Category Archives: Making and Fixing

Tank Tale 01

Involuntary labor.  Forced servitude.  Subjection.  Are we here discussing man’s inhumanity to man?  Nope.  The failure of my fuel oil tank.  How can we use these words, for this subject you say?

Wait, just wait till you hear the tale of woe.

It began one day when i went to check how much oil was left in the tank.  This is a normal operation at my house, as i do not have automatic oil fill up.  I call when i need oil, and to know if i do, the tank is checked with a stick, and the chart consulted to see how many gallons therein.

So as i am checking, i notice the cement under the tank is discolored, damp looking.  I think to myself, my sump pit must be full of water (at the other end of the tank).  Now since i have lived here there has only been water in the sump pit a few times.  Once, maybe twice, have i pumped water out.  But it does happen (rarely), in early spring.  So i quickly go look at the sump pit.  Nothing.  Empty.  Now back to the discolored cement spot.  Looking under the oil tank, there is a drop of oil hanging.  Drip.  Drip.  The discoloration is fuel oil.  Upon further inspection it looks like the tank may be leaking from both the end and the bottom.

So we did not call for any more oil.  I spread absorbent under the tank and placed a shallow pan to catch the drips.  Found a free oil tank on Craig’s List.  Enlisted the aid of my brother in law and got the new (used) tank home.  Then began the sorry chore of ‘making a path’ through my basement.  Some may know the legends of my basement.  The tale of woe begins . . . .

 

Patch patch patch

So we used to have a metal roof on our back porch.  We put metal on because it has very little pitch.  This was when we first got the house back in late 70’s.  Then in 2000 we re-shingled the whole roof.  Huge job which included construction because we removed the metal and increased the pitch of the porch and shingled it all.

Fast forward to this spring.  I am now trying to stop a leak i can’t find in the “improved pitch” porch section.  See its better than it originally was but still not really enough.  When we get enough rain, say 1/4 inch or more, we get water dripping inside in one spot.  Not pouring in but say a couple quarts over the next day or so.  Enough to be quite annoying and it needs to stop, becuz water will destroy things. It’s been dripping for a few years and slowly getting a little worse.

So i go up and hey! look! there’s a staple showing and another spot where a tab is a little broken.  That must b it?  Patch.

Next rain, replay.  Hmmm.  go back up and cannot really see any obvious issues.  But there is a long valley where the porch roof meets my bedroom roof.  Now i had checked in the attic to see if the wet was under the flashing.  No, just above where the drip is.  Makes sense, except when on the topside i cannot see any defects that would let water in.  So next i seal the entire length of the flashing on the porch edge. The water must be getting in and traveling sideways right?  More rain, more drip.  Grrr.

So now i have been filling in the gaps between the shingle tabs.  So far i have done this three more times in an ever widening area more or less centered on the suspect location.  I stopped buying roof tar in the caulk tubes and bought a gallon container.

You can see here the long flashing, the suspect issues i started with, the center area where the fills look neat from the caulk tubes, and the widening area done with the putty knife and the gallon.  Dang i hope this does the trick.  I’ll keep you posted.

The humble Thermocouple, here’s the lowdown about pilot light safety

OK seeing how its still like winter temps outside, we shall now discuss a common heating item you may not know about.  So if you have ever had to light a pilot light for a gas water heater, maybe gas furnace, you have used a thermocouple.  You know the instruction that says “push down, light and HOLD for sixty seconds”?  So here’s why:

A thermocouple is 2 dissimilar metals welded together. Heat the junction, and it makes tiny DC voltage.  Not enough to pull in an electro magnet coil. But enough to hold it in.

 

When u light a pilot, u push down to open a valve. Once there is enough voltage from the thermocouple (once the thermocouple junction is hot enough) the electro magnet coil has enough power to hold the valve open.

If the pilot goes out for any reason the dc voltage quickly drops and the valve closes.

The valve u push down controls gas not only to the pilot but also the main supply to the burner. So the system will not let main gas flow unless the pilot is proven.

A brand new thermocouple will generate enough voltage to do its job quickly, maybe 15-20 seconds. As it ages (how would u like to spent 24-7 in a gas flame?) it generates less and less.

Nominal voltage for this type thermocouple is 30 milivolts. Ya, that’s 0.030 volts.  30 thousandths of a volt.  Kind of amazing right?  So u gotta push the knob to open the valve, then Mr thermocouple will take it from there.  For years.

Btw there are old school systems that have a large enough thermocouple, to generate a large enough voltage (0.750!!) To operate the gas main valve. Those can operate during a power failure.  That’s the picture on the right, notice that its rated 600-750 MV.         Note:  Still less than 1 volt!  3/4 volt actually.

Fyi, there r also thermocouples that r used for temperature measurement.  All you lab folk chime in!!

 

Canoe Restoration 05

Ok here’s the last canoe post.  All i have left to show you is the finished product.  Mostly, because even though i did this in 2017, i still have to put the last cross-member in.  The last one needs to be remade becuz one end was rotten.  I have a piece of the ash ready to cut and shape, but we used it like you see here with just a center thwart.  When i make and install the last one i will share it here.  So u see a couple shots with the seats and the center crosspiece in. The seats are pressed cane, like a chair seat.  They looked fine, but were not.  kinda funny, i never sat on them until our annual canoe trip.  As me and Aaron sat down to paddle, we both immediately broke through the cane.  So the seats don’t look like that anymore, they r blown out.  It was quite uncomfortable, the rear end drops into the opening and your weight tries to conform yer butt into the rectangular shape. We ended up sitting on our life vests.  So when i get to the center thwart i will show you the repaired seats as well.

    

So here’s the reason to own a canoe – the trippiing in the Adirondacks!! Woo hoo –

Canoe Restoration 04

So next i treated the ash strips with a combination of Tung oil and solvent.   The “Real Milk Paint Company” makes products the way paints etc used to be made b4 the (wonderful?) age of modern petrochemicals    See this link if interested in using, btw the stuff i used was a mix of tung oil and orange solvent which now is harder to come by. So the half/half is made with Pine oil at this point.

https://www.realmilkpaint.com/shop/oils/half-and-half/

OK so anyway the ash got treated (read: waterproofed) and then I started fitting onto the boat.  First inside strips and then outer, using lots of clamps.  The black marks you can see on the upper edge of the hull are the locations of the original screw holes.  You are told to avoid using the same locations.   So with a lot of fitting the new strips were carefully reattached to the boat.  Suddenly i realized that this is a very nice design.  The wood gives it an organic trim, just enough structure and a great look.  It will require an occasional reapplication of the tung oil mix but that shouldn’t b a problem.  Also i am storing it indoors over winter (garage loft).  Also the seats and cross member are not attached in the picture, just put into the boat to make sure they will fit later.

Canoe Restoration 03

OK so first let me say if you get one of these canoes to fix for yourself u better be able to make ur own ash strips to replace the old ones.  Becuz i called the canoe mfg local rep (now just to let u know i live in upstate NY and the canoes are made in Vt.  On the eastern side of NY, like i can drive to VT in an hour and could get to the mfg location in say 4 hours.  So i found out there is a dealer in Saratoga, like 20 min away.  Not the other side of the country.  Called them and asked about new strips.  Guy said he would recco that i wait till they get an order coming in from mfg so i don’t have to pay for shipping.  I said ok get me a price.  call back in like 3 -4 days (he told me about how long til i should call back) and then he gets back to me and says the strips will be around 500.  Dollars.  yikes!!!

Luckily my brother in law is a contractor master craftsman carpenter type. Old school, and lives out in the country, farm area small village.  He just the past few years was involved in making a barn type facility for someone near where lives.  His customer has lots of acres and trees. Thom (my bro-in-law) picked out trees and this guy made lumber enough to build the barn (to b used for wedding receptions and the like).  So lots of trees cut into lots of lumber.  And Thom ended up with some of this lumber.  Also my wife’s side of the family had a big reunion, and i happened to speak to him there, saying i was needing ash and thinking about ordering a 20 ft board from a lumber yard.  He said no don’t bother come up i should have one you can take.  So i don’t know how much that board would have cost, but plenty.  Plenty becuz it needed to be like 19-20 ft long about 6″ wide and no knots.  Plenty plenty it would have been.  Thank you thank you thank you Thom.

So look at the board and see in the first pic that it had a curve to it.  i’m thinking how we gonna cut this into strips when its got a curve thats more than the width of the board??  Well sonny boy to the rescue!  He says no worry we just put the convex side against the saw fence and run it through.  Well i had my doubts but you know that old saying “u learn something new every day” that’s true.  Maybe not every single day, but most, and that day I sure did.  Worked just like he said it would.  BTW my son is also a great finish carpenter just like his uncle Thom.  So then we put the strips through the planer and routed the two corners on one side of each strip.  See how nice they look?   Power tools are truly cool.  Another shout out to Thom and Aaron!!   Yay!

Jump to Canoe 04