Thursday, April 28, 2016

Kitchen remodel progress

Bought a couple more 6x6 timbers last week .
Ten foot long is just about the limit of what I can handle alone .
Of course since they are rough cut, and the thickness planer only opens up to six inches, they did not want to go though the machine if there was any variation, so I had to hit some stubborn spots with the hand planer when they got stuck.
I should have cut them down to length first so they'd be easier to handle, but I wanted to clean them up first so I could select the better looking part of them .
Not a lot of fun on this part .
Got the new kitchen window trimmed and re-shingled back in .
Did my best to reuse some of the old weathered shingles so it would blend in .
Then it snowed three inches and the welfare bums came for a handout .
By noon the next day the snow was mostly gone .
Cut the timbers to length and cut a shallow tenon on the top end to fit in the mortise I previously made in the beam.
Sanded them and knocked the corners off with the block plane .
Using my floor jack this time, I lifted the beam enough to remove the temporary posts and fitted the permanent posts shimming them up 3/4 of an inch at the bottom so the mortise and tenon would fit together at the top  .
Once the post were in place the island goes back together again . It all seems so much easier in pictures .
And I cut the counter-top to fit around the new post .
Earlier this week I rebuilt all my saw horses as they were all getting a bit wobbly .
Made up some temporary MDF counters in preparation for when I tear in to the sink side wall .
And since I was able to fix my over heating lap top last week , and the desktop computer fan was acting up a bit, I tore in to that one too.
And found the heat sink completely clogged, so got that one cleaned as well.


Wednesday, April 13, 2016

We interrupt your regular programming . . .

For a V W Jetta brake job . . .

The ABS idiot light on the Jetta came on a couple weeks ago and it is due for its state inspection so I better do something about it . I checked all the usual stuff . Brake fluid and brake lights all OK. Must be brake pads. Checked the front pads and those were almost new . They were done about a year ago , I just forgot about it .
So it had to be the back , hmm !!! no ABS sensor on the back so it can't be them .
But the pads are very worn so I put some new ones on both sides . The OBD code reader does not find a fault code on the ECU . So it going to take some more digging.
Some exploratory surgery on the front brakes proves the driver's side ABS sensor has failed and has no conductivity .
A quick trip to NAPA provided a new one. Hooked up to the multimeter it shows it has some resistance . Replaced the old one and the ABS light on the dash is gone . Good , one project off my to-do list .
Big deal said Pearl  !!!
OK Pearl, how about this one ?
The fan on my Franken-lap-top computer has been running fairly constantly lately and the upper left hand corner of the thing was getting a bit warm . If it keeps up like this it will shut down right when I am watching one of those long you tube videos my friend Marty sends me all the time .
I pull the back cover on the thing , and as I suspected traces of dust on the fan indicate a blocked radiator . Bet you didn't know a computer had a radiator did ya ? It does indeed .
See that big copper pipe on the left of the image ? It takes heat away from the CPU and sends it to that aluminum finned thing at the top of the image so the fan can cool it . Pull the fan away and look at the thick blanket of dust insulating the radiator from the air . It don't work so well when it is insulated .
 That's about 3 months of accumulation . I last cleaned it in January . I cleaned it again today and put it all back together and the fan barely needs to run at all .
Not the least bit impressed , said Pearl
OK Hows about this Pearl ?
I built a temporary quick and dirty kitchen island out of MDF last weekend .
Even polyurethaned the top on it .
And got a couple of new bar stools and new place-mats to go with it .
Now that's more like it . . . at least you didn't break anything this time .

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

More kitchen misadventures

This week we made some progress .
Tore four layers of drywall off the wall between the kitchen and the living room .
Pulled up the old Berber carpet in the living room and found beautiful Douglas Fir flooring that will clean up nicely with a minor sanding .
Last week I bought a 8" x 6" x 12 foot pine timber .
Went at it with the planer to clean it up .
Hit it with the belt sander with 60 grit .
And 120 grit to clean it up a bit .
Today I put up a temporary wall in the living room . . .
. . . to hold the upstairs floor in place while I took down the old wall
Lugged the beam in to the kitchen a little at a time . Yes all by my self . Note the rabbet I cut in the beam to fit the top plate of the old wall and the mortise on the end to fit around the wall by the fridge .
Working very slowly , one step at the time , I shifted it in closer to its final destination .
Got one end on the small ladder first and then the other on top of the fridge .
Got the fridge end up and in place with a punch under it , and started jacking the other end with my high lift jack .
. . . and up in place .
Makes for a nice big open space .
I am pleased with the results .
Just as I had planned .
The big let down was when I was jacking the end by the fridge in to final position the jack slipped and gouged the fridge door . Really put a damper on the feeling of success . I will need to figure out how to repair that one . For now we will hide it with a magnet .