We have two sets of glass doors and one of them is missing the screen door (thanks previous owners) - any idea who might sell a replacement?

From all of the ones I've found, they all seem to be double rollers where the top ones just push against the top - ours actually hang almost like a zipline (you can slightly see the wheel at the screw)

I'd love to do this myself instead of replacing the entire door but cant actually seem to find someone selling a kit..

Any ideas? The only other idea I have is to just use a retractable, but having an actual door would be ideal.

I’m trying to coordinate a repair from a far distance - overseas. I am told the shower drain leaks because the fiberglass showerpan flexes (it was likely not bedded properly, installed by amateur house flippers that did not know what they were doing). A plumber came and replaced the drain pipe for a rediculously high cost. Did not fix the problem. They abandoned me.

One option is to remodel.. tear out the showerpan and redo the subfloor which is likely rotton wood (guessing). But I really want to avoid crazy costs. It seems to me like there should be a way to do some perhaps unconventional plumbing. A crawl space is below the shower.

I hate accordian drain pipes. Probably no self-respecting pro plumber would install one. But in the case at hand, it seems like it would solve the moving drain pipe issue.

Another thought, and what I hope someone can advise on: What about a short rigid drain pipe that goes into a rubber gasket-like fitting (e.g. like that in the attached pic), which then goes into a bigger pipe? Wouldn't that tolerate a slight amount of vertical movement as the showerpan flexes?

Fiberglass is a bad choice, no?

If I do bite the bullet and install a new showerpan, fiberglass seems like a bad choice. Why is that still being used? In fact, I think enabled metal showerpans are an older technology, but they seem more robust. I have one in a bathroom which is bedded on air (i.e. just the perimeter of the showerpan is supported). But the thing seems bomb-proof. It will never flex.

Why is plastic and fiberglass used? They require proper bedding, and the bedding can always fail later on. I’ve seen videos were ppl have to later on drill holes in the shower pan to inject expansion foam to add support after support is mysteriously lost. Fuck that. Is it that plastic and fiberglass are not as cold feeling when you first step on them? I cannot think of any other advantage.

I don't have the space or funds for investment in power tools to be practical. I love working with wood, had a job making D&D and TTRPG wooden accessories out of college, now I'm wanting to get back into the hobby and really learn joinery, etc.

Previously, I did lots of machine work, usually with machine planers, jointers, table saws, etc. As these aren't feasible for me right now, and I want to learn to work with my hands, I don't think these skills translate super well to woodworking with hand tools.

The books that I've found so far are DK's Woodworking: The Complete Step-By-Step Manual and Everyday Woodworking by Rex Kreuger. I think the former is the better book of the two, while Kreuger's book seems to be full of kind of weird projects, not sure if it's worth pursuing. Any books that are better? Pretty impressed by the step-by-step manual as I've reviewed it.

I've found local resale, both online and in-person, have been helpful for finding cheap hand tools. I've found a bench plane and a jointer plane for like NOTHING that are in pretty good condition. Trying to find a good, cheap tool for sharpening tools. I don't have a work bench, would like to build it myself eventually, but want to practice the basics first. Any tips for learning hand woodworking? Just joined Beehaw and so far loving these communities. Hope to hear from anyone with more knowlege than me! Also, I've been thinking of joining a woodworking guild. Would that be worth it? My local is like 25 dollars a year.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/66371627

I have 2 methods for descaling toilets in my house, which has quite hard water.

(using physics) high pressure washer

Yeah, you read that right. I setup a high pressure washer inside my home and blast it into my toilet. It works. I think it did the job in under 15 min.

I actually freaked out at first because I thought I was looking at a shattered porcelain bowl. But in fact the urine stone that built up over the years was a solid layer a few millimeters thick. So it shattered the limescale into big pieces that looked like a broken cereal bowl in my toilet bowl, but the porcelain was fine.

Of course it’s not pretty. When you blast a toilet bowl with high pressure water, it blasts back at you. Not ideal to have toilet scum blasting back in my face and all over the floor and wall behind me. When the first wave of spashback hit me I snapped into what must have resembled Jessie Ventura in Predator, where he mowed down the forest with a helicopter machine gun... “aaahh! die motherfucker!” as the shower from the toilet persisted. Hence why I only used this method once. I suppose that’s why it’s my original idea and no YouTubers are telling people to do that.

(using chemistry) acids

After a few yrs it was time to descale again, this time trying acid.

Vinegar is useless. Probably just too weak. Bleach (which was used alone, obviously not combined with any acids), was also useless.

So I bought some pricey proprietary acid in a powder form, which is labeled specifically for this purpose. Instructions direct letting it sit for 30 min. I don’t put stock into that.. not with my toilets after years of buildup. So I let it sit overnight. It bubbles up, so I can see it’s doing some work. But it’s no match for my brown urine stone. So I use a power drill with a really stiff nylon brush attachment (not the flimsy attachments that are intended for toilet bowls which are just like a hand held toilet brush but with a shank). It’s slower than the pressure washer. The spinning brush does not get into corners well, so it takes hours. It’s not as messy as the pressure washer but still not great that strong acid is splashing around getting on my drill and attacking anything metallic. I suppose I should oil all exposed metal parts before doing this.

I wonder if I should stop being stingey and go heavy on the acid. I wonder if chemicals alone can really do all the work without need for mechanical force. Although the ring around the low edge of the rim is hard to give an acid bath to.

better methods?

YT videos often mention “brick acid”. Not sure what that is but it does not seem to exist where I am. Or perhaps that’s the same as whatever proprietary stuff I used.

Is there a long term fix? I normally do no regular maintenance. If I brush the bowls weekly or something, is it feasible to keep the limescale from ever starting?

Chemists say urine stone is caused by urine mixing with water -- which is a bit baffling because surely urine is composed mostly of water to begin with. So the question is, what about the hippy mantra: “yellow, let it mellow; brown, flush it down”? Does urine stone accumulate quicker if you flush every time (thus urine mixes with more water)? 1 flush per 10 urinations means much less water is introduced into the mix. OTOH, the urine has lots of time to become urine stone as it sits.

I once looked at the low-water consuming toilet in a water depleted region, like Las Vegas. It was like a pressure washer integrated into the toilet. Instead of a cistern full of water, it had some kind of device in the cistern. Flushes were fast and violent to minimize water use. I wonder if that design would also be anti-scaling.

I also suspect ultrasonic cleaners could perhaps be of use here. Wouldn’t it solve the problem if a toilet bowl had an integrated ultrasonic generator that runs periodically? Or if I could submerse one manually sometimes?

VHS Slipcover Maker

Quickly make custom VHS slipcases to help you complete your collection. This slipcover generator automatically pulls movie posters, logos, and metadata to design custom sleeve designs for your custom VHS project.

So this place was made into a duplex and they forced a hot water heater into a small closet. Maybe I'm not understanding properly but why is there not a hot water Shutoff valve there? The hot water wasn't shutting fully off on the tub, so the valve stem likely just needs to be replaced, not hard.. quick cheap replacement usually... But when I went to shut off the hot water I found this.

Side note, I also found their was no exhaust vent for the dryer a couple years ago, we had to have someone cut a whole where the exhaust was ran, but just sat up against the exterior wall with no outlet. (Obviously a fire hazard). Shit happens, but am I wrong that a shut off valve should be there?

We have two dogs, which mostly get along fine. But have fought in the past. My wife just got a new job that is not WFA, so there is not always someone at home with the two of them.

The older dog stays in our bedroom, while the younger one in the living room, with the run of the house.

We also have cats, and they have litter boxes in our bathroom, so i keep the door cracked for them to. come and go. But my son's big orange cat pushes the door open enough the older dog can get out of the room.

Today when I left the house i took a piece of rope, tired it to the doorknob (door swings into the room) on the room side of the door, then using a caribeaner connected the rope to the curtain hold outside our room. This prevented the door from being pushed open any further, however when I got home the dog had pushed the door closed, preventing the cats from getting to their litter boxes.

I am looking for something cheap, or hopefully i can make, that will hold the door in place, open just enough for the cats, but not the dog.

I was looking at something like this, but we have a sweep under the door that would prevent this from working.

I've mounted a couple of second hand lamps through my work tabletop, drilling holes to fit the socket mount. To draw the cables through the hollow socket and under the table, I clipped of the big transformer wall plugs. They were too heavy to hang upside down from the power strips I mounted under the table anyway.

So now the lamps are installed, but they don't have power. I tried disassembling the transformer plugs to fit the internals into a freestanding enclosure that could be mounted mid-cable instead. Well, these things were very much made to never be taken apart, and after using a hacksaw to open one of them... Let's just say I'm looking for new transformers now.

The lamps use compact LED tubes @ 7-11W, which is why the transformer is needed. I've been fairly particular about the lamp model — Lival PL011 — and nevertheless I've found them with varying makes and models of transformer. But I'm not an electrician at all, so I'm going to need your advice on replacements. I'm in Europe, so the wall sockets provide 220V AC.

The transformers that I've seen included with these lamps give slightly different information along the lines of

• 220V ~
• 50Hz
• 1700-2000mA

When I look around the web, however, most transformers available either step the voltage up or down, or convert between AC and DC. Any tips on what I should keep an eye out for, and how better to find it?

Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated!

so I got a bunch of old Macbooks lying around; they can be had in the $20 region locally in varied states of decay. fixing them up is cheap and easy, so it's an inexpensive hobby with potential resale upsides. so it occured to me it'd be fun if I could paint them; cheaply of course, can't outsource this to professionals.

tried searching for successful projects but came up short. I believe the main hurdles were:

• expensive devices, nobody wants to risk fucking them up - not an issue any more
• you kinda hafta disassemble them as paint can fuck up a bunch of stuff - not a problem for me
• something about aluminium not taking regular spraycans and such - might be misremembering this

this is kinda what I had in mind:

you got any pointers on what and how?

Unlike most people these days (at least that's what it seems like) I don't own a 3D printer. But a soldering iron is a little like a 3D printer, I assume: as soon as you have it, you find all kinds of uses for it. And while the project I got it for has long been abandoned, I find myself using it quite a bit. My latest addition were a few helping hands inspired by Matthias Wandel, which beats "fixturing" with pliers and random heavy objects. Which led to even more soldering. And while all soldering guides (of the 1 I actually watched) tell you to take care of ventilation, sitting in your freezing cold room, windows open, and holding your breath makes you really think about all those funny-looking fumes.

Disclaimer

Don't get me wrong: I love inhaling toxic fumes like the next person that has bought spray paint to "revive" their plain white IKEA shelf. Jokes aside, work safety is important! The inspiration for this fume extractor was taken from other DIY online posts and I have no way of verifying its effectiveness in cleaning the air. I will always crack a window in addition to using this extractor.

Design Considerations

In particular industrial extractors come with some kind of snout - a piece of flexible tube to position the air intake right above the soldering job. This seems very smart, and I almost went to shop for more parts to join the 12V PC fan and the activated carbon filter already sitting on my desk. However, I did a bench test with the setup at hand and decided to not let scope creep get me this time. The fan I chose really moved some air, and it felt like I could arrange my little setup in a way that does not compromise on extraction action too much. The other place where I considered LocLine was for mounting the fan to its stand, which I skipped for the same reason. The last thought that had the potential to complicate things was the wiring. My soldering iron runs on USB-C - I don't have a full-blown soldering station (yet). I have seen a solution online where all power needs kind of merged at one place, which I really liked. Unlike in the post however, I decided against putting all the controls by the fan. The reason being that I decided to put my fan on a stand and add some pivoting capabilities. Messing with switches and cables on that likely top-heavy contraption did not seem like a good idea. So cables will go on the stand, where they are easy to reach and replace (should I ever get to actually installing them).

Build

As stated above, I don't own a 3D printer (yet). So instead of printing this straight forward piece, I spend the better part of my weekend sawing, screwing, glueing and painting this straight forward piece. I made the dimensions up on the fly and cut everything down with my track saw. The circles were cut with a jig for the router and everything went together with glue and some screws.

(

After I had everything together, I decided that this thing deserved a nice finish. After all, it will sit on my desk right in sight. Luckily I had used the cheapest plywood I could find, so I got to do loads of filling and sanding. After enjoying that for a while, I decided it did not deserve that nice of a finish. Even after multiple coats of filler, sanding, and primer, I can still see some wood texture and make out where the screws went (when looking closely at least). Also, I had decided that adding holes for threading inserts AFTER finishing would be a smart idea. It was not - the finish was messed up in the process.

The filter can be replaced through a little opening in the top. Even though it looks a little messy, at least I don't have to get out a screwdriver to do this. If you own a lathe or have to go to the hardware store anyway, I think the top could be fully closed, and rather have some thumbscrews for opening the lid. In between the fan and the filter sheet I added some 5mm wooden strips that were glued to the fan. This way nothing can rub against the blades of the fan.

For the stand, I just screwed a few thicker pieces of plywood together and called it done. This will later hold a switch and some wiring (probably maybe).

(yes, I increased the length of the legs in the meanwhile, hence the different look in the thumbnail)

Resume

After having used it a little now I can say: It was absolutely worth it! Soldering indoors feels much more bearable and I would even call it an absolute must-have from now on!

Like with every project of course, there still is room for improvement:

• I made everything up on the go. That worked out, but it's not fancy-looking or anything. My helping hands are neither, so that's fine I guess
• Put the pivot point lower on the fan to get some more flexibility in positioning
• Make the base from something denser and slim down the legs to cut down the footprint a little
• Add a shroud
• Elongated holes in the stand would be nice for further adjusting flexibility
• When installing the wiring, I will also try to add a light on top of the fan.

I had a productive morning and some great help. I pulled the trim, built the upper frame, assembled the cabinets and got them all installed. I expect that I will have a light week at work so may be able to get the drywall done at lunch. Now if I can find the right trim.

Hey! Do any of you have ideas for sourcing casing that matches these styles? The reeding isn’t just round, some of them are triangles. And the egg-and-dart isn’t one I’ve seen elsewhere. Take a look:

It took me a while to get back to it due to shipping delays, a funeral, a work trip, and needing to protest, but I had some time today to get more done on the library.

First I installed the next cabinet and cut a hole for the outlet so we didn't lose it.

Next up was getting the rest of the cabinets up and the previously assembled frames in place. One everything was lined up, the cabinets were screwed into the frame.

Here's the Ethernet coming out of the right side. I'll do a drywall install after the rest is done.

Next up is pulling the upper trim down, assembling the upper upright frames, assembling and installing the upper cabinets, and then drywall, trim, caulking, and paint. I'm going to try and get the upper level done tomorrow as I'll have several helpers to make it go faster. I'm currently messaging the local specialty suppliers to try and match the 130 year old door casings in the rest of the house.

Edit: Well damn, image uploading seems to be busted at the moment. I'll make a new post when it works again.

Edit x2: Apparently I can post photos from my phone but not my computer?!?

Recently bought a house with my parents and looking to turn the basement into a basement suite.

A problem I have run into though is at the base of the stairs, there is a width of 36" wall to wall and we want to put a door there to seperate the two floors.

However the basement entry door to outside is only 32". Does anyone have any ideas on how to close off the bottom of the stairs while maximizing the width of the opening? I feel like we can only fit a 32" door there is we still want it to look decently.

But then good luck ever getting furniture in and out of the basement.

I'm starting to think I might have to cut some foundation out and make the basement door entry wider, but I would rather not if it can be avoided.

We thought maybe sliding barn door but it wouldn't be very sound proof and I think my dog would figure out how to open it.

Today I started the install of the base and uprights. I only had a couple hours to spend on it today, but am quite happy with what I got done.

The first, most delicate and most difficult part was pulling the trim. I want to save it to reinstall once everything is built, and didn’t know what I was going to find.

This little piece was proving tricky, so I tried the long section. It was much easier and I discovered that the trim was actually two pieces.

Eventually it all came off, the top strip in a single unbroken piece, but a bit of cracking in the bigger part. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of glue and sanding though.

And good news! No asbestos, lead paint, mold or dry rot. Hooray!!

Next was putting in the base. I was worried this would be a bit tricky to level, but it was fine on the first try.

Next up was the left upright. It took a bit more to level, but the real problem is that the wall has a bit of a bend to it that required shimming.

Finally, I ran one ethernet cable through the conduit and plugged in the router. It all came back to life! Hooray!

Next up is running the second Ethernet cable and installing the lower cabinets, but there has been a shipping snafu so I’m not sure if I’ll get them done this weekend or not. :-/

Today’s progress on the library. I got most all of the cutting done, and assembled the pedestal base and the rail. Next up is assembling the lower uprights and running the Ethernet. Then the actual shelves will be installed, trim and paint.

So many crosscuts!

The pedestal is made of 2x10, with cross members to support the cabinets. The pvc is conduit for Ethernet.

The rail frame is the same, just out of 2x4.

Clean shop at the end of the day.

I haven’t found all of my tools yet, but my home shop is pretty much ready at this point. I hung the pegboard, built the bench and sorted a bunch of stuff into bins. I’m going to build a small table to the right of the workbench for storage from some leftover 2x4s and the boards I pulled down from someone’s else’s half assed closet.

My socket sets, hand miter saw, circular saw, several hand tools, and my soldering station are still somewhere in storage.

This setup is in a one car garage that probably wouldn’t fit anything large than a classic Beetle and has to share space with the family bikes.

I sketched up plans for the library I’m going to build this week. It’s floor to ceiling, almost wall to wall and will have a rolling library ladder mounted to the center rail.

I tried to look this up but everything seems to be related to exterior load bearing walls..

A month or so ago, we noticed a good amount of water coming through the concrete porch into our basement. This portion of the 1940's basement below the porch used to be a garage, and sometime in the 90's (according to dates on portions of the sheetrock) they put in a wall where the garage entry was to expand the living space. I don't think this was load bearing when they put in the wall.

It seems like this leak was happening in 2017 as well, since new sheetrock was added and they tried to fix it with spray foam (which is obviously not water tight and did not fix the problem).

Anyway, I ended up ripping off the sheetrock to see the damage. All four sides of the framed wall are at least partially rotted, with the top and bottom plates completely compromised on the corners. This means that I should probably replace the entire wall, which would be "easy" if it wasn't load bearing..

However, over time and possibly accelerated with water intrusion, the concrete above has a long, horizontal crack which may go through both sides. The crack doesn't line up perfectly on both sides, but it's definitely possible that it's cracked all the way through. If that's the case, it means that this wall has now become load bearing, possibly holding up a portion of the porch above.

My thinking is that I could get a jack post (or a bottle jack and 4x4 post), put it in the middle, and then build framing on both sides with pressure treated 2x6s. Then I could remove the jack, and attach blocking between the two portions of new framing.

The other, more expensive but safer option would include talking to a structural engineer. I got a quote from one, and he wanted $900 to come take a look. I can afford it, I suppose, although I'm worried that he'll end up telling me what I already know.

Pictures below. Note that this is concrete on all 4 sides, and that the drywall has now been removed from both sides.

Here's the wall:

And here's the crack on one side:

So I've got this chipmunk onesie that I really love - great for parties, festivals and chilling at home. Unfortunately the other year I managed to burn it in several spots when holding a sparkler a bit too close (wearing this around fireworks was a dumb idea - I was slightly drunk at the time).

I'm wondering what the best way of repairing this would be? should I pinch the holes closed and just sew them shut? Or cut out a slightly larger slit to sew across a neater edge?

I’m in an apt. and the power has been shutting off lately. It doesn’t trip any of the breakers in the breaker box inside the apt. but it does trip the master breaker on the box outside. Thought it was an oven issue but it still happens with the oven breaker off.

Visual inspection of the breaker box outside shows one of the wires looks a bit corroded. Wires to/from the rest of the units are a nice copper color. Is that a red flag?

Landlord is dragging their feet and telling us to talk to the electric company, and electric company is saying to call a licensed electrician, so I’m just trying to understand the issue so hopefully the landlord will listen to me.

There are many different methods for making coffee, some more energy-efficient than others. However, there are no coffee makers that you can power with a small solar PV panel. For example, a commercially available 12V DC drip coffee maker requires a solar panel of 300 watts to brew coffee and keep it warm.

The key to making a more energy-efficient coffee maker is insulation. Regardless of which conventional coffee maker you purchase, it will typically have little to no heat insulation, and most of the heat generated by the energy source will be wasted into the environment. Therefore, we made an insulated solar electric coffee maker ourselves.

Our coffee maker operates on the same principles as our solar-powered oven and runs on a 100W solar panel. We embedded an Italian coffee maker—a moka pot—in a mortar slab, surrounded by cork insulation and a layer of ceramic tiles.

The cooker has an electric resistance heating element integrated inside, which is directly connected to the solar panel without a battery, solar charge controller, or voltage regulator in between. Although it’s solar-powered, the coffee maker can be located inside your kitchen or next to your bed—only the solar panel needs to be outside.

Building a Cloud ceiling lamp

Or: How I build the single most flammable object in my flat.

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.

And while I would love to say that it was this line that inspired me, it was rather a friend of mine that had those 20$ plastic candles hanging from strings in her hallway. Waving a plastic wand around they not only turned on, but also left quite the impression on me. However, the more keen eyed might have already noticed: There are no candles on my photos. There's no wand either. This is not even about floating candles and I'm just about done with them. Now while I really liked the looks, I didn't like the thought of changing batteries every week (I never checked the runtime of those plastic candles you find everywhere, but I doubt it's anywhere near acceptable for me). Adding permanent wiring came to my mind, but this would require hiding cables and a transformer somewhere. Not that easy with the average ceiling, at least if you live in a rented flat and consider moving within the next 15 years. Luckily J.K. Rowling also came up with this whole indoor cloud thing, so I ended up with a build idea after all.

Now that you know how this idea came about, let me ramble about the build a little. Not that I think I'm the most qualified person to do this - you will be able to find plenty of images online where people did the same thing, arguably lots nicer than my own build. But no one tells you that you should not be doing this because it's annoying and sticky and fiber gets everywhere. Also it's not unlikely to catch fire and burn down my whole apartment with it. But starting from the start: I grabbed some cheap 20mm thick foam board, attached two wooden cross members to it and into those some hooks. This way I can hang the whole sheet to the ceiling and also got space for the cable bits. While still being cumbersome to hang, it allows for an undisturbed underside (where the cloud part is). And even more important: The cloud can be assembled on the living room floor (or any other floor you would like to cover in glue and fiberfill). Next were the LEDs, where I grabbed 8m of 60LEDs/m strip. With a fitting transformers and a ZigBee controller everything lights up and integrates into Home Assistant. Playing a little with the look I decided on a fairly dense layout, leaving only around 5cm between the rows of LEDs. The fiberfill does a good job of covering up whichever bad job you did laying out the LEDs and no one will be able to see that you bend the strips around the corners instead of doing a proper wiring job. Speaking of the fiberfill: You don't need much of it. If I had to guess, 500g would be plenty for my 120*60cm panel. I don't have an exact number here, but the reason is not that I seem to have no perception of how much 5kg of fiberfill are. So I totally don't have a human sized box of fiberfill sitting in my apartment that barely lost any weight. And even though it's not much weight you need for the cloud, it sure seems like a lot when it frees itself from the double sided tape and comes tumbling down. After being pissed at the tape and myself for being lazy, I did it 'right'. Hot glue and spray glue did a good job at fixing the fiberfill to the foam board, my hands and the floor. No more cloud fall so far.

All jokes aside: I tried to sneak a few actual numbers and useful information into my text, and yes it was annoying to build. On the other hand it's low effort in both tool requirements and cost. If you have a way of getting outside for the glue up, I'm certain that's a good idea. At least if you use spray glue. Also while the fiberfill did a great job at covering up the LEDs and making it look fluffy, it barely covered up the contour of my very rectangular board. I thought it would do more here, but it is what it is now. And regarding the fire hazard: Enclosing the strips in aluminium channels is certainly a good idea!

The whole looks is not for everyone and I'm fully prepared to take it down in a year or two because it turned into a filthy rain cloud. But until then it sure does give off some nice light and makes for an interesting piece to look at.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/54746362

I was burning a cone incense and left it on the sink, and this stain won't come off. I tried baking soda, water, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide. I tried letting them sit for multiple interations, and it made no difference.