What did you do today?

[zannej]

Daris, That is awesome! My elderly friend made an oak desk using piano boards (the ones that cover the keys) for the top. He just glued & clamped so there has been some separation over the years. I would have done some biscuit joints plus dowels (bc I'd rather be safe than sorry).
I love Ana White's site. I just found out she has a Youtube channel as well. Some of her projects are now on video to show the steps. There are a few things on her site I want to make-- the farmhouse chair being one (well, I plan to make 2). I'd probably do a prototype out of scraps first. It's for my friend's kitchen. I was thinking of making 3 (one for his daughter) but he might be single soon so there would only need to be 2 chairs.

Rusty, sorry to hear that. I hope you heal up quickly & that you feel better soon.

Highup, I'm also sorry to hear about your injury. How is your hand now?

I forgot that we went grocery shopping yesterday. I planned to run in and get 2 items while my mother & brother were supposed to sit in the truck. Would have been fast. But my brother wanted to use the bathroom & my mother wanted to look for something. Then they both decided to shop & it took about an hour. Every time I said "Ok, now let's get out of here" one of them would decide to go down another aisle to look at stuff & we ended up with a full cart. My naproxyn had worn off & I was hungry so I wanted to go home and get food. I was getting hangry. LOL. I suppose I shouldn't complain about how long it takes them in grocery stores or department stores bc I can spend a lot of time in hardware stores. That Home Depot on Eubank in Albquerque was freaking HUGE. I could have spent hours in there.

 

[highup]

I have bought two small Sunbeam space heaters in the past 5/7 years. Very quiet and consistent heating cycles. Both have crapped out on me, the second one recently. I salvaged the fan and for some reason, saved the circuit board from the first one.
Well the switch went bad on the most recent one. The switch is soldered to the circuit board.
The circuit boards are slightly different. One has the power wires soldered in place and the other has two plug in connectors........ I unsoldered the plug in connectors and soldered the wires in their place, just like the bad circuit board originally had. Turned out sweet. I'm now an HVAC technition.

 

[Jon]

If I tried doing something like that I would have ended up blowing the electricity for our house and maybe the whole street

 

[highup]

The only hard parts were getting the wires in the correct locations and desoldering the 5 places where the two plugs attached to the good circuit board. The circuit boards were the same (interchangeable) but were layed out differently, so you have to map out which wire connects to a particular resistor or capacitor. There are only 5 wires and the two that go to a heat senser are smaller... So really just 3 to figure out. You could do this Jon..... but the postage would cost me too much.
They make wicking material for desoldering, but I just used some speaker wire. This stuff would have worked better. https://www.ebay.com/p/1428462071?iid=133001607512&chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=133001607512&targetid=595232346709&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9033043&poi=&campaignid=2086170148&mkgroupid=76790091749&rlsatarget=pla-595232346709&abcId=1141016&merchantid=6394504&gclid=CjwKCAiAh5_uBRA5EiwASW3IaoJ6i7zrgH4Xvpd4st5ay9uUU_rKt3sMOoNcN1yMY5maXQbybiNGohoCCEMQAvD_BwE

 

[Floorist]

Have you ever found anything that you can't do?

 

[highup]

I've never built a space ship, a boat or walked a tight wire. ....and never ask me to memorize anything or type correctly. I just like little challenges like that. It's fun to take stuff apart and see what makes em work.

 

[zannej]

I'm having flashbacks to high school electronics class. I used to be able to read resisters but I have long since forgotten. We used to make circuit boards & stuff. It was fun. Wish I hadn't forgotten pretty much everything I learned. I should see if the electrical wiring book I got has info on circuit boards to refresh my memory. I think we had solder wicks but it's been so long... I remember making little solder balls from waste.

I'm glad you got the Sunbeam heater working again. I found that Sunbeam stuff tends to go out fairly fast but Honeywell is pretty good. But it's better to repurpose stuff & fix things than to buy new things. So you score points for problem solving and handyman skills.

I'm going to have to go grocery shopping again soon. I went to get some chicken to make myself a chicken quesadilla and discovered my brother ate all of it & left the plastic Ziploc bag on the floor (where I promptly slipped on it & nearly fell- torqued my back a bit). It's only 2pm but it's already getting dark because it's raining. We managed to hit our bandwidth limit so our internet is throttled. Apparently we can go over the limit every once in awhile so long as we don't go over it constantly.

I think tomorrow I will go visit my friend since he should be off work. I need to do some touch-up staining on his cabinets & also offer some moral support. I think he's going to end up breaking up with his fiance unless she comes to her friggin' senses & starts acting like a responsible adult.

 

[highup]

Spent the day in church, on my knees.this church put an elevated sound control 'room' at the back of the sanctury . They have a fancy new mixer for sound, lighting, mic controls etc. It's on a slightly raised platform. I installed some carpet tiles and stair metal in the new digs.
Images show in the wrong order.
The first and third are how I nailed the metal down. I marked the metal's hole locations then used a hole punch to remove some carpet. Drilling directly into the carpet grabbed and pulled rows. Had to pre drill because I was nailing into oak. Fun job and a different experience.

 

[Floorist]

 

[highup]

Someone looks comfy.

 

[zannej]

Aww, Kitty and a Doggy on the lap. <3
My pets have been pains today. They keep running into rooms they didn't want to me in. Found out one or more of them pissed on my box of tissues (I think it happened while I was away on the trip & they got into my room). It had fallen on the floor & I just found it.

I did go to see my friend. He was stressed to the max bc of his fiance. The receptacle for his dryer died so I went and got him a new one. Also got the tires changed on the CRV & got more grocery shopping in.

Today I cleaned, wrangled cats & dogs, & cooked. The cats were out of food in the container so I had to go find an unopened bag & pour it in (my brother is supposed to take care of that bc most of the cats are his, but he's lazy AF and won't lift a finger to do anything around here now) & then fed them. I was trying to watch TV when I heard my elderly dog yelping. Went out to find her on the kitchen floor with her left back leg all the way under her chin. She must have slipped and didn't have the strength to roll or move so she was crying for help. I picked her up, set her on her feet, then lifted her a little more to offer support until she got steady on her feet & waited until she seemed OK. My mother came waddling out shouting for me a few minutes later & I told her I'd already taken care of the dog & was in the process of trying to feed her (dog rejected the food & water though). The dog then wandered around the kitchen and then back into the hallway. I don't know what she was looking for, but it didn't seem to be food. Yesterday I wiped her down with shea butter wipes & brushed her. She was wagging her tail & leaning in to the brush. She seemed to be in a better mood. I'll probably brush her again later since it seems to make her feel better.

When I first picked up the brush I was in the living room & our cat Itsy was on the back of Mom's chair. I was talking to Mom & wasn't paying attention to Itsy meowing at me. She saw the brush & wanted to be brushed so badly that she eventually just jumped directly into my arms bc I wasn't coming over and brushing her. She then rubbed her face on the brush and meowed at me until I brushed her thoroughly.

 

[Jon]

This is how you brush a cat Use a vacuum cleaner

 

[highup]

Before and after. Hospital removed some storage cabinets to make room for desks.
Don't ask about the third repair and why 1/2 of my new carpet seam sealer bottle is empty.

 

[highup]

Felt like making a table support for my router. Table is a single piece of plywood, which of course isn't enough material to stay flat. The plywood will be screwed to this metal frame. It was pieces of a store display that was tossed out. The square part was already welded up. I notched out the two center supports. I'm taking it to a friend's place tomorrow to get the pieces welded up. The square part is really strong and flat.
The plywood piece that holds the router lift might be good enough for now. I made it a year ago but haven't needed it for anything since. Have a couple of projects to mess with, so I decided to make the router usable. Fun little project.

 

[zannej]

Highup, the carpet repair turned out nicely. I don't think I would have noticed the seams if I hadn't seen the before picture. Why the hell does a hospital have carpet though? Even in office space I'd think it's not a good thing to have in a place w/ so many contaminants.

The router table thing looks cool!

Today I got up early & visited my friend before going to the grocery store. Got back & Mom wanted to go to the store in Alexandria so we went to a few places. Picked up some stuff on sale at Harbor freight-- a speed square & a 51-piece ratchet set. Then we went to HD and picked up a Husky cordless ratchet wrench. My friend can use it when he fixes my brother's truck.

We went to Outback & Mom's steak was too tough so they replaced it. Waitress saw her AARP card when she pulled out her wallet & gave her a discount. Clerk at HD was also nice & helpful. Didn't even ask to see Mom's military ID for her discount (he could see she'd been having trouble navigating around the store in the riding cart-- too many tight spaces). I had to grab the cart and slide it sideways & pivot it while she was on it to get her around some corners. Now I'm back home and about to watch the DVR of the last episode of Poldark.

 

[highup]

Hospital entries are often vinyl sheet material. This is office space. Not a big deal.
We don't have HD, but I know some things they sell actually work fairly decent. They replace for free if you return stuff, but if you don't live near by, they won't pay for your fuel costs.
The router table base is welded up.... feel so lucky to have friends that are so generous with their time. Took me 20 minutes to drive to his place, then it took him 5 minutes to set up his wire welder and tack the joints. So cool.

 

[zannej]

I wish we had kept the welding machine Cordell gave us. We gave it to his nieces husband, Doofer, after Cordell died & just found out that Doofer died (he wasn't even all that old). There's a guy in town nicknamed Rusty who welds stuff, but he's often busy working at the local tire shop.

My friend did some work on my brother's truck & has it running nicely. Broke several tools trying to get an O2 sensor off. Managed to get 1 off but not the other. Got some new rear struts & stuff, stopped the engine from misfiring, etc. My brother woke me up freaking out bc he couldn't find the control arms he'd bought to put on the truck but I could have sworn they'd already been put on. He tore the house up looking for them (leaving a mess in his wake that I have to clean up bc he won't do it). I visited the friend briefly on my way back from the grocery store then realized I forgot to get my medicine & had to go back. He injured his back at work & has an MRI scheduled Thursday. My brother got some rotisserie chickens & ate one at the friend's house & brought the other one home and stuffed it in the fridge. I dissected it and bagged the meat up & threw away the bones (in containers so the cats can't get them).

Today my mother decided she wanted salad but we don't have lettuce or anything to make it with so after dinner I had to go to the store to get her some apple walnut salads. I also picked up some milk.

I've been planning to work on my back door because it's getting worse & I want to get it replaced before the weather gets even colder. It looks like there was no flashing under the threshold and there is at least a 1" drop from the threshold to the outside sill (both the wood under the threshold & the sill are rotted). Bottom of the door is rotted, pet door fell out & the wood where it used to be is rotted. I need to prep the new door for installation so it will be ready to go up. I'm thinking I can pop the hinge pins out to make the slab easier to manage when I cut the hole for the pet door (which was supposed to come with a template but didn't). If it were a wood door it would be simpler but it's steel clad (although the mfr said it could be cut). The blades for cutting metal aren't designed to go around corners & the pet door has rounded corners. I'm thinking I could use a dremel tool with cutting blade for metal to cut through the steel cladding & then use the jigsaw to cut the wood. I plan to drill holes in all 4 corners to make it easier to cut. I'll clamp a board to the underside of the door to try to prevent the steel from pushing out when it is drilled. I'm thinking of drilling most of the way through & then flipping it over and drilling form the other side. If I make a template & do the measurements right it should line up. Or, I could just take a go with the metal cutting blade on the jigsaw (after drilling the holes).

Right now my door doesn't have a proper header-- it has a 2x4 on uneven king studs with a 1" drop from right to left. I'm going to make a new header out of 2x6s adhered together & instead of putting it right over the door, I'm going to put it up near the ceiling (bc there's electrical in the way down lower). I'll add new king studs next to the current ones, then I'll trim the cripples to allow for the new header (it's going to be a little tricky because they have electrical wires running through them and sort of glued in tight-- will have to shut off electrical while working on them. I'm going to have to see if the wires can be removed at least temporarily so I can run them through the king studs. Then I need to raise & adjust the old header so it is level & high enough for the door to clear the finished floor. Right now the door scrapes the subfloor but part of that is because it's crooked.

I'm going to have to cut out portions of the floor underneath the door & patch it. On the houserepairtalk forum someone suggested using a 2x4 or 2x6 underneath the threshold. Still trying to figure out what to do for the door sill. I'm going to add a sill pan & some house wrap tape/flashing. I'm pretty sure there's no z-channel or flashing on top of the door either so I will need to remedy that. I'm going to add an awning so I'll have to add blocking to support it when I'm working on the header. It's a lot of work & I still need to work on my bathroom floor but the bathroom floor won't affect the heating of the house but this back door is affecting it.

I'm going to paint the supports for the awning soon-- got the paint but need to get my painter's tape & sanding block from my friend-- also need to get my jigsaw, nail gun, and compressor back. He keeps telling me my compressor is in there somewhere but I haven't seen it & I'm worried it got stolen & he's afraid to tell me.

 

[zannej]

Been exhausted the last few days and didn't realize I was out of one of my meds. Been without it a couple days and I'm feeling it. I didn't want to mess with black friday traffic so I stayed home and will get it tomorrow. I didn't even wake up until after 4pm. Finally got some energy after 1am and started cleaning. My old dog was confused as I was trying to sweep around her. She was having trouble earlier-- she tried to stand up but her back legs were too weak so she started crying out. I went to check on her, got her some water and held the bowl up to her face (she wouldn't drink it when it was on the floor) and helped her stand up and supported her for a bit until she was stable. Then I fed her. Ran out of her canned food in the house but I have a whole new case in the truck to bring in. Mom surprisingly didn't want stroganoff again so I made something else-- only I grabbed the wrong thing from the freezer but she was ok with it. Meant to get the chicken cordonbleu but accidentally grabbed the stuffed turkey breasts.
Tomorrow (well, later today) I'm going to pick up some groceries for my friend since he's getting screwed from all angles in life right now.
Turns out my tools weren't stolen thankfully. Just need to get my brother to help me lift the door on to the work table on one of his days off. He's been getting slammed at work (they are understaffed so he's doing the job of 3 people) so he's exhausted and in a bad mood.
I'm relaxing a bit right now with my cat on my shoulder. Going to try to get my brain to let me sleep but it keeps having random thoughts.

 

[zannej]

Since my last post my brother did help me with the door that first time to get it on the table. Since then I made a template for the pet door, marked it on the door, drilled holes in every corner, cut a hole for the pet door (but battery ran low on my router so it started to tear the steel instead of cut). I had to use a dremel tool to trim up the steel but it didn't cut as well as I'd hoped. It still did OK. I had to straight out some of the cuts that were curvy. I attempted to put tape over the foam to cover it but ended up getting tape stuck to itself and to me several times before deciding to nix that idea for now. I'm a total monkey when it comes to tape. I'm still going to use it at some point though. I made sure the deeper ring that goes on the inside of the house fit inside (although it warps a bit so I will have to see about using tape to hold it in place properly). I realized that the screws that came with the pet door were not going to work since they would anchor in to foam & they were meant to anchor in to wood. So I went out and got some #6-32 bolts. Longest they had was 2" and they barely go through. Either they didn't come with nuts or I misplaced them (I'll look for them later) I have an idea where I put them if they were included. If they can't fit what little protrudes through I will have to special order some bolts, but at least I got the holes lined up. LOL. I had to make some of the holes through the steel a little larger to allow some wiggle room. I think because the inner ring warped a bit it made it so the holes weren't as widespread as the ones for the rigid piece with the door flap. But I got them in & have it in place temporarily. I will need to take pictures later. My phone has been losing battery at an extraordinary rate so I have it charging.

Right now I have the pet door bolted in, but I'm going to remove it, do a little cleanup on the inside edges of the hole, use some tape to hold the inner ring tight to the edge & seal over the foam (I'm going to bring a better knife down this time to cut the tape because it won't tear with my hands & it sticks to scissors). I'm going to paint the door before I permanently install the pet door. I want to do some touch-up on the primer first and see if it will help disguise some of the scrapes & dings the door got when I had to flip it over a few times. There's a heavy sanding machine up on the work table that I couldn't seem to move out of the way (I think it might be bolted down) & it hit it a few times when I was flipping the door by myself. Some wasps have been getting in to the workshop somehow- not sure where their entry point is, but I have an idea. I annihilated one with a mallet the other day. Nailed one yesterday with a piece of scrap wood. I feel like Mickey Mouse bragging about swatting flies. LOL.

I think I spent 3 hours in the workshop yesterday trimming up the edges of the steel with a dremel tool to make stuff fit better. I had to take 3 tries and twice the battery ran out so I let it charge overnight and was able to get it cleaned up. It didn't help that I realized that I'd been gripping the dremel tool over the buttons for the battery release. LOL. Kind of lowered the power until I realized I'd pulled the battery loose. I made sure to wear gloves and eye protection when using the dremel and it was a good idea. Sparks were flying so the gloves protected my hand- and it saved my hand from when the tool slipped and the metal cutting blade hit my finger (I sort of derped and halfway dropped the tool and it slid toward my hand-- glove wasn't damaged & I didn't even feel it so it was OK).

Today I think I'm going to do a little more cleanup on the edges of the steel to see if I can take the warp out of the more malleable side of the pet door & attempt to tape it in place. I'm going to take a moving blanket down to put underneath the door and over anything that might scrape it up. It's going to be an exterior door so its ok for it to have some dings though.

My mother wants the front door painted the same color as the back door-- she picked out Behr marquee Deep River color as her favorite. It's expensive paint though so I'm going to take her with me to the store to get the military discount. I also need to grab some primer for touch-ups (and if she wants me to paint the front door I will need primer for it since the wood has a dark stain. If it wouldn't have to be off the house for a prolonged period of time, I'd pop the hinge pins & take the door to the workshop.

For now I'm trying to focus on working on the back door though. She stayed up all night again so she doesn't want to go to the store today as she's just now going to sleep.

I need to take updated pics, but I took pictures of the door when I first marked the template & drilled holes in the corners & then after I cut the piece out. You can see where the steel started to tear and fold instead of cut. I flattened it a little bit, but the foam doesn't give me much of a good surface for hammer. LOL.

 

[Floorist]

You sound like Highup and me with the stuff you do. "The impossible just takes a little longer".