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That, or the anti-child-smasher might be getting set off because of your door not traveling smoothly enough. I had a similar issue, and it was solved by a repairman throwing some new rollers on.
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May 26, 2019 21:40
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We just had our garage door fixed with opening/closing issues. Turns out the limit gears were plastic and had a broken tooth. This caused a slip from time to time that then returned incorrect, uh, "values" for lack of a better turn. So it would open. and close at the wrong times.
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May 26, 2019 23:50
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I need to cast a very small concrete rectangle - roughly 30" x 30" x 2". Can I use ripped dimensional lumber and generic plywood with release agent? Do I need to varnish them first? It seems like a simple process, is there any first timer gotchas that I should be aware of?
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May 27, 2019 15:21
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Happiness Commando posted:I need to cast a very small concrete rectangle - roughly 30" x 30" x 2". Can I use ripped dimensional lumber and generic plywood with release agent? Do I need to varnish them first? It seems like a simple process, is there any first timer gotchas that I should be aware of? Is the finish on the concrete important? You'll get whatever surface finish the wood is on it.
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May 27, 2019 16:23
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devicenull posted:Is the finish on the concrete important? You'll get whatever surface finish the wood is on it. The finish is completely unimportant.
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May 27, 2019 21:50
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I have a solar/battery question, if there is a better thread I apologize. I was given three 90ah 12v deep cycle batteries. I have an existing 200w solar array in series running through a MPPT charge controller. They were connected to a single 100ah battery and did a fine job keeping it topped up, with the occasional load from tinkering or whatever. The wires from the charge controller to the battery are copper, 12 awg and have a fuse at the battery terminal. I want to take the three new batteries and put them in parallel (270ah) and have a ~500w inverter on hand if we lose power. This should be enough to run the fridge occasionally and charge phones and tablets, maybe a fan too. I bought some battery cables that are 18 inches long, 4awg copper and want to use them to connect the batteries together in parallel, but would like to keep using the 12awg to charge the batteries and keep them topped up via the sun. Should I run the inverter, I would disconnect the charge controller, and use the wires that the inverter is shipped with, probably also 4-6 awg. In short, can I charge a battery bank in parallel with mismatched wires assuming the wires between the batteries are larger than the ones coming from the charging source?
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May 28, 2019 01:24
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Best way to get rid of wallpaper? New house has a spare bedroom that was previously a child's, and this strip here is a pain to get rid of. White and red are painted. If I can't get it off I'm going to buy a race car bed and tell everyone I "don't talk about Billy anymore" when they ask. 
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May 28, 2019 02:01
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Mercury Ballistic posted:~500w inverter on hand if we lose power. This should be enough to run the fridge occasionally and charge phones and tablets, maybe a fan too. No, a 500w inverter is definitely not going to be enough to run a fridge, unless you have experimentally determined that your mini-fridge only draws 500w on startup.
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May 28, 2019 03:43
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Mercury Ballistic posted:I want to take the three new batteries and put them in parallel (270ah) and have a ~500w inverter on hand if we lose power. This should be enough to run the fridge occasionally and charge phones and tablets, maybe a fan too. Uhhh, that ain't enough juice to run a fridge compressor. As for your other questions, it comes down to how much power you got directly charging your batteries. Medullah posted:Best way to get rid of wallpaper? New house has a spare bedroom that was previously a child's, and this strip here is a pain to get rid of. White and red are painted. If I can't get it off I'm going to buy a race car bed and tell everyone I "don't talk about Billy anymore" when they ask. Try peeling it. If you're lucky, each section will come off in one piece. If that doesn't work, try soaking it with water first, then peeling it. If that doesn't work, try a Paper Tiger tool and a bottle of wallpaper remover mixed to it's proper proportions. Read the directions for how long to wait, then scrape. Clean up any left over glue as necessary.
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May 28, 2019 04:58
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Label on my fridge says max 350w. Edit: never mind, the 350w is for the defroster, the fridge says 115v at 5.2amps. so more like 624w. I assume this is less than the start up needs? The panels at 38v in direct sun supply about 5 amps to the charge controller. Mercury Ballistic fucked around with this message at 11:23 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 11:02
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Label on my fridge says max 350w. Edit: never mind, the 350w is for the defroster, the fridge says 115v at 5.2amps. so more like 624w. I assume this is less than the start up needs? Yeah, the start-up current is what's going to be the main concern since the inrush will be more like 10-15 amps momentarily (or a lot more). Sometimes inverters have a maximum short-term power output before they overheat, but I'm betting the unit you have isn't up to the task if the fridge cycles on and off a lot.
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May 28, 2019 11:37
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I don't actually have the inverter yet, and can possibly just get a larger one. DC scares me a bit so I am trying to learn all I can here.
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May 28, 2019 11:54
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I’d say you’re good on proposed wiring. Visualize the circuit formed by the charge controller and batteries. Does it only pass through wire rated for the current in that circuit (charging current)? Great. Superimpose the circuit formed by the load. Same deal there. If your equipment isn’t crap you can probably have your charge controller and inverter connected at the same time. It may confuse a display that tells you how charged your batteries are but it’ll help keep voltage on your batteries from drooping under load. Another side effect will be that the current through the shared battery shunts should be reduced as some of the old will be powered by the charge controller, though it doesn’t matter for you. Look into RV fridges and similar products like fancy plug in coolers — there are models designed to use DC and have lower peak current draw.
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May 28, 2019 15:00
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SpartanIvy posted:Freon isn't the problem since it's freezing up. It's almost certainly a vent blockage. Either intake or output. Check them all for airflow while it's running. This statement can't be any more wrong. Low refrigerant charge reduces the temperature at the evap, very often to below freezing and causes exactly this. Whenever you have freezing it's a toss up of reduced airflow, low charge weight or an expansion valve problem. This is why proper diagnosis starts with a set of refrigerant gauges.
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May 28, 2019 16:36
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Well I learned something new. Whenever my system runs low on coolant it just gets warm, which seemed intuitive.
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May 28, 2019 16:39
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SpartanIvy posted:Well I learned something new. Whenever my system runs low on coolant it just gets warm, which seemed intuitive. Refrigerant. And it's getting warm because the evap is icing over and ice is a lovely heat conductor, or you don't live somewhere humid enough for that to happen and eventually you've leaked enough that the compressor is off because it's hit the low pressure cutoff.
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May 28, 2019 16:42
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I want to finally fix the bad/dangerous/stupid wiring someone did on my house and have a stupid question. This is a 60 amp sub-panel that was used for a hot tub which I removed (and pulled the wiring/breaker). The outlet was already there and wired badly as shown. The outlet is already GFCI so I just want to buy a normal 20 amp breaker and install it, and move the black wire to the breaker so everything is normal. My stupid question is... is there a specific brand or style of breaker I need to buy to make sure it clips in correctly to that first or third slot? Or can I literally just buy anything at home depot and it should be fine? Edit: nevermind there is a sticker that you can see once you lay on the ground looking up at it with the model number, I just need a GE brand 1" breaker I guess. Droo fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 22:53
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Droo posted:I want to finally fix the bad/dangerous/stupid wiring someone did on my house and have a stupid question. Okay..... Wow, let's work on this slowly. First off, you can't use red as a neutral wire. You'll have to replace that. Second, take that black off of the hot lug. That will go to your new breaker. What does the cover look like? You may need some plastic snap in slot fillers as well. Pretty much all 1" breakers are the same size, so those fillers will fit several brands of panels.
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May 29, 2019 06:53
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kid sinister posted:Okay..... Wow, let's work on this slowly. First off, you can't use red as a neutral wire. You'll have to replace that. Second, take that black off of the hot lug. That will go to your new breaker. Yeah, I bought a pack of fillers when I bought the breaker so it looks nice now. Unfortunately the red neutral wire is here to stay for awhile though - it runs about 50 feet underground from the main panel and I doubt I could replace it even if I tried. Maybe I should buy a white sharpie and color over both ends of it heh.
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May 29, 2019 14:02
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kid sinister posted:Okay..... Wow, let's work on this slowly. First off, you can't use red as a neutral wire. You can't spiral wrap it in white tape? Or does red/white have another meaning? (or does the whole run have to be wrapped?) All of the high guage wire in my boxes uses black spiral wrapped in white to signify neutral.
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May 29, 2019 15:22
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H110Hawk posted:You can't spiral wrap it in white tape? Or does red/white have another meaning? (or does the whole run have to be wrapped?) All of the high guage wire in my boxes uses black spiral wrapped in white to signify neutral. Tagging like this is code legal in every code I've seen. I can't speak for weird jurisdictions though (I'm looking at you Chicago).
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May 29, 2019 17:58
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Motronic posted:Tagging like this is code legal in every code I've seen. I can't speak for weird jurisdictions though (I'm looking at you Chicago). For Droo - as a "for example" here is my subpanel:  Green-wrapped red for Ground and White-wrapped black for Neutral. It was allegedly inspected by the city - I have a stamped permit saying it's correct. They sell the correct tape in a dozen colors over by the wire nuts and stuff.
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May 29, 2019 18:16
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H110Hawk posted:For Droo - as a "for example" here is my subpanel: Thanks, I'll wrap the one used as neutral in some white electrical tape the next time have either panel opened up and powered down, seems like the best solution.
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May 29, 2019 19:14
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H110Hawk posted:For Droo - as a "for example" here is my subpanel: FYI Droo, it needs to be tagged at BOTH sides, not just the panel. But yeah, that pic is how to do it.
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May 29, 2019 19:29
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So I've been seeing this collect around/on my furnace: It's a brown powder, it's super fine, and doesn't really seem to feel/look like a termite/carpenter ant issue because of how spread out it is right around the furnace. It feels sort of gritty, but I can't place my finger on it. I had my A/C replaced last year and this has collected on the furnace over the winter. Doesn't appear anywhere else in the basement. In general when I've seen residue due to combustion at my parents house it was white. Not really sure what to think about it.
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May 29, 2019 20:03
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I have a small and awkwardly shaped bathroom that I intend to renovate promptly. To maximise space I'd really like to have a wetroom shower, but I've also fallen in love with this kind of tiled floor:  Is it possible to combine the wetroom with this tile style? And does anyone have an idea of what sort of premium I should expect to pay for this kind of work compared to something more boring but easier to lay?
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May 30, 2019 16:17
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Sarah Bellum posted:I have a small and awkwardly shaped bathroom that I intend to renovate promptly. To maximise space I'd really like to have a wetroom shower, but I've also fallen in love with this kind of tiled floor: If you used something along these lines you could save a bunch of money https://www.daltile.com/products/tile/memoir However it says that it is suitable for wet areas but not the shower floor itself. If you had to install every one of those pieces as a separate piece you might triple your labor.
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May 30, 2019 16:27
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I really don't mind spending a bit more on the floor. It's our forever home, we have a decent budget to work with and not much to actually go in the bathroom, which is about 2 metres by 2 metres and which annoyingly has two walls with windows so we can't fit much furniture in there, just the shower, toilet and sink. I'd give up the wet room idea before I'd give up the tiles. Those you posted are really lovely. I'll have to see if I can find something similar this side of the pond.
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May 30, 2019 16:36
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Sarah Bellum posted:I really don't mind spending a bit more on the floor. It's our forever home, we have a decent budget to work with and not much to actually go in the bathroom, which is about 2 metres by 2 metres and which annoyingly has two walls with windows so we can't fit much furniture in there, just the shower, toilet and sink. https://www.emilgroup.it/collections/en/be-square There's an Italian company, I'd be shocked if you couldn't find that somewhere in (I'm assuming) Europe. Sorry I am a bit us centric.
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May 30, 2019 16:45
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No worries! I'm in the Netherlands. A problem with the tiles in that link, and in all the stores I've checked in, is that those tiles are only being sold in that mix-and-match, alternate pattern fashion. I think it's cute, but I also think it's a fad and it's not something I want in my house for decades after the fad has died out. My house was built in 1930 and has many original features and I really want to retain a vintage look to it, so I'd much prefer a uniform geometric pattern with a border. This is the picture that inspired me in the first place:  Sarah Bellum fucked around with this message at 17:08 on May 30, 2019 |
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May 30, 2019 17:04
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Sarah Bellum posted:No worries! I'm in the Netherlands. Edit: I think I found the motherload: https://www.nogacarreauxdeciment.com/decorated-tiles Where you could get them in the Netherlands I'm not sure, but there's a contact form on their website. It also looks expensive as poo poo, it's 60eu for .5m, but it looks nice as poo poo. AFewBricksShy fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 30, 2019 |
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May 30, 2019 17:06
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I would like to make some kind of durable culvert cover that can be driven over because I can't find anything sufficient on the market. I'm thinking about building a simple wooden form and casting segments from concrete. This is for a packed gravel driveway that branches off a packed gravel road. The issue is that where the driveway comes off, bedrock is only about 6" down from the road surface, so digging down to bury corrugated tubing and then covering that sufficiently is highly unrealistic. Right now there's a length of 4" PVC covered in maybe an inch of gravel, and it "works" in that it flows enough water and has survived some vehicle traffic, but I don't expect it to hold up long term. It's at a vacation property, which sees use maybe 2 or 3 days a month, so whatever I put in doesn't need to withstand a ton of traffic really. What I'm planning to build is a form for an 8" tall, 12" wide upside down "u" speed bump of sorts, 3' long. I'd end up casting 5 segments in high strength fiber reinforced concrete, and laying them in place of the PVC. Would something like that need rebar as well to be adequately strong? I see 6" being the pad thickness recommended for driveways and this would end up being probably 4" thick at the top of the u.
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May 30, 2019 17:06
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armorer posted:I would like to make some kind of durable culvert cover that can be driven over because I can't find anything sufficient on the market. I'm thinking about building a simple wooden form and casting segments from concrete. Look at channel drains, though you might have an issue with gravel getting in. Also a schedule 80 4" pvc pipe is pretty strong. I wouldn't expect any issues, especially if you infill around the sides with sand. You could always pack it in on both sides with asphalt. Not sure what the requirements are for depth, if 1" over the top of the pipe is sufficient for the asphalt, or if you might need to build small speed bump.
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May 30, 2019 18:13
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If you're worried about strength of the PVC, might it make sense to put some braces on the inside? Like, run a steel rod along the inside top of the pipe, that's held up by vertical sections? Or you could just get some bare PVC pipe, strap it down to something, and drive over it with your car a bunch to see if it's even a problem. 4" schedule 80 PVC has a tensile strength of nearly 6k pounds, and while presumably you don't want to put nearly that much weight on it (function would be impaired well before it breaks due to the load), that still suggests that it's a lot stronger than you might think. (And if you're really worried, upgrading to 6" would pretty well solve any load issues)
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May 30, 2019 18:21
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I thought about a channel drain, but they all seem to want to be set in concrete and there's really no room underneath to work with. Without concrete on either side I'm concerned it would collapse when driven over. The driveway itself is compacted 3/4 modified aggregate. I can leave the PVC there until it breaks, there was nothing there before and it was okay, it just gets marshy on the uphill side of the driveway. If you watch the end of the PVC as it's driven over though you can see it deform which makes me think it's not long for this world. Edit: The thing that really makes this unusual is that there is a mostly flat slab of solid rock 6" below the road surface, so the water will flow just fine across that and what I need are solid sides and a top to support vehicular traffic. Pretty much all the culvert options I can find expect that you've got dirt below you. armorer fucked around with this message at 18:29 on May 30, 2019 |
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May 30, 2019 18:23
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This is schedule 40, schedule 80 is even thicker walls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw7T28dCin0&t=507s
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May 30, 2019 18:30
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FogHelmut posted:This is schedule 40, schedule 80 is even thicker walls Okay, so I guess it's probably fine as is then.
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May 30, 2019 18:33
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Sarah Bellum posted:Is it possible to combine the wetroom with this tile style? And does anyone have an idea of what sort of premium I should expect to pay for this kind of work compared to something more boring but easier to lay? That exact tile is made from french base tiles. I would go to a tile store with the printout and say you want that. I bet they can order it. Thankfully most complicated mosaic work these days comes in 12x12" or larger sheets which can be cut to size for corners and things. It's only marginally harder to lay correctly than regular tiles, mostly due to very thin grout lines and much needed OCD around lining things up correctly. https://www.oldeenglishtiles.com.au/collections/tessellated-tiles-patterns/products/glasgow-pattern?variant=3288301125 H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 18:44 on May 30, 2019 |
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May 30, 2019 18:42
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armorer posted:Okay, so I guess it's probably fine as is then. I would never stand in the way of someone wanting to overengineer a solution, just offering information. FWIW, the thickness of the concrete isn't as important as the subsurface compaction and preparation. 1" of concrete on dirt is going to crack under a car while 1" of concrete on bedrock may not. As far as spanning the gap that would be the area for your water to flow, I do not know the engineering for what is necessary, but rebar across there wouldn't hurt. Fiber reinforcement won't help much in this regard, as it is mainly purposed for preventing surface cracks due to weather related expansion and contraction.
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May 30, 2019 19:05
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It really just feels like one of those things where $50 - $100 worth of concrete and several hours of work will solve it forever. To me, that's worthwhile.
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May 30, 2019 19:17
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