Category: Projects

April 8, 2020 – Don’t pull that thread…

April 8, 2020 /

My wife and I were talking about all of the ‘Improvements’ that were considering for the cottage. On one of the walk-throughs we were looking at some mildew along the wall.

That got to looking around at a potential source of the problem. I found a problem with the siding.

Katy bar the door… I have a huge problem.

That is the corner post and sill of the room in the first picture. So, guess what I am doing… that’s right, rebuilding this place.

For a discerning slum lord, there is always the question of where to stop. If I was intellectually honest with myself, the entire sill shows evidence of being punky (that is code for almost rotten). There are literally studs that are rotten and sistered to new wood. I had no idea the building was in this bad of shape.

As of this point, I am optimistic that all of that can be repaired. Time, money and effort are all that is required. Believe it or not, I like to consider the future and how to prevent this again. Certainly, there are some better building materials but there are some worse ones as well. Today’s lumber does not hold a candle to the durability of the old growth used in 1979 (when this house was redone).

The sources of water must be considered. There was a bush up against the house, that was removed last fall. There are cherry trees hanging over the house, those were trimmed last fall. The gutter was plugged, I scooped it out, but the cherry trees still exist so that will be a maintenance activity.

Once the water gets to the ground, it needs to get away from the house. I am considering digging a drainage ditch. We will see.

I dont even have the full scope of the problem yet. So, I wont be able to present it until I know. What I can say is that I will be busy until this project is done.

March 31, 2020 – Junkyards as a resource

March 31, 2020 /

My rash of car issues seems to be continuing. Last weekend when I was pulling bushes out of the yard, the battery light came on the pickup. I wasn’t sure whether it was the battery, alternator, ground or some other electrical issue. The pick-up gets light duty these days, even though I have been driving it more due to recent other car problems. It is the other vehicle that we have that can carry us all at one time.

Since we are not going anywhere these days, I waited for more definitive signs of the problem. When I was moving brush on Sunday and it was clear that the battery was not going to make it. The voltage gauge was almost visibly going down. As it turned out, I got all out of the charge that I could and the pickup died at my friends property.

My friend charged it up for twenty minutes and the battery seemed to respond well. I barely made it the mile home, bucking and stuttering into the driveway. Sunday night, I gave the battery a full charge and started to diagnose the problem on Monday. I couldn’t really reach all of the terminals and test points on the alternator due to positioning, but I was reasonably sure the problem was in the alternator.

Suspect alternator

The last alternator I replaced was around $50 for a rebuilt unit. That was my expectation going into sourcing this one. I started seeing prices in the $150 range plus a $40 core charge and I reconsidered my approach. I wasn’t completely sure the alternator was the problem, I didn’t want to wait (or pay for speedy delivery) from RockAuto and I didn’t want to pay AutoZone $200. Maybe the junkyard was the answer?

It has been a while since I bought anything at a junkyard. In fact there are two here in this town and about 10 more locally. Part of my hesitation is I really don’t like to buy electrical components used, they are somewhat of a wear part and junkyards often don’t guarantee the viability of electrical components. Also, it is one of the businesses that get a fair amount of tire kickers, looky-loos and how to questions. My experience with the counter people have not been overly pleasant.

I found one locally, that I could have today. I got it for $30 and he gave me thirty days warranty with it. When I went to pick it up, he said “I’ve got brand new batteries for $40. You need to come back.” I thought, I do need to come back. My son’s Cougar needs a lot of things like a stereo, speakers, battery, etc. The counter guy talked my ear off for thirty minutes before fortunately another customer showed up and I was able to escape.

I wont claim that I made an inside connection. That takes time and consistency as a customer. But, it renewed my willingness to use junkyards as a resource. It also got me thinking about putting them higher on the list of places to check if I need something quickly. I got the alternator replaced on the pickup in about two hours and it was putting out 14.6V while running. A job complete with a happy ending.

By the way, I took the voltage regulator off and one of the contacts was completely worn out. I could have bought a new one for about $40, but I still would have had to take the alternator out to do it. The alternator I replaced looks to me like it was a rebuild or aftermarket because it wasn’t embossed as Motorcraft. I expect to get a few more years out of this repair.

March 30, 2020 – Cabin fever… deep (and I mean deep) spring cleaning

March 30, 2020 /

Have you ever moved into someplace brand-new, or even had a new car? Everything is pristine. Fast forward three years and when is the last time you dusted the baseboard? You know the spot in the shower that is not easy to clean the mildew off without removing the shower door? The blinds are dirty, the light fixtures are dust collectors.

This is the one thing about being a landlord that I really don’t like. Tenants never return the place in the pristine clean condition that it was received. And there really isn’t anything you can do about it. So, it is the one chore that has to be done on each transition. It’s also the kind of clean that you really cant pay someone for.

Getting ready for the bathroom

I am suggesting that part of this quarantine time can be used for a really deep cleaning. Think about windows, cabinet fronts, light fixtures and walls as well. It takes a lot of effort and nobody really wants to spend their time doing it. But when it is done, you feel a lot better about the space that is now clean.

March 20, 2020 – Life as a slum lord

March 20, 2020 /

This is going to be a foreshadowing of the life in the future. Recently, I had tenants move out of an Accessory Dwelling (AD). That is a fancy way of saying that we have a small house that we rent out.

This was their version clean (most of the furniture doesn’t belong here). Over the years, I have put in quite a bit of work on this place. After each vacancy, it seems like I need to start over with paint and flooring and finishes. Not to mention deep cleaning. I will announce my final plans at some point in the near future, but for now this is the next project.

March 11, 2020 – Project Complete

March 11, 2020 /

Everything that I set out to do has been done. I have put in 12-14 hour days over the last week to get there, but here we are.

I learned a lot and I got some good practice in. I had my ups and downs in terms of making mistakes and recovering.

  • I learned that I couldn’t force my will on some boards with knots and checking because it was good work wasted with split boards as a finished product.
  • I found that the pressure on tight rips through the tablesaw tended to cause the edge of a board to skew up and not end up with at straight edge (something I will have to solve in the future).
  • I learned that not all cheap bandsaw blades are equal, I basically did all of the resawing using one blade even though I tried three different blades through the course of the project. One straight out of the box just didn’t cut. The first one spun off and hit the metal covers, I just threw that one out after that and didn’t try another cut.
  • My jointer is not square. I think that the blades do not sit parallel to the outfeed table. Confession – I have never changed them and that is the way they were set when I bought the tool, used in 2005. But basically, the more passes you make on a wide board, the more it takes off of the outer edge and the shape becomes more of a rhombus. The fence is square to the table, so you have to rejoint the first edge after doing the face.
  • On glue-up, I need to make sure each individual board is against the clamp face. I ended up with some wavy and curved panels because I was not paying enough attention when I did it.
  • It is hard to ‘sand out’ unevenness. It takes a lot of work and the results are not as good as a good panel.
  • Mistakes take a lot more time to correct than doing it correctly the first time. That is easier said than done, but knowing how to correct them is a long way toward a better end product. Doing a side profile drawing would have saved me making the broom cabinet incorrectly and having to build a cap (which I did twice 🙁 ).
  • I have been loading my 18ga. brad nailer incorrectly since I owned it. The brads load to the front of the magazine, unlike the Porter-Cable which load to the back. This caused a lot of jams and general dissatisfaction with performance until I figured it out, this week.

By now, you have probably nodded off to sleep, so I will stop now. It just goes to show that I have a lot to learn. So, what is next? I have vehicle problems, I have a rental that needs rehab and Coronavirus mania is picking up. I have a follow up on my political story as well.

March 6, 2020 – Repairing a planer

March 6, 2020 /

Maybe I am unlucky or maybe tools go bad after sitting around for 15-20 years with little use. This is another tool repair and casualty of the pantry project.

I have decided that I am going to talk about preparations for life (i.e. Caronavirus) next week. I will also likely finish my project next week. It will be a whole new chapter for me after that. So with that, have a good weekend.

March 4, 2020 – Pantry Update

March 4, 2020 /

The end is near… probably not near enough to finish by the end of this week, but maybe if I work into the weekend then I will be done. I am hoping to have the final cabinet assembled tomorrow. I still have the face frame to build and paint as well as the final attachments and painting.

I am going back out to the shop to paint again. Talk to you tomorrow.

February 28, 2020 – Nail gun repair

February 28, 2020 /

Yesterday, I got the parts I needed to repair my 20 year old nail gun, so I did a quick video on how to repair it. I thought for a moment about just tossing it, but when I looked at how much it cost to replace ($170), I thought that I would look a little closer at repairing it.

The parts cost $21.22 plus about three dollars for shipping. The repair was easy and now it is back in service. Check out the video.

February 12, 2020 – It is almost Valentines, it’s time to talk about six inches of wood

February 12, 2020 /

I thought that I would make a video how to make lumber from a rough sawn board. I did some experimentation this time by merging two video streams: one from the phone and one from a Go-Pro. I can say that I probably need a little more work on the Go-Pro side of things because it is hard to see what you are actually filming and the lens has quite a bit of curvature too.

The process of making boards

As you can see from the volume of my posts, I am enjoying this project and this process. Hopefully tomorrow I will be installing the bandsaw blade guide upgrades and I will be in the business of wrapping this project up. Probably two weeks more of solid work.

February 10, 2020 – First Change Order

February 10, 2020 /

I got the base cabinets in place last week. My first motivator was to get them out of my way, but I wanted to see how they fit.

Base cabinets put into place

The first thing my ‘customer’ said was that she wanted the cabinets white (along with asking some questions about some minor flaws). Now, I have spent quite a bit of time on the finish already and I was trying to match the other cabinets in the house at least in look. But, after some sharp disagreement from me… I will be painting them white tomorrow.

I don’t know if you can see the first major design mistake I made, but I am not going to disclose it now. I will talk about it when I get done, I think that I have figured out a solution.

I have almost all of the lumber milled up for the upper cabinets, but I ran into a serious snag today. The thrust bearing on the upper guide is seized up. So, to replace it, I ordered a Carter guide bearing setup. I am hoping for a significant improvement in performance. That will probably get a review this week after I get it installed.

Finally, I have some auto maintenance to do this week, which I will also talk about later this week.