If you have followed my blog for any length of time, it will become quite apparent that I'm much more at home and comfortable with abstract and theoretical ideas and more than a little bit of a dunce when it comes to practical hands-on stuff. That is most apparent when I'm trying to do any sort of handy-man repairs or fixes around the house.
Now, granted, a lot of the mistakes that I make are the sort that pretty much every novice will make on their first attempt of anything... so, I do learn from the experiences. However, I also seem to have a knack for managing to fall into pretty much every pitfall there is!
This is an eternal source of frustration and wonder from my wife... yet, she keeps getting me to do stuff around the house. I guess the alternative is that we equip our children with power tools. Actually, they would probably end up doing a better job than me! Although... more recently, I've been showing her how to do some of the stuff in classic case of the blind leading the blind, and it amuses me that there can actually be someone on this planet who is LESS competent than me!
So, for this little project, I was tasked with attaching the metal animal clothing hooks that we had bought at a Christmas market to the back of the children's bedroom door. How hard could that be? After all, I recently managed to master the art of attaching screws to the wall with a hammer drill...
Thankfully, I didn't use a hammer drill on the door! I just used my cordless screwdriver/drill... and wouldn't you know it. Doors are hollow! Well, at least this door is... that came as a big surprise, but now that I think of it... when you knock on it, it does sound hollow. I wonder if all doors are like that.... or if this is just a cheap-arse door?
... it also leads me to wonder if the idea of using plugs is worthwhile or not. After all, the spines of the plug aren't really catching on anything other than air!
So, like any good science minded guy with no practical experience... I have an alternative solution. A nailed in hook like the one pictured on the left. This had the advantage of the nail being nailed into the door at an angle, and hopefully supporting more weight than a plug that wasn't catching. Meanwhile, on the plug side, I screwed in a screw so that it was just sticking out a little bit so that the hook could hang off it...
As you can see above, each hook has a little metal loop which I figured was for hanging from the door.
FFS! I should have thought of this... one fixed point of attachment means maximum rotational freedom.
... and there are other problems with the nail/hook version as well!
So, back to the drawing board... I figured that if I could fasten the metal loop with a proper screw and washer pushing it into the door, it would be a tighter fix and would limit the rotation as well. Ideally, two fixed points would be the best solution, but I couldn't figure out how to do that!
However, that introduced a completely different problem. The metal loop was on the inside of the hook casing, and that would mean that it would be impossible to get a screwdriver in to fasten the screw/washer!
Obviously, the cashing needs a hole for the screwdriver! The casing was pretty slick and slippery, so I wasn't too keen to start drilling with a power tool right away without anything for the drill bit to catch on (I'm stupid with these things, but have some degree of self-preservation!).
So, I made some dints in the metal casing with a nail... so there would be a little depression for the drill to catch on.
It was harder than you would think!... but just adequate!
Next up, drilling into the marked area. If you think this looks like a bad idea... well, you weren't alone. My wife also thought that this was going to end in disaster! It didn't... but nearly did, when the drill bit went through, there was suddenly no resistance and the drill went in really fast! I'm glad I wasn't holding the hook!
The next hook had a slight modification to the drilling set up. I noticed that the earlier attempt meant that the pressure from the drill against the hook would press the ears hard against the wood buffer. That flattened the ears a little bit... and with this bee, that wasn't going to be possible... so, a rubber filled the space and protected the antennae from being squished and I was good to try and hurt myself again!
In the end, it turned out that I managed to do some neat holes (even if most of them weren't exactly on the dimpled areas without drawing blood! So, a win win for both myself and the hooks!
So, this was the idea behind drilling the for the screwdriver. The screw and washer would fix the hook to the door in a more secure and tight fashion than just hanging from a protruding screw.
... and thankfully, I had a screwdriver that fit through the hole that I drilled! Probably should have checked that first!
As you can see, the angle is still a little bit weird and off perpendicular due to the head of the animal and the slope of the metal casing, but it should be good enough.
Heh... and what do you know, it works!
... and with a nicer tight and flush fit with the door! A complete and unexpected success story! Although, time will tell if the hooks and the plug manage to hold up to the rigours of two children pulling at them every single day!
In the end, I did all three hooks in this manner. I got rid of the other nail/hook combination... it just didn't work at all! As you can see, I was so happy that the hooks were securely fastened that I didn't notice that I hadn't really spaced the hooks evenly along the door! Unfortunately, that was also the first thing that my wife noticed!
... but it is behind the door and no one is looking there... right?
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NIce step by step stuff. BUt don't you need to purchase the hooks?