Month: August 2019

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If you were living in a large Stately home in the 1800s and felt it was looking a little tatty there was just one man that you’d be sending your ornately headed writing paper too. That man was John Nash, the house “improver” extraordinary. He was a Handy Andy, Lawrence Llyellen Bowen, Peter Andre 60 minute makeover all rolled into one. Unlike them, however, he would take years to plan out your home and have an army of artisans and workmen in tow. John Nash was the type of guy that would roll up to your Jacobean dwelling, have a wander around it listening to the Lord of the Manor say what they wanted and then Nash would chip in with some ideas of his own. These were usually massively over the top Italianate additions designed to beautify the place. Just look at Witley Court or the Brighton Royal Pavillion to see what we mean.  The Lord would then say “and all for the low, low price off?” And Nash probably would stick a pencil behind his ear, let out a long whistle and say “well…it might cost you a bit but I’ll see what I can do”.

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Lucky for you then that the Conservatories Cheltenham experts https://www.firmfix.co.uk/conservatories/ can give you a nice conservatory at a great price that will beautify your house a lot quicker and cheaper than John Nash and his Doric columns. Who was this man who rose to such prominence?

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Nash was born into simple circumstances in Lambeth his Dad being a Welsh millwright. After school was done Nash bagged himself an apprenticeship with the best in the field at the time and got his head down for a year studying the craft of architectural design.  He set up his own practice and began work. He also got married whoever this did not last long and she was packed off to Wales to live with various of Nash’s cousins after she provided him with “spurious children” that weren’t his and racking up debts without telling him and (so that relationship went downhill quickly). This didn’t work as she had a relationship with one Charles Charles (seriously) and had a child with him for good measure. They were then divorced.

Nash gave up on London and he moved to Carmarthen where he found local builders to form alliances with. He set about getting work designing medium to large villas in Wales and he soon got a good reputation. He became friends with Sir Humphry Repton the garden designer but that went south when Repton accused him of ripping off his garden designs. Nash had got some money behind him by this point and returned to try again in London being much more successful this time..

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General

Superglues were the answer to many industrial and domestic problems, but most of us have discovered one of their annoying disadvantages – when they drip or smear onto the wrong surfaces they seem impossible to remove.

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There is nothing worse than fixing an item and laying your superglue down perhaps on the window sill and finding that it has dripped all down the new radiator that you purchased from a company like Aluminium Radiators UK. Incidentally, if you are looking for a new radiator take a look at stockists such as apolloradiators.co.uk/designer-radiators who will be more than happy to help you.  Removing superglue from metal surfaces is easier than you’d think and here is one method of going about it.

Instructions

First, protect other surfaces and assemble the tools and materials you need. These are clean lint-free cloth, acetone, a small paint scraper, and a hammer. Acetone is an ingredient in many household products such as nail polish remover, so you can use these instead of pure acetone.

Moisten the glue with the acetone, using a clean cloth to apply it, or you can moisten a section of the cloth and leave it on top of the affected area for 5 to 10 minutes to soak in. The acetone will not dissolve the glue, but will gradually loosen its grip to the metal surface.

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Once the superglue has softened, carefully attack it with the scraper, gently tapping with the hammer if necessary. You can also use the hammer to squash the glue as this helps make it malleable, and may even slip it from the surface. If these techniques aren’t sufficient, give the glue raps with the hammer. If it has been sufficiently weakened by the acetone, it will break up and come away.

Finally, clean up the residue. Your acetone laden cloth will remove remaining smears of glue and leave a clean polished surface.

Replacement

A common reason for needing to clean superglues from metal surfaces is because the bond has failed. In order to redo the job, you have to get rid of the old clinging glue. If this is a recurring problem, you need to identify a more reliable adhesive solution.

Fortunately, manufacturers of adhesives usually have them tested by a rating agency that applies standard test procedures (see https://www.astm.org/Standards/adhesive-standards.html). You can get these test results from the manufacturers. Don’t be afraid to contact manufacturers and suppliers direct.

Identifying the best adhesive for your particular job is difficult. Packets in the DIY store rarely display sufficient impartial information. Epoxies are often chosen but have numerous disadvantages, so choose suppliers who provide the best advice.

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