Thursday, November 21, 2024
Dining Room Cabinets & Bookcase Part 9
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
New Oven
It's been five years since we remodeled the kitchen - at the time we didn't replace the oven. The one we had looked old fashioned, but it was fully functional so we kept it. Even though it has carried on working all this time, it turns out that this may have been a false economy.
Here's why: The old oven was hard wired into a 220 Volt/50 AMP electrical circuit. And, while the new one is also 220 Volt, it comes with a plug and only requires a 20 AMP circuit (i.e. 40 percent of the power of the old oven). We use our oven a lot, so the cost of running an older appliance for five years would probably go a long way towards the cost of a new oven, if not cover it entirely. Oh well...
Converting the hard wired connection to an outlet at the back of the cabinet was straightforward, and I replaced the 50 AMP breaker at the panel with a 20 AMP breaker. This way I don't have to replace the cable between the kitchen and the circuit breaker panel.
The other difference is that although the new oven has the same interior space, it comes in a much smaller package, which means the opening in the kitchen cabinets needs to be reduced. I started by building some blocks for the oven to stand on - the appliance will be aligned at the top and center of the existing opening:
I have a lot of scrap walnut plywood kicking around in the workshop, so this was a good opportunity to use some:
The next step is to glue supports at the base and sides of the opening to which the new edge pieces can be attached:
...and two layers of top coat:
Friday, November 8, 2024
Teething Problems with the '67 F250
I had some super gnarly dental surgery a few days after I got the F250, so it was a couple of weeks before I had a chance to do anything other than look at the truck. Then, on a Saturday morning about three weeks ago, I went out and tried to start the truck....and it was dead! This was unexpected because I had driven it almost 300 miles without any problems and the battery should be fully charged. I had a go at jumping the truck from the RAV4 and it started right up. After letting it run for 20 minutes or so I drained the oil, changed the oil filter, and refilled with new oil. Then I left the battery to charge for a bit and went on to the next thing.
When I came back a few hours later the battery was fully charged and the truck was.....still totally dead! And what's more, this time it obstinately would not start with a jump from the Toyota. Oh dear, oh dear oh dear.
So, not the battery, but pretty clearly an electrical problem of some kind. Which is not that surprising really, given the electrical system is supposedly 50+ years old and all the visible sections are crusty to say the least. I'd like to say that I traced the problem to a bad starter solenoid and corroded battery cables within a few minutes, but it did take a while longer than that. If you're not familiar, the starter solenoid connects the battery to the starter motor when the ignition key is turned.
the starter solenoid mounts at the left side of the engine bay |
I replaced the starter solenoid, and I made two (2) new battery cables because I already had some #2 gauge cable and hardware left over from re-wring the mustang, and I already bought the crimping tool.
I only had black cable so I wrapped some red electrical tape around the positive section. At some point I will probably replace the entire wiring harness...
What's next? Well first of all I need to make a few trips to the city dump. The garage and the back yard are overflowing with crap that I need to get rid off. After that, the radiator/fan shroud needs a serious re-think. I also need to get the turn signals and horn working and do something about the sloppy steering...watch this space!
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
New Garage Door
We've needed to replace our heavy solid-wood vehicle door since we moved in almost seven (7) years ago. The automatic door opener crapped out a couple of years ago and since then it has been manual operation only. Finally I could stand in no more!
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Guest Room Remodel
I think I mentioned that Quinn Sheep moved out to UCSC. What I didn't mention was that Samuel Sheep took over Q's old bedroom quicker than a fart moves through a vacuum. Which means we've finally got a space we can make into a proper, grown-up guest room. We started with repairing the walls and going through the usual color selection process...there were a LOT of pin holes to fill.
This is a picture of the new door "pull" from the back. I need to cut a recess into each door for the pull to mount into.
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