What did you do today?

[highup]

$5 was a good number yesterday........... I found an "ash" type metal can vacuum for $5. Now I can vacuum the ashes from my keg/BBQ instead of removing the grill to scoop them out by hand. It has a larger filter and an smaller inner filter. I guess that's so you can use it in a house without any dust escaping. It's kind of a vacuum on a 5 gallon metal pail. I haven't googled it yet but it's made by Love Less Ash Co. Nice little unit.

By the way...... I'm not a garage sale kind of guy. These sales were just on my route into town yesterday morning.

 

[highup]

Bought a $400.00 Putter yesterday . Didn't do as good as you did Hi .

I still need the hose and wand, so I may have another $60 to $100 into it unless I can find used stuff. I feel good tho, because this engine runs flawlessly sweet. My mower sounds good, but this thing sounds awsum.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Must be the day for garage sales. I drove by one and saw something by Dewalt. Enough to get me to turn around and go back. It was a upright aircompressor. $50, but the lady said it needed some kind of part that cost $11. I didn't spring for it yet but if it is still there today I may offer $35 or less. It is just around the corner from my house about a block away. Fix it and flip it I already have 2.

Daris

 

[Floorist]

Bought a Roberts seam iron at a garage sale yesterday. Figured if the price was right it would be a cool backup unit. It didn't have a tray. It looks better then the one I have. Hey, who could say no for $5.
OK, he also had a pressure washer and a couple of mowers. I asked him if the pressure washer starts. He said "I don't have a clue" "I'm never gonna tinker with it because I work too much, so I just want to get rid of this stuff cheap"
I asked how much and he said ..............$5 I like that number for some reason.
The pressure washer had a non usable hose and no wand, and I couldn't even tell who made it.
(it was a wee bit dirty and oily)
Hosed it down last night with a degreaser and discovered it's a Craftsman. Neato. It said 2000 PSI at @ 2GPM. Nothing industrial, but certainly usable. It has a Briggs 5.5 hp engine.
Except for some funky racing decals, the unit looks really nice. I spent all day cleaning the oxidation from the engine's exterior and cooling fins and cleaning the carb.............. man-O- man was it in bad shape. The carb is clean inside now with a lot of work. I had to go to town and get some non alcohol supreme gas just before dark because I wanted to know if the contraption would start.
I hooked up a garden hose to the unit, pushed the carb primer bulb a few times and ................ It's Alive!:birthday:
I've never heard an engine run so steady and strong... way, way cool.
So for the $5 initial investment and another $10 or so for carb cleaner and a new spark plug........ even without a hose and wand I done really good. A day well spent.
It cleaned up well and no real; rust to worry about. I almost wanted to take it back to the guy that sold it t me so he could hear how well it runs....... NOT!

I bought a Roberts seam iron at a flea market for $2 years ago. Used it for a long time. It still works but I bought a new one. Bought a Roberts JR stretcher for $100 at a pawn shop about 1980 or so. Still use it. Some of it wore out and I had to fabricate parts for it maybe 15 years ago. Bought a Crain new and it was junk from day one.. Only kept the Crain because it has a cotton head.

 

[highup]

I have a friend and his wife that garage sale every Friday and Saturday. The stuff he buys for $5 is incredible. Some like new center focus Bushnell binoculars is one of his finds. I'm gonna ask him to keep an eye out for a hose and wand for me. Surely someone out there has a pressure washer that died but they still have the hose.

 

[Floorist]

I bought a nice guitar for $10 at a yard sale a few weeks back. Decided to go back to playing again. It helps keep my fingers limber.

 

[highup]

I bought a nice guitar for $10 at a yard sale a few weeks back. Decided to go back to playing again. It helps keep my fingers limber.

I never played one so I'll continue to listen to them.
I bought a Pwerball a couple of days early. I never do that. I forgot that I bought it, so I wasted $3 on another one yesterday.
The there the bright side. Both had the same Powerball number (11) and the multiplier is x2. x2 means $8 on the first ticket. The other ticket also had 3 correct numbers......... so x2 = $200 if I did the math right. :birthday:

 

[highup]

On the way to the store to cash in the two tickets, my alternator light came on....... cashed the tickets, got a new alternator. They call that fate, right?
I spent all day cleaning the power washer. I had to take the engine shroud back off because I forgot to re attach the ground wire on the coil that makes the kill switch function. Last night after I got it running, I had to shut it off by grounding the spark plug to the engine with a rubber handled wrench.
Anyway, since I had to remove the shroud, and since it had some stupid decals and a little rust on it, I figured why not sand it down and paint it. I already had self etching primer and a can of Hammer finish paint. The muffler guard was tweaked, so I straightened and we sanded it and shot it with some semigloss engine paint. I had some of that left from my water pump installation a couple months ago.
The thing looks like new and starts easy. I shot the aluminum engine with wd-40 and the casting looks like new too. I need to find a Craftsman sticker for the engine to finish it off. I know they sell the OEM factory stickers. Been a good weekend for me.
I forgot to eat today........... so a beer and a hot dog are gonna suffice.

 

[Floorist]

Got a call today from a guy wanting a bid. Told him no. "I already bid jobs for you twice and did not get them." "Not going to waste my time"
Last one I bid on, the previous installer had put in the carpet and pad and walked out. That is a red flag.

Ran into an old installer that I know, he is still going strong at 79.

 

[Nick]

Better him then me ..

 

[Jon]

On the way to the store to cash in the two tickets, my alternator light came on....... cashed the tickets, got a new alternator. They call that fate, right?
QUOTE]

I can understand you
Years ago I got my best win out of Lotto, about $200 and the washing machine blew up About $300 to fix
All I get now for my $28 investment in Lotto each week is one free line
Next week the big one maybe

 

[highup]

My charge light comes on every now and then. Stays on for a little while, then returns to normal. When the light comes on tho, it ain't kidding....... it drops to less than 11.5 volts even tho the battery had 12.6 just moment before the light came on. It did that with a 6 month old alternator, and it did it even after the shop that sold it to me gave me a new replacement after only 7000 miles.
I tend to think the problem lies elsewhere but every pro I talk to says replace the alternator.......
So this time I bought another brand new one with a lifetime warranty. If the light come on again in the next 6 months I'm gonna go nuts. ....well, more nuts.

 

[Floorist]

Some of the new parts are junk. I put three fuel pumps on my van before I got a good one.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Hi, I had the same thing happen with a fan clutch and a alternater. To the point both shops refused to replace them again. Luck would have I never had a problem again.

Daris

 

[highup]

Some of the new parts are junk. I put three fuel pumps on my van before I got a good one.

Alternator is Chinese of course, but the bearings and especially the casting visually anyway looks very well made. Bought it at Oreillys. I have had good luck with their stuff.

Hi, I had the same thing happen with a fan clutch and a alternater. To the point both shops refused to replace them again. Luck would have I never had a problem again.

Daris

If the light comes on again, the problem has to be elsewhere. It's rare to have such intermittent alternator issues like the one I have......... exact same symptoms both times. I replaced the original alternator because the front bearing was going out. The next two brand new ones have had this intermittent battery light issue. Mechanics and the guys on the S10 forum say replace the alternator. The light hasn't come on for months and when it came on, it went back off 4 minutes later. The time before that it happened back in November or December. Between those times, no battery light problems. Both of those times it fixed itself. Makes it scary to drive anywhere.

 

[zannej]

The compressor just went out in the AC for my brother's "new" truck. Probably going to cost around $300 to fix it. Wouldn't have been a problem for him before Mom made him start buying his own food. He was saving money by having her pay for his food. And she offered to pay for his food if he would take the trash out twice a week, but he refused. He doesn't pay rent or utilities and he still drinks her bottled water instead of buying his own (it's $1.11 for a gallon of the stuff and he goes through several gallons a week). Taking out the trash was the one chore he has around the house and he refuses to do it.

A friend came over the other day and helped me haul the trash out and we went to visit my brother at work. They took away the bin at the end of our road so we have no place to put our trash anymore and we were going to put the bags in the dumpster at my brother's work, but then our friend said "No! Let's put it in the back of his truck!" LOL. So, my bro didn't bother to take it out and was like "Why the f___ did you put those bags in my truck?" and I said "Because it's funny."
He said he's going to look for a second job somewhere, but considering how long it took him to get the one he has, he's probably s.o.l. on that. But at least he now qualifies for Medicaid because he has asthma, COPD, diabetes, and only makes $15k a year. He's started some shift-lead work in the mornings so he's getting a little more pay now, but he hates working mornings.

My friend (the one with the bad luck who had the wreck and then house burned) is going to get a pay raise soon because his previous place of employment offered him $13.50/hr to come back to them. He currently makes about $9/hr. He told his current employer and they matched the offer because they need him there. He thought they were going to fire him for it, but he brings them a lot of business and is their top salesperson. The other employees there adore him. So, it looks like he's there to stay.

His ex tried to screw him on the electric bill, but her boyfriend/fiance found out and made things right AND brought my friend food while he was at work as an apology for the ex being a witch with a capital B. I think she tried to sabotage him getting power turned on at the "new" house because she knows he's taking his fridge that my mother bought him.

The nice man who bought the tractor from us last year came out to bush hog this afternoon. Yard looks so much nicer. Since we sold it to him for considerably less than it was worth and threw in the trailer to haul it and several accessories for free, he pledged to come mow the lawn for us and help with stuff if we need it. Really helps since I can no longer be out in the sun for any length of time because of my medication. He added a shade/top to the rollbar and some metal pieces like from a forklift for the front-end loader so he can lift logs with it.

 

[Nick]

WOW Z , Did you sell the movie rights ?

 

[Jon]

zannej you certainly have an interesting life
I agree with Nick about the movie rights

 

[zannej]

My dad had a more interesting life. Sadly, a lot of his memoirs got wiped in a hard drive failure so he had to start over and didn't get as far. I still have some of them backed up on multiple hard drives. I need to back them up on more. My uncle was disappointed that he didn't get further along.

I mostly played tech support for my mother today. She has a degree in computer science but doesn't know how to "save image as" or how to upload pictures-- even when the instructions were as simple as "drag photo to this box". LOL. Although, to be fair, when she got her degree they were still literally using punch cards. I feel for her. I hated COBOL when it was typed-- but in punch cards it must have really sucked.

Found a whole compress install kit on Amazon for about $180 for my brother-- if he will just do something and order it or figure out if it needs to be replaced.

My friend didn't get the power turned on yet but it's being turned on tomorrow so I'm going over to help clean it up. There will be vacuuming and sweeping. and spraying stuff with bleach. LOL.

 

[zannej]

In the continuing saga of small town drama:
It turns out my friend had a restraining order against his father because of the violent attack earlier but as soon as my friend's grandmother got back, she bailed her son out and brought him back home-- to the same house my friend is staying at-- so the restraining order has been violated, but they talked my friend in to not reporting it so long as his father stayed off drugs and behaved. That lasted about a week or so. We think his father broke in to the "new" house he's moving in to and stole some stuff that belonged to the former tenant (since she hasn't removed her stuff yet even though she left 3 months ago). Anyway, he's back on drugs and was being verbally abusive to the grandmother (calling her a whore and other things). Mind you, this is an unemployed guy in his late 40s who does nothing but steal from his parents, eat their food, mow the lawn, and steal gas out of other people's vehicles. He has stolen money, stolen their checks, robbed their safe, stolen and sold their medicine-- and the parents let him get away with it. He's gone to rehab about 20 times and it never sticks (probably because there are never serious consequences because his parents enable him). Yet the grandmother is telling my friend's 20-year-old girlfriend that she's "trash". The kid is employed and helps my friend pay the bills and cleans up his father's messes. Anyhoo, crackhead started threatening my friend again, so my friend made a quick call to the cops to tell them he was violating the restraining order and threatening him. So they made him leave but said they weren't going to put him back in jail for the first offense. If he does it again, my friend is going to call his cousin at the sheriff's department who would love to arrest the jerk.

Anyway, the floor in the "new" house's kitchen is destroyed-- as is the rest of the kitchen. Most of the nasty carpet got pulled out-- except for one room where the former tenant hasn't removed her furniture and is coming to get it later.

The main room has plywood floor so it's not too bad. Back bedroom has OSB on top of plywood. Not sure what is under the filthy carpet of bedroom #1. We scrubbed all of the walls with bleach and got the place cleaned up better. No running water is on yet though. Today I took my friend to check out carpet remnants to replace the stuff that was pulled out. He's thinking of moving the kitchen in to the main room and converting the old kitchen to a pantry (it is smaller than the bathroom). But he's thinking of putting carpet down in the new kitchen area-- which I think is a bad idea. But he can't find large enough vinyl sheets in his price range (It's about 13' 3"x12' area). Found some 13x12 carpet remnants for $66 each but he doesn't get his paycheck 'til next Friday. Hopefully they will still be there or maybe there will be something better next week.