McGuyver strikes again

[highup]

Old carpet, still has a lot of life in it. The older fella got tired of looking at burn marks from the fireplace. I looked at it yesterday, told him I could do it today.
The carpet rems lived in the shade and the living room has typical fading.
There was a large enough piece of carpet to eliminate all 7 burn marks in one single patch, but the difference in color would have been much more of an eyesore.
I channeled McGuyver and he told me to make this......
A rotary micro cookie cutter.
The tubing is slightly sharpened using a step drill on the tubing's inside.
I used a thick Super Glue to adhere a nut and bolt together, then inserted it into the tubing and staked it in a half dozen placed using a center punch. I put the contraption into my drill press to check for alignment. A couple of taps and it spun true with no wobble.
Once the Super Glue dried, I had me a new tool.
Did it work?

 

[highup]

Yup, it worked pretty slick. It was carpet surgery, and it wasn't lightning fast but still moved along at a decent pace.
I cut/drilled out and inserted a plug in all but one larger spot, removing the burnt material.
Both the edges of the hole I cut in the carpet, and and the tiny plug were carefully sealed using a minimal amount of hot glue. I cut a round piece of Koolglide seam tape, marked it's center and rolled it up so I could insert it into the hole that I made. Once unrolled under the carpet, I centered the tape, the sealed the carpet edges, then inserted the tiny plug into the hot glue, maneuvering and holding it into it's final position as the glue sets up, using a long, thin awl as the positioning device. I don't recall if there were six or seven spots that I fixed.
I forgot to take any pictures until I had two or three of these repaired.
Doesn't look like much in a photo, but these were quite noticeable.
He's happy, I'm happy..... everyone is happy.
Is $175 too cheap for a little over two hours?
Probably a bargain?
Some installers here are using $500 as a minimum. I guess it's not worth getting out of bed to make a lesser amount.
It is to me and my customers.

 

[highup]

Yes, the blue tape is the only way a repair like this would be possible. It keeps the fibers out of the hot glue. I used to complain about the price of blue tape, but not any more.

 

[MSLI]

AMAZING HIGHUP does it again Watch out ! Crain is coming for the patent

Can I be your first customer ?

I would probably bill 175.00 too, but I believe the market/customer would understand double that number, no problem . Now all you need is the courage , that comes to the forefront by valuing the unique set of skills, gained over a career , like no other.

 

[highup]

Thank you sir.
I've done the same thing using a propane torch and brass tubing. Part the fibers as shown then test fit the tubing. Heat the tubing and carefully lower it straight down, taking a core sample like the one here. You've got to be super careful because you don't want to shrink or damage the surrounding fibers. It make a very nice heat sealed edge in the repair hole.
Yeah, a wee bit more dangerous.
That said, I did take my propane torch with me, plus another McGuyver tool I made the night before. I'll get a picture of it.

 

[Tile Tom]

Looks great man. A+ on being creative.

 

[highup]

Ok, here's a safer heated plug remover. It worked good when I tested it at home. It would heat up faster with a thinner wall tubing than this copper pipe. It's just 10 gauge copper wire connecting the two parts. This was if I needed a larger plug than the drill unit. I should have tried it on the customers carpet to see if it worked differently than the short pile carpet I tested at home. There's was thicker and more dense.

 

[DarisMulkin]

hey mcgiver you might like this formula for finding how much carpet on a roll.

Diameter of the core + Diameter of the roll × # laps × .131

 

[highup]

I've come close adding the inside diameter to the outside diameter then dividing by two, then multiply the # of wraps. Not super accurate, but it can get you close enough when deciding whether or not to pull a roll out of the rack to measure on the machine.
I just tried a made up roll with my method and came up with 77 feet but yours came up with 20 feet.
I used 6.5 and 1.2 as the inside and outside measurements with 20 wraps.
.......ooops I was doing circumference with your method too.

 

[highup]

Using diameter like you showed I'm getting a worse result.
Using diameter, I'm coming up with 5.4 feet in length. That's not right for a 20 lap roll.
2.07 outside + .5 inside = 2.57
2.57 x 20 wraps = 51.4
51.5 x .131 = 6.7 feet in length

 

[highup]

51.4 x 1.31 gets me 67.333 feet........ closer to the 77 feet I got using my method.
I'm thinking you meant 1.31 and not .131