What did you do today?

[gambler]

I had to pull the dash out of a Ford F750 because the defroster vents were not blowing air.
Turned out a pen had gone down the defroster vent and jammed things up.
It took 2 of us 5 hours in total. Not a fun job. Even the seats had to come out.

Terry

the stuff I've found in ducts crazy. now if they jam, the door breaks, and I have to replace the box.$$$$$$$$

[J Tiers]

I may be pulling the dash in the '89 Volvo that I am restoring.... The heater/ventilation fan motor need to be at least lubed, and it is buried behind things under there. I hoped to be able to get a "zoom spout" oiler in far enough to do the job without actually pulling too many things apart. I'd be having no choice if I needed to replace the motor.

Not looking forward to standing on my head to work under there.

[Tom S]

+10 on that. The goop in there now needs to all come out, which may not be easy. I have not yet found a cleaning material that works on dried grease. I tried the Pine-Sol that was recommended, but it did not remove all the dried crud, and it did discolor the (non-critical) bearing I tried it on.

I used purple cleaner, which appeared to get the bearing squeaky clean with no discoloration, but it also did not remove all the "dried" grease. However, it might have done if I left the bearing in it longer, and changed the cleaner after a bit, as the grease might have simply used up all the cleaning power..

Thanks guys, I'll be sure to give that a try first.

[Dan Dubeau]

Dug out a spot for my AC condenser unit, and leveled off a bunch of gravel for the pad it sits on. Then ran the wire out to it. My HVAC buddy is coming in the morning to run the lines, and get it all working. Will be nice to have central air conditioning this year. When we bought the house there was nothing but electric baseboard, and woodstoves. I put a window ac unit in our bedroom so the wife could sleep during the day (shift worker), then as we added kids, they each got a window unit. 2 years ago I put in new windows in the house, and nothing fit anymore so I didn't bother putting the window units back in last summer. With the addition of a new furnace and ductwork last fall we sprung for central AC too but didn't have a chance to install it before the snow came. Will be so much nicer sleeping without the noise in the bedroom. Will also be nice to cross this off my to-do list

I have some machining and welding to do, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Heading to bed. It was a long day of small odds and ends projects around the house. Just a bunch of small stuff I've been ignoring and putting off for months and years.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Dug out a spot for my AC condenser unit, and leveled off a bunch of gravel for the pad it sits on. Then ran the wire out to it. My HVAC buddy is coming in the morning to run the lines, and get it all working. Will be nice to have central air conditioning this year. When we bought the house there was nothing but electric baseboard, and woodstoves. I put a window ac unit in our bedroom so the wife could sleep during the day (shift worker), then as we added kids, they each got a window unit. 2 years ago I put in new windows in the house, and nothing fit anymore so I didn't bother putting the window units back in last summer. With the addition of a new furnace and ductwork last fall we sprung for central AC too but didn't have a chance to install it before the snow came. Will be so much nicer sleeping without the noise in the bedroom. Will also be nice to cross this off my to-do list

I have some machining and welding to do, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Heading to bed. It was a long day of small odds and ends projects around the house. Just a bunch of small stuff I've been ignoring and putting off for months and years.

I wouldn't want to live without central air. Nothing like low humidity cool air inside your home all year round.

[TGTool]

I've been replacing the screen on a door for two days. It's the old time wooden door with screen tacked down and trim molding over it. I can't complain since the old screen was on the door when we bought the house and that's been 25 years. But it had developed a couple holes, was pulled out at the bottom, was old steel screen and a bit rusty so the front door deserved better. Nice new aluminum screen and a new piece of molding on the top. Trouble was, going out with a large box to ship, the door banged the box and pulled up the bottom edge of the new screen.

REALLY annoyed me after JUST getting it all installed and there wasn't a good obvious long term cure since there's only about 3/4" to staple at the edge and it doesn't take much to pull that out. So after a test piece with a small scrap of screen, I removed the new one, bought several packages of twill tape at the fabric store and got out the almost new tube or RTV. So now the screen has an edging of two-side twill tape embedded in RTV and tomorrow it will go back up with more staples than usual. I'm half inclined to do a little carpet stretching number with it.

If it doesn't hold up this time I'll be really, REALLY ticked.

[J Tiers]

I bet you did not fold over the screen before stapling.... Do that and it will not pull out without breaking the screen wires.

I wouldn't want to live without central air. Nothing like low humidity cool air inside your home all year round.

Would not want to live WITH it....

Gets got and humid here, but cool at night generally, a big fan drawing air out, located in some far part of the house, keeps it cool. Open windows let us hear the night sounds, insects, frogs, etc. Relaxing sounds, good air circulation. Central air is way too "artificial" seeming, noisy, and generally obnoxious.

We close windows in the day, to keep the heat out, the many tons of brick and plaster tend to keep it cool all day. Takes 3 days to change temperature significantly.

And, we find we do not think it is as hot outside as folks who live in A/C all day do. I know people who set their A/C to make the house colder in summer than they would let it be in winter. They consider it unbearably hot on days I happily do things outside.

[brian Rupnow]

I'm off with semi-technical son number one to install a dish-washer at non-technical son #2's house. I know how to do it but I'm too old and have too much arthritis to be crawling around under a countertop actually doing it. So--we've got my experience and tools, #1 sons much younger and more flexible body and #2 sons house. Should be a great mash up!!!

[Dave C]

I'm off with semi-technical son number one to install a dish-washer at non-technical son #2's house. I know how to do it but I'm too old and have too much arthritis to be crawling around under a countertop actually doing it. So--we've got my experience and tools, #1 sons much younger and more flexible body and #2 sons house. Should be a great mash up!!!

Sounds like a great way to spend the day with your sons. I envy you, and hope all goes well with the project.

[mattthemuppet]

made an archery target stand for my youngest daughter for her birthday a few weeks ago to save her from either shooting up the green beens or firing her arrows into the neighbours yard.

made a couple of rollers and stuck some spare rollerskate bearings in them



stuck em in the end of a couple of pieces of scrap wood


the base put together using (I think) a piece of a swingset frame. Bit of a bear to work on in the garage as it was only a couple of inches below the ceiling

[mattthemuppet]

all installed, with some trampoline netting behind it to catch stray arrows.


she and her sis spent a good couple of hours shooting up the target that morning which was pretty neat. The netting gets lowered when it's not in use so it doesn't get blown over in the wind.

[jdedmon91]

Turning some UMHW square into round stock. I have a lot of this stuff I have some fixtures


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[brian Rupnow]

I survived the great dishwasher installation at my son's house--barely. Installation went fine. Nathan's mother in law lives in the room below the kitchen. Scott and I were all finished up about 1:00 pm, and were driving away when mother in law came racing out into the yard and declared she was being flooded out. Ah POOP!!! Dishwashers have this horrible semi hard corrugated plastic drain hose on them, and it was leaking where it joined to the house drain. After much frigging about and robbing some rubber hose off the old dead dishwasher, we got the leak to quit. Finished up again at about 4:30. Got mother in law dried off. All is well, but I'm pooped. I sincerely hope I don't get any panic calls from Nathan or his wife.

[Cenedd]

That's the joy of plumbing. You get the surprise leak when you have both dishwasher and washing machine outlet hoses stuffed in the same drain the first time they both happen to drain at the same time. Give you one guess how I know!

[PStechPaul]

Today was a big multi-family yard sale in the adjoining neighborhood of Springdale. Got there around 10:00 with my (88 yr) old friend Gordon, and we stopped at 15-20 houses. Finished up about 2:00 PM, and got some bargains and freebies as they were closing down for the day. Got this nice tool bag with assorted wrenches, ratchets, and sockets, for just $10:



Probably close to 100 sockets:


The camping lantern was a freebie, but I insisted on paying $2. It's brand new, and includes a compass, AM/FM radio, light, and siren, powered by a crank generator and rechargeable batteries:


Storage drawers were freebies, plastic boxes 4/$1, nice new cold weather work gloves maybe $5 or $10, good deal either way. Electric weed-whacker was a freebie, although it's missing the line spool. The grabber was $2, and can be adjusted to work at 90 degrees or fold up, and has a ratchet with release button - nice! Cookbook and Ghost Stories book 25 cents each.


Gordon has "hoarding disorder" (while I am just a pack rat). He bought a Dewalt cordless screwdriver set with 3 weak 7.2 volt batteries and charger for $5, a set of Chinese Forstner bits for $10, and some T-shirts, warm-up pants, socks, and ties for 25 cents each. And assorted other things.