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Moms Stuffing posted:I bought a wooden dollhouse at a yard sale and would like to give it to my daughter for Christmas. However, it requires a little TLC. I would like to spruce it up, refinish it or varnish it and stain it or whatever, but I have no idea where to start. She's almost 3, so it has to be kid friendly and non toxic. Can anyone give me a good starting point and point me in the direction of the correct supplies? Shellac is safe, as is mineral oil, but once it is cured poly would be fine unless she's eating it.
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Sep 18, 2011 22:16
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Splizwarf posted:I'd use it as a model and copy it in materials I knew the provenance of. You bought it at a yard sale, it could have anything in it. The older it is, the worse it could be. If you have the skills to spruce it up, you can duplicate it. Sorry, I know that's not the most pleasant answer, but v It's Melissa and Doug so I'm pretty sure it's non toxic. wormil posted:Shellac is safe, as is mineral oil, but once it is cured poly would be fine unless she's eating it. Thanks! Should I sand it first? I really have no idea what I'm doing. If I went to a hobby store, would they be able to point me in the right direction, because I feel like I already have too many questions for the general questions thread. Moms Stuffing fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Sep 19, 2011 |
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Sep 19, 2011 04:08
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Moms Stuffing posted:Thanks! Should I sand it first? Well I'm working in the dark here since I haven't seen the dollhouse. Is it just dirty or is the old finish coming off? Did you try cleaning with soap and water? Post some pictures and we can go from there. Speaking from experience, I wouldn't go too overboard redoing this thing because 3 year olds are just as happy to play with an empty box or a plastic lid. She'll definitely like the dollhouse but by the time she's old enough to care whether it looks new, it'll be tore to pieces.
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Sep 19, 2011 04:42
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Oh ok. I was thinking older. Sorry!
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Sep 19, 2011 14:33
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hbf posted:
Although you can dye in front loaders very easily, you'd be a douchebag if you dyed in a shared laundry machine, you might ruin the clothes of next person to use the machine. You can dye in a plastic tub though.
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Sep 20, 2011 08:11
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Just bought a house, was hoping to stain the concrete as a cheap flooring solution over the carpet that's currently in the house. However, upon pulling up the carpet we are now finding out that some dickhead painted the concrete. My question: is it reasonable to think that we'll be able to strip the paint and still stain the concrete or should be abandon all hope of that and start looking at hardwood, bamboo, cork, etc? Edit: it seems like I might be able to strip & scrub it to restore its original finish and porosity. I hit a sample area up with stripper + TSP and water soaked into the concrete pretty well after that. Any other advice for stripping paint/mastic/adhesive off concrete? FormatAmerica fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Sep 21, 2011 |
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Sep 20, 2011 22:54
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The wife and I just bought our first house, but we've noticed something odd about some of the light fixtures in the living rooms and bar area. The bulbs are all spotlight bulbs in cans pointing down, but they'll turn on/off periodically. My first thought was maybe the cans were overheating causing a shutdown, but inspection in the attic has them clear of insulation. It's only 1 or 2 at a time. They don't shut off at the same time, it's independent. Some lights in the room never shut off automatically. I haven't gone in the attic with a voltmeter yet, but I'm wondering if this is a common thing with canned ceiling lights that people have encountered.
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Sep 22, 2011 19:47
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raej posted:The wife and I just bought our first house, but we've noticed something odd about some of the light fixtures in the living rooms and bar area. The bulbs are all spotlight bulbs in cans pointing down, but they'll turn on/off periodically. That's probably one of two things: the filaments in the bulbs are broke but still make contact inside the bulbs from time to time, or the sockets themselves are worn out and the bulbs aren't making good contact. The first one is easy to check if your bulbs aren't frosted, just look inside the bulb at the filament. Otherwise, take it out, give it a good shake and try them in a lamp or something. The socket contact problem usually happens due to age of the socket and screwing in the bulbs too far. Turn off the switch, unscrew the bulbs and use a flathead screwdriver to bend the tab at the bottom of the socket out ever so slightly. Just don't hulk out when screwing in the bulbs next time. If those don't work, the rivets connecting the wires to the socket are worn out and you'll need to replace the socket. You can do that through the hole in your ceiling by cannibalizing another fixture for its socket, and maybe its can too.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:09
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I think I screwed up.  I replaced the flush valve, fill valve, and handle in one of our toilet tanks; now, though, there's a very slight leak on the back bolt connecting the tank to the bowl. I finger tightened everything because I didn't want to crack the porcelain, but because the sponge gasket is so...I don't know, spongy, it's still possible to press the top of the tank (for some reason: I have a four year old, so this could happen) and have it rock back just enough for some water to drip through. I just installed it, so I'm still waiting to see if the bathroom's flooded in the morning. (I turned the water back off, just to be safe: there's still some water [not much] in the tank.) So my question is this: is there any recommended way to better "buffer" the space between the tank and the bowl? Right now it's held on with three brass bolts with rubber washers inside the tank -- same as the previous flush valve. Or should I just take everything off and start again? The toilet is a Mansfield something-or-other, and I replaced its plumbing (  ) with this. One thing of interest: in the instructions, they show a rubber washer and a brass bolt between the tank and bowl (6 of each total, two per bolt), whereas the package only contained 3 brass and 3 rubber washers (and three brass nuts). I didn't think too much about it because all of my other toilets are set up the way I set this one up.Any thoughts? Thanks! All right, got it sorted: just took the tank off again, added some extra nuts/washers, and called it a day. No leaks, so I'm happy. A Child's Letter fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Sep 26, 2011 |
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Sep 25, 2011 04:01
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Here is a quickie question - I have a mystery fluorescent light fixture! I have a very old fixture from the 1960s, it's intended for four tubes but I got it with only three attached, so I went searching for a cosmetically same tube to mount in the 4th socket. (don't ask me why I went through all the trouble, three tubes already gave me more light than I needed but the empty fourth socket simply looked ugly). I eventually found an old tube in the trash and plugged it into the fixture - and the drat thing worked like a charm! I have since found two more supposedly broken/defective lamps in trash that were miraculously resuscitated in my fixture. What the hell is going on? 
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Sep 25, 2011 17:28
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Poknok posted:I have since found two more supposedly broken/defective lamps in trash that were miraculously resuscitated in my fixture. What the hell is going on? Whoever's throwing them away has a bad ballast or bad wiring and doesn't realize. Or they're changing light fixture styles over in the building you're finding them at; if a place only has one maintenance guy on duty then they're going to get changed as he finds the time, and nobody buys used tubes so they're just written off.
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Sep 25, 2011 17:53
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raej posted:The wife and I just bought our first house, but we've noticed something odd about some of the light fixtures in the living rooms and bar area. The bulbs are all spotlight bulbs in cans pointing down, but they'll turn on/off periodically. The sensor in the recessed fixture responsible for shutting it off when it overheats might be defective. This can be replaced separately.
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Sep 25, 2011 18:17
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Splizwarf posted:Whoever's throwing them away has a bad ballast or bad wiring and doesn't realize. Pretty much. We used to do this because it fixed the flickering right away vs. getting billed for the electrician at $75/hr with no idea when he'd show up.
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Sep 26, 2011 01:35
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I have a 32in flat screen that is wall mounted in my bedroom on a wall I share with my roommate. Unfortunately because of the size of my bed and my room it is really the only wall that works for having the TV there. As it is mounted on the wall my roommate can hear the TV rather well because of the vibrations through the wall. My question is, is there a way that I could mount it that would dampen the sound going through the wall? Something like using foam between the screws and the mount? How well would something like that work, if at all?? Thanks.
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Sep 26, 2011 03:39
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Phanatic posted:The sensor in the recessed fixture responsible for shutting it off when it overheats might be defective. This can be replaced separately. Is there any easy way to check this?
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Sep 26, 2011 15:52
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Is there an easy way to get rid of dirt? I have about 30 cubic feet of dirt I would like to get rid of. It's sitting in the back of my yard and it's not enough to warrant a debris box. This isn't topsoil, so there's no way for me to get someone to just pick it up. My city doesn't allow dirt in the weekly garden bins either, so that's out. What do I do with this stuff, aside from hiring a local gardener to dispose of it?
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Sep 26, 2011 18:48
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Take out an ad on craigslist or your newspaper for free fill dirt, and also put a sign on it that says free fill dirt. It might take a while but someone might want it.
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Sep 26, 2011 19:07
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Difference Engine posted:I have a 32in flat screen that is wall mounted in my bedroom on a wall I share with my roommate. Unfortunately because of the size of my bed and my room it is really the only wall that works for having the TV there. As it is mounted on the wall my roommate can hear the TV rather well because of the vibrations through the wall.
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Sep 26, 2011 20:22
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I have a small 1/2 HP air compressor similar to this one in my basement that I use for airbrushing. It is located right under the bedrooms and I would like to find a way to quiet it down. I was thinking about enclosing it in a 3/4" plywood or MDF box, but it would still need an intake vent. Would it help hook up a muffler from a motorcycle to the intake hole in the box? I'm not at all concerned about heat buildup since it only cycles on once or twice during a 2-3 hour period while I am working and is off the rest of the time.
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Sep 27, 2011 09:16
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SkunkDuster posted:...enclosing it in a 3/4" plywood or MDF box... I would buy a sheet of 2" rigid foam insulation from HD/Lowes/etc and just glue together a box from it.
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Sep 27, 2011 16:06
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Splizwarf posted:Whoever's throwing them away has a bad ballast or bad wiring and doesn't realize.off. Yeah, I'd agree with this. I have another question though; there is a capacitor wired right across the mains leads in the fixture. This being an old oiled-paper and tinfoil type capacitor, it blew itself to bits one day when I was switching the lamps OFF. For some reason, there is a voltage spike when switching the lamps off which caused the ailing capacitor to go kaboom (I have since replaced the capacitor in question). So the question is; why is there a capacitor wired across the mains? And why is there a very audible and unpleasant click whenever I switch off the lamps? Should I replace the currently installed capacitor with a higher capacitance unit to eliminate the switch pop? edit: we're talking European 230V/50Hz mains. The guy who initially wired the lamps 15 years ago was an idiot; the phase was permanently live while the switch interrupted the neutral lead. I have since fixed this (dangerous) mistake. The switch pops audibly even now that the lamps are wired properly. Poknok fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Sep 27, 2011 |
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Sep 27, 2011 17:00
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I would venture to guess that the cap is there to reduce buzz. This can help but I'm pretty sure that is caused because your bulb is loose in the fixture, or the starting cap in the ballast is bad? I'm not sure. Try replacing the fixture and see if that helps.
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Sep 27, 2011 17:22
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Poknok posted:Yeah, I'd agree with this. I have another question though; there is a capacitor wired right across the mains leads in the fixture. This being an old oiled-paper and tinfoil type capacitor, it blew itself to bits one day when I was switching the lamps OFF. For some reason, there is a voltage spike when switching the lamps off which caused the ailing capacitor to go kaboom (I have since replaced the capacitor in question). Old magnetic ballast. The thing is just a huge coil, basically. The spike comes when the ballast's field collapses when you shut the switch off. Figure out what kind of lamps these are and buy a new ballast and rewire. If it's already blown up the starting cap, odds are it's about to overheat and leak nasty black potting compound over everything, while smoking a lot and maybe catching fire.
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Sep 27, 2011 17:26
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How easy is it to replace a front door? I'd like to get one that opens on the left rather than on the right that also has lots more insulation. Where would I need to measure from, Will the whole frame come out? Who would I get to do this for me if I chicken out?
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Sep 27, 2011 19:16
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang posted:How easy is it to replace a front door? I'd like to get one that opens on the left rather than on the right that also has lots more insulation. Mount it to studs with 3" screws and replace the 3/4" hinge and strike plate screws that come with the door with ones at least 2" long. This provides protection against kicking, and what good is a door if it's not secure? This is a pretty good overview of what you need to know http://www.door.cc/How-To-Install-A-Door.html
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Sep 27, 2011 19:59
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Thanks! Yeah that already looks outside my skill level, but it's good to know what I'd be getting into.
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Sep 27, 2011 21:44
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We just moved into a new apartment. Our electric dryer has a 3 prong cord, and of course the apartment has a 4 prong outlet. We purchased a new 4 prong cord from Lowe's, took the access panel off the back of the dryer, removed the old 3 prong cord and are now confused about the old green grounding wire. I've tried looking online and I'm getting conflicting information... So the red and black wires connect to either side of the terminal thing. The white wire connects in the center. The green wire (on the new cord) connects to the frame with the green grounding screw. However, there is a green grounding wire that runs from the back of the central connection on the terminal to the green grounding screw on the frame. I've read that you just connect both the new AND old green wires to the frame. I've read that you connect that green grounding wire back to the center connection with the white wire (creating a loop?). I've read that you can just cut that wire and leave it in the dryer since the old one is now being replaced with the new one. Our apartment runs on fuses. We are buying some extra ones tonight just in case, but we'd really rather NOT blow a bunch of fuses / electrocute ourselves by doing something wrong with that grounding wire. So, what do we do with it?
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Sep 29, 2011 15:25
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What apartment has the newer, safer 4 prong dryer hookup but still uses fuses? You have the right idea. With 3 prong cords, dryer frames are grounded to the neutral. If you have a 4 prong plug though, you're supposed to disconnect the dryer's ground green wire and hook up the one from the cord instead. I'm suspicious of your "4 prong outlet with fuses" problem. You'll want to check to see if that ground prong is even hooked up. Get a circuit tester for a buck or two. Test for a circuit between either of the straight blade slots and the roundish grounding hole. If it lights up, then you have a good ground. If it doesn't light up, then you might want to leave both green wires hooked up to that grounding screw. Are they bar fuses or screw-in fuses? Screw ins do have the mini-breaker types, where you push in the little button. If they're barrel fuses, you might want to get a plastic fuse puller too. Safety first! Match the amperages: too low and they could blow way before there's any danger, too high and you could burn up anything plugged into that circuit by accident. Most non-appliance-dedicated circuits will be 15A, maybe 20A. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Sep 29, 2011 |
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Sep 29, 2011 16:12
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Is there any sort of convention for which side a porch door is hinged with respect to the front door? As you go into my (victorian) house, the proper front door is hinged on the left, then there's a small 1 sqm "porch" with a second door hinged on the right, that I'm replacing. I was going to hinge the new second door on the left so that they were both hung the same way - but is there some old reason why they're different in the first place?
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Sep 29, 2011 17:29
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kid sinister posted:What apartment has the newer, safer 4 prong dryer hookup but still uses fuses? Yeah, it's a really old building. The landlord told me he installed that outlet for the previous tenants who had a 4 prong dryer and since he had installed it and it was up to code, he couldn't go back and put the old 3 prong outlet back in. The people on the 1st floor have a 3 prong outlet, ours is the only one in the building that has been upgraded. They are screw in fuses - 15T upstairs, I believe. We have 4 upstairs in the apartment, and then more downstairs in the basement. The dryer is hooked up to the basement ones and I don't remember their amperage. We're checking tonight so we can get some spares. So when you say disconnect the old green wire, do we need to take apart the terminal? It's screwed into the back so we can't get to where it connects otherwise. If we find that we do have a good ground in that outlet, what would happen if we just went ahead and connected both green wires to the frame?
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Sep 29, 2011 17:50
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Can anyone tell me what Bamboo plant would spread the quickest, and be the thickest, making a fence like area? Also, cheap? I'm in Connecticut.
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Sep 30, 2011 00:33
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mdf posted:Is there any sort of convention for which side a porch door is hinged with respect to the front door? I just found it easier when they're hinged opposite. Pull open the RH storm door, it's easier to reach across to the LH main entry door. Especially if you're carrying groceries or something. ease posted:Can anyone tell me what Bamboo plant would spread the quickest, and be the thickest, making a fence like area? Also, cheap? I'm in Connecticut. You're biggest problem will be containing it. Bamboo is a Pandora's box. Buy a machete & a whetstone.
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Sep 30, 2011 02:34
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And a
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Sep 30, 2011 03:11
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Nione posted:Yeah, it's a really old building. The landlord told me he installed that outlet for the previous tenants who had a 4 prong dryer and since he had installed it and it was up to code, he couldn't go back and put the old 3 prong outlet back in. The people on the 1st floor have a 3 prong outlet, ours is the only one in the building that has been upgraded. Take it apart if you can't reach it. If you left it connected anyway and had a good ground, then you would have what is called a neutral-ground short. It can cause undesirable things to happen, like stray voltages to build up, resulting in a dangerous shock.
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Sep 30, 2011 06:19
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If neutral and ground are bonded anywhere besides the main panel, the ground will be carrying current, which is a bad thing.
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Sep 30, 2011 06:31
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ease posted:Can anyone tell me what Bamboo plant would spread the quickest, and be the thickest, making a fence like area? Also, cheap? I'm in Connecticut. Dont plant bamboo. I've never heard of anyone not regretting that decision. Its incredibly invasive and almost impossible to get rid of/make it grow where you want it to.
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Sep 30, 2011 08:15
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I'm fairly sure a friend of mine had no regrets, but that's because she was planting it in other people's yards (by hucking cuttings over the fence at night). She was a piece of work. That's the woman who showed me you could freeze grass-killer in ice cube trays, she used them with a slingshot. 
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Sep 30, 2011 13:18
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kid sinister posted:Take it apart if you can't reach it. If you left it connected anyway and had a good ground, then you would have what is called a neutral-ground short. It can cause undesirable things to happen, like stray voltages to build up, resulting in a dangerous shock. Yeah, I finally found what I considered to be more reputable online sources that talked about the importance of separating neutral and ground with the new 4 prong cord. They said to connect that green wire that WAS hooked to the frame back to the neutral terminal (where it came from) and screw it in with the white wire. So we did that, and then hooked the new green ground wire from the cord to the frame. We got it all wired up and plugged it in and we didn't blow any fuses and it works, so I think we're good. I did talk to the landlord, who talked to his maintenance guy, and they both assured me that the outlet was wired correctly and properly grounded. And the person who lived there before us had a 4 prong dryer plugged in to that outlet and never had any problems, so hopefully we're good. We did buy a bunch of extra fuses just in case. And it was a scary moment plugging that dryer in the first time. I don't like electricity. Cosmik Debris posted:Dont plant bamboo. I've never heard of anyone not regretting that decision. Its incredibly invasive and almost impossible to get rid of/make it grow where you want it to. My uncle planted some "dwarf bamboo" about a decade ago. It's now about 20 feet tall and taking over the entire backyard. It's impossible to kill and he spends hours and hours just trying to stop it from spreading even further. Nione fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Sep 30, 2011 |
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Sep 30, 2011 16:07
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Nione posted:Yeah, I finally found what I considered to be more reputable online sources that talked about the importance of separating neutral and ground with the new 4 prong cord. They said to connect that green wire that WAS hooked to the frame back to the neutral terminal (where it came from) and screw it in with the white wire. So we did that, and then hooked the new green ground wire from the cord to the frame. We got it all wired up and plugged it in and we didn't blow any fuses and it works, so I think we're good. grover fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Sep 30, 2011 |
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Sep 30, 2011 16:20
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grover posted:The little green wire is probably only supposed to be used if no ground wire is available; chassis-neutral bond is preferable to no bond at all, but a separate safety ground is best. If it's ground the frame, it should NOT be screwed to the white wire. It's probably not necessary to connect at all if you've properly grounded the frame via the green wire in the cord. This is a ground fault, and will put neutral current through that little wire (not just from your dryer, but a portion from the entire house!) and create a fire risk when it overheats from the current. The green wire is not ground to the frame. It's screwed into the back of the neutral (central) connection on the terminal. With the original 3 prong cord it ran from the neutral to the ground screw on the frame. Now that we have a separate ground wire from the cord, that one is not needed (plus we had to separate neutral and ground). If we had let it hang down inside the machine we would have needed to make sure it wasn't touching the frame or other metal in any way; the instructions and video I found said to just connect it back to the neutral, essentially just making a loop.
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Sep 30, 2011 17:23
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