What home improvement work did you do today?

well damnit - 6 mos ago ordered a new heating element for my LG dryer from the local parts store. What arrived was this aftermarket heater and it’s already failed we’re the wire inserts to the connector. Must be Chinesium. This time I ordered OEM direct from the manufacturer. This is the state of aftermarket parts…ugh

 

Decided to save some money and do some free or "my free" (paid for the materials and havent gotten around to do anything with them yet) projects around here....

And of course, I get bored waiting for the water system to refill so I start an easy one that will now cost money...

So we have a well, and there is evidence of two other well heads nearby. They are concrete capped and we were told by the well guy these should have concrete through the pipe...

I am tired of looking at them so I confirmed the power was dead, dug out the power lines (or as I call it, did crackhead things because i will strip and sell these), cut the old pvc out and the cut the first head under ground... only... its not concrete..

So now I have an exposed water pipe. I am going to see if I can use it as a sleeve and run a manual pump down it for aesthetics and maybe use, or see if I just need to find a way to cap it... I honestly have no idea what to do since this pipe is buried, galvanized and not threaded now....

 

As my granddad always said...

you can't get a yes unless you ask. Solid work finding out what is really going on with the 2 loose well heads.

 

The youngest approached me a few weeks back, "keyboard not working!" I bought him a Yamaha electric piano a few years back, this was his used starter keyboard, and now "too lazy to go downstairs to the piano" instrument.

Found it would work if you shifted the power cord the right way and held it there. Ruled out the power brick as the culprit, so had to tear into it. Assumed the power jack had come unsoldered from the board or a solder connection broke.

Got it down to the main board and audio board popping off a half dozen screws on back, then another 20 screws to separate the board from the silver panel. Power port was 3-pin, a positive center post with two negative posts on the sides. DMM showed continuity between the ground inside the plug and both negative solder joints. Also showed continuity between the center pin in the jack and the solder point on the board.

Out comes the soldering iron, went to re-flow the joints for shits and giggles. I see some play in the jack, but nothing egregious. Go to reflow the negatives, no issue. Go to reflow the positive joint and notice one side is cracking. Fucking trace on the PCB is cracked off.

Circuit board is laid out in a way that the positive post is sharing a trace with a surface-mount resistor, so on a whim I tin up and solder a fatty jumper wire from the positive post of the jack to the edge of the S-M resistor. Power on ... SUCCESS.

Trimmed the jumper back to be shorter and fixed it in place, button it all up. Kid has a functional keyboard again. Wish I'd have taken a picture of my atrocious jumper hack but whatever.

Replacement board was ~$45 shipped on fleaBay. Brand new keyboard $100. Looking like a genius with your 11-year-old: Priceless.

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I'm confused, are you just trying to hide gap on the floor?

Most cabinets like that have spin-up legs to level the cabinet, and you're intended to use quarter-round or baseboard trim to cover any gaps at the floor or wall, small gaps can be painters-puttied.

Or is this more a question of properly securing it to the wall properly/securely?

 

Oscillating Tools are awesome

 

I don’t use it very often, but when it's needed it's great. I first got it when I was putting new floors in the bathrooms and I had to cut the trim around the doors. Since then I've used it to cut drywall, trim and the sanding attachment is really good for tight spots. I also used it to refinish an abused cast iron pan.

 

My son and I loaded 2 x 10 yard rolloff’s with concrete this weekend. 8hours per day. I bought two electric carts, and converted them to wheelbarrels , helped tremendously.

 

2" well casing? Probably old shallow wells. Measure how deep they are first. I'd guess less than 50ft. And figure out where the water table is. If it's shallow just slide some 1" pvc down there with a foot valve on the end. Fernco hub adapter on it to keep the dirt out and hold the 1" pipe in place. Then stick the hand pump on top. But may want to support the weight of the pump with legs somehow.

 

A man after my own heart. The green is way less costly and holds up well. I've built a deck and remodeled my kitchen, not to mention various other projects. Ryobi just keeps going, at a fraction of the price.

 

Ah, I think I misunderstood your original post. Was the problem that the cabinet wouldn't go flush to the wall because of the baseboard?

Is this an illusion, or is the wall out? (I ask as a dude who's had to cover up several things in my house because walls are out of true, it would seem framers DGAF these days, or never did...)

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I don't think framers GAF, all of my bedrooms aren't true.... More in line with Parallelograms than squares or rectangles.

 

Don't make me post a picture of my main floor hallway

Seriously though, I just had some work done in the basement, and they created a basic closet as part of it. They got most of the walls square, but this f'n closet man, the walls are out by at least an inch top to bottom, and front to back. The back wall is 1½" wider at the middle than the front wall. Made for installing shelving a real PITFA.

 

I'll occasionally watch some electronics repair videos and watching some of these guys do some pretty clean work and i'm like "man, if i did that i bet it would look like shit and probably not work"

Good on ya for repairing it!

 

Love the DIY carts! That is awesome! Please post a "done" photo. Very curious on what you are working on.

 

One of the best tools on the planet. Of course, mine is orange though... good work!

 

Thank you... more to do on them, but it is rare for me to get time to work on things right now... hopefully soon!

The water table is 14' here. My main well is less than 50' total so I am sure this one is similar. And this is exactly what I was thinking... just trying to figure out the how. I will look up that adapter.. My thought is to put a hand pump well on it and build out a nice stand for it. But I need to figure out how to hook them together, so hopefully that adapter will do the job!

I have some of those! not as common these days!