| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
Yes, yes, it's that time again, as the holiday season approches and we've spare time around the house to engage in the highest of pursuits, HOME IMPROVEMENT. Perhaps the wisest words ever utter is when "Bomber" pointed out that the collective group would do well, and it would, to more accurately describe these activites as "home alterations" citing the fact that little he, and I suspect others amongst us, do thier huts could accurately be described as "improvement". In the spirit of insulating our group from hate mail from PBS and simutaneously serving as a forum of higher learning, I periodically convery little lessons learned "altering" the Buell Basement for the collective wisdom of the group. Please, as time passes and we accumulate other "tips", chime in. The lives you save could be those of fellow Buell riders. I'll toss out the first bone. This morning I get around to finally terminating the two conduits going from the basement to the 3rd floor. Each of the two was to get a box on the end, with one labled "communications" housing Cat 5E crud from the new basement punchdown block to the "yet to be named" space on 3. The other would be labeled "power" and may, given the rate things are going, demand it's own 500MW to supply it. Ahhhhh, yes....the lesson. I was in the process of using a Sawzall to cut the conduit to length, the drill in the conduit anchors. I'd, being the planner I am, accumulated by various tools and placed them atop the adjacent furnace, where they would be convenieently within reach. Conduit sawed to length. Masonay anchors in place. Box held in place. 1" x 12 sheet met screw hand tightened, holding box in place and reach for the Klein rubber handled screwdriver. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOW! Make that the Klein rubber handled screw driver that had rolled against the exhaust stack of the aforementioned furnace thus rendering the handle no longer "just" rubber but rubber in it's molten, nearly liquid, as in when it attaches to your skin it sticks like peanut butter, state. Well, flinging the screwdriver through the window over the dryer like a Tiger Woods tee shot at least distracted the SCU who, knowing I was insured, but the damage to the window fell short of the deductible theshold, piped up with "what the heck did you do that for?". "To save my life", I piped back. "215 running foot of brick wall and you manage to hit the only window?" Hey...I'm good. I have been instructed, at this point in the interest of maintaing the value, ANY value, of the property to call someone and "get it done". But....I barked.."what the heck am I going to do all day?". You have that Buell sitting there....go ride the darn thing. Good bye, God bless wives and we now return you to your regularly scheduled holiday programming. Court | ||
| Daves |
Kandie says the dryer needs a new vent pipe. She has one waiting in the basement for me to install. I am not that handy around the house. I take down the old one, it is the solid type they used to use. It looks like it has been painted about 100 times and weighs much more than it should due to all the dryer lint inside. Of course I have to move the dryer about 5 feet from the wall to get it out of there. I get out the "easy,do it yourself", dryer vent kit Kandie had purchased. It is the new fangled, cheap as hell, extendable,flexible pipe with two really cheaply made ends and 4 clamps. I put one of the end pieces on the dryer, the clamp almost clamps it tight. I then clamp the flexible, cheap as hell pipe to the end at the dryer. I then get up on a chair(OSHA approved of course) so I can reach to hook it up to the vent that goes thru the wall to the outside. Did I mention it's about 5 degrees outside? You think, what the heck does it matter? Well with the pipe off the vent I now have 5 degree wind blowing thru vent from the outside right on my gloveless hands. Of course the cheap as hell, flexible pipe insn't big enough to fit over the vent pipe so I get one the the end pieces that came with it. Well I get it to fit just to figure out that it doesn't clear the wall so that won't work either. I get down off my OSHA approved chair and I'm thinkin,I'm thinkin, ah ha! I take the end off the old pipe hook it back where it was and hook the cheap as hell flexible pipe to that! Cool, I'm all done and I haven't broken anything and I'm not bleeding. Kandie says the dryer works much better now. She's happy, I'm happy, everyone is happy! | ||
| Reepicheep  |
I'm remodeling our basement... You should see the stupid grin I get every time I get to whip out the Remington nail gun to send a few AP rounds through a 2x4 and into the concrete  All digits intact... so far... | ||
| Rokoneer  |
Two words I have come to despise: Crown Molding -I learn as I go and I have spent entirely too much time in the class known as crown molding- | ||
| Court |
>>>>All digits intact... so far... Wait a minute? You, one of our resident nerds, have armed yourself with a powder actuated tool? Call me a fearmonger, but that's a bit like FMJH with a scalpel! Court | ||
| Firemanjim  |
Hey,I resemble that remark(you know we do have scalpels in our medical bags-----) I abhor crowm molding.It makes me absolutely dyslexic.I measure and eyeball and measure again and get the miter saw all set up at the appropriate angle and then we enter the twilight zone--where no matter how many times you think you have it right the stupid thing is backwards,upside down, or anything other than correct.I can reduce a 12 foot length of mold to kindling. | ||
| Dino  |
I have a happy story about home improvement projects. We bought our place near Yosemite in 1998. The house is 17 miles west of the hardware store in Oakhurst and 17 miles east of the hardware store in Mariposa. I don't know about you, but for me replacing the fill valve in the toilet tank normally requires about three trips to the hardware store. So, after we bought the place I'm thinking, "Gee, I wish I still had a motorcycle. It would actually be fun making those many trips for tools & parts if I had a motorcycle. Yep, sure could use a motorcycle up there." So I bought one. Okay, I realize that no actual "home improvement" work was even attempted, much less completed ... but I did warn you that it was a happy story. And true. The SCU suggested that I relate the story about the time it took me three days to replace the drain pipe under the kitchen sink. Unfortunately I have no recollection of that particular incident. She also suggested I tell the story of the new blinds she wanted me to hang in the kitchen window. I spent about a hour with a stud finder and drilling test holes looking in vain for something to anchor to. Just before I exploded she suggested that I should perhaps, ummm, stop. I did. A couple weeks later I returned from a motorcycle ride to find she had hung the blinds. I have no idea what they're anchored to, but as Daves said above...she's happy, I'm happy, everybody's happy. | ||
| Reepicheep |
No kidding about the crown molding. I stand in awe of the number of times I can do it wrong. It defies even statistical analysis, even were I cutting pieces purely at random, I would get it right more often then when I am trying. My current approach is to just cut all sorts of little 3 inch pieces at all sorts of angles, take them to the joint I am looking for, and find two that do what I want. I then tape them together in the right position, and carry them back to the mitre saw, where I then reproduce them exactly as they sit before me. Even then, they somehow magically tranmogrify between the saw and the wall and end up backwards or upside down. The pneumatic brad nailer makes the rest of the process much nicer though. The powder actuated tool is VERY cool though. Nothing like sending a nail into the concrete, flipping the tool to eject the spent cartridge, and hearing the cheerful tinkle of brass on concrete . It does make me want to find things to punch holes in though, like old engine blocks or something | ||
| Court |
>>>>it took me three days to replace the drain pipe under the kitchen sink. All hail Dino.....King of the Home Improvementalists! | ||
| Dino |
You may rise.  | ||
| Charlieboy6649  |
Reep, I borrowed one of those concrete and masonry anchor guns to install a wall bed at my office. You'd think me, being trained in powder weaponry would have taken hearing precautions. Well, I proceeded, unprotected to squeeze the trigger with my head fully inserted into the wallbed frame about 5" from the gun. Couldn't hear for half a day. Hearing protection GOOD!  P.S. Please guys and gals, wear your glasses as well. I know here at my work it's nerdy, but I hate to consider the alternative... | ||
| Al_lighton  |
Ahh, crown molding. Been there, done that. What a puzzle. Outside corners aren't a big deal, but inside corners are a bear. If you're using a miter saw to make inside corners, you're doing it wrong, sort of. If you try to cut two pieces with a miter saw so that they fit together perfectly, you're almost sure to fail. What you want to do is let one of the parts in the joint extend past the joint, then use a coping saw and hand cut the profile of the extending part onto the other. The miter saw can be used to reveal the coped profile, and then back-cut the profile with the coping saw. The trick is illustrated as a pop-up in this article: http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/pages/h00004.asp If your doing a painted crown molding, wood putty can cover a multitude of sins. But if you're doing stained joints, you have to do it right or it will look bad. I measure how badly a home improvement job is going by how many trips to Home depot it takes to finish the job. One to three trips is a success, 10 or more is an abysmal failure. I fail a lot. Al | ||
| Leftcoastal  |
I've got 3 words for any of you wannabe crown molding installers- "go hire a trained professional" I oughta know,I are one! Other than the inability to do advanced math and conjugate verbs, most of us know the secret to crown molding. Figure out EXACTLY how much you need, and multiply by 2.5. That way you will have enough material to F@#% up several pieces making "sample cuts" till you get the miters right. I once did a fireplace mantle for a client that had a hand carved crown molding that costs $48.00 per lineal foot, and the carved design had to wrap around the corners without interrupting the pattern! I spent half a day measuring and laying out and sweating it big time before making any cuts. Whew! Invest in or borrow a high quality sliding compound miter saw if you are going to do any crown, and get someone to "hold the "dumb end" of the piece instead of trying to measure and mark by yourself. What Al said above "nails it". I used to tell people that we "can build kitchens in our sleep" (speaking of my former carpentry and cabinetry business) My wife would get up in the morning and go check. Never happened. If any of you need advice or have a carpentry related question, feel free to ask me. If I can't answer or don't know, I can at least explain to you how you can LOOK proficient and knowledgable while you make rubble out of perfectly good wood. That ability alone is sufficient to get you paid or complimented for your fine work. AL K | ||
| Bomber  |
I will atempt wood-based home projects only if the effort results in the smell of expended rounds -- I LOVE those Nail Guns! WHAM! actually, my long-suffering spouse and I have agreed that I should excersize my building jones on the Entropy Lab, and leave the primary human containment vessel to those who are proud of their work -- hence, ny spending the Christmas Vacation adding insulation to the Lab's roof (actually, re-adding -- the first attempt lacked the little vent thingies running between the rafters to allow the moisture to go some where other than into the insulation -- I re-learned the following lesson while so engrossed -- you cannot reposition a ladder while standing on it. Check that, you can, clearly, but you can't reposition the ladder to where you want it. Wanna see the stellar bruise from where I caught myself on the rafters by my upper arms?idn't think os). (Message edited by bomber on January 03, 2005) | ||
| Rek  |
One thing that hasn't been pointed out and probabley should be is how these projects have a tendancy to grow exponentially with the spouses level of enthusiasm. Wife: "Honey would you hang that new shelf in the bathroom for me?" Husband: "But the game's just started grumble-grumble) Wife: "Wouldn't these towel racks be just darling on either side of the shelf?" Husband: grumble-grumble) Wife: "Oh look what I just found in the attic dear, an antique medicine cabinet. We could strip all 19 layers of paint off and refinish it to match the shelf and towel racks. That won't take someone as handy as you are very long, will it?" Husband: grumble-grumble) | ||
| Road_thing  |
Rek: That's what used to be known as "mission creep." You start out to go to the kitchen for a beer, and the next thing you know, the Home Minister has you laying new linoleum... rt | ||
| Rek |
LOL RT, an all too familar situation in this old house. Rob | ||
| Court |
This weekend's grand prize winner for our Home I just called him on his mobile in Australia. Paul was to be painting at his beach house this weekend....simple enough request. When I reached him he had decided, instead, to "do something else, Mate". He did. I reached him on his 3rd beer, about 2 Kilometers off the coast on a fishing boat. Beat that you....you Texans and Chicagonians! | ||
| Road_thing |
I had WAY more than 3 beers last night! Didn't catch any fish, though... rt | ||
| Paulinoz  |
"I had WAY more than 3 beers last night! Didn't catch any fish, though... " I only caught one Fish worth keeping, but I felt sorry for it swiming around on it's own in the fish keeper so let it go. Would like to think it was my softer side coming out, but just could not be stuffed scaling, gutting and dressing one fish. Well it was a Lazy Sunday afternoon on the water. 32 deg C, nill cloud cover and the only thing a deeper blue than the sky was the water. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Paul,how is the new truck?Check out this site for Powerstroke info. http://forums.thedieselstop.com/ubbthreads/ | ||
| Paulinoz |
I LUV the new truck, did 4,700 km at xmas and it returned 22.7 mpg not that much of a load 1 x XB12R 2 people and lugage and the very important 12volt fridge to keep the beer cold (thanks Ross). Now had the F250 3 months and just ticked over 12,000 kms. Only complaint comes from Kathy who needs a ladder to get in and her feet dont touch the floor when she is seated. I have one complaint and that is here in Oz the passenger cleans the windscreen at fuel stops which she has trouble with due to her 5'1" hight. Guess thats not realy the trucks fault maybe I need to trade her in for a taller model but dont tell her that. | ||
| Shred  |
Hey paulinoz hope you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I got my new bike '2005 blue 12R' Hope to see you this year. If you need a place to stay my house is your house, beer is in the frig. Ride safe! | ||
| Henrik  |
I spent the weekend turning perfectly good finger jointed poplar boards into saw dust and kindling ... Not nearly enough beer either  Henrik | ||
| Reepicheep |
What are you using the Poplar for Henrik? Do you buy them finger jointed, and just glue as necessary? Never thought of that before, but that's a great idea, just buy a pile of 4ft finger jointed sections and glue together and cut down as necessary! | ||
| Bomber |
I finished the 1.5 HP Buffomatic (this baby'll fling parts through the operator and half-way across the property, if you're not careful), and had a little good single malt to go with the lamb we had for dinner -- life IS tough, ain't it ;-} | ||
| Henrik |
I buy the board jointed already. I'd already bought, ripped and custom routed some 100 feet of pine to use for frames around closet doors. Unfortunately, the majority of that warped before I got it nailed up, so I'm stuck with 100 feet of garbage wood. Supposedly, finger jointed wood resists warping because it's made up from small pieces, that, if they try to warp will likely work against each other. It ended up being poplar, 'cause that was what the lumber yard had in stock. So I bought a bach of finger jointed 1 x 6" (120 feet), ripped it all down to 1 x true 4" and hand routed a half-round edge bead on it all. Fortunately it was sunny and reasonably warm in Gotham yesterday, since I do all this outside. I'm not sure home glued finger joint would be worth the effort. Now I'll just need to figure out how to use my newly purchased nail guns and get everything installed before it warps ... again  Henrik | ||
| Paulinoz |
Hey Shred thanks for the offer but Isle of Man TT is this years plan but who knows what 2006 will bring. Good to hear you got the new bike say Hi to Pete, Gator and Glitch from me. Henrik just nail your boots to the floor next to beer fridge then you are stuck ther till it's empty. Jim looked at the F250 site they argue about advertising and prefered sponsors more than on Bad Web, I think I need a chip though. Court the best way to start any home renovation is to have a clear plan, I find I think better when relaxing on the water, so tecnicaly fishing is just ground work for the project IMHO | ||
| Court |
>>>Jim looked at the F250 site they argue about advertising and prefered sponsors more than on Bad Web, I think I need a chip though. Seems like, along with guitars (and oh yeah, do I ever have a guitar story to tell from the New Year's Day ride), camera and home improvement, that we share a common F-250 habit as well. Mine was one of 50 prototypes made in 1997. The aero body came out, officially, on the F-250 in 1998. I have 145,000 miles on mine and can't get it to show any signs of problems. It's had Mobil 1 since day one and each time I think of spending the $45K for a new Aaronmatic Diesel with the works, I remember where I park each day. I took a loooooooooooooooong black "mirror stripe" down the side of it yesterday. Gotta tell you, of all the vehiculars I've owned, this one never looses it's appeal. Court | ||
| Henrik |
All you "home alteration" guys have been holding out on me! Nail guns are *so* cooooool! I got the door trim installed last night using my nail guns for the first time. Wow - I need more nailing projects. Thanks to Bill for digging up the 18 gauge 2" nailer from Harbor Freight. Worked lika a charm. I had also added a Senco set of nail/staple guns to the arsenal, and used the 15 gauge nailer to secure the assembled trim. Great stuff. Question; I had some air seeping from the quick connect on the hose. The female side (on the hose) is a cheap part from Harbor Freight. Is this air seeping a normal thing, or a result of a lesser quality connector? I had no air seepage from the female connector on the Porter Cable compressor. Henrik |
