What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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Tried for hours. Just blocked unless I want to really tear into things. It is 11 degrees F here, with a predicted overnight low of 7...typically doesn’t do that here. Last time in single digits was 1996. Houses aren’t really built or remodeled (what is getting me now) with this in mind.

I’m just left with praying to the pex gods that they show mercy.

You're in DFW? There was a bad winter a couple of years ago. My brother lives in north Dallas. They were without power for a week. Fortunately, he has a gas fireplace.
They were able to camp out in the living room and stay fairly warm. A mixed blessing is that his house is on a slab. Pipes didn't freeze, but boy is it hard to fix a leak under the house! Pex is great for the *pipes*, but the fittings can fail. Happened to me.

Just looked, Norman is at 3 degrees. May go below 0 overnight.

Thinking warm thoughts for both of us!

Edit: just looked at forcast for OKC. -4 overnight tonight, -15 Monday night. Fifteen degrees below zero! Electric companies are asking for conservation. Fortunately this is a snow event rather than an ice event. Ice storms usually bring down power lines.
 
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Picked up the dog and forced her into her heated crate in the garage a half dozen times. She hated it but she had ice crystals on her fur and was shivering.
 
Wanted to clean the carpet today, but discovered I needed to thaw out the carpet cleaner liquid control valve with a hair dryer first (cleaner is kept in the garage and outside temps were in the low teens). Good news the inside humidity went up a couple points afterwards.
 
Did the final job interview for our new electrical engineering intern. We have now selected a candidate and he will get to be mentored by me (mainly) for a year. Our previous intern did a great job, but we don't have funding for graduates currently.
 
You're in DFW? There was a bad winter a couple of years ago. My brother lives in north Dallas. They were without power for a week. Fortunately, he has a gas fireplace.
They were able to camp out in the living room and stay fairly warm. A mixed blessing is that his house is on a slab. Pipes didn't freeze, but boy is it hard to fix a leak under the house! Pex is great for the *pipes*, but the fittings can fail. Happened to me.

Just looked, Norman is at 3 degrees. May go below 0 overnight.

Thinking warm thoughts for both of us!

Edit: just looked at forcast for OKC. -4 overnight tonight, -15 Monday night. Fifteen degrees below zero! Electric companies are asking for conservation. Fortunately this is a snow event rather than an ice event. Ice storms usually bring down power lines.

when we remodeled we had the pipes rerun above the slab. I’ve had too many friends get the dreaded slab leak, particularly with early 80s houses like mine. Turns out that I traded one risk for another. I think I know the problem spot, so if I get away with this I know where to insulate.
 
when we remodeled we had the pipes rerun above the slab. I’ve had too many friends get the dreaded slab leak, particularly with early 80s houses like mine. Turns out that I traded one risk for another. I think I know the problem spot, so if I get away with this I know where to insulate.
About 10 years ago I got that slab-leak. Monthly water-bill went from $50 to $3500 is what tipped me off. A call to a plumber and 3 days of work got it fixed for $4000 but it involved a back-hoe in the front yard, a jack-hammer in the master bedroom and a half dozen bags of concrete for a new section of slab where they busted it up.

We get down below 0 several times per winter so I'm familiar with freezing pipes and know where to get to them and thaw them out in my house but I'd never heard of the slab leak before it got me. Turns out I was the first in my neighborhood. I saw the same plumber and equipment at several other houses over the next few years.

I'm still 100% copper pipes but I've heard that with pex, you don't have to worry about the pipes bursting once a frozen pipe thaws out. Hope thats the case for you.
 
It's a balmy 6 degrees here in Temple with 6" of snow on the ground. Our taps have all been left to drip for the past three days, no freezes so far. (Touch wood)

It is bright and sunny out, so I might go out back and get some pics of my current build projects against the nice white background.

Unfortunately, some of them are white... 😒
 
Unfortunately, some of them are white... 😒

I've had that as two art class projects:

Draw / shade, with pencil: an egg on a white plate, on a white table cloth, with one light source.

Photography teacher had the same / similar 'subject', but with B&W film.. (Same school / course discipline)
 
Tried for hours. Just blocked unless I want to really tear into things. It is 11 degrees F here, with a predicted overnight low of 7...typically doesn’t do that here. Last time in single digits was 1996. Houses aren’t really built or remodeled (what is getting me now) with this in mind.

I’m just left with praying to the pex gods that they show mercy.
I'm in Lubbock in a travel trailer. Supposed to be good down to 0. It was 0 last night, guess we'll see when it warms up.
 
Was woken up at 3am by some doofus that thought his car could drive down the street in 11 inches of snow. He was outside my bedroom window for 20 minutes revving his engine and spinning his tires before I got up, got dressed, warmed up my truck and hauled his butt the block and a half home.
 
Also forgot to mention:

Took the tree down last night. Yes, the Christmas tree finally came down. The wife wanted to keep it up; it made her happy during these 'Covid times'

The corner where it goes looks really bare now!
 
Woohoo, the frozen pipe thawled and no apparent leak...at least no gusher. Unfortunately, we lost power 7 hours ago, so it is getting real chilly in here. I did get to the pool equipment after the power went out, and got it drained before everything completely froze. The little booster pump for the cleaner was probably already a frozen brick though...if that is all that get wrecked by this I will have escaped on the cheap. I have multiple friends with confirmed burst pipes and water damage already.

Yesterday evening I got to try out the new wheels in snow as my mother's car battery died. So I went o her appt, pulled the battery and fortunately found one auto parts with power and got it swapped.
 
Well, yesterday my son brought down an old Steelcase desk, and so today I set about making a place in the "shop" where I could sit down whilst building various things instead of standing all the time. The thing is probably older than me - I found a 1953 pocket directory for the old Blaw-Knox Steel Company in it. It is your proverbial brick outhouse, and in very good shape. Only the top could used some work; it's that very hard rubber or something that almost feels like a bowling ball. So I may as well ask- short of just cutting out a new top, is there any way to refinish these things?

And tonight I got a couple of fixit's underway to further clear out the shop area. Both involved a lot of hand sanding.

Did I mention that I don't like shop vacs?
 
I've got one like it. Battleship grey steel except for the battleship grey rubber top insert. And seems like it weighs as much as a battleship. (No, boatgeek, you do not need to correct me here; I know I know.) If there's a way to finish the top I don't know it. Mine is a bit softer, and makes a decent cutting matt. But it's also in horrid condition. If you find a source for replacement material to cut, and at a reasonable price, please let me know.
 

Hmm. As @jqavins said, it'd be a good cutting matt, you just keep on destroying it. A quick look at your second link brought up the thought of a chunk of granite. I could make my own inspection table! Nice piece of rose granite inspection grade.... I mean, I can dream big can't I?

I wonder what that stuff is... and for those wanting a picture, check out @prfesser's second link...

Edited to add: Yeah, Joe, mine's battleship gray as well. You could rebuild Peterbilt transmissions on those things! It's actually my second. My first came with my lathe. The previous owner, a a real gentleman and a legend in the world of rolling mills, had the lathe bolted to the top. So I added a drill press so I can work on both sides!
 
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Hmm. As @jqavins said, it'd be a good cutting matt, you just keep on destroying it.
That's not what I said, but it's true. What I said is that the rubberlike already there is a lot like a cutting mat. I use a cutting mat to protect the desk top, yet every now and then if I cur directly on the rubberlike top, it works just as well as the mat and knife marks all but disappear. What does not disappear are things like paint, glue, and acetone damage, the latter of which would indicate that it's not actually rubber. (I found out about the acetone damage when I tried to remove some of the paint or glue or something. :facepalm:)

Thinking a bit more about a source, maybe rubber roofing material? Grainger charges $340 for a 25 foot roll (Youch!). Surely there are better prices somewhere. And at three feet wide you'd only need about four or five feet, so maybe a roofing contractor would let you have a little without breaking the bank. Maybe even a remnant?
 
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That's not what I said, but it's true. What I said is that the rubberlike already there is a lot like a cutting mat. I use a cutting mat to protect the desk top, yet every now and then if I cur directly on the rubberlike top, it works just as well as the mat and knife marks all but disappear. What does not disappear are things like paint, glue, and acetone damage, the latter of which would indicate that it's not actually rubber. (I found out about the acetone damage when I tried to remove some of the paint or glue or something. :facepalm:)

Thinking a bit more about a source, maybe rubber roofing material?

Ah, I see. Yes, mine apparently has been used that way as well - paint can circles, glue globs and the like. Hmm, I'm no chemist or plastics guy... I guess one's choice of top depends on what you may want to do with it. I'll probably do nothing for a while.

HA! Another ETA: Saw Vyco suggested on a very old forum not pertaining to rockets. Linkety goodness for one supplier. It was suggested for someone restoring one of these beauties. Referrer said he used it on drafting tables and it was "awesome."
 
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I've got one like it. Battleship grey steel except for the battleship grey rubber top insert. And seems like it weighs as much as a battleship. (No, boatgeek, you do not need to correct me here; I know I know.) If there's a way to finish the top I don't know it. Mine is a bit softer, and makes a decent cutting matt. But it's also in horrid condition. If you find a source for replacement material to cut, and at a reasonable price, please let me know.

[sighs] Fine, I won't correct you. :D

My steelcase work table is also battleship gray, but the top is some kind of hard composite. We got it from teh university surplus auction for a dollar--someone had spilled stamp pad ink on it, tried to wipe it up with a paper towel, gave up, and left it all to harden into a mess. That all cleaned up with no residue with some rubbing alcohol and a few brain cells. It was our dining room table in our first apartment, then a baby changing table for two babies, then eventually moved to the garage. That one wasn't too hard to move, but the free-on-the-curbside steelcase desk that we brought home for the younger child was a bear to get home, even on a handtruck.
 
[sighs] Fine, I won't correct you. :D

My steelcase work table is also battleship gray, but the top is some kind of hard composite. We got it from teh university surplus auction for a dollar--someone had spilled stamp pad ink on it, tried to wipe it up with a paper towel, gave up, and left it all to harden into a mess. That all cleaned up with no residue with some rubbing alcohol and a few brain cells. It was our dining room table in our first apartment, then a baby changing table for two babies, then eventually moved to the garage. That one wasn't too hard to move, but the free-on-the-curbside steelcase desk that we brought home for the younger child was a bear to get home, even on a handtruck.

@boatgeek @jqavins @prfesser - I may have had a synapse - always a red-letter day for me! I wonder if those Steelcase desktops are made of linoleum?

As to the subject of the thread, I finished preppring a couple of swings for painting, painted one, filled a crack on the other. Gotta get stuff out of the workshop so I can build rockets!
 
It's obviously deliberate because, 1) it would be really hard to do by accident, and B) no one would put the care you clearly did into the finish on such a "failure". So the question is: Why? Does it serve a practical purpose, or is it a joke?

@boatgeek @jqavins @prfesser - I may have had a synapse - always a red-letter day for me! I wonder if those Steelcase desktops are made of linoleum?
I'm pretty sure not. I had a house once with linoleum flooring, real linoleum, not mislabeled vinyl. That's much tougher and harder on the surface; tougher and harder than mine at least. Also, linoleum is a composite, polymerized linseed oil with sawdust filler, which mine seems very much not to be.

On the other hand, some nontextured vinyl flooring, or genuine linoleum flooring if you can find it, might make a reasonable substitute (if I never again treat it like a cutting mat).
 
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