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So I had a freestanding mailbox with a custom wooden... shroud? around it that was installed by the previous owner. I say "had" because somebody drove a car into my car which was parked on the street and this drove my car into this mailbox. Their insurance company offered to pay for it but they need a quote. Other than just showing up with a Home Depot receipt, what kind of person would I even talk to about preparing a written estimate for a kitschy decorative wooden mailbox thing. Does somebody sell kits I can just point to ads for?
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May 22, 2020 21:47
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I guess it's the handyman I'm most clueless about finding. I've never been asked to get a written estimate for something so relatively trivial and so I have no idea what kind of outfit to look for and where they'd advertise.
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May 22, 2020 22:05
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Oh there's no doubt I'm doing it myself. I just wasn't up on ways to summon low-effort estimates for handyman services for insurance purposes.
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May 22, 2020 22:30
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So... does anybody have any experience with sinkholes and related phenomena? Mrs. Machine found like a 1 inch diameter hole in the yard and noted that the stick she inserted into it vanished and made a deep splashing sound. I excavated it with the post-hole diggers I bought to replace my mailbox and found a little water-filled hole. The water is only about 3 inches deep now. This is probably 20 feet from where the city very recently excavated and filled a large sinkhole. Could this just be a leftover from that? Should I be poking around down there and checking for a collapsed sewer lateral? Attache photo of a water-filled hole is probably not very helpful, but this is what I'm looking at. I've capped it off with a giant concrete block for now but I'm at a loss as to what to do long-term.
Stack Machine fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Jun 3, 2020 |
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Jun 3, 2020 01:53
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kid sinister posted:What picture?  Hopefully fixed now.kid sinister posted:I say call the city. Yeah this sounds reasonable. It doesn't smell like sewage and it just rained a lot so I doubt it's the sewer lateral and the now-filled-in sinkhole was obviously a malfunctioning storm drain. It's also near a fire hydrant so there are more ways for this to be their problem than mine... I think? Deffo not my area of expertise.
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Jun 3, 2020 02:15
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CzarChasm posted:So, I had a problem which was solved, but it lead me to another question. Is the garage climate controlled? If not, perhaps outdoor rated LED bulbs would fare better. Temperature cycling and humidity/condensation is tougher on circuit boards than it is on incandescent bulbs. The outdoor rated ones will usually have conformal coatings or wider spacing or other design considerations to try to combat this. Stack Machine fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jun 5, 2020 |
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Jun 5, 2020 22:34
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Stack Machine posted:So... does anybody have any experience with sinkholes and related phenomena? Mrs. Machine found like a 1 inch diameter hole in the yard and noted that the stick she inserted into it vanished and made a deep splashing sound. I excavated it with the post-hole diggers I bought to replace my mailbox and found a little water-filled hole. The water is only about 3 inches deep now. This is probably 20 feet from where the city very recently excavated and filled a large sinkhole. Could this just be a leftover from that? Should I be poking around down there and checking for a collapsed sewer lateral? Attache photo of a water-filled hole is probably not very helpful, but this is what I'm looking at. I've capped it off with a giant concrete block for now but I'm at a loss as to what to do long-term. Update: I've covered the hole with a massive concrete block I had on hand and today I peered in while walking the dog and there was a crayfish in it. Apparently burrowing crayfish are a thing here. Might be the source of the hole. Might be a victim of the hole.
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Jun 6, 2020 00:07
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The service manual is likely available online from the manufacturer. That's the case with my washer/dryer. It'll give you a list of specific parts to check if the dryer doesn't get hot.
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Jun 6, 2020 01:44
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angryrobots posted:OP said he excavated the burrow with post hole diggers, so yeah mr crayfish is probably the victim of having his home dug out. :P Yes. That hole is the depth of the original, but apparently 2-3 feet is a normal depth for these guys. I think the whole complex was probably just dug by crayfish and coincidentally near-ish the city's sinkhole. There are clearly tunnels going off horizontally from that vertical bit and I really hope I didn't ruin it. I'm really excited by the prospect of having crustaceans in my yard and if I ever catch a glimpse of more than juat a claw or an antenna I'll try to get a photo.
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Jun 6, 2020 04:41
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In the US at least, vodka is 40% ABV, so while it's still a reasonable disinfectant/solvent it's more than half water by volume. Isopropyl is available in 92% and 75%.
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Jun 10, 2020 14:20
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Next step is a small pipe snake. You can use that to make sure the sink to trap line is clear then plunge it into the wall and see if you feel anything or can clear it. If that doesn't work find a bigger pipe snake. Beyond pipe snake land it's time to call a plumber IMO because they'll have someone operating a borescope/auger setup that can visually locate the clog. I had this done once on a washing machine drain and the cast iron pipe was clogged with rust like 20 feet in.
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Jun 10, 2020 18:06
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My crawdad friend may have perished. Unless they sleep on their side...   Also in order for it to be house cancer, wouldn't they have to be crabs?
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Jun 11, 2020 16:05
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Did it ever have an alarm system? The previous owners of my house had one and there are little telephone cables strung all over the place.
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Jun 15, 2020 13:19
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gonadic io posted:This means that the power supply is busted right? That voltage display is likely generated by measuring the output, so whatever this is may be easy to fix, just some open circuit between the post there and the internal Vout net. I'd at least have a look inside before discarding it.
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Jun 18, 2020 21:41
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Be careful in there. There will possibly be capacitors charged up to hundreds of volts with enough charge in them to kill you. When in doubt you can always work with one hand behind your back. This at least keeps you from accidentally passing current through your heart. The fuse you're looking for will be between the positive binding post and the rest of the circuit and hopefully not soldered down to the board.
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Jun 18, 2020 21:52
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gonadic io posted:Update to this: the +ve terminal wire had broken free of the solder so I reattached it. No fuse in sight. Some very chunky capacitors that I stayed well the gently caress away from even though it'd been unplugged for a few days. Now it powers the LED I put on it (with resistor ofc) and I'll try to plate again at some point. Great news! It's rare (but not unheard of) for supplies to have fuses on the output side since it's so easy to incorporate electronic over current protection so no surprise there. Glad it was repairable.
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Jun 21, 2020 18:31
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Very significantly smaller conductors. The diameter, not the cross-sectional area, scales with current. So double the voltage and halve the current for the same power and your wires use a quarter of the copper.
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Jun 23, 2020 21:52
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I have a deck/balcony situation. Its supports are these: I assume that "NT" means they are non-treated and I should seal my deck if I want it to last more than a few years. Correct? e: thumbnaild Stack Machine fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Jun 29, 2020 |
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Jun 29, 2020 18:14
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Yeah, ok. I'd believe it was "HT". Here's one of the actual decking 2x6es and it's clearly HT. My only rule for identifying pressure treated lumber is green=PT and I know that's not universal and decreasingly true.
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Jun 29, 2020 18:43
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Does the motor have a run capacitor? (I know you said you checked brushes but I didn't know if you meant motor commutator brushes or something else. If the motor has brushes it's not going to have a run capacitor too.) If so, that's a good place to start before swapping the motor itself. They always seem to fail long before the motors do and can be had for very low prices. It should also be possible to replace temporarily with minimal disassembly. E: that motor has 6 wires going into it so it might be a more modern unit with a 3-phase motor and an electronic controller. Those normally last a hell of a lot longer than the ones that used capacitors but if the motor won't spin you may be down to replacing one of 2 expensive parts: the control board and the motor itself. Stack Machine fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Jul 10, 2020 |
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Jul 10, 2020 18:05
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devicenull posted:Soak the poo poo out of the ground around it, then slowly wiggle it in circles? That's how I managed to dislodge my fence posts.  I've removed a mailbox stump and a satellite dish mounting post recently and my trick for both of them was to just get some leverage and wiggle until I could drag it out more or less horizontally. I didn't have to moisten the ground but my ground is wet enough that crayfish burrow in it.
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Jul 24, 2020 00:47
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professor metis posted:Discovered something terrifying today: I don't know if it's a common brand in Australia but I wouldn't expect to find just that adapter in a hardware store here in the US. Unfortunately it's a little more complicated than replacing an appliance plug since there are electronics in that to supply constant current to a string of LEDs, and it has a special connector. That looks like more of a "hope the manufacturer still makes parts for that, order that exact model from them, and be prepared to wait for shipping" type of thing. If you're handy with solder that might be salvageable by replacing the plug with a cable and re-sealing it but if you're looking for a replacement that accepts the same plug and everything your options are going to be limited. Some search terms to try might be "Constant Current LED power supply" or "constant current LED driver", but I wouldn't be too hopeful. Even if somebody else makes a 500mA, 3-13V LED supply I doubt it's going to use the same connector.
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Aug 8, 2020 07:41
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Elitist Bitch posted:I'm back with another dumb question. I'm now house hunting and we've found a unit we like but it's got a Nest thermostat. Are those exceedingly difficult to remove in favor of something that's less "smart"? At the danger of sounding Replacing a thermostat is a very simple thing. It's like 5 wires, all color-coded, and the color coding is standardized. And the nest will have the color code programmed into it so you can double check that you don't have some weird amateur hvac wiring nightmare on your hands. (And if you do you can at least label the wires.) And good "dumb" electronic thermostats (the kind with 7-segment LCD displays and timers) are very cheap. And mounting them to the wall is a matter of 1 or 2 drywall anchors. My other advice is to try to find a new thermostat that doesn't use AA batteries or other nonsense, since it's both unnecessary and a pain in the rear end. Good thermostats will just trickle power from the relay coil supply instead and charge up an internal rechargeable battery/supercapacitor.
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Aug 8, 2020 21:15
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I just hate IoT poo poo. It's not a dealbreaker but I was curious.
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B-Nasty posted:They are standardized, but not always correct. Best to always take a picture of how the old one is wired (or draw a diagram) before ripping the wires off. You also need to get a shot of this screen from the nest because the pinout is configurable. That's what I meant by "programmed into the nest":  So with this and a photograph of the actual wire colors you'll have enough info to set up the next one.
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Aug 9, 2020 03:56
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I'm no electrician, but my understanding generally is that if something has a ground screw it should be grounded. That includes electrical boxes, which could otherwise get energized and cause a short which might start a fire. More generally, you should follow the installation directions that came with the fixture. Ungrounded junction boxes are both a fire and electrocution hazard. What happens is if the wire nut somehow slips off of the hot wire and the hot wire touches the junction box and it's grounded that should throw the breaker. If it's not grounded you now have a hot junction box just waiting for the next time somebody is in the attic or servicing the box. Maybe they touch it. Maybe they put some aluminum backed radiant insulation down on it temporarily. Either way it will likely be AOK for very long time but there is a small chance it could be very bad.
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Aug 10, 2020 15:02
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HisMajestyBOB posted:Bumping this with an update: This light is sometimes on normally, and sometimes off (actually, most of the LEDs are off, and the rest are just very dim). There doesn't seem to be a pattern in when it's working and when it's not. I'm still considering to just replace the fixture as mentioned in the thread, but I'm wondering if there could be something else that's causing it, like an issue in the wiring. The other light on that switch works fine and is a traditional light bulb fixture with a regular LED bulb. I'll add that while it's almost certainly the fixture, you could have a bad connection or a faulty switch. A little current usually leaks through the small capacitances and high resistances seen in these cases, so it's not abnormal to get little twitches of light. This is also true when, as is more likely here, your buck regulator in the fixture or one of your leds becomes a (nearly) open circuit. I thought I'd mention it though because it's very easy to check that the circuit to the fixture is OK, and very unsatisfying to have the fixture replaced with a known good replacement only to find yourself in the same position because of a $1 switch or $0.05 wire nut.
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Aug 24, 2020 05:35
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B-Nasty posted:Out of curiosity, what size (wattage) bulbs did you have in there? That relay claims it can handle 1700W, but you know the traces on that board can't handle event a 1/10th of that kind of power. They would burn before the relay did but nah. Copper PCB traces are pretty conductive. 10A through 2cm long/2mm wide on "1oz" copper (5mohm/square) dissipates like 1/2 watt. That's a lot just for PCB traces and will get warm over time but probably won't just melt off the board. When you exceed the limit of relays like this though they often fail short (the contacts weld together and don't open again). My guess for this is either a short circuit or an arc.
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Aug 25, 2020 02:13
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The Slack Lagoon posted:The surface light on my over-the-stove microwave burnt out and I replaced it with an LED one. When the light is 'off' the LED is still on, but very very dim. The Slack Lagoon posted:2) I assume that even with an incandescent light there was power going to the socket, but not enough to light the incandescent. Seems like either was the light socket would be an energy vampire? Maybe and maybe not. Leakage at AC can be capacitive or resistive. Capacitive leakage to an incandescent bulb would probably lead to very little power transfer because the filament does not get a chance to heat up. All of the energy stored in the capacitor is then returned on the negative going side of the cycle. In this case the LED consumes more energy when it's off because it rectifies that AC leakage and does not have to warm up first.
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Aug 31, 2020 22:22
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Curiosity posted:Is this aluminum wiring? Yes. Copper is shiny to dull brown/orange and corrodes green. Aluminum is that gray color and corrodes white. Also it looks like something is or was dripping water directly onto that junction box? E: also yikes! Copper has a much higher melting point than aluminum so it isn't as likely to melt and drip down like that. Stack Machine fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 02:38
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Curiosity posted:Is it not just from using a receptacle for copper? I'm not an electrician, so take my reaction for what it's worth. My understanding of galvanic corrosion from incompatible metals is that it happens right where they touch, so on the screw and electrical contact itself. that causes the connection to loosen and the resistance to increase and leads to heating. I can't imagine a mechanism where that would rust the junction box around the receptacle too, unless this event happened a long time ago and the heat damaged the zinc plating, maybe?
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Sep 2, 2020 03:19
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Might be motor brushes. They get hot from arcing then fail completely. If power's getting to the motor and the fan spins freely with no resistance, then the brushes are the next thing to check. If those don't look too worn, something else inside of the motor has fused open and it's not looking good. If power's not getting to the motor it's possible there's a fuse or something internally that was blown, or that your reassembly missed part of the switch or similar. If you have a multimeter with a continuity setting you can trace from the plug to the switch to the motor lead and make sure it will get power when plugged in without having to cautiously alternate between connecting your leads, getting clear, plugging it in, unplugging, and repeating.
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Oct 2, 2020 04:50
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Jenkl posted:Thanks! I'll look into this. I don't own a multimeter but I've been looking for a good enough excuse to get one There was just some multimeter chat over in the learning electronics thread and a cheap auto-ranging one that does at least volts, ohms, and continuity will probably be adequate for most household electrical projects and can be had for about 17 USD.
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Oct 2, 2020 16:22
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The Midniter posted:How would I check connectors? With a voltage meter or something to that effect? If you have a multimeter with a continuity setting you can sometimes use that between the crimped-on metal on the ends of the wire in the plug (the pins usually have a significant overlap over the top of the wire insulation to provide strain relief and this frequently comes to near the top of the plastic of the connector) and the solder joints on the bottom of the board in the same position. (beeps with one lead on the solder and one lead jammed into the top of the connector in the same position = good) This is often difficult due ro cramped quarters and overkill. If the connector is still shiny and unplugging/plugging it in (+spraying with contact cleaner if you're feeling fancy) doesn't fix it, you have a pretty good indication that the connector itself is OK. If it looks a little dull or corroded, that's when I'd take a little extra effort to check it out, but even then just repeatedly unplugging/plugging in the connector is a good first step. Even of the error comes back afterward, if playing with the connector makes it go away, you know either replacing the connector or cleaning it might save some cash.
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Oct 9, 2020 01:34
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