I went to Stoke Mandeville today..

[Vanpyre]

"only the lonley bom bom bom duby do wah"

[Rosie.]

Hi Everyone a very small but active workforce of Vanpyre, Delta and Snock and Keith worked wonders at the weekend. The meeting room is painted and the door is on. Vanpyre worked all day Saturday putting the new sockets in there. On Sunday the electrics in the rest of the range were tested and found wanting so new and safe wiring was installed to the firing points in range two and the kitchen, so now they won't trip. 'the committee of the day' aka those mentioned above thought it would be useful to list all the work you have helped with so far and what still needs to be done - so here goes
The roof has been sealed - it no longer leaks
Back wall completely rebuilt - the building is now stable when the wind blows.
Deep trench dug round side and back of range two and filled with shingle - rain no longer comes under side wall.
Replacement door fitted to front of range - now opens easily
False ceiling put up in entrace lobby - this stopped the wind coming into the range.
New armoury created from old workshop - wheelchair shooters can access their own rifles/pisols
Old storage area cleared and meeting room built - this can now be used for lectures etc during training weekends
New kitchen units - somewhere nice to make the coffee for the volunteers!!!
New lights in both ranges - much better than before.
New toilets fitted in two loos, new hand basins in three loos - so much nicer
Hot water heaters and hand dryers in all four toilets - a first!!
New water heater fitted in kitchen - replaces the old urn, so much safer
Lots of painting - looks much cleaner
Fire doors fitted at back of both ranges. I'm sure I have forgotten something but now for the list of the work still to do
Finish cladding back wall, cistern in one loo, hand basin in one loo, false ceiling, heating, boading out all communial areas/kitchen/office and paint, hollow sofit to front and back of range (this will protect the new back wall and make the fornt look really good) reskin the sides of the building with marine ply, flooring everywhere. So you can see that we are nearly there. many thanks to all who have given their time so far and hope that next year we can work together and have a range to be proud of. Don't forget to let me know if you can come to the Christmas shoot on 5th December
Rosie

[Rosie.]

The leaky gutters. This was the very first 'work party' and it consisted of myself, Snock and Delta1. The next group of gutter cleaners included Terry D up a ladder and Keiran and Snock up on the roof lining the central gutters (after clearing them) with Cropromol.
Rosie

[delta1]

Was initially disappointed not to get the kitchen done, but looking at what we found wiring wise I'm glad we got distracted.

Next time we'll ask Steve to show us how its really done.

[Steve Valentine]

what did you find, wiring wise folks?

[snock]

what did you find, wiring wise folks?

I'm not 100% sure on the terminology, so I won't commit, but on the second range, underneath the lift-up hatch at the firing point, we found that there were bare wires inside BOTH ends of the plug and socket connection, as well as a nail through the wire and a split in the insulation.

That was in a 3 or 4 metre length of cable which, when knocked, caused the lights and(?) power to trip out.

The MCBs (?) in the ranges needed labelling for each outlet from them. This was due to some strange goings on in the RCD stakes.

Rich knows more....

[Steve Valentine]

It was Kieran with the bare wires and the nail, I saw him and told him not to, but you know how hot headed these youngsters are

Glad it's sorted, hoping to make it down on the 5th but can't commit just yet.

[delta1]

The problem on the range was identified while we were looking for something else!

All of the below is my best recollection of what we found.

The base problem was that the kitchen was tripping off when certain appliance combinations were used.

This was (possibly) identified as the kitchen being a ring main to a double socket, then everything else being on a radial off that.

This is now a functioning ring main.

While we were rooting around we labelled and traced all the breakers in the affected DB, and all of the sockets, lights etc. This lead to the dodgy socket.

Both ends of the spurred feed had been skinned back with a knife, this lead to a L-E fault at one end, and a N-E fault at the other. This was compounded by the same cable being penetrated by a nail in the middle.

This has now been replaced.

The work we have done is to good practice, and is certainly a lot safer than when we started!

We have however only attacked one DB, there's still another one to do.

In the future is a lighting upgrade, its all relatively simple electrically, but my knowledge of regs etc ran out pretty quickly at this point.