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Posted
On 4/23/2025 at 11:03 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

It didn't have any fungus growing in it did it?

I'm pretty sure it's mostly made of fungus slathered in tar. Our house had it until we moved the house to a new location and replaced all of the sewer line with plastic.

Posted
On 4/23/2025 at 7:00 PM, Gil Bang said:

that's interesting man. 

 

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We had what we thought was a similar problem last fall - even though our 30 year old house has the plastic pipes. 
We did have some root intrusion, but the plumbers discovered that the drain pipe on that side of the house had settled several inches and was bowed downwards - causing a buildup of solids. 
The crew had to dig out a 20’ tunnel under the slab to replace at the sewer pipe. Unfortunately when they started digging down two feet on the outside by the foundation they ran into the limestone bedrock. 
So they brought in a small jackhammer to chip out a 3’x4’ tunnel 25’ long to be able to do the replacement. 
Two days of jachammer noise vibrating the house and our ears. $25,000.

 

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Posted
On 4/23/2025 at 7:00 PM, Gil Bang said:

that's interesting man. 

 

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There's still a surprisingly significant amount of Orangeburg pipe around Austin.  It was used commonly right around WWII when iron was at a premium and before PVC became the mainstay.  

@Armybrat those tunnelling / excavation jobs are no fun.  There's a reason we sub out the excavation and just do the plumbing ourselves.  Those guys make great money, but that's some hard ass work.  We just finished a commercial tunnelling job that had two 4-man crews working for three weeks straight.  Belly crawling with shovels and jackhammers pulling material out one bucket at a time.  No thank you.  

[sales pitch] if anyone on the board in the Austin area ever has any drain issues, shoot me a PM.  I have a drain specialist on staff with a badass Ridgid sewer camera.  I'll run that thing for free for you.  That thing helps a ton at identifying the location and diagnosing the problem.  She's a journeywoman plumber, knows her stuff and is great with steering the conversation for insurance purposes as well.  Lots of other companies will make you sign an open-ended contract and charge you for the exploration.  We know exactly where the blockage / breakage / sag is and can typically cut down on the overall cost with that degree of accuracy and precision in the location.  It's loud and costly, but much better than a hole in the middle of your living room floor.  [end sales pitch]

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Posted (edited)

Oh, I’m not begrudging the tunneing costs - we had a 5 man crew working under our house - that was obviously hard & dirty work all the way around. 
I just never realized how expensive a poop could be.

I haven’t thought about making a claim towards our State Farm homeowner insurance though.

Edited by Armybrat
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  • 1 month later...
Posted

So I recently got a new job and am l trying to figure out what tools to order. I’ve got a Flir attachment for my iPhone coming. looking at getting a laser pointer, flash light, laser distance measurement. Hoping there is a combo for those 3.

This would be for walkthroughs of a large industrial unit. I’ll have a wrench and a non contact voltage tester. These are all what I’ve carried in the past, except the it camera that I’m excited about. 
 

anyone have any other ideas?

Posted
5 hours ago, thunderlounge said:

I use a microscope that connects to my phone. Works pretty well, all things considered.

 

What do you have and would you buy it again or look at a different make/model?

Posted

So I got a Flir Pro for my iPhone. It’s awesome. Now I want put my phone in a VR headset and walk around like the predator 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
Posted

Probably gonna build my son a video game shelf this week. Won’t be anything special, just something to halfway match his bookcase I build a year or so ago and to organize some stuff.

May build him a little locker to hang up his baseball stuff eventually.

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Posted (edited)

I'm almost done with a fun little project.  We make all of our own sausage, and since moving two years ago, I've been limited to breakfast, Italian, etc and can't do my traditional link sausage.  That all changes this winter.  

I didn't get pics of the pad, but I poured a little 6'x6' 4" thick slab with #3 rebar at 12" OC.  20 bags of 80# readymix was 2 bags short, so I had to haul ass up to Home Depot before it set up the day I poured it.  I framed it the following weekend and put on the siding / hung the doors last weekend.  I've got probably 12-15 hours of work in it total so far.  Just need to install the metal roof and stain the exterior to match the house then throw in a thermometer.  

After that, I still need to figure out my strategy on the fire box.  I'm toying with buying an old offset smoker, cutting the firebox off, and welding to a little skid, then running some 4" duct to the smokehouse.  This would be a somewhat temporary solution, so I don't want to go too crazy.  Eventually, I'm going to build a large "Lockhart style" BBQ pit adjacent to it, and I think I can run a duct straight from that into the smokehouse.  So, i want to kind of play around with a cheap solution before I commit to that.  

 

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Edited by Spaulding Smails
Photos
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Posted
1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:

You could build the duct and box out of bricks.

That's basically what the pit will be.  Just need to figure out how to duct it over.  Here's the old one I'm going to replicate from my last house with a few modifications.  

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

That's basically what the pit will be.  Just need to figure out how to duct it over.  Here's the old one I'm going to replicate from my last house with a few modifications.  

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Would love to hear what tweaks your are going to incorporate and how this progresses. Reminder this out from the food board post. 

Posted
20 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Would love to hear what tweaks your are going to incorporate and how this progresses. Reminder this out from the food board post. 

Nothing too major.  I designed the last one myself, but I'm no mason and a lousy welder, so I had it built.  

Biggest thing is figuring out how to prevent the stone veneer from cracking.  It had firebrick inside, but the heat still cracked the mortar joints within months.  If I keep the stone veneer, I think I'm just going to use high heat refractory cement for the mortar joints unless I can figure out another option.  The two other big changes center around access.  I need to make sure the main access door to put logs in the firebox is flush without a lip.  It was a pain scooping out ashes.  The next one can't have a lip.  I need to be able to slide the ashes right out.  Similar thing around the perimeter of the grills.  I had one over the firebox for direct grilling and a second as a smoke chamber.  They worked great, but there were basically voids around the perimeter that were difficult to access.  So, I need to figure out how to make those flush vertically for easier access.  The last big thing would be to add a retractable (swing-up) steel ledge in the front that acts as a counter for staging the meat.  The dimensions of the last one were pretty big, and the ledge was 12" deep.  So, it was tough to reach the back of the grill.  I'll shrink that some for sure.  That little square thing in the middle of the front was a handle for the baffle between the firebox and the main smoke chamber.  That needs some modifications as well to improve balance, but that's pretty minor.

Ultimately, I just make it completely out of firebrick and forego the veneer.  It won't look as nice, but it should remedy some of the depth issues and mortar cracking.  Need to get the wife to buy off on those aesthetics first.

Just now, thunderlounge said:

 

Stove pipe? 

Yep.  That's exactly what I'm thinking. 

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Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I'm almost done with a fun little project.  We make all of our own sausage, and since moving two years ago, I've been limited to breakfast, Italian, etc and can't do my traditional link sausage.  That all changes this winter.  

I didn't get pics of the pad, but I poured a little 6'x6' 4" thick slab with #3 rebar at 12" OC.  20 bags of 80# readymix was 2 bags short, so I had to haul ass up to Home Depot before it set up the day I poured it.  I framed it the following weekend and put on the siding / hung the doors last weekend.  I've got probably 12-15 hours of work in it total so far.  Just need to install the metal roof and stain the exterior to match the house then throw in a thermometer.  

After that, I still need to figure out my strategy on the fire box.  I'm toying with buying an old offset smoker, cutting the firebox off, and welding to a little skid, then running some 4" duct to the smokehouse.  This would be a somewhat temporary solution, so I don't want to go too crazy.  Eventually, I'm going to build a large "Lockhart style" BBQ pit adjacent to it, and I think I can run a duct straight from that into the smokehouse.  So, i want to kind of play around with a cheap solution before I commit to that.  

 

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you overbuilt the shit out of this thing.  And I'm here for it. Looks like about double the wall studs that you needed, and those rafters...holy hell.   This thing is a bomb shelter.

Edited by Gil Bang
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Posted
8 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

you overbuilt the shit out of this thing.  And I'm here for it. Looks like about double the wall studs that you needed, and those rafters...holy hell.   This thing is a bomb shelter.

Pretty much spot on.  In my defense, I spaced the studs @ 11" OC so that my siding would land on them directly and I could avoid sheathing.  And yes.  Can double as a bomb / tornado shelter.  

Posted
1 hour ago, Jkwellborn said:


I’d use a double wall pipe like for a wood burning stove or flue. Assuming you just meant for a vent hood.

 

No, meant stove, like wood stove.

Never heard kitchen vent stuff called “stove” pipe.

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Posted

A few months back I did a project in our formal living room.  I had it set up as a lounge because it's opposite the formal dining and unlike a lot of people, we actually use these rooms because we entertain a lot.  And even when we're not entertaining, we like to be fancy sometimes.

The rooms in the house all have 10' ceilings and I always wanted to build a floor to ceiling library wall in there.  And we've also used it as a place to listen to vinyl, separate from the other sound systems in the house.  So sometime in February I decided it was finally cool enough to work out in the shop, and do some work.  Design must include space for amplifier, turntable, speakers, books. It'll be built with a large niche in the middle where the bar sits, but the next step is to take my parents' piano and put it in there. The final result is what we call the Vinyl Lounge.

I don't have a great before shot, but the room is about 12'x12' with a 10' ceiling.  We have a couple of chairs on one side, a couch on the other, a coffee table in-between them, and then on the far wall, an antique buffet/sideboard type cabinet that we use as our bar.   

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Next step, I built up some stock Ikea billy bookcases to use as the basis for the wall and test fit them to get the actual width and height of the upper cabinets that I'll build.  Yes this is a bit of an Ikea hack.  No I don't like calling it that.  Maybe I should though, if I do it on YouTube or TickTock I might make some money...

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Next I built a 2x4 frame to support the run of upper cabinets that will go all the way across the wall.  I also test-fit one of those upper cabinets to make sure my height measurements were working out.  This is ultimately going to be a painted-looking project, so I went with cheap 1x12 whitewood.  I managed to find some that was pretty clear.  Using 3/4" ply and ripping to size would have been a little cheaper, and I could have gotten cleaner surfaces, but I honestly didn't want to drag out my table saw, as it's getting pretty old and the cuts just aren't that straight on it anyway.  So, 1x12 it is.

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Test fitting the other side on top of the left stack.

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Now test-fitting all of the top run of cabinets.  The outside cabinets are the same width as the bookcases.  The inside are a couple of inches longer.  I had the option of building two longer ones or three shorter ones, and although I typically prefer odd numbers in these cases, as they tend to look more pleasing to the eye, when I planned it out on paper, the resulting width of each bookcase if I built three, made them look really small and choppy.  So I went with two longer ones.  It could also be I just didn't want to build another bookcase...

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Next, put on the backs of the cabinets and stain them and begin the install.  I also painted the exterior surfaces of the Ikea bookcases to match the wall color, but in a satin sheen instead of matte.  The entire bookcase will have face frames painted out in the same color.  Not surprisingly, the real wood stained to a walnut color, looks warmer and richer than faux walnut woodgrain on the Ikea cabinets.  But no matter, it's all going to get covered up with books and record albums and tchotchkes and shit.

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Installing some of the pre-painted trim, and some 2x4 blocking at the top that will serve as a backer for the top trim piece and eventual crown mold.

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Nest up, install some more face frame trim, and the vintage-looking library lighting.  It runs off smart plugs and I can turn them off and on or dim them, either via Alexa voice or an phone app.  I just chuckled at this picture and how the coffee table is getting more and more cluttered.  At this point the project had taken a couple of weeks of working mostly just an hour or two per night, and I was tired of cleaning up each day...

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I had to build out that middle shelf on the right stack-- the turntable and old amp were too deep for the 11.5" or so that the stock cabinets run.

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And finally the finished product.  We actually have a piano now where the bar is in this picture. 

 

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It's crazy how much more we use the room.  Both of my teenagers like to go in there and read books, and they've even had music nights with their own friends where they'll spin records, play the piano, and just hang out.  So glad I did it and although my wife was skeptical at first, she absolutely loves it now.  The couch and chair are antiques from her grandmother that we had recovered in a more modern fabric, many years ago.  And now she's really happy that they're showcased instead of just being in "that other room."

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Posted
21 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

I'm almost done with a fun little project.  We make all of our own sausage, and since moving two years ago, I've been limited to breakfast, Italian, etc and can't do my traditional link sausage.  That all changes this winter.  

I didn't get pics of the pad, but I poured a little 6'x6' 4" thick slab with #3 rebar at 12" OC.  20 bags of 80# readymix was 2 bags short, so I had to haul ass up to Home Depot before it set up the day I poured it.  I framed it the following weekend and put on the siding / hung the doors last weekend.  I've got probably 12-15 hours of work in it total so far.  Just need to install the metal roof and stain the exterior to match the house then throw in a thermometer.  

After that, I still need to figure out my strategy on the fire box.  I'm toying with buying an old offset smoker, cutting the firebox off, and welding to a little skid, then running some 4" duct to the smokehouse.  This would be a somewhat temporary solution, so I don't want to go too crazy.  Eventually, I'm going to build a large "Lockhart style" BBQ pit adjacent to it, and I think I can run a duct straight from that into the smokehouse.  So, i want to kind of play around with a cheap solution before I commit to that.  

 

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Nice. 

 

We converted my grandparents old ice box refrigerator into a smoker. Works great.

 

 

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Posted
31 minutes ago, Spaulding Smails said:

@utee94 that turned out pretty slick.  Those wall pendants above were a great addition.  Nice job!

Thanks.  Originally I was just planning on using normal library lights like this one below, but I bought one and test-fit it and it just didn't create the feeling I wanted.

Visual Comfort 18" Cabinet Maker's Picture Light in Hand-Rubbed Antique Brass

The industrial brass with glass cone shade actually matches a lighting fixture I made for the dining room which is parallel to this room and they are open to one another, so it all flows nicely.  And the whole bookcase is pretty masculine so I added the more petite white-shaded fixtures to the sides around the niche.

 

 

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