Home Repairs

[Jason Harris 31]

I generally prefer soldering, but I admit there's always that Moment Of Truth when you wait to see whether the connection will be water tight.

[wrangler 157]

Then you're lucky. Some of us endure several such moments before such a connection is satisfactory.

[ktang 34]

If these weren't threaded connections I would have soldered, too.

Interestingly, the riser to the shower head and the threaded cap that would have led to the bath spout were teflon taped by the initial installer, but the threaded connections for the hot and cold supply lines were soldered. The supply lines were Poly-B, and I just switched over to PEX, so maybe they were soldered to ensure that flexing in the lines didn't work the connections loose.

When I was taking the connection apart I could see that the solder didn't make its way very far into the joint. So I decided to go with the 5 wraps of pink teflon tape + the pipe dope (+ extra torque).

But now you're making me second-guess my decision. We'll see in the next 4 days - day 1 has gone by with no leaks yet.

[Jason Harris 31]

Then you're lucky. Some of us endure several such moments before such a connection is satisfactory.

It took a few times, including having a friend show my how, but after our first attempt we learned the pipe wasn't dry enough. Once we learned to stick bread in if needed, most of the seals have taken.

[wrangler 157]

Bread?

All I've ever seen done to unthreaded copper is roughing it up with steel wool, applying flux, and soldering.

[ktang 34]

The bread goes inside the pipe, and soaks up / stops the water until you can dry the pipe, rough it up, apply the flux, heat it up, and solder the joint. Then when the water supply is turned back on, the bread disintegrates.

[wrangler 157]

Interesting. It's been a while, so it's hard to recall, but it could be that I've seen only new pipe worked, so there wouldn't have been a water problem.

[Jason Harris 31]

I have to admit, though, that the first time we used bread -- which also might have coincided with the first time we soldered -- we learned that you can't let gravity help the leak. We wadded the bread up and shoved it in, but the seal still wouldn't take. When we hired a plumber, he told us it would have worked, but since the broken pipe was angling just slightly downward, it was enough for the water to continue to run in that direction. We had turned off the main, but there must have still been water in the system.

[RadioGaGa 162]

_{2 words: Compression fitting!!!!! I've done a little bit of plumbing in the house. Replaced shut offs in the bathroom for the sink and toilet....all compression....no leaks!!!}

[coryroth24 15]

Just replacing some mismatched...(and very old) switches and faceplates around the house. I swear to God, one of these switches is in a wall box that looks like it might be ceramic.

Holy shit, this house is old!

Upon a second look...there is a metal box in there....but damn, this is still old hardware!

Haha! I've been pulling those out in my house as I work on each room. I like that I'm able to sneak around the house more now that most of them are gone. You can tell what room someone's as you can hear those damn things click from one room to the next...

[ktang 34]

_{2 words: Compression fitting!!!!! I've done a little bit of plumbing in the house. Replaced shut offs in the bathroom for the sink and toilet....all compression....no leaks!!!}

But, you still have to get from the threaded shower fitting to a compression fitting. The threaded shower fitting is the one that could leak. Hence all the bread, solder, flux, teflon tape, and pipe dope.

For my shower fitting, I transitioned to PEX. The PEX to copper is pretty much foolproof; it was just the copper to threaded shower fitting that was worrisome.

The other final PEX connections that I have had to make (to the toilet, and sink faucets) have been PEX to shutoff valve to compression fitting to braided flexible line, though.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Oh, I didn't specifically mean for your application...I just mean wherever I have had to do anything I've been able to do it with compression and avoid solder etc...

[Jason Harris 31]

Not quite a home repair, but I'm hoping somebody will have suggestions for my application.

I bought a softball pitching machine for my daughters, then bought a 750 watt power inverter and used extension cords to on the machine, but it didn't supply enough power to properly spin the tires. I called the manufacturer and learned the machine has a draw of 1000 watts, and possibly up to 1200 watt at startup. At that point, I chased all over town looking for either a more powerful inverter or a generator. In stock, the generators ranged from $299 to $489 for anywhere between 2000 watts to 3850 watts. Those could have the supplemental use of providing power during an outage, which sometimes occurs during the spring snow, but the only portable unit was $400, while another "portable" unit felt like it weighed about 100 pounds. With the machine itself weighing 100+ pounds, I'm not so sure I'm too keen on lifting both into and out of van twice each trip, plus the need to keep a supply of gas. Finally, there are 1200 watt units around $150, which are much lighter but have reviews of sputtering power.

I saw a website a few months ago that I believe showed how to make a portable power source with a car battery. It might have been utilizing a power inverter, or it might have been rigged up to pull directly from the terminals to a three-pronged receptacle, but I'm not finding that page again. In any event, for the money and ease of portability, I'm thinking something along this idea would be best, although I assume I'd have to recharge the battery on a regular basis (or maybe after each use.)

Any thoughts on this? Would it be as simple as buying a 1200 watt inverter and connecting it to a battery, then recharging at night. Any way of connecting it or carrying it to make it safer? Is there a certain size auto battery I'd need? Would a go cart battery power a 1200 watt inverter?

Muchas gracias to any ideas.....

[DLK 0]

For a large inverter like that, you'll need a deep-cycle battery. Typical auto batteries simply aren't going to survive more than a few charge/dischange cycles...unless you're willing to run the inverter only when the car is running. Even with that, a 1,000W running-rate draw would require the vehicle to have a 90+ amp alternator...possibly stronger than what the vehicle currently has.

The key metric to look at when choosing a battery for this application is the amp-hours. A 12V deep-cycle battery with a 200 amp-hour rating should run your machine for about an hour. That's with about a 50% discharge...going much past that regularly will dramatically shorten the life of the battery.

If you do use a go-cart or golf-cart battery, keep an eye on the voltage...many are six volt batteries rather than 12V. They can be made to work with a 12V inverter, but you'd need two of them, connected in series.

Personally, I think a generator is a better solution.

[Jason Harris 31]

You got me thinking about the generators again, but then I watched a few videos and heard the generators under full load. They seem much too loud. I'm not sure what the rules are for using public fields, but I'd be slightly concerned of being kicked off because of the noise.

Now I'm thinking of either restricted flight balls in the driveway, which is the only flat land on our property since we live on a mountainside, or a 1000-1200 watt inverter out of the cigarette lighter in the van.

Or back to my idea of a portable car battery with inverter attached.

[wrangler 157]

As I recall, cigarette lighters used to be fused at about 15A, which will give you 180 watts at 12V. I think you really want a generator for a kilowatt or better.

A friend, years ago, had a generator that would run off his car engine at idle. He had room under the hood for the installation, since he had a full-size pickup. I have no idea if such things are still available, what they cost, or if they would fit your vehicle.

[Jason Harris 31]

My wife had a good idea. We have a car parked next to the garage, so i didn't think about that area, but it also is somewhat flat. The one thing about living in a mountain area is people seldom pave their driveways, so parking the car on another patch of dirt won't be a big deal. That would free up a relatively flat area outside the garage to put up netting for a batting cage, meaning I won't have to lug around a 122 pound unit, and we'd be able to use the house's electricity. Plus, we might use it more often since we won't have to fit into the town's fields schedule.

[Neal 41]

The pitching machine my daughter used last year was powered by a small Honda generator. Even under load, it was very quiet, you could hold a conversation standing right beside it. It started very easily and ran for several games on an internal tank that had to be quite small as the whole unit wasn't much bigger than a 24 of beer.

If you'd like I can likely get the details on the pitching machine and generator at her game next week. She doesn't use the machine any more but there is usually a game at the next field using it.

[DLK 0]

I absolutely love Honda's generators. They're small, light, powerful, exceptionally quiet and reliable.

They're also very expensive, unfortunately. I have the EU1000i; 1,000W, under 30 lbs and will run for a full day on under two gallons of gas...but it was ~$800. It didn't sound like that was in the budget for Jason.

I think the idea of putting it beside the garage is a great one if it works for your situation; I'm sure it'll get used far more often if it's at home and avoiding the hassle of finding power for it would be great!

[ktang 34]

24-volt truck battery?

[Jason Harris 31]

I might do that if I want to bring the machine to the fields for fly ball practice, but I'm starting to realize having the machine at the house is the best solution. Putting a cage up won't be that much more than buying a generator plus a cart for transport. Even then, it doesn't transport well, because the top piece is about 110 pounds and probably three feet wide, so it's not easy to carry, nor is it easy to feed into the receptacle in the legs. Taking it in and out of the van along with the 100 pound "portable" generator, plus storing it back in the garage, would get tiring fairly quickly. I'm sure we'd use it at the house much more often than carting everything to the local fields.

And, today, my daughters brought up the idea that they could kick soccer balls or shoot pucks inside the netting also, so I'll probably get a tiller to level the dirt, which will also enable us to shoot grounders out of the machine. And the big kid still likes to play, so if I get a tall enough cage, I could shoot slow pitch out of the machine.

Really, this is starting to make a lot of sense. The only thing I need to worry about is the ease of taking it down during those times that we have hellacious winds or heavy snows.

[coryroth24 15]

Was finally able to turn this...

into this...

Still have a few little things to finish up like building a couple of lattice visual blocks to hide the gas meter and radon fan, touch up the grass around the bed. Hoping to expand the bed a bit next year too. Looks so much better than the half dead bushes the previous owner left me with...

[RadioGaGa 162]

Looks good. I've been trying to figure out the best way to build a planter box for a garden. That is very similar to what I've envisioned.

[DLK 0]

That looks great! A pretty steep grade, but that looks really nicely done.

We should have done a full fence around our garden this year; no shortage of deer and rabbits around here this summer. Is there a gate on there or are you just reaching over? Hard to tell from the photo.

[RadioGaGa 162]

What do they call that edging? regular 4x4 lumber doesn't have the rounded edge...I've serarched for it as "landscape edging" ...nothing.

And, how did you secure it? I've thought that a piece of re-bar through all the wood and into the ground about a foot or 2 should be enough to hold it all together!