I posted a question about cells and providers on one of my groups. It has a rather lively discussion going on. That's the god thing about yahoo groups . You ask a question and learn more then you ever thought you would know. Some really good ideas came out of it for sailing and getting things done on the cheap. This is one of those make it work type of ideas that make me glad I found this group. Thanks Andrew
"LMAO you reminded me about the log. On my last sharpie i had rigged a copper toilet float with an eye screw and i could pull a string and drop it at the bow and time when it passed the stern to calculate my speed. Crude but it worked well. Especially Nice if you have a boat of even length like 25 or 30 feet."
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Wet Cutting Cinder Block with a Dry Saw
If you have done any DIY your self you KNOW how expensive tools are. ESPECIALLY if you get specialty tools. We had to cut at least some of the blocks. There was no way around it. First order of business was get the right saw blade for the job. I bought a diamond masonry blade. It cost me about 35.00. Not cheap but it will last a long time, especially when you consider I don't need to use something like this a lot. Yes, I am keeping it. Once I am living aboard, it goes in the "touch it and die" tool box.
We looked at our in house options.
1: Use the table saw.
2. Use the circular saw.
3. Rent a specialty saw. ( Renting a specialty saw meant we still had to buy a blade.)
Our main goals:
Keep the saw and blade COOL!
Keep the dust down as much as is humanly possible.
Get all blocks cut and not destroy the blade, the saw or the blocks..
Accomplish this ASAP.
Keeping the blade cool and dust down meant using water or doing a wet cut. How to do that with a saw not designed for wet cutting was the question,. Solution was water down the blocks away from the saws, then after the water has soaked in a bit, cut them as usual.
Next decision:
In doors now or wait until morning to do maybe an hours worth of work? Doing it tonight means the cement will be cured that much faster and I gain a day . Considering all the delays we have ran into getting an extra 12 - 18 hour jump on this project would be a real bonus.
Decided if the circular saw would do the job then go ahead and do it inside tonight.
Next decision: How to do it and NOT make a mess on a sanded floor that was not stained or poly-ed?
We took a large 30 gallon trash bag and spread it out on floor. The I found an old flannel sheet and folded it up until it was just a bit larger then the blocks to soak up any water that gets loose. That got put on top of the larger trash bag. We added two short pieces of 2x4 on top of the folded sheet spaced appropriately to to support the blocks and wala we are good to go.
A large bowl of water and a cup to dribble a bit of water on the area to be cut and we are in business.
I had marked the cuts with a pencil. The only problem was that as soon as you poured water on to the block the pencil marks disappeared. The cure was to make the first SHALLOW pass dry to mark the cut, then put water on and continue cutting.
Why the extra layer of 2" block?
If you remember the original post on this project there were big gaping holes at the back. The choice was cut full sized cinder blocks to fit those gaps OR make some sort of frame to hold in either cement or debris then top that debris off with cement to make it flat. Neither idea appealed to me quite frankly. Making a straight cut across a single slab of cement such as we did tonight is one thing. Custom cutting full blown cinder block to fit is a horse of a completely different color. I just flat out did NOT want to go there!
When we moved the stove over I noticed that the pipe was not straight at the level the stove was at so we put the 2" blocks under it and the pipe looked a lot better. How I did not notice it before I can't tell you. I just never noticed it was that slanted .
That solved the problem. Especially since I had enough blocks laying around.
We looked at our in house options.
1: Use the table saw.
2. Use the circular saw.
3. Rent a specialty saw. ( Renting a specialty saw meant we still had to buy a blade.)
Our main goals:
Keep the saw and blade COOL!
Keep the dust down as much as is humanly possible.
Get all blocks cut and not destroy the blade, the saw or the blocks..
Accomplish this ASAP.
Keeping the blade cool and dust down meant using water or doing a wet cut. How to do that with a saw not designed for wet cutting was the question,. Solution was water down the blocks away from the saws, then after the water has soaked in a bit, cut them as usual.
Next decision:
In doors now or wait until morning to do maybe an hours worth of work? Doing it tonight means the cement will be cured that much faster and I gain a day . Considering all the delays we have ran into getting an extra 12 - 18 hour jump on this project would be a real bonus.
Decided if the circular saw would do the job then go ahead and do it inside tonight.
Next decision: How to do it and NOT make a mess on a sanded floor that was not stained or poly-ed?
We took a large 30 gallon trash bag and spread it out on floor. The I found an old flannel sheet and folded it up until it was just a bit larger then the blocks to soak up any water that gets loose. That got put on top of the larger trash bag. We added two short pieces of 2x4 on top of the folded sheet spaced appropriately to to support the blocks and wala we are good to go.
A large bowl of water and a cup to dribble a bit of water on the area to be cut and we are in business.
I had marked the cuts with a pencil. The only problem was that as soon as you poured water on to the block the pencil marks disappeared. The cure was to make the first SHALLOW pass dry to mark the cut, then put water on and continue cutting.
Why the extra layer of 2" block?
If you remember the original post on this project there were big gaping holes at the back. The choice was cut full sized cinder blocks to fit those gaps OR make some sort of frame to hold in either cement or debris then top that debris off with cement to make it flat. Neither idea appealed to me quite frankly. Making a straight cut across a single slab of cement such as we did tonight is one thing. Custom cutting full blown cinder block to fit is a horse of a completely different color. I just flat out did NOT want to go there!
When we moved the stove over I noticed that the pipe was not straight at the level the stove was at so we put the 2" blocks under it and the pipe looked a lot better. How I did not notice it before I can't tell you. I just never noticed it was that slanted .
That solved the problem. Especially since I had enough blocks laying around.
Living good in bad times
This was posted on one of my yahoo groups, Its some seriously good advice. The only thing I would add is if you can do it use wood heat. You can live on less then 700.00 a month and use these tips as well .
"The last few years with the economy depressed we as a family have lived on less than 30,000 a year. The Government calls us below the poverty line. However due to what I think is just common sense financial management we eat better than a lot of family or friends. Mostly own our home, own a 38 ft sail boat and since we needed a 4 door car with the new baby I went out and bought a used Honda for cash. I also try and keep enough cash in the bank to pay 3 or 4 months of bills.
I know so many people that make more than me that always seem to be strapped for cash and barely making it. But they are financing new cars, very expensive houses, eating out every day, smoking, drinking etc..
If you are living a fairly normal life with steady income these rules will help you live beyond how most people in the same income bracket do and have cash in the bank.
1. don't finance anything. If you can't afford to pay cash then you don't really need it. I have broken this rule a few times in emergency's but then have busted my butt to pay it off as quick as I could by sacrificing any fun till it was paid off.
2. pay a car payment every month to yourself in a savings account. In 3 or 4 years you can go out and buy a car for cash.
3. don't purchase a new car. Buy one used. Take your time and wait till a good deal shows up. I start shopping for the next car 6 months before I actually think I will need it. This allows me to find the best deal and the vehicle I really want.
4. Get as high a gas mileage car as you can. I went from driving a 20 mile to the gallon vehicle to a 35 mile to a gallon vehicle and it put an extra 150 dollars a month into my pocket that I had been spending on gas. I swear by Honda civics. My 2 door that I'm getting ready to sell has gotten 34 to 39 mpg during the time I have owned it. The new 2002 4 door civic I just purchased is getting 35 miles to the gallon. My average annual maintenance on 3 different Honda civics has averaged about 500 a year on cars with between 110,000 to 184,000 miles on them. About 40 dollars a month average. Parts are cheap for them. If I did the work myself it would probably be less than half that. (for those that start foaming at the mouth about buying American.. well my Honda's were built in Ohio.) all three cars were bought for between 1700 and 3000 dollars. Cars eat a huge chunk of our money between financing, gas, purchase price, maintenance, registration and taxes,
and insurance. Be smart about it. New is pretty and rides super smooth :) but cost 4x a older used car.
5. Go over your monthly bills with a microscope. In 2008 when stuff went south for our finances we saved 1200 dollars a year by cancelling the two land lines to my business and home and just using cell phones. We saved 400 dollars a year cancelling cable service and didn't miss it. We kept the Internet and if we want to see something you can stream almost any show over the Internet. We did netflix for a while but cancelled that also as we ended up not using it much after a while. another 130 dollars a year savings. We went to an unlimited plan on the cell phones. This actually averaged out 200 dollars cheaper than the past 2 years cell phone bills. We quit eating out as much, this saved about 2400 a year. We still go out a few times a month but not every other day just because it is convenient. Work on reducing your power bill. Insulate your water heater, find and seal air leaks in the house, turn off lights behind you, don't leave computers running all
the time, turn the thermostat up or down a few more degrees depending if your heating or cooling. For us this saved about 500 a year. We don't economise much on food for the house. We like speciality teas and indulge ourselves. We do shop for good deals between the grocery stores and costco, sams etc.. and save a lot of money. We buy in bulk and have learned how to store stuff so it doesn't go bad. We eat 90% of all left overs before cooking anything else. We cook many things in bulk and freeze meal sized portions for eating later.
roughly for this list it added up to 4830 dollars a year we cut from our budget in 2008. I can't say that we missed the stuff or hurt doing it.
6. When purchasing "things" always shop around for the best deal both for quality and price both locally and online. Price matching is your friend. Coupons or coupon codes online are your friend. I purchase locally if I can get a good deal or the vendor will price match. I think I average about 30% off on retail by working at this.
7. always save save save every last dollar you can for an emergency fund. I have lost most of my income twice in the last 12 years. Both times I survived because I had saved enough money to pay the minimal bills until I could get a job or start a business that replaced that income.
8. if you have to go into debt, never have payments that you couldn't pay if you lost 50% of your normal income. This rule has saved me in both the above referenced instances where I lost major income during the dot com crash and in the recent recession.
By following all this fairly reliably I have been able to put many thousands in the bank and save to buy my current boat for cash, my last three cars for cash, have 3 to 5 months bills in the bank.
I have to admit that it helps tremendously that neither my wife or I are addicted to cigarettes or alcohol. those seem to be major expenses in a lot of peoples lives. I would hate to not be able to afford my book addiction though.
anyways.. I grew up poor and learned how to be happy with less I guess. I don't need new or newest. something that is reliable and functional seems to work fine for me. It's certainly much less expensive than trying to keep up with the neighbours.
interesting topic. I was just thinking about this the other day.
sadly because I still owe on my house I am still tied down financially. I will never finance a house again. I will purchase outright or buy land and build a small house on it myself. I cringe when I look at the 10's of thousands of dollars in interest I have paid over the last decade, and I only financed for 20 years not the 30 that a lot of people do.
Live debt free!!!!!!!
Scott"
"The last few years with the economy depressed we as a family have lived on less than 30,000 a year. The Government calls us below the poverty line. However due to what I think is just common sense financial management we eat better than a lot of family or friends. Mostly own our home, own a 38 ft sail boat and since we needed a 4 door car with the new baby I went out and bought a used Honda for cash. I also try and keep enough cash in the bank to pay 3 or 4 months of bills.
I know so many people that make more than me that always seem to be strapped for cash and barely making it. But they are financing new cars, very expensive houses, eating out every day, smoking, drinking etc..
If you are living a fairly normal life with steady income these rules will help you live beyond how most people in the same income bracket do and have cash in the bank.
1. don't finance anything. If you can't afford to pay cash then you don't really need it. I have broken this rule a few times in emergency's but then have busted my butt to pay it off as quick as I could by sacrificing any fun till it was paid off.
2. pay a car payment every month to yourself in a savings account. In 3 or 4 years you can go out and buy a car for cash.
3. don't purchase a new car. Buy one used. Take your time and wait till a good deal shows up. I start shopping for the next car 6 months before I actually think I will need it. This allows me to find the best deal and the vehicle I really want.
4. Get as high a gas mileage car as you can. I went from driving a 20 mile to the gallon vehicle to a 35 mile to a gallon vehicle and it put an extra 150 dollars a month into my pocket that I had been spending on gas. I swear by Honda civics. My 2 door that I'm getting ready to sell has gotten 34 to 39 mpg during the time I have owned it. The new 2002 4 door civic I just purchased is getting 35 miles to the gallon. My average annual maintenance on 3 different Honda civics has averaged about 500 a year on cars with between 110,000 to 184,000 miles on them. About 40 dollars a month average. Parts are cheap for them. If I did the work myself it would probably be less than half that. (for those that start foaming at the mouth about buying American.. well my Honda's were built in Ohio.) all three cars were bought for between 1700 and 3000 dollars. Cars eat a huge chunk of our money between financing, gas, purchase price, maintenance, registration and taxes,
and insurance. Be smart about it. New is pretty and rides super smooth :) but cost 4x a older used car.
5. Go over your monthly bills with a microscope. In 2008 when stuff went south for our finances we saved 1200 dollars a year by cancelling the two land lines to my business and home and just using cell phones. We saved 400 dollars a year cancelling cable service and didn't miss it. We kept the Internet and if we want to see something you can stream almost any show over the Internet. We did netflix for a while but cancelled that also as we ended up not using it much after a while. another 130 dollars a year savings. We went to an unlimited plan on the cell phones. This actually averaged out 200 dollars cheaper than the past 2 years cell phone bills. We quit eating out as much, this saved about 2400 a year. We still go out a few times a month but not every other day just because it is convenient. Work on reducing your power bill. Insulate your water heater, find and seal air leaks in the house, turn off lights behind you, don't leave computers running all
the time, turn the thermostat up or down a few more degrees depending if your heating or cooling. For us this saved about 500 a year. We don't economise much on food for the house. We like speciality teas and indulge ourselves. We do shop for good deals between the grocery stores and costco, sams etc.. and save a lot of money. We buy in bulk and have learned how to store stuff so it doesn't go bad. We eat 90% of all left overs before cooking anything else. We cook many things in bulk and freeze meal sized portions for eating later.
roughly for this list it added up to 4830 dollars a year we cut from our budget in 2008. I can't say that we missed the stuff or hurt doing it.
6. When purchasing "things" always shop around for the best deal both for quality and price both locally and online. Price matching is your friend. Coupons or coupon codes online are your friend. I purchase locally if I can get a good deal or the vendor will price match. I think I average about 30% off on retail by working at this.
7. always save save save every last dollar you can for an emergency fund. I have lost most of my income twice in the last 12 years. Both times I survived because I had saved enough money to pay the minimal bills until I could get a job or start a business that replaced that income.
8. if you have to go into debt, never have payments that you couldn't pay if you lost 50% of your normal income. This rule has saved me in both the above referenced instances where I lost major income during the dot com crash and in the recent recession.
By following all this fairly reliably I have been able to put many thousands in the bank and save to buy my current boat for cash, my last three cars for cash, have 3 to 5 months bills in the bank.
I have to admit that it helps tremendously that neither my wife or I are addicted to cigarettes or alcohol. those seem to be major expenses in a lot of peoples lives. I would hate to not be able to afford my book addiction though.
anyways.. I grew up poor and learned how to be happy with less I guess. I don't need new or newest. something that is reliable and functional seems to work fine for me. It's certainly much less expensive than trying to keep up with the neighbours.
interesting topic. I was just thinking about this the other day.
sadly because I still owe on my house I am still tied down financially. I will never finance a house again. I will purchase outright or buy land and build a small house on it myself. I cringe when I look at the 10's of thousands of dollars in interest I have paid over the last decade, and I only financed for 20 years not the 30 that a lot of people do.
Live debt free!!!!!!!
Scott"
Wood Stove Surround and Baggin The Coon.
Well I admit it I cheated . The more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me what was making this so slow was the fact I was throwing all these heavy blocks. Decided to get the guys involved. I basically did the cement work and the guys both chipped in on moving the heavier blocks in place so we could get this done faster.
It don't look to bad if I do say so myself.
Decided to try my circular saw to cut the thinner blocks. We were not sure if it was heavy enough to do the job or not. My saw man looked at the thing and , yes, i will work. Read the directions the diamond masonry saw came with . It says to cool the blade down every 3 minutes with an air cut. I timed it for first cut. It took the saw man a bit under three minute to make a pass, adjust the blade depth for next pass and repeat enough times to eventually cut through so that worked out well. One cut and cool blade and repeat. By the time he brought in the cut block and took the next piece back the blade was cool enough to cut .
About 3/4 of a 3 gallon bucket of the local brand of Quick crete later and we have it this far.
You can see where we still have blocks to set in place.
This next shot is one of the top drought holes. The surround is designed for room temp air to enter the hollow parts of blocks at floor level, heat and rise by convection then come out the upper holes. The block also picks up a LOT of radiant heat that slowly releases long after the fire has gone out. It makes those cold winter mornings a lot more comfortable when crawling out of the sheets to start a fire. It looks really horrible at this point but once I have the ceramic tile in place it will look a LOT better.
Baggin' A Coon
The other night I was working inside and all of a sudden BOTH dogs went off like a five alarm fire bell. This is not something that happens a lot. Most people around here KNOW to not come into this yard unless one of us is standing right there letting you in. I figured it must be someone walking down the road but since the dogs just flat out refused to shut up, I let them out. Well they no more got to the edge of the porch when all you know what broke loose. There was a full grown coon out there right at the edge of the porch. The coon got him self backed up close to the front door porch hissing and spitting like it was completely crazy, with both dogs yapping at it one on each side, all three trying to get an advantage.
After about two or three minutes of this the coon noticed he had an escape route on the porch. Right now I have a lot of stuff we are sorting through stacked up on the front porch. There is a spot that basically makes a tunnel to the side small enough that the dogs could not go through. Once that coon spotted it, you could see him hissing and spitting, back arched ready to attack, taking swipes at the dogs when ever they came to close, with one eye on the dogs and one eye on that tunnel. He watched for his chance and when it came, BOOM that coon was GONE!
Any one I know would figure that this coon would be over the fence and gone lickety split after all that. That is not what happened. The dogs went off around the porch in the direction the coon has disappeared to which is to be expected. I figured that coon would be gone and the barking would die down momentarily. It did not,. After a few minutes my son went out to see what was going on. He put the dogs in the house still yapping like they had gone nuts and went back out side. He came back to the front door hollering for me to hand him his shoes, socks and coat. Now my boy is 28 years old. I told him he is to old for Momma to be waiting on him like that,. to go get his own stuff. Then he told me he had the coon in a bag. That was a good reason so I had him his stuff and he gets it on while holding this bagged coon. That coon must have been awful hungry as he had found a dog food bag that must have had some crumbs in it and had crawled in. That is where he was when my son found him.
The coon was released unharmed into the woods down the road from us.
It don't look to bad if I do say so myself.
Decided to try my circular saw to cut the thinner blocks. We were not sure if it was heavy enough to do the job or not. My saw man looked at the thing and , yes, i will work. Read the directions the diamond masonry saw came with . It says to cool the blade down every 3 minutes with an air cut. I timed it for first cut. It took the saw man a bit under three minute to make a pass, adjust the blade depth for next pass and repeat enough times to eventually cut through so that worked out well. One cut and cool blade and repeat. By the time he brought in the cut block and took the next piece back the blade was cool enough to cut .
About 3/4 of a 3 gallon bucket of the local brand of Quick crete later and we have it this far.
You can see where we still have blocks to set in place.
This next shot is one of the top drought holes. The surround is designed for room temp air to enter the hollow parts of blocks at floor level, heat and rise by convection then come out the upper holes. The block also picks up a LOT of radiant heat that slowly releases long after the fire has gone out. It makes those cold winter mornings a lot more comfortable when crawling out of the sheets to start a fire. It looks really horrible at this point but once I have the ceramic tile in place it will look a LOT better.
Baggin' A Coon
The other night I was working inside and all of a sudden BOTH dogs went off like a five alarm fire bell. This is not something that happens a lot. Most people around here KNOW to not come into this yard unless one of us is standing right there letting you in. I figured it must be someone walking down the road but since the dogs just flat out refused to shut up, I let them out. Well they no more got to the edge of the porch when all you know what broke loose. There was a full grown coon out there right at the edge of the porch. The coon got him self backed up close to the front door porch hissing and spitting like it was completely crazy, with both dogs yapping at it one on each side, all three trying to get an advantage.
After about two or three minutes of this the coon noticed he had an escape route on the porch. Right now I have a lot of stuff we are sorting through stacked up on the front porch. There is a spot that basically makes a tunnel to the side small enough that the dogs could not go through. Once that coon spotted it, you could see him hissing and spitting, back arched ready to attack, taking swipes at the dogs when ever they came to close, with one eye on the dogs and one eye on that tunnel. He watched for his chance and when it came, BOOM that coon was GONE!
Any one I know would figure that this coon would be over the fence and gone lickety split after all that. That is not what happened. The dogs went off around the porch in the direction the coon has disappeared to which is to be expected. I figured that coon would be gone and the barking would die down momentarily. It did not,. After a few minutes my son went out to see what was going on. He put the dogs in the house still yapping like they had gone nuts and went back out side. He came back to the front door hollering for me to hand him his shoes, socks and coat. Now my boy is 28 years old. I told him he is to old for Momma to be waiting on him like that,. to go get his own stuff. Then he told me he had the coon in a bag. That was a good reason so I had him his stuff and he gets it on while holding this bagged coon. That coon must have been awful hungry as he had found a dog food bag that must have had some crumbs in it and had crawled in. That is where he was when my son found him.
The coon was released unharmed into the woods down the road from us.
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