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Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon
Is the plastic chipped, or is it just dented?

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Amphigory
Feb 6, 2005




^^^ I've not really got anything I can use - so I'd need to buy it specifically. I have a day off on Friday, so if I can keep her away from the fridge until then, I can try and sort it over the whole day

The piece that came out is totally gone - I can't find it anywhere

Can the fimo be sanded down to a shiny finish? And does it have to be a halogen lamp?

Is plastic filler something that's easy to pick up from DIY shops?

Cheers mate

Amphigory fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Aug 28, 2013

cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

Amphigory posted:

^^^ I've not really got anything I can use - so I'd need to buy it specifically. I have a day off on Friday, so if I can keep her away from the fridge until then, I can try and sort it over the whole day

The piece that came out is totally gone - I can't find it anywhere

Can the fimo be sanded down to a shiny finish? And does it have to be a halogen lamp?

Is plastic filler something that's easy to pick up from DIY shops?

Cheers mate

Sanding the fimo down will take patience, and to get a shiny finish you'll need to go down to wet& dry sandpaper. Even then, you'll be sanding the door as well. Possibly really bad idea. As for the filler I've never found the same product twice, most of them appear to be two part epoxies.

If you check the colour of white fimo against the door and are happy, you might be able to mold it to a smooth finish with a wet clay shaper/spatula/really clean hands before it dries, this'll be better than sanding the cured piece in the door.

Fimo normally needs to be cured in the oven 130'c for 30 mins, though a hot lamp (not too hot/close or it'll burn/yellow) can do the same job over an hour

Amphigory
Feb 6, 2005




Cool - I'll try that!

Amphigory fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Aug 28, 2013

Pimblor
Sep 13, 2003
bob
Grimey Drawer

NickNails posted:

Is there a simple way to have one drill turn multiple bits at the same time? Something like the lovely ascii depiction below. The bit to bit spacing needs to be 0.375", which is fairly small in my opinion. It doesn't have to be 7 bits either, just anything more than one.



|- Bit 1
|- Bit 2
|- Bit 3
Drill Chuck -|- Bit 4
|- Bit 5
|- Bit 6
|- Bit 7

Well, I have seen used Gang Drill presses for $495... They're not impossible to find but well, honestly you would almost be better off getting a CNC mill if you must have accuracy that a jig wouldn't provide.

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe
I posted this in the main Ask/Tell small questions thread, but didn't get an answer. Since it largely pertains to home improvement sort of stuff, I thought this thread might have one for me.

Someone in one of these threads mentioned using AutoCAD to do some plans for some project. A license for that is about $900, which is way out of my price range. Is there a more reasonably-priced alternative? Anything freeware or open-source would be fantastic. So what do you all use for your CAD needs?

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon

stubblyhead posted:

I posted this in the main Ask/Tell small questions thread, but didn't get an answer. Since it largely pertains to home improvement sort of stuff, I thought this thread might have one for me.

Someone in one of these threads mentioned using AutoCAD to do some plans for some project. A license for that is about $900, which is way out of my price range. Is there a more reasonably-priced alternative? Anything freeware or open-source would be fantastic. So what do you all use for your CAD needs?

Personally I use Pro/E, but that's even more expensive than AutoCAD. What kind of project are you trying to do?

RoyalRock
Feb 16, 2008

Now you know how we feel.
I don't really think this deserves it's own thread.

I have a house improvement idea that I think would make my house infinitely times less cramped. I'm kind of wondering though if maybe I'm doing more harm than good in terms of value of the house.

I live in a house that is 1200 sq ft. not including the finished basement (I don't know a lot about this stuff but I'm told it doesn't count even if the basement is finished). There are 3 bedrooms/1 bath in the upstairs area, and 1 bedroom and 1 bath in the finished basement.

Now, one of the bedrooms (bedroom C on the drawing below) is a very awkward shape, and not really good for anything but storage. I don't have a dining room right now and my dining area is a good portion of my living room space. I've made a quick MSPaint showing what I want to do but basically it's tearing out the wall between the hallway in front of bedroom C, and tearing out the closet and turning it into a dining room.

I guess my question is though, would that be devaluing my house because it's technically taking it from a 3BR house to a 2BR house (even if there is a very large "bonus" bedroom in the basement). Like I said I don't really understand anything about real estate value and would like your opinions before I start knocking down walls and such.



Thanks for the input.

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum
Doesn't look like any of those walls are load bearing, so that's not a problem. I'd say do it, but it will devalue your house. Unless you go down to the basement and put up drywall and carpet the floor(with plastic sheeting for moisture barrier), in which case you can frame in a few rooms and massively increase the value of your home.

It's not hard, just a lot of work. If I were in your shoes, I'd do it.

RoyalRock
Feb 16, 2008

Now you know how we feel.

Sapper posted:

Doesn't look like any of those walls are load bearing, so that's not a problem. I'd say do it, but it will devalue your house. Unless you go down to the basement and put up drywall and carpet the floor(with plastic sheeting for moisture barrier), in which case you can frame in a few rooms and massively increase the value of your home.

It's not hard, just a lot of work. If I were in your shoes, I'd do it.

Just from what I've been able to gather just from walking around in the attic and by the basic look of the plan I don't think any of the walls are load bearing. But I have one of those friend of a friends that happens to be a structural engineer and said he'd give me a good deal on his expert advice if I decide I want to do it.

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe

Blowupologist posted:

Personally I use Pro/E, but that's even more expensive than AutoCAD. What kind of project are you trying to do?

Ah, Pro/E. The MechE students used that when I was in college. When people would leave the Sun lab without logging themselves out, we would start Pro/E and log them out, because the systems were configured to start all the applications that were running at logoff at the next logon, and Pro/E took like 10 minutes to load completely. But to answer your question, I don't have any particular project in mind. I'm doing some electrical work in my house, but I could do the planning for that just as easily on paper. I'd just like to have a basic cad program, and I don't need anything fancy right now. There's an open source program called avocado, but it looks like it's fairly new.

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon

RoyalRock posted:

Just from what I've been able to gather just from walking around in the attic and by the basic look of the plan I don't think any of the walls are load bearing. But I have one of those friend of a friends that happens to be a structural engineer and said he'd give me a good deal on his expert advice if I decide I want to do it.

Personally I would talk to a real estate agent and ask for their opinion on what it would do to the value of the house. I mean, what's preventing you from calling it a 3BR house still? The only difference is the presence/absence of a closet. I would be very surprised if any of those walls were load bearing.

stubblyhead posted:

Ah, Pro/E. The MechE students used that when I was in college. When people would leave the Sun lab without logging themselves out, we would start Pro/E and log them out, because the systems were configured to start all the applications that were running at logoff at the next logon, and Pro/E took like 10 minutes to load completely. But to answer your question, I don't have any particular project in mind. I'm doing some electrical work in my house, but I could do the planning for that just as easily on paper. I'd just like to have a basic cad program, and I don't need anything fancy right now. There's an open source program called avocado, but it looks like it's fairly new.

That's pretty mean. And awesome.

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum

Blowupologist posted:

That's pretty mean. And awesome.

No, mean was finding people still logged in to the school email system and sending their dad a confession of their newfound homosexuality and a 'please don't call me, I'll call you when I feel ready to talk one-on-one'.

Going to hell for that one.

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe

Sapper posted:

No, mean was finding people still logged in to the school email system and sending their dad a confession of their newfound homosexuality and a 'please don't call me, I'll call you when I feel ready to talk one-on-one'.

Going to hell for that one.

Wow, that's brutal. My school used Eudora as its main email client for windows machines, and your profile and mailboxes and whatnot were stored on your network drive so it would always be there wherever you logged in. At least until you leave yourself logged in and some passive aggressive dork such as myself deletes them because you were a jerk to me freshman year. But I digress. The avoCADo program I mentioned earlier is still in alpha phase, so I punted on that and downloaded something called qcad instead. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but we'll see how it works. Anyone have experience with this one?

Death Pants
Aug 6, 2003

It took me 4 years to hit the HOT Tag
After replacing my carpet with engineered wood flooring, I now need to replace the baseboards/trim. I went to HomoDepot and the cheapest is around $1 a linear ft. Does anyone have any ideas on better deals?

I'd rather not spend another $300 just on trim if I can get it cheaper.

kapalama
Aug 15, 2007

:siren:EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL :spergin: ABOUT IT.:siren:

PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR IGNORE LIST.

IF YOU SEE ME POST IN A JAPAN THREAD, PLEASE PM A MODERATOR SO THAT I CAN BE BANNED.
I am replacing a light switch. The old Switch has two blacks wires coming into it and one red. What does this mean? Can I replace it with a single pole switch?

EDIT: It is, at least now, a single fixture light switch.

kapalama fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Mar 25, 2008

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum

Death Pants posted:

After replacing my carpet with engineered wood flooring, I now need to replace the baseboards/trim. I went to HomoDepot and the cheapest is around $1 a linear ft. Does anyone have any ideas on better deals?

I'd rather not spend another $300 just on trim if I can get it cheaper.

Can you just place shoe molding at the bottom of the baseboard to cover the gap between the floor and the old baseboard, stained/painted to match?

Otherwise, you can be cheap and pick out the best 3"x1"x8(10,12,14)' stuff and use that as baseboard- I did that to finish off a few accessory rooms at our old place. Still costs, but not like baseboard does. Looks good enough if you stain/paint it.

Do NOT get that cheap rubber stickyback poo poo. It looks terrible and peels loose quickly.

kapalama posted:

I am replacing a light switch. The old Switch has two blacks wires coming into it and one red. What does this mean? Can I replace it with a single pole switch?

EDIT: It is, at least now, a single fixture light switch.

Sounds like a 3-way switch. Is there another switch that controls the same fixture? A picture of the the back of the switch, wires intact, would be helpful.

kapalama
Aug 15, 2007

:siren:EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL :spergin: ABOUT IT.:siren:

PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR IGNORE LIST.

IF YOU SEE ME POST IN A JAPAN THREAD, PLEASE PM A MODERATOR SO THAT I CAN BE BANNED.

Sapper posted:

Sounds like a 3-way switch. Is there another switch that controls the same fixture? A picture of the the back of the switch, wires intact, would be helpful.

This is an old house that had some definite 'engineering' done on it. Right now, it is a single fixture controlled by a single switch. I have no idea what it used to be. (Old as in we just had our curb stop replaced from when water lines were put in in 1932. It was wired orginally about that time as well AFAIK.)

I don't have a camera so I made this bad MSPaint look at the back of the switch. It has a black and red next to each other on the bottom, and a black by itself on top.


I have a multimeter if there is something I could do with that. Thanks in advance.

kapalama
Aug 15, 2007

:siren:EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL :spergin: ABOUT IT.:siren:

PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR IGNORE LIST.

IF YOU SEE ME POST IN A JAPAN THREAD, PLEASE PM A MODERATOR SO THAT I CAN BE BANNED.
I borrowed a neighbor's digital camera


and this

Only registered members can see post attachments!

kapalama
Aug 15, 2007

:siren:EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL :spergin: ABOUT IT.:siren:

PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR IGNORE LIST.

IF YOU SEE ME POST IN A JAPAN THREAD, PLEASE PM A MODERATOR SO THAT I CAN BE BANNED.
and this

Only registered members can see post attachments!

Death Pants
Aug 6, 2003

It took me 4 years to hit the HOT Tag

Sapper posted:

Can you just place shoe molding at the bottom of the baseboard to cover the gap between the floor and the old baseboard, stained/painted to match?

Otherwise, you can be cheap and pick out the best 3"x1"x8(10,12,14)' stuff and use that as baseboard- I did that to finish off a few accessory rooms at our old place. Still costs, but not like baseboard does. Looks good enough if you stain/paint it.

Do NOT get that cheap rubber stickyback poo poo. It looks terrible and peels loose quickly.



shoe molding is probably what I'll be doing. I'm trying to sell this place so there is no way the stickyback was even a consideration

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum

kapalama posted:

I have a multimeter if there is something I could do with that. Thanks in advance.

Set it to 200V AC and see which one is hot, and which ones aren't. Then set it to continuity and ground the black lead to the metal box and see if one of those not-hots is a ground (Doubtful). Then kill the breaker and see if the bottom red and blacks aren't a straight through- looks like that switch might be wired to splice of an inline circuit to power the fixture.

That's pretty hosed up looking. But if my hunch is right and the two bottom ones are a pass-through setup, you'll just have to tie them together and then run a lead off of that to the new switch, and the old wire from the fixture to the other pole of the switch.

Still a pretty lovely wiring job- and you can expect many more throughout the house, most likely. :v:

kapalama
Aug 15, 2007

:siren:EVERYTHING I SAY ABOUT JAPAN OR LIVING IN JAPAN IS COMPLETELY WRONG, BUT YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'LL :spergin: ABOUT IT.:siren:

PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR IGNORE LIST.

IF YOU SEE ME POST IN A JAPAN THREAD, PLEASE PM A MODERATOR SO THAT I CAN BE BANNED.

Sapper posted:

Set it to 200V AC and see which one is hot, and which ones aren't. Then set it to continuity and ground the black lead to the metal box and see if one of those not-hots is a ground (Doubtful). Then kill the breaker and see if the bottom red and blacks aren't a straight through- looks like that switch might be wired to splice of an inline circuit to power the fixture.

That's pretty hosed up looking. But if my hunch is right and the two bottom ones are a pass-through setup, you'll just have to tie them together and then run a lead off of that to the new switch, and the old wire from the fixture to the other pole of the switch.

Still a pretty lovely wiring job- and you can expect many more throughout the house, most likely. :v:

(First thank you again.) So what you assume is that the red and the black down next to each other are there as a junction point. So if the switch is off the wires those screws should be continuous, right? And essentially the two blacks on the opposite ends of the switch are the ones that are being connected by the switch?

(And yeah the wiring is very screwy, everywhere.)

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum

kapalama posted:

(First thank you again.) So what you assume is that the red and the black down next to each other are there as a junction point. So if the switch is off the wires those screws should be continuous, right? And essentially the two blacks on the opposite ends of the switch are the ones that are being connected by the switch?

(And yeah the wiring is very screwy, everywhere.)

Exactly.

Welcome to Hillbilly Home Ownership 101: Unfucking Old Work

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Blowupologist posted:

Personally I would talk to a real estate agent and ask for their opinion on what it would do to the value of the house. I mean, what's preventing you from calling it a 3BR house still? The only difference is the presence/absence of a closet. I would be very surprised if any of those walls were load bearing.

Arguably the presence of a closet is exactly what differentiates a bedroom from a room / den / office. Our house, strictly speaking, is a 2+Den which I prefer since we have no need for a closet in our office.

Question time: Any recommendations on circular saws? I was considering getting the Black and Decker 14.4V cordless so it uses the same batteries as my drill but it seems to be weak and quite frankly I'm not going to be using it all that often. I've got a project coming up that will involve me cutting a shitload of 2x4's and 2x6's into short chunks (building some planters and benches) but beyond that it will probably spend months at a time not being used. Any recommendations for a solid but still cheap circular saw? Doesn't need to be cordless, I can deal with a cord when I need to use it.

E2M6
Jul 17, 2007

by Peatpot

I have a bunch of MP3 players I want to fix up and sell for some quick cash, except my soldering iron is far too large, it's like the size of my thumb. I've tried looking at Canadian Tire and Radio Shack for smaller ones, but they also look too big.

Is there some store where I'd have better luck finding a proper iron for this or some sort of hairbrained scheme I could try?

Fire Storm
Aug 8, 2004

what's the point of life
if there are no sexborgs?

Feathers posted:

Is there some store where I'd have better luck finding a proper iron for this or some sort of hairbrained scheme I could try?
Radio Shack usually has smaller tips for their irons, and some of them are small enough for SMT. I'd say go back and look for tips

Something like this. No clue if this is actually the tip you want, but it can give you an idea for what to get.

I use a small tip on my 40w iron for doing SMT like that.

NickNails
May 30, 2004

Feathers posted:


I have a bunch of MP3 players I want to fix up and sell for some quick cash, except my soldering iron is far too large, it's like the size of my thumb. I've tried looking at Canadian Tire and Radio Shack for smaller ones, but they also look too big.

Is there some store where I'd have better luck finding a proper iron for this or some sort of hairbrained scheme I could try?

Check out the "wick" part of this video:
http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/01/14/surface-mount-soldering-tutorial/

Mthrboard
Aug 24, 2002
Grimey Drawer

IOwnCalculus posted:

Question time: Any recommendations on circular saws? I was considering getting the Black and Decker 14.4V cordless so it uses the same batteries as my drill but it seems to be weak and quite frankly I'm not going to be using it all that often. I've got a project coming up that will involve me cutting a shitload of 2x4's and 2x6's into short chunks (building some planters and benches) but beyond that it will probably spend months at a time not being used. Any recommendations for a solid but still cheap circular saw? Doesn't need to be cordless, I can deal with a cord when I need to use it.

I've always been a Bosch man when it comes to power tools. They won't be the cheapest tools you can buy, but they will most likely be the last tools you ever need to buy. Go with the CS20, which you can usually find for around $130. If you want something a little cheaper, the CS10 is available for around $100. Be careful if you go cordless, a lot of cordless saws won't cut the full depth of a 2x4 in one pass. If you can't spend $100, some of the Craftsman saws at Sears are decent, and if all you're going to do is cut a bunch of 2x4s, you don't need a fancy saw.

Thumposaurus
Jul 24, 2007

Feathers posted:


Is there some store where I'd have better luck finding a proper iron for this or some sort of hairbrained scheme I could try?

You might be able to get away with wrapping thinner copper wire around the tip and tinning it. It probably won't last as long as a proper tip but might be a good stop-gap measure until you can find a proper smaller tip.

Schizoguy
Mar 1, 2002

I have so many things on my social calendar these days, it is difficult to know which you are making reference to, in particular.
Is there a reason why toilets use chains? Mine sometimes kept running, and I got told that there was a kink in the chain; just jiggle the chain. Works, but couldn't I just replace the chain with, say, some fishing line?

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon

Schizoguy posted:

Is there a reason why toilets use chains? Mine sometimes kept running, and I got told that there was a kink in the chain; just jiggle the chain. Works, but couldn't I just replace the chain with, say, some fishing line?

I don't have a solid answer, but speaking as an engineer I would suspect it's because they don't stretch (like fishing line would), and because you can easily alter the length by connecting to a different link on the chain.

If there's a kink in the chain, why not open up the toilet and fix it?

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum
Yeah, the flapper valve chain is really easy to adjust. Go ahead and pop the tank lid off and poke around in there, the modern flush toilet is a genius in its simplicity.

Schizoguy
Mar 1, 2002

I have so many things on my social calendar these days, it is difficult to know which you are making reference to, in particular.
That's what I do each time it happens, but it happens pretty often. There's probably some other underlying problem, but in the meantime, I was looking for a more permanent solution.

There's nothing special about fishing line; it's just something that I can easily get my hands on that seems like it would fit the bill and is "not a chain". If a chain kinks and causes problems, then why not replace the chain with something else? I couldn't as easily adjust the length of anything else, and it might stretch, but are there any other reasons I'm missing?

Beer4TheBeerGod
Aug 23, 2004
Exciting Lemon

Schizoguy posted:

That's what I do each time it happens, but it happens pretty often. There's probably some other underlying problem, but in the meantime, I was looking for a more permanent solution.

There's nothing special about fishing line; it's just something that I can easily get my hands on that seems like it would fit the bill and is "not a chain". If a chain kinks and causes problems, then why not replace the chain with something else? I couldn't as easily adjust the length of anything else, and it might stretch, but are there any other reasons I'm missing?

It might also be a pain to install, and has a fair chance of unraveling and coming loose. If it's an issue why not replace the chain with another chain?

babyeatingpsychopath
Oct 28, 2000
Forum Veteran

Schizoguy posted:

That's what I do each time it happens, but it happens pretty often. There's probably some other underlying problem, but in the meantime, I was looking for a more permanent solution.

There's nothing special about fishing line; it's just something that I can easily get my hands on that seems like it would fit the bill and is "not a chain". If a chain kinks and causes problems, then why not replace the chain with something else? I couldn't as easily adjust the length of anything else, and it might stretch, but are there any other reasons I'm missing?

In the spirit of "you can't possibly break it worse," go ahead and replace the chain with fishing line like you want. If it doesn't work out, put a chain back. It's not like you're going to break the bank with fishing line.

Sapper
Mar 8, 2003




Dinosaur Gum

Schizoguy posted:

That's what I do each time it happens, but it happens pretty often. There's probably some other underlying problem, but in the meantime, I was looking for a more permanent solution.

It's probably the flapper valve itself, scale and crud build up on them and they don't close properly or swing easily. They're cheap, why don't you go down to Lowes and get a new one (like, $2)?

Another thing you can do is tie a large fishing weight to the flapper at the same place the chain attaches, but it may close off before the tank empties and you'll get a lousy flush.

NickNails
May 30, 2004

I've just begun installing laminate flooring in my living room and dining room. I can't decide what to do about the trim molding. Right now, the current trim goes all the way to the sub-floor. I figure there are two options:

1) Remove all of the trim, put the floor in, and put new trim.
2) Leave the trim there, install the floor, then install quarter-round.

Any ideas on which way is better? Unfortunately, I am leaning towards option 1.

Schizoguy
Mar 1, 2002

I have so many things on my social calendar these days, it is difficult to know which you are making reference to, in particular.
Thanks everyone. My toilet shall work properly! -Or it won't. At least I'll learn.

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Death Pants
Aug 6, 2003

It took me 4 years to hit the HOT Tag

NickNails posted:

I've just begun installing laminate flooring in my living room and dining room. I can't decide what to do about the trim molding. Right now, the current trim goes all the way to the sub-floor. I figure there are two options:

1) Remove all of the trim, put the floor in, and put new trim.
2) Leave the trim there, install the floor, then install quarter-round.

Any ideas on which way is better? Unfortunately, I am leaning towards option 1.

i would (and did) remove the existing trim and replace it afterwards. If the existing flooring is carpet, you will probably have to remove it anyway to get up the carpet, padding and tack strips

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