BS: DIY errors

Subject: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 07:36 AM

I did not put a screw through a central heating pipe yesterday.

Luckily, I did not have to call the emergency plumber who did not need to fix it within 4 hours. Also, had it happened at all, it caused no further damage :-)

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Rain Dog
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 08:16 AM

Well done. You have got the job as a Government Spokesman.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 09:52 AM

There's a sign you see in some auto mechanic shops:

$10 if we repair it
$20 if you started first
$30 if you help

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 04:53 PM

:-D to both

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 25 Jul 22 - 05:41 PM

One of my favourite quotes from the author Nevil Shute is, "It has been said that an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound".

(It was in one of my all-time fave non-fiction books called Slide Rule: the Autobiography of an Engineer about a rivalry between government bureaucrats and an engineering group to develop two airship designs.)

The quote reminds me of a time when Hubby and I were in the hardware store and he had some sort of plan to set up a pipe from a water tank to the garden, or something and was telling me what to look for in the plumbing section and another man started having a bit of a chat about it. I suspect he was a plumber because he had a wry grin on his face but was too polite to say what he really thought. I should have asked him for his business card.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: David C. Carter
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 08:44 AM

I bought a hammer,but it came without the instructions.

Same thing with a ladder I bought.

I don't think I'm cut out for DIY.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 10:03 AM

I am usually quite good at DIY, apart from plastering. I was brought up with the building trade (Dad was a painter and I did odd jobs on building sites he worked on in the summer breaks)

It was not a senior moment that cause this event not to happen.

And you will be glad to hear the overall job (squeaky floprboards) has now been resolved too :-D

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 10:16 AM

Many years ago in our last house, a rather odd chap came to fix an aluminium carpet-edger across the sitting-room doorway. He screwed it down, but managed to 'miss' quite a bit of the carpet edge. When I pointed this out, he began a most peculiar kind of 'tap dance' in front of us, declaring, "I used to love tap-dancing, and it's VERY good exercise!" Our jaws dropped as he continued to cavort about. We still giggle about him!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 10:59 AM

My mother bought a house in the Ballard section of Seattle for her retirement years, and it turned out to have had a "storied" past. It was an Occult bookstore for many years and around the house on the maple wood paneling were various hieroglyphical figures painted. (The house was built at the turn of the last century.)

Alas, the man also had a penchant for doing his own electrical work and is lucky he didn't burn the place down. Mom had to have a fair amount of rewiring done by certified electricians. His luck didn't hold - there was a low iron pipe in the basement near the stairs that somehow was electrified and he actually died in the hospital a couple of days after his head came into contact with that.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 11:01 AM

Mom was everything from an antique restorer, electrician, painter, sculpter, bee keeper, master gardener, upholsterer, spinner...(yarn) etc
I thought there is nothing to it but to do it yourself but I learned that it is thinking it through before you do it is what counts.
Impromptu engineering is a mistake waiting to happen.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 11:11 AM

Both of my parents had hobbies and interests that involved collecting materials to do the task along with the how-to instructions. And both were packrats, though not by the definition of the television programs you see these days. They had room to expand into as far as boxes of stuff, it was never stacked up in a perilous way in the living quarters.

My sewing studio has a large cabinet I built for my daughter when she was a young teen; there was a point in time when you couldn't see any of the floor in her room, so by building this thing that is 30 cubbies (six tall and five across) that are each about 18" deep and about 13" x 12" tall and wide, she was able to categorize stuff and store it in there. What a huge improvement. When she moved away to college I gradually boxed up stuff after taking a photo of the contents of each cubby. The boxes are stacked in the closet with a photo on the front of what is inside. I use the storage cabinet now for my craft stuff and it has a fair amount still of the stuff from Mom's house that I really should sell on eBay or list on the Freecycle site. I don't think I'm ever going to make a yarn pattern rug (using that rubberized stitching backing) though I think some of those braided rugs are nice.

I have tried upholstery but didn't have the patience to do a really good job, so that stuff could probably go also. That's three cubbies emptied right there.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 12:40 PM

We viewed a house in Fleetwood once that had a satanic temple in the cellar! We didn't stay more than 5 minutes let alone buy it :-D

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 06:05 PM

I've heard those satanic cellars can turn people into gnomes.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 07:02 PM

Or Gnomes back into humans?

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 28 Jul 22 - 05:33 AM

My husband DID put a nail through a plumbing pipe while laying a wooden boarded floor some years ago. It was late on a Sunday evening as is Sod’s law with such things. There was much swearing, but very fortunately, our friendly neighbourhood plumber answered his phone and came round and fixed it. Phew!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Jul 22 - 01:28 PM

Confessions Dept: Some time ago, when making the bed, I'd got into the habit of cracking the duvet like a whip to straighten it out. On one occasion, the duvet got a bit higher than usual, caught the light fitting, and tore the rose clean out of the ceiling. Cue much fallout of plaster and opprobium; our electrician was more understanding.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Jul 22 - 01:46 PM

.... If you want something more DIY-oriented: I once tried to swing down the bedroom radiator (to paint behind it or something) by loosening the joints at each end. This would have worked in our previous house, where the pipes were fairly solid and came up through the floor; but in this house, the pipes are thin-walled, and come out of the wall. So, of course, the joints failed. Cue much leakage of water, and of cussing (from Herself).

Happily, our plumber lives only just down the road, and was in, and has a sense of humour. As on the occasion related, I'd best leave it there.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: G-Force
Date: 28 Jul 22 - 01:56 PM

I once managed to drill through a gas pipe - it was the feed to the gas fire in our fireplace. Fortunately it was just downstream of the on-off tap, so replacement was a fairly simple matter, but still, doh!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 04:19 AM

"Measure twice; cut once."

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 05:47 AM

I had a spanner slip while trying to undo something (CH pump?) tight in the roof. I lost my balance and put my foot through the kitchen ceiling.

I suppose it wasn't as bad as it might have been. The kitchen ceiling was tatty. It had also had holes cut into it for downnlights which never provided satisfactory lighting. The new ceiling and lighting was quite an improvement.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 10:14 AM

There are some jobs that after a while you concede are best done by the professionals. When I was much younger I used to regularly change the oil and filter on my various vehicles, and I've done modest repairs (I had a Ford Courier that needed the thermostat replaced a couple of times) but as cars get more sophisticated it's harder to do those things, and as I get older I'm more reluctant to crawl around on the ground under them for oil changes. I still do a few things like air filters (the in cab one is expensive if they do the job, and it is a job for a contortionist, but I do it because I can buy the new filter for a modest price.) I know a couple of mudcat folks who collect older cars who seem to do their own work (Richard Bridge and Volvos come to mind at the moment).

The "measure twice, cut once" rule applies to many activities. I find it helpful in sewing.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 29 Jul 22 - 03:53 PM

Does this thread remind anyone else of The Red Green Show ?

Duct tape, and ...

"If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Aug 22 - 08:54 AM

We had an extension built by a builder who was scathing about DIY and Barry Bucknall.
He managed to dig through the pipe from the (large and visible) gas tank to the kitchen.
And when we complained that the hole he'd cut in the vinyl didn't match up with the pipe going through it said "this is the building trade, not precision engineering"

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Aug 22 - 09:26 AM

My family made one big move when I was a kid from one town in the Puget Sound area to another about 30 miles away. Back then it might as well have been to the moon - phone calls to my friends were now long distance so there were occasional letters but not too many calls. The plus side of the move was finding a house large enough that I didn't have to share a bedroom. I remember liking quite a few of the houses we looked at (and now I can think back to the neighborhoods where they were and see what a different life I'd have led from one to the other). There was one in a really great area with a wonderful view - we had to wait in the car on that one - when my parents came out they pronounced it "too much DIY." It still probably would have been the best place to land in.

The house they bought was unique but in a really pricey neighborhood (this was the "smallest house on the block" pricing plan). How is it that the neighborhood kids know that you don't really fit, that you can't afford everything they can? Anyway. That house was generally in good shape to move in but needed a lot of maintenance over the years. Mom moved out when she retired. A friend from school eventually was the buyer a couple of real estate transactions later and our high school reunion is coming up. If he attends I have a few questions for him.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Donuel
Date: 03 Aug 22 - 09:31 AM

Little Jane and John, bought a house in Texas,
And climate deniers were they.
The home sure looked great when 20 years rolled around.
They were so proud, yes siree!

And this is what John said on
the day their house was all gone:

O M G,
I guess we'll have to flee,
our house beneath the sea.
Sea Rise is no joke,
when you start to choke
every other day
in a flood of debris.

Remember, Janie,
how climate change was crazy
they said it was a hoax
I'll try to smile somehow.
I'll look for you when the flood is over,
A million fucking years from now!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Aug 22 - 03:58 AM

My brother once took down a door that was scraping the carpet, put it on a couple of saw horses, measured it and applied the saw. Checked the length of the door, found it was STILL too short and cut off another half inch.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Aug 22 - 12:10 PM

Hahaha!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Aug 22 - 10:56 PM

My brother told the story on himself. And laughed, but rather ruefully.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Aug 22 - 06:56 AM

I really must tell you sometime about my duff efforts to glue back on the two butterfly wings on our Tom Kitten resin garden ornament...

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Aug 22 - 07:50 AM

Have you ever used superglue and then tried to use fingerprint recognition on your phone? I know if I was of a mind to commit a crime I would do away with the gloves and use superglue instead. Just let it dry first :-D

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 05 Aug 22 - 11:33 AM

Not surprised about the fingerprint trick. I'll bear it in mind for Future Reference.

For the record, can anyone confirm or deny the rumour that superglue was first used to stick the skin back on squaddies' scalps in Vietnam, as a quick in-the-field first-aid measure?

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Aug 22 - 03:36 AM

"Super glue was first used in the Vietnam War in a spray form as a hemostatic agent to temporarily patch the internal organs of injured soldiers until conventional surgery could be performed."

from our friend Google, in response to 'first uses of super glue'.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 08 Aug 22 - 06:19 AM

Thanks, Ebbie. Note to self: check before you type.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 22 - 03:32 PM

In a pinch even non surgical superglue can patch an artery better than a tournaquet because water/blood makes the glue set quickly. A family member had the first super glue factory in Boston back in 1950.

I successfully hung a door that opened to two more stairs down to the music room for sound proofing purposes. It is not code and is illegal.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 05:41 AM

What superglue doesn't patch well is a shearing fingernail, as I found out the hard way; and I'd bought the glue specifically for that purpose. Does that count as a DIY error?

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 10:02 AM

If you 'fess up to it, it does!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: meself
Date: 09 Aug 22 - 10:42 AM

I've used superglue on a fingernail, for an upcoming gig ... it kinda worked.

>>>>>>>>>>

My father and I once took down a door that had been scraping the floor. Put it on sawhorses and planed away at the end. Put it back up; it still scraped. Took it off; more planing; put it back up; more scraping. Did this three or four times - before we realized we were planing the top instead of the bottom of the door. Now, my father was a smart guy, so that's not the kind of thing you would expect of him; me, on the other hand - well, it's the kind of thing you WOULD expect ... !

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Aug 22 - 04:14 AM

Thanks for the laugh, Meself!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 10:34 AM

The calculation is "can I fix this myself and do I know who to call if it goes sideways." I've fixed appliances by replacing parts (my dryer needed a thing that supports the drum and holds several Teflon sliders that were worn out - the gap the missing sliders created snagged laundry and wore spots sometimes.) It took two tries; first ordering the sliders then realizing the support they fit into also needed replacing. I could have called the guy from Sears if my repair didn't work.

Decades ago when the first home computer came out they were harder to work on but we managed to do a few repairs on our own. And now the desktop computer (the footprint that I still use) are boxes of air with all of the places things plug in easy to see. That's why I don't care for laptops or those tiny micro processors, there are too many specialized items that cost a fortune to replace. I have one that is 9 years old and needs a new battery so it is plugged in all of the time. One of the USB ports doesn't work and gradually over time stuff that was supposed to plug into it (the DVD reader, for example) stopped working. For years it has been the emergency backup to get into the Internet to find instructions to fix the big computer.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 06:04 PM

Moving to Alaska with my Toyota I purchased a 'block heater' which is an inexpensive immersion heater for your engine block. To get it in you must first remove a pressed sheet metal cylinder out of your engine block. "Out" I said? Yes, you have to take a piece of metal, or a chisel that you can hammer, and put it to ONE SIDE of the plug so that when you bang on it, the plug PIVOTS in its installed hole, in which case you get a vicegrips on it and pull it out. This worked great in 1985. Fifteen years later, when I bought the Toyota pickup of my dreams and tried to do the same operation a second time on an engine of the same basic design, the plug simply went INTO the engine block! I was fit to be tied. I didn't think there was anything down there but the oil pan, but I could imagine SOMEthing chewing up metal and circulating it through the cooling system. Anyhow, I observed that the lost plug was still in view, and I was able to get a long-nose vice grips on it, and over the course of a couple of hours, with some cassette mix-types for inspiration and a bit of desperation I was able to wrestle the damn thing out.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 06:58 PM

Whew! That would have been a mess otherwise!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 09:56 AM

Is the pressed steel disk not a core plug? If so, that is intended to blow in the event of the block overheating and becoming in danger of blowing up :-( If that is the case, I hope the heater had similar capabilities!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 09:58 AM

PS - I am no mechanic but my early transport was a Lambretta with a 2 stroke engine where the core plug used to have to be periodicaly replaced as it leaked!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: robomatic
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 02:49 PM

I think you folks are correct. To make it slightly more complicated, I remember them being referred to as "frost plugs". And the internet says "freeze plugs". Since the replacement "core heater" such as I added to my Toyota installed with an expanding rubber gasket, I presume that it can serve the same function in addition to its heating function, should the hot part not be plugged in or the vehicle abandoned out in the cold.

In the example I mentioned above in my previous post, a lot of persistence plus some luck allowed me to get out of that situation without calling for a tow or a more intelligent mechanic.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 09:20 PM

I have a DIY shower out on the patio, directly behind the sliding glass doors (about 3 feet from the door) and fastened to the patio cover upright post about seven feet up. It's a simple chrome plastic holder that a hand-held shower head can be slipped into. The typical use for this hosed shower head is in the bathroom (remove the static shower head, screw on the hose with the shower head on the end so that you can now shower seated in the tub, move it around to easily rinse out the tub, etc.). Outside the garden hose is attached to it with a brass fitting found in the garden hose section of the hardware store.

I gave the dogs baths out there yesterday afternoon while it was still hot and thought I'd take my own shower out there after dark, but after turning off house lights (it's wooded and no one can see that area, but I still turn off the lights) I saw other light - lightning - and decided that standing naked on the wet patio in a thunderstorm was not a good thing. To die out there would have been a DIY fail.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 12:06 AM

And just think of the emergency workers discovering your naked remains and the interesting scenarios they might invent to explain how the situation arose. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 08:40 AM

I don't know if it was true or an urban myth but I heard about a forest fire that had been put out and when firefighters investigated the damage they found a man in full scuba gear dead on the ground. They could only think he had been scooped up by the firefighting plane!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 12:19 PM

Dave, you know you have to go to Snopes before sharing that old urban legend.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 01:11 PM

I know, Stilly, but in the best spirit of Mudcat BS, why spoil a good story with inconvenient facts!? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 01:55 PM

Helen, the alligator hair clip keeping my hair dry would probably speak volumes.

I think the thing that manufacturers probably don't care for is those consumers who are willing to do the work to replace hard-to-find and/or expensive batteries, to locate spare parts for broken devices and "marry" them to the device needing repairing - keeping things in service long after they hope to have sold us a new one to replace the first one that doesn't work. (All of those APC computer battery backups I see at Goodwill - they could have bought new batteries for half the price of the new unit and kept the old one in service for a couple of more years.)

And a bit off on a tangent, I was listening to the news this week discuss the court cases surrounding the proprietary software that John Deere has used in all of the computerized elements of their big expensive tractors, and the "no repair" clause they put in so owners can't do work themselves or have a more reasonably priced local repair person do the work. They suggest that tractor programming is a case of national security. Meaning it has to be taken back to the vendor to have repairs or updates performed.

Think of all of the computer geeks who do their own programming and repairs here at Mudcat. While Bonzo drives me nuts with his racist rants, I am in awe of how he keeps the electronics going at his home. :) And Jon Freeman lives in a house that sounds like one huge computer science lab project.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 01:56 AM

Hacker Sick Codes says cybersecurity in agtech is no game after viral John Deere tractor hack

It's a long article but....

"An Australian hacker has fired a warning shot at the security of computerised farm equipment after breaking into the controls of a John Deere tractor to install the video game DOOM."

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 05:09 AM

Methinks it was inevitable that John Deere would cite "national security" for their tractors' firmware: some agricultural kit was stolen from Ukraine by the Russians, but it was traced and remotely disabled. If that makes the remote-bricking parts of said firmware a weapon of war, would playing Doom on it be treason?

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 10:04 AM

Yes, Helen, that particular hack is why I heard the story about John Deere and it occurred to me for here. I hadn't seen the story about the Russian theft, but it's good they could trace and brick the equipment. (An aside - my ex's ID was stolen after a breach of an account at the corporate level a while back. Someone got that info and walked into a Verizon store and bought 4 fully-loaded iPhones with service plans and all they had to do to walk out was pay the tax. The bill for hundreds of dollars on a plan for several thousand dollars arrived at my startled ex's home three weeks later. We figured out how to reach a person in their IT department—long story—and after a 45-minute phone call she bricked those four phones. It was a satisfying conclusion to that episode.)

I buy things at estate sales and thrift stores that I test and repair and sell on eBay. In one instance I found a 1980's "jeans machine" heavy duty sewing machine that was better than the one I was using so after finding the parts it needed I sold my machine on eBay and kept the newer one. (I still have my favorite 1948 White cast iron rotary also.) The trick is that people don't want to fool with these things at estate sales and I know how to fix sewing machines. And a few other things. But I only buy the things I know what I'm doing with because otherwise it could be a DIY error.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 22 Aug 22 - 04:29 PM

Maggie, I watch too many murder dramas. The alligator clip would just throw another curveball into the mystery. LOL

Regarding unauthorised credit card transactions, I was randomly reading through one of my bank statements without taking much notice and suddenly saw three transactions for items I definitely hadn't purchased. On checking further, the transactions occurred in a southern state of the US. I think it was obvious to the bank staff member when she looked through my other transactions around that time that I was shopping in my local supermarket and not in the US. I think the perp had cloned my credit card number and created a dummy card. I then had to live without my credit card for a couple of weeks while waiting for it to be replaced. Very annoying, but my bank - as always - was amazingly good and refunded the money.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 02:54 AM

I had to smile watching an elderly couple across the road yesterday as I sat on my bench. The husband tinkers around with his drill, hammer, electric saw etc. all the time. (He's at a loose end). He decided to paint a large red sign saying NINE (their house number) on a rough bit of wood and screwing it to a post on his front fence.
However, he managed to dislodge his wife's much-treasured hanging baskets, and she came out all guns blazing. After they'd calmed down, he came out again with a rather pretty number nine (not the word) on a flowery-shaped piece of wood in red and white. He then drilled a hole, screwed that thing to another post and dislodged yet another hanging basket in full bloom. My goodness, she went for him! I await developments!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 03:14 AM

About 20 years ago I lived next to a couple and their two children. I used to refer to the man as Mr Noisy and I firmly believe that he would go to the tool stores and ask for the noisiest possible tools they had. It was a constant stream of one noisy tool after another. Sometimes I think he pulled structures down just so that he could put them back up again.

I remember one day there was a big thunderstorm with lots of lightning and I heard noises coming from their roof. He was standing up on the metal roof trying to fix something, maybe a leak and appeared to be totally oblivious of the lightning flashes around him - not close enough to get him, but close enough that any sane person would choose not to be standing on a metal roof in the rain.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 09:28 AM

Most of my stories are about fixing the mistakes of others. I spent almost 5 years working in a cabinet shop, where we made a wide variety of stuff...including Corian countertops. Somehow, I ended up doing most of the Corian work. (It's messy and dusty... you often have to use a saw or router.)

   Well, one time we had a bathroom counter to do that went into a corner. One guy was making the base, while I did the Corian top. I had it almost done when the boss came by and glanced at it.... then stopped and took out his tape and measured it. He looked unhappy, and said, "Ummm.. that's wrong; the dimensions were changed, and I guess I gave Bob the change and didn't tell you."
He went and got the right diagram and said "See if you can fix it."

    This meant looking in the scrap bin for a piece of the right color and big enough, cutting a chunk out of the main piece with a curved profile, cutting the scrap to the same general curve to fit into the 'hole'..... then, realizing that matching the curves to fit would require making a plywood template and using it to mark & rout both curves and carefully clamping it in place and doing the routing. THEN mixing the color matched Corian cement and applying it to the curves and bracing and clamping it in place....being sure it was level.
   Then when it was dry, carefully sanding the curved line where the cement had ooozed out...praying that it would not show. Then trimming the patch to match the outside dimension.

   Finally, the boss came by and bent over...looking for the line of my patch.
"Well", he said, "I can't see it. Give it to Bob and we'll deliver it."

Praise? Nawww... his highest praise was simply to nod and go on to the next project.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 11:05 AM

Bill, I spent a few years working for the Forest Service as a seasonal during my college years, and with the hobby of mountain climbing (the course offered by my climbing club was rigorous) that dovetailed nicely with a job in the mountains. It meant I could read a map well, use a compass, do various things that had to do with ropes and climbing hardware - and in general, follow directions. I had the "ten essentials" in my climbing backpack but I had a version of them in my work backpack as well. After a while, even in that male-oriented work environment during the 1970s, the bosses caught on and I ended up getting some interesting assignments when they needed someone who would follow the directions and understand the outcome. This included being the backup lookout when the regular guy needed time off, and a variety of one-off tasks around the district or compound. That continued to the next federal agency where I worked as a seasonal, when they started having me do the campground water treatment system work when the regular guy was off and before long it was my job every day and he came up on my days off.

Following directions and doing the job right doesn't always mean praise, but the opportunity to do more interesting things because they know you'll do it right.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 03:49 PM

Based on your story, Bill D, I'm guessing the boss wasn't good at apologising either.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 02:37 PM

Late getting back to this....

No, he would never 'apologize'. I'd guess his view of his own mistakes was simply to realize them, and correct them..or have me correct them. He was paying me by the hour, so it didn't cost ME any more to fix things, even when it cost him! (and he made a couple of others that he really wanted to blame me for, even when it was his failure to clarify the details).

We had a project to put an entire Corian counter around 3 sides of a kitchen, with the sink in the center piece and one 'arm' longer than the other. Instead of trying to give me a simple diagram, he made what he called a 'story board' of heavy cardboard. He laid it out on the old counter and cut it at about 45º in each corner, leaving 3 pieces to hand me to lay out on the Corian and trim and glue up.
Well, I got the blanks laid out and put his pieces on them, but getting the angles exactly right was delicate, since for the long side, an error of a degree..or even a half.. could affect its position by an inch..or more. Yup.. all glued up and when we put the assembled counter in the kitchen with the sink cut-out in the right place, the long side missed touching the wall but about 2"!
(note quarter round edging would hide small gaps up to about 3/4") He pointed with disgust and took a saw and cut the part at the sink (narrowest spots)...shoved the long side in place, and had me fill the narrow gap at front of the sink with matching patch, like the other one I described.
   I wanted to tell him about the awkwardness of the layout, but he was so sure his careful story board was all he needed. I glowered internally... then a day later, musing on it, it dawned on me that a simple measurement from the wall on the short side across the kitchen to the wall on the long side would have served as a double-check of my layout angle! No..I didn't bother going back to him. I suspect he would have just defended his cardboard toy.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Helen
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:04 PM

Hey, Bill D, you just reminded me of my old boss back in the '80's. I was in charge of a small branch library - my first role in charge of anything - and he was well known for running his own race and not trusting us, especially the women in the organisation.

(In the scheme of things, by comparison to other bosses I subsequently endured, he was probably one of the best because he put the organisation first and not his own power-plays, so basically we worked well together, most of the time.)

But he drove all the way out to the library branch so that he could measure a space to get a whiteboard made and installed. I said I could have measured it for him but he just huffed and puffed, and the unspoken message was, he wouldn't trust a woman to do it. So he measured the space, was busy telling me other unrelated things, didn't write it down, drove back to the HQ, and relayed the measurements to the tradies at the department who would make and install the noticeboard.

A couple of weeks later, the tradies come out to install the board. It's too long by a few inches and won't fit into the space between the door and the corner of the room.

I told them the story and we had a laugh about it. If I had done it I would have measured three times, and double checked my measurements before sending it off in writing to the boss.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:10 PM

Let me guess, Bill D: the walls weren't at perfect right angles .... ? In our first house, there was not one right-angled corner anywhere, and few if any of the walls vere vertical.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 04:41 PM

They ran out of right-angles when they were building our house!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Aug 22 - 07:44 PM

The walls were pretty close to right angles... the counter only missed by about 2" at the long end. In any case, a measurement across the room would have told me all I needed.

But in another project, there were walls on a hallway in a legal office that had strange 'spaces'as if for a bookcase or something. They wanted counters installed.. about 6ft. by2 ft.... 3 of them. Someone measured the back wall length of the space and the opening length.. and they were all the same. We took the finished counters down and they wouldn't fit.. because no one had measured the diagonals! The spaces were all trapezoids! No right angles at all.
That memory was useful for me in several projects in my home shop.

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Sep 22 - 04:22 AM

My neighbour is a 'handyman/gardener' by trade, so I engaged him to paint all the fencing (about twenty large panels and some trellises too) in the back garden. I had to buy the fence-paint (three large tins). He came a few days ago, but instead of a paintbrush, he brought a spraying machine. Fair enough, but he managed to spray 'Medium Oak' paint all over the concrete posts, and worse still, the windows, walls and frames of the new utility room (which had cost us £14,000!).
He'd charged me a hundred pounds to do this. Luckily my husband (who still comes over to see me every weekend) was horrified, and we went off to a DIY shop where he bought some product to remove the paint without damaging the plastic structure. He rubbed and scrubbed for hours bless him, and the window panes and utility room walls etc are now paint-free.
My husband is so practical and helpful. I wish he'd come back and live with me!

Subject: RE: BS: DIY errors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Sep 22 - 11:03 AM

Bill, your story about measuring diagonals reminds me of the work when I was moving into this house I had the kitchen countertops and a new sink put into the existing cabinets. We also took out a hideous large furdown (drop ceiling) with florescent lights so needed new electrical connections for lights in the new higher ceiling and over the peninsula (a new light altogether). After the electrician came in and put in pots (junction boxes for heavier fixtures) before sheet rock was installed, I spoke to the carpenter and the countertop guys and asked if they could extend the far side out 12" to make an overhang that I could put tall stools under? Yes, that was easy enough to do.

When the electrician came out to install fixtures I saw him measure and measure again and scratch his head - then he turned to me and said "you changed the size of the counter!" Yes, I did, and I told him it was okay if the light was closer to the sink side of the peninsula. He'd made a point of centering it over the original counter.

I always have the electrician come out for major things like fixing shorted out plugs. Most recently, there was a loose junction box in the brick wall on my patio that was part of a GFCI circuit that was connected to both bathroom plugs, and I couldn't get any of those plugs to work any more. He changed out that j-box and used enough silicone gel to hold it into place for a long time. I love that I don't have to go flip a breaker on the junction box after a thunder storm any more.

I do the smaller stuff myself. I change out fixtures and switches, mostly. Small things possible by turning off the breaker serving that room doing the work by flashlight. If I called the electrician for those jobs I'd end up waiting a long time till I had enough to merit a service charge and would live without those switches or lights for a long time in the process.

(This isn't my kitchen but you can see the furdown with built-in florescent lights. My kitchen looked cave-like with that feature of 1976 home design, so I got rid of it.)