The DIY thread

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I've used a product from Home Depot called Loctite GO2 GLUE on glass and it seems to work well. It a clear thick liquid that should wick into the crack and form a clear seal on the outside.
The plastic 'lens repair tape' is quite good - it's thick and sticks tightly, but it would be difficult to get it to attach smoothly on a curvy surface - I don't think it will stretch.

Also, about those plastic headlight covers ... with age, they get quite pitted and dull. I clean mine (2001 Honda) with a metal polish called NeverDull - probably any other mildly abrasive polish would work. I just do the cleaning and polishing by hand, but a buffer pad on an electric drill could also be used.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
 
Re:

JayKosta said:
The mfg tire pressure number is usually a compromise between handling, noise, ride comfort, treadwear, etc.
If you're primarily interested in treadwear, then I think that higher pressure is better.

I don't have experience with the pressure sensors. They are probably helpful because it's difficult to notice slightly low pressure on radial tires. But the cost is a concern ...
They work by measuring the rotational speed of the tires, not by the pressure. That's why replacing 1 tire with a new one causes the sensor to show a problem - since it will rotate at a slightly different rate.

And another rant about cars ... I think the console video displays are ugly! Yeah, I know they're helpful for GPS. I guess I'm 'old & set-in-my-ways', but I like mechanical knobs & buttons that actually DO what I want them to.
I don't want the console to look like an old nintendo video game.

My current car is a 2001, but I imagine the next one will have all the 'modern' features - sad ...

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
Some TPMS use the ABS system wheel speed method that you refer to, but more commonly now TPMS use the actual pressure within the tire. The easiest way to tell which system you have is: if you can change tire pressure and reset the TPMS without moving the vehicle you have actual pressure sensors in the tire. If you have to move the vehicle for a short distance (some require at least 30 mph) after you change tire pressure to get the TPMS to reset you have the ABS system wheel speed measurement type.

The best tire psi for tread wear is the one that evenly distributes weight across the entire tread. Too much psi wears the middle and too little wears the edges. The OEM specs are usually pretty close, but only for the OEM tire.

My 06 Tacoma OEM spec is 29 psi, but if you dig deep into Toyota service manuals, you will find reference to using lower psi in the rear tires if you are not hauling and/or towing. The problem is, I was never able to find a number for "lower". After experimenting for a while, I came to the conclusion that 32 in the front and 30 in the rear gave me the best tread wear and performance. On the rare occasion that I haul something heavy or pull my utility trailer, I put 32 in the rear. The OEM tires work well so replaced them with the same tire. The Toyota dealer always puts 35 psi in them. The first time that they did it I didn't catch it for about 1,000 miles when I noticed the uneven middle wear on the front tires.
 
Re:

JayKosta said:
I've used a product from Home Depot called Loctite GO2 GLUE on glass and it seems to work well. It a clear thick liquid that should wick into the crack and form a clear seal on the outside.
The plastic 'lens repair tape' is quite good - it's thick and sticks tightly, but it would be difficult to get it to attach smoothly on a curvy surface - I don't think it will stretch.

Also, about those plastic headlight covers ... with age, they get quite pitted and dull. I clean mine (2001 Honda) with a metal polish called NeverDull - probably any other mildly abrasive polish would work. I just do the cleaning and polishing by hand, but a buffer pad on an electric drill could also be used.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
The plastic lenses on my 06 Toyota got really bad so I was going to wet sand them, but wasn't sure how to protect them once I sanded the oxidation off. I ended up buying a kit with a "handy wipe" coated some type of protective liquid that dried to a film. It worked pretty good and a year later they are still clear.

EDIT: Here is my post from last year:

So I tried Wipe New Headlight Restore on my 10 year old, oxi-glazed headlights. My goal was to get a little more light out ahead of me at night. The nice side benefit is, as my wife put it, 'it makes the front of the truck look so much nicer'. Before: couldn't even see the bulb, after: the bulb is very clearly visible. It exceeded my expectation for appearance. I don't know if they look quite 'new', but close. I'll have to wait until the next time I drive at night to check that improvement, and obviously I won't know about durability until ?

It took about 15 minutes per lens to wet sand 10 years of oxidation off/out. Hint: use a squirt bottle to keep the lens wet and the oxi flowing away.
The sealing wipe step takes about 10 seconds per lens.

http://www.wipenew.com/wipe-new-headlights/
 
Okay, today's DIY project involves taking apart and cleaning the dishwasher - seeing as I can't sleep (dad's in the ICU and it's too early for visiting hours), I thought why the heck not?

It wasn't as bad as the last time I did this, but if you let it go for too long the dishwasher can start smelling really icky. And the stuff that collects in there is just downright gross.

Every dishwasher is a bit different, this one happens to be a GE. But I'm sure for every dishwasher model there is a how-to-clean youtube vid. :)

IMG_0517.jpg
 
Some diswashers have a large plastic 'nut' that holds the lower spray arm in position. With age the plastic can get brittle and might break. If you disassemble the dw frequently, I suggest buying a replacement to have 'just in case'. An appliance parts store should have them instock or able to order - probably ~$5.

Also the plastic water discharge hose on mine developed a small crack and was leaking - auto parts store 'hose bandage tape' worked fine since the hose is not pressurized.

If a clothes washing machine starts to smell funky, try using about 1/2 cup of 'Seventh Generation dishwashing machine powder' thru a hot water cycle.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
 
My latest project is replacing tiles on a floor. This is the fourth time I’ve done this type of project, and each time it seems to be harder, because of certain obstacles that the previous job didn’t present. This floor is in a small hallway at the back of my house, in one corner of which is the water heater. The heater used to leak, apparently because of a problem with the tap used to drain it at the bottom, and since at that time I was renting the house to someone else, I wasn’t aware of it for quite a while. A pool of water built up under the heater, and eventually got through the tiles and started rotting the subfloor below them. This would be a problem anywhere in the house, but particularly here because of the water heater. Full of water, it weighs something like 120-150 kg, so it puts a lot of stress on even a solid floor.

So the first step was to move the water heater out of the way. This is fairly straightforward once you understand where everything is and what it does. You turn off the water and gas coming into it, then drain the water out of the tank, so that it’s light enough to lift or at least move by rocking back and forth. However, there was another problem. The heater has a pressure relief valve, which opens when the water inside the tank becomes overheated, and allows it to flow out of the tank. The valve connects to a pipe that passes through the wall of my house and outside to the back yard, where the water can drain safely. To move the heater, I needed to unscrew the pipe from the heater, but I couldn’t get it to budge with my best efforts with a wrench. So I ended up having to saw through the pipe.

After the heater was moved, I could get at the floor underneath it. Not only was a large area of the subfloor, consisting of ¾” plywood, rotted, but one of the floor boards that the subfloor rests on was also rotted, making the floor even weaker. I had to remove that board and replace it, and at this point another problem emerged. The board, 8 feet long and 9” wide, extends from one wall of a small alcove off the hallway to the other wall. The joists that the floor boards rest on are 2 x 8s that are spaced 16” apart. Unfortunately, the last joist accessible before each wall is 12” or more from the wall, meaning that the board would be unsupported for the last foot or so of its length just before the wall.

At one wall, the next joist was just beyond the edge of the wall, so I was able to extend it by nailing two pieces of 2 x 4s to it. At the other wall, though, the next joist was far past the wall, and inaccessible. This was the wall next to where the water heater rests, so support was critical. To make it worse, there was a pipe in front of the joist inside the wall, so there was no way I could do anything involving that joist.

The only thing I could do was extend the accessible joist towards the wall, by nailing 2 x 4s to it. I managed with great difficulty to nail four of them—as I got closer to the wall it became progressively harder to find enough room to swing the hammer—thus extending that joist by about six inches toward the wall, and leaving just the final six inches of the floor board unsupported. The water heater, in place, would be almost entirely clear of this portion, fortunately. The 2 x 4s were further strengthened by screwing them to the floorboards on either side of the board to be replaced.

With the new floorboard in place, I was able to replace the old subfloor with ¾” plywood, nailing it to the floorboards. But there was still another difficulty. I didn’t want to remove and replace the entire subfloor in the hallway; that would have been a lot of work, and most of it was in good condition, not rotted, and didn’t need replacing. But you can’t easily just rip up some subfloor to a predetermined line, and go no further. As you strip off some, you began to weaken and strip more beyond it, in a very ragged and unpredictable pattern.

Maybe there is a power saw that allows you to make cuts flat on a floor, so you can cut the plywood exactly where you want to, down to the floorboard and no further, but with the hand tools I have—basically, just a hammer, saw, and chisel—trying to do this was incredibly difficult and time-consuming. It took me several hours just to remove subfloor to a line three foot long. In the end, I gave up trying to do it all that way, and used floor patch to fill in the spaces between where the old plywood ended and the new plywood began. This is a gray, pasty substance (except for the color, it looks and feels like sh!t) that takes several hours to dry even with a very thin layer, and because I had some deep areas to fill, I had to make three separate applications.

I’m an old man now, and this is a young man’s job! I spent many, many hours down on my hands and knees, and my body just ached all over from the sheer effort. Getting under old tiles or old subfloor and ripping it off with just a putty knife (tiles) or hammer and chisel (plywood subfloor) requires enormous strength and patience, and it’s made that much harder by having to do it on one’s knees. To put it in perspective, it could take as long as fifteen minutes to pry off one 12" x 12" old tile, depending on how strongly it was bonded to the floor.

After all this, the actual laying of the tiles was fairly quick and easy, the fun part for me. But there was one more unwelcome surprise waiting in store. After I finished tiling the area where the water heater would rest, and moved the heater back into place, I filled it with water—and discovered that it was leaking. Every water heater has a code on it, and after some internet searching to learn how to decode it, I discovered it was more than thirty years old—so probably a good time to replace it, anyway.

It turns out that in California, anyway, it costs as much or more to hire someone to install a water heater as it does just to buy it. I considered trying to install the new one myself, but in the end paid someone to do it. It was just as well, because like everything else in this project, not all went smoothly. After the guy put the new heater in place (slightly cracking one of my brand new tiles, huhuhu) and connected the water, there was a leak in the water inflow. As is usual when replacing water heaters, he had discarded the old connectors for new ones, so that wasn’t the problem. He had to remove a pipe connected to the faucet on the wall, and weld a new one in place, something I wouldn’t have had the tools for. Also, because the new heater was not exactly the same height as the old one, that pressure relief pipe didn’t match up with the hole in my wall it was supposed to pass through. He had to add a couple of 90 degree elbow joints to get it to go, involving more tools I didn’t have. (You can see this work in the first picture below, the copper pipe leading from the top of the water heater to the wall to the left).

But finally, after more than a week, I can take hot showers again. I was fortunate that during the period the water heater was out of commission, we had a heat wave, and taking cold showers was not an issue.

jj93kk.jpg

35aobut.jpg
 
Merckx index said:
(slightly cracking one of my brand new tiles, huhuhu)
Why, I never... the impudence! The insolence! The sheer audacity! :razz:

But seriously, after so much hard work I would be upset, too. I'm very impressed by your project, how many hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars do you think you were able to save by doing everything yourself?
 
Merckx, I used to do all of my projects, partly because I like the challenge, and partly because I like saving money (labor is expensive). But like you said, I'm not as young as I used to be and most of these projects make me hurt. Last year I paid a guy to remodel my bathroom, something I would have never done 10 years ago. While he was working, I was riding! :)

I still do a lot of the little things though, for example: my wife said "something is running next to the AC". I went to investigate and the condensate pump was running, but the AC hadn't run for about 10 hours. This is an easy one, the plunger is stuck. I took it apart, cleaned the plunger rod, problem solved. Later my wife said "there's water on the floor around the AC". The pump was running, but not pumping water...hmm? I took everything apart again, plugged it in, and depressed the plunger. The only thing that would move was the little fan on top of the motor so it wasn't actually pumping. It was 23 years old so I guess it gave up. I had other things that I wanted to do so I put a plastic container under the AC condensate pipe. Later that evening I went to the local plumbing store (I try to support them over the big stores when I can) and got a new pump. It was a quick 10 minute install. But just to make sure that something hurt after the project, when I stood up I smashed my head into the gas pipe! We don't even use gas because we have geothermal heat.

Boise Warm Springs Water District:
http://bwswd.com/about-the-district/
 
Re:

jmdirt said:
We don't even use gas because we have geothermal heat.

Boise Warm Springs Water District:
http://bwswd.com/about-the-district/
That's awesome you're able to take advantage of geothermal heat. Is it heat only or is there a cooling system as well?

The little I know about geothermal systems it sounds like they would be very expensive to initially install (definitely not a DIY project! :lol:), but over time they're supposed to save huge amounts of $$$.
 
Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
Why, I never... the impudence! The insolence! The sheer audacity! :razz:

Fortunately, it’s a small crack that I only noticed because I was doing a patching job in the vicinity, and was looking very carefully at the floor. I was more worried that he would scuff the tiles moving the water heater in, and indeed he did, several of them, which I noticed immediately, but fortunately, that doesn’t show much. If I could buy a few more of those tiles, I might replace them, but they come in boxes of 45, and I would have to buy two boxes to get the two different colors I used. The tiles were actually left over from a job I did last year, and I had barely enough; I had a few more left over from that job, but they’re very heavy (one box weighs 63 lb!) and I didn’t bring all of them with me, unfortunately.

But seriously, after so much hard work I would be upset, too. I'm very impressed by your project, how many hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars do you think you were able to save by doing everything yourself?

Well, for starters, when I called someone about moving the water heater, they gave me an estimate of $800-$1000, which absolutely stunned me. They said it would be $300 to disconnect it and move it, and another $300 to move it back and reconnect it, and then added there would probably be parts like connectors that had to be replaced. So I had my property manager—the guy who was taking care of the house when I was renting it—help me disconnect and move it. It took us about an hour and a half, but about half of that time was just draining the tank—connect a garden hose to the outlet tap on the tank, and just wait for all the water to come out. When I was done with the floor, I moved the heater back and reconnected it by myself in few minutes, and if not for the water leak, I would have been mostly home free.

The floor repair and tiling I guess would have cost at least $1000, maybe a lot more, because a handy person probably would have wanted to removed the entire subfloor. I tiled a much larger floor last year—a kitchen that was about 180 sq ft, but no subfloor replacement—and a contractor offered to do that for around $500-600, exclusive of the cost of the tiles.

But that was also exclusive of preparing the floor. The floor was originally covered with vinyl sheeting. Though I was able to rip off the sheeting fairly easily, the paper-like underlay remained glued to the floor in many places, and had to be scraped off. That alone took something like twenty curse-heavy hours of work. A pro would certainly have charged for that, though they might have had some easier way of removing it. Supposedly you can use a heat iron to soften the glue, but I had tried something like that on another floor that I did with the same problem, and it didn’t seem to help that much. Maybe an electric sander? Whatever, that would have been at least few more hundred dollars.

I'll just add that because of the difficulty in removing old tile completely and cleanly, I seriously considered just putting the new tile over the old. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible in this case, because the vinyl sheeting went up the walls several inches,and was fastened there. But it's an option if the old tile is confined to just the floor, and I may do that later this summer with a bathroom I plan to re-tile.

jmdirt said:
Merckx, I used to do all of my projects, partly because I like the challenge, and partly because I like saving money (labor is expensive). But like you said, I'm not as young as I used to be and most of these projects make me hurt. Last year I paid a guy to remodel my bathroom, something I would have never done 10 years ago. While he was working, I was riding! :)

One consolation was that tired as I was, I could still ride. Biking of course allows one to rest the upper body completely, and while my legs were sore, the pedaling motion was therapy for knees that had been bent in one position for so long.

You have some plumbing experience? I have a leak in one of the bathrooms that is next on my to-do list. Part of the problem is the faucet and connector hose, which will have to be replaced, but there’s also a leak inside the wall somewhere; the water damage was obvious even before I opened up the wall to get a look. At this point I think I’ve localized the leak to a large pipe centered behind the sink, but where exactly I don’t know. I’ll probably have to call a plumber.
 
Re:

JayKosta said:
If a clothes washing machine starts to smell funky, try using about 1/2 cup of 'Seventh Generation dishwashing machine powder' thru a hot water cycle.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
I might want to give that a shot next, the washing machine is stinky. (I've tried products like the one from Tide, mostly it just deodorizes for a bit, but it doesn't really clean much of anything.)

Technically I should be taking the washing machine apart so I can get all the lint, dog hair, and whatever else out, but that's a little bit over my head. So I'll try to get as much out as I can without actually disassembling the whole freaking washing machine.

(Still got a kick out of this youtube vid, it's a couple of guys cleaning a washing machine thoroughly. One sounds like he knows what he's doing, the other does not... it's just hilarious to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEmczUzN0q4 )
 
Re: Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
jmdirt said:
We don't even use gas because we have geothermal heat.

Boise Warm Springs Water District:
http://bwswd.com/about-the-district/
That's awesome you're able to take advantage of geothermal heat. Is it heat only or is there a cooling system as well?

The little I know about geothermal systems it sounds like they would be very expensive to initially install (definitely not a DIY project! :lol:), but over time they're supposed to save huge amounts of $$$.
Its just 130 (ish) degree water flowing into my house from the hot springs. Some people pipe it into radiant floor heat, but since I have a two story house that would be a huge, expensive project (plus some other things that would greatly reduce the efficiency of the radiant heat). I just run the hot water through a heat exchanger that I installed in my forced air furnace. So the hot water flows though the exchanger, and air blows through the exchanger and the warm air goes into my living space.

It was $4,000 to get the water piped to my house (plumbing at the source, pipe, and excavation). The exchanger was $1,400, and the geo-guru I consulted with was $350 (without me doing some of the work he was close to $900). The geo is $325 a year for the orifice size we use. Many of my neighbors drain their geo into a hot tub or some even have dedicated lines to their hot tub (that requires the next size orifice thoogh).
 
Re: Re:

Merckx index said:
Tricycle Rider said:
Why, I never... the impudence! The insolence! The sheer audacity! :razz:

Fortunately, it’s a small crack that I only noticed because I was doing a patching job in the vicinity, and was looking very carefully at the floor. I was more worried that he would scuff the tiles moving the water heater in, and indeed he did, several of them, which I noticed immediately, but fortunately, that doesn’t show much. If I could buy a few more of those tiles, I might replace them, but they come in boxes of 45, and I would have to buy two boxes to get the two different colors I used. The tiles were actually left over from a job I did last year, and I had barely enough; I had a few more left over from that job, but they’re very heavy (one box weighs 63 lb!) and I didn’t bring all of them with me, unfortunately.

But seriously, after so much hard work I would be upset, too. I'm very impressed by your project, how many hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars do you think you were able to save by doing everything yourself?

Well, for starters, when I called someone about moving the water heater, they gave me an estimate of $800-$1000, which absolutely stunned me. They said it would be $300 to disconnect it and move it, and another $300 to move it back and reconnect it, and then added there would probably be parts like connectors that had to be replaced. So I had my property manager—the guy who was taking care of the house when I was renting it—help me disconnect and move it. It took us about an hour and a half, but about half of that time was just draining the tank—connect a garden hose to the outlet tap on the tank, and just wait for all the water to come out. When I was done with the floor, I moved the heater back and reconnected it by myself in few minutes, and if not for the water leak, I would have been mostly home free.

The floor repair and tiling I guess would have cost at least $1000, maybe a lot more, because a handy person probably would have wanted to removed the entire subfloor. I tiled a much larger floor last year—a kitchen that was about 180 sq ft, but no subfloor replacement—and a contractor offered to do that for around $500-600, exclusive of the cost of the tiles.

But that was also exclusive of preparing the floor. The floor was originally covered with vinyl sheeting. Though I was able to rip off the sheeting fairly easily, the paper-like underlay remained glued to the floor in many places, and had to be scraped off. That alone took something like twenty curse-heavy hours of work. A pro would certainly have charged for that, though they might have had some easier way of removing it. Supposedly you can use a heat iron to soften the glue, but I had tried something like that on another floor that I did with the same problem, and it didn’t seem to help that much. Maybe an electric sander? Whatever, that would have been at least few more hundred dollars.

I'll just add that because of the difficulty in removing old tile completely and cleanly, I seriously considered just putting the new tile over the old. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible in this case, because the vinyl sheeting went up the walls several inches,and was fastened there. But it's an option if the old tile is confined to just the floor, and I may do that later this summer with a bathroom I plan to re-tile.

jmdirt said:
Merckx, I used to do all of my projects, partly because I like the challenge, and partly because I like saving money (labor is expensive). But like you said, I'm not as young as I used to be and most of these projects make me hurt. Last year I paid a guy to remodel my bathroom, something I would have never done 10 years ago. While he was working, I was riding! :)

One consolation was that tired as I was, I could still ride. Biking of course allows one to rest the upper body completely, and while my legs were sore, the pedaling motion was therapy for knees that had been bent in one position for so long.

You have some plumbing experience? I have a leak in one of the bathrooms that is next on my to-do list. Part of the problem is the faucet and connector hose, which will have to be replaced, but there’s also a leak inside the wall somewhere; the water damage was obvious even before I opened up the wall to get a look. At this point I think I’ve localized the leak to a large pipe centered behind the sink, but where exactly I don’t know. I’ll probably have to call a plumber.
In '98 I bought a house built in 1930 that needed lots of TLC. Each year I undertook a project, ie: remodel a room, prep/paint the exterior, roof the garage, etc. until the entire house had been remodeled. So both bathrooms and the kitchen required that I learn plumbing. Unfortunately, YouTube didn't exist yet to help me out!

The biggest thing that I have found with older houses is that they all have several generations of plumbing hooked together, and those connections are never very good. But, even some connection between similar era plumbing are a problem because people (even plumbers) don't take care to do the job 100% correct. For example, with any of the plastic type threads, it is important to lube the threads to get sufficient tightness (pipe dope is best but even petrol jelly works). If you put the connection together without lubing the threads it usually works OK at first, but will leak eventually. Fortunately I found this out with exposed connections in an unfinished basement, but if I would have put the wall in, I wouldn't have found out until it was a big issue. If you are opening things up, replace as many connections as you can.

EDIT: plumber's putty is helpful when trying to get unlike connections to be less leaky.
 
Re: Re:

jmdirt said:
Tricycle Rider said:
jmdirt said:
We don't even use gas because we have geothermal heat.

Boise Warm Springs Water District:
http://bwswd.com/about-the-district/
That's awesome you're able to take advantage of geothermal heat. Is it heat only or is there a cooling system as well?

The little I know about geothermal systems it sounds like they would be very expensive to initially install (definitely not a DIY project! :lol:), but over time they're supposed to save huge amounts of $$$.
Its just 130 (ish) degree water flowing into my house from the hot springs. Some people pipe it into radiant floor heat, but since I have a two story house that would be a huge, expensive project (plus some other things that would greatly reduce the efficiency of the radiant heat). I just run the hot water through a heat exchanger that I installed in my forced air furnace. So the hot water flows though the exchanger, and air blows through the exchanger and the warm air goes into my living space.

It was $4,000 to get the water piped to my house (plumbing at the source, pipe, and excavation). The exchanger was $1,400, and the geo-guru I consulted with was $350 (without me doing some of the work he was close to $900). The geo is $325 a year for the orifice size we use. Many of my neighbors drain their geo into a hot tub or some even have dedicated lines to their hot tub (that requires the next size orifice thoogh).
Ach sooooo. I thought you were talking about one of those $40,000 investments, like this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY3oGlgZRgI

It's still cool you're able to use the springs in your area, though. :cool:
 
Need some help with this DIY -

Photobucket has just notified me I'm "hot-linking" my pics from their site (didn't realize I was doing that because I've been with them for at least ten years), they now want $100/yr. so I can post my own photos on this site. I don't even know what this means, but I do know I'm not about to pay them $100.

So, if anyone is dying to see my latest photos of my DIYs - how do I do this without having to pay for it?
 
Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
Need some help with this DIY -

Photobucket has just notified me I'm "hot-linking" my pics from their site (didn't realize I was doing that because I've been with them for at least ten years), they now want $100/yr. so I can post my own photos on this site. I don't even know what this means, but I do know I'm not about to pay them $100.

So, if anyone is dying to see my latest photos of my DIYs - how do I do this without having to pay for it?

If you just want to post photos in this forum, and on other internet forums, you can use tinypic.com. That's mentioned in the CN thread on how to post photos, and it works fine for me. You upload photos to that site, and they give you an URL for each one to paste in your forum post.
 
Re: Re:

Merckx index said:
If you just want to post photos in this forum, and on other internet forums, you can use tinypic.com. That's mentioned in the CN thread on how to post photos, and it works fine for me. You upload photos to that site, and they give you an URL for each one to paste in your forum post.
Thanks for the tip, Merckx i, I wasn't sure if the advice in the thread down below was still current. (Photobucket literally alerted me only a couple of days ago that they now charge for their photo hosting, naturally I'm not pleased.)

I'll give tinypic a whirl, thanks again!
 
Yay! Dad's finally out of the ICU (he had a heart attack last Thursday), and the poppies I had planted a while back have blossomed! (Don't know what's going on with the freaking chrysanthemum, but I'll worry about that at some later date.)

Now let's see if I can get this tinypic place to work (cause I know you guys are just dying for some pictures)...

hvxwk5.jpg


Yay! :razz:
 
Re:

JayKosta said:
Thanks for the update about your father, I'm glad he's out of ICU, and hope he is feeling better.

Jay
I think for dad this was like a bad acid trip (not that I've ever dropped any acid, mind), he never takes any meds at all. After the stent procedure he was basically ready to leave the hospital, they had to heavily sedate him so he wouldn't hurt himself being he had this balloon in his heart and was on some kind of a supplemental heart pump.

Thank you for your well-wishes, Jay, I'm hoping dad will be more diligent about his well-being from now on. I'm sure he'll be on some kind of meds for a while, probably aspirin at the very least.

Thanks again! :)
 
Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
Yay! Dad's finally out of the ICU (he had a heart attack last Thursday), and the poppies I had planted a while back have blossomed! (Don't know what's going on with the freaking chrysanthemum, but I'll worry about that at some later date.)

Now let's see if I can get this tinypic place to work (cause I know you guys are just dying for some pictures)...

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Yay! :razz:
I'm glad he is out of ICU! The reverse role of taking care of aging parents is tough, plus it means that I'm aging! :eek:
 
Re: Re:

jmdirt said:
I'm glad he is out of ICU! The reverse role of taking care of aging parents is tough, plus it means that I'm aging! :eek:
I think most of us in this thread are getting a bit long in the tooth, but as long as we know how to use duct tape (being the DIY people we are, of course), I think we'll be okay. :)
 
Right, so sometimes a DIY project can go horribly wrong, this one happened because I bought the wrong kind of seed.

I was hoping to grow some ornamental sweet pea because the blooms are simply gorgeous, but silly me, I bought pole pea seed instead. So this meant I now needed a trellis because pole peas need to climb, but seeing as I didn't want to buy one I just constructed one out of anything and everything I could find.

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Don't know if I'll get any actual pea crop out of this, but I must say, this homemade trellis is a freaking artistic masterpiece! (From a certain angle it looks especially dramatic. One gust of wind though, eh, I'm still working on stabilizing it.)
 
To support and stabilize the trelis, I'd buy a couple of 6 foot 1X1 inch wooden stakes from a garden supply store. Use a large hammer or a 3lb slegde hammer to pound them into to ground. If a wooden stake don't seem like it will be strong enough, then get a metal pound-in fence post.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
 
Re:

JayKosta said:
To support and stabilize the trelis, I'd buy a couple of 6 foot 1X1 inch wooden stakes from a garden supply store. Use a large hammer or a 3lb slegde hammer to pound them into to ground. If a wooden stake don't seem like it will be strong enough, then get a metal pound-in fence post.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
A sledge hammer? Around living plants? Jay, let's have some perspective here.

Thanks for making me laugh though (even if you didn't mean to), it's been a very rough couple of weeks around here in my area.