What did you do today?

[highup]

Some washer hoses have dates on them, near 10 years old I put on my paperwork and verbally tell customers to replace. Sometimes I do it voluntarily. Whenever something isn’t quite right it’s on paperwork.

I’m really tired of rickety crap, dryer vent ducts, broken toilet flanges, valves that don’t shut.

The same way here, if I see something the customer knows about it even if it has nothing related to floor covering. I know a lot of people of electrical outlets that are loose. Sometimes a ground plug will hold something into a loose plug and make it feel tight. When I plug in one of my tools into a plug-in and it will hardly stay there I try to scare them to death with visions of fire and flames. Poured a heart for my wood stove and that night the heater would not come on. Over the next few days I'd taken the brains out of my forced air furnace and took it to a local heating shop. They said it tested out fine.
I needed to get some heat in the living room so I put a space heater on my new hearth, and the side of the safest place to plug it in would be my old range.... Remember the ones that had the plug-in built into the upper half of the range where the knobs were? Anyway I figured this was the safest place to plug it into. Half an hour later for some stupid reason I reached over and checked out the plug to be sure it was tight and it was hot. I pulled the plug out of the outlet and the plastic was so soft that I can squeeze it and make the metal plugs wiggle back and forth.
After it cooled off I plugged it into the outlet that was directly behind where my wood stove was going to go. Half hour later switched on high it was ever so slightly warm.
Anyway when I see an outlet that has a loose connection, I promptly let the homeowner know not to hook a space heater up to that outlet and explain why. We notice those things and sometimes because we're the new guys in the house. The homeowner is either used to this or it's on a place they never look like you mentioned, with the washing machine hoses and the dryer vents. They never see that stuff.
I went up to visit my mother in Vancouver at Christmas time many many years ago and we decided to do some weatherization stuff inside. Cold air was coming up through the cavity in the wall with the fawcetts to the washer. When I took a peek back to look at it one of the hoses had a bubble about the size of a dime. I don't think it would have lasted another week if not just a day.
It's a benefit to us too because what a homeowner sees you bring up stuff like that they know that you care about their home. It's a win-win.

 

[Floorist]

Was putting underlayment and vinyl in a kitchen, When I unplugged the electric stove, fire shout out of the outlet. Tenant was in a wheelchair, so I did not plug it back in. I explained it to her and she was grateful. Not so, the landlord. She refused to pay me. She said I should have plugged it back in anyway. The electrician who fixed it did not get paid either.

 

[highup]

Was putting underlayment and vinyl in a kitchen, When I unplugged the electric stove, fire shout out of the outlet. Tenant was in a wheelchair, so I did not plug it back in. I explained it to her and she was grateful. Not so, the landlord. She refused to pay me. She said I should have plugged it back in anyway. The electrician who fixed it did not get paid either.

........sorry, but that's the best response I can give.

 

[C.J.]

Was putting underlayment and vinyl in a kitchen, When I unplugged the electric stove, fire shout out of the outlet. Tenant was in a wheelchair, so I did not plug it back in. I explained it to her and she was grateful. Not so, the landlord. She refused to pay me. She said I should have plugged it back in anyway. The electrician who fixed it did not get paid either.

Flaming bag of poop on her porch. Maybe not just once.

Clearly this kid did it wrong.

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/u-s-worl...y-arson-for-flaming-bag-of-dog-poop-on-porch/

 

[C.J.]

I got the wooden spoon.

 

[C.J.]

Chris, your tight ass should’ve broken that wooden spoon.

Funny thing is one time the spoon did break and I laughed. Let me tell you laughing is not the right thing to do in that situation.

 

[Mark Brown]

Mike, man, when I told you that you needed to launder the money.... that is not what i meant

 

[Floorist]

Looks like I have some shop time ahead of me. Need a part for my big band saw and it is discontinued. More fun to make it myself anyway. Highup knows what I mean. I have manufactured a lot of parts in my time. Recently made parts and rebuilt my 12" variable speed bandsaw. No one makes a variable speed one anymore and it comes in handy for furniture making.

 

[DarisMulkin]

No one makes a variable speed one anymore and it comes in handy for furniture making.

Just plug it into a foot pedal for a sewing machine, but there are reostat{?} switches I think would work.

 

[Floorist]

Just plug it into a foot pedal for a sewing machine, but there are reostat{?} switches I think would work.

I fixed the little one. I am now working on my big one.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Finally going to get out camping next week. 2 vacations canceled this year, one because of the hacking attack in March and the other because of tests before cataract surgery. Going to Cherry Springs state park next week. Darkest site on east coast. Rewired telescope and bought new computer. Hoping to get some good images.

 

[Floorist]

Finally going to get out camping next week. 2 vacations canceled this year, one because of the hacking attack in March and the other because of tests before cataract surgery. Going to Cherry Springs state park next week. Darkest site on east coast. Rewired telescope and bought new computer. Hoping to get some good images.

Good luck, Tom.

 

[highup]

I got the wooden spoon.

And I've got the shirt.

 

[highup]

Funny thing is one time the spoon did break and I laughed. Let me tell you laughing is not the right thing to do in that situation.

But it's funny now. That's how memories are made.

 

[highup]

Okay, if this works I'll tell you what I'm doing.

 

[highup]

Sometimes a guy ought to put things away.
Since I did the upper a-arm bushings and installed new brakes and a ball joint I left a c-clamp outside. It was rusty then, and it's rusty now. Not horribly just some surface rust.
If you hit Rusty things with a wire brush it looks like they've been wire brushed. When you go electric it turns out a whole lot nicer. I remade the Derusto 2018 and I'm cooking the c-clamp with my 1960s Sears battery charger.
The five gallon bucket has four pieces of half inch steel rod that are connected to the positive terminal of the charger and the c-clamp is suspended in the solution of choice and connected to the negative side.
It's pulling a strong 8 amps at 12 volts and I think I'm producing enough hydrogen to build a miniature scale Zeppelin.
This is the c-clamp before and in a half hour we'll see how much nicer it looks.

 

[Mark Brown]

I like it buddy!! Now I cannot wait to see how it turns out

 

[highup]

Well here's the before and after.
Last night I did an old wrench. I had done this years ago but unless you put bluing on the metal or paint it or oil it, it's just brand new bare metal and it will rust quickly.
So here's the wrench before and after.

 

[highup]

I didn't use any lacquer on the screw part. If there's grease or oil on things it doesn't work as well because the part is insulated to some degree.
I suppose the Chrome might also be removed in the process but who cares.
If you whip one of these up because you want to play around there are some rules.
Mix about a cup or a half a cup of washing soda and some hot water to dissolve it and fill the bucket with that. You don't want to add things like salt or vinegar or any type of acid. You also don't want to use stainless steel for those four anode rods. If you do you're going to need a HazMat team to come dispose of what you created.
If you use the preferred electrolyte which is washing soda then there is no hazardous waste produced.
I found this on the beach quite a few years ago. It was just like a block of rusty colored hard sand. You couldn't see between the links.
I carefully hammered and chipped a lot of it away and then did the electrolysis thing on it.
The trick is you need to make an electrical connection and this link of chain is so rusty that the links don't actually touch each other. The trick is how to make a electrical connection to each link without defacing the chain.
I did scuff the surface a little bit to get it this far, but it still covered in pretty heavy rust and I'm not sure of the best way to continue the process. I was thinking that a c-clamp on each link would make a connection without damaging it. I used to have five or six 1-in C clamps. I'll have to see if I can find them.
This site covers most anything you'd need to know about it.
https://www.metaldetectingworld.com/electrolysis_rust_removal.shtml

 

[highup]

Oops, I forgot to add the picture of the chain.
I don't know if this came off of a boat and got washed up on shore or if it might be from a really old piece of logging equipment.
None of the old-timers around here have been able to help me figure out what it came off of.