DIY Forums

Re: 10 Tools every kid should master

Dean Hoffman — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:52:48 GMT

In article ,
Dean Hoffman <""dh0496\"@win*&dstr$%eam.net"> wrote:

> On 5/22/13 5:23 PM, HeyBub wrote:
> > From the editors of Popular Mechanics:
> >
> > <http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...d-should-learn
> > -to-use?click=pp#slide-1>
> >
> > What tool would you add to the list?
> >
> >
> Pencil and paper.

Absolutely correct. Including mastery of the three R's, common sense &
good judgment.

Knowing a bunch of useful knots is also nice! :)

Erik

Re: High Loop Impedance reading

Dave Plowman (News) — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:14:10 GMT

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
asalcedo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> A washing machine engineer has refused to work on my faulty washing
> machine because he carried out an earth fault loop impedance test and
> found a high reading, I believe it was 3 ohms.

I'd first ask for proof he was qualified to carry out such a test - and
also ask to see the certification for the instrument he used. Before
telling him to f*** off, and getting in someone else.

--
*I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it..

Dave Plowman (E-Mail Removed) London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Lost Battery Power

Davey — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:04:10 GMT

En el art�culo , Davey
<(E-Mail Removed)> escribi�:

>How can I make sensible use of this lost power?

I use them in wall clocks. A battery that won't power a device like a
radio will keep a clock going for a year or more.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

Re: High Loop Impedance reading

meow2222@care2.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:50:23 GMT

On Thursday, May 23, 2013 8:51:13 PM UTC+1, asalcedo wrote:

> A washing machine engineer has refused to work on my faulty washing
> machine because he carried out an earth fault loop impedance test and
> found a high reading, I believe it was 3 ohms.
> He requires the circuit to be made safe before doing any work on the
> washing machine.
> A PAT test has been done and confirms that the appliance earthing
> insulation and earth leakage were ok
> I have been told by the PAT engineer that I need a niceic electrical
> contractor to test the wiring
> Is this the only avenue to address this problem?
> How do I correct a high loop impedance reading?
> Thanks,
> Antonio

Common TT installs normally have > 3ohm earth impedannce. If it has an RCD or ELCB thats ok. If it has neither, 3ohm's too high.

If its the ring cct thats >3ohms, as it sounds like, best check your socket earth screws are done up tight.

I dont know why a wm repair guy would be testing your earth impedance, or why he didnt plug it in elsewhere.

NT

Re: High Loop Impedance reading

Bob Minchin — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:59:58 GMT

Bob Minchin <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> asalcedo wrote:
> > A washing machine engineer has refused to work on my faulty washing
> > machine because he carried out an earth fault loop impedance test and
> > found a high reading, I believe it was 3 ohms.
> >
> > He requires the circuit to be made safe before doing any work on the
> > washing machine.

Is it protected by a RCD? If so, it is likely to be 'safe'.

> You need to find out where the earth problem lies by tracing where the
> earth in your property comes from and then onto the ring mains.
> It is just possible the earth supplied by your supply is faulty but that
> is pretty unlikely.
>
> 3 ohms is very high and needs sorting out pronto

I'd be asking what the supply characteristics are.
If it is a TT supply, 3 Ohms is very low, and quite acceptable.
To the OP, if you have that circuit protected by a RCD, then you can
probably have an earth fault loop impedance of up to 1667 Ohms, and
still be compliant.
Of course, it isnt ideal, as you want it as low as possible, presumably
this is a 32A ring final circuit, so ideally you want it below 1.4 Ohms,
but it all depends on the supply.

More information required before any good advice can be given.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

Re: 10 Tools every kid should master (9)

Ashton Crusher — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:32:18 GMT

On Thu, 23 May 2013 08:03:42 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

>through.

Clever !!

Re: 10 Tools every kid should master

Ashton Crusher — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:30:47 GMT

On Wed, 22 May 2013 17:23:26 -0500, "HeyBub" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>From the editors of Popular Mechanics:
>
>
>
>What tool would you add to the list?
>

I'd remove circular saw and chain saw. It didn't include any screw
drivers so those should be added. It also didn't include any form of
wrench, so at teh very least it should have a crescent wrench. And
I'd be included to take out ladder and include a set of socket
wrenches and or open/closed end combo wrenches.

Overall I'd say the article was written by an idiot who perhaps got a
BS in communication and knows little or nothing about really using
tools beyond assembling some IKEA furniture.

Re: Increasing the range of an RFID door access control

Bob Minchin — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:30 GMT

Gefreiter Krueger wrote:
> On Thu, 23 May 2013 21:21:29 +0100, Bob Minchin
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Gefreiter Krueger wrote:
>>> On Thu, 23 May 2013 20:00:30 +0100, Bob Minchin
>>> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Gefreiter Krueger wrote:
>>>>> I got a cheap door access controller from Hong Kong. The keyfob
>>>>> has to
>>>>> be placed within 1.5 inches of the keypad for it to be picked up.
>>>>> Is it
>>>>> possible to make it sensitive enough so that approaching the doorway
>>>>> with the keyfob in your pocket would unlock the door? (Much like some
>>>>> cars do). It picks up the fob using a coil of wire round the edge of
>>>>> the keypad (which is 10cm across). The coil looks like about 100
>>>>> winds
>>>>> of thin wire of the same sort used in CRTs. If I made a huge
>>>>> version of
>>>>> this coil right round the doorway, would the range be increased? Or
>>>>> would there not be enough power in the chip to transmit over that much
>>>>> area?
>>>>>
>>>> Not a lot you can do without a lot of test equipment and knowledge.
>>>> These things are specified for a range of 100mm maximum. There is a
>>>> different standard to cover the 100cm units that are possibly used in
>>>> cars.
>>>> 1) you need extra power so that sufficient RF power arrives at the tag
>>>> to power it up.
>>>> 2)Tinkering with the coil will de-tune it and will transmit far less
>>>> power and reduce the RF sensitivity.
>>>
>>> Is amplifying the signal an easy thing to achieve? If not, where can I
>>> buy one with the same range as a car one?
>>>
>>> Bloody advert said 10 metres. I bought it ages ago, the ones on sale
>>> now say 10cm (I assume it was a typo). It's not 10cm though, it's more
>>> like 3.
>>>
>> I'm afraid not,
>> The problem is that the amplifier much switch very rapidly and the
>> receiver must recover very quickly from the overload.
>> This is akin to having your head inside a drum that is being hit hard
>> and then needing to hear a pin drop a few microseconds later!
>>
>> What you have is a proximity system which must have no MORE than 100mm
>> range for security reasons such as payment system (contactless smart
>> cards, oyster cards etc) These are described by ISO 14443
>>
>> The up to 100cm system are 'vicinity' systems and covered by ISO 15693
>> and should be what you desire.
>> Note that others will be able to read your tag at up to 100cm range and
>> may then clone the information to gain access to your door.
>> A balance of security and convenience needs to be considered.
>
> Presumably it's not that easy to read and copy it, otherwise all these
> keyless cars would be getting stolen. Perhaps some kind of encrypted
> code is sent both ways?
>
> I shall play around with slightly different aerials and see what I can
> do. Even doubling the distance would be good, at present you have to
> almost touch the fob on the panel, and have it orientated correctly aswell.
>
> Is the signal stronger INSIDE the loop of the aerial perhaps? If I
> brought the loop out of the casing and placed it round the frame of one
> of the door's window panels, the fob could easily be inserted into the
> coil by touching the pane of glass with it.
>
You might get a little more inside the coil just, but it is vital not to
de-tune the antenna from about 13MHz
The codes are rolling codes with challenge and response but there are
ways of stopping it rolling and the oyster card codes have been cracked
but fraud does not yield enough monetary advantage for the crims who
ride in cars not trains
Contactless payment cards are under attack by the bad guys. More
profitable but still low value transactions.
Read up on the work being undertaken by Markus Kuhn and his department
at Cambridge University.
Higher security car keys have just lead to increasing occurrences of
car-jacking where the crims nick the car keys and the car from the
driver or break into the house to get the keys to the cars in the drive.
These system are secure enough until broken to the extent that the banks
and insurance companies will no longer pay up.

Advice requested to unclog a shower stall (75 or 100 foot snake?)

Danny D — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:03:38 GMT

jamesgang <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:ad568d7b-5bd2-4433-83b4-(E-Mail Removed):

> On Thursday, May 23, 2013 2:03:38 PM UTC-4, Danny D wrote:
>> Any suggestions for unclogging a shower drain elsewhere? A friend
>> called
> just now with a plumbing problem saying her shower is backing up into
> the bedroom, so I pulled my old BrassCraft Cable Drum Machine BC-400
> out of storage - but it is in sad shape (long story):
> http://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/13138261.jpg The
> current cable is apparently 3/8" x 75 feet with an aircraft wire core
> running through the center.
> http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/13138185.jpg Even my
> hand snake is in bad shape (probably left outside):
> http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/...g/13138195.jpg So, it
> looks like I'm in need of a snake to unclog a shower stall. For the
> BC400, I'm wondering if a 100 foot cable replacement would be better
> than a 75 foot cable; but I don't even know if it will fit. I called
> BrassCraft at 877-272-7755 who said to call Cobra at 800-835-2200 and
> I left a couple of messages earlier today, but they haven't responded.
> It's not a big deal, but, if you have experience with either
> unclogging a shower or with fitting replacing 75 foot or 100 foot
> cable snakes, I'd appreciate the advice.
>
> Find someone that know's what they are doing.

Good advice. Can you see that drum machine only going in a foot and
beating the **** out of the plunger assembly!

Machine pulls out mangled plunger and rods. "Ah no wonder it won't drain.
Look at all this scrap metel that's collected in there".

Sortta like that Three Stooges episode where it's concluded the plumbing
problem is the damn pipes are clogged with wires.

Re: setting 4 x 4 posts on concrete pad

harry — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:03:10 GMT

On May 23, 12:54*pm, Rick Hughes
wrote:
> Have cast a number of 300 x 300 pads of concrete for 100 x 100 posts to
> rest on (decking project)
> The concrete is a good finish but not perfect ...... just wondering if
> anybody has any suggestion for anything to put under posts to 'bed' onto
> concrete.
>
> I could cut squares of thick roofing material (2mm thick rubber type sheet)
> Could put a layer of Grip[fill over end of posts (nor as a glue just a bed)
>
> Any other suggestions ?Ads not by this site

You can buy steel socket things intended for bolting fence posts
on to concrete. They keep the posts fromrotting for a good while
longer too.
Gardens centres, B&Q has them.

Bathroom floor grout

yendor — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:57:48 GMT

On May 23, 6:57*pm, yendor wrote:
> Ok, There is one area of the bathroom grout(one tile) that has cracked.
> I don't want to lift it at the moment, as SWIMBO is thinking that she
> would like it all changed!
>
> The tile moves slightly when I stand on it, so this is what has caused
> the grout to crack.
>
> Can anyone recommend some sort of flexible grout, or is it likely I
> could squirt some thing into the gap that the grout was in, that would
> run under the tile and stop it moving.
>
> Its only for as long as I can put her off replacing whole bathroom
> floor, the nicer I can get it, the longer I can go without replacing it.
> --
> yendor

I have used coloured silicon in the past.

Re: 10 Tools every kid should master

Oren — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:02:08 GMT

On Wed, 22 May 2013 21:15:45 -0400, Ed Pawlowski <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>What tool would you add to the list?
>
>Butterknife. How else would you tighten a screw?

Your Mom caught you too?

...."son, what happened to the end of this knife?"

Re: 10 Strangest Foreign Objects Found In People�s Rectums!

trader4@optonline.net — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:28:18 GMT

On May 22, 6:36*pm, nestork wrote:
> 'Brother Love[_2_ Wrote:
>
>
>
> > Interesting. I myself am a Doctor, you know.
>
> Brother Love:
>
> Maybe you're a doctor of divinity or you have a PhD is psychology or
> something else, but any doctor that's ever seen an X-ray would know that
> metals are opaque at the strength of X-rays used in medical X-ray
> equipment.
>
> Metals are the most opaque materials on this Earth. *You can stop more
> light with aluminum foil than you can with any other material of equal
> thickness.
>
> For example, in this REAL X-ray:
>
> [image:http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18kw...ku-xlarge.jpg]
>
> The thin wires used to hold the broken bone together before the screws
> were put in are just as opaque and the much thicker screws. *That means
> that even those thin wires are thick enough to stop ALL the X-rays that
> hit them from penetrating through them.
>
> In your bogus X-ray of a spray can stuffed up someone's arse,
>
> [image:http://screwednews.com/wp-content/up...013/01/16.jpg]
>
> the can is NOT opaque. *In fact, you can see things behind the can that
> are as clear as they would be if the can weren't even there. *The whole
> can should be opaque white, just like the wires, and you should not be
> able to discerne anything in front of or behind the metal can because
> the X-rays would not be able to penetrate the metal. *So, I'd agree that
> your X-ray is photoshopped.
>
> There ARE powerful X-rays used in airports and at border crossings to
> X-ray the contents of suitcases and trucks for illegal weapons and such,
> and those X-rays are powerful enough to go through some thickness of
> metal, but they don't use that kind of equipment when X-raying live
> human tissue cuz of the damage it would cause.
>
> If you were a medical doctor, you would know that much.
>
> Your x-ray is bogus.
> Your post is bogus.
> You are bogus.
>
> We have all had fanatical bible thumpers push their religion on us, but
> this is the kind of thing that teenagers do when they get "born again".
> Their exuberance overwhelms their common sense and they proclaim their
> newly found religion to all who will listen. *People who are mature in
> their spirituality simply don't do that because they know other people
> don't appreciate it. *People mature in their spirituality wait for
> others to make the decision to invite religion into their own lives.
> You seem to be pushing it on us, and you should understand that it's not
> appreciated. *Please stop.
>
> --
> nestork

Well said. And I agree 100% about your observation that at least
some of the x-rays are fake. As you point out, the spray can would
show up as a solid opaque object, not semi-transparent, with
highlighted
edges. It's an obvious photoshop job. But it suckers in the
kooks....
You have to wonder where they are looking to even come across
such things.....

Helicopter surveys the aftermath in Moore, Oklahoma

Oren — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:59:11 GMT

Video:

old gate hinge refurb options?

Jim K — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:01:04 GMT

On 23/05/13 15:01, Jim K wrote:
> Lovely old heavy wooden pedestrian gate- huge old hinges worn so gate dropped at latch side...
>
> Hinges must have getting on for 1/2 inch play in them -sideways iyswim.
>
> Getting new ones as nice will be hard & expensive so pondering ways to repair originals-
>
> In the past someone has rolled some sheet steel? Tin? To fit around the hinge pins - this has worn through.
>
> Worst case would be trying to weld up & redrill.
>
> Car body filler? What would it's wear rate be like? Hinge pivot points are "enclosed" from weather so could be packed with grease...
>
> Or?
>
> Cheers
> Jim K
Re bush them. Or sleeve the pins. need a lathe to turn up the right
short bush, freeze it, red heat on existing hinge and bash in the new bush.

Or depending on the size drill the hinge out to whatever rod you can
get, fit that grind flat and redrill new hinge hole

car suspsensions may net you an actual bush that fits..

--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.