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The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



I went to replace the kerf weather seal on my door, which involved popping off the old one and putting up a new one, but when I took off the old one I discovered that the PO painted over some sort of wood finish, so the paint doesn't really stick and it just peeled off in big pieces. Before I put up the new kerf and re-paint, how can I strip off the current finish? Scraping? Sanding?

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PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


Corla Plankun posted:

Is there a device that can chop up leaves? It seems like there should be a product for this, like a cheaper, crappier wood chipper. But I can't find anything about it.

I have a ton of leaves in my yard and I have a need for compost/mulch but the leaves are currently big enough to stop things from growing and it would be really nice if I could just turn them into leafy confetti to hold moisture in but not smother my grass seedlings.

A lawnmower with a mulching blade does an excellent job. I also have a yard vacuum that muches as it bags, but the lawnmower keeps the mulch in my yard & it's only very late in the season that I wind up vacumming leaves to put out for municipal pickup.

alnilam
Nov 10, 2009

I am building a stool for my toddler and i was planning to stain it but she wants it purple and i realize now i have never painted furniture. What kinda paint do you use on furniture?

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

alnilam posted:

I am building a stool for my toddler and i was planning to stain it but she wants it purple and i realize now i have never painted furniture. What kinda paint do you use on furniture?

I think the normal stuff applies as you'd paint any wood, for something like purple might want to sand and then high build primer it and do a couple coats of the purple, I'd finish with 4 or so layers of polyurethane since it's going to be a kid's stool so you want it to be tough.

Type of paint wise, if your kid is helping you paint it just whatever satin or semi-gloss finish latex paint would be great, otherwise if it's just you and you have an appropriately well-ventilated space (or if you don't want to gently caress with polyurethane) I'd do an oil based paint.

I'm not a professional painter but that'd be my approach.

Kaiser Schnitzel
Mar 29, 2006

Schnitzel mit uns


alnilam posted:

I am building a stool for my toddler and i was planning to stain it but she wants it purple and i realize now i have never painted furniture. What kinda paint do you use on furniture?
You want enamel of some sort. Sherwin Williams has some water based alkyd enamels that work well. I’ve used their Emerald urethanized trim enamel and it’s nice but it ain’t cheap. Gloss is generally more durable and easier to clean than flatter sheens. I would stay away from latex as it always feels just a little gummy and isn’t as tough. If you can stick the stool somewhere warm and dry for a week or two to really let the paint cure before you subject it to toddler, that will help a ton too with durability.

If it’s a step stool you might want to add some sand or some other grippy additive on the top as glossy enamels can be quite slippery.

melon cat
Jan 21, 2010

Nap Ghost

Elviscat posted:

I think you can get to screws that attach that bar if you completely disassemble that fan.

If not, you can insert a reciprocating saw blade at the edges of the housing, sever the mounting bracket and not have to do any drywall repair.

That's not a bad idea, but upon disassembling it I discovered that it's mostly rivets that hold the unit together. I'm hesitant to insert a reciprocating saw since there is romex wire in there somewhere and I just don't know where.

Also the duct boot doesn't even point downward like it logically should. It goes upward, curls around, then goes back downward into the kneewall. So whichever dumb gently caress installed this literally cut the drywall to size, fit the bath fan unit, then lifted the fan + drywall onto the ceiling at once. Zero room for maneuverability. I don't even have any room the push the vent out and slide it down and out behind the wall. :psyduck:

Thinking I'll just I'll just cut out that entire section of drywall. Will be a pain in the rear end but if that bath vent breaks down at some point I'll end up having to do all this anyway

melon cat fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Apr 5, 2021

Guyver
Dec 5, 2006

I got a vizio e65-c3 tv that the backlights are going out and I want to try replacing them myself because I don't have enough frustration in my life at the moment.

Is there a good site to get the strips other than ebay? The first hit on google ShopJimmy is out of stock.

CzarChasm
Mar 14, 2009

I don't like it when you're watching me eat.

Guyver posted:

I got a vizio e65-c3 tv that the backlights are going out and I want to try replacing them myself because I don't have enough frustration in my life at the moment.

Is there a good site to get the strips other than ebay? The first hit on google ShopJimmy is out of stock.

Amazon seems to have them in stock
https://www.amazon.com/E600DLB030-007-Backlight-Strips-E60-C3-Complete/dp/B01LZJBYR9

Guyver
Dec 5, 2006

Didn't even think of looking on amazon. Thanks.

Those are for an e60 so I don't think they'll be enough to fill the screen but I'll ask the dealer if it'll work.

They have a set for an e65 but in the product note it says the e65-c3 uses one of two different sets of strips so I'll have to take it apart first to see which I need.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?
I've got this horrifically ugly credenza that may or may not be ugly only due to the layers of lovely paint jobs. It ~feels~ really heavy and solid, so I'm wondering if there's anyway to tell if its worth trying to strip the paint off on the small chance its not just some poo poo particle board nonsense like the rest of the crap in my house.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Guildenstern Mother posted:

I've got this horrifically ugly credenza that may or may not be ugly only due to the layers of lovely paint jobs. It ~feels~ really heavy and solid, so I'm wondering if there's anyway to tell if its worth trying to strip the paint off on the small chance its not just some poo poo particle board nonsense like the rest of the crap in my house.

Flip it over and look at the bottom, it's likely unpainted. If it's painted under there, strip some off - potentially with an exacto knife/box cutter or similar. Pull a drawer out, look at the screw holes in there and see if there is any particle board in there.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?
Thanks, that's exactly the sensible quick answer I was hoping for!

gvibes
Jan 18, 2010

Leading us to the promised land (i.e., one tournament win in five years)
Any particular reason not to replace my disintegrating asphalt driveway with concrete instead? I think asphalt looks like crap. I know concrete is more expensive generally.

Hed
Mar 31, 2004

Fun Shoe
No. Concrete is superior. Cost or petro-kickbacks are the only reasons not to use concrete. Obviously site needs to be prepped well / contractor needs to be competent, but that applies to any surface.

alnilam
Nov 10, 2009

Hed posted:

No. Concrete is superior. Cost or petro-kickbacks are the only reasons not to use concrete. Obviously site needs to be prepped well / contractor needs to be competent, but that applies to any surface.

I think asphalt lasts better in places with winter because it lacks seams, that's on a roadway though and probably not super relevant to someone's driveway.

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

Concrete is expensive. Good reinforced concrete that will both last a long time and not crack under heavy load (delivery truck, utility truck, contractor, someone turned into the wrong driveway...) is very expensive.

I notice a lot of busted up concrete driveways.

stevewm
May 10, 2005
Looking to get an electric pressure washer... The market is flooded with choices. Anyone have any specific recommendations?

Elviscat
Jan 1, 2008

Well don't you know I'm caught in a trap?

Tool thread's attaway, but I've had a good price->value experience with Ryobi.

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006
My $70? With coupon one from hazard fraught is fine. Not good, but fine.

Xenix
Feb 21, 2003

angryrobots posted:

Concrete is expensive. Good reinforced concrete that will both last a long time and not crack under heavy load (delivery truck, utility truck, contractor, someone turned into the wrong driveway...) is very expensive.

I notice a lot of busted up concrete driveways.

A lot of busted up driveways are old and under reinforced or not reinforced at all. My neighborhood has two types of driveways: new, or cracked to hell because they were poured 70 years ago without rebar in them (mine falls in this category)

Putting number 4 bars on 12 or 18 inch centers won't significantly drive up the cost of a concrete driveway. Properly preparing the subgrade can drive up costs, but that applies to asphalt as well. I'd actually say properly prepared subgrade is more important for asphalt since it has no ability to span crappy subgrade unlike RC.

Asphalt driveways are fine (and can look really good stamped and painted), but you need more than a 1-2 inch thick lift of asphalt slapped on native soil. You need at least a couple inches of compacted base on top of the soil.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


Old 2" puddled concrete driveway removed 6" deep, followed by 4" of shattered concrete base, then new pour, 2006.



(they didn't have to hammer this at all. All those cracks were there)







In fifteen years, three panels have hairline cracks; one panel is spalling badly - the end one there in the last photo. The concrete plant is less than 15-minutes from my house, I'm guessing that they brought hot loads and the one spalling was poured from the last load in the barrel and had started to set up at the pour.

Definitely prefer concrete over asphalt, especially for scootin' around on a creeper. The only downside is having everyone I know wanting to use my driveway for car maintenence & repairs.

PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Apr 7, 2021

Strong Sauce
Jul 2, 2003

You know I am not really your father.





I don't know if this is the right place to ask or not but I live in an apartment complex above the garage. They're doing seismic retrofitting, which seems to mean they're doing a lot of grinding/cutting right now. But my biggest concern is that my air filter is going crazy... Should I be worried?

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Strong Sauce posted:

I don't know if this is the right place to ask or not but I live in an apartment complex above the garage. They're doing seismic retrofitting, which seems to mean they're doing a lot of grinding/cutting right now. But my biggest concern is that my air filter is going crazy... Should I be worried?

Yup. Are they doing all of it dry? If so that's shooting a ton of micro fine dust, including silica dust, into the air. Is there a local air resources board you can call?

PremiumSupport
Aug 17, 2015

PainterofCrap posted:

Old 2" puddled concrete driveway removed 6" deep, followed by 4" of shattered concrete base, then new pour, 2006.



(they didn't have to hammer this at all. All those cracks were there)







In fifteen years, three panels have hairline cracks; one panel is spalling badly - the end one there in the last photo. The concrete plant is less than 15-minutes from my house, I'm guessing that they brought hot loads and the one spalling was poured from the last load in the barrel and had started to set up at the pour.

Definitely prefer concrete over asphalt, especially for scootin' around on a creeper. The only downside is having everyone I know wanting to use my driveway for car maintenence & repairs.

Agreed.

Done by anyone reasonably competent, concrete is the way to go. I had my driveway done two summers ago.

Canned Sunshine
Nov 20, 2005

CAUTION: POST QUALITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION



PainterofCrap posted:

Old 2" puddled concrete driveway removed 6" deep, followed by 4" of shattered concrete base, then new pour, 2006.



(they didn't have to hammer this at all. All those cracks were there)







In fifteen years, three panels have hairline cracks; one panel is spalling badly - the end one there in the last photo. The concrete plant is less than 15-minutes from my house, I'm guessing that they brought hot loads and the one spalling was poured from the last load in the barrel and had started to set up at the pour.

Definitely prefer concrete over asphalt, especially for scootin' around on a creeper. The only downside is having everyone I know wanting to use my driveway for car maintenence & repairs.

No rebar? What the gently caress is this poo poo.

Edit: fb (by the below)

Xenix posted:

A lot of busted up driveways are old and under reinforced or not reinforced at all. My neighborhood has two types of driveways: new, or cracked to hell because they were poured 70 years ago without rebar in them (mine falls in this category)

Putting number 4 bars on 12 or 18 inch centers won't significantly drive up the cost of a concrete driveway. Properly preparing the subgrade can drive up costs, but that applies to asphalt as well. I'd actually say properly prepared subgrade is more important for asphalt since it has no ability to span crappy subgrade unlike RC.

Asphalt driveways are fine (and can look really good stamped and painted), but you need more than a 1-2 inch thick lift of asphalt slapped on native soil. You need at least a couple inches of compacted base on top of the soil.
The sad part is that even #3s would work suitably well depending on the thickness of concrete, but yeah, #4 is ideal. There's really no excuse for not using rebar besides laziness and people wanting to get it done as fast as possible. Around where I live, a lot of contractors are pushing fiber reinforced concrete, but honestly the short-term experience with it has been... not great, which makes me think long-term it will absolutely be poo poo.

For asphalt, ideally it should be two lifts at 1.5" each, with enough time in between the first lift, and then yeah, 4-6" of AB beneath it. 2" lifts would be nice, but for some reason it seems like a lot of asphalt companies have problems going above 1.5"?

Edit2: I even remember an asphalt company wanting to do a single 3" lift onetime, but that's... a bit much.

Canned Sunshine fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Apr 9, 2021

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


Fiber-reinforced. No issues yet.

KKKLIP ART
Sep 3, 2004

This isn't really a fix it "fast" but more of a figuring out what we want to do with our screened porch. I am going to use a screen tight system to re-screen everything with pet screen, but I am more looking at what I want to do with the floor. Currently, the floor in our covered screen porch is concrete covered in this putrid carpet that the PO of our house put there. Behind the porch is a deck wich is 100% coming down because it isn't built correctly (joists are put at random spans, most boards have a ton of flex, deck boards don't appear to be pressure treated, you get the picture). Long term goal is to tear down the deck, build a landing and some stairs down to a paver patio that will replace the deck. What I want to do is also replace the flooring of my screen porch with deck-boards and have it at the same level with the landing/stairs (I'll post a picture of a rough drawing). What I really want to know is what the best method of making my concrete porch floor look like it matches my deck. Unless we get super wild rains, we generally don't have to worry about any sort of water. We get a lot of shade, so I am even thinking of composite decking for the "don't worry about it" factor.

wesleywillis
Dec 30, 2016

SUCK A MALE CAMEL'S DICK WITH MIRACLE WHIP!!
I live in a ground floor, poverty spec on bedroom condo. I'm hoping to swank up my kitchen a bit by getting some new cupboard doors.
I don't want to completely rip out the old ones and do a major reno because that would require a permit from the city and gently caress that poo poo.

Currently everything is particle board, and the doors/ drawers just have some fake plastic woodgrain looking poo poo covering them.
I was hoping to take each door to a cabinet or wood working shop and have them cut some pieces of real wood to size and then drill holes for the handles and hinges in the appropriate spots.

Is that an actual thing that people do on a regular basis? Or would they look at me like I had two heads and be all like "you just want to replace the DOORS"?

XYZAB
Jun 29, 2003

HNNNNNGG!!
I have an easel and I want to mount a horizontal wooden beam to the back of it, with regularly-spaced mounting holes along the top surface so that I can space two extendable desktop lamps on either side, variable to the width of my canvas.

The lamps sit in an open 1/2" mounting hole, but given how they've shredded the original plastic mounts that they came with, I would like to reinforce the wooden holes with some kind of steel ferrule with a 1/2" ID and a depth of about 1-1/4", but I'm loving clueless about how to find what I need.

Essentially I want something like these bass guitar string ferrules, but with an open end ID of 1/2" and internal depth of 1-1/4":



Does anyone here know where to find such a thing? Preferably within Canada?

Elviscat
Jan 1, 2008

Well don't you know I'm caught in a trap?

Handen posted:

I have an easel and I want to mount a horizontal wooden beam to the back of it, with regularly-spaced mounting holes along the top surface so that I can space two extendable desktop lamps on either side, variable to the width of my canvas.

The lamps sit in an open 1/2" mounting hole, but given how they've shredded the original plastic mounts that they came with, I would like to reinforce the wooden holes with some kind of steel ferrule with a 1/2" ID and a depth of about 1-1/4", but I'm loving clueless about how to find what I need.

Essentially I want something like these bass guitar string ferrules, but with an open end ID of 1/2" and internal depth of 1-1/4":



Does anyone here know where to find such a thing? Preferably within Canada?

I'm pretty sure McMaster ships to the Great North.

These drill bushings have the specs you want, though they also have bronze flange bushings for a lot cheaper if you're willing to settle for 1" overall length.

https://www.mcmaster.com/spacers/press-fit-drill-bushings-with-head-7/

actionjackson
Jan 12, 2003

I have a HPL (high pressure laminate) countertop in a solid color from Wilsonart. Are minor scratches pretty much inevitable with this? By minor I mean that you can't actually feel it at all when you put your finger on it, so it's pretty artificial, but I was told there's basically no way to get rid of it. You only see it when the light hits it a certain way, but I feel like that's just going to happen no matter what, and that it's simply more noticeable because I have a solid color, vs. a pattern.

I know there are kits you can by to "fix" them, but I've heard they don't actually work long term.

actionjackson fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Apr 10, 2021

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



I have a brick on concrete foundation. Most of the brick is above ground, but one side of the house has about two courses of brick (the first two above the concrete) under ground. Depending on the spot the soil is 2-5 inches above the concrete.

Is there a way to mitigate water without re-grading the whole yard? If it was graded like it needed to be the yard would be below the sidewalk. Some of the brick in the basement is damaged from the water. We're getting all the brick repointed, and I was going to dig out the two courses of brick, but I'm not sure leaving a trench next to the foundation will help with water infiltration - and I imagine it would make it worse.

DrBouvenstein
Feb 28, 2007

I think I'm a doctor, but that doesn't make me a doctor. This fancy avatar does.
I looked in AI and didn't see a small engines thread that there used to be, so posting in here.

I have a Honda harmony 2 HRT 216 self-propelled mower that doesn't self-propel.

Like so many of my outdoor tools, it was a free side-of-the-road mower, so I'm hoping it can be a small/cheap fix since I don't want to put a lot of money into it.

Yesterday I took the bottom apart and cleaned a lot of crud that was all gathered around the back of the belt and transmission, thinking that might be the issue. If I manually spun the motor shaft (spark plug was disconnected, I'm not a total idiot,) while the clutch lever was clamped down, I could see the wheels spin, so I thought it was alright.

After re-assembly and starting it up, still a no-go. If I lift the back wheels off the ground slightly, they spin, albeit weakly and slowly.

In addition, if it helps diagnose, the wheels are VERY hard to roll backwards when the self-propel is not engaged, even when the engine is off.

FogHelmut
Dec 18, 2003

Do the big home stores color match exterior wood stain and do custom mixes?

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


DrBouvenstein posted:

I looked in AI and didn't see a small engines thread that there used to be, so posting in here.

I have a Honda harmony 2 HRT 216 self-propelled mower that doesn't self-propel.
...
Yesterday I took the bottom apart and cleaned a lot of crud that was all gathered around the back of the belt and transmission, thinking that might be the issue. If I manually spun the motor shaft (spark plug was disconnected, I'm not a total idiot,) while the clutch lever was clamped down, I could see the wheels spin, so I thought it was alright.

After re-assembly and starting it up, still a no-go. If I lift the back wheels off the ground slightly, they spin, albeit weakly and slowly.

In addition, if it helps diagnose, the wheels are VERY hard to roll backwards when the self-propel is not engaged, even when the engine is off.

Belt may be slipping. There should be a tension adjustment somewhere on the drive axle assembly. If not, the belt may be shot.

It could be the transmission...pull the plug, prop it up so you can spin the blade by hand and also grab the drive wheels and see how much resistance you get.

This is also a great time to change the oil: get it warmed up, pull the plug, tilt it on its side & drain it through the fill hole. Never be an easier time to find out where it's slipping.

Super-NintendoUser
Jan 16, 2004

COWABUNGERDER COMPADRES
Soiled Meat

FogHelmut posted:

Do the big home stores color match exterior wood stain and do custom mixes?

In my experience they are supposed to but the workers typical won't do it for some reason.

FogHelmut
Dec 18, 2003

Jerk McJerkface posted:

In my experience they are supposed to but the workers typical won't do it for some reason.

Is there a place that does?

Final Blog Entry
Jun 23, 2006

"Love us with money or we'll hate you with hammers!"

FogHelmut posted:

Do the big home stores color match exterior wood stain and do custom mixes?

Solid or semi-transparent stain?

If solid then they should, it's really no different than matching a paint as long as they have tintable bases in the product you need.

If semi-transparent then it's going to be hit or miss on both whether they'll attempt it and, if they try, how well they do at it. It's time consuming and has to be done 100% by eye since the spectrophotometers don't really work with something not solid color.

My suggestion would be to bring a sample of what you're trying to match and a scrap piece of the wood you'll be staining to an actual paint store and drop it off with them so they can have a few days to work on it. They should be able to get a decent match together for you.

When I was tinting paint, I wouldn't touch a semitransparent stain match unless it was a customer I knew or the person seemed cool and not too super picky, and they always had to give me scrap wood and a few days. You have to go in with realistic expectations on a stain match since different application techniques and different pieces of even the same wood can give pretty different results.

wesleywillis
Dec 30, 2016

SUCK A MALE CAMEL'S DICK WITH MIRACLE WHIP!!

AmbassadorofSodomy posted:

I live in a ground floor, poverty spec one bedroom condo. I'm hoping to swank up my kitchen a bit by getting some new cupboard doors.
I don't want to completely rip out the old ones and do a major reno because that would require a permit from the city and gently caress that poo poo. Never mind about that part, it doesn't..

Currently everything is particle board, and the doors/ drawers just have some fake plastic woodgrain looking poo poo covering them.
I was hoping to take each door to a cabinet or wood working shop and have them cut some pieces of real wood to size and then drill holes for the handles and hinges in the appropriate spots.

Is that an actual thing that people do on a regular basis? Or would they look at me like I had two heads and be all like "you just want to replace the DOORS"?

Uhhhhhh. Anyone?

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Final Blog Entry
Jun 23, 2006

"Love us with money or we'll hate you with hammers!"

AmbassadorofSodomy posted:

Uhhhhhh. Anyone?

Yeah it's definitely a thing to replace doors and drawers/drawer faces and paint or refinish the boxes to match it all. I was recently talking to a contractor who does cabinet painting and he said he does it on a ton of his jobs.

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