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I was hacking an Xbox 360 pad to use for an arcade stick controller. I was soldering a wire to a contact, and I guess I overheated it or something because the copper contact fell right off. Is there a way I can still get a working connection to it? The PCB looks like this http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram3.jpg, and the point I am talking about is the middle point where the ribbon cable connects the d-pad PCB to the main PCB. There is still a very small amount of copper visible, but I don't think it'll be very helpful. Any help is appreciated.
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Dec 29, 2008 03:18
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Not sure that I do...how does one tell? I have a pressure switch on the tank, and the switch kicks in at about 40PSI and off at around 60PSI. Or, does every pressure tank have a switch?
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Dec 29, 2008 22:41
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monkeybounce posted:If you have/get a tank with a pressurized internal bladder, you'll be fine with a tankless heater as the bladder keeps the pressure constant. Not sure that I do...how does one tell? I have a pressure switch on the tank, and the switch kicks in at about 40PSI and off at around 60PSI. Or, does every pressure tank have a switch?
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Dec 29, 2008 22:42
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Any ideas on a DIY stop collar for a forstner bit? My GF makes little paintings on Scrabble tiles, and we put round 1/4" magnets in the back. I'd like to be able to create a hole/socket for the magnet at a consistent depth and without punching through tiles every third or fourth try. Any ideas? I found this: http://www.ptreeusa.com/forstner_bit_sets.htm (look at the bottom) online but it's more than I'd like to spend if there is some clever way to do it on our own. Alternatively, is there a better solution than what we're doing right now to quickly and systematically make a little round socket for the magnets?
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Dec 29, 2008 23:21
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Does it need to be a solid stop (i.e. the bit cannot physically progress past the set depth), or can it be a visual one? If it's the latter, what about using a rubber o-ring around the head of the bit at the correct depth? You stop when the o-ring touches the workpiece. edit: Another option would be to use a 1/4" straight cutting router bit in a plunge router if you have one. You could build a little fixture to keep the tile from taking off and keeping the router base centered on the tile. That is, if you have a router.
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Dec 30, 2008 01:56
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What are you drilling with? If it's a dremel or handheld drill, you can get little drill press-like holder for them, and that should have a stop set. First page of Google: click
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Dec 30, 2008 02:30
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Generally I find a piece of tape makes a pretty good visual stop for drilling, especially if precision isn't a concern. Alternatively you could take a dowel and punch a hole through it. Cut the dowel to a length such that it's long enough to bridge the distance from the drill chuck to where you want the drill bit to stop. But personally I would go with tape.
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Dec 30, 2008 03:08
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Richard Noggin posted:Does it need to be a solid stop (i.e. the bit cannot physically progress past the set depth), or can it be a visual one? If it's the latter, what about using a rubber o-ring around the head of the bit at the correct depth? You stop when the o-ring touches the workpiece. That and tape are both good ideas, thanks. I'm going to try tape for now. I do not have a router and am using a handheld drill. I get pretty okay results just using a low speed but just a little something extra like that will hopefully help speed this up.
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Dec 30, 2008 03:12
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Last night I removed an old 4 foot long flourescent light from our kitchen ceiling, to replace with a new fixture, and I'm not sure how to determine which of the existing wires is +/-. The house was built in 1949 and all the wiring in the walls is original. There are two wires exposed which are both black, wrapped with yellow tape and have no distiguishing markings. I've replaced ungrounded outlets in the last month, but I was able to use a outlet tester to determine the polarity. I'm not super electricity savvy, so I'm wondering is there any danger in simply wiring it up and turning on the power to see if it works? If it doesn't, I'll power-down and switch the wiring. Reversed polarity on the outlets wasn't a huge deal for the few minutes before I corrected it, is there much risk when it applies to a hardwired lighting fixture? Thank you.
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Dec 31, 2008 18:40
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Richard Noggin posted:Not sure that I do...how does one tell? I have a pressure switch on the tank, and the switch kicks in at about 40PSI and off at around 60PSI. Or, does every pressure tank have a switch? Every tank has a pressure switch, it's how the pump knows to turn off.  Do you have a schrader valve on your tank itself? It looks like a stem valve from a car or bicycle tire and allows you to "inflate" the tank. If you don't have that, you probably just have a standard tank. Think a steel drum filled with water. That's going to allow fluctuations in pressure that would be troublesome for your application since the pressure will deplete over time as the air dissolves into the water. Also, when you open the outlet (running a sink, etc), you'll lose pressure immediately and won't regain it until the pump kicks on. The bladder keeps the air separated from the water so you don't experience dissolution and it keeps a semi-constant pressure on the bladder even when the outlet is open.
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Jan 1, 2009 00:24
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Deegan posted:I'm wondering is there any danger in simply wiring it up and turning on the power to see if it works?
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Jan 1, 2009 01:13
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Deegan posted:Last night I removed an old 4 foot long flourescent light from our kitchen ceiling, to replace with a new fixture, and I'm not sure how to determine which of the existing wires is +/-. The house was built in 1949 and all the wiring in the walls is original. There are two wires exposed which are both black, wrapped with yellow tape and have no distiguishing markings. If you're replacing it with a new fluorescent, then it may matter. If there's a ground wire at the fixture outlet, then you can use a meter to check. Turn the switch on, and put one meter lead on the ground. The wire that shows voltage is the hot. If there's no ground wire, then you can use something else; a cold water pipe, the ground prong of an extension cord, etc. Most modern fluorescent fixtures specify that the case needs to be grounded, so that's something you'll have to consider if there's no ground in the fixture box.
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Jan 1, 2009 22:11
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monkeybounce posted:Every tank has a pressure switch, it's how the pump knows to turn off. That's what I figured on the pressure switch. I don't have a valve, so if/when I upgrade to tankless I'll replace the pressure tank as well.
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Jan 1, 2009 22:44
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The water temp in our shower fluctuates greatly. It's a single-knob Moen control that will stay hot for 5-6 minutes, go frigid for 2 minutes, and then return to hot. This cycle will go on until the hot water heater is drained. I'm reasonably mechanically inclined; what's involved in troubleshooting and fixing this issue?
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Jan 3, 2009 04:34
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STFU Pumpkinhead posted:The water temp in our shower fluctuates greatly. It's a single-knob Moen control that will stay hot for 5-6 minutes, go frigid for 2 minutes, and then return to hot. This cycle will go on until the hot water heater is drained. It's possible you have a piece of debris floating around in the valve mechanism. See if you can take it apart and try flushing out the valve.
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Jan 3, 2009 14:49
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STFU Pumpkinhead posted:The water temp in our shower fluctuates greatly.
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Jan 3, 2009 15:16
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Yeah, I was going to ask about a tankless. If your water is coming from a coil in your boiler, or maybe even the new style natural gas/electric tankless, your water temperature may very greatly on the volume of water traveling through the coils. I lived in a house with a older boiler with a hot water coil. After a few days of fiddling with the hot water valves near the boiler itself, I just turned the hot supply directly behind the shower down to about half open. The showers got steaming hot. You could actually turn the cold water up more, so you'd get about the same pressure. The house I just bought has a newer boiler, but two bathrooms. It's really great when you are the only one taking a shower, but if the other one is going, the water gets lukewarm. I grew up in a house that had a electric tank style water heater. You had a limit of about 15 minutes per shower with at least an hour between them. It sucked, and I'd take tankless any day.
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Jan 3, 2009 15:28
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Well, I only ask because when I set my tankless a little too high, I compensated by turning the cold on a bit higher when I took a shower, which caused an odd cycling like that. If a tank system, I think you need a new fill tube (I think that's what they are called). Before my tank destroyed itself, I had something similar happen when the tube broke. Hot for a few short minutes, then a quick cycle. The tube is a fairly simple replacement.
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Jan 4, 2009 00:28
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If you have an gas water heater it sounds like your dip tube is going out. It takes at most an hour to fix ( you may need a decent size pipe wrench) but i could make a do it yourself guide if you need.
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Jan 4, 2009 01:25
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I've got a hot water boiler in my apartment and every time I take a shower I dont even bother turning on the cold water because the water is barely hot enough. I have a suspicion my father hosed with the heat settings if possible, or the boiler is getting old. If it is possible to gently caress with the heat settings does anyone know if I am able to fix it> (will i need a make/model?) I'm starting to get really frustrated taking short showers and completely draining the hot water 
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Jan 6, 2009 03:29
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Blue_monday posted:I've got a hot water boiler in my apartment and every time I take a shower I dont even bother turning on the cold water because the water is barely hot enough. I have a suspicion my father hosed with the heat settings if possible, or the boiler is getting old. Normally there's a thermostat you can adjust inside the water heater. Google "water heater temperature adjust" for help.
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Jan 6, 2009 04:03
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There is no thermostat for in boiler water heaters as far as I know, if thats what he meant. If it's an electric/gas tank water heater there will be a dial or some sort of way to adjust it, on the side of it. Like we were talking about a few posts above, if you have hot water off a boiler, and it's lukewarm, the water is moving too fast through the coils. Is the water hot at sinks? If it is, that's your problem. Either turn the water down at the valve thats behind your shower, or regulate it in the shower itself. You can only do the later if your shower has a a knob for each cold and hot.
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Jan 6, 2009 20:03
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My house's toilet recently started crapping out. Once the flush button is pressed, the valve tank empties, and the float valve (aka ball cock) lowers, allowing the tank to fill up. Normally when the water level in the tank rises to a certain level, the float ball rises and triggers a switch that shuts off the water flowing into the tank. For the past few days, it seems that the float ball is sagging and so the water doesn't shut off at the normal level, in fact, it rises above the safety (a hole which empties into the bowl itself, so the valve tank never finishes filling up until we open the tank up and pull up on the float ball a little bit, causing it to shut off. There is a screw that adjusts the level of the float ball, and I tried adjusting it, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. This is an old toilet (22 years old), so I'm thinking that the thin metal rod it is attached to has started sagging, causing the aforementioned problem. Should I buy a float valve mechanism and try to replace it? How easy/hard is it for me to replace this myself? Or should I just buy a new toilet? How easy/hard is it for me to replace this myself? Should I just buy a toilet and let a plumber install it? I've no plumbing experience, but I can figure things out fairly quickly and I'd like to save the money that a plumber would charge (they're fairly expensive round these parts).
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Jan 7, 2009 06:06
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zaff posted:My house's toilet recently started crapping out. Do these things in order:
[2]replace the float/fill mechanism. [3]replace the toilet Flush toilets are shamefully easy to repair and replace; don't pay a plumber to do it. Just make sure you get your measurements and dimensions so you get a toilet/hardware that fits.
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Jan 7, 2009 06:16
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babyeatingpsychopath posted:Flush toilets are shamefully easy to repair and replace; don't pay a plumber to do it. Just make sure you get your measurements and dimensions so you get a toilet/hardware that fits. babyeatingpsychopath is correct; replacing a toilet is very easy. But you won't need to; at worst you should only need to replace the valve assembly. The process for that is pretty simple, and will be described in the replacement kit you get. You won't need much in the way of tools either.
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Jan 7, 2009 13:43
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I need a recommendation for either a homeowner's DIY forum or a DIY wiki. I know that this is a resource, but I'm wondering if there's a good dedicated forum out there. There are probably a hundred of them out there, but (as most of us have realized) the "signal-to-noise" ratio of most internet forums is abysmal. Just bought my first house, and I've got about ten thousand questions, and about thirty projects I want to do.
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Jan 11, 2009 03:54
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Try posting them in this forum for starters?
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Jan 12, 2009 00:53
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Here's a quick question. I want to heat up small bits of lexan with a microtorch to bend them a bit. Problem is, every time I get them hot enough to bend, bubbles also form. Is there anyway to heat it up without bubbles forming? I've tried lower temperatures but it either doesn't heat it up enough to melt or it still creates bubbles.
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Jan 12, 2009 04:12
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Can you do it in an oven? I think the direct heat is your problem. edit: looks like you can. From here quote:[Lexan can be bent. Richard Noggin fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Jan 12, 2009 |
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Jan 12, 2009 04:30
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Richard Noggin posted:Can you do it in an oven? I think the direct heat is your problem.
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Jan 12, 2009 04:45
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I am looking for drawer pulls, silver bar style, that have a center-to-center measurement of 14 inches or 355 millimeters. I have had no luck in finding them. I'm seeking eight of them in this size, along with another four in 5 inches width center-to-center. The reason I am looking for these is because I purchased a dresser with crap handles and wanted to replace them for a more modern look. If anyone can lead me in the right direction, please let me know. Aquabrass was the only maker I could find making these, however they have been discontinued. Thank you!
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Jan 12, 2009 07:53
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courtney_beth posted:I am looking for drawer pulls, silver bar style, that have a center-to-center measurement of 14 inches or 355 millimeters. 13 9/16 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60138759 12 1/2 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50113919 12 5/8 http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00116699
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Jan 12, 2009 15:17
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Firestorm: took the husband to Ikea and it's just slightly off - probably a millimeter or two. That said, I think we may be slightly tweaking the handles/screws and going with those. It seems like our best option after much grief and agony over the situation. Thank you so much for your help! I never would have thought about Ikea - and yet I always shop there!
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Jan 12, 2009 17:26
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Blowupologist posted:Try posting them in this forum for starters? Alright, I'll start here. Our back door requires that you pull rather hard on the knob in orer to get the deadbolt to engage. Do I need to shape the door jam somehow? Is this problem best solved by replacing the jam? The seal isn't great on the door either - cool air can be felt flowing inside the door when it is cold outside. This isn't ideal. We also want to replace the locks on the house. We may eventually want to replace the handles and deadbolts, but I wonder about the option of replacing the lock cores. Is this something that I can do on my own, or do I need to find a locksmith to come in and do it? If it is the latter, I'd rather just buy new hardware and replace it myself, because I can't imagine hiring someone to do it would result in any money savings.
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Jan 13, 2009 02:08
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Local Yokel posted:Alright, I'll start here. Our back door requires that you pull rather hard on the knob in orer to get the deadbolt to engage. Do I need to shape the door jam somehow? Is this problem best solved by replacing the jam? The seal isn't great on the door either - cool air can be felt flowing inside the door when it is cold outside. This isn't ideal. Closing the door: Is the door exposed to alot of the elements (i.e. not under a cover/awning or the cover is really shallow)? What may have happened is that the door may have expanded due to moisture. It also could be that the person who installed the door misaligned the the bolt's hole in the frame. If the hole has a metal cover, it could be possible to adjust it to fit. If not, you may have to expand the cover's screw holes. Lock replacement: I haven't seen lock cores for sale on their own, only complete hardware kits. A locksmith may be cheaper esp if you get a number of quotes and play them off each other.
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Jan 13, 2009 04:36
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This is the hole for the deadbolt - it looks a little abused. Even if I can get it latching with more ease, won't air continue to be leaking in?
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Jan 13, 2009 05:37
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Local Yokel posted:This is the hole for the deadbolt - it looks a little abused. Certainly looks abused! You can see that the hole is much bigger than the plate. Depending on availability, a strip of foam may do the trick. It usually has adhesive on one side. I've seen it come in a roll.
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Jan 13, 2009 06:00
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I have nothing to do tomorrow, so I'm planning on building some shelves for my record collection. I don't really want to build a basic unit made of right angles and no decorations (ie, not this)so does anybody have any good resources for record shelving plans or even a slightly more elegant bookshelf that I could modify? I've searched on Google for bookshelf plans, but nothing's really jumping out at me, and I didn't know if anybody had any good resources handy.
The Human Cow fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 14, 2009 |
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Jan 14, 2009 03:58
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The Human Cow posted:I've searched on Google for bookshelf plans, but nothing's really jumping out at me, and I didn't know if anybody had any good resources handy. If you haven't seen them before, digg.com linked to a few interesting sites about bookshelves... Interesting Ideas Another Cool One Personally I think the magnetic shelf idea is both cool and easy to do.
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Jan 14, 2009 04:14
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In my walls there's some power cables running up from an outlet into the attic through a hole in a 2x4. The builder put some sort of grey/black putty to plug the hole around the wire. What is this stuff called and where can I get some? I made my own hole next to it to run low voltage network/TV cables, and I'd like to insulate them the same way.
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Jan 15, 2009 17:02
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