Erratic DIY Compendium

Resolution: FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Here are the pictures of the sump pump fix.

First, the two floats together

Here, the washer chopped down with a dremel (allowed the float to fall back to a specific place in the "well".

And, of course the description of why we did it and how it works below in the month old post.

New Years resolution: more posts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 01:04:00 +0000

We'll see how that pans out. Erika and I stayed at my parents house over the holidays and we had some interesting weather to say the least. First, it was super cold and snowy when we arrived. Then it warmed up and started raining. Anyone who has a basement in the Chicago area knows what that means...flooding.

So the family is sitting in the dining room listening to the sump pump kick on and off when suddenly it starts making a funny noise (funny uh-oh, not funny ha-ha). So Dad trots down to the crawl space only to find the pump won't shut off when the water level is low. We messed with it for a few minutes and determined that it also wouldn't shut off when the water level is high any longer, either...unless you jar the float in some manner (we used a screwdriver). The pump would work if you simply moved the float past it's natural resting position by putting more upward or downward force on it than normal. All that was needed was a gentle lift or push with a finger.

Bear in mind, this is all figured out over 30 minutes while it continues to rain buckets and everyone else in Chicago is finding out the hard way their pump has failed. It'll be a while before the plumber arrives and neither of us feel like crouching in a crawl space poking the sump pump every minute or so to turn it on or off. Most importantly, it worked well enough to get us out of the crawl space for the three hour wait for the plumber to arrive.

The solution? Go buy a toilet bowl float and zip tie it to the sump pump float. The added weight will pull down on the float with greater than normal force and the added buoyancy will lift the float with greater than normal force.

Total cost? a few bucks for float, zip ties and a huge deck screw to plug the float hole.

Pictures to come soon.

I shall call you: Hamburger Knee

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:25:00 +0000

Erika and I are pretty sad to have the house all to ourselves...we miss Slammer a lot. At the same time, we both realized it wouldn't do us any good to sit around and cry whenever we saw something she played with, laid on, chewed on, etc. So we took a trip to Fruita, CO. It's a cool mountain bike town on the western slope with great riding.

Here are some pictures.

Driving at sunset toward Fruita.

Erika is cute. This was a super mellow climb, but it made us appreciate our complete lack of fitness after 8 weeks of taking care of a suffering dog.

Erika shreds the Zippety Do Da trail. Note the trail following the ridge in the distance.

In an effort to try and get some level of physical condition back before Thanksgiving, I went to try out some large-ish jumps at lunch. I was doing fine until I jumped during a cross-wind. My beautiful blue baby was unharmed during the crash. Now with updated icky picture!

Slammer: 2000 - 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:13:00 +0000

We love you and we'll miss you.

Bike photos

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:39:00 +0000

Here is the finished beast.

I painted the headbadge with Krylon. I think it's stainless steel, so we'll see how long it stays this color.

Was: Red Heat, Now: Blue Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:20:00 +0000

Earlier this year, I bought a new frame in anticipation of the Hammerschmidt release. I got it in red because most of my bikes have been red. On the Turner website, it looked like a candy apple red, but it was really a flat, boring red with a semi-polished rear triangle and a black rocker link...see below.

It wasn't a bad looking bike but it certainly wasn't handsome, either. Also, I didn't have downtube cable routing, so I was left with zipties holding it in place and scuffing the paint. So, I took it to Spectrum Powder Works here in the Springs and had it painted. It looks great. Now I just have to reassemble the bike. Check it out.

Complete frame...the upper rocker link will be black to echo the Turner type. The Turner logotype is painted on...no more scratched decals.

Detail of the cable stop near the head tube. Yes, it's held on by JB Weld.

ISCG Tabs. I'll have to face the frame again to get all the powder off, but no biggie.

A nice view of the non-drive side dropout.

Lotus Europa - WIP

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:22:00 +0000

Long time no post.

Here are some pictures of a model car I picked up a while back. I started working on it again when Erika asked "when are you going to work on that again?". I chose the Europa because of the Lotus philosophy of weight savings. So many cars on the road offer big power, but in a big heavy package that handles poorly.

It offered about half the horsepower of a stock subaru WRX, but the heaviest of the Europa models weighed in at about 1600 lbs...less than half what my Subaru weighs. So the power to weight ratio was just marvelous for the 1970s.

"Simplify, then add lightness" is a famous quote from Lotus founder Colin Chapman. When I finish, that quote will appear on the case I put this car in.

Pictures:

Lotus Big Valve! 126 hp!

Front Suspension, steering and brakes.

Motor, exhaust, rear suspension.

Pump Track update #3

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:13:00 +0000

Well I haven't been updating the blog so much...busy, busy. This is only the third pump track update because I've been mostly riding it and not taking pictures. A co-worker came over with his BMX bike and helped me refine some areas of the track.

Below are some pictures.

Chuck just moved from sea level. He's out of breath in front of the big berm.

Entrance to the track.

Ripping the big berm

Pictures from Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:34:00 +0000

Here are some pictures I took during my trip to Europe a while back.

Central area of Leusden (where I stayed) and my main mode of transportation in Holland.

Thatched roof...they're everywhere.

Really nice landscaping is also commonplace.

Funny horse laying down. He then proceeded to scratch his back on the grass, get up and take off running. The other one just stood and ate grass.

A good example of the stellar cycling routes in Holland. It is the best place I've ever ridden a bike (for purpose).

A windmill. They're not as common as you might think, but they aren't rare either.

Pretty View

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:24:00 +0000

Erika and I went on a bike ride yesterday from Buffalo Creek. It's a little closer to Denver than to us, but was a very nice ride. We wound up getting a little lost and climbing for a little longer than we'd have liked to, but it was worth it. We wound up at Wellington Lake with this view:

We also started pulling some of the lettuce from the garden...it looks tasty. I grabbed a little sprout to try some and managed to find some of the only mustard greens in there. So my mouth tastes a little funny.

Pump Track update #2

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:41:00 +0000

I decided to change up the layout a little bit. With the old layout, you could easily get stuck going in one direction. You'd always enter going clockwise, but if you took any of the center lines, you'd get turned around and be stuck doing a nascar, with no way out.

Here are some pictures.

The new set-up should allow for a figure 8 run, or just an s-bend that lets you change direction. It will take some doing, but I'm up to the challenge.

Long time no post

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Okay, back to it. With the weather being so nice, I've been out riding a lot and hence, not updating the blog.

Enough with the excuses here is some stuff. I carry a good amount of crap in the trunk of my car. Jumper cables, bungee cords, tow straps, 20mm fork adapters for the roof rack, wrenches (10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm), a reverseable screwdriver...you get the idea. To my credit, I've never been stranded anywhere and can help anyone who might be.

But I also really enjoy the occasional canyon carving session and all that crap makes a TON of noise. Solution? Foam in the spare tire well.

Check it:

And the resulting empty looking trunk.

Also, Erika's garden is shaping up nicely. Her tomatoes are coming along. We put up some plastic wrap to protect them from the harsh sunlight (we live at 6000' elevation) and all the hail we get in the spring.

Besides tomatoes, there are onions, some hot peppers and some other tasty stuff.

Garden Time

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:48:00 +0000

Erika and I spent most of our day digging in the dirt. We built a raised bed for her vegetable garden and couldn't have had a nicer day for it. Here is the completed product:

It's untreated wood, with some stakes sunk in for stability. It's not pretty, but it's functional.

We also got a peach tree and planted it in the center of the pump track. Hopefully, this time next year we'll be eating some tasty peaches between pump track sessions.

Pump Track update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:20:00 +0000

Here are some non-spy photos of the track. I spent about 4 more hours on it today. A view of the track from the fire pit:

A views of the 180 degree berm. I rode this a couple times and it's pretty awesome.

In the front of the picture is a really tight, 60 or 70 degree turn. I'm going to bet when you hit this right, you'll have to make a real effort to keep your head up. The 180 degree berm appears in the background

Erika also got started on her garden. She's going to have tomatoes, lettuce, fennel, garlic, zucchini...and loads of other stuff, too. I'm going to be eating good once I build the box for it. I snagged some 2x12s and 1x2s to build a box. She spent a good portion of time ripping up old grass and turning the soil.

Yard work...kind of

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:40:00 +0000

I have, hands down, one of the coolest ladies on the planet living with me. "Why?" you ask. Two words: PUMP. TRACK. If you don't know what that is go here. Yes, Erika has consented to me ripping up a large portion of the lawn.

I started building it this afternoon and kept going well past dusk...I spent almost 5 hours on it. It's a 40' x 60' area that's going to be a figure 8-ish layout. It will have a few cool features. First will be a 180 degree berm. Second will be a diagonal line option. To be honest, I'm crossing my fingers on how this all turns out. The goal is for it to be loads of fun for both Erika (less experienced) and I (more experienced) to ride for a few hours.

Here are some spy pictures Erika took from the back porch.

Something not related to the house

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:53:00 +0000

For anyone out there with a Subaru they want to make a little faster and learn a lot about, go here.

Romraider is an open source tuning solution for Subaru engine management. You can change nearly anything in the stock ECU. You can totally blow up your motor if you want! Your investment is a $70 cable from a company called Tactrix. Additionally, you can log data from your ECU to understand what it is doing. In the case of my 02 WRX, I can see when the turbo is making what pressure, what ignition timing looks like and what duty cycle the fuel injectors are running at. See pics of maps below:

Then, when you really want to have fun and risk spending serious coin, try some little changes...baby steps. So over the last year or so, I've gone from a motor pulling in 137g/sec of air at 5k rpm to a motor that pulls about 160g/sec...about a 17% increase in horsepower. Having my oil analysed has shown no adverse wear on the car...just tons of fun.

House update - Moved in!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Well, we finally are settled in the new house. I put most of the shoe moulding down:

I only skipped the mudroom. I'll probably do that on Friday when the TV guy comes during his 4 hour timeblock. Otherwise the mudroom is looking good.

I drilled a 2x4 into the studs with some deck screws and then just threaded some hooks in to hang bikes from. I could do a chin-up on it, so I figured it'd hold a couple DH bikes.

The living room looks nice as well, lots of open space. We cleaned all the window treatments and re-hung them. It will help a lot in the summer with all the sun the house gets.

I also got a new bike, one of these. I rode it yesterday and today and it rides great. Pictures later.

Finishing touches on the floors

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:59:00 +0000

So I spent the last few evenings this week putting down tile and then fixing one that came loose on the edge. I made the mistake of just catching my toe on it...and the board to build up to the tile wasn't in place. Oops. Here is how the grout is looking.

I pretty much just have to clean today, put down some shoe moulding and I'll be done. If you recall from the photo of where the sink used to be on March 9, you'll notice there are no more pipes coming out of the floor save for the washer/dryer hook-ups.

Speaking of shoe moulding, with all the carpet removal, you can guess what the house has none of...that's right, none anywhere. So how much moulding is needed for a 1300 sq ft house? This much:

It's about 200 ft of it, I stained it all yesterday and will varnish it today.

Here is a without moulding/with moulding comparison. The photos only show it covering the mistakes in our edge sanding...which really doesn't do it justice. It completes the room in a really big way. The color is also a little better match than the photos show.

Also, Erika has done a great job with the paint. The bath room has a really nice earth/sky thing going.

Now I just have to move in so I can sit on the can for a while.

More on the electrical outlets

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Here is a link to how I replaced all the outlets in the front of the house. It's really as simple as turning off the breaker, pulling the old one out and installing the new one with a grounding wire to the metal box. It's worth noting that if it's a home that's super old (like ours) that you should check every socket with a lamp before you work on it. Don't assume that because the breaker turned off one side of a room it turned off BOTH sides of the room. I almost found that out the hard way. Not cool.

Lots of stuff done

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:04:00 +0000

When I last left off, I had one coat of polyurethane down. I have been coating ever since and am pretty much finished. Have a look!

I finished up last night around 10:30pm and then promptly lost an hour of sleep due to daylight savings. Total of 4 coats in each bedroom and 5 coats in the hall, living and dining rooms. Also, in my exhausted state I missed a 3 foot by 5 foot area. I'll fix it later.

Erika starting painting and made some outstanding progress.

She's really pretty good at painting...waaay fewer white patches than if I were doing it.

Unrelated to all these goings-on, this is what the mud room started life as:

Now, there are a few things to take away from this picture. First, the fridge isn't in the kitchen. Second, the carpet is gross. I mean really, really gross. Third, there are bi-fold doors that seperate the kitchen from the mud room (funny rant here, midway down the page). Also, there is a cabinet for you to bang your head on. Furthermore, there is a washer-dryer and nasty old sink on the left (out of the picture, naturally). So, what to do?

Move the fridge to where it should have been in the first place.

This involves re-routing the filtered water hookup, installing a new grounded outlet in the kitchen (more later here) and removing the fridge doors so it can actually fit through the doorways that it wasn't meant to go through.

After that, read a book about tiling, then tear out the carpet and start to lay tile.

Now, get the bi-fold doors and cabinet out and put the sink outside.

Then decide it's not going back in after you break the drain pipe.

I still have to do the tiles around the edges of the room. Then I have to remove all the plumbing for the sink. More here later.

First coat is down!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:44:00 +0000

I put down the first coat of polyurethane on the floor yesterday afternoon. It looks pretty good. I'm excited that it will come pretty close to matching the kitchen, so when you look from the living room through the house, it will be cohesive.

Here are some bad cell phone pictures:

Now I just have to sand it, and then repeat another 3 times.

No more sanding

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 04:35:00 +0000

Well, maybe just a little bit more. Take a look.

As you can see, the light color doesn't clash with the dark trim the way the red color did.

Also, we got welcomed into the neighborhood. This plate was full at one point.

I'm going to bed now and will be asleep before 10pm.

More on making yourself sore

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Okay. So like I said, we bought at house with pee-stained carpet. However, there were hardwood floors underneath. So I pulled up all the carpet. That alone was a mega-pain. It covered both the living and dining rooms, as well as the hall...probably 300-350 square feet, probably had between 400-600 staples holding it down, along with loads of carpet grabber boards (basically, paint stirring sticks with 4-5 nails per square inch). 6 hours later, I was admiring some really red, slightly neglected hardwood floors. Now if this were a rental, I'd have left it as it was. But no, I have seen what is possible (below) and I must have it!

The lighter color in the kitchen matches the walnut colored trim soooo much better. So, I read up on DIY floor refinishing. This link and This link had some particularly useful info. One thing that came up a lot was the fear of the drum sander. So I rented an orbital sander instead of the drum sander.

So I sanded and sanded for about 8 hours. I did two bedrooms and the living room, ate through loads of sandpaper and finally said "nuts to this" and went to get the drum sander. DRUM SANDERS ARE MY NEW FAVORITE THING. I put 36 grit sandpaper on and finished the bedroom before Erika was back with lunch. Drum sanders don't kid around...see below.

So what was going to take me 16-20 hours with an orbital sander took me 3 with the drum sander. Like I said, those things are no joke. Pay attention to what you're doing.

So I'll finish sanding tomorrow. I have to do the edging and then Erika and I will start urethaning (is that a word?) asap.

How to make your entire body hurt

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:54:00 +0000

Step one: Buy a house with pee-stained carpet:

Step two: Try to make above flooring look like the one below without anyone's help.

Step three: Profit. Wait, no, not profit. Step three is actually immense body aches because I am a pencil-pushing sissy of a desk jockey.

More to come soon.

No more rants

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:43:00 +0000

Letting slip with that rant was an error in judgement. Here is my latest and most successful stab at getting a really sweet handling mountain bike.

First some background. A good 60% or more of a rider's mass is on the back wheel. 60% or more of your braking force comes from the front brake (all this assumes seated rider, level ground). I think that last one is the reason why some mountain bikes use larger front rotors, though it seems to come from some fuzzy logic. Larger rotors are good for the following reasons: better heat dispersion (larger rotor area), higher initial bite (greater leverage against the hub), and greater brake force for a given hand effort. Larger rotors are bad for the following reasons: greater weight, higher initial bite (can be difficult to control for novices).

Some more background. I have never owned or even ridden a bike where the natural tendency was for the rear wheel to let go first during a corner (in a car, this is oversteer). I've owned and ridden a couple two three bikes, let me tell you. Every single bike I've ever ridden is an understeering pig with the front wheel letting go long before the rear. Many riders solve this by using a larger front tire (say a 2.5" front vs. a 2.3" rear). This is a good start, but isn't enough. In theory, that difference in contact patch shouldn't make a difference at all if the coefficient of friction is the same for each tire. So what to do!?!

You go here and you purchase one of these soft tires for the front:

and one of these harder tires for the rear:

Durometer is how tires designate coefficient of friction, by the way. Lower is softer, stickier rubber. Higher is harder, less tacky rubber. Maxxis is the only company I know making different durometers available in single ply tires. Of their tires, the High Roller, Minion and Larsen are the only tires I see like this.

This combination allows greater overall traction to the front tire, has numerous benefits and almost no drawbacks. Benefits: greater brake force available, greater cornering force available, more neutral handling (the front wheel still lets go first). Drawbacks: Your front tire will wear more quickly than it used to. I'm guessing it'll last about as long as your rear tire. Now you need that heavier 185 rotor, there will be a slight increase in rolling resistance while climbing (but only on the front wheel).

Seriously, for the mountain bikers out there, if you only learn one thing ever from the internet, it is this. Buy a softer durometer front tire. You'll be faster and have way more fun once you're pointed downhill.