[Thunderstick]

Thanks. They turned out pretty good. But to be honest I have to admit I've done better work. There are a couple joints I'm not 100% happy with but they are probably still better than a lot of new construction I expect.

Yes looks great, how are you at mudding and painting, counter tops? 😀

 

[Thunderstick]

If your someone that cannot carry out repairs these days it won't take long to break the bank. All joking aside its where I have saved to be able to play the gun game for years. Cars, building, electrical, plumbing etc. If you can't do this stuff it will be hard keeping things maintained going forward for many.

 

[Thunderstick]

I bought a battery powered Echo lawn mower about six years ago. Last summer, one day when I went to mow the lawn there was no power. The batteries were charged, so I checked the safety switch on the handle, cleaned all connections and put it back together. Still nothing. So after calling nearest service centre in Halifax and discovering that I would need to drive 45 minutes to deliver it with no guarantee of a fix I decided to take matters into my own hands. I went to Can. Tire and bought a set of security bolt keys for around twenty bucks and went home and proceeded to trouble shoot the lawnmower from motor to main switch in the handle. My final effort was to take the main switch on the handle with the throttle levers on it all apart as I had nothing to loose at this point. Everything looked good so I reassembled it and low and behold it came to life! So now I own a set of security wenches to add to my tool caddy.

Over the years I figured to buy the tool and fix something one was still way ahead of the game in the end $$$. Thats how I got the tools I have. I don't borrow from anyone. On the other hand I have had people borrow stuff and reck it. Some I have to laugh at. Had one person borrow a $50 rotary bit. Ran it hard and fast burned it up. The good news is they told me that they got most of the job done and then bought a new bit. Not for me, for there tool box, I got the burned up one back. Same with an electric planer, ruined blades. No more loans to anyone😀

 

[Thunderstick]

The problem we have today is what are we getting new for quality. Not much is most cases

Yes the day someone inspected the final product is gone. Expect 1in 3 to be defective 😀 Price up / quality down.

 

[Thunderstick]

Here is another thing I figured out …. Our dish washer started to whistle when operating. I cleaned out the filter and all the holes in the lower and upper spinning arms. It did not make any difference. Well if you compare the cost of buying parts for a ten year old dish washer and getting a repair man to your home you’re better off just buying a new machine. However before spending that kind of money, I googled dishwasher repair and checked all the boxes and concluded that we might of had a build up of fat and stuff in the small orifice of the drain check valve and not some bearing or other parts worn out. Before hauling it out of the cabinet I ran three refresh cleaning pods in the machine back to back and no more whistling. Now we prerinse all our dishes, That was over two years ago and no more whistling to this day..

With todays internet one really has no excuse not to try to carry out repair.

 

[Thunderstick]

Well a bit of fun the last few days. While remodeling the kitchen and installing a new range hood my power started acting a bit funny upon turning the main breaker back on. I never just shut off individual breakers when working on stuff, always the main just in case. We first noticed it when the wife went to her sewing room and the sewing machine would not run, two bedrooms had not enough power to illuminate the lights. My kitchen out lets were dead, some out lets could not even run my drill. Being Sunday we were on our own. Found a couple outlets powered to run the fridge and freezer but shut every thing else off just in case. Got a hold of an electrician yesterday and they found my main inlet (main power breaker had failed, 240 coming in had dropped anywheres from 0 to 120 volts to the panel. Knowing how things keep changing it looked like a complete panel change for us as this is no longer interchangeable on the newer panels. They had to get NSP to disconnect/ connect. Was lucky that they were able to find an old panel that they could transfer the breaker system out off. Guess this is something that occasionally happen. Now waiting for the bill. This remodeling is getting expensive 😀

 

[Thunderstick]

Take all load off the panel(turn off all branch circuits)before opening the main if you havent been doing it already

Good idea there.

 

[Thunderstick]

Reading this again was your panel the one with the top flip style 200 amp breaker only or the one with the top breaker and side disconnect / panel/lever real early one Something is not adding up to me Christ just remembered I have two loads of wash to do you guys are going to get me killed

Panel was the normal 200 amp panel with main power cut off at the top feeding like 20 seperate breakers on each side. Power coming into the main shut off was not puting the voltage through on the other side when switched on. Electrician got a different reading of output every time turned on.

 

[Thunderstick]

Well that was fun. Got my new counter top in. Never knew you have to cut the counter top to fit the wall (belt sander) . As I am typing I am eating dust, good god its every where.

 

[Thunderstick]

Take them up with shovel , easier and less dust , let's just say wife was not impressed with my methods of removal 😂😂

Home hardware has a new tool simular to a roof shovel for shingles but it has a very flexible blade to get under the tiles

 

[Thunderstick]

Tile is hard on the back, especially while working in the kitchen. Oh yes, and drop a water glass on the floor and you will be picking up glass shards for a month of Sundays. Oh, I know you can buy a matt to place in front of your sink, especially designed to relieve back stress . Well that’s all good until you forget it’s there and catch the edge of your shoe on it while making a move towards the dishwasher and spin out off control, grasping at anything on the smooth counter top, smashing your waist into the edge of the counter, then bouncing off the recycling bin at the end of the counter and hitting the floor with a thumb, knocking the wind out of yourself. The next next, my waist and ribs were a facsimile of giant grape gum ball from one of the old fashioned gum ball machines. That Matt became a flying carpet straight out the patio door. Needless to say the floor is bare tile once again.

Why the hell were you doing the dishes, thats your problem. Stay away and be safe 😀