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Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:31 pm
by bhtooefr
That's one annoying thing about modern cars, that wheels are huge, and therefore tires are so damn expensive.

A set of snows for my car (which, lower end modern models of the same car, you could still get 15" steel wheels, and tire specs are the same), when I bought them, was about $320, and I paid $300 for my summer wheels (it would've been about $100 for a set of 5x100 VW steelies used, or less, though, if I already had the alloys).

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:43 pm
by ludi
Never run studs, myself. The Hankook i-Pikes for my Camry do support studs but the cold weather road holding is improved enough that I can't see value in the extra cost, extra tire noise, or extra road damage. Although Colorado does permit year-round use of studded tires.

I also went the steel rims route for the winter set. No need to take the extra mounting and balancing damage twice a year, plus the inevitable curb slide means the wheel bends but is still low-speed drivable, whereas an alloy in cold weather is at a higher risk of cracking itself or a couple lug bolts.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:11 pm
by steelcity_ballin
I made the decision to leave work early yesterday in the midst of a snowstorm/hailstorm/freezing rain storm. It was painful brushing my car off and Iw as a bit concerned about the well-broken-in all-seasons I have on my FWD vehicle. Even untreated, it performed admirably reinforcing my belief that studs are over-rated. We can put ours on in Nov and carry them until March or May IIRC. They finally plowed my street about 25 minutes ago which is just a silly response time. We all knew it was coming and they were caught with pants down anyhow. MY normal 25-35 commute took 1 hour 45 minutes approx. Blech.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:13 pm
by paulWTAMU
Studs are a godsend on packed snow.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 1:22 pm
by Captain Ned
Never run studs and don't ever intend to. Studless Hakkas plus Subaru gives me all I need and then some.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:10 pm
by SpotTheCat
Captain Ned wrote:
SpotTheCat wrote:
noob homeowner question:

I have a drop ceiling in the basement, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access it. It seems to be clipped in both directions such that I can't just push them up and off to the side like normal commercial drop ceilings. What am I missing here?

2' X 4', 2' X 2', or the 12" square perforated acoustical tile?

2'x2'
Turns out the previous owner, who I want to call "OP" had no idea what he was doing on any home improvement project. Instead of using drop ceiling mounts to hold the drop ceiling to the joists, he used them all over which means you need to pry and bend to get any ceiling tile out. What was the point of a drop ceiling again?

Every time I need to look closely at any non-original work on this house I end up facepalming. Another example: there is an exhaust fan in my house with no duct work. I promptly disconnected it should someone think they're doing anything besides putting moisture/dust into the ceiling space.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:28 pm
by paulWTAMU
I hate contractors.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:46 pm
by just brew it!
SpotTheCat wrote:
Every time I need to look closely at any non-original work on this house I end up facepalming. Another example: there is an exhaust fan in my house with no duct work. I promptly disconnected it should someone think they're doing anything besides putting moisture/dust into the ceiling space.

Don't get me started.

The duct for our dryer was venting inside the ceiling of the finished basement. Previous owner hadn't properly fastened the sections of duct together before putting in the ceiling, so it eventually came apart in multiple places. Fixing it required figuring out where the breaks were, cutting holes in the ceiling (drywall, not tiles), repairing the ductwork, then repairing the ceiling. :roll:

Also turns out that all of the toilet tanks were incorrectly installed. Wrong washers used on the tank bolts, with liberal amounts of caulk used to stop the inevitable leaks. One set was so rusty from water seeping out of the tank that I had to drill the bolts out.

There's a bunch of wonky electrical and tile work too...

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:54 pm
by BiffStroganoffsky
SpotTheCat wrote:
Turns out the previous owner, who I want to call "OP" had no idea what he was doing on any home improvement project. Instead of using drop ceiling mounts to hold the drop ceiling to the joists, he used them all over which means you need to pry and bend to get any ceiling tile out. What was the point of a drop ceiling again?


Probably was easier/cheaper for OP to install the ceiling tiles than to put in drywall/plaster and then paint. :P

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:13 am
by Captain Ned
just brew it! wrote:
There's a bunch of wonky electrical and tile work too...

Yeah. In the kitchen redo of about 10 years ago we found that the wire running to the socket where the toaster sat (and toasters draw some serious ampage) was a splice between BX (the metal-sheathed stuff) and romex done with masking tape and stuffed between the joist and the 2nd floor subfloor. Both ceiling light j-boxes in the kitchen/dining area had multiple (and not the same) circuits running through them. Nothing like shutting off a breaker and finding the box still live. Good thing that 120 only stings.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:14 am
by Captain Ned
BiffStroganoffsky wrote:
Probably was easier/cheaper for OP to install the ceiling tiles than to put in drywall/plaster and then paint. :P

Pulling out an Armstrong acoustical tile (the 12" square perforated stuff) ceiling really sucks.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:38 am
by Arclight
Captain Ned wrote:
BiffStroganoffsky wrote:
Probably was easier/cheaper for OP to install the ceiling tiles than to put in drywall/plaster and then paint. :P

Pulling out an Armstrong acoustical tile (the 12" square perforated stuff) ceiling really sucks.


FALSE
Ceiling tiles are inanimate objects and therefore do not have a mouth to suck with.

Edit
Erhm i didn't read that right i see now you were refering to the act of pulling the tiles out. FAIL

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:22 pm
by bhtooefr
It still doesn't really suck, unless there's a vacuum being formed by pulling the tile.

;)

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:16 pm
by Captain Ned
bhtooefr wrote:
It still doesn't really suck, unless there's a vacuum being formed by pulling the tile. ;)

No vacuum, just a trail of crumbly bits. Unlike a metal-framed drop ceiling, the old Armstrong stuff latches on on both sides so you have to wrench it from the ceiling to take it down. I did 4 rooms and never want to do it again.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:01 pm
by paulWTAMU
I dearly love my parents but dear lord, 2 week long visits so close together (thanksgiving and christmas) are exhausting. I never thought I'd be so glad to see them head home so I could just relax after work rather than play host.

Also, leftover yams with cheese and ham mixed into them are frigging tasty.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 2:42 pm
by just brew it!
Today's random bizarre thing I found on the Internet: http://www.devonmoor.org/evocutcutlery.html

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:34 am
by Captain Ned
Was at a long-time friend's beach house outside of Wilmington, NC for the weekend. Beyond refreshing some age-attenuated ties, the best part was a visit to BB-55 USS North Carolina. I've been on a bunch of old Navy museum ship self-guided tours but this one was the best of all. Most of the tours are the main deck, the mess deck, and the pre-fab museum they've put somewhere else on the ship. USS NC's self-guided tour is 4 decks down from the main deck and three decks above, making 8 decks in total. Given my age and girth I was certainly feeling the effects once we were done.

USS NC's base tour gets you everywhere other than the propulsion plant. The kicker for me is that they'd taken however long it took to cut through the 12" barbette armor (barbette being the under-deck armor protecting/surrounding the under-deck turret structure) so that you could walk through both shell decks and the powder loading stations. I've seen them on blueprints, but when you stand next to a 16" 2700lb projectile and see the 6" little snubber capstan they used to lever that projectile into the hoist in a space not much taller than my 5' 10" brings a new perspective. Descending to the bottom of the turret you see the multiple levels of flash prevention to ensure that any hit on the turret doesn't get dowm to the powder magazines. You also see the tiny and unescapeable spaces where the most important guys in the system worked. It was a truly steampunk world.

A companion on the tour, who did several years in an SSN-637 class attack submarine, remarked that 1940's Navy lube oil (the entire lower decks still reeks of it) smelled the same as mid-'90s lube oil.

Then there was my daughter. Those battleships had a direct ladder/tunnel between the main spotting bits (i.e. who to shoot at) high on the ship and the machines that used the data (i.e. how to shoot at), which were kept low in the ship for protection. She saw the ladder rungs and was off like a shot. Good thing there was a grate stopping kids like her from getting tired on a 100+ foot climb to the main spotting top.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:22 am
by pikaporeon
Happy New Year tech report! I got drunk for the first time since August 2011 and I am in a very interesting place right now.

I haven't been on as much over the last year, got sidetracked a lot by my personal life and health but I'm back and more active now, hope to make a comeback here : )

On the plus side I'm fifty pounds lighter than last time I was posting. And only two of it was hair!

July 2012:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9618_n.jpg

Dec 31 2012
(No comments on my choice in polos please ; ) )
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 0772_n.jpg

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:57 am
by JustAnEngineer
Captain Ned wrote:
The best part was a visit to BB-55 USS North Carolina.... The kicker for me is that they'd taken however long it took to cut through the 12" barbette armor... so that you could walk through both shell decks and the powder loading stations.
You'd probably enjoy the similar tour on BB-60 in Mobile bay.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:20 am
by Captain Ned
JustAnEngineer wrote:
Captain Ned wrote:
The best part was a visit to BB-55 USS North Carolina.... The kicker for me is that they'd taken however long it took to cut through the 12" barbette armor... so that you could walk through both shell decks and the powder loading stations.
You'd probably enjoy the similar tour on BB-60 in Mobile bay.

Was there when I was a wee lad of 8 and can't remember how many decks they let us roam.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:51 pm
by lonleyppl
Ned, can I ask what beach you were at? I was visiting family on Oak Island just a few days ago. It's a lovely area. I have really fond memories of touring the battleship as a tyke, as well as the plantation nearby.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 6:08 am
by Captain Ned
lonleyppl wrote:
Ned, can I ask what beach you were at? I was visiting family on Oak Island just a few days ago. It's a lovely area. I have really fond memories of touring the battleship as a tyke, as well as the plantation nearby.

Topsail Beach.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 12:18 pm
by paulWTAMU
finally a lead on a job! Holy crap. Friend works for a local oil & gas company and they need office help. Mailing my resume' to them this evening. Pays about the same where I'm at but there's more chance to actually advance.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:27 pm
by just brew it!

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:20 pm
by tanker27
I LOVE Spam. Spam fried rice, Spam Burgers, Spam Sammiches, Spam salad (like chicken or turkey salad just use spam), Spam and Fried Eggs, Spam Casserole, Spam Omelet, Spam Breakfast Cassarole, fried Spam wrapped in Bacon, Spam Baked beans, Spam and Chorizos Con heuvos, Spam Musubi.

HELL YEAH SPAM!

:wink:

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:32 pm
by Captain Ned
Semi-Feral cat that didn't want to go into the box to go to the vet.

Image

And that hand was holding the scruff.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:12 pm
by monts
Captain Ned wrote:
Semi-Feral cat that didn't want to go into the box to go to the vet.

Image

And that hand was holding the scruff.

Looks like the effort one of my cats did when getting them off to the Cattery before heading off on Chrissy holidays.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 7:11 pm
by just brew it!
tanker27 wrote:
I LOVE Spam. Spam fried rice, Spam Burgers, Spam Sammiches, Spam salad (like chicken or turkey salad just use spam), Spam and Fried Eggs, Spam Casserole, Spam Omelet, Spam Breakfast Cassarole, fried Spam wrapped in Bacon, Spam Baked beans, Spam and Chorizos Con heuvos, Spam Musubi.

HELL YEAH SPAM!

:wink:

I was fed copious amounts of Spam as a child, but had stopped eating it as an adult. A couple of years ago my youngest daughter (who's in college now) discovered the joys of mac 'n' cheese 'n' Spam, and Spam maki rolls. She's living at home and commuting to her classes, so needless to say there's always Spam in the house now (Costco multi-pack, it's cheaper that way). :wink:

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 8:20 pm
by ludi
@Cap: my favorite experience with a semi-ferral cat was the tom my folks accidentally caught in a live-animal trap when attempting to capture some of his 6-week-old offspring for delivery to a shelter. We wanted to let him go somewhere far from the front yard and I could barely carry the trap -- he was rocketing around like a 15-pound pinball.

@JBI: Hmm...mac & cheese & spam. Interesting. I don't think I've had spam since the last time my late grandmother served it for lunch sandwiches once or twice back in...1990 maybe? I usually mix my mac & cheese with smoky links when I need comfort food.

Re: dymt reloaded

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:05 pm
by paulWTAMU
as I'm back to my stricter diet post holidays, I've also instituted the idea of a single "cheat" during the week.

This week? 1 part 99 Bananas liqour to 2 parts vanilla ice cream. It's setting up now in the freezer and anticipate it being GLORIOUS after a week of carrots, egg white omelets and spinach.


edit: Oh yeah, this is good. So good. added a splash of triple cream liqueur too. Think this is definitely worth repeating next time I have a party.