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jink posted:blahahaha, cracked me up. There actually was plenty of room! Box was mostly empty space, for which I was thankful. STR posted:FWIW, my parents old Genie door opener had stupid amounts of range. Enough that it could be opened from the end of the street (6 houses away). Hmm. May try a Genie next time. Code-Alarm used to make an add-on that was basically one of their alarms with a 12V power brick that just triggered a relay (I mean that it was literally the same casing as a Code-Alarm alarm.) You coded one of the spare buttons on your alarm remote to the add-on. Actually pretty neat. I know that there are generic remote-relay boxes available at various electronics distributors - my only concern is remote availability, and compatibility with my HomeLinks. And cost, of course. There are some very nice ones designed for security gates and such, but not cheap. Still may go for something like that in the interest of it actually working. For what it's worth, the HomeLink seemed to be a bit more consistent than the official remotes.
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Nov 22, 2019 20:37
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that not only has better range, but also opens the gates (totally different frequency, receiver, etc), and doesn't give two shits about it being between 65-75 degrees. Also uses a regular coin cell instead of the weird battery the Stinger uses. I suspect it may even be able to clone the Subaru's keyfob (it supports the frequencies, anyway), but the keyring part of it broke off awhile back.. so I don't want to have to rely on it for more than the gates (for which I have a code anyway) and garage (have the lovely Stinger remote inside).
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Most of those third party replacement receivers won't be code hopping or anything fancy, IIRC, just a learned random code. My Overhead Door Classic may or may not be code hopping; if it is, it recovers easily from an accidental button press out of range. If you go Genie, don't do a screw drive. They need to be greased more often than a chain or belt drive, and they're loud as hell unless they've just been lubed. I've never cared for Genie mounting the limit switches on the rails either, though I suppose it does make for easier adjustment (but an additional point of failure if a wire gets pinched or broken - NBD if the upper limit breaks, it'll just hit the stop bolt, but if the lower limit one isn't working, it'll bounce off the ground and go back up).
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Nov 22, 2019 22:57
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Darchangel posted:There actually was plenty of room! Box was mostly empty space, for which I was thankful. Oh? I thought you were cracking a joke, cause the box was 100% not closed. I thought the coax fitting was preventing it from closing. 
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Nov 22, 2019 23:05
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jink posted:Oh? I thought you were cracking a joke, cause the box was 100% not closed. I thought the coax fitting was preventing it from closing. Nah, that’s the actual installed location of the board. It sits on standoffs. I did actually literally just drill a hole, put in the fitting, and jam a wire in it. Thankful for that, really.
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Nov 23, 2019 00:46
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Have you put an LED or CFL bulb in place of an incandescent, in the opener? I've read that the switching regulators in LED bulbs in particular can generate enough noise to jam the receiver.
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Nov 23, 2019 12:59
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Raluek posted:Have you put an LED or CFL bulb in place of an incandescent, in the opener? I've read that the switching regulators in LED bulbs in particular can generate enough noise to jam the receiver. Great point; they make garage door specific LED bulbs for this purpose.
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Nov 23, 2019 23:27
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Huh, I always figured those were just vibration-resistant bulbs, like their incandescent counterparts. I have a plain Phillips LED bulb in mine with no issue, tons of range (especially with the cheap multi-frequency cloning remote I got to open the gate and the door). Kinda surprised it's held up to the vibration to be honest, it's outlasted a couple of incandescents so far. The early 80s Overhead Door units in my dad/stepmom's house didn't react well to getting CFLs now that I think about it though, they really didn't want to open/close with the remote while the light was on.
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Nov 24, 2019 18:02
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Raluek posted:Have you put an LED or CFL bulb in place of an incandescent, in the opener? I've read that the switching regulators in LED bulbs in particular can generate enough noise to jam the receiver. Yes, but the issue was still present when the add-on receiver was to the left of the door opening, about chest high, because that’s where an outlet was. I’m pretty sure I removed the LEDs temporarily to test as well -I’ve read the same thing. Of course, the floods outside are also LEDs (great purchase, BTW - $20 each at Costco, and so far they’ve lasted at least 5x longer than halogen versions. I swear I was replacing one of the four flood bulbs at least once every few months,) but as I recall, I turned those off temporarily, too, to little or no effect.
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Nov 25, 2019 22:40
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On to the weekend's progress. The workbench needs a top. It's in the shed:  ...crap. OK. After removing the remains of the sink cabinet I pulled out of the master bath, because it was crap:  It needs to traverse the yard around to the front, so the garden wagon is pressed into service:  My wife helped me lift it up onto the frame and:  ...crap. I mismeasured somewhere, or, wonder of wonders, my wall isn't plumb and leans out a bit. In any case, the 100-7/8" door didn't fit in what I supposedly measured to be a 101+" spot. So I did the needful, and lopped off a 1/2":  I confirmed fit, then positioned the top, and started adding accoutrements. Backsplash, and power strips. Upper power strip is an old Plugmold I found long ago, and had on the previous workbench.  The old workbench was only 5' long, so I had shortened the strip by a foot, which was three outlets. Since I now had 8', I found that chunk, and wired it back in. I managed to break the last outlet in the longer strip trying to get it out to remove the wires so I could tie in. I can probably find a new outlet, but, eh. I just used the space where it was for the wire-nut connections. An entire Legrand/Plugmold replacement strip is... surprisingly expensive. Originally, I had the 5' section centered, then I found the 1' section and added it to the end, which put it close to left end. While trying to figure out wire routing, I decided to do several things. I originally had the top flush on the right end, and flush at the rearm that is, the backsplash was flush. I scooted the top back to make the actual door/tabletop flush, with the backsplash overhanging, so I could snug the backsplash up to the wall even if there was a little lean, and I scooted the top over to the right about 1" for the same reason, as well as giving me somewhere out of the way to route the power wire for the plug strip, since the rear wall of the inside was at least 1-1/2" from the rear edge of the top and would have been awkward. Of course, I did those moves in two separate steps, so there are plenty of now-unused screw holes under the counter... With that done, I shifted the longer section of the plug strip almost to the right end, dropping the wiring through a 1/2" hole near the right edge, and connected the two parts together with a length of Romex. If I feel fancy, I may put a strip of wire moulding over that. I think I may actually have some in the shed, now that I think about it. The wiring on the right end goes down through the aforementioned hole, into another hole in the side of the bench, and inside up high to a junction box:  The strip did have an appliance cord wired to it when on the other bench. I repurposed that, and used it to plug the bench junction box into the wall. I bought a 4' power strip a while back, mounted that on the front, and plugged it into the outlet on the box, being careful all the way to maintain polarities. I had to re-do a couple wire-nut joins, but it all works properly now, and my outlet tester is happy. All wired up:  Then I put all the screws in the top, and added the shelves:  This workbench makes me so happy, y'all! I've still got a few things to add, like a mount for my vise, but that's it's final form, for the most part. Since I was done with that, I decided it was time to get the cabinets up:  That took some precarious muscling. I resolved to try a different methodology on the ones over the washer and dryer. I have to move the overhead light to be able to add the doors, and I have to move the ceiling fan to do *that*. When it rains... I will most likely be adding LED lighting under the cabinet as well. Pegboard will be on the wall between the cabinets and the bench, and on the wall to the right as well. I think my big ol' stereo speaker will fit in that space between the shelves and the cabinet. For Sunday, the aforementioned cabinet over the washer/dryer. Starting - an underused bit of gridwall:  Gridwall was removed, as well as an fluorescent light fixture that would have interfered, and I built a stand to support the cabinet that I could get a jack under to get it to its final position.  I bet some of you have noticed a potential problem already. See that trim around the attic access? Yeah. I put the cabinet up as far as I could go at first (which, due to lack of plumb and a slightly rounded wall-to-ceiling corner, still left a little gap between the outside top edge and the ceiling. I had to put the rig back under it, unscrew it from the wall, and move it down about 3/4" sop the door would clear that trim.  Shelf in and both doors on:  Not bad! I have one more cabinet unit. I'm going to cut that one in half, and add a side to each half to create two single-cabinet units. One will go to the left of this unit, and one will go to the right of the door to the kitchen there where the speaker is. The dryer is also going over there, and the washer will be scooted over next to the door, with a utility sink where the washer (left unit) currently is, with plumbing tied into the washer connections. I'm sure my wife will be happy for me not dragging grungy stuff in to the kitchen, even though the stainless-steel sink shrugs it off. The speaker will either go above the kitchen door, or above a door to the outside (now actually into the back of the air compressor shed) to the right of where it is now. Somewhere along the way allllllllll the stuff I moved will have to go back on/in the workbench, cabinets, and pegboard...
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Nov 26, 2019 01:16
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Little progress thanks to holidays and family obligations. I did get some lights up, though. I thought it was a bit dark on the workbench under the new cabinets, so I bought some tape lights from Amazon, and some channel with diffusers to go along with it.   And some accessories for tape lights:  A couple of the 1m sticks stuck together:   et voila!  ...then I promptly let the two sticks bend too much and tore the tape light. So I cut out the bad section to the next cut line, and soldered one of the wire stubs on one strip, and clipped it to the next:  (this actually works out a little better for spacing under the cabinet.) ...and then I discovered that the manufacturer had provided end caps with this in mind.   Yep. So I just nipped a slot from the edge to the hole, and slipped them over the wires. Meh. They work fairly well, but I really should have checked the lumens. These are the 2653 LED chips, which are underwhelming for actual light. They're fine for soft lighting, or night lighting, but I wanted *bright*. I mean, they work OK, but I bought another spool that uses 5630 chips in the same spacing that should be quite a bit brighter. No big loss - these will still get used somewhere, eventually. I was going to have to move the ceiling fan over the workbench area if I wanted to reuse the twin T8 fluorescent fixture that was also up there until I realized that the cabinet doors would hit it. Likewise, I had to remove another shop light by the cabinet that went in above the washer and dryer. I ran across these things in my "LED" wish list while perusing Amazon fo the strip lights:    T5 single-"tube" LED work lights, a little under 4' long, linkable (daisy-chainable), low-profile, and super lightweight, so they don't even need drywall anchors to be hung. This set came with seven 4' linking cords, I think 5 AC-plug cords with switches, and two direct-wire pigtails.  Linkable. AND they even provide linking butt connectors so you can just make a long single-row chain of them.  Also handy mounting clips, and blanking plugs for the last one in the chain. I stuck two together above the workbench, just clear of the doors, and man, they work well:  I put one up over the door to the kitchen, about where the other shop light was, then chained two more off of that one parallel to it, as far away as the linking cord allowed. I think I'll do the same over the toolbox area, and probably buy another 6-pack or 8-pack of these. Either that, or re-arrange them in like four continuous strips down the garage a few feet apart. At $56 for 8, they 're a pretty good deal ($7 each.) I had been putting off either buying LED replacement bulbs for my fluorescents, or replacing them entirely, because I still have half a box of T8 bulbs I bought from habitat for humanity. Oh, well. I guess I could stick some of these up in the attic and one or two more out in the shed. I can't get over how well these LEDs work. I did get the pegboard for over the workbench cut, and furring strips added, though I forgot to take pictures of any of that. On the big pegboard, I had used furring strips attached and screwed through some of the holes already in the board. The upshot of that is that I had 3 rows of peg holes in the "field", as well as the two end rows, unusable for pegs. I didn't like that, so, while I still used a full 1x2 strip at each end (actually, I cut those down a little, too, about 1/8", partially just to square the edge, but also because they occluded the next row of holes if flush to the edge of the board,) I cut the middle furring strips down to between 5/8" and 3/4" to fit between the holes. My pegboard is used 1/4" salvaged from a store remodel, and, as you may recall, very yellow:  The piece I cut down for the workbench is the same. It had some chunks broken from the edges, but enough good bits I was able to cut it down to fit without too much of the damage remaining. I bought some light grey deck and porch paint to paint it with , and sanded down the yellow to knock the gloss off, and reduce the raised ring around the holes, since it's apparently been painted multiple times. Only when I was almost done did I notice that this particular piece of pegboard was smooth on both sides. I had never seen that before. Would have saved me some time. Oh, well. The big piece that was up on the wall previously (above) is the normal "rough on the back" version, so no windfall there. I plan to re-do the furring strips on that piece tonight. It's supposed to be warmer this week, so hopefully I can get them painted and dry before the weekend, then I can put them up. Saturday would have been ideal, as it was in the mid-to-high 60s (F), but I got up late, took too much time gathering additional materials at Lowes, and, frankly, cutting the pegboard and furring strips took longer than I would have thought (welcome to your average project, then.) Thursday was obviously busy, Friday was a late birthday outing for my daughter and her uncle and cousins that we were unable to have *last* weekend due to illness (though I did get the LEDs up on Friday) and Sunday I fixed the inside door handle and power window on the driver's door of my cousin's Explorer. A bad combo - he couldn't get *out* of the driver's side, but he could get in. For now we just swapped the rear door handle to the front, and the power window was the usual Ford issue where the little nylon pucks between the gear driven by the motor and the gear that drives the window mechanism disintegrated. O'Reilly's had the Dorman kit in stock to replace it, though only one, so I'll have to do his passenger window later. At least Ford makes it pretty easy to get to the motors, and they can be unbolted without removing the entire window mechanism. I'll pick him up another inside door handle next time I'm at the wrecking yard. I did find time during the week to fix my fence gate. My gate is two 6' gates, one of which is stationary 90% of the time. They're both hung pretty solidly, but the pressure treated 2x4s in them love to twist and bend over time, making the right ("stationary") side lean out at the top quite a bit, making it annoying the latch the gate, despite the self-adjusting latch. A friend suggested this method to try and pull the corner back, and I'll be damned if it didn't work:   Best part was I had all the parts necessary on hand. The gate still has a horizontal curve, but it's nice and vertical, now. The normally-used gate latches with a touch, now. Simple things like this make me inordinately happy.
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Dec 3, 2019 00:25
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I also recently discovered the existence of these things, particularly the fiber bristle variant thanks to an Instructable on repairing battery-spew-damaged terminals in electronics, so I bought a set: They're for cleaning/sanding/burnishing small areas fairly easily. Neat!
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Dec 3, 2019 00:27
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Got a little done after work Monday and Tuesday. Working on getting the pegboard up, so I can start putting stuff back where it goes. Previously, all the furring strips were 1" x 1/2" boards behind a row of existing holes, which meant that row could not be used. Kind of made some peg hook placement awkward. So, while I'm still doing that on the very ends, I decided that I would cut down the strips to about 5/8" to fit between the peg holes, and drill new holes for mounting. Cut down furring strips, and two uncut for the ends. Will be placed every two feet.:  These are for the full-sheet board. You can see the shorter one for between the cabinet and workbench to the right, there. A better look at the short piece:  The very yellow full sheet, which has seen some poo poo:  That's OK, because it's going to get some trimming. Full sheet with furring strips:  Placed about where it needs to go to check fitment and sizing:  Needs to go up a bit to clear the outlets, and offer a little clearance above the workbench surface.  It needed to go up a bit less than 3" to clear. I'm putting a shelf above the pegboard, and I liked about where the top was as-is, so I cut one inch off of the bottom, and 2" from the top (the top had more damage at the corners to remove.)  Perfect:  Note the lack of chewed up corners now. Oh, wait - I'm putting half of one of the cabinets in between the pegboard and the cabinets already up over the W/D. Better check that. Half the cabinet is 19-13/16", call it 20" for breathing room:  And the space between the pegboard and existing cabinet is...   Eh, not that much of a problem. I removed the furring strip on that end, cut off an inch of the pegboard, and reattached the furring strip. While the pegboard was up on the wall in position, I marked all the screw holes into the wall. By some miracle, ine row even ended up in a stud, for extra secure mounting. I'll be using the screw-in style drywall anchors for the rest. Then I sanded that poo poo flat. There was alt least 3 layers of paint, complete with cracks, drips, and orange peel. Thankfully, I have a big air compressor and a dual orbiting sander. Still took a lot longer than I would have liked. In the end, I honestly should have just bought a new sheet.   I'd already sanded the smaller piece earlier (before discovering that it was smooth on the reverse already...) There was yellow dust everywhere.  New Shop Vac took care of that nicely. Also note that one of the end furring strips is loose. I dropped the damned board while moving it, and the #8 wood screws I used pulled right through the soft pegboard. Guess I shouldn't have been so aggressive on the countersinking. I just put it back using 1/4" flat washers under the screws. They only need to hold the strips to the board until I get it up on the wall, at which time the screws holding it to the wall will go through both the pegboard and the furring strip, adding additional fastening. I had planned to paint it Wednesday evening, but picked up and installed a new 55" TV instead, besides which I was dead tired. Maybe tonight. I 'd like that, so they have time to dry before the weekend, so I can put them up then. Still need to split the remaining cabinet. I have the materials for that, plus a couple more shelves. edit: so close to being done (for the most part) that I can taste it.
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Dec 5, 2019 23:05
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Got the pegboard painted, thanks to the current lack of Winter here in North Texas. First coat:  Second or third coat:  The blotchiness is just areas where there was bare masonite from sanding, and it just absorbed and dried a little more quickly. It was all very even in color this morning, after drying all night. Gonna get those suckers up this weekend, so I can start stowing stuff. 
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Dec 6, 2019 19:00
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Big pegboard up: Little pegboard up:  Glorious:  Also put the doors on the cabinets, but no picture. Looks just like the other cabinet. Speaking of cabinets, time to divide the remaining one. Carefully measure and mark:  Got to town with the circular saw:  BTW, I'm pretty impressed with my Ryobi old-school blue saw with the new-school Lithium battery (4.0 Ah). It's ripped through all of this stuff. I haven't once broken out the 110V saw (other than the compound sliding miter saw.) I bought a couple of melamine-coated shelves to use as sides. Oversize, of course, so I could cut them down to fit. Then drilled a bunch of holes for shelf pegs:  This one took several tries to get the positioning right. I initially measured 1-1/4" between holes, but ended up hort at the other end. Used 33mm and ended up long, so backed off to 32mm and was pretty darn close. That was frustrating, so I cheated on the other one:  and just shoved it in the cabinet to mark directly from the existing holes, and then used a square to extend those markings to the proper locations:  First side installed:  Having an air finish nailer made this a breeze, though I did gently caress up placement on one:  Had one like that on the other cabinet, too. I just bent them out, trimmed them, then hammered back flush to keep them from catching fingers and such. One was on the outside, so got painted over when I painted the exposed particle board white to match the side. And one installed:  I'm ridiculously happy about how well this came out. The location for the other one still needs to be cleared out. I also cut a couple of 48" x 12" shelves down to 19-1/2" to fit inside of the now-single-door cabinets, giving me two shelves each. Also cut and painted some OSB remnants for shelves for speakers, as well as painted the 1 x 6 that will be a shelf over the large pegboard:  This should give me some stuff to do inside the garage while it's cold and lovely the rest of the week, though right now, I feel like utter crap thanks to yet another weather change. Yay, getting old!
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Dec 10, 2019 00:41
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Also changed the oil on the Subaru Outback. Yay, lovely oil change places:  edit: I guess it's not *that* much smaller. At least I wasn't horribly overdue:  I'm at 183899 now. Assuming they specced 3,000 miles (179097), I'm at 4802. Old oil filter had what looked like "179097" on it, though the second 9 was fudged. Jake said that he'd had the oil changed just before we picked it up. This jibes with the 179152 that was on the clock when I remembered to take a pic after we bought it, when we'd already driven to the store for supplies, and were almost out of Mesa. I tried to change the transmission filter as well, but unlike STR's 2.5L, the 3.0L hides the filter up inside the inner fender on the left in front of the wheel. I used ramps for the oil change, and just wasn't up to pulling a wheel after a full weekend of carpentry and the oil change. I'll do it later. Hell, according the service manual, the ATF filter is "maintenance free"! I did capture a sample for Blackstone to analyze. I did not get around to changing the oil in the Crown Vic, which arguably needs it more.
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Dec 10, 2019 00:50
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Slow/lazy week. Assembled shelves for my stereo speakers, and mounted one:   The shelf supports are really supposed to be mounted in compression, but I needed them this way for space reasons. Should be OK - the speakers are not heavy. They're cheap home speakers from probably the '70s or '80s, and mostly air. Other one will be mounted once the location is unobstructed. Only other stuff I did was remount my Unifi AP on the ceiling (it was temp mounted where one of the pegboards went, then just sitting on the workbench after the pegboard was installed), and get some stuff put up on the pegboard. Not much, but it's a start. And I changed the oil in the Crown Vic. 11 months since the last change, but only 6000 miles. I do need to stay on top of that better, though. Mind you, the car doesn't seem to care, but they never do until they suddenly do, right?
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Dec 16, 2019 18:10
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Loving the updates! I appreciate how much thought you put into each project and your garage is looking fantastic. Those peg boards are ready to be filled!
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Dec 17, 2019 16:53
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Thanks! Filling the pegboard is going to be the hard part. The previous arrangement was the result of 19 years of usage. Now it’s all different, and it’s tough to not just vapor-lock with indecision. It might go through a few iterations, not to mention shelf adjustments in the cabinets and workbench. I still love my giant workbench. It’s too tall for most normal people! Thankfully, I’m not normal.
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Dec 17, 2019 22:33
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Not a lot done over the holidays. I did spend some time attempting to unload tubs and the old shelves, but it's slow going trying to decide where to put everything. Some stuff, thankfully, will go out to the shed - car parts and such that never made it out there, since it was stashed somewhere back out of reach until now. I have a new thing to build. While deciding how to handle my giant bag o' zip ties, I decided to Google a bit on exactly that, and came across this handy-dandy thing: https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Zip-Go-Organizer-magnetic-cutter-included/dp/B07N8KQ11Q/  I believe I'll build something of that sort with PVC pipe - I found a number of designs online, and will adapt one of them. Sunday, though, I achieved peak slack. I never even put on pants, and played Rage 2 for like 5 hours.
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Dec 30, 2019 18:24
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While rearranging and putting up stuff in the garage, I found these: The SE badge I found in a wrecking yard - it's broken between the "S" and "E", but I repaired it and repainted the black. No pins on the back, either, so it would have to use trim tape to mount it. The black "Mazda" is an original part. The two silver ones are aluminum I cut on a waterjet years ago. One is polished, and the other is brush finished. Both are exactly the same size as the original part. I also cut two in stainless steel. Those two are on the '79. Well, one is, on the rear. The other is in the parts tubs at the moment, since the front of the car is disassembled. Also this:  This is a spare of the wide gas pedal cover I made - the flared out part lines up with the brake pedal for easier heel-and-toe action (not that I can make my big ol' feet do that in this car...) This was my first attempt at the pedal cover, and I used the wrong setting to do the etching, I think. It came out a little rough. I also have no idea why I went with three "MAZDAs" instead of modeling the "RX-7" logo as well. I wish I still had access to that waterjet. I could make so many things with it... Got a little more cleaned up/put away in the garage, but Jan 1 was mostly dedicated to breaking down and storing the Christmas stuff back in the attic. I did have time to execute one of my gifts to my wife, and regrease her Kitchen Aid mixer. The  Hard to see in this pic, but there was a little leakage of lube behind the beauty band once it was removed:  Easier to see on the inside of the trim:  Old nasty grease:   big glob that fell out when I removed the upper housing and motor.  The old grease was pretty sticky (possibly by design) and a bit stinky, particularly for "food safe" grease. All disassembled and cleaned:   It all comes apart pretty easily. There was no appreciable wear on anything. Motor brushes looked good, too. All the grease:  eeeeeeewww. New grease:  Which is odorless, tasteless, and clear!  I did not test "tasteless". You basically just glob it in like the old grease was. That bit in the picture above has a scraper that rides close to the top of the large gear, and therefore keeps a pile of grease right there at the mesh point of the plastic gear with the large gear, and the worm gear from the motor to the plastic gear. A little bit goes on the all the shafts that go through bushings, and another glob on the bevel gear that drives the accessories in the front. I didn't get any pictures after this - my hands were covered in grease. It's easy, but messy. Once I got it all back together, I fired it up and let it run at various speeds for about 15 minutes, and it seem happy, so mission accomplished. Now you know what the inside of one of those looks like.  I also transferred some stuff in the shed from tubs that were decades old and were now brittle and breaking easily to some new tubs, so I don't punch myself in the face when the handle suddenly breaks trying to pick them up... but that's not exciting. Just satisfying. Especially when I kicked those lovely motherfuckers to pieces before putting them in the trash.
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Jan 2, 2020 22:53
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More not-car stuff, because the house demands attention! Possibly more suited to the Horrible Construction thread, but this weekend I learned to hate whoever built the shower in my master bathroom. They did everything wrong, and I had to fix it enough to keep the shower functional until I can rip the entire thing out and do it again. And this just started because I wanted to clean the grout and cut out and replace mildew-stained caulk. The reason for all the caulk, of course, was the terrible tile work, resulting in several loose tiles that I had to replace, and several slivers of tile that had to be made because of poor layout planning. At least I know I can't save the existing structure now, and can just go scorched-earth on it eventually. I mean, look at this poo poo:  The other front (shower fitting wall) corner was similar. This is after I cut out all the crap, and several tiles fell off:  Obviously, there has been some leakage. Look at the gap between the two drywall panels! The fucks also didn't overlap the panel over the lip of the shower pan, just the tile itself! This is the first corner pictured, after removing caulk and grout:  Oddly, they actually used concrete wallboard on the left wall. Note that none of the horizontal seams line up, and the aforementioned tile slivers in the corner. Knowing that I couldn't save it, I abuse spray foam, just so I didn't have to squirt a metric ton of silicone in there.   At least it's quality OSI "4X" foam intended for sealing stuff. Door and window frames, but still... Because they didn't overlap the wallboard properly, I also had to square off the inside corner of the shower pan:  Because if I didn't, the tile did this:  The original install "handled" this by breaking the lower corner of the tile. Idiots. A little quality time with the Dremel, and:   Making the tile slivers, so I didn't just slather grout and/or caulk in the gap:   I don't have a tile saw, but I do have a diamond Dremel wheel. Worked great, actually, in conjunction with a tile snapping tool. Yes, of course they are angled. Did anything in there look plumb or square to you? Thankfully, I was able to use offcuts form the tiles that go on the other corner. The right corner, after shortening 4 tiles to fit:  Oh, look! New "bright white" tiles don't match the old. Of course they don't. I no longer care. Left corner.  Yes, that one sliver 3 tiles up is still solid grout. I didn't have another sliver (dropped it after cutting from the main tile) and the grout was amazingly solid. So I left it. Will grout after work today, then seal said grout, so I don't have to clean it so thoroughly again. I was in there with grout cleaner and a toothbrush. All this cost me over $100, because I had no tile tools at all. I now own a v-groove trowel, tile snapping tool, grout saw/removing tool, grout float, a quart of thinset, a quart of grout, and 24 fl.oz. of grout sealer. At least the tiles were all of $0.68 each. Also spent $25 on a nice silicone profiling tool kit, and a grout removing tool on Amazon. I'm kind of glad I can't fix it, because I hate this shower anyway. The bathroom is 56" long in that area, and they picked a shower pan that's only about 50" long so the wet wall is 6" or so from the actual wall. I'd have put a ledge on the opposite wall, myself, instead of moving the wet wall. They also put a ceiling in the shower at the height of the top of the door opening, and then tiled the entire thing, so steam has almost nowhere to go, and also collects on the overhead tile and drips. Brilliant! Did I mention that the shower head and fixtures are off center? And the shower head is about 6" too low - as in, my 6' 2" rear end has to duck to wash my head? Yeah. gently caress the moron who built this.
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Jan 6, 2020 19:23
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Thankfully, grouting was actually as easy as the DIY how-tos and videos implied.  Corner groove is ungrouted - it will be sealed with silicone caulk. My house shifts around too much for grout to work in the corners. That's partially why it failed and there was a mess of (not silicone) caulk there in the first place. That's next, when the tools I bought to help with that show up. And grout sealing, so I don't have to work so hard to clean it. Then I'm going to tear it out, when I decide what I'm going to replace it with. edit: and boy, does that tile not match.
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Jan 7, 2020 22:05
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I forgot to post this one. This is how they handled the faucets: Too cheap to go get a diamond holesaw, I guess, so creating additional seams is the way to go! Please also note how well the horizontal seams above and below the left fixture line up, or don't. Did I also mention that these fixtures, and the shower head, are off-center in the shower? My guess is that they replaced a bathtub or smaller shower, and couldn't be arsed to put a bend in the copper lines. They're also recessed about 1/2"-3/4" more into the wall than they should be. I had to grind down the bases of the knobs to allow them to turn. This thing is a shitshow supreme. At least it's a *better* shitshow, now. Nothing special, just finally was able to caulk. Right corner:  Left corner:  This tube of silicone was sealed but old, so turned out lumpy despite the fancy caulk forming tools I bought. Not the fault of the tools - the fresh tube I used on the other two corners worked nicely. Had some difficulty, since the tools are designed to deal with square corners, and the walls of this shower... aren't, but I figured out how to angle them to account for the un-squareness, and they worked well. Now I can get back the garage and cars. Until I remodel the living room, anyway. Oh, yeah, the Crown Vic picked up a nail or something a while back in the right-front tire, and had a slow leak, but it either fell out or pushed through, and now it's a faster leak. full to flat overnight. <sigh> Lacking time to mess with it due to the shower emergency, I'm driving the Kia until this weekend, when I can either fix it, have it fixed, or just put one of the spares on.
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Jan 9, 2020 16:46
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Darchangel posted:Now I can get back the garage and cars. Until I remodel the living room, anyway. Most tire shops will plug it for free nowadays. Quicker to drop it off and then do other poo poo for a bit and pick it up later for me at least.
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Jan 9, 2020 18:55
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So uh, is there a problem with o-rings on the rails on Crown Vics? A coworker just had his try to catch on fire, though he caught it early enough that it may be repairable. He said he started seeing puffs of smoke, then lost power (idled fine) and the CEL came on. Pulled over, popped the hood, and there was gas dripping right on an exhaust manifold, and flaring up with each drop.    Melted a bit of the harness, but at least it was one drip at a time, so the car didn't go up in flames.His is a 2009 P71. Still starts, but there's no throttle response.
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Jan 10, 2020 12:13
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No model or manufacturer specific o-ring problem that I’m aware of. Kind of interesting that gas is dripping on the exhaust manifold when the the injectors and almost all of the plumbing is on the intake side of the cam cover. I’m trying to visualize how the plumbing runs, but I think the fuel lines come up from the rear on the passenger side and cross over the cam cover on that side and connect up to the fuel rail, which means that there should be one or more of Fords quick connect fittings there. O-rings might be hosed in one those fittings. 2009 will be drive by wire, so might be wiring to the TB actuator was some of the wiring that got toasted. Should throw a code, though.
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Jan 10, 2020 17:06
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Yeah I figured the throttle body wiring got torched. And it did throw a CEL around the time it lost power, but he has no idea what the codes are. It's currently at a shop, but he did say the harness was pretty burnt. I haven't seen it in person.
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Jan 10, 2020 17:56
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So I pulled the wheel and tire off of the Crown Vic to have it patched. I think I found the leak: Make that leak  So what would cause this wear? It drives fine. I don't think the alignment is that out of whack.  edit: I'm thinking I ran it low too much due to the slow leak. At any rate, two new tires - Goodyear GS/A to match the rear - ordered. <sigh> In better news, found a few 2020 Hot Wheels, and some 2019s I didn't' have, at Target on Sunday, and these:  And a Fast And Furious Retro Mazda RX-3 with Dom's RX-7 FD paint job (no pic.) The D21 Nissan is so '90s it hurts. Ultimately, I didn't buy it (the premium cars like that are $5.50 each), or the other two 4x4 trucks, but I did get the RX-3 and the 4x4 442. Actually, I got two of the 442s so I could take one out of the package and put it on my desk. I initially thought that they had just re-purposed the "Hi-Rider" 442 Mainline casting, but it's actually the better sculpt based on the original '70 W-30 casting from 1969, albeit without the opening hood. Main tell, aside from just a better sculpt, is the metal base versus plastic. Speaking of the Hi-Rider 442, I picked up one of those, too, just for the hell of it, after resisting for so long. For those new to the thread, I own a 1970 Olds Cutlass, so I tend to collect '68-72 Cutlass stuff. No real work done outside or in the garage, because it was cold (Texas cold, not NE cold), and I stayed in and did a little housecleaning, and played video games.
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Jan 13, 2020 19:24
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Darchangel posted:So what would cause this wear? It drives fine. I don't think the alignment is that out of whack. Looks like under inflation since it's on both sides on the outer edges. Did you find the source of the slow leak otherwise?
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Jan 13, 2020 20:35
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Suburban Dad posted:Looks like under inflation since it's on both sides on the outer edges. Did you find the source of the slow leak otherwise? Didn't look, honestly. The inside edge is worn ~*way*~ more than the outside edge. To the point that it is actual concave. That's what surprises me. I had no idea it was this worn until I pulled the wheel.
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Jan 13, 2020 23:07
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I gotta get that Hard body holy poo poo Hot Wheels is on fire lately
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Jan 14, 2020 02:18
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shy boy from chess club posted:I gotta get that Hard body holy poo poo Hot Wheels is on fire lately I know, right? I kind of regret not getting it, actually. I don’t know why $5 is such a hard sell for me. I guess because the regular ones are just $0.99, and it doesn’t feel like it necessarily $4 better. Usually just better paint and detailing, and better wheels. Sometime rubber tires. But: ~*Collector*~. Design-wise, it’s spot-on, though.
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Jan 15, 2020 05:48
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Ordered two new tires from Discount Tires' website on Saturday - Goodyear Eagle RSAs to match the rears. Got a call on Monday that they were in. Got up early this morning to get to the store at opening (8 AM). This proved fruitful. They had me out in time to get to work only 5 minutes late (normally 9:00 AM.) Good job, guys! They remembered to swap one of my custom valve caps back with the new tires, but I had to remind them about the other one. I'd actually meant to pull them off to prevent that, but forgot. Also had them rotate the rears to the front, as they'd been back there since I had them put on several months ago. DT agreed that it was underinflation that killed the one tire. Noted: get a slow leak fixed ASAP. You *will* forget to check it one day.
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Jan 15, 2020 19:55
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Weekend once again got co-opted by family stuff and a meeting for the nerd-con I work at yearly. Both in the middle of the day, so not offering a lot of time for activities after considering my propensity to stay up late, game, and sleep in on weekends. Got another tub of stuff stowed in its place in the garage, though, and was able to build the zip-tie storage I talked about earlier:Darchangel posted:https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Zip-Go-Organizer-magnetic-cutter-included/dp/B07N8KQ11Q/ Based mine partially on this one, simplified for my needs. If I get a notion, I may build one more like his - that little storage drawer is handy. Interesting that super-glue is sufficient. I'd need to get some activator, probably, to help with assembly. Here's the tubes cut (1-1/2" PVC), and how they will be arranged, with sample contents. You can see my preliminary drawings in the notebook to the right.  I used some scraps I had lying around. This is an offcut from the shelves or sides from when I modified the cabinets, so particle board. More on that in a bit.  You can see I realized that making both the horizontals and the verticals on-center wouldn't closely nest the tubes, and had to adjust, which is of course why I laid it all out in the first place - to find these issues. It took a few tries to get the adjustable hole saw set for a good fit. It could have been a little tighter, but it wasn't really necessary for it to be an interference fit or anything. This was basically a slip fit, and given the material, it varied from hole to hole anyway.  Test fit of all the tubes:  Trimmed down, and a piece of hardboard cut to the same size, then glued down with construction adhesive.  Both pieces were small enough that I was able to cut them on my compound sliding miter saw, and didn't have to break out my contractor saw, which is currently out on loan, or a circular saw, and deal with potentially not-as-square cuts. And then the tubes were glued in with the same adhesive after the based dried overnight. It'll be another few hours for that to cure as well.  So lessons learned: Don't use particle board. It's not solid enough for this. I would definitely use solid pine or other wood, *maybe* good plywood, or MDF, like the guy in the video did. I had MDF, but in half or quarter sheets, so I got lazy and used what was lying around. I bought 10' of PVC, since it was like 50% more than a 2' stick at the Home Despot, so I've got plenty more to build another one should I discover this design needs to be modified, or just feel like it needs to be more professional-looking. As it is, this will be a 200% improvement over the several plastic zip bags of ties hanging on peg hooks.
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Jan 19, 2020 22:13
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Nice organ pipes
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Jan 20, 2020 00:41
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I won’t say that the aesthetic wasn’t part of the decision.
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Jan 20, 2020 09:34
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Zip tie storage is dry, complete, and successful in its purpose: Spent the rest of Monday evening wiring in this:  Older Pioneer non-AV receiver that I rescued when an coworker ditched it in an office move. Works fine, but the vacuum-fluorescent display is dim (it's on in that picture - you can barely see it), and the speaker A & B buttons take a bit of wiggling to get all of the speakers to work. That runs a pair of random home speakers I acquired from somewhere I don't remember, on purpose-built shelves I've already shown:   and a pair of cheap Boss poly/rubber 6x9s in the soffits outside:  Those 6x9s have been up there for, like, 5 years at least. Seem to be handling outdoor use fine, and so far the receiver hasn't complained about them being 4 ohm. Only thing I don't like is the lack of a fader with the home unit, but I can deal with it. Previously, this was all run by an old JVC pull-out car head unit on a modified PC power supply. This makes it a bit easier to add Bluetooth, or any of several inputs, and a lot more power, if I happen to need it. I'll be connecting sound from a PC to it as well. I have a pile of older PCs, laptops, and monitors, and thought it was high time I put one out in the garage for music and looking stuff up on the Internet. The old shelves are slowly emptying out as I figure out a place for everything. Still need to empty out a section of the right side shelving, remove the shelves, and scoot the freezer over, so I can then move washer and dryer, and install the utility sink. It's like one of those sliding puzzles with the one space, where you have to slide everything around in order to unscramble the picture. Every time I get discouraged, I have to remember that it's like how you eat an elephant: a lot of small bites.
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Jan 21, 2020 19:10
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I love the idea of wired outdoor Bluetooth speakers in the garage stereo.
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Jan 23, 2020 14:41
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cakesmith handyman posted:I love the idea of wired outdoor Bluetooth speakers in the garage stereo. Indeed. I had a cheap internal-battery Bluetooth headphones adapter (to make non-BT headphones BT), which fortunately worked while plugged into the USB charging, since the battery was dead, connected to the AUX of the car head unit I had in there previously, and it was useful. I have a Belkin AC-powered adapter intended for exactly this I will be using. I had it in the bedroom, but replaced it because it added a "hollow" sound to everything played through it for some reason. Almost a flanging or "hall" effect. We use the system in the bedroom often to play rain sound effects for sleeping, and the added effect was distracting. It's not so obvious on music, and I don't care so much in the garage, so out there it goes. Already replaced the bedroom one. In completely unrelated news, my wife and daughter went to Half Price Books the other day, and alerted me of something I may be interested in. I didn't read the text in time for her to buy it for me, so I ventured out after work to pick it up myself. It was easy to spot on the shelf:  Oh, yeah:   I'm a fan from way back, but still have never made it around to picking up the Mach Go Go Go manga, until now. Amazingly, they also had volume 2 and 3 of the Limited Series DVDs of the show - I already had volume 1 that was given to me long ago.  This made me fairly happy.
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Jan 23, 2020 16:53
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More home improvement stuff. In the kitchen, we have an under cabinet pullout trash can, but it's... unsatisfying. It works OK, but it uses sliders rather than rollers or drawer glides, so once it gets some weight in there, it works a whole lot less OK.   I also didn't care for how the wire cage it's made of tended to make the contents of the trash bag hang up while trying to get it back out when full. There are commercial solutions, Rev-A-Shelf being probably the most popular one, but I decided I could build a frigging trash can myself. Got my design all ready, some Amazon Basics drawer glides (pretty nice!), a piece of strap steel to tie the glides together for mounting:  and some (salvaged) wood:  Sadly, the wide pine board had a pretty good lengthwise bow. I could have still used it, but it would have been a bit unattractive. Pity - it was a decent chunk of pine, at least 20 years old, but it was the base of the bathroom cabinet that I removed, and had gotten warped over it's time under the sink, apparently. I didn't have any other solid board wide enough, and I didn't want to screw into the end-grain of plywood (at least the non-cabinet-grade plywood I had) so I headed off to the Lowes for a chink o' wood. And then I punted. After adding it up in my head - $20 for the drawer glides, $10 for the Rubbermaid trash can, at least $15-20 for a 12" wide pine board, plus my labor building, plus I'd need to paint it because moisture - I decided that $60 for the Rev-A-Shelf was reasonable.   It went together easily, installed easily, and works great. I can't use the little utility shelf behind the trash can due to plumbing, but it otherwise fits great. I'm not sure I like the soft-close glides that pull the slider back in, not because of the soft closing per se, but because it requires a pretty good tug to get it to release to pull it out. Part of my purpose was to make it easy to pull out and use in the first place, and that runs counter. Still better than the other one. At the very least, way easier to empty. I can use the drawer slides and the trash can I bought elsewhere, so not a loss. I was going to start on the drawers to hold my Akro-Mills-like storage bins, but I can't find the 100-pound drawer slides I bought for that, dang it. Other than that, more finding places for the stuff on the shelves. I think I would be down to one of the old shelving units worth of stuff if I consolidated. I did find the spark plugs and the cam-cover gaskets I bought for the Outback, so I guess I need to do that soon. Minor project: has anyone else noticed that the magnets in the newer Harbor Freight puck lights (the blue ones that they always have a "free" coupon for) have lately been poo poo? Like, it just slides down whatever vertical surface you try to stick it too, much less stay up overhead? I decided to investigate that. Look at this little useless poo poo:  I had one left of a package of 18mm round "Super Magnets" from Northern Tool that I bought for another project. Turns out, it's a bit thicker, but fits fine with a little pressing in with a vise:  Sticks to stuff a whole lot better now. I suspect I could have glued in one of two of the little ~1/4" round magnets I have, and they would have stuck better, too. One final thing for today. I found some RC car stuff I forgot I had. Belonged to a late friend of mine. His widow sold the complete cars, but gave me some of the odds and ends:  Three Team Associated RC10 (I believe) chassis, one with all the suspension, a servo, and a transmission/diff and foam tires, a pair of wheels with dirt tires, two Futaba NiCad battery chargers for radio batteries, and a Tekin charger. Worth anything? Not to sell, but still a usable platform for a cheap RC? I don't need another hobby, let alone an expensive one, but I figure RC stuff by now should be cheap if you're not looking for ultimate performance and/or the best name brands. Like, a decent stock motor and a cheap/used radio couldn't be that much, right? I know the RC10 chassis is like decades old. Still parts available?
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Jan 27, 2020 19:03
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