diy Top @Kew Drive

[kstoh 3]

2 hours ago, mopiko said:

The most impressive house ive seen to-date!! and a residen PArrot~!! WoW!

Macam mini GardensBay

Thanks. It's a very long story, but eventually the parrot was returned to its rightful owner. The parrot had flew away from its owner in Tampines to my place in Upper East Coast Road.

[kstoh 3]

2 hours ago, mopiko said:

Hi, im doing up a drop for my shower area, and yes its recommended to do the drop outside the glass. Ive installed the glass just right after the drop. Is there a reason u left a big space/gab from the drop to your glass?

Hi. The gap between my glass door and the drop is only about 1 cm. If you are looking at the photo I showed, the glass door was opened, and thus the gap appeared wider.

[trcd 13]

On 18 December 2015 at 7:42 PM, Ks Toh said:

Exercise Equipment

Over the weekend, I did some DIY installation.

First, I installed a pull up bar which I purchased from AIBI. It cost $36 and the label shows a man grimacing as he does the pull up. I forgot to take a picture before I threw away the packaging. Anyway, it fits doors 61 to 88 cm wide. Would have been really useful if pull up is still part of IPPT. It's easy to install. http://www.aibi.com.sg

Turning in one direction will extend the length, press against the sides of the door and make the installation tighter. But if you are installing, do not install too tightly. When I first installed, I could not close the door. I realised that I had turned the bar too much, pressed against the door frame sides and somehow lowered the top portion of the door frame.

@Ks Toh may I ask how secure is this? did you have to screw the sides into the door frame, or just turn to tighten? Thanks!

[trcd 13]

By the way, I love your modern looking home and how pleasing it all is to the eyes.  Not forgetting all your very informative posts (including DIY stuff).  Thanks!

I am going through your blog the 2nd time now!  

[kstoh 3]

8 hours ago, trcd said:

@Ks Toh may I ask how secure is this? did you have to screw the sides into the door frame, or just turn to tighten? Thanks!

Although the bar is supposed to stay in position due to friction, I played safe by attaching the side brackets. It is just one small screw on either side. The other problem without using the screws is that you really have to extend the bar as much as possible and this results in some slight warping of the door frame, which in turn results in the door not being able to close properly. With the screws on both sides, the bar is very secure.

[kstoh 3]

Changing Your Broken Window Handle or Lock

In my previous place, the casement window handles kept breaking. Not sure how much it will cost to ask the handyman to change (maybe $30 to $100) but I changed all of them myself. The other day, I had to change a sliding window crescent lock, so I decided to document the steps.

Untitled

Untitled

The steps are:

1. Buy new handle/lock
2. Remove damaged handle/lock
3. Replace new handle/lock

[kstoh 3]

Buy New Handle or Lock

Take a photo of the damaged handle or lock using your phone camera. Do some basic measurements e.g. distance between the two screws or rivets.

You should be able to purchase a replacement handle or lock from your neighbourhood HomeFix, SelfFix or hardware store. The photo and basic measurements will help you buy the correct type, design, size, colour and version (right or left) of handle or lock. You should be able to buy any normal casement window handle from any hardware store. Sometimes, the architect or builder of your place used a special type of handle or lock. You may have to check with him (or the present estate management) on where to purchase the special handle design. In my case, I could not find the sliding window crescent lock from some neighbourhood hardware stores. In the end, I found it at Kai Lim, a bigger (but messy) hardware store located at 369 Changi Road. Cost me only $2.30 plus GST.

Remove Damaged Handle or Lock

If the handle or lock is simply screwed into place, you can use any screwdriver to remove it. If it is rivetted into place, then you need to drill away the rivet head. You can use an electric drill with a metallic drill bit. In my case, I simply used my trusty electric screwdriver with a $2 drill bit from Daiso.

Edited September 30, 2016 by kstoh

[kstoh 3]

Fixing the New Handle or Lock

If the handle or lock was affixed using screws, you can fix back the new handle or lock using the same or new screws.

If you need to rivet back the handle or lock, you need a riveter (cost around $15 to $20) and some rivets.

Best way to learn how to do anything is to watch YouTube:

And this is the final result:

[sarah833 0]

On 9/30/2016 at 10:38 PM, kstoh said:

Changing Your Broken Window Handle or Lock

In my previous place, the casement window handles kept breaking. Not sure how much it will cost to ask the handyman to change (maybe $30 to $100) but I changed all of them myself. The other day, I had to change a sliding window crescent lock, so I decided to document the steps.

Untitled

Untitled

The steps are:

1. Buy new handle/lock
2. Remove damaged handle/lock
3. Replace new handle/lock

Mr Toh

Thanks for sharing! I just spent less than 5 minutes to change out the handle of the double glazed window that snapped , bought 2 more $3 handles as spare from the hardware shop as this is the second one that snapped ! The contractor charged me $25 for the replacement last year when it happened .

Quite annoying that the contractor uses such low quality material for the handle , I would expect something much better for the price they charged for windows ...

 

[Mannequin 0]

On 01/01/2014 at 3:10 PM, Ks Toh said:

[back to Table of Contents]

This is interesting. I looked at my quotations. For 13,000 BTU, ME and MHI units were quoted the same. But for 18,000 BTU, both Gain City and another air-con contractor (which I eventually used) quoted $100 to $150 more for ME.

But the important thing is that you are happy with your choice, and there are no problems.

Hi Do you mind to share the aircon contractor? Thank you.

[kstoh 3]

On 10/8/2016 at 9:16 AM, sarah833 said:

Thanks for sharing! I just spent less than 5 minutes to change out the handle of the double glazed window that snapped , bought 2 more $3 handles as spare from the hardware shop as this is the second one that snapped ! The contractor charged me $25 for the replacement last year when it happened .

Quite annoying that the contractor uses such low quality material for the handle , I would expect something much better for the price they charged for windows ...

Yes, I find many of these casement window handles (especially the brown colour ones) snap easily. 5 mins is very fast. Was it screwed on or riveted?

I took 2 days! Because after the first rivet, the rivet stem got stuck. I tried to pull it out, the rivet machine fell apart and all the internal parts fell out. Did not know how to put it back. Luckily found an YouTube video teaching me how to put it back! For a moment, I thought I had to buy a new machine.

On 10/8/2016 at 8:43 PM, Mannequin said:

Hi Do you mind to share the aircon contractor? Thank you.

My aircon contractor was Pure Airconditioning (Ricky 98207707). Do note this is a few years back.

[sarah833 0]

Hi Toh,

 

Mine is screwed on type . lucky else I will still need handyman service

[kstoh 3]

Robot Vacuum Cleaner - Xiaomi Mi Robot (Mijia)

First update in many months. I decided to buy a robot vacuum cleaner to help in cleaning. There were so many brands and models that I was thoroughly confused. This is when YouTube came in very handy. I must have watched many, many videos. Many people told me the iRobot Roomba 980 is the best. I thought so too. But then .....

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by kstoh

[kstoh 3]

And so I ended up choosing the Xiaomi Mi Robot. Most reviews rated it very highly. Powerful motor, intelligent mapping. This is a good write-up:

http://www.vacuumsguide.com/xiaomi-mi-robot-vacuum-cleaner/

Best of all, the price is a fraction of the iRobot Roomba 980. The local iRobot authorised dealer is selling the Roomba 980 at a special price of S$1,498 although you can get it from Qoo10.sg at around S$1,299. I bought the Mi Robot from Qoo10.sg at S$369 with $3.99 local shipping. For the price of a Roomba 980, I could buy four Mi Robots. Nothing to lose, I thought.

However, the Mi Robot is not sold outside of China and everything is in Mandarin! In China, the robot is called Mijia.

Edited March 11, 2017 by kstoh

[kstoh 3]

Buying the Mi Robot

Since the robot is not sold outside of mainland China, you have to buy online from Taobao or Qoo10.sg. There are many sellers on Qoo10.sg, some shipping from China, some shipping from Singapore. I chose one vendor who was shipping from Singapore as I was afraid of buying a fake. At least if the vendor is in Singapore, I can go find him. If the seller is from China, good luck to you. Prices on Qoo10.sg range from S$300+ to S$400+. Lazada was also selling at S$428 but at time of my purchase, they were out of stock.

Most of them are selling without any warranty. You are asked to pay around S$59.99 if you want 6 months' warranty, which is very irritating to me. I did not want to pay so much (relative to purchase price) for the warranty but at the same time, I didn't want a DOA (item dead on arrival). Luckily, my vendor provided one month free warranty.

I ordered on Wednesday 1 March. Item arrived on Monday 6 March.

I had initially thought of asking my friend to buy and bring back from China. But this is probably not a good idea. The box is quite big, around 2 x 1.5 feet. The machine is also not light.

 

 

 

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Edited October 21, 2018 by kstoh