MyE28.com

Our system is smaller, we are around 700 kWh.

If we were not having such a hot summer we would be good, but with all of the 90s we are just not making enough.


Andy

tn535i wrote:
I've enjoyed this thread. And I've done many many money saving and recycling of used things for jobs similar to yours. I think those stay in the basement or garage but up in the 'real' part of the house I'm the other extreme usually So I go from perfectionist (where I think my work matches any professional) to near hack (no offense meant). But what really matters is if it makes you happy and works and is convenient. Sometimes I think the 'hack' work is more fun than the other. It's about like building a tree fort when you were kid from scavenged lumber and nails from construction sites. Thank God I never fell out of any of mine!

It's good to hear you appreciate my rescuing old building materials. I take no offense at your "near hack" comment as the project is a hack from the get go to the finish, excepting my neighbors work; he was patient with me being so cheap (call it frugal) and did the best he could with what I provided

The front of that rolling cabinet came from a house built in 1929. It's 1/4 ply and as I worked with it found that one of two of the edges were pretty sketchy/rotten. I could bang the card for a sheet or two of plywood, and should have now that I consider it.

My brother in law is a civil engineer and was a carpenter for 15 years before that. He has built two of his own houses from the ground up. If he does not know something about building, he knows who to tap to ask about it. He remodeled two of my previous houses; he would show up on a Saturday, lay out headers or footers for walls for example and leave me to fill in the studs in the intervening time between then and his next visit. He had the advantage of running everything past his structural engineer who would provide drawings based on the pictures my b-in-law would take of whatever the structural subject was. We waterproofed a 1000 square foot basement, inside and out; each wall took different approaches all were french drained. We remodeled the space in that basement cutting out 5'x5' egress windows. I dug spacious wells and my b-in-law taught me how to lay block to line them.
In spite of this, I remain a construction/woodworking/carpenter hack. What I did learn is the difference between quality and hack, and where it counts. In this case I am sideways of the electrical code. I am going to talk to a fellow I worked with in IT about the panel; he was an IBEW member for a number of years before working with me and will know. I am pretty sure the doors on that side of the cabinet will have to go, as well as the shelf underneath it. I dug, but could not find the local code, Google found this:

tn535i wrote:
I've enjoyed this thread. And I've done many many money saving and recycling of used things for jobs similar to yours. I think those stay in the basement or garage but up in the 'real' part of the house I'm the other extreme usually So I go from perfectionist (where I think my work matches any professional) to near hack (no offense meant). But what really matters is if it makes you happy and works and is convenient. Sometimes I think the 'hack' work is more fun than the other. It's about like building a tree fort when you were kid from scavenged lumber and nails from construction sites. Thank God I never fell out of any of mine!

It's good to hear you appreciate my rescuing old building materials. I take no offense at your "near hack" comment as the project is a hack from the get go to the finish, excepting my neighbors work; he was patient with me being so cheap (call it frugal) and did the best he could with what I provided

The front of that rolling cabinet came from a house built in 1929. It's 1/4 ply and as I worked with it found that one of two of the edges were pretty sketchy/rotten. I could bang the card for a sheet or two of plywood, and should have now that I consider it.

My brother in law is a civil engineer and was a carpenter for 15 years before that. He has built two of his own houses from the ground up. If he does not know something about building, he knows who to tap to ask about it. He remodeled two of my previous houses; he would show up on a Saturday, lay out headers or footers for walls for example and leave me to fill in the studs in the intervening time between then and his next visit. He had the advantage of running everything past his structural engineer who would provide drawings based on the pictures my b-in-law would take of whatever the structural subject was. We waterproofed a 1000 square foot basement, inside and out; each wall took different approaches all were french drained. We remodeled the space in that basement cutting out 5'x5' egress windows. I dug spacious wells and my b-in-law taught me how to lay block to line them.
In spite of this, I remain a construction/woodworking/carpenter hack. What I did learn is the difference between quality and hack, and where it counts. In this case I am sideways of the electrical code. I am going to talk to a fellow I worked with in IT about the panel; he was an IBEW member for a number of years before working with me and will know. I am pretty sure the doors on that side of the cabinet will have to go, as well as the shelf underneath it. I dug, but could not find the local code, Google found this:

tn535i wrote:
I've enjoyed this thread. And I've done many many money saving and recycling of used things for jobs similar to yours. I think those stay in the basement or garage but up in the 'real' part of the house I'm the other extreme usually So I go from perfectionist (where I think my work matches any professional) to near hack (no offense meant). But what really matters is if it makes you happy and works and is convenient. Sometimes I think the 'hack' work is more fun than the other. It's about like building a tree fort when you were kid from scavenged lumber and nails from construction sites. Thank God I never fell out of any of mine!

It's good to hear you appreciate my rescuing old building materials. I take no offense at your "near hack" comment as the project is a hack from the get go to the finish, excepting my neighbors work; he was patient with me being so cheap (call it frugal) and did the best he could with what I provided

The front of that rolling cabinet came from a house built in 1929. It's 1/4 ply and as I worked with it found that one of two of the edges were pretty sketchy/rotten. I could bang the card for a sheet or two of plywood, and should have now that I consider it.

My brother in law is a civil engineer and was a carpenter for 15 years before that. He has built two of his own houses from the ground up. If he does not know something about building, he knows who to tap to ask about it. He remodeled two of my previous houses; he would show up on a Saturday, lay out headers or footers for walls for example and leave me to fill in the studs in the intervening time between then and his next visit. He had the advantage of running everything past his structural engineer who would provide drawings based on the pictures my b-in-law would take of whatever the structural subject was. We waterproofed a 1000 square foot basement, inside and out; each wall took different approaches all were french drained. We remodeled the space in that basement cutting out 5'x5' egress windows. I dug spacious wells and my b-in-law taught me how to lay block to line them. That was just the start; window replacement, refinish wood floors, widen closets, rebuild stairways, built-ins; on and on. We did similar in a subsequent house before moving to the suburbs.

In spite of this, I remain a construction/woodworking/carpenter hack. What I did learn is the difference between quality and hack, and where it counts. In this case I am sideways of the electrical code. I did not consult with my b-in-law, foolish move on my part; he pointed it out as son as he saw it. I am going to talk to a fellow I worked with in IT about the panel; he was an IBEW member for a number of years before working with me and will know. I am pretty sure the doors on that side of the cabinet will have to go, as well as the shelf underneath it. I dug, but could not find the local code, Google found this:

Breaker panel must be at least 4 feet off the ground, but no higher than 6 feet. The panel door must be able to open at least 90 degrees. Working space around the breaker panel must be at least 30 inches wide and 72 inches from the ground up.Aug 31, 2016

I have some work to do. Thanks for your comments as my father and uncles used to say "you are a gentleman and a scholar". Also, thanks for mentioning the panel in such a diplomatic way. You hit my conscience with a (gentle) cattle prod. Also, I really, really, really like the work you did on your bathroom. My wife came up behind me when I was looking and asked if that is what I was going to do with a bathroom project we have planned. "Uh, yeah, sure" said I.

I was just thinking about adding to this thread, and timely since my most recently completed project (well, 95% at this point) is in the same vein as sail_or_drive's: Storage. This whole pandemic thing has been a mixed bag: while we are forced to say home when not working (it’s not like we went out much anyway), work has been kind of the opposite. It’s been one of the only times where the economy and labor down-turn hasn’t affected the construction industry (at least here in SoCal). So while I see a mounting list of house projects that need my attention, and the perfect soci-political opportunity to tackle them, I’m chained to my PC working on 3 projects at once.
As typical with me, I just can’t seem to stop making work for myself and it seems that owning old cars and an old house just enables that trait; both are in constant need of something. Take for instance one of my two closets in my house.

My company occupies the larger of the two bedrooms in my house and it has the larger of the two walk-in closets, this closet does the heavy lifting for a lot of both personal and business storage. (The closets are a bit of an anomaly for a house of this vintage, 1927, both actual walk-ins, with windows.) We really haven’t done much with the Office and its’ closet since we moved into this house 21 years ago and it has been showing. This whole project started with me needing to repair the plaster ceiling that had popped off the wood lathing underneath it (it was actually a half-assed drywall repair patch from an obvious roof leak long before we bought the house) and, as typical with me, mission creep set in and my task list got a lot longer.
Given the size of the closet, 64”x77”, over half of it was dedicated to file storage with shelving above it. We have/had two metal flat file cabinets for decades that we’ve been dragging around with us first from apartment to apartment and then finally to this house. They house some work files, a lot of old school stuff, photo prints and a vast poster collection (I grew up in an analog world, so paper is the bane of my existence). The big one is the largest they make for 36”x48” media with a footprint of 42”x54”, the smaller one for the smallest standard of 24”x36” and has a footprint of about 30”x40”. It has always been a challenge to find a place to put these, especially that larger one. Once you find a place, they tend to stay there forever since moving them is a royal PITA (empty contents, remove drawers, move carcass, rinse and repeat). So, when I found that these things fit in that closet (barely), in they went and there they stayed. 21 years of life built up around them: clothes, office supplies, X-Mas wrapping, pillows, bowling balls, etc. You get the idea. All that made the closet rather intolerable and unmanageable. The other major “job” for this closet is to house my company’s computer file servers. This has evolved from varying sized towers with attached NAS drives to the recent iteration of three NAS drives. Since we do not have AC in this house (we live on the Westside at a reasonable distance to the ocean so we have a pretty mild climate except for a few weeks of the year), this closet gets pretty warm; I needed to address some air circulation issues at the very least when opening the window isn’t an option.
So, when the failing ceiling became too much to ignore anymore, I got to planning the project. Planning is my thing, I seem to live for it. Whether if be a car project (see my Front End Overhaul thread for that proof) or a house project. I have countless running spreadsheets, CAD files, task lists, etc. for every project I have past, present and future. So I toiled over designing every aspect of this closet with many variations of cabinets and shelving and their arrangements until I got one that worked (it’s surprising how many variations you can come up with for a space this small). I was supposed to execute this project back in March and April when work was slower, but I pulled a muscle in my shoulder bad and pinched a nerve in my neck that wreaked havoc on my life for the better part of 2 ½ months. (Ironically, I injured myself prepping for this project by trying to move replacement metal flat file cabinets that I picked up off Craigslist; more on them below. Getting old sucks, avoid if possible). So, it moved down calendar until last month when work was busy. Naturally.

The first part was to empty the contents and purge. Purging feels good. Really good. It is best done when you’re in a total objective state of mind and back a trash can up to the door and just toss. One trash can, one recycle bin and a large pile of donation stuff later I had the contents pared down to the essentials. (I have no real pictures of what this closet looked like before these few here, but trust me it was rather embarrassing at how bad it looked. I suspect we all have closets like this, so use your imagination).



I then set about procuring the needed supplies and materials namely two new metal flat file cabinets. Since most of my poster collection and other media could be in a smaller cabinet, I started looking for the mid-sized cabinets (these are designed ostensibly for 30”x42” media) which are about 6”-8” smaller in both dimensions than the largest ones. I already had another of the largest cabinets in the garage shop handling the bulk of the company’s files, so it was there for anything I had that was larger than could fit in the new smaller cabinets. Turns out that there is an abundance of metal flat files out there on the used market since most every Architect, Engineer, Designer etc. has gone digital. There are warehouses full of these things selling for pennies on the dollar compared to new. Most are older ones from the ‘70’s and are tanks compared to the flimsier new ones (not unlike the E28 vs. anything newer). In January I found a pair of Hamilton Manufacturing cabinets (built in Two Rivers, Wisconsin) from the early ‘70’s on Craigslist that belonged last to San Diego State University, out in the boondocks of Beaumont (about 92 miles east of here).


Best part about these was that one of them was the rarer 10 drawer version (usually they are only 5 drawers). The smaller drawers worked out better for organization of the posters, so I was jazzed.



The price was fantastic also (about $200/ea.) and after some consternation about how I was going to get these home, the seller offered to deliver them for another $70. Awesomesauce. The other items like a new light, an exhaust fan misc. hardware was all on a list and ordered at the appropriate times.
The exhaust fan was an addition to help with any excess heat gain from the servers (however since switching from the tower PC to the NAS’s the heat output was cut radically) and general air circulation to avoid dust, mold and/or fungus (old paper you know).
So, after more design fine tuning of the cabinetry & shelving to better organize the crap going back in, I bit the bullet and scheduled it to start Memorial Day weekend (it’s not like we were going anywhere). The big disadvantage to moving this down calendar to now was back in March/April I was planning on just plowing through the whole project in 10-14 days, but work in May/June made me change that to a weekend-only project. That prolonged the whole closet displacement experience which was felt in several rooms of the house and the garage shop (and by extension my back yard).

Relocating the clothes wardrobes & coats to a temporary rack in the bedroom, setting up the servers on my desk in the office and emptying the existing flat files (transferred to the other flats in the garage shop) were on the first weekends’ agenda.


Next few weekends were demolition to remove the existing cabinetry & flat files and rough Electrical for the light, exhaust fan and switches (the closet only had an old-school pull chain incandescent exposed bulb). The existing small casement window needed refinishing also.






Once all that was done, it was time to repair and/or replace the plaster ceiling. I was prepared to do this myself; how I had no idea since:
A. I hate drywall work
B. I had no way of transporting several sheets of drywall
C. It’s a small space and all the work is overhead working around upper shelves
D. I’m terrible at drywall and more to the point coating and finishing it
E. Did I mention I hate drywall work? Mostly because I’m pretty bad at it.
After a few calls to some contractor contacts I lined up “A Guy” to stop by one week to take care of it. He even did the demo of the existing plaster ceiling. Best cash payment I made on this project.

In the meantime while the drywall was being scheduled and done, I got busy in the shop making sawdust. I am at best a pro-hack when it comes to woodworking and while being a life-long passion of mine, I am more of “production” level kind of cabinet maker. Meaning that most of what I make is pragmatic and purpose-design & built cheaply and efficiently. I learned long ago how to dovetail joints and hand plane exotic woods, but most everything I make is far from that (in fact I’m sure I’ve forgotten how to do that stuff now); paint grade or birch plywood is more my speed these days.
So after (more) CAD layouts and planning I got my cut lists and headed off to my favorite local lumber house: Anderson Plywood in Culver City nearby. Damned few of these old-school shops left these days, you know the ones housed in a hundred year old bow truss warehouse, racks of plywoods of all colors and flavors, more racks of exotic hardwoods and veneers, and most importantly: people who know what they’re doing and talking about.



One of the greatest thing about Anderson is for a modest price, they will mill down the plywood stock all you want, which is good since it was the only way 3 sheets of ¾” plywood was fitting into the CR-V to get it home. Anderson is a hopping place at any given time and not open on Saturday, so there are waves of cabinet makers, finish carpenters and guys like me jockeying for the few loading spaces and lining up for milling (all of whom laugh at me shaking their heads when I show up in the Honda and look at all that plywood; I love proving them wrong when it all goes in. With room to spare.). They had a deal on pre-finished Birch ply so that cut my workload in half but did change up my finish strategy. I think it was for the better going from paint to natural wood. (Seriously for the additional $10/sheet, I couldn’t have bought the amount of polyurethane needed to do all that, let alone the time.)
The big problem with too much crap in ones’ life is space is a zero-sum game, if you’re not diligent about culling and organizing, you pay down the line for your laziness. The shop in my garage is a prime example of this; I spent the better part of a day clearing out space just to get to the centerpiece of this shop: My JET 10” cabinet table saw




This and the outfeed benches attached to it were to be instrumental in me completing this project. After some much needed tune-up, cleaning and waxing the table, the saw was ready for primetime. First weekend was milling down all the panels and pieces to final sizes:


I had two equipment drawers that I was reusing from the previous closet setup, so that ended up taking a fair amount of time to get it all sorted out (in the end it was still off a little; oh well like I said: I’m still an amateur).



Back inside, now that the plaster was finally dry, it was time to paint. After a few weekends in between shop time, the room was finally done with its’ primer and two final coats:






After some milling and installing of some Red Oak edge strips, I was ready to go for the first round of cabinet installation:




Flat files in first; this required some physical labor assistance as even the empty carcasses still weigh a bunch not to mention really cumbersome. (Thanks, Phil).


Followed by the tops and shelves and a new server rack:




Fitting the drawers and rack and adjusting them to work took the better part of the whole next day, but finally:


Final installation of the fan, light and window shade happened in there somewhere


All that was left was to move everything back in. I almost hated to do that since we were getting used to that room being nice, neat and clean; it almost never looked this good.



That was all up to last weekend. Just a few items left to figure out and complete, namely some paper and board supplies and putting the weatherstripping to that window (which is all part of my on-going exterior door & window rehab, which never seems to be done.) The only other item is an on-going re-organization and cataloging of the poster collection, but that seems like it will take the rest of my adult life.

I know, it’s only a small closet, right? Why I am going on about such an inconsequential thing; but in life you have to celebrate the little things or you’ll go mad. And in today’s world right now, this is a big victory.
Cheers.

Nice work Vince!

All that was left was to move everything back in. I almost hated to do that since we were getting used to that room being nice, neat and clean; it almost never looked this good.

It looks good loaded and I feel empathy about the "have to move 3 tons to get to the 1 ton" vein. Living that now. Thanks for posting, gives me some inspiration.

vinceg101 wrote: Jul 30, 2020 3:53 AM I was just thinking about adding to this thread,

I know, it’s only a small closet, right? Why I am going on about such an inconsequential thing; but in life you have to celebrate the little things or you’ll go mad. And in today’s world right now, this is a big victory.
Cheers.

Well done and well said. Your place is a few years older than mine but I recall a lot of even older houses where some sort of storage closet with a window was pretty common and usually on the second story. I love old true divided lite windows like that but hate the glazing and repairs. It's only really worth it if you have the old glass that distorts the outside world just a little. It needs a little distorting for me to tolerate it.

I wish there were a place like Anderson near me... We have a good local hardwood shop that even has it's own mill nearby but nothing like that.

Wow Vince, tip of the hat to you. Big job, well organized as befits your profession, and well done. And well documented!

tn535i wrote: Jul 30, 2020 12:18 PM Well done and well said. Your place is a few years older than mine but I recall a lot of even older houses where some sort of storage closet with a window was pretty common and usually on the second story. I love old true divided lite windows like that but hate the glazing and repairs. It's only really worth it if you have the old glass that distorts the outside world just a little. It needs a little distorting for me to tolerate it.

Correct, small ventilation windows in closets back then were not out of the ordinary, in fact it was pretty forward thinking to be able to air out your clothes. What is kind of strange for a small house like this (1,400 s.f.) is that each of the two Bedrooms had walk-in closets. It was more common to see houses of this size with 3 Bedrooms, so with all that extra room, this house has larger than average rooms with a lot more amenities.
Adding to the fact that there was some higher-end electrical and lighting and finish details leads me to believe that this was an expensive house in its' day.
I will have a write up like this later this year once I finish what I started this time last year which was "winterizing" and rehab'ing all the casement windows and French Doors in this house. This house isn't very big but there are 6 casement windows, 4 French Doors, 3 smaller fixed windows (combo'd with those 6 casements), 1 large fixed window and the entry door just on the front facade alone.
This is our Breakfast Room off the Kitchen (you wouldn't know this since my wife's hobby kind of usurped the room and turned it into her plant nursery. I really would like to get this room back for its' intended purpose since we had to put a lot effort into reclaiming from a bad '70's Kitchen remodel. But happy wife, happy life, right?)


Over the decades through deferred & poor maintenance, bad paint jobs, foundation settling, etc., none of these windows are square and true anymore so every window, every sash is a custom job. Adding to the annoyance is that these are in-swinging which makes weatherproofing are real PITA. While these are all fairly well made units, they only built them with passive rabbet stops with no room for anything active (i.e. foam, spring-brass, etc.). The Living Room has 3 large double in-swinging casement windows; it took me months to go through just two of them (stripping off 75 years of paint, re-glazing half the panes, sanding, priming, painting, new weatherstripping, etc.).
All this winterizing was necessary to stop the air leaks and dust intrusion, not to mention sound abatement; on the few units I got done last year, it made a huge difference.
I may have to replace the 4 French Doors in the Dining Room since the bottoms look pretty bad; they're next on the list when I restart that project. I have to do all this in advance of getting the whole exterior re-painted. Oh and that doesn't take into consideration the 3 windows on the rear that need to be replaced all together. Sigh. It like painting the Golden Gate over here.

tn535i wrote: Jul 30, 2020 12:18 PMI wish there were a place like Anderson near me... We have a good local hardwood shop that even has it's own mill nearby but nothing like that.

We are blessed with another similar type of lumber yard and hardware store nearby: Anawalt Lumber. Their lumber yard has more "exterior" type lumber stock (redwood, cedar, etc.). They've been at their location since the '40's (in business since 1923) and used to be supplied by rail (they had their own spur right into their sheds). They have several locations around LA, but the WLA one is their original. They are sitting on some very, very expensive real estate right now, which always makes me nervous for their future.
(Forgive the crappy, stock web photos)




We are very proud to support both of these local businesses and have been for as long we've been living in WLA; I will happily keep giving them my business for as long as I am still living here. Anything to stay out of the Big Orange Box or it's evil twin, the Big Blue Box.

Damn. You really put in the work. Lose the plants . . .

vinceg101 wrote: Jul 30, 2020 5:44 PM
We are blessed with another similar type of lumber yard and hardware store nearby: Anawalt Lumber. Their lumber yard has more "exterior" type lumber stock (redwood, cedar, etc.). They've been at their location since the '40's (in business since 1923) and used to be supplied by rail (they had their own spur right into their sheds). They have several locations around LA, but the WLA one is their original. They are sitting on some very, very expensive real estate right now, which always makes me nervous for their future.
(Forgive the crappy, stock web photos)



We are very proud to support both of these local businesses and have been for as long we've been living in WLA; I will happily keep giving them my business for as long as I am still living here. Anything to stay out of the Big Orange Box or it's evil twin, the Big Blue Box.

I (mostly) grew up and a bit afterwards in LA , though it's been some time now. But I swear, there were more independent businesses there and more of a can do attitude than anyplace else I've ever lived. Where I live now I swear businesses have a "Can't do" attitude. You ask they about something and it's no, we can't do that, or no we don't do that, or just nothing. I was trying to get a plastering job done for the County before I retired. I finally got one guy to look at it, $4K, cool. But he needed more insurance. I told him, add it in, we've got some room, add in a thousand for your cost and trouble. Never heard back from him.

vinceg101

The bump out breakfast room with 3 sides full of windows on a cozy scale for just 2-3, maybe 4 people - fabulous. They just don't do stuff like that anymore in houses. Applaud your efforts to keep it as original as possible and would enjoy seeing it. May favorite tool for all the layers of paint is a heat gun and both my wife and daughter enjoy doing that for me. I assume your neighborhood is more of the same kinds of houses and I also think those old neighborhoods (when spared from neglect and too much modernization) are often the nicest in town both location and charm. It's why I like where I live and deal with all the old house effort. Hey isn't that about like driving a 30+ year old BMW ??

tn535i wrote: Jul 31, 2020 1:56 PM vinceg101
The bump out breakfast room with 3 sides full of windows on a cozy scale for just 2-3, maybe 4 people - fabulous. They just don't do stuff like that anymore in houses. Applaud your efforts to keep it as original as possible and would enjoy seeing it... I assume your neighborhood is more of the same kinds of houses and I also think those old neighborhoods (when spared from neglect and too much modernization) are often the nicest in town both location and charm. It's why I like where I live and deal with all the old house effort.

Actually, our house is the odd-ball on the block. It and our neighbor's house to the west of us were moved here after being displaced by the building of the Hollywood Freeway in 1951-2 (as best we can determine). The rest of the original houses are all of 1940's vintage, being very small (like 800 s.f small). We got the information from our elderly neighbor when we bought this house in 1999; he grew up in the house to the east of us after his parents had it built by the tract developer (Ted Charnock, whom our street is named after) in 1941. He and his brother used to play in the two vacant lots and remained empty until he went off to Korea in 1950. When he came back, our house and our western neighbors house were magically there. This sync's up with freeway construction around that time and makes a whole lot of sense when you look at styles; our house was more befitting those in Hollywood at that time. Also, when you consider the greater LA Basin development history, there was a whole lot of nothing around these parts in 1927 (mostly bean fields and scrub land, and a few of the earliest auto race tracks).
Of course that is all speculation since we have no way to prove any of it. It's really too bad that houses and structures don't have VIN's (or HIN's?) so you can track it's history; the county and city only record the land through tax rolls and building permits. So when a house is removed off its' original plot of land, it's history is lost. The same thing happened to those properties condemned by the state when they built the freeways; the county removed the APN's (Assessor Parcel Numbers) from the records and the city likewise removed the street addresses effectively removing them from history. I'm sure there is a document in the bowels of the city, county or state that recorded this information, but it would take a lot to find it. The problem is that even if I could find the original street address and APN for where this house came from, I'm sure the city destroyed the records after the condemnation by the state.

tn535i wrote: Jul 31, 2020 1:56 PMMay favorite tool for all the layers of paint is a heat gun and both my wife and daughter enjoy doing that for me.

I found the best scraper to do this since whatever dark green paint they used in the 20-30's prevented the next 70 years of paint to adhering to it. Not to mention, NOTHING is taking that green paint off (which is fine by me, it survived 100 years, it's earned the right to stay). This is one of the Living Room windows that I used as a test bed for repairs and weatherstripping materials/methods:


Decades of paint seems to flake right off with this guy:


Of course, if your wife and daughter want to come out west and volunteer, I'm not saying no...

tn535i wrote: Jul 31, 2020 1:56 PMHey isn't that about like driving a 30+ year old BMW ??

Indeed it is.

I have that tool above in two sizes Also a basic portable belt sander is a great way to sharpen the blades. My Bosch 3x21 belt sander bought on sale 20+ years ago is one of my favorite still working great old tools. I generally remove my trim or sash and if it's flat, then after heat gun or scraping it gets a pass with fine grit on the belt sander before the palm sander goes to work. For the muntins with all those wicked grooves I often use a sprayable paint remover followed by denatured alcohol with my odd shaped scraper tools to get all that old paint off.

This is the set I think I have and they are called shave hooks I guess...
https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/set ... hooks.aspx

The old hardware is also really interesting. Nice!

vinceg101 wrote: Jul 31, 2020 7:32 PM

Decades of paint seems to flake right off with this guy:

Really? I've tried those long ago and just made screeching noises. Not much paint came off. Might have to try it again though, of course with my current house being stucco it might be awhile.

I employed a painting crew that, instead of scraping forever, did a first pass then filled the gaps with Bondo followed by quick pass with a belt sander. This was on old 1" exterior cedar siding so there was no concern over making a mess outside.

Mike W. wrote: Aug 03, 2020 10:41 PMReally? I've tried those long ago and just made screeching noises. Not much paint came off. Might have to try it again though, of course with my current house being stucco it might be awhile.

You're right: that kind of scraper isn't very effective; I actually posted the wrong one. This is the one that is the best:


The key is having fresh and sharp blades. But be careful: it will gouge up the wood easily.

sail_or_drive wrote: Aug 03, 2020 11:21 PM I employed a painting crew that, instead of scraping forever, did a first pass then filled the gaps with Bondo followed by quick pass with a belt sander. This was on old 1" exterior cedar siding so there was no concern over making a mess outside.

It's actually amazing watching professional painters work; the really good ones only know one way to do it. Regardless of the size or type of project, they attack it the same way. Also amazing is the amount of Bondo they use in the final painting stages, not just the prep; it all comes out like glass when they're done.
I realize they have waaaay more patience and anal retentiveness than I ever will.

Preparation is everything when painting. Personal experience says that if I strip everything down to wood, sand and work back up to topcoat it will last a long time. Interior woodwork may last until you want to change the color while exterior (where I live) is about a 20+ year cycle. I find some areas I'm back down to near wood with even light sanding as if the paint has simply worn off over time.

btw the last windows I did using a 'newer' S-W water based polyurethane on the exterior. I really liked the way it went on but expensive stuff so I hope it is worth it. I've always used oil based primers and the options there are getting very few now. After all the hard work I have some windows that look like new inside and out but still others that need a lot of work I have not got to.

'Professional' from what I see is mostly just tape over what you don't want painted then spray over a multitude of sins. Looks OK from the sidewalk.

sail_or_drive wrote: Aug 03, 2020 11:21 PM I employed a painting crew that, instead of scraping forever, did a first pass then filled the gaps with Bondo followed by quick pass with a belt sander. This was on old 1" exterior cedar siding so there was no concern over making a mess outside.

I've seen painters use Bondo on things like metal doorframes but not wood. I'm no painter but I've used it under flooring to get a flat surface before on some really odd stuff.

tn535i wrote: Aug 04, 2020 2:33 PM Preparation is everything when painting. Personal experience says that if I strip everything down to wood, sand and work back up to topcoat it will last a long time. Interior woodwork may last until you want to change the color while exterior (where I live) is about a 20+ year cycle. I find some areas I'm back down to near wood with even light sanding as if the paint has simply worn off over time...
'Professional' from what I see is mostly just tape over what you don't want painted then spray over a multitude of sins. Looks OK from the sidewalk.

98% of a good paint job is the prep; houses or cars.
With houses this old, when paint jobs get long in the teeth, we're forced to strip it all down to bare wood. 100 years of layers of paint with dings and chips isn't really sustainable or conducive to a satisfactory job. Of course you find all kinds of ugly when you strip down to the wood (or what's left of it); it always ends in tears.

Exterior for us is about those 20 years on the stucco buildings, sometimes longer, but wood anything is baked by the sun and heat so that coupled with changes in paint formulations usually shortens the life considerably. Same goes for asphalt/composition tile roofs; the manufacturer may call it a 30 year roof but here in SoCal you're lucky to get half that.

We use/spec Benjamin Moore paints almost exclusively (work and life). We used to be that way with Dunn-Edwards (more local to CA, but seems to be on-par with S-W), but moved away when D-E started changing formulations. Paints have gotten ridiculously expensive, and good paint more so.

You've obviously not been around higher level professional painters much; of course not a lot of us can afford those crews. Occasionally I get the benefit of a "family & friends" or "Good Buddy Contractor" discount from my contacts and reap the rewards of their skills. That happened in our Kitchen remodel a few years back. As a favor and a great discount, the top level painter I work with parked a guy in my kitchen for a week. Like I said, they only know one way of doing things so he meticulously painted that whole room. Calling it the nicest paint job in the house would be an understatement.

Mike W. wrote: Aug 04, 2020 4:21 PM

sail_or_drive wrote: Aug 03, 2020 11:21 PM I employed a painting crew that, instead of scraping forever, did a first pass then filled the gaps with Bondo followed by quick pass with a belt sander. This was on old 1" exterior cedar siding so there was no concern over making a mess outside.

I've seen painters use Bondo on things like metal doorframes but not wood. I'm no painter but I've used it under flooring to get a flat surface before on some really odd stuff.

I thought that was weird too the first time I saw a crew at work final painting a house; a bunch of guys in white outfits with a paint brush in one hand and alternating with a pallet of Bondo and putty knife in the other. The whole room looking like it had measles covered in little grey spots. But I didn't think it was crazy after I saw the results.

Interesting that the household projects that get me motivated are the ones where I realize I get to buy a new tool to accomplish.

Case in point for 18+ years we've struggled to keep the basement door open (it has an auto closer) when using the yard. Usually some piece of basement junk has propped it open.

I found this great magnetic holder on Amazon ($66):


The ceiling is concrete. While I have some concrete drill bits, I mysteriously did not have a concrete hammer drill. I do now:



I'm normally a DeWalt guy, but they don't make a hammer/drill compatible with my batteries. Plus the way the products at Home Depot were assorted gave me a headache decoding which battery/charger kit to buy. The Milwaukee unit was more expensive and that means it's higher quality, right? So that's what I got.





The 1/2" concrete anchors were way overkill for this job, but I actually had them some on hand (?!?!).

cek wrote: Aug 04, 2020 7:32 PM Interesting that the household projects that get me motivated are the ones where I realize I get to buy a new tool to accomplish.

Case in point for 18+ years we've struggled to keep the basement door open (it has an auto closer) when using the yard. Usually some piece of basement junk has propped it open.

I found this great magnetic holder on [url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075R ... =ceklog-20]Amazon ($66):

I am so on about magnets these days. I've gotten some rated at ~80 pounds from Amazon, cheap, ~ $1 each, and done some great stuff with them. Holding doors open, holding doors closed, hanging stuff, a back seat cover for the Datsun that magnetically attaches to the body of the trunk cover. I rigged up a test rig with a scale that would have made Rube Goldberg proud and with my less than instrument grade testing I came within lets say 10% or closer. Close enough.

cek wrote: Aug 04, 2020 7:32 PM...I mysteriously did not have a concrete hammer drill. I do now:

Is that the M18 Fuel cordless drill or corded?
I recently switched over to the M12 line of tools after I had the 12v Bosch Lithium drill (great little drill & 1/4" impact, BTW).
Milwaukee has a expansive and great line of tools and batteries in both 12v and 18v, which is the reason I switched over. It's also the majority of tool systems I see in the field these days (well, the last time I was out on a jobsite anyway).
Besides the drill & drivers which I seem to use every week, my favorite is this little guy:
M12 Tire Inflator:


I use it at The Hangar all the time and it's a great little tool.

vinceg101 wrote: Aug 05, 2020 11:38 AM

cek wrote: Aug 04, 2020 7:32 PM...I mysteriously did not have a concrete hammer drill. I do now:

Is that the M18 Fuel cordless drill or corded?

M18 Fuel.

Another Cordless Option:



I believe that they call this the "John Henry Special" I have used it a number of times but when I have to drill more than 5 or 6 holes I head to the rent-a-center.

^^^
AKA: The Persuader

Nothing like a ~6lb sledge when you need to go all John Henry on something.