Projects

[Cafeend]

So I thought since a lot of us are creative to some degree and dabble in other things aside from bikes I would make this entry around projects.
Any projects. Don't care,, whatever you build and do. 

So a back in early August my wife tells me she found a killer grill at a neighbors house on FB. I was looking at building another one anyways so this was cool. It didn't work for years and she wanted the whole thing gone.
Looking at the pictures I saw it was a drop in Turbo grill in a island. We went over to have a look. It had been sitting for several years and she said she didn't know the last time it worked. Later I figured it out to be approx 16-18 yrs old. 
To me this was a barn find for grills. I knew what she had and I knew I could fix it.
Turbos are made by BBQ Galore. Not the very top but not too shabby. Parts are easy to come by and the quality is good and it was made to last.

She wanted no money, just get it out of her yard , island and all. For me to buy new I'd be looking at around 5 grand easy. Zero bucks is way good.

I hired my neighbors son and we moved the whole thing from her house to mine and into the backyard. We had to use cut up PVC pipe and rolled that beast like butter to his trailer and then to my backyard. 

I pulled it apart. It was filthy and I removed any janky parts. The heat plates were shot. Ignitors were shot. The cast burners were bad. I had replacement ceramic grill grates from a previous project already.
The gas regulators looked bad and the seals were gone. Everything else was good and can be re-used.

I spent a couple days cleaning and scraping the gunk and grime out. A lot of Bartender's Helper and scrubbing. I got it from black death to shiny as I could.
I ordered new heat plates with the ceramic briquets and a new ignitor and wires. I used a wire brush and cleaned the cast burners the best I could. Eventually they will need to be replaced I am sure. 

Doing a bunch a searches I found I could not replace the gas regulators any more but I found a company in South Florida that made a variation of them without the installed ignitors and in the correct angles that I could buy.
The company turned out to suck horribly with customer service but about 6 weeks later I finally got the new parts delivered. 

So now I had everything I thought I needed to rebuild and got to it. 

The hardest part was assembling the gas manifold with the new part. This took many hours of trial and error and a lot of doing it wrong. 

Each step forward I would face a new fun challenge in making parts fit. The ignitor and wiring went in no problem and I spent a lot of time tweaking the spark direction. 

I finally got it all assembled and was able to fire this thing up. Is it as great as a high end grill brand new? Nope,  but it was damn satisfying and will be well used. We grill almost every day. 

The island needs fresh paint job but the tiles are in good shape. I replaced the flooring behind the propane door with cedar planks and still need to fix a hole knocked in the side with a new vent.
So Grill and Island were free  $0
4 new gas regulators with new seals and new wiring  $ 233.96
Ignition Switch and 4 new ceramic heat shields $ 70.39
2 Cedar fence planks for the floor $ 9.34 
New step drill bit to make a hole $19.99
Neighbor kid to help me move this beast $ 60

So all in all I think I did good and I had some frustrating fun and saved a boat load of cash and I got a cool new grill. 

[TheX]

3 minutes ago, Cafeend said:

Is it as great as a high end grill brand new? Nope,  but it was damn satisfying and will be well used. We grill almost every day. 

Brilliant result!

I have too many projects, but the new loft remodel kinda covers a few of them. It's my studio also. It had Ikea cupboards, and too much crap in it. I have done more since this pic, but haven't bothered to take more pictures yet. 

 

[ATXZJ]

My current clusterfuck/project. Water line for Icemaker in wetbar sprung a leak and trashed the 70s parquet floors. As a bonus we tested the glue and found it has asbestos

 We are now waiting for the insurances companies to figure out whos gonna pay a $25k bill. Good times.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by ATXZJ

[TheX]

4 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

My current clusterfuck/project. Water line for Icemaker in wetbar sprung a leak and trashed the 70s parquet floors. As a bonus we tested the glue and found it has asbestos

 We are now waiting for the insurances companies to figure out whos gonna pay a $25k bill. Good times.

 

Damn, sorry to hear that. Water is a hell of a destroyer.

[Cafeend]

Curious.. is flooring like this something that can be covered with new flooring? Kind of burying the bad stuff?

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[ATXZJ]

11 minutes ago, Cafeend said:

Curious.. is flooring like this something that can be covered with new flooring? Kind of burying the bad stuff?

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Damage requires complete removal of 1k sqft of flooring downstairs down to slab. They are also required to perform an asbestos abatement. Once all that is done, I'll get new hardwood floors. Hoping before year end as wrve been at this since 8/30.

[CBaron]

3 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

Damage requires complete removal of 1k sqft of flooring downstairs down to slab. They are also required to perform an asbestos abatement. Once all that is done, I'll get new hardwood floors. Hoping before year end as wrve been at this since 8/30.

Who is your insurance company?

-CJB

[ATXZJ]

Homeowners is through USAA. We've been customers for 18yrs and they've been great. As far as the rest of the insurance hellscape goes, we have a master policy through our HOA, the aforementioned USAA homeowners, two separate flood policies and an independent home warranty. They all end up pointing fingers at each other every time we make a claim and have to run the claim through their legal departments before approving/denying. It's not particularly fun. Oh, we also pay for two HOAs, so it's a bit of a death by a thousand cuts.

However, it sure beats paying out of pocket for repairs. 

Edited October 24, 2020 by ATXZJ

[AntonioGG]

I have two big projects.  One is to finally run an outlet for my compressor and install lines throughout the garage.  I've had the kit for 2-3 years and haven't gotten around to it.

The other has been a slow process but it's to clear and fix up the garage in my late mother in law's property in Manchaca.  Speaking of which, I have some stuff to give away in the PIF thread.  The garage needs to be cleared of junk, cleaned up, rewired, secure the insulation, etc.  We already cleared about 750lbs of shotgun shells, lead shot, etc.  (I married into a big sporting clay family).  I'll definitely take pictures of that as we go along.  My wife and kids will do the power washing and painting of the exterior.

[AustinBike]

I have done a ton of network rewiring, including cleaning up all of the old cables outside the house. I am almost to the point of pulling 2 of the three cable TV cables (one AT&T and one Grande) from the house, rolling them back to the utility pole in the corner and wrapping them up back there.

This is what the old network topology was:

And this is the new one:

Outside of that, at the outset of the pandemic I made a projects list and committed myself to tackle something each week, no matter how much I did not want to.

It has been satisfying to check things off the list. That grill project is awesome, I'm amazed at how easy it is to find parts for things these days. Fixed a Samsung fridge myself twice. This saved me $350 easily. Which is money that can go towards bike parts.

[throet]

17 hours ago, ATXZJ said:

My current clusterfuck/project. Water line for Icemaker in wetbar sprung a leak and trashed the 70s parquet floors. As a bonus we tested the glue and found it has asbestos

 We are now waiting for the insurances companies to figure out whos gonna pay a $25k bill. Good times.

We're in a similar situation. Our dishwasher that is located within our kitchen island had a very slow leak. The water was running the length of the island, concealed by all of the cabinetry. It wasn't until the water started seeping out on the opposite side of the island that we became aware, as the carpeting there became soaked. The insurance company sent Service Masters out to check for moisture in cabinet framing and adjacent sheet rock, and they ended up having to demo everything. The cabinet frames were rebuilt and installed but we're still waiting on sheetrock and baseboards, along with new carpet in the living room. Insurance is covering everything, albeit with $2400 deductible. However they claim that they could recover part of our deductible by going after the Dishwasher manufacturer, GE. We'll see how that goes. 

Did they check from moisture in those cabinets adjacent to your mini bar? Most cabinet frames are made from particle board, and that shit soaks up moisture like a sponge. Even if it gets dried out, it could be compromised.  

[notyal]

Must be water leak season. I noticed the cabinet under the sink was wet and traced it to the disposal. So, I’ll be installing a new one this weekend. Luckily we caught it before the water had a chance to damage anything.

On the “got something for free and fixed it” topic, my lawn mower has been on its last leg for a couple years. I literally have the carburetor holding on with bailing wire. So when I saw a nice looking mower on the curb with a “free” sign, I scooped it up. It started right up, but the self propel wasn’t engaging. I flipped over and saw that the drive belt had come off. Simple fix. Free mower.

[TheX]

8 minutes ago, notyal said:

Must be water leak season. I noticed the cabinet under the sink was wet and traced it to the disposal. 

Wife called me downstairs an hour ago, drip pan under the disposal had water in it. I now have plans for tomorrow morning. Glad I rode 5 of the last 7 days.

[AntonioGG]

(be right back, gotta check under all the sinks and faucets)...

[ATXZJ]

On 10/24/2020 at 9:55 AM, throet said:

We're in a similar situation. Our dishwasher that is located within our kitchen island had a very slow leak. The water was running the length of the island, concealed by all of the cabinetry. It wasn't until the water started seeping out on the opposite side of the island that we became aware, as the carpeting there became soaked. The insurance company sent Service Masters out to check for moisture in cabinet framing and adjacent sheet rock, and they ended up having to demo everything. The cabinet frames were rebuilt and installed but we're still waiting on sheetrock and baseboards, along with new carpet in the living room. Insurance is covering everything, albeit with $2400 deductible. However they claim that they could recover part of our deductible by going after the Dishwasher manufacturer, GE. We'll see how that goes. 

Did they check from moisture in those cabinets adjacent to your mini bar? Most cabinet frames are made from particle board, and that shit soaks up moisture like a sponge. Even if it gets dried out, it could be compromised.  

Sorry man, that sucks so bad. They'll probably pursue subrogation with GE but that can be tough as you've already paid the deduct to the insurance so there's not much incentive other than you calling daily to yell at someone. USAA turned my claim over to a subrogation company and it didn't make it very far as the icemaker is over two decades old in a house that's four decades and counting. All bets are off on this one. So far, my deduct "should" only be $500 to USAA instead of $10k to the dogshit master policy through our HOA. Glad you're getting everything sorted, and hopefully you're working in some upgrades in that process too😎

 

Servpro came out and checked the moisture and did the remediation. Cabinets were fine as the water line dripped straight down, getting under the flooring and pooling in a low spot in the kitchen. In my experience, Servpro is also staffed by morons. The team dispatched to my house removed the effected parquet flooring, and then proceeded to set up their fans and dryers, which would have aerated all the asbestos particles remaining on the floor. I work in a completely different industry with no demo experience, and had to stop them from doing what they should've known better. The level of incompetence out there is insane.

Edited October 25, 2020 by ATXZJ

[Cafeend]

Wait.. did Servpro know there was asbestos there?

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[ATXZJ]

2 hours ago, Cafeend said:

Wait.. did Servpro know there was asbestos there?

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They knew there was a 50/50 chance that black mastic glue used in a house built in the 70s had asbestos, and was willing to roll the dice. Reason being, the more equipment they set up, the more they could charge. I also had to make them vacuum up all the dust/residue, and cover the exposed floor with construction paper and tape it sealed. Had the glue tested a couple days later and found the asbestos. Figured it had asbestos since my stove is wired with aluminum.  I got all the good stuff.

Called the regional office and let them know what happened and they knocked 50% off my bill. 

I think these guys are just mercenaries that go into natural disasters or places where people don't know any better and proceed to pencil whip customers to death. My neighborhood is a target rich environment for these types. 

 

BTW, nice fucking work on the grill👍

Edited October 25, 2020 by ATXZJ

[skinned elbows]

Rettrofitted my weed eater with a chainsaw blade and made it a cedar eater.. I have a few spots I need to clear out on a build lot I have by lake gtown...this one had a nice rock feature I was exposing, gonna make a nice fire pit area ... now I just have to figure out what to do with all the brush I cut down I think I'm going to have to rent a chipper once I clear the other two locations

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[Chief]

On 10/25/2020 at 4:39 PM, ATXZJ said:

 

I think these guys are just mercenaries that go into natural disasters or places where people don't know any better and proceed to pencil whip customers to death. My neighborhood is a target rich environment for these types. 

 

BTW, nice fucking work on the grill👍

What do you mean? Something like hail chasers?😜

[AustinBike]

14 hours ago, skinned elbows said:

Rettrofitted my weed eater with a chainsaw blade and made it a cedar eater.. I have a few spots I need to clear out on a build lot I have by lake gtown...this one had a nice rock feature I was exposing, gonna make a nice fire pit area ... now I just have to figure out what to do with all the brush I cut down I think I'm going to have to rent a chipper once I clear the other two locations

Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk
 

One of the best things I ever bought is a battery-powered pole saw. It's basically a chain saw on a 12' pole. Seems like the circular blade would be harder to manage at such a distance, the chain saw has a decent length so you can set it on a branch and let it do its work.

[skinned elbows]

If you look in the pic I have a Ryobi pole saw, it is awesome, I only used the cedar eater for quick work on smaller 3 inch and under diameter trees to cut at ground level...it was like butter

I used a combo of Sawzall, pole saw and cedar eater and ran through that section pretty quick

[TheX]

42 minutes ago, skinned elbows said:

I used a combo of Sawzall...

One of mankind's greatest inventions. I have a Milwaukie for big jobs, and a cordless Ryobi for everything else. 

[Ericbike6]

So started this a month or two ago.  The SO wanted a live edge floating shelf.  After keeping my eye open for the appropriate piece of wood, for several months, finally found a guy out near Hutto how sels them.  Went out on Saturday afternoon, found this nice piece of ash.  Finally finished it up last night and installed it.  Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  And the SO is super happy with it!

 

The plan is to make two smaller shelfs with the remaining wood, and mount them bellow and off to the sides of the larger shelf.

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Ericbike6
Added resized images

[Ericbike6]

[Cafeend]

Dude,, Thats a pretty cool shelf