A Members' Posts

Request: broken string instruments (New Marston OX3) Received I’m restoring / repairing / looking after unloved violins and violas - the kind that are deemed of zero value because getting them repaired by a professional would cost more than the refurbished instrument would be worth. So if anybody within the Oxford Ring Road has any broken or otherwise unloved / neglected string instruments (violin, viola, cello) languishing in the attic or standing in their way, I'd like to pick them up to restore or use for spares / practice etc. I have now managed to restore more than a dozen (including some found through Freegle). I have recently given away 6 on Freegle and 2 to a local school. so now I have space to take on a few more. Also happy to take children’s sized violins and violas as well as string-playing accessories such as bows, cases, etc

78d

Free: Tracy Beaker letter-writing set (New Marston OX3) Gifted Jacqueline Wilson “totally Tracy” styled case contains envelopes cards a sheet of sticky labels and letter paper (hidden in a drawer). Plenty of all of these left.

219d

Free: steam iron 1200W Tesco Value range (New Marston OX3) Gifted steam iron 1200W Tesco Value range – we only used it for a few months and then replaced it with a bigger heavier model. Tested it just now and seems to be fully functional. there is a small stain of burnt material on the soleplate (see second photo) that emits a bit of smell when it warms up but behaves itself afterwards.

236d

Free: Early Learning Centre play buttons (New Marston OX3) Gifted Large buttons for age 3+ of different geometric shapes and colours in their original ELC plastic jar with one string left to thread them on but ordinary shoelaces will do for that.

261d

Free: lots of bay leaves (New Marston OX3) Expired my wife pruned the laurel / bay plant today so there is a whole box full of the stuff in case anybody wants it for cooking or Roman history plays ... fully bio no pesticides are used in our garden. we have a few small paper bags so can prepare several portions of leaves.

275d

Free: several violins ready to play (New Marston OX3) Gifted Two full size violins ready to play; a ⅞ and a ¾ will be ready soon. I’m restoring violins that are not valuable enough to be worth the expensive attention of a professional luthier (see my WANTED) and get them back into circulation. As I have received 4 instruments through freegle so far, I am now giving away 4 this way (not necessarily the same ones). These are now “good enough for folk”, ie perfectly playable and sound reasonably good to me when I play folk or easy classical music on them. Anybody who would like to try them will be welcome to drop by and have a go. Each has its historic case, two have a shoulder rest. I can also offer bows as needed, plus rosin, and have one modern (polystyrene) case that offers more protection than the old cases (also a rescue/repair to give away). Photos show the two full size violins, the darker coloured one is from the 1960s, and the lighter one from 1991, both Chinese but not as bad as you might expect.

277d

Free: dried daffodils (New Marston OX3) Gifted lots of daffodil flowers from this spring left on the (cut) stem to dry (because thought they looked more interesting than the fresh ones) and cut off a few weeks later. At the end of the season now have a 1.5 l ice tub full of them and am wondering if anybody would want them for something creative?

279d

Free: Guardian supplements Feast and Saturday (New Marston OX3) Gifted Guardian supplements Feast (recipes and other foodie stuff) and Saturday (features, book reviews, miscellaneous) both since May 2023 .

1y

Free: kitchen shredder - original _accessory_ to Krups hand mixer (New Marston OX3) Expired Note this is no use if you don't have the mixer to power it!!! Inherited along with the matching mixer, we never used it, and now we no longer have a Krups mixer to fit to it. It's still in its original box, so from the photo of the side of the box you can see which Krups mixers it fits to.

+2 +1

1y

Free: corner shelf with a curtain rail to create mini-wardrobe (New Marston OX3) Gifted A triangular shelf with a curtain rail along the long side and a rail for clothes hangers perpendicular to it, also a couple of hooks on the short sides. The idea is to fit this in a corner at head height and create a mini wardrobe in an otherwise unused space. The shorter sides of the shelf are just over 60 cm long. As you can see in the photo, the wood that gets fixed to the wall is poking out of the triangle a bit, so this bit would need around 70 cm space on each wall. The top of the shelf isn't very pretty, but if you hang it high enough you'll never see that part ...

+1

1y

Free: Large wood / glass frame, square (New Marston OX3) Gifted outer edges ca. 85.3 cm, inner edge (visible surface) 76.3 cm. Picked it up by the roadside years ago and don't know it's previous history, but it looks home-built. Still structurally solid, I just don't have the wall space left to use it.

1y

Free: Guardian supplements Feast, Saturday. (New Marston OX3) Gifted Guardian supplement Feast (recipes and other foodie stuff) since end of 2020, also some themed food supplements, and Saturday (features, book reviews, miscellaneous) since September last year.

1y