OT: Whatcha' DIYin'?

[MinJaBen]

I find myself searching for other forums out on the interwebs for DIY help as I do things on my car or around the house and yard. I thought, why not ask around here as well. I know we must have some guys that are good with their hands....not in that way @LakeLivin...and can offer tips from time to time.

So, what is everybody working on these days?

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[hockeynjune]

I find myself searching for other forums out on the interwebs for DIY help as I do things on my car or around the house and yard. I thought, why not ask around here as well. I know we must have some guys that are good with their hands....not in that way @LakeLivin...and can offer tips from time to time.

So, what is everybody working on these days?

I got you with the car stuff

 

[MinJaBen]

I'll start: I'm in the process of DIYing our second bathroom. I started in the middle of the summer and it has been going slow as I tend to be a bit of a procastinator/perfectionist when it comes to doing things outside my comfort zone. I'm a measure 1000 times, cut once, then wonder if I did it right the first time so I better go measure again kind of DIYer.

Right now, I'm trying to start the installation of an alcove tub. The instructions say you don't have to use a mortar base, but you can. I've looked around and found it is a good idea to do so to get the best leveling of the tub, but the one thing I can't find any reliable information on is what type of mortar is best for under the tub. Any of you know a good product?

 

[MinJaBen]

I got you with the car stuff

I wish that is what I needed help with right now. I've got parts I'm looking forward to put on/in my project car, but until I get that bathroom done, I can't do that or MrsJaBen might just kill me and bury me in the car.

 

[hockeynjune]

I wish that is what I needed help with right now. I've got parts I'm looking forward to put on/in my project car, but until I get that bathroom done, I can't do that or MrsJaBen might just kill me and bury me in the car.

I've done a corner shower stall. What are you using for a tub?

 

[MinJaBen]

I've done a corner shower stall. What are you using for a tub?

An American Standard "Americast" (porcelain enamelled steel tub with an insulation, almost as nice as cast iron but half the weight) alcove tub.

Edit: bottom of it looks like this:

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I find myself searching for other forums out on the interwebs for DIY help as I do things on my car or around the house and yard. I thought, why not ask around here as well. I know we must have some guys that are good with their hands....not in that way @LakeLivin...and can offer tips from time to time.

So, what is everybody working on these days?

LOVE this idea. I’m a new homeowner who wants to do a lot of this myself. Would love to have a side hustle/second career owning rentals and/or flipping houses, and have a lot to learn. I’ve fallen farther from the tree than I’d like in that I’m fairly handy but come from a long line of adept carpenters and can’t hold a candle to my dad’s abilities in both carpentry and construction projects. Would gladly read/hear about anything you guys are DIYing - the more detail the better!

 

[hockeynjune]

Nice

An American Standard "Americast" (porcelain enamelled steel tub with an insulation, almost as nice as cast iron but half the weight) alcove tub.

Nice , yes that needs to be level on a good bed

 

[LakeLivin]

I find myself searching for other forums out on the interwebs for DIY help as I do things on my car or around the house and yard. I thought, why not ask around here as well. I know we must have some guys that are good with their hands....not in that way @LakeLivin...and can offer tips from time to time.

So, what is everybody working on these days?

Not so sure how I feel about you talking to my lady friends . . .

p.s. this post is screaming for some Robo input; I seem to recall a post involving a horse? Hope he's doing ok.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

At my farm, the main project now is painting the barn while replacing the rotted wood. Two sides done and will get the other two sides in the spring. Fixing a lot of flashing while I’m at it. I’m 3/4 the way through building a kitchen at the farm. Plumbing, electrical, and drywall/paint is done, island is built and Cabinets are all built/installed (built some and found some at ReStore that I refinished). I’m doing concrete countertops but only have 1 section done and had to stop to address the exterior paint so just stuck some melamine in place for now so it’s usable. Just the countertops and tile left. I also had to replace all the shutoff valves at the farm as they were corroded and leaking. Installed a water softener after that.

At home, I’ve been working on upgrades to our new home (which we bought with no upgrades). So far, I’ve completed turning a covered porch into a 3 season room and built a window bench and bar/table for the room, built a “built in” with a base cabinet and shelves for our living room, built a trash/recycling cabinet that I added to the end of our kitchen island and completely re-did the island, added cabinets to our laundry room. Next up is a new desk/work area for my wife and then probably a custom closet.

Never been so busy as I am in retirement.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Oh, one tip on plumbing, shark bite fittings are the bomb. Expensive, so I wouldn’t do a big project with them, but for a small project like installing a water softener, they were so handy.

 

[Lempo]

This is not the thread to report that I assembled two IKEA Billy bookshelves today I assume.

The hardest part was to not be audible with the "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!" that my head was full of.

 

[MinJaBen]

This is not the thread to report that I assembled two IKEA Billy bookshelves today I assume.

The hardest part was to not be audible with the "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!" that my head was full of.

Seems like as good a thread for that as any. I’ve got a few Billys around the house myself. And multiple extra(?) pieces of Billys…

 

[Lempo]

Seems like as good a thread for that as any. I’ve got a few Billys around the house myself. And multiple extra(?) pieces of Billys…

Not our first set either, ans I think our TV stand is a Billy too.

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

‘61 T Bird, wrapping up rebuilding the engine right now, also have the tranny out not sure if I’ll need a full rebuild of that or not but gotta fix a leak anyways.

 

[MinJaBen]

Put the tub in today. I went with Mapei Large Tile and Stone Mortar for the bedding and mixed it juuuuussssttt a little drier than what they'd recommend for anti-slumping. Here are some pictures:

Bottom of tub:

Tub ready to drop:

Mortar bed:

Once in place and level, they recommend you "fill with water to do a leak test and to help the tub settle into the mortar bed". However, I'm putting it in place prior to my plumber (not going to do the hookup myself as I don't trust my sweating of the copper piping enough) coming this week. So I needed something heavy to help the tub settle into place. Luckily, I had a spare 15 year old lying around:

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

@MinJaBen i get the concern over diy sweating of cu pipes, but with Pex, plumbing is a breeze( although you need the crimping tool). Also, as I mentioned earlier, shark bite fittings on Cu or pex is so handy.

In fairness, my brother was a plumber so I called him frequently for advice before his passing and he made it a lot easier.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Building a couple of stools for a bar/table I made. Complicated glue up. I tried finishing all the pieces before glue-up, which I usually don’t do. It seems to have worked ok, but I’ll have to do som touch-up. These are soft maple bases with walnut backrests. My wife will do the cushions.

 

[MinJaBen]

Building a couple of stools for a bar/table I made. Complicated glue up. I tried finishing all the pieces before glue-up, which I usually don’t do. It seems to have worked ok, but I’ll have to do som touch-up. These are soft maple bases with walnut backrests. My wife will do the cushions.

View attachment 476560

Did you paint the mortise and tenons?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Did you paint the mortise and tenons?

No, I taped them off so that the glue could have adhesion to the bare wood. I "over-taped" in a few spots by a hair on the mortise side, so that's where I'll have to touch it up.

 

[MinJaBen]

No, I taped them off so that the glue could have adhesion to the bare wood. I "over-taped" in a few spots by a hair on the mortise side, so that's where I'll have to touch it up.

It looks like from the photo that your back legs have some curvature or angles to them. If so, did you bend the wood, cut out the shape from larger stock, or are they multiple pieces?

 

[Derailed75]

Well I'm in the procrastination boat but 2 years ago my heat pump went out. I got a few quotes but my house is a modular and they used mobile home stuff so the inside fan unit/furnace is not compatible with any if the major brands and everything needed to be replaced. I was interested in mini split units and was given prices between 8-10 grand for those unit and 5-7 for traditional heat pump set up.

So I did some searching and found a company in Florida that sells "self install kits". I found a Cooper and Hunter set with 3 9000 BTU units, 1 9000 BTU unit and a 5 output inverter unit also comes with the lines and is supposed to be "pre-charged". I run wire and install security and cctv stuff for a living so I figured I could handle this.

I get the units for $3200. And find out that they have to be installed by a professional company in order for the warranty to be valid. So I make some calls and find a local company that will allow me to do the install and basically to a pre run check and sign off on it.

The install goes pretty well took me parts of 2 weekends and the guys comes out extends a few lines and pressure tests it for me and signs off for $300 bucks. All is well and my local power company gives me a $600 energy saving rebate. I'm thrilled. So I tell my wife I will take the furnace out recycle all the metal for money and make the hole where the furnace is at a linen closet.

Well that was 2 years ago and so far I have removed the power from the furnace and thats it.

As far as the mini splits I love them they heat well cool even better and in summer my bill is half of what it was, in the winter its about 30% less because they are not as efficient heating as they are cooling.

Hopefully I find sometime to remove the rest of this crap, make the liner closet and get my cheddar for turning in a bunch of copper.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

It looks like from the photo that your back legs have some curvature or angles to them. If so, did you bend the wood, cut out the shape from larger stock, or are they multiple pieces?

They do. They are 1 piece that I cut them from a larger piece of wood. I first precisely cut a template out of 1/4” plywood with a jigsaw. I used the template to trace the shape on 4 pieces of wood (2 per chair). I then used a band saw to rough cut the legs, leaving the line. I attached the template to the cut pieces with double sided carpet tape. I then used a flush cutting router bit, where the bearing followed the template to get them to the exact dimension of the template. I screwed up the first one by trying to go too fast and take off too much with the router and it got chipped in a few spots. I made multiple passes on the next three with different depth bits and had no problems. Thankfully, it was being painted so I just used bondo to fill the chipped out spots.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

The walnut backrests are also curved. I used a bandsaw to cut those and a spindle sander and palm sander to get them to final dimensions.

 

[hockeynjune]

Oops