Do It Yourself

AspieEgg , in Fished new wire for the first time!

Since you went with 10/2 for a 240v outlet that means your cable will have two hots and a single ground. But the cable you bought will have a black, white and bare/green wire. Make sure that you wrap both ends of the white conductor with red electrical tape to indicate that it is also a hot wire. White normally indicates a neutral, but since you won’t have a neutral wire in this cable, it’s important to mark it. Otherwise someone else may work on this outlet in the future, see a white wire, assume it’s a neutral, wire something up with it as a neutral, and give themselves a pretty bad shock.

Uprise42 OP ,

Yup, I already have the electrical tape to mark it. Though I was told I could mark it red or black and both are universal markings for hot wire. Is that wrong? It doesn’t matter here because I have red tape but for future reference it would be good to know

AspieEgg ,

You can mark it either red or black, but you already have one black wire, so it would be best to mark it red, just to differentiate it.

nyan , in Natural wood glues, general feedback?

Personally, I’d just go with ordinary yellow wood glue even though it’s synthetic. Natural things are not necessarily non-toxic, artificial things are not necessarily harmful, and PVA glue is pretty safe provided you don’t drink the stuff (I wouldn’t drink most hide glues either, and those were the normal glues used for woodworking before the advent of synthetics). Even melamine is only moderately toxic (as in, you don’t want to eat it or inhale the dust, but a desk surface isn’t dangerous unless it’s breaking down).

I suppose the ultimate in non-toxic glues is unflavoured gelatin from the grocery store (essentially food-grade hide glue), but its adhesive properties have a reputation for being highly variable—after all, it isn’t meant to be used as glue, so there’s no QA applied for that property.

GravityAce , in Is this fixable?

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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  • Doods OP ,

    No running away from getting another head it seems.

    rebelappliance ,

    Only post about how getting head is a bad thing

    Seathru , (edited ) in What's a good torque wrench to get?

    Maybe an unpopular opinion; but if you want a budget torque wrench (less than $100usd), get a beam style. I’ve personally used this one to assemble dozens of engines. I’ve got a $400 Snap-On digital that is great for torque to yield fasteners where you have to tighten to a specific degree. But if it’s just something like spark plugs, I’ll grab the beam torque wrench every time. I wouldn’t recommend the micrometer/click style for a novice. It’s too easy to get the setting off by a turn and unless you know what that amount of torque is supposed to fell like, you put your trust into listening for the click and end up causing much bigger problems for yourself.

    Any questions, feel free to PM/DM. I’m having mechanic advice withdrawals after leaving reddit.

    RickRussell_CA ,

    I’m a novice mechanic and I never had any issue with click torque wrenches.

    Admittedly, I have a science degree and I have a great deal of experience with measurement equipment, vernier scales, etc. But I don’t think the setting on a click wrench is very challenging, even for a novice. Just watch a couple YT videos.

    Seathru ,

    If you’re familiar with mic adjustments, you’re golden. The problem shows up when someone isn’t familiar and is operating at the low end of the adjustment range. You can accidentally end up below the threshold where it makes an audible click. If you don’t have a frame of reference what 30Nm should feel like, you don’t realize somethings wrong until you’ve cranked down way too hard. Beam wrenches are simpler (and quicker).

    Kurt OP ,
    @Kurt@lemmy.one avatar

    Thank you, I hadn’t considered that style. All the YouTube videos use the mechanical click type, but you’ve got me thinking that the simpler beam style might be better for my situation.

    MostlyQuiet ,

    A beam style torque wrench will work if you can see the dial from straight ahead, ensuring there’s no parallax error in your sight. However, it won’t work so well if you can’t see the dial. If you’re working on replacing the spark plugs in an FRS for example, where they’re down low and against the chassis, a click-type torque wrench might be the only way to do it. Also, keep in mind that torque values change if the threads have any kind of lubrication on them such as grease or anti-seize.

    Kurt OP ,
    @Kurt@lemmy.one avatar

    Oh man, how do I account for anti-seize lube?

    MostlyQuiet ,

    In general, if you put any kind of lube on the threads, the torque spec should drop a bit because the lube makes it easier to spin the parts. Over-spinning the parts can stretch the threads to the point of damaging them. If you don’t compensate for the lube, you could end up over-torqueing things. For example, if wheel lug nuts should be torqued to 100 lb-ft dry, it may drop down to 90 lb-ft with anti-seize. As for spark plugs, I don’t know how much it should be reduced, if at all. It also depends on if the torque spec is already tuned for anti-seize. If the official procedure calls for anti-seize, then it’s probably ok to assume that the torque spec already compensates for it.

    snowbell ,
    @snowbell@beehaw.org avatar

    What would be a good beam style wrench on the inch pound scale?

    Seathru ,

    It depends how precise you need to be. If a 10-15% margin of error is acceptable*, then most of the budget brands (Presa, Titan, Neiko, ect) will be fine. If you need <5% margin of error, start looking at the major brands (snap-on, blue point, matco, mac, cornwell) that come with calibration certificates.

    How many inch pounds you are working with will determine the size you need.

    • 1-100in/lb - 1/4" torque wrench

    • 100-1000in/lb - 3/8" torque wrench

    • 1000+in/lb - We really should be using a different unit at this point, but 1/2" torque wrench.

      *For most shadetree repairs 10-15% is more than sufficient.

    Edit: tried to fix formatting

    storksforlegs , in Does anybody else have an old house?
    @storksforlegs@beehaw.org avatar

    As a north american I am so confused.

    SkepticElliptic OP ,

    Me Too :/

    lemillionsocks ,
    @lemillionsocks@beehaw.org avatar

    Same, an I’ve been around and in some old houses by American standards and I have no idea what Im looking at.

    KeisukeTakatou , in New to DIY. Are multi tools recommended?

    I wouldn’t settle for anything less than a Leatherman Signal or SuperTool if you intend to get any real use out of it.

    In case you want to accumulate a toolbox, the rule of thumb is to buy the cheapest tools you can find that work. When one breaks, you know you use it enough to buy a quality one.

    Original , in comfortable wooden seats

    Would love to see pictures, it sounds like a great design

    Radiant_sir_radiant , in How to get cigarette smell out of my apartment?

    The only really effective thing is ozone, as has already been posted, though an ozone generator in the living quarters comes with its own gotchas such as ozone being corrosive and harmful to your respiratory system.

    Apart from that, we used to get the smell out of hair and clothes with a hairdryer set to hot. I’m not sure how you could apply that knowledge to an entire room, but there’s probably no harm in trying.

    Having said that, if your roommate carries such a strong smell, does he really smoke outside, or does he just sorta-kinda stand in the half-open doorway and call this outside?

    Thavron ,
    @Thavron@lemmy.ca avatar

    ozone being corrosive and harmful to your respiratory system.

    Unlike cigarette smoke.

    Radiant_sir_radiant ,

    Yes, but the ozone is supposed to just get the smell out. Hopefully no one thinks it’d be fun to smoke next to an ozone generator.

    Shdwdrgn , (edited ) in How can I build a custom sound generator?

    You can find a million different circuits online with a simple google search. The problem is you haven’t given any useful info about what it is you need. You want to generate a sound outside? Cool, I can point you to a circuit that you can’t hear from five feet away, but it meets your criteria because it was used “outside” and produced a garbled mess that still counts as a “sound”.

    If you want help, you need to provide an idea of how much power needs to be generated, how many speakers you are driving, how clear you need the sound to be (and this distinction will be quite different depending on if you are generating a tone, music, voice, etc), how FAR away you want to hear the sound, and it wouldn’t hurt to show what you’ve already tried and how that varied from what you were expecting. If you plan to leave this outside long-term, then you should describe what your plan is for weather-proofing as that will have an effect out the output also. And since I don’t know jack about analog circuits, there’s probably more information required to build what you need.

    Sorry, even if you want nothing more than a siren sound there’s nothing easy about your question.

    qyron OP ,

    I edited the post and added information.

    Shdwdrgn ,

    The Adafruit solution below looks like a good suggestion if you need something pre-built. However if you’re interested in the DIY approch, you could also take a look at something like www.ebay.com/itm/404254884824

    Pair this with an arduino nano and you’ll have a fairly compact programmable device (I assume for your purposes, you only need mono output). You could also add a lithium-ion battery, solar panel, and charge controller to make something completely self-contained, but that would take a bit more work to figure out how much power is required to play each recording, and how many times per day you want to be able to play them so you can have enough battery power and a large enough solar panel to keep them charged.

    Also remember to put your speakers in a box as that will make a huge difference in the volume of the sound being played.

    ciagovv , in (September) New month, new projects. What are you working on now, DIY?

    Diy freeskates. They seem simple enough to try fast, and look like they could actually be useful for my commute.

    shapesandstuff ,

    Awesome! Are you gonna post a build log?

    loopy ,
    @loopy@lemm.ee avatar

    I’ve never heard of those. I looked them up and they look super fun! Like a skateboard and rollerblades had children.

    Shdwdrgn , in Vacuum Cleaner Over-heats and Cuts Out - Can I Fix It?

    If you know someone with an air compressor, try blowing the dust out of the motor. Check for hair wrapped around the metal shaft of the motor.

    Also check for hair wrapped up around the brush (take off the bottom plate and remove the whole brush, there’s usually a lot of crap around the ends where the brush spins).

    loops , in Ok, this was too much starch

    It’s art now.

    storksforlegs , in Ok, this was too much starch
    @storksforlegs@beehaw.org avatar

    You can stack them now.

    Seathru , in Who else's got a wet trunk?

    Pull out as much carpeting as your comfortable taking apart and get some air moving through. The more moving air the better.

    chahk , in (August) What are you working on now, DIY?

    I bought a used 125 gallon aquarium 6 months ago that I need to reseal and build a new stand for. Got the sealant, lumber, and tools last month. Right now I’m working on procrastinating the actual DIY part.

    SpicyLiquidJar ,

    Is there an aquarium / fishkeeping community on lemmy? I know it’s kinda niche.

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