Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Meet the newest member
This is the new puppy Nessie. A little Great Dane Girl. Here she has stolen Teagan's bone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As5E8xm-fLU
In this one she has gotten a hunk of string caught in her mouth while trying to attack the cat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUfCc7bucE
More cat action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS4aVg-LyZ0
An not to be left out, the last one is Teagan's particularities about sitting atop people on the upstairs landing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w5oapCO01A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As5E8xm-fLU
In this one she has gotten a hunk of string caught in her mouth while trying to attack the cat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUfCc7bucE
More cat action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS4aVg-LyZ0
An not to be left out, the last one is Teagan's particularities about sitting atop people on the upstairs landing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w5oapCO01A
Sunday, March 15, 2009
For my fans
I know we did lot of these in a lump but I am trying to catch up. This Christmas we stayed 2 weeks with family in Kalispell. (100 miles away) Other than being an experience I never plan to repeat, I was worried about the house sitting un-occupied in the extreme cold. Lets face it, the stuff around here does not have the best track record. I zip home to check on it and when I walk in I hear a nose like a garbage disposal running with nothing in it. Track that down to the cellar and the furnace is responsible. Turns out the exhaust or forced draft fan has spit off a blade.
The fan's metal keeper had rusted loose and gone through the blades. It was out of balance and vibrating something fierce. This is a real bad time to be without heat while I order parts, and it would have meant coming home to baby sit the space heaters. Genius that I am I decide to see if I can epoxy a little weight on to the broken tip of the blade. Thinking I might be able to balance it and get it running. I am sure you can see where this is going. The idea worked in principle but over night the weight came loose, took more of the blade with it and made the whole thing worse. Crap. Well if I can't add weight maybe I can take some off. So I cut the tip off the opposite blade to balance it. Success! Except that all the vibration had started to crack the hub. I epoxied on a thin wafer to stabilize the cracks put it all back in and it worked fine. A minor vibration but I could leave it and head back to the family. The idea was to replace the fan asap, but it was working and you know how things go. Cut ahead 2 months to the incident where we ran out of propane and the fan ran non stop for some 24 hours. The little vibration had grown and I noticed than when I shut the furnace down manualy there was a bit of a grinding noise.
Total failure was immanent that was obvious. So I put it off another week and a half because that is how I roll. Start looking for a fan only to find out they cost $400+. What the crap, for a hunk of plastic that whirls around? I researched what other furnaces used the same fan (lots) then used their model numbers, found the same fan listed for another furnace for $240. On Amazon.com of all places. Genius. Direct bolt in and none too soon. The other fan had started to drop off the shaft, it was only its momentum that kept it up while spinning, the grinding was it hitting the case as it slowed. Well the old monster is back up and running again. Heat is good.
The fan's metal keeper had rusted loose and gone through the blades. It was out of balance and vibrating something fierce. This is a real bad time to be without heat while I order parts, and it would have meant coming home to baby sit the space heaters. Genius that I am I decide to see if I can epoxy a little weight on to the broken tip of the blade. Thinking I might be able to balance it and get it running. I am sure you can see where this is going. The idea worked in principle but over night the weight came loose, took more of the blade with it and made the whole thing worse. Crap. Well if I can't add weight maybe I can take some off. So I cut the tip off the opposite blade to balance it. Success! Except that all the vibration had started to crack the hub. I epoxied on a thin wafer to stabilize the cracks put it all back in and it worked fine. A minor vibration but I could leave it and head back to the family. The idea was to replace the fan asap, but it was working and you know how things go. Cut ahead 2 months to the incident where we ran out of propane and the fan ran non stop for some 24 hours. The little vibration had grown and I noticed than when I shut the furnace down manualy there was a bit of a grinding noise.
Total failure was immanent that was obvious. So I put it off another week and a half because that is how I roll. Start looking for a fan only to find out they cost $400+. What the crap, for a hunk of plastic that whirls around? I researched what other furnaces used the same fan (lots) then used their model numbers, found the same fan listed for another furnace for $240. On Amazon.com of all places. Genius. Direct bolt in and none too soon. The other fan had started to drop off the shaft, it was only its momentum that kept it up while spinning, the grinding was it hitting the case as it slowed. Well the old monster is back up and running again. Heat is good.
Labels: exhaust or forced draft fan, Fixing the furnace
Tanks for the memories
So last fall I had the propane talk filled, all 400 Gallons, $800 worth. The guy knocks on the door and says the fuel gauge is broken, shrugs and walks off. Sure enough it sill reads only 30%. Fine we will run it dry and replace it. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I notice the furnace fan hasn't shut off and seems to be blowing cold air. Great out of propane, its Friday night and we have a cold weekend of no heat in store. Give them credit, they sent a guy out Monday morning. The new young guy (he works harder than the rest) except when he was trying to pull the float arm out of the tank he broke off a bolt. Talked to the wife and said he would be back with help to fix it later. I come home that night and while eating dinner I swear I hear some one pounding on my propane tank with a hammer. No way, they wouldn't be that dumb. Yes they were. You might remember that picture I posted of the guy smoking while leaning against my tank while filling it? The same dude was now trying to center punch the broken bolt with a metal hammer and a tool steel punch. Right next to him is a 2 inch opening straight into my tank. For the unfamiliar, propane in the tank is rather safe because the tanks lack oxygen, they simply can't burn with out it. But open the top of the tank on a windy day and you have mixed oxygen and the gas in a large vessel other wise known as a bomb. All it needs is a spark, hammers on cold punches spark all the time. I run out to talk to them and inquire about the hazards of hammering on a tank like that. I kid you not, he leans over, sniffs the tank and declares it empty and safe. This guy didn't even know that propane is heavier than air, so it would sink into the tank and not be sniff-able. (Personally I thought it was pungent in that "no sparks or I will blow up and kill your family" sort of way) He then begins to drill the bolt with a left hand twist drill, standard procedure, but he breaks it off. Now he looks really confused, the old 'experienced' guy that is, the young guy looks embarrassed to be there. Soon I start to hear new noises, specifically "I think you are going to need a new tank". Pardon my french (grandma look away) the fuck I am going to buy a new tank because you morons screwed up. I go to the shop, grab the proper size drill and a tap and fix that son-of-a-bitch. You would have thought I had tuned water into wine. They went so far as to try and memorize the tools so they could get some. We get down to business with the float. (at this point I will not let them work 'unsupervised') The young guy comments on how it is shorter, his superior comments that its all they had, then turns to me and says its better than nothing right? (grandma turn away again) Uh fuck no. The tank will read empty when it still has 30% left (ironically the opposite of when we started) and I will have to wait a full year to burn all the propane, then have these same guys do the whole process again and buy another proper float. I told them I would rather wait for them to order in the proper mechanism. The young guy speculates out loud if it is just the gauge on top that is bad. Turns out they are universal and driven off a magnet in the float arm. (no direct connection with the gauge means no holes in the tank to leak) Two small philips screws later and everything works. My old float arm was fine. (and it should be, it works in a sterile environment and only moves a full cycle twice a year) What this means is that none of the work they did (or rather I did) was in any way necessary. You do not need to pull the float arm to change the gauge. The topper was when I got the bill for their labor. Don't you mean MY labor boys? Your labor would have cost me a 500gal propane tank.
Labels: Fixing a propane tank, Trying not to die
Requiem for a pee
Lots of stuff going on but little time for blogging. The big bad project was finishing up the bathroom. Stripped out the lights, pulled the old fan and ran some wires. As it was you had to walk to the back wall of the room to turn on the lights. Don't ask, I didn't do it. Anyway we ran some wire so now the lights are at the door. (think monkeys fishing termites out of the mound with a stick)
The down side is that I filled the old switch hole with an outlet so now we have spots for six plug-ins. That way in case you ever need to put on a concert you will have enough power.
Only because we are so used to it, we now walk to the back and then come back to the door to turn the lights on. Having put switches too close to doors in the past to trim without trimming, I made sure to space these properly.
Had a huge feather job smoothing out a mismatch (my fault) at the tub. I had to smooth mud almost 18 inches to hide it but in the end it was hid so oh well.
Many coats of paint and a few stray dog hairs later and the yellow bathroom is yellow no more. I wasn't totally sold on using a gloss paint in a brightly lit room but I was swayed by arguments of easy clean up. The room is shiny but I no longer notice it. Can't fault how bright it is. Put the old mirror up with a new picture frame of spalted red alder. I was very happy with how this turned out because you clearly couldn't drag the whole mess into the shop for cut to fit. I cut scraps exactly the same length and width of the mirror and used those 'story sticks' to cut it all right the first time.
Refinished the old panel door so it matched the others. After the paint had dried I was pulling off the masking tape and dried paint flaked off of it. I thought nothing of it, it was dry after all. Well it stuck anyway so the stained part of the door has white speckles on it. I don't know what or if I will do anything about it.
A new overhead light, (Thanks Costco!) and we are up and running.
The down side is that I filled the old switch hole with an outlet so now we have spots for six plug-ins. That way in case you ever need to put on a concert you will have enough power.
Only because we are so used to it, we now walk to the back and then come back to the door to turn the lights on. Having put switches too close to doors in the past to trim without trimming, I made sure to space these properly.
Had a huge feather job smoothing out a mismatch (my fault) at the tub. I had to smooth mud almost 18 inches to hide it but in the end it was hid so oh well.
Many coats of paint and a few stray dog hairs later and the yellow bathroom is yellow no more. I wasn't totally sold on using a gloss paint in a brightly lit room but I was swayed by arguments of easy clean up. The room is shiny but I no longer notice it. Can't fault how bright it is. Put the old mirror up with a new picture frame of spalted red alder. I was very happy with how this turned out because you clearly couldn't drag the whole mess into the shop for cut to fit. I cut scraps exactly the same length and width of the mirror and used those 'story sticks' to cut it all right the first time.
Refinished the old panel door so it matched the others. After the paint had dried I was pulling off the masking tape and dried paint flaked off of it. I thought nothing of it, it was dry after all. Well it stuck anyway so the stained part of the door has white speckles on it. I don't know what or if I will do anything about it.
A new overhead light, (Thanks Costco!) and we are up and running.
