Friday, August 14, 2015

Recent ramblings

Remember that bathroom I was working on earlier...

Were we left off.

Well, we finished it yesterday. We just both, had to find the time in our busy life to resumed work on it, it happened :-)

First we installed all the plumbing bits left to do.

Discovered in the mean time, that there are various grades of Teflon tape.
The good stuff (Mil-Spec, yes there is such a thing) is much thicker than the cheap lousy stuff you get from somewhere off shores..

So to finish this job, we went to our local Home Hardware store to see if we could find some good stuff. Turns out that they do. And it is pink colored instead of white. It cost  more, yes, but oh, so much easier to work with doesn't stick to your hands and you do not have to hold your breath while using, brilliant!

Being thicker it is faster and easier to put on to achieved a good leak free connection. We had success on our first try, now there is a first... :-)

And at about twice the price of the pink stuff, they carry even thicker yellow tape for gas pipe lines

Once that was all assembled and leak tested, we started assembling the shower enclosure. The instructions have you assembled it outside the bathroom then dry fit in place to mark where the enclosure walls hit the tiles.

Of course no holes locations in this whole job hits where a grout line was. All 10 holes we drilled thru some pretty darn hard tiles!
First we tried one of my new cement twist bit with a carbide insert. Took forever in a day to make one hole. Back to the store to see what else they have.
Bought a tile bit, the flat pointed bit of carbide stuck on a shaft. Worked good for a few holes, had to keep sharpening it with my diamond paddle to keep cutting.
After 6 more holes, the carbide part separated from the body. It surrendered!

And in case you wondered we kept the bit water cooled during its short service life...

Back to you know where by now, bought the last one of the size we needed, and it finished the job... one last hole for the hand shower bar!

Following the instructions to the letter, my friend Dave
 ended up stuck inside the shower enclosures :-)

The only thing left to do, when I left, was to silicon caulk wherever the instructions said to, wait 24 hours, then finally enjoy! Cause you earned it my friend! (with apology to Stumpy, I stole his line, having a cold beverage, heh!)

Today we went to a preview of an upcoming auction.
Spied some furniture outside the auction house, so looked it up.

Rows upon rows of similar looking cabinets, with same nailed pattern back boards, all streaming black rust trail in the same lines.
Their vertical back boards did not obviously had much room to move because they are all wavy by now, it moved at the weakest point, between the narrow nailed boards, instead of pushing off the side boards.

Many rows (8 or 10) of very similar bookcase, mostly painted white.
 
They were obviously removed from the same room, where they would offer quite a spectacle with their shelves brimming with books? Or they could be pantry cabinetry??

Here is a detail of the upper cornice.
See how it is composed of three very simple profiled boards, put together with a plain board on top? That is a typical and perfectly good way to make a multitude of profiles. Just changing the positions of these same three boards slightly make a dramatic effect on the shadow lines, which is what moulding profiles are all about. Only two simple moulding planes and one complex (middle board profile) would have been needed. Either that or a few H&R planes, not many.


Boards on top are shelves boards

Back home tonite, I decided to have a look at why one of my expensive post solar lite has been kaput for a while.

No visible switches to go bad, anywhere, that is good. 

There is a cover access to the removable Ni-Cad battery.
Twisted battery around, NoGo. Removed battery, look good, no leaks, 
contacts wiped with my shirt, put back in, still NoGo.
In case you wondered, too lazy to fetch my DMM :-)

Open the cover by removing 4 screws.
Visual inspection good, nothing amiss.
Passed shake, pull, and evil eye close inspection. 

My two driveway markers had a
 removable Ni-Cad battery, lets try one.

As soon as the battery went in, the light came on,
 as it should, sensor is in the dark.

Re-installed on top of stairs post, all four are now lighted. I don't expect that one to last long tonite, it has been out of the light for a long time...

Tomorrow auction then...?

3 comments:

  1. From an old sailor Bob - never compromise where water is involved because it'll bite you on the butt sooner than later.
    Can you swap out those Ni Cad for lithium ion batteries? You are probably at the end their lifespan.

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  2. Nah, good old Ni-Cad are perfectly good in that application and I just happened to have a couple spares :-)
    Taking this one apart gives me hope that it should last a long time, may need the odd battery replaced once in a while, but I can lived with that, easy to do to boot.
    I see no place where water can get in, they even sealed the only two penetrations from the top part to the bottom housing for the two wires with silicon, nice touch. And importantly, no stupid cheap open frame switch to corrode, bonus!
    And you can buy replacement Ni-Cad battery for solar powered lights cheap...

    Bob, who saw the light last nite :-)

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  3. Dis a quick look see on line to see how much replacement batteries goes for solar lights. Cdn $3.39 gets me 2 brand name AA Ni-Cad at Home Hardware, Home Depot has all 3 batteries technology, but at a price...
    Ni-Cad 4 for Cdn $10.99, Metal Nickel Hydrate 4 for $16.99 and Lithium Phosphate 2 for $7.98. I think ill stick with Ni-Cad for a while

    Bob, sweating bucket from a small job outside, man it is muggy

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