A Jig For Assembling Handrails
I began the jig by placing two long scraps of OSB on top of a pair of saw horses. More precisely, the OSB is resting on several old deck spindles, which are resting on a pair of 2x4's, which are laying on the saw horses. This makes the surface ... [... more]
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To New Wood-Sash Windows
I have also used various brands of consumer-grade stains, such as Minwax and Old Masters. These worked quite well in my HVLP sprayer, but they take a long time to dry, perhaps up to 12 hours. All of the consumer-grade stains I have used are based ... [... more]
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Entry Door
One of the biggest problems with the garage was the entry door. It was junk. Plus it was too narrow, only about 30 inches wide. After making some measurements of their car, we realized that a typical in-swinging door would hit the car bumper, ... [... more]
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Circuit Breaker
The house in this article also has a disconnect box outdoors, just under the electric meter. This small panel has one circuit breaker (100 amp), although there is room for 4. A couple of years ago the we noticed that all the lights were ... [... more]
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Privacy Screen
To make six privacy screens, I used three 4'x8' lattice panels, intending to cut each panel in half lengthwise. Wanting to make the panels as high as possible, I cut the lattice to 23 inches wide by about 93½ inches long. Without doing much ... [... more]
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Yikes! Spontaneous Combustion
When urethane dries, the first thing that happens is the solvent evaporates. I'm no chemist, but all the solvents I'm familiar with "absorb" heat when they evaporate. Common solvents like water, alcohol, mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, ... [... more]
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Collision Damage
This was what I would classify as an "economical repair". Often the best approach to this type of repair is to remove all damaged material and replace it with new material. In this case, such an approach would involve 3 studs, a short piece of . ... [... more]
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Building A Wood "Junction Box" For Large Utility Conduit
I suppose I could just leave this conduit with no box covering the end, but I can think of several advantages to covering it . For starters, some building codes may require such a conduit to be closed off to keep air from moving between the ... [... more]
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Pumping Unused Oil From Indoor Tanks
Not being sure of which day I would be able to haul away the oil, I did the filling of the barrels with the trailer disconnected from my truck. I thought I might have difficulty hitching the trailer to the truck with almost 900 pounds of steel ... [... more]
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Building Inexpensive Overhead Storage For Garage, Shop, ...
For the past few months I've been on an "organizing binge", trying to bring some semblance of order to my overburdened and chaotic workshop, storage garage, and basement. I've got lots of long, light and bulky items that aren't used often, and . ... [... more]
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A Quick Overview
We decided to solve several problems by simply replacing the old sub-panel with a new sub-panel of the same capacity, and then re-wiring all of the existing circuits. The new sub-panel would be located in a hallway instead of a bedroom. Perhaps ... [... more]
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Drain Upgrade
Consider this: When repairing an automobile air conditioning system, all traces of water must be removed. But... there is no easy way to get inside the plumbing to mop up the water. The solution is to connect a vacuum pump to the air conditioning ... [... more]
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