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Official Pit Home Improvement/DIY thread

06deacon said:
Appliances are dumb as shit. Microwave door broke. turns out the critical part hangs on by a fragile little plastic piece - seems odd that they’d make the most wear heavy part of the appliance rely on this tiny piece that by some miracle has lasted even this long. What a shitty planned obsolescence. Not only that but I had to call a repair guy to get the cover off as it required specialized tools i didnt have to do that. So they don’t want you to bother fixing it either. But I’d rather do that than buy some shitty smart microwave that’ll become a total brick in 3 years when they don’t support it’s software anymore.
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yeah we have a fancy ass speed oven and we've had to replace the same piece 5 times in less than 2 years
 
y'all got any office light fixtures you particularly like?

thinking of getting an LED one and being done with bulbs
 
TenaciousKory said:
y'all got any office light fixtures you particularly like?

thinking of getting an LED one and being done with bulbs
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Ceiling light or ???

Find a color temperature you like. (Bright white, daylight etc.) Or get multi. Get it brighter than you think you want. Pay attention to light output in lumens, notwithstanding equivalent. Also, distance from light to working area. Effective brightness decreases approximately as the square of the distance between the light and work space. Put a dimmer on it. LED's will lose some brightness over time. Shape is whatever looks good to you. One good thing about LEDs is they can fit almost any shape you want.
 
sorry, yeah ceiling lights

found a 16 inch simple fixture that I'm going to use to replace the weird boob one in my kitchen
 
Deaconblue said:
Try putting Liquid Wrench or other stuff used for loosening stuck nuts and bolts.
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Picked some up yesterday... and nothing. There are three different nuts that are on this thing and not a single one will budge. So irritating. There is definitely some kind of sealant or epoxy on the screw threads.
 
wfudkn said:
Picked some up yesterday... and nothing. There are three different nuts that are on this thing and not a single one will budge. So irritating. There is definitely some kind of sealant or epoxy on the screw threads.
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Between blue and I, we can probably help you out here. Can you give us pictures of: (1) the first stopcock going back from the end of the line, (2) the nut, (3) anything you've taken off the end of the line.

It's possible that you're trying to unscrew something that will have to be cut off, which isn't the end of the world, but would require one of two (relatively cheap) specialized tools.
 
Donkey Deac Doug said:
Between blue and I, we can probably help you out here. Can you give us pictures of: (1) the first stopcock going back from the end of the line, (2) the nut, (3) anything you've taken off the end of the line.

It's possible that you're trying to unscrew something that will have to be cut off, which isn't the end of the world, but would require one of two (relatively cheap) specialized tools.
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Only other thing I can think of, and this is really left field, maybe even out of the park, is that there are left hand threads on the part. The new regulator should give you a clue about this.
 
Deaconblue said:
Only other thing I can think of, and this is really left field, maybe even out of the park, is that there are left hand threads on the part. The new regulator should give you a clue about this.
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I'm thinking it's soldered with something. Most of my gas techs just use teflon and screw fittings, but every now and then I'll get a dude who just goes crazy with making it a permanent line.
 
Donkey Deac Doug said:
I'm thinking it's soldered with something. Most of my gas techs just use teflon and screw fittings, but every now and then I'll get a dude who just goes crazy with making it a permanent line.
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Could also be one of the types of pipe dope that hardens. Or nothing at all and the pipes and stuff have corroded together. But these are all low probability. Really need pix to see WTF is going on.
 
wfudkn said:
Picked some up yesterday... and nothing. There are three different nuts that are on this thing and not a single one will budge. So irritating. There is definitely some kind of sealant or epoxy on the screw threads.
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After thinking about this comment some more, I am leaning toward hardened pipe dope as the culprit. One comment in response to a very similar question is,
Get you a 36" Pipe wrench and a 3 foot cheater and Clark's girl friend can loosen them for you.
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The "Clark" is reference to the poster wondering if he needed help from Clark Kent.

The message is that to loosen pipes that are stuck with hardened pipe dope, simply use enough leverage to break the bond. That is what your $500 plumber will do. Two wrenches and two 3 - 5 foot long pieces of pipe.
 
Annoying aspect of dimension lumber. Nominal 2 inches is actually 1-1/2 inches. 4 means 3 -1/2. 6 means 5 -1/2. 8 means 7-1/2. But 10 means 9-1/4 ! And 12 means 11-1/4. Very annoying when doing projects.
 
So major grill update. After months of not being able to use this and three plumber visits, it's finally fixed as of today. After the last plumber visit where he replaced the regulator, which didn't fix the problem, I took the whole grill apart (or at least I thought I did) and discovered... nothing. Everything was exactly as it should have been, there simply wasn't enough gas getting to the burner. I couldn't find any blockage in any pipe. So I had the plumber come out again today and check the pressure, again, coming from the gas line, but it was good. He then took part of the grill apart and pulled out this little valve that doesn't look like it comes apart, but apparently it does. And in that valve was a little fucking dead spider. Don't know how he got in there, but his dead carcass was blocking the flow inside the valve. Took him out and now the grill works perfectly. I'm both super happy that it's fixed and also super embarrassed that I was bested by a spider.
 
wfudkn said:
So major grill update. After months of not being able to use this and three plumber visits, it's finally fixed as of today. After the last plumber visit where he replaced the regulator, which didn't fix the problem, I took the whole grill apart (or at least I thought I did) and discovered... nothing. Everything was exactly as it should have been, there simply wasn't enough gas getting to the burner. I couldn't find any blockage in any pipe. So I had the plumber come out again today and check the pressure, again, coming from the gas line, but it was good. He then took part of the grill apart and pulled out this little valve that doesn't look like it comes apart, but apparently it does. And in that valve was a little fucking dead spider. Don't know how he got in there, but his dead carcass was blocking the flow inside the valve. Took him out and now the grill works perfectly. I'm both super happy that it's fixed and also super embarrassed that I was bested by a spider.
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In the late 80s a spider laid eggs in our alarm panel setting it off in the middle of the night when they hatched. I still remember as a 6 year old the siren blaring all day until a tech could come out. Really messed up my GI Joe cartoons.
 
wfudkn said:
So major grill update. After months of not being able to use this and three plumber visits, it's finally fixed as of today. After the last plumber visit where he replaced the regulator, which didn't fix the problem, I took the whole grill apart (or at least I thought I did) and discovered... nothing. Everything was exactly as it should have been, there simply wasn't enough gas getting to the burner. I couldn't find any blockage in any pipe. So I had the plumber come out again today and check the pressure, again, coming from the gas line, but it was good. He then took part of the grill apart and pulled out this little valve that doesn't look like it comes apart, but apparently it does. And in that valve was a little fucking dead spider. Don't know how he got in there, but his dead carcass was blocking the flow inside the valve. Took him out and now the grill works perfectly. I'm both super happy that it's fixed and also super embarrassed that I was bested by a spider.
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Wow. That really, really, really wasn't something I would expect to be blocking a gas line.
 
Putting finishing touches on design for my new covered patio out back, and wanted to see if anyone had advice. We are adding a covered patio to the back of our house where an awning used to be. Will look something like this:

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The layout we are leaning toward would look something like the below. The door circled in red is the primary door we use to get in the house and leads toward the kitchen. I've gone back and forth a bunch on grill placement. In this design, it's much closer and easier to access the kitchen, which was the primary reason we put it there. But you be able to sort of oversee both the yard and patio while grilling. The second picture is another option, which would be less convenient for kitchen access, but puts the grill more out of the way and would open up the yard and space a bit more.

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We are putting infrared heaters and a ceiling fan in for sure. Will be running gas to the grill, and electric to both the grill and the patio itself regardless of location. Going to set up some kind of outside sound situation (maybe Sonos?). Anybody have any other advice? Any other things we might not be thinking of that we should consider adding to the space?
 
Why not put the grill up against the wall in option 1?
 
06deacon said:
Why not put the grill up against the wall in option 1?
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It's a good thought. I know we talked about it, and I think the concern was it would block off the direct line to the door and it make it a little more awkward to access. Probably worth brining it up with him again.
 
One thing I can't identify is a refrigerator on the patio somewhere. It's good to have a place to keep drinks and whatever you plan to grill cold and close.

Option 2 leaves the grill master with his back to the patio and most of the yard over left shoulder. Or am I missing something about yard layout?
 
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