Square Peg in a Round Hole

One of those things about owning an old house: Things break. I'm on my third water heater, but that's a fairly straightforward replacement. Most recently, it was the bathroom vent fan.

I really like the style of the vent, it's an art deco design, with two lights on either side of a center strip of louvers, probably from the 50's. It's Homart brand, which has a lot of different fixtures from that era, and was one of the brands that Sears sold back then. It started out chrome metal and frosted lights, but back when I black and white painted the bathroom, I painted the main body of the fixture gloss black. The outside was in pretty good condition, but the louvers had all the chrome rusted off. I left the center nut chrome.

The light was still working, but the vent fan just stopped. I had a few theories on what might have happened. Since the rewiring of the house was done by a bunch of incompetent shysters, my first thought was that something had come undone. Second, I'd replaced the wall switch with a knob timer a few years ago, since most everyone in the house would leave it running. The switch box was very crowded, and I thought it may have come undone in there. Third, the motor may have finally given up the ghost. It's been quite noisy for a long time, like the bushings might be failing.

I was dreading having to climb up in the attic to check the wiring. The first thing I did was to pull off the cover to check it out. I've had it apart several times, usually to replace a light bulb, and usually I'll give it a little cleaning while I've got it apart. Other times I'll pull the cover off because the louvers will start getting covered with lint fuzz. I'd never looked that close at how it's wired before, but turns out it has a very clever set up!!! It's got the lights and fan motor attached to a bar held in with two screws, and each has a standard plug and socket. I plugged in a different fan (with a long cord) and verified that there was no issue with the wiring.

Indeed, when I got it all cleaned off a little better, it didn't even seem like the motor bushings were that bad. Tried plugging the motor into a different socket, and unsurprisingly it still didn't work. Did a bit of looking around, and no one has that model of motor in stock. It's got a fairly long shaft, and apparently runs at a lower RPM than most modern motors. I found a place fairly nearby that rewinds and repairs motors, and took it there. The guy there verified what I already figured out, it's bad, you can't find replacements. Said they could rewind it... for $120. Also what I figured.

I checked to see what I could find as a replacement, or could adapt to my rig. I was thinking I might just construct a box or ducting above the vent in the attic, but I found a couple of replacement fans at Home Depot for only about $25. The one that I would have liked to use was supposed to move 70 CFM. I headed over, and found a box that had been opened to measure the fan. Too big, by about 3/8”. I checked the next size down, which doesn't list the CFM, and the size looks like it will fit nicely.

Of course, it's on a big sheet metal square, far too large to fit. I took a pair of tin snips to the perimeter, and rounded the corners. Looks like it's going to fit... but when I try and get it to go in, it doesn't sit flush, because of the radius around the fan area. Bent it 90°, then around a half inch farther bent it 90° the other direction, and it worked!!! The screws into the housing were 10-24's, and I happened to have a few 10-24 stainless truss head screws.

The mounting for the lights had been integral to the old motor mount, so I was going to need to either hack up the old one to make it fit, or come up with something new. Also was going to need to come up with a way to have the stud to hold the cover on. The new fan motor has 4 threaded holes, and I figured I could mount a bar to them, and mount the original stud bracket to it, and the light sockets to the outside. The light sockets needed to be offset, so I made a couple of aluminum bars to mount them to, which would in turn mount to the cross bar. I had bought a pair of new light bulb sockets, too.

The original had a couple of angles for either light bulb, probably as something of a heat shield, and to duct the air from the louvers. I bought a 10-foot length of flashing to fashion into these. I'd previously hauled 8-foot lengths in Kutcher and thought I could go a bit longer, but I brought along the tin snips since I didn't think it'd be able to haul a full 10-foot length. It wasn't able, but it was very close!!! I had to trim off about 6”, and it fit fine. Another edition of will it fit!!!

I'd run the cross bar long, with the thought that I'd have to bend it to put the sockets into the correct position (also the reason I used steel for the cross bar). When I started measuring the fit, it came out that where I needed to put the sockets was pretty close to where the fan base sheet metal was!!! Instead of bending the steel cross bar, I just took the aluminum socket mounts, and bolted them to the fan base sheet metal, with the flashing angles sandwiched between. I made a new cross bar, just big enough to mount the original stud bracket, and mounted it with a couple of spacers to put it where it needed to be.

The replacement fan had come with a plug already installed, and I found an old plug and wire in the basement to wire the lights. It all came together nicely.

The new fan doesn't seem to move as much air as the old one, but it's much quieter!!!

Autumn Random

A lot of things happen, here's some from my recent photos. I've got more.

When we were at the park most recently, after the remnants of a storm had blown through, there was a rainbow!!! It appeared a little subdued, like the one I'd seen in Catalina.

A couple of months ago, surrogate got a car of his own!!! Honda Accord V6, older, but not a lot of miles. It's got a sunroof, which he's usually got open. Also, it has a wire coming out to a little square adhered to the roof. The guy he bought it from didn't know what it was, and none of us could figure it out, either, but it looks legit so it's staying there!!!

Hadn't realized it's been 5 years since I made up the easy to recover claw post!!! It had been getting pretty ragged, and I'd been thinking of re covering it, but had lost track of where I'd put the remaining sisal rope!!! Finally located it, and recovered it. Seems like every time it's recovered, it needs to be investigated before it can be used!!! Shortly after this picture, Sid clawed at it, then climbed up and sat on top of it, as he does!!!

Saw a Von Dutch bag at a store a while ago. I'd seen them have the winged eyeball logo before, but this one had a flaming eyeball!!! I think a copyright infringement lawsuit is in order!!!

I'd made mention that I was thinking of doing a redesign on the phone holder in Kutcher to move it a bit further back, and I did. Just a new threaded hole is all it took!!!

Got advance warning today that they're calling a red flag day tomorrow, so I was able to move the cars around before it started. Once again, I don't think conditions will meet their definition, but no one cares. The deep cycle battery in the Falcon was completely dead, which made for a pain getting it moved. Swapped in the one I'd pulled from Kutcher that I've had on a trickle charger. The one in Zonker had gone dead a while ago (I'd forgotten to unplug the charger, and it has a blue LED light that I'm pretty sure killed it), but I'd gotten it going and hadn't had an issue since then. Put a booster on it (which had done nothing for the Falcon, it was dead dead... also, the terminals were both loose, which I don't remember being the case, so strange) and it first set off the stupid horn alarm, then fired right up.

Had to smog Kutcher again. Took it to the place that did Zonker last time, and as far as I could tell there was nothing that would cause it to not pass, and there were no codes in the computer. After a bit, the guy comes in and tells me it failed. It didn't actually fail, but they spotted the O2 sensor spacer I'd put on last time, and apparently using one of those to get it to read correctly isn't legal, so they'd failed it on visual inspection. They didn't charge me, or even enter the information into they system, so once again, they've got my enduring business!!! Took it home and removed the spacer, took it back and it passed without issue. Afterwards, the check engine light started coming back on. Sigh. I think I'll make a catalytic converter anti theft shield so that spacer can't be seen before I take it in again!!!

On the other side of the canyon, there's been a vacant lot between a couple of houses that's been that way since we've been living here. Back in the early 70's, there had been a mudslide over that way that destroyed several houses, I'm not sure if this lot had one or not, but it did look like there had once been a house there. Several months ago, they brought in a backhoe, and were moving dirt around the lot for quite a while. A month and a half or so ago, they poured a foundation, and have been building a new place on it, and it's gone up quick!!! I've seen several places around here being built, and it seems like a lot of them drag on for more than a year.

Younger finally got his learner's permit, and has been doing some driving, I think he's pretty much got it down. Anyway, He was driving and I was passenger, and I got a look, they're actually building two houses, the one pictured here, and another facing the next street over. The one pictured looks like there's a detached garage with either an upstairs deck, or an auxiliary dwelling unit included.

Since I'd recently mentioned Colby Jack (renamed Simba), I thought I'd post a pic of him!!! He's got some quirks. Like every cat.

We were having lunch recently, and someone dressed as The Grinch with a head on a stick scepter rode by on a bike!!! Deliciously random!!!

For my birthday and my sister's birthday, we got together with my mom, and all went to the John's Incredible Pizza that's near where she lives. Here's younger (in his Counting Crows shirt, I think I was wearing my Gaslight Anthem one that day) on the spinny ride. I didn't want to go on it, because I'd eaten a lot of pizza!!!

We were at the Goodwill a bit ago, and they were already getting ready for Halloween. They had a lot of costume ideas set up on the end caps, Pee Wee Herman and the Brawny guy are the two I remember. They had costumes on one rack, and younger put on a hot dog costume and witches' hat, grabbed a machete', and was going around saying, “I'm the Wicked Weenie!!!” It was pretty funny, but there was another hot dog costume and witches' hat there as well...

Sid usually doesn't get out into the front room, but occasionally he'll get out there, and we usually let him hang out for a while. He was out there, and saw that one of the shelves on the newly painted bookcase was still vacant, and decided that we'd left it that way for him!!!

There was a partial lunar eclipse at the end of August, and I headed out to go on a walk and check it out while it was going on. I tried taking some pictures with my phone's camera, but on most of the preset settings it was totally blown out. Messing with the advanced settings, I could get pictures that showed the actual shadow, but none of them were that great. I was over by the canyon, and there were more people there than I've ever seen!!! I went around Sea View, and as I was coming out, a bit of cloud cover was developing, and it allowed me to get a fairly decent picture.

A week or so ago I was searching for an EP that Brian Fallon had released a while ago, and found out he'd just come out with another disc as Brian Fallon and the Painkillers. In another venn diagram moment, one of the songs on it features Brandon Flowers, from another of my favorites, The Killers!!! Of course, I picked it up, and I've got a few favorites off it already.

This is one of the houses across the bay from Horny Corner. I like the turret.

I Fixed My Bumper With JB Weld and I'm Ashamed

This will actually be a bit of a random, catch up post.

Around a month ago, my mom had fallen out of bed and hurt her arm and hip. They took her to the hospital to check it out, and at first they thought she'd had a stroke or something, but that wasn't the case. I think they were just going by past history. Anyway, she'd either been dreaming or hallucinated that she was on top of a rock, and there was a missile coming at her, so she dove off. After she was out of the hospital, they moved her to a rehabilitation place.

For Mother's day, she wanted to go to Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant, which is just outside Knott's Berry Farm and not far from her place. She thought she would be out on the Monday after, and that was our original plan. She wasn't out, and we pushed it back a week. She thought they were going to send a nurse with her, so we had planned on that. Turned out they weren't going to be doing that, but they wanted to send her in a wheelchair. We don't have quite enough room for that in Kutcher, so we talked Surrogate into coming as well, so we could haul the chair in Scruffy. Didn't really take that much talking into!!! I'd never been there, and I was wondering what the parking situation would be like. Found a Reddit post that said there's an hourly lot off to the left, and they validate for two additional hours. Found it as they said, pulled in, and pulled off out of the way to get my wife and mom out and set up before we went off to try and find parking spots.

While we were getting them set up, after I'd gotten my wife's walker out of the back of Kutcher and the wheelchair out of Scruffy, a spot opened up right by were we were unloading. The hatch on Kutcher was still open, and my mom's wheelchair was right behind it. I was trying to get people to move, so I could get that spot, and pulled over there with the hatch hanging open, and it somehow hooked the bumper a bit on the wheelchair. A few months ago I'd drug it a little coming out of a driveway with a bunch of people in the back, and the passengers' side will occasionally pop out a little ever since.

After we ate, we went back to her place, where she had some watches that needed the batteries replaced. While she'd been in the recovery place, my nephew Eyeball and his wife (who I haven't seen in forever) had given her a couple of coloring books and pencils, Sarcastic Jesus and Jesus on Vacation. This was the first page of Sarcastic Jesus, and Surrogate and I were losing it over it!!!

I had been meaning to take a closer look at that bumper situation ever since it became an issue. It has a series of slots that correspond to catches on the body, but the forward one was broken, and it has a screw going in from in the wheel well that seemed like it wasn't mounted solidly anymore.

Took out that screw, and pulled the bumper away, and the leading edge of the plastic that mounts to the body was broken off. I sanded it for adhesion, and saw there was a groove just below the mounting area that was around 1/8” wide and 1/2” deep, so I cut a piece of aluminum bar to place in there, then put a bunch of JB Weld on the ends of the break and the groove, and held it in place with tape until it set. Also put some on the broken part of the bumper slot, I don't know how well it'll hold, but it's better than it was.

You can see the aluminum bar on the shot with the tape removed. It's holding like it should now.

Back when I was at the fly by night plastics forming company, the machinist that was there when I came along would repair the aluminum forming tools using JB Weld, which has terrible thermal properties for doing thermoforming on. Those of us who had actual themoforming experience would use Devcon aluminum repair epoxy, which has a high content of aluminum, and has much better thermal properties, and we would mock him mercilessly for his use of JB Weld. Since I've been out of there, I use JB Weld for everything!!! Just the week before, the panel for the window switches had broke, and I also used JB Weld on it.

Unrelated, but could have been in the previous post, I picked up these electronic mosquito repellers. I was skeptical, but turns out they work great!!! They give off a high pitch tone that you can hear when you first turn 'em on, but after a minute you don't even notice it.

Another unrelated, I was ordering some items for Walmart, and they had this Dirty Mountain Dew that they said was getting down to limited amounts, so I picked up a couple packs to try it. It says cream soda, but it tastes more like the actual dew with the cream added, that they've been having at Taco Bell. Better than some (once you get past it not actually tasting like cream soda) but I don't think I'll be going out of my way for it again!!!

Power Tools

I've made some purchases of some cordless power tools recently, and thought I'd share.

The earliest ones I'd gotten were drills. My parents had bought me a 1/2” chuck Craftsman years ago that was really nice, but back then most of them used NiCad batteries, and it didn't last more than a few years. I replaced it with a Hitachi with NiMH batteries back when I used to frequent Woot, and it's served well and has lasted.

Around 3 years ago I replaced the second corded hedge trimmer with a cordless version. It cost about twice as much as the corded one, but it was also a duo, with a leaf blower included. It's from Westinghouse, and if the battery ever gives up on it, I don't think I'd be able to locate a replacement!!! Works very well, though, and the leaf blower is handy.

About a year ago I bought a tire inflator off Ebay. It was super handy!!! I wasn't able to locate any mention about it, but after I'd bought the new tires for Kutcher, the front ones would always lose air. I'd taken it back to the place I'd bought the tires, but they went out of business!!! I took it to another tire store, and they checked it out, and couldn't find any leaks, but re seated the tire, and recommended filling them to a higher level. The issue persisted, but recently got better on it's own!!! A few months ago, the inflator quit working right, not showing an accurate pressure and not inflating properly. I'd bought a warranty from Square Trade when I got it, and they turn out to be a real pain in the ass to deal with!!! Finally got them to make with the purchase amount (in two checks, since they wanted to underpay by a lousy $3.25 at first) and I bought another one.

Around the time I did the front end on Kutcher, I bought myself a cordless impact wrench, since up to that point I'd been very happy with the no name tire inflator I'd bought. It could work better, it struggled to loosen lug nuts, but it did work for some of the suspension bolts. The bonus, it came with two 3.0 amp batteries of the same style and voltage that the inflator uses.

And since I'd had pretty good results with both of those, I just recently bought a cordless weed eater. This one uses a higher voltage battery, but comes with two of them. It came with some plastic blades, a couple of metal blades, and what looks like a circular saw blade. I've used it for the area across the street where I park the cars, and for the uphill side of the house. I have yet to run a battery out using it!!! It's got a smaller cut diameter than the corded one I've got, and less power, but it will get the job done. Oh yea, it's a lot lighter, too!!!

Speaking of the corded weed eater, I recently replaced it as well. I think it may be the third one I've bought, the Black & Decker GH3000, which is an excellent machine!!! Most electric weed eaters spin quickly, but without much torque. This model has a gear reduction on the motor, giving it the torque of a gas powered unit. The brushes on the old one had worn out, and the contact area was pretty torn up as well. Since I had it apart to check the brushes, I noticed that the plastic body has a nice shape to it, that with a little paint could be modified into a steampunk look blaster gun of some sort, so I've held onto it.

Also pictured, my dad had a DeWalt cordless drill with two batteries, and I got it when my mom moved out. It's an older model, but it still works very well. Also pictured is one of the batteries from the impact wrench.

A lot of the reason I've bought several of these is because the price is pretty low. I'm thinking I might buy myself a cordless pressure washer, too!!!

The Yellowy Eyes

Finally got to doing this!!!

I had made mention a couple of posts ago about the driving lights on Kutcher. I had bought some round yellow aftermarket replacements around 5 years ago, shortly after we'd bought it, but hadn't figured out how I was going to mount them. This is the driver's side original, you can see it's quite fogged and cracked. It's actually pictured upside down, and you'll notice the adjustment screw coming off the back of the mount. That adjustment screw made things interesting in the installation of the replacements!!!

This was the side that had the hole in the lens, and it's gone through two bulbs, both when it had rained. Since it kinda blends, I outlined the hole here.

Here's one of the replacements, after I'd come up with how I was going to install it. Firstly, they came with brackets, and the lights were threaded for them... but it didn't come with any screws to attach them!!! I tried some SAE screws, and it turns out they were threaded for Metric screws, I believe they are M6x 1mm thread. I have a limited amount of Metric screws, but it turns out that the engine from Scruffy had several that fit the bill. They were hex headed flanged, and all oily, but they cleaned up fine. Next, the brackets were made so that there is about a 3/8” space to the light, and that would make it way too tall to fit in the area. A few new holes added, and I was able to more or less get them where they'd fit.

After that... the bracket didn't really sit where it could be mounted, because of that clearance for the adjustment screw!!! I used some of the plastic sheet that was left over from the Scion badge project to make a couple of pieces that fit inside the bracket, and then was wider to where it can screw down to either side of the clearance. You can see the screw holding it onto the bracket right behind the wire.

And speaking of the wire, to keep from having to hack up the wiring, I located two sockets that plug right in!!! One was on the LED bulb I had made mention of in the other post that had been in the side with the hole, and the other was on the converter box for the HID bulb that was on one side of Zonker. The other side, it plugged right into the converter box!!!

And there's the side view of one installed!!! It shows a little of the aluminum housing, and they both look like they're pointed downward. I'm fine with that, they didn't really aim 100% straight, either, but to me, I don't really need anything beyond what the headlights put out, so they're more for looks.

And I really like the looks!!!

In the dark when they're illuminated, they don't even look that much different than the yellow of the halogen headlights!!! And since it's been a long time since I've posted a picture of Scruffy, there you go!!!

A Look Back Recap

Here's some of what has happened recently!!!

Years ago, the boys had been sledding down into the canyon. A few weeks ago I was out doing some yard work, and a trio of neighborhood kids showed up with a sled of their own and did some of their own sledding!!! Nice to see area kids still getting up to outdoor hijinks!!! I didn't take a follow up picture of the unceremonious dismount...

Back in December the younger and I had gone down and visited my mom around Christmas. My sister and her youngest son also came down, and we all met up at the John's Incredible Pizza near where my mom lives. My wife wasn't feeling well, we'd all been off and on sick during that time. My cough came back and hung on for a month or so after, but when we were all feeling better, I wanted to go visit my mom again. Surrogate came along, as well. Haven't made mention, but the restaurant Stacked that we'd been to a few times didn't survive the stupid times, but while we've been in the area my mom lives, I've searched restaurants in the area, and turns out not far away there's another Stacked!!! Naturally, that's where we went!!!

They've done away with the “order on an Ipad” gimmick, but you can still craft your burger to order. I've mentioned that I'll almost always make one with sauteed onions and bleu cheese, and there was a burger close to that already on the menu, for less than I could have one built for, including bacon. I had to specify sauteed onions instead of the raw it came with, and added garlic aioli, and it came out great!!! I also like the building better, as well, it has the same look as the one we used to go to, but the windows towards the street are able to completely roll up for a fresh air dining experience, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!!! Photos came up with a look back collage of our visit, and Halloween 2015!!!

I did a whole post that was mostly about how the driver's side headlight on Kutcher has always given me trouble. At that time, I had gotten a socket that was touted as high temperature. Back in January, it happened again!!! I found out that there were some places that make ceramic sockets, so I ordered one, and got it going again. Not long after that, the headlight bulb itself burned out!!! Bought a replacement bulb, and took care of it yet again... for now (Jinx!!!)

Oh yeah, there's a shot of the new battery...

A friend of mine had bought his car with LED headlight bulbs installed, and a little after I'd replaced the socket, then the bulb on Kutcher, one of his had burnt out. He asked me if I could help him out with it, and I bought him a new set of bulbs and helped him install them. His high beam bulbs were still conventional halogen bulbs, and the set I bought had replacements for both, so I told him my tax for helping him was I got to keep the bulbs that still worked. Shortly after that, the driving light on the driver's side of Kutcher went out again. The lens has a small hole cracked through it, and it had rained, and I theorize that when it rains, cold water will splash on the hot bulb and break it. Anyway, the one low beam LED bulb I'd removed matched the driving light bulb, so it's now in there!!! Of course, it has kind of a bluish cast, while all the other three lights have the yellowish halogen cast, so it's an odd one out. One of these days, I'll get those yellow driving lights installed!!!

My wife had suggested going back to Pie 'N Burger again. Apparently, it is now our just after Valentine's Day tradition!!! They've got a lot of items with chili on it on the menu, and we hadn't tried it last time, so this time I upped my fries to chili cheese fries. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend them for their chili!!!

We split a slice of peach crumble pie for dessert. Go there for the pie!!!

I had mentioned that one of the pumps at the local Arco had caught on fire last year. They still haven't replaced the pump, or done much with the awnings. They've got the pump boxed off, and it's been tagged up,

I had made mention that the new phone holder in Kutcher had some issue rotating out of the proper position, and I'd put in on the forward part of the center console, with the arm pretty much straight up, and that had done the trick. A few weeks ago, the suction cup came off, and I'd stuck it back. It didn't stay, so I pulled it out, gave it a good cleaning, and it held for a week, then was falling off again. Time to go to the drawing board... I took the arm portion from the previous one (it has the same ball mount for the holder part) and made up a piece of plastic with a little portion that came out, that I could mount to one of the bolts holding the center console down. It worked, but it was close to the emergency brake handle so you had to pull it up with a finger or two, and the phone was almost laying flat.

It kind of worked, but really not acceptable. I bent up a steel angle that would mount to two of the center console bolts, and used the same plastic base to mount it to the upright. Fairly solid, and a lot closer to where it should be!!! I may take it back to the drawing board again, and rotate the base a little farther back. Shouldn't be difficult.

Had the younger's birthday get together last weekend. It was pretty cool, we went on a short neighborhood walk, they played on the swing across the street, and played a little basketball (horse). I didn't get many pictures, and most of the outdoor ones didn't come out good because it was dark out. Here he is in a shirt my wife got him, after he opened the cologne I got him. He's said for years that he'd like to get cologne that smells of petrichor, the smell after it rains, and I found some!!!

A few weeks ago, they did another rocket launch from Vandenberg, and somehow it left this crazy looking contrail!!!

A few weeks ago we'd gone to Goodwill again, I forget what even for, but I found another shirt!!! It was the sale of the day tag, and my size, and in an underrepresented color!!! Interesting, the DeLorean pictured is unmodified!!! I took the picture here with the cam in my computer, possibly the first time I've ever used it for a picture!!!

I had seen this new Mountain Dew flavor, Baja Cabo Citrus, a few weeks before, but didn't buy it. When I was getting supplies for the boy's birthday, I picked some up. It's pretty good, the flavor makes me think it's heavily tangerine.