Woodworking/DIY/Home Improvement Mega Thread

[utee94]

You DEFINITELY don't want to solder next to it.  Those logs have been drying out for ~200 years so they are REALLY flammable. 

You also don't want to have to drill through it.  On that building the sill plate is a solid hunk of wood.  I don't know if I explained that well but instead of having a 2x8 flat on top of the blocks then a 2x10 (or 12) sitting up on the outside, it is just one giant roughly 12x12 hunk of oak.  My dad and I installed an outdoor spigot for the tenant many years ago and to do that we had to drill through that enormous hunk of oak.  It took half a day and several drillbits. 

You are absolutely right @NorthernOhioBuckeye , back then they were clearing lots to make farmland anyway so wood was CHEAP and widely available. 

Yeah I can only imagine.  

The toughest wood I've ever had to drill through was some ironwood (aka Ipe) planks I used to replace the old rotten deck in my 4x8 cargo trailer.  After going through a couple of different iterations of marine grade plywood 4x8 decks that still rotted out after only a few years each, I finally went and bought a bunch of 5/4x6x8 ironwood deck boards.  Drilling through all of the steel in the trailer was far, far easier than drilling through that ironwood.  I went through a few bits that day. 

But that was over 20 years ago and the deck is still just as solid as the day I installed it.

[Cincydawg]

In other news, my wife and I bought a raised bed planter at Costco and I assembled it by myself, with no assistance at all.  It looks nice anyway.  $150 I think, made in Canada.

It bragged no tools needed, but I used a rubber coated hammer for part of it.

[847badgerfan]

In other news, my wife and I bought a raised bed planter at Costco and I assembled it by myself, with no assistance at all.  It looks nice anyway.  $150 I think, made in Canada.

It bragged no tools needed, but I used a rubber coated hammer for part of it.

I just put together the same thing for my wife.

[Cincydawg]

I once was modestly handy.  I've installed garbage disposals, microwave ovens, fixed an on demand water heater we had once a year, changed spark plugs, fixed the snow blower, even changed windshield wipers.  Now, I'm depleted, I do almost nothing (but post here all day).  

I recall this time of year when I was coaching what a pain it was to reschedule baseball games and also find time to mow the lawn which seemed to grow by leaps and bounds (maybe because the week before I had fertilized it and then it rained for three days).  I also recall sitting down at my desk to pay bills, remember that?  I had to write out a check and put it in some envelop with a stamp.  

[MikeDeTiger]

Saturday morning I fixed a couple sections of the backyard fence where the rails had become unmoored from the posts.  I really should've replaced some of the boards too, but I didn't have any and didn't feel like driving into town to buy any.  Tore a couple of them up pretty good in spots with a cat's paw getting them off in the first place......didn't care.  Put them right back up.  That part of the fence is behind a bunch of giant loropetalums....nobody ever sees it anyway. 

I keep having to redo parts of that fence because the geniuses who built it nailed it all together.  You don't nail fences together in my part of the country.  

That job is about a 0.2 on the DIY scale from 1 to 10.  But I did it, and I just wanted to participate in the thread 

[utee94]

I didn't take any pictures but I did purchase and install a new gas cooktop and new vent hood a couple of weeks ago.  Super easy projects, cooktop is just a drop-in replacement and the gas line has a cutoff valve right there in the under-cabinet so it was simple to disconnect the old lines, install the new lines with pipe dope, and clamp in the new appliance.

For the vent hood install, the new one was made to connect in a slightly different way than the interesting "custom job" the original builder of my house used, so I did have to install some new blocking between the bottom of the cabinet and the top of the hood, for stability.  I also had to slightly re-route the exhaust tubing but that was really easy with some aluminum flashing and aluminum tape I had handy (left over from the Airstream project years ago).

The new cooktop has a 20,000 BTU center burner, man it heats up a big stockpot of water quick.

[MikeDeTiger]

 the geniuses who built it nailed it all together.  

My wife and her ex were the geniuses.  Should any of you ever meet her, just keep that part of the conversation to yourself.  

[MikeDeTiger]

For the vent hood install,

Over our stove is a mounted microwave.  It has vents, but the whole thing is worthless because there's no duct vent to funnel out steam.  I'd like to get the price for what it would cost me to have someone fix that whole thing, but there's so many other things I need to get done around this place, that probably ain't happening anytime soon.  That's likely way more DIY than I have in me.  

[FearlessF]

I'll simply let her know that you've referred to her as a genius

[utee94]

Over our stove is a mounted microwave.  It has vents, but the whole thing is worthless because there's no duct vent to funnel out steam.  I'd like to get the price for what it would cost me to have someone fix that whole thing, but there's so many other things I need to get done around this place, that probably ain't happening anytime soon.  That's likely way more DIY than I have in me. 

Yeah I've replaced/installed new microwaves/vents as well, both in my rentals, and in my dad's house.

If you don't have duct work to vent to the outside then you're stuck with a "recirculating vent" solution.  There's typically a charcoal filter that's installed in those systems.  I've never found them to be particularly effective, everything still gets pretty greasy.

If your vent hood is on an exterior wall and that part of the house is siding rather than masonry, installing ductwork wouldn't be so bad.  If it's on an interior wall or the exterior is masonry, then it's a lot tougher job.

In my current house the vent hood is against an exterior masonry wall, but part of the original build was ducting that exhaust to an exterior vent, so I didn't have any tough stuff to deal with.  Just a slight re-route of the ducting in the cabinet immediately over the hood.

[FearlessF]

I installed a new stove and vent.  I was VERY disappointed to find out I had a "recirculating vent"
The back wall is an exterior wall with siding, but into my attached garage.
I could have vented into the garage but took the easy way out and just replaced the "recirculating vent" - easy and less expensive

[Cincydawg]

Our house in Cincy originally had a down draft cooktop vent, since replaced.  We redid the kitchen and got an induction cooktop and the plumbing was still there for a downdraft vent and my wife wanted one (I think they are mostly ineffective).  It was very cute, you pushed a button and the vent would rise up from behind the cooktop and then suck.

Except, in fairly short order, it would hang up, sometimes open, sometimes half open.  I went at it with silicone and adjustments, and finally called someone who replaced the motor.  It still got hung up.  I don't advise them.

[Cincydawg]

I installed a new stove and vent.  I was VERY disappointed to find out I had a "recirculating vent"

That's what we have here, it's useless I think.  There isn't a way to vent outside.

[FearlessF]

useless is correct
I pulled it out and thought what the hell??, might as well not waste the space and power