tap and stopwatch, at 6 seconds I switched off the tap

The water level in the jug was (approx) 750ml I multiplied this by 10 and got the flow rate of 7.5 litres per minute flow (not too good)

Then for the water pressure I was in luck, I have a pressure gauge meant for checking engine cylinder compression with a bit of Heath Robinson I cabled something together to measure the tap BAR



I got a figure of around or just above 2 BAR





On Aliexpress I’ve seen a few inline water pumps, just reading up their specs, this one below looks good at a good price then discover it only pumps 10Lpm, I think I maybe 15 + would be better



The search continues

Regarding the garage, it’s been a long process as mostly DIY and called in the professionals for the heavy work and electrics, I did a write up on a motoring forum from before start to where I am now at:

Building my timber garage/workshop | Retro Rides

I think I mentioned this earlier on in this thread, started the process of buying the dung boards,(what farmers use to make bays to pill up animal feed and other things)




in August of 2019, while I was on holiday in Italy on a rainy day I was on the phone to Agricultural Supplies and Equipment Merchants | Mole Online, and did all the research on these boards by phone from Italy

Molevalley have a store not far from me but only a few of their stores stock these boards, the best choice for me was to go to their office/store in Bridgewater (Somerset) and I’m from north Cambridgeshire a good 250/300 mile trip each way, it worked far cheaper for me to hire a 6 wheeler Transit pickup and a 6M long trailer and pick up the boards than buy from the well advertised log cabins timber makers

The original plane was to build a copy of this



Working out materials I changed my mind about the roof and and went for a mono pitch



And ended up with a roof like this



And the extra space I got I used/made as storage shelf













The wall tool board changed many times during the build







This is how it looked 4/5 weeks ago, since taking this video, I’ve managed to get a pedestal sort of thing for my drill press so the work bench is clear (apart from the vice) from end to end, the knocking on the video clip is the Chinese Diesel Heater working



In 2004 my wife bought a brand new an MG TF, we had on head gasket failure in 2010 and in 2014 the cam belt slipped and nickered the engine, would of cost far more to repair then the car was worth,

So for the past 11 years it’s been standing on our driveway, when I get time (if ever) I’l make a start taking it to bits and sell them off as parts, might help keep a few more of them on the road, as just a minor bumper damage is enough now for the insurers to write them off

 

My Impact sprinkler from Amazon arrived this afternoon, but does not rotate, just stop’s in one position, I think I’ver tried everything short of taking it apart, I’ve looked up on YouTube for inspiration, I’ve tried a few suggestions but nothing will make it go back & forth


Can’t be water pressure as not only the old one works but the short pamphlet that came with it mentioned it needs at lest 1 bar of pressure to work, I know I have just over 2 bars so can’t think what it could be

I thought I’d mention it here incase someone might know/have a solution before I return it, a shame to return it if it can be sorted, if I send it back it’ll only get dumped in a land fill

As can see on the video clip pushing the anti splash back arm made no difference to getting it started

 

Have a look at steps 3 and 4 here What are impact sprinklers? A comprehensive guide | Easy Garden Irrigation

 

It is not very clear in the video but I think your problem is the positioning of the clips below the pivoting head. It appears that the rotor is the 'wrong' side of the clips, ie free to move only 10 degrees, whereas it should be around 270 degrees. You need to remove one clip(they just push on) and position on the other side of the rotor. Then adjust to give desired spread.

 

Thank you for the link JennyJB, it’s a good find and was informative


@infradig,

I’m not sure what you mean so I’ve took some images of the sprinkler so you might be able to have a better look and maybe point out the issue,
















When I set it to 360 spin, the sprinkler will spin, just not the back and forth motion



All help and advice is very much appreciated

 

While your model is slightly different to mine, I have edited with comments your image Ao7

I think the loop at the 7 oclock position needs to rotate clock wise so as to be at 3oclock while the 9 oclock remains where it is. The head rotates back and forth operating the 'overcentre ' device to reverse rotation when the bottom touches these adjustable wire loops. Other adjustments as noted. Water pressure also needs to bne sufficient to provide the 'jet thrust' to move it. The linkage (Shown at 5 oclock) always needs to be in the dry area aligned to the hose supply.
Once working they are fine!

 

I really hope you can make it work ... it's beginning to look as if you’ve done all you could with that thing … and it’s refusing to play ball … there’s no gratitude … depending on what you paid for it, it might not be worth going through the loops of getting a refund … and I can see some good potential here, with the right juxtaposition, for some serious conceptual art … you might even get exponential return on your investment … look at what that guy recently did with a banana!

 

It’s a real shame as this sprinkler is all metal, not cheap looking at all, there is a marking on it “Orbit”

Now for the price of under £10 it’s not a big issue to just bin it, as mentioned before, it’s a real shame to just bin if it can be sorted

One good thing about being retired is I do have some time on my hands, now I could just return to Amazon , I’m going to email Orbit and see what they have to say, then keep this sprinkler as a memento (and move on), I’ve already placed an oder for another impact sprinkler from Amazon

Here’s a clip I shot this afternoon showing the sprinkler, I am lost to think what could be the issue, it will spin anti clockwise but not clockwise



@infradig

Thank you for the comments on the image, I’m including an image and a clip of the trip/limit levers if that’s what you’re mentioning at position 7 o’clock & 9 o’clock

 

I still think that the trigger needs to be 'the other side 'of one of the loops, whether it is wrongly assembled or suffered shock in transit.