What did you do today?

[highup]

If it really requires replacing the entire dash......
Is there a reason why you couldn't just cut a square or round hole in a dash to access the item that need to be replaced.
......jus sayin' ...... If you'd have to replace the dash anyway, what's wrong with making easier access if that's at all possible by hacking you a hole through the dash.

 

[Floorist]

If it really requires replacing the entire dash......
Is there a reason why you couldn't just cut a square or round hole in a dash to access the item that need to be replaced.
......jus sayin' ...... If you'd have to replace the dash anyway, what's wrong with making easier access if that's at all possible by hacking you a hole through the dash.

It is a plastic door that has to shut and it is wore out. It is part of the dash, so you can have either heat or cold. Right now it is stuck on heat. My mechanic buddy tells me it will just break off if we move it. Some idiot glued it at some time.

 

[highup]

I don't know the vehicle but I know the door you're talking about. On my s10, there's a foam gasket that seals that flap valve thing to allow fresh air or recirculate cab air.

Can you see the actual flapper or is that inside the ducting.

 

[C.J.]

I've never used or been around anyone that has a paslode nailing gun. Mind me asking how pricey it was? .... And how noisy compared to pneumatic. Also curious if it could be used for self-defense........ You might be able to nail an intruder to the wall till the cops get there.

That gun is a pneumatic one. They’re great. $175 at my local tool n fastener shop. Maybe $150 or less if you order it online. I didn’t want to wait so I paid.

The Paslode gas guns that you’re thinking of can be finicky if you don’t oil and clean them on the regular but the pneumatic ones usually just need a couple drops of oil every day and they work great. My buddy has one of the gas framing nailers. It definitely has a pop to it but it’s not too much louder than a regular framing nailer. The big thing is where your head is when you’re firing it. If you’re in a closet or some place confined, they definitely can make your ears ring so wear hearing protection.

 

[zannej]

My brother forgot the mushrooms in the liver curry with spinach. They've since been added but I haven't eaten it yet. Tasted ok without them but was missing something. Probably will work well in a burrito since its mushy texture.

One of my cats keeps jumping on my keyboard and turning the backlighting off... She's done it twice in the past 2 minutes and I'm about ready to lock her in the pantry until she calms down.

Namir (our youngest male cat) got out because my brother didn't shut the door. I caught him and went to show my brother he was OK (since he'd been worried) but Namir panicked, kicked free, and ran into the closet. He came out and I tried to carry him back out but he panicked again and got free again. He's been hiding in the closet all night. His sister, Temjin, is freaking out because she doesn't know where he is. I took Princess (the dog) in to see her to calm her down a little. She loves Princess so she came up to snuggle her and Princess licked her face and played with her a little.

I'm trying to get motivated to do something but my body is aching and not wanting to cooperate.

That was a crazy police video! The cops probably got in some trouble for those mistakes. Guys who got their vehicles stolen were probably pretty embarrassed. But I have to say, that perp must be good at GTA. I guess he was trying the VR version of it. LOL.

I'm currently trying to figure out what brake pads to get for my truck and whether or not anti-rattle clips (around $3 for 4 of them) are worth getting. I also need an oil change and transmission fluid change. Ugh. Need to schedule some maintenance on it asap.

 

[C.J.]

Everybody’s favorite today... floating floors! Best part is there is a subdivision for another builder a couple blocks over that we work on and that site super came over today and brought us a bucket of beers on ice. Now that’s how you grease the wheels!

 

[Floorist]

Spent a couple hours making mounting brackets for a Kenwood stereo. Whoever put it in there first, just kinda dropped it in a hole in the dash. It would move around, rattle and it was a bear to remove. Now it will slide in and out, easy.

 

[Mark Brown]

I just finished welding the exhaust for my car from the header to the cat back.
Stock with the engine was 1.5 inch, maybe even 1.25 and now everything from the header back is 2.5 inch. Should help seeing as the engine went from a 92 hp to 185. Tomorrow is test drive day. Last time I did that was last October or so, my "exhaust" was a the cat back I had bought from Yonaka, the stock 1.5 inch cat mounted to a header collector that was way too big and some oversized flex pipe and some clamps. Needless to say that did not work all that well at all so this year...
I have been working on that car for almost 3 years on and off, without a garage and without a bloody clue what i am doing and it is almost done. I think I will actually be able to drive it to work on Monday
Then comes the real fun of transferring the stereo to it. I already have the rear seats and the whole hatch gutted down to the metal, now I just need to start fiberglassing a new enclosure and amp racks. Its gonna be a blend of MDF and fiberglass so we shall see what takes shape but either way it will be fun.

 

[Mark Brown]

Spent a couple hours making mounting brackets for a Kenwood stereo. Whoever put it in there first, just kinda dropped it in a hole in the dash. It would move around, rattle and it was a bear to remove. Now it will slide in and out, easy.

My work van was like that. I never got around to getting the mounting bracket for it and put the sub and speakers and deck in it one night after work. After putting the dash all back together to go to work the next night, the prospect of doing it all over again just to make it pretty did not really appeal to me in the least. To this day I can still just go and pull it out... that is if i can get my hands on it and it has not fallen in too far lol

 

[Floorist]

It just amazed me that someone would put a $300 stereo in this car and if you pushed a button, the stereo would slide back almost out of sight. It was impossible to set it. I could have bought brackets, but I would rather make stuff. Randy and I both do that all the time.

 

[C.J.]

So glad I kept my stereo stock. I found a stock stereo on eBay that had an auxiliary input added to it so I could listen to Pandora n such but at the same time it’s still stock. No fuss, no muss.

 

[highup]

Everybody’s favorite today... floating floors! Best part is there is a subdivision for another builder a couple blocks over that we work on and that site super came over today and brought us a bucket of beers on ice. Now that’s how you grease the wheels!

View attachment 11866View attachment 11867View attachment 11868

It's nice to see someone makes a point to let you know they appreciate what you're doing.

 

[highup]

It just amazed me that someone would put a $300 stereo in this car and if you pushed a button, the stereo would slide back almost out of sight. It was impossible to set it. I could have bought brackets, but I would rather make stuff. Randy and I both do that all the time.

Some people buy stuff and some people make stuff. I like to enjoy the ride.
I'm actually dreaming up a new cutter to replace what I made a few years ago. It only cuts one direction but that hasn't made any difference because I'm right handed so cutting into the left is natural to me.
Here's the old one and a piece of angle aluminum for the new one.
If you look at the cutter you will notice strips of stainless steel adhered to the aluminum angle, on opposite sides of the edges of the utility blade. Those strips contain the blade and an alan screw and washer is used as a hold down. You can buy the stainless in a thickness of .025", exactly the same thickness as a heavy duty utility blade. I made this cutter for a really difficult vinyl repair. I had to cut out three 20 foot long by 2 ft wide sections of sheet vinyl flooring. It was a wood plank pattern with those skinny, black 1/16" wide "grout lines" between the planks. This cutter allowed me to cut EXACTLY the depth of two pieces of material without cutting in to the substrate. you just keep adjusting the blade on practice pieces until it doesn't cut more than two pieces thick. Unlike simply using a utility knife, the cutter cuts at exactly a 90° angle.
I later used this to trim out a 3/4 inch section of commercial carpet that was stretched in a 5 foot wide hallway. The utility blade rides exactly on the edge of your straight edge so that makes the cut really accurate.
Anyway the tool works so good I'm going to remake it. I noticed the crane loop pile cutter has a 30° angle and my Roberts has a 60° angle. I'm thinking of putting an angle of this one around 40 to 45°.
I'm also contemplating making two plates for this cutter out of quarter inch aluminum. That would make two detachable pieces and I could make one fit a utility blade and the second one fit a carpet blade. that 5-in piece of angle aluminum would simply act as the handle and the bottom part of the guide. Anyway it's in progress I just haven't committed myself yet.

 

[Mark Brown]

I like it my man but that is a lot of work to make a top cutter but like you say, sometime it is about the journey

 

[highup]

I like it my man but that is a lot of work to make a top cutter but like you say, sometime it is about the journey

It's definitely is about the journey. There are pictures on the site somewhere, of a lift I made for my router. I needed something with super precision to do an inset repair in a wilsonart laminate floor. Took me most of the year to dream up how to make it and to actually build it, then I had to build a table to set it into. Between buying the aluminum and buying the nuts and bolts and drill bits and taps, I might have $300 into this stupid thing. We don't want to talk about how much my time is worth because it would be really stupid to spend $6,000 on a lift for a router that you use once a year.
For $300 to $500 you could buy one.
....... But not mine.

 

[highup]

I just finished welding the exhaust for my car from the header to the cat back.
Stock with the engine was 1.5 inch, maybe even 1.25 and now everything from the header back is 2.5 inch. Should help seeing as the engine went from a 92 hp to 185. Tomorrow is test drive day. Last time I did that was last October or so, my "exhaust" was a the cat back I had bought from Yonaka, the stock 1.5 inch cat mounted to a header collector that was way too big and some oversized flex pipe and some clamps. Needless to say that did not work all that well at all so this year...
I have been working on that car for almost 3 years on and off, without a garage and without a bloody clue what i am doing and it is almost done. I think I will actually be able to drive it to work on Monday
Then comes the real fun of transferring the stereo to it. I already have the rear seats and the whole hatch gutted down to the metal, now I just need to start fiberglassing a new enclosure and amp racks. Its gonna be a blend of MDF and fiberglass so we shall see what takes shape but either way it will be fun.

Quit talking like that. You're attempting to make me buy a welder.

 

[C.J.]

It's definitely is about the journey. There are pictures on the site somewhere, of a lift I made for my router. I needed something with super precision to do an inset repair in a wilsonart laminate floor. Took me most of the year to dream up how to make it and to actually build it, then I had to build a table to set it into. Between buying the aluminum and buying the nuts and bolts and drill bits and taps, I might have $300 into this stupid thing. We don't want to talk about how much my time is worth because it would be really stupid to spend $6,000 on a lift for a router that you use once a year.
For $300 to $500 you could buy one.
....... But not mine.

I’m just the opposite. I spend a couple bones for a router lift but I’m on my 3rd homemade table.

 

[highup]

I joined a router forum in attempts to gain some information on using a router. I was contacted by a customer and they requested me to attempt a repair with a discontinued laminate floor. It was wilsonart bamboo looking plank.
The repair area was 8 or 9 ft out from the wall. I needed to route and fit in leftovers in approximately a 12x20-in rectangle in the floor. Basically, to set in pieces of leftover laminate. Next to that repair was a 6x8-in square that needed to be inset also. The owner had removed a goofy stairway to nowhere that went to a weird loft. it just left empty spaces where they removed the supports for the stairs.
I decided to use splines on part of it and lap joints on some of it. Being that those formica-like laminate floors have zero forgivability compared with wood, I decided to make a lift. All the guys that do woodworking, make their router lifts out of plywood and 2x4s. I live on the Oregon coast. If you make something precision out of wood that slides up and down or to and fro, it's going to be tight in the winter and loose in the summer.
Ok, I says to myself...... Aluminum! That became my chosen material.
The project made me go totally crazy and when it was completed, I can say yes, I would change one thing. I don't have enough adjustability. I might be able to correct that, but there are workarounds for everything.
Anyway, it was fun once it got completed, and it works. I wish I had a milling machine and a lathe but I'm probably going to buy a welder first.

 

[Mark Brown]

I joined a router forum in attempts to gain some information on using a router. I was contacted by a customer and they requested me to attempt a repair with a discontinued laminate floor. It was wilsonart bamboo looking plank.
The repair area was 8 or 9 ft out from the wall. I needed to route and fit in leftovers in approximately a 12x20-in rectangle in the floor. Basically, to set in pieces of leftover laminate. Next to that repair was a 6x8-in square that needed to be inset also. The owner had removed a goofy stairway to nowhere that went to a weird loft. Just left empty spaces for the remove the supports and stairs.
I decided to use splines on part of it and lap joints on some of it. Being that those formica-like laminate floors have zero forgivability compared with wood, I decided to make a lift. All the guys that do woodworking, make theirs out of plywood and 2x4s. I live on the Oregon coast. If you make something precision out of wood that slides up and down or to and fro, it's going to be tight in the winter and loose in the summer.
Ok, I says to myself...... Aluminum! That became my chosen material.
The project made me go totally crazy and was completed, yes I would change one thing because I don't have enough adjustability. I might be able to correct that, but there are workarounds for everything.
Anyway it was fun once it got completed and it works. I wish I had a milling machine and a lathe but I'm probably going to buy a welder first.

You need a welder man. Just get some hokey piece of crap from harbor freight. I got a 60A flux-core from Canadian Tire and it is going strong. I did have to preheat my 1/4 inch steel flanges for my exhaust but it welded them strong. It is super fun to dink around with for sure. I wanted one for a long long time and it always seemed like a novelty to me until I needed to make my exhaust and then I spent less on the welder than a 21" flanged "test pipe". That is a win. Now when the time comes to make the mounting brackets for my second alternator and battery replacement and installing the cooler for the turbo, bam! Free money

 

[highup]

I've watched a ton of videos I want to TIG.