This is an easy one. My flash drive recommendation has to have three things that I need to be able to work efficiently.
Large capacity storage – I shoot in HD video
Fast Throughput – the time it takes to copy a file
Protection – not just a cap that falls off
I need a flash drive to be able to shoot video in the yard, copy it to my laptop and edit it, and then bring those video files back to the office and put the editing project and the media files onto one of our media hard drives.
I recently bought a PNY 128 GB Flash Drive, and its a great choice for me, and probably you as well.
This flash drive uses USB 3.0, which is the data transfer protocol I’ve switched to after having problems with Firewire 800 and some of our hard drives. 3.0 is fast! You will like it, its not like watching pain dry as you copy files, it just zooms through it.
This PNY has a sliding plastic cover to protect the USB connector, its slides up and covers it. I’ve lost a bunch of those caps that come with some flash drives. You probably realize this is an issue with me, right?
The thumb drive also has a hole in the side where you can slide it onto a key ring, a nice touch. Be sure not to let a thumb drive with a bunch of keys on it hang off a computer or laptop, OK?
I have bought other memory products from PNY and they were good purchases. No drive failures or memory issues with their products. My own memory is another story, but mbe we’ll have artificial memory capacity for our own brains soon. Insert a thumb drive into a slot behind my ear…
So my flash drive recommendation is this PNY 128 GB Flash Drive. It’s working for me, and it will work for you.
Floor sanding is a thankless DIY project. Avoid it at all costs. I’ve sanded several floors, I’ll never do it again. Here’s why:
Like many who read GardenFork, my mindset is: I can do this, why pay someone? Well, when it comes to floor sanding, pay a professional. There is much that can go wrong and stuff that can break, that you will probably save money by hiring a floor refinishing company.
First you have to rent the equipment. A floor sander is a beast with few, if any, safety features. It is a high horsepower motor with a spinning drum of sandpaper that can tear up the power cord, toes and wood. Have a helper wrangle the power cord as you sand the floor. You will buy many pieces of round sandpaper for the drum, as you will hit invisible nails and tear up the sandpaper regularly. Then you have to stop and attach new sandpaper.
Sanding passes made perpendicular to each other
To remove paint or finishes from a wood floor you will do several passes perpendicular to each other. Start with rough sandpaper and move down to smooth sandpaper. You will be doing this all day.
Then you have to sand along the walls with an edger, which is a smaller version of a floor sander. You are on your knees wrestling with a small beast.
The floor sander has a collection bag, but it doesn’t collect much of the sawdust, it goes into the air. Put a box fan in a nearby window and exhaust it out. Use a wet-dry vacuum frequently to remove the dust.
Don a high quality respirator that fits your face well, not a cheap dust mask. Good ear protection is a must, you will have a large motor running next to you all day. Knee pads because you are always changing the drum paper and using the edger.
Add this all up, and you will be better off, and healthier, if you hire a professional floor sanding company. Yes, it costs money, but you can spend your time doing some other DIY project better suited to your skill set.
Most professionals now use a dustless floor sander, they are nice. GF Radio co-host Rick had his maple floors refinished and the dustless floor sander did great.
So there you go, my take on outsourcing floor refinishing. Your take? Let me know below.
Here is a home made pizza oven I ran across in a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Can’t remember the name of the place, sorry.
This one is interesting in that its a metal pizza oven, rather than the usual brick. I did not see it in operation, but I’m sure it works.
I do see some improvements that can be made to this home made pizza oven, and I wonder why they did some thing.
The two side openings are where one would put the firewood to fire the oven. They don’t seem large enough to build a fire that would sustain itself and heat up the oven enough. I didn’t see this rig in action, so it may work just fine, but I’m thinking not.
There is a curved metal arch over the pizza platter. I guess this is to channel the heat up over the pizza, and transfer heat to the metal arch. I’d remove the arch. The heat from the two side fires will naturally move across the roof the oven and out the center flue.
The pizza platter is too big, I’m thinking. I don’t often see fire baked pizzas that large. With a smaller platter, the whole pizza can fit in the oven, and you don’t have to turn it.
But its an interesting idea, not sure who built it and how well it works in practice. I love that someone took the time to make it. Clearly some welding and metal skills here.
Here are additional photos of our DIY brick pizza plans. Easy to make and break down, you can build a pizza oven in a few hours and be making pizza in the oven tonight. Note the sturdy table the brick oven is on, this thing is heavy!
I used two pieces of tile backer board on top of a 1″ plywood base for the pizza oven. Use the cleanest bricks you have for the floor of the oven.
Recycled bed frames are become the angle iron to hold up the roof of the oven. The paint on the metal angle iron will burn off quickly.
Detail of how the angle iron sits on top of the side walls.
The back of the oven can be confusing, I used some extra brick to provide extra support.
Use hardwood to fire the oven, charcoal will not work. Leave some logs burning as you cook the pizzas, you need the constant heat from the wood fire to cook the pizzas.
Our backyard pizza oven is based on one in the book Bread , Earth, & Fire by Stuart Silverstein. Stuart’s book has a bunch of plans and info on building backyard ovens, go buy it here. it is available as an ebook or paperback. Read Stuart’s blog here.
Here’s a washing machine valve DIY repair I did when I had to move a washing machine last week. I took some photos of how I did it to show you all.
Behind most washing machines is a set of valves called the washing machine shutoff valves. This makes it easy to hook up a washing machine to the house water supply. There are two shut off valves, for the hot and cold water. Hint: when connecting or disconnecting the hoses from these valves, mark which hose is hot and cold. I often switch them and have to redo the hookup.
As I was ready to disconnect one of the shutoff valves, I discovered the valve was leaking. It wouldn’t shut off, and water sprayed when I attempted to remove the supply hose. Bad thing. I went into the basement and found the supply pipes leading to the washing machine valves, and shut them off.
I then tried to remove the broken valve from the pipe coming up through the shutoff housing, but it wouldn’t turn. So I carefully cut out some of the drywall below the valve so I could see if the pipe was soldered on or was threaded. Thankfully it was threaded, and I could slip a wrench in and remove the valve and the stub of pipe.
Note how I used a utility knife to cut down on two sides and pried open the drywall. This allowed me to use the bottom of the drywall piece as a hinge and put it back in place easily. Some hole filler took care of it after that. This rig sits behind the washing machine, so the repair doesn’t have to look amazing.
Once I got this out of the housing, I could get two wrenches on it and remove the broken valve. I replaced the broken valve with what I call a boiler drain valve, but it works perfect for this application, it has the same garden hose style threads, and its made of brass. Some teflon tape and pipe thread paste, and its was back in its place.
Have big holes in a birdhouse? Here’s how to make a squirrel proof birdhouse or repair an existing one. Early spring means its time for birdhouse repair in our yard. The yard is dotted with birdhouses made from our how to make a birdhouse video, and some of them have had squirrels chew open the entrances. Here’s how to make a damaged birdhouse squirrel proof and build new ones that will thwart squirrels. Its pretty simple.
Squirrels like birdhouses for the same reasons birds do, they are nice dry places to raise young, and squirrels need a winter home as well. The problem with wood birdhouses is squirrels can easily chew open the entrances. Most of my birdhouses are built for small birds like chickadees, and one would think a squirrel would realize that birdhouse is too small, but they rip open the entrance anyway. See our easy birdhouse plans video here.
Once it has a big hole, birds don’t like it, as the large hole makes it easy for predators to rob their nest.
I’ve seen a number of squirrel proof birdhouse solutions, this one I’ve adopted is the simplest, and works well in my yard.
Pick up a roll of thin metal flashing in the roofing department of your hardware store. Our store sells a roll that is painted brown on one side, white on the other. This is great, as the brown blends in with the wood tone of the birdhouse. You can also use scrap sheet metal you have in the shop – use what you got – but the thinner flashing is easier to deal with. This stuff is handy to have on hand for all sorts of repairs.
You will drill a hole in the metal flashing that is the same diameter as the entrance of the birdhouse. I use a hole saw, which is an add name for a drill bit, but it is what it is. Pick up a hole saw kit here, they are handy to have. Don’t use a spade bit on metal, you will ruin the bit. If doing a repair, the hole diameter should also match the original hole, you can find a link to birdhouse plans and proper hole diameters here.
I used small brad nails to attach the metal to the birdhouse, the flashing is thin enough to nail through. If you are using sheet metal, you’ll need to drill some holes for the nails or screws.
Be careful when handling metal, it can cut you, and wear safety goggles when drilling the hole.
This is a homemade maple syrup evaporator made out of a metal filing cabinet. It is brilliant and works really well for how simple it is. Using free or almost free stuff, you can make a DIY evaporator. Most of the items I had around the garage or shop.
Couple of things first: • Use this information at your own risk.
• Wear the proper eye, hand, mouth, ear protection when using power tools and assembling any DIY project.
If you haven’t already, watch the two videos we made about the file cabinet evaporator. One is a time lapse of the evaporator build, the other is a walk through of how to use the DIy evaporator to make maple syrup. Then go through the photos and info below.
Terra Cotta garden pots or firebrick or some other heat resistant objects
Steel grate the width and length of the cabinet. This one is 12″ x 48″
After you build this, fill the pans with water and fire it up. Let it burn for an hour or however long it takes for the paint to blister. I scraped the blistered paint off and put it in the trash.
Some paint will remain, as you can see in the photos.
I tried different lengths of pipe for the chimney. It helps if the chimney is higher than your head, so you get less smoke in your eyes.
The steam table trays need the angle iron to suspend them over the fire. Do a dry fit with all the angle iron and pans in place before screwing them in.
In the video, I attached a bathroom fan to the evaporator. I discovered I did not need to use the fan, as I was burning scrap lumber, which burns hot and fast. If you are burning firewood, you may want to attach one. Its better if you attach the fan to the front of the evaporator rather than the side like I did.
I did not have an adjustable air intake, I found if I kept the door slightly open, that worked very well.
I used terra cotta pots and steel grating to raise the fire up closer to the pans. I found this worked well for me. I did not line the evaporator with firebrick. Though I could see lining it would make it easier to stand next to the rig and carry the heat better. If the fire died down, the boil did too. Firebrick may have helped that.
For Version 2.0 of this homemade maple syrup evaporator, I will move the pans closer to the chimney, and have that extra space that I filled in with a piece of drawer right above the firebox door. The area right near the front door was not nearly as hot as the rear of the box.
This design is based on one by Mike Bell of the Hinkel Garton Farmstead, I learned of it by listening to Annie Corrigan on Earth Eats, a WFIU radio show and podcast. Here is a set of photos on their Flickr page
At a friend’s house, they had a broken motion sensor light over the back door. They wanted to repair or replace the motion sensor, and I suggested getting rid of the motion sensor light and install do an outdoor dusk to dawn light install instead. Motion sensor lights always seem to break. And the light fixture is always high enough you need a ladder to repair or replace them.
Broken Motion Sensor is replaced by dusk to dawn light
The reasons behind my idea to to an outdoor dusk to dawn light install
The existing motion sensor fixture used halogen bulbs, which use a bit of energy to run, and burn out easily, I think.
Use good quality LED lights in the dusk to down light fixture. A
well light back door all night, and it would turn off automatically, and probably last a lot longer than the typical motion sensor light.
Full Disclosure, I am a big fan of LED lights. I use them everywhere I can.
Black unit on right is the dusk to dawn sensor, easy to replace.
I chose a dusk to dawn light that was similar in design to their existing light, and made sure it was one that you could replace the light sensor on. This way, if the sensor breaks, you can replace it and not the whole light fixture again.
The usual rule of working with electricity apply here. Turn off the power that feeds the outdoor light, and use a non contact voltage tester to make sure the power is off in the fixture mount. Exercise extreme caution when working with wires and electricity. I think you are capable of doing this, but be sure to follow all directions that come with the light.
I am using plastic tubing for tapping sugar maples, and learned a hard lesson this weekend. When you only tap maple trees once a year, you forget stuff. And when you’re working in 2′ of snow and the wind is howling, your brain takes a hit.
I tapped our sugar maples a week ago using tubing, I find it works better for me than sap buckets, which you have to empty every day the sap runs. I’m only able to work on this on the weekends, so I run tubing to a large collection barrel that can collect several days of sap. You can buy maple tapping supplies here.
So last weekend I tapped the sugar maples, and ran the lateral lines to the barrels. But I made a mistake. The lateral lines where close to level with the tapping spouts, so the tubing connecting the spout to the lateral line looped down below the lateral. I didn’t think this was a big deal until the temperature dropped, and the sap in the loop of tubing below the lateral line froze.
The wrong way to tap sugar maple trees
The problem here is that sugar maple sap will run even when its near freezing, but if the tubing has frozen sap in it, the sap stays in the tree.
So as a reminder to myself and a lesson for you all, you want your taps and the tubing to be above the lateral line. So the sap drains to the barrel, not collect in the tube and freeze.
Tap spouts above the lateral line, the right way to tap maple trees.
Here’s a DIY maple syrup evaporator made out of an old metal barrel with a few enhancement you can easily put together from spare parts or a scrap yard. I ran across the homemade evaporator at my friend Priscilla’s house. She has upgraded to a stainless steel commercial evaporator, but this was sitting next to the barn, so I had to check it out.
The evaporator tray on this DIY maple syrup evaporator is an old turkey roasting pan, perfect for the wide surface area you need when boiling down sugar maple sap. The wider and larger your tray is the better. The whole idea is to boil off the water to make maple syrup.
I’m not sure where the firedoor came from, you might find one at a welding shop, or you can buy a kit online that will turn a barrel into a wood stove here. After you attach the fire door and the stovepipe, you cut out an opening for the evaporator tray, and you are good to go.
Couple things to remember using a DIY Maple Syrup Evaporator:
Maple sap becomes maple syrup when it reaches 7.5 F degrees above the local water boiling point. Water boils at 212F at sea level, so boil some water on your stove and use your digital thermometer to see what temperature it is boiling at. The temp will probably be lower than 212. Our water boils at 210F, as we are at about 1700′ in elevation.
Don’t let the syrup get overheated. I do the final boil in the stovetop in my kitchen in a big pasta pot. Its hard to control the temp on a wood fired barrel stove.
You don’t have to boil all the sap down at once. You can let the fire die down with sap in the tray, and just start up again the next day.
Store your sap in the cold. I keep it in clean plastic trash can buried in snow.
Straw bale house construction has always been on my bucket list, and I recently discovered Jonathan Townsend’s YouTube channel where he makes videos about 18th century lifestyle.
Jonathan and his wife have built 2 straw bale houses, and he recently posted 2 videos about straw bale construction, and I wanted to share them with you here.
Now I want to build a straw bale house!
Some of the key points of straw bale construction makes:
• Use straw, not hay. Stray is the stem of wheat, and hay is a mix of grasses baled together.
• Have a large overhang, so the bales have no chance of getting wet from roof runoff
• Stucco over the straw bales inside and out.
Wikipedia states the insulation R value of a straw bale can range from R17-R55 depending on construction factors, so lets say R35 could be considered an average R value. Not bad for any house.
The construction method used in this straw bale house is a pole barn with straw side walls. Columns are set in place, then a standard roof is built on top, then the straw bales are used to fill in the walls. Note in this video the large roof overhang to protect the stucco from rain.
Wire mesh is placed over the bales and a cement stucco is applied.
I don’t know what issues one would have with some local zoning ordinances. There are parts of the US where you have few zoning regs, and would be an ideal place for a straw bale house.
I love it for the renewable resource walls and simple construction with substantial insulation properties. Plus you can build most of it yourself.
If you are interested in more alternative house building, check out our GardenFork Radio talk with Deek of RelaxShacks, one of the experts on the Tiny House Movement.
You can learn more about Jonothan on his YouTube channel and on his online store for historical reenactors looking for clothing and goods from 1750-1840.
Tony wanted to make a brick pizza oven, and he found our pizza oven videos, and then made his own version. On a rooftop in Cambodia, of all places. How cool is that?
“I’ve been meaning to re-visit your site since it provided the perfect solution I was looking for in 2013 when I wanted to build a pizza oven on my roof here in Cambodia.
I stacked and built mine on a custom made angle iron table with the angle iron bars ($40). Then I found these perfect 2 inch think angled cement pieces to put under the oven ($10). Once I found the place to buy the old bricks from the French Colonial buildings being dismantled at a price of $1 for 4, things got a lot easier – but finding the bricks was not an easy task given the language barrier and neither did the fact that it’s a 5 story building with no elevator. Although I did get a great workout bring it up and continue to do so with each or cord of wood. One original modification on made on your design was not to stack the bricks vertically but instead all of them flat.
I have now re-built the oven three times, replacing cracked bricks and modifying the design slightly. I originally had a chimney in the back but found it was really non-essential. One nice feature I added was an elevated level in the front for cooking the pizza on. I also built it up two brick levels higher over all as the brick price is pretty inconsequential here. I use terra cotta tiles to cook on in the oven and on top of the oven to keep the pizzas warm, help the dough rise and get the crust a bit crispier.
Thanks for the inspiring solution. If you are ever in Phnom Penh, Cambodia come over for a pizza with one of the best views in town.”
Not only are they good for making pizza, but our DIY Pizza Oven Plans make for a good workout when you are hauling brick up four flights of stairs!
Interesting that T0ny also found that one does not need a chimney for this pizza oven. I have had many people ask about that.
A DIY Portable Generator Cart adds wheels to your portable generator for free. This is from a GardenFork viewer, Edward, who embraces the GF ethic of ‘use what you got’ perfectly.
He writes:
“At first glance, this might not look like much, but seeing how I looked for a wheel kit for a generator and saw
that they cost around $40 to $60, I decided to come up with my own inexpensive solution.
I remove the engine from an old mower. I only leave the lower section of the handle connected to the mower
frame (a great place to leave your extension cord). Using two tie-down ratchet straps the generator is secured to the
mower frame. Doing this, I can remove the generator easily in case I need to put it in the trunk of my car. I am planning
on adding a ply wood deck on the mower or a box style base that I can use for other projects.
This setup is extremely stable and makes moving the generator a breeze. It also keeps the generator higher off
the ground away from water and snow.”
I think this is brilliant. My portable generator has air filled tires, which makes it easy to move around rough frozen ground, but if you have a flat place, or are just rolling the portable generator out of the garage into the driveway, this is the way to go. Save some money on the generator wheel kit.
The quad needed new battery, and I’m preparing for the maple syrup season, so I picked up a new battery at the farm supply store. Its a fairly common battery, and most stores stock this one.
The battery comes dry, that is, there is no battery acid in the battery. It comes in a separate container. This makes it easier to ship and store, I imagine. Car batteries usually come filled and sealed, and they are charged already, not the case with smaller engine batteries like this.
Pretty straightforward process, the important caution here is to wear gloves and eye protection. You don’t want battery acid on your hands or in your eyes. And its easy get a few drops of this in the wrong place. Learn from me…
Follow the instructions that come with the battery, but the general steps are to take off the caps of the battery cells, fill the cells with acid to the level indicated, and charge the battery, usually overnight.
Save the red caps, you will replace those. The instructions that came with this battery were vague about that. I used a low amperage smart charger and this battery was ready the next morning for installation.
I use the smart charger to charge up dead car and small engine batteries. To keep this battery at full charge but not wear it out prematurely, I’m thinking about a solar powered trickle charger. One less thing to plug in and have running all the time.
How to pick a generator is the first step in hooking up a generator to your house. Here’s my experience in figuring out what kind and size portable generator you need to power your home during a power outage.
Our generator is plenty powerful to power the house.
Figuring out how what size or wattage generator to buy a is the first step in the how to pick a generator process. To determine the size of the generator you need, you have to figure out what you want to power in your house during a power outage. This power number, or watts, also will determine the size transfer panel you will need. In addition to buying a generator you will need generator transfer switch. Here is a link to our post about transfer switch installation.
Based On My Experiences…
This post is about portable generators, the kind on wheels that you pull outside, connect to your manual transfer panel, and power your home. Standby generators, the kinds that sit on a cement slab next to your house, are not covered here. This is based on my experience as a homeowner, I am not a licensed electrician.
First, buy a name brand generator. Cheap generators will cause you problems if you ever need to service it. This came back to burn a friend of mine when he needed to replace a carburetor.
Second, perform regular maintenance on your generator. I run mine for about 15 minutes every month.
Third, use gas stabilizer. Add this to all the gasoline you use for engines around the house. It will save you a lot of headaches and repairs.
Start by going through the house and think about what you and your family want to be able to use in a power outage. Then re-think about what you really need, and what you can live without.
Why? Because the average portable generator/transfer switch setup will not run everything in your house. It will run the essentials, however I think you’ll find that you don’t need to power your whole house.
Your portable generator will probably not run your 240 volt appliances. These include electric clothes dryer, electric stove, electric furnace, electric baseboards. It will run your deep freezer, refrigerator, and microwave oven and most of the lights in your house. It all depends on how the house is wired and the size of your generator transfer panel.
After making a list of of what is essential in your home, find out the amps or watts that each appliance uses. Don’t forget the furnace, well pump, etc. This is usually on a label somewhere. Now convert amps into watts with this equation:
amps x 120 = watts
I imagine you will get a number ranging from 3,000 – 6,000 unless you have lots of large TVs.
How To Pick A Generator, Watts & Amps:
A typical home can use a generator in the 3,000 to 6,000 watt range. Because you will probably not be running all the appliances at once, you don’t need a generator that exactly matches how many watts all the appliances require. The biggest draw on the generator will be the well pump, if you have one, second comes the furnace. Rarely would all of your appliances need power at once.
The question of whether to get a gas or propane powered portable generator depends on your location and preference. The small 20 gallon propane tanks are easier to deal with than carrying around gasoline, but if you run out of propane, how far do you have to drive to get more tanks? You could also get larger propane tanks, as some generators have a gas line hookup. I have a gasoline powered generator, and have been happy with it.
The downside of the gasoline generator is you can splash gas when filling the tank, and you must put gas stabilizer in the fuel. But you should treat all the gas you use for small engines with stabilizer, in my opinion.
You will need to buy and install a manual transfer panel that matches how many circuits you plan on using in the house. That is, how many of the circuit breakers on your panel need to be fed power from the generator. If you need to power 6 circuit breakers of your house panel, you will need a transfer panel with 6 breakers. Most household manual transfer panels have 6 to 10 breakers. If you have to power more than 10 circuits in a power outage, its time for a standby generator. Here is a link to our post about generator transfer panel installation.
You might think, how can I get by using only use 6 circuits in my house? You’d be surprised at how you can. Your family will be happy that they can take hot showers and charge their devices, and the food in the freezer isn’t melting.
I have a 6,500 watt portable generator, and it runs my entire house with power to spare. The generator surges when the well pump kicks in or the furnace turns on, but that’s about it. The power meters on our transfer panel rarely move past 25%.
My point here is you probably don’t need a large generator to survive a power outage, so save some money and buy a less powerful generator. My house would do fine with a 3,000 – 4,000 watt generator.
Below is video about transfer panels and generators, here is the link again to our post about transfer panels. I hope this has answered some of your questions about how to pick generator.
I’m on a quest to get rid of stuff I don’t use, so I have this suggestion when you are decluttering your home:
Sell stuff on ebay.
I’ve had 4 fishing reels in a box at the bottom of the basement stairs for how knows how long, thinking they are worth something. Today I put them out on the sidewalk. Then I went out and took them back in. Then I went on ebay.
One of the fishing reels I need to let go of.
A quick search on ebay shows that some fishing reels are worth money, some are not. I don’t think the ones I have are worth much, but if you add it up, sell a few reels, sell some of that other stuff in your basement, and you might have a few bucks in your paypal account. nice. Its surprising how fast a few dollars can add up, and you could buy something you can really use on ebay then. I need some more video lights.
We sold what I thought was a real ugly lamp for a couple of hundred bucks. Read about it here.
The declutter is also a mental thing for me, its like I have this virtual mental list of stuff to do, and a lot of it jams up your brain. So part of letting go of stuff also helps your head, I think. Plus one less box to remind you of at the bottom of the stairs.
So just another nudge to you all that want to declutter your home, that stuff in that box can go to someone who can use it, and you might make some nice coin.
Full Disclosure here, we’ve made a video with ebay here, and have their affiliate ads on the site, but I do really sell stuff on their site when I want to get rid of stuff. Some of it sells, some does not.
Cheap doesn’t always mean good, but in this case finding cheap house renovation stuff paid off.
With the installation of a new gas fired steam boiler, I decided to replace one of the steam radiators that is way over-sized for the space it is in. This radiator is in the common hallway, and there isn’t a great need to over-heat a hallway.
I was driving past a metal recycle shop today and saw them put a nice small steam radiator into their truck. I stopped and asked how much they would sell the radiator for.
$30
A $5 dollar tip to the gentleman who put the radiator in the back of the car, and we had crossed one more thing off the to do list. Cheap house renovation parts = good.
There is a vintage brownstone salvage yard around the corner from the scrap metal recycler where my newly acquired vintage radiator would probably be $100. I’ll replace the steam valve and union when attaching the new radiator, but that valve was leaking already, so now we have two things taken care of at once.
How cool is that.
With the new windows we installed, plus the new boiler, we don’t need nearly as much heat in the house, and the giant radiators are a vestige of then heating oil was cheap and insulation was non-existent. Now is a different story.
Couple of things to keep in mind when installing radiators.
Its a two person job – radiators like to tilt at the wrong moment.
Use both teflon tape and paste on the pipe. coat the pipe with paste, wrap it with tape, coat the tape with paste.
Make sure the radiator tilts slightly toward the steam valve and riser.
So there you go, just a nice find when you aren’t expecting it.
The large mulberry tree had to come out. The neighbors complained about the berries that littered their yards each year, and got tracked into their homes by the feet of kids and dogs.
So down came the tree, and what was left for me to deal with was about 5 feet of tree. Time for the 20″ bar chainsaw and a lot of sawdust.
This tree was one tree that had two limbs right at the base, and those limbs kinda fused at the bottom of the tree, and it was my job to cut this as flat as I could. I’m not good at level cuts – it always seems to look good while you are cutting, but by the time you get to the other side of the cut, its not.
Why is that?
To keep the bar of the chainsaw from getting pinched by the cut portion of the tree, I drove a wedge in to keep the cut open. I had forgotten my plastic wedges, so a metal wedge had to do. One usually uses plastic wedges so if the chain touches the wedge, the chain is not damaged. Metal wedges are bad for chainsaws. But I paid close attention to keeping the saw away from the wedge.
I did do the smart thing and bought two new chains for the saw before starting this project. It is amazing how quickly a chainsaw will cut through a tree with a new chain. wow.
Plus look the wood shavings it left behind, a clear sign of a sharp chain. If your saw is putting out dust rather than flakes, its time for a new or sharpened chain.
We have several chainsaw videos here for your to check out:
See More Pizza Oven Assembly Photos Here
