Twofoos » Business

Finally, door handles!

Kevin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:10:25 +0000

We’ve been without door handles on our French doors, in the shop, for about 8 months now. I kept thinking that I would find something funky and fun to put up but never did.

Angela floated out the idea of doing something with license plates so after a few false starts this is what I came up with.

I formed the plate over a section of 1″ steel pipe creating the grab area. I then knocked out a quick and dirty press brake using some scrap wood and C-clamps to flatten the mounting area back the other direction.

I was able to do all of the forming with a 3 pound hammer and a small ball pein. I think it turned out great, you?

Placing our first vending machine

Kevin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:01:14 +0000

Jennifer and I put our first vending machine into the wild this past Sunday. I say first, not as an indicator of future plans, but as a way of indicating it was brand new to us.

I bought the machine used for a pretty decent price, $200 if I remember correctly. It has around 20-24 vending heads that serve candy, chips, gum, etc. It cost about $100 to fill the first time. We put a fairly wide assortment of items inside, mainly to gauge interest, but also just to have things you wouldn’t typically find.

My brother was able to score the location from his apartment management gig and it seems like a pretty decent spot so far. It’s in one of the laundry facilities in the apartment complex. It has 2 coin-op washers, 2 coin-op dryers, and soda vending machine. The soda machine is owned by the local bottler and we’ve considered attempting to displace it if the candy machine gets any traffic.

I felt a little bit guilty placing the machine in such a situation. It felt sort of like I was preying on folks who have poor impulse control or planning ability. I completely understand having vending in an environment like a cafeteria or workplace where it serves as a useful option, but it seems different when I am practically placing it in their homes.

Those predatory feelings have all but evaporated now. There were two people that came up to us in the short time we were installing it and expressed enthusiasm for having it there. Give people what they want, I suppose.

The final nail in the pity party came the next day, when Kristopher said that it looked like someone had been shaking the piss outta the machine to dislodge product. Someone will always be seeking the upper hand in any arrangement, it might as well be me.

Apparently, vending is an adversarial relationship.

No related posts.

I am not a mechanic

Kevin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:03:23 +0000

Time has proven this to be true over and over again. I spent the better part of three days last week working on my panel truck. The oil pan gasket was leaking pretty badly, enough that I was pulled over on the freeway by a Sheriff’s Deputy. Apparently the oil had been blowing against the exhaust pipes and smoking off.

I had thought I saw a tinge of blue behind me as I was driving but it was very difficult to tell. Apparently it was not so difficult to tell from behind. He was really cool about the issue and let me motor on but said I needed to get it fixed, which brings me to my current state.

The pan gasket was clearly leaking and after removing it I could see that there were some cracks in the gasket around the arcs for the front and rear seals. After some ludicrous drama in figuring out which gasket to get (I had to pull casting numbers from the engine) I reinstalled the oil pan and gasket. I should mention that I do not have a service manual for this vehicle, I have been having difficulty finding one, and I can find very little information beyond that online.

I reinstalled the gasket, performed a full oil change including filter, and was rewarded with a gigantic oil leak from the rear of the engine. I thought perhaps I had not seated the gasket properly so pulled it down and reseated it. Kristopher and I went for a test drive, I swear we looked like Cheech and Chong blazing down the road. Every stop sign allowed the cab to fill with smoke from the fountaining oil leak as it sprayed against the exhaust.

At this point I could not fathom what I had done to get such a negative result. The only thing “different” was that I was absolutely sure about the quantity of oil in the engine for the first time since I bought it. We tried vainly to find the source of the leak but since it was blowing out the back of the motor and dripping from the shroud that covers the flywheel it seemed that it could only be the rear main seal. That’s the seal that allows the crankshaft to pass outside of the engine proper and engage the flywheel and transmission.

I was stumped and generally peeved that I had spent so much productive time being UNproductive. I took it to the shop this past Monday and while I don’t yet have it back (I’m having other things done as well) I do know the source of the leak finally. The shop manager called me yesterday afternoon and matter-of-factly said:

“The oil pan gasket was improperly installed and missing some sealant by the rear main seal.”

…of course it is.

Diamond Plate is a man’s best friend

Photobooth site is live!

Kevin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:20:23 +0000

It took pretty much all day to get everything written, formatted, and loaded properly, but I’m done!

We are finally live at Supercheese! HQ . I booked an event for late December but am otherwise wide open, spread the word.

Take a look and let me know your thoughts and opinions, I’m totally stoked.

Laying Hardwood Flooring

Kevin — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:28:32 +0000

Is way harder than I thought. I’m not sure if it’s extra hard because the flooring is recycled, used gym flooring or what exactly. I am really enjoying the look of it but what a beast to install. I am about four feet from completion but just couldn’t lay one more piece tonight.

I did manage to remember to take pictures this time around.

That shot is from the side door facing the bathroom. Just barely off the right side of the frame is the wall/finish line. So close, but so three hours of work away.

That’s a view from the french doors facing the main entrance, the bathroom is immediately to the right.

And that picture should tie the whole thing together visually. Check out how you can see no fewer than 3 hammers in that last picture. This building business is crazy stuff.

Gym Flooring

Kevin — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:57:54 +0000

Started laying down the reclaimed gym floor last night. Jen was hustling the pieces over to me while I blasted away with the nailer. We were able to lay it down at a rate of 1 square foot per minute.

I suppose I should be heartened that, at that rate, it would take another ten to eleven hours to finish. Too bad we both know that there is no way in hell it will go that fast.

I’ll try to get some pics up once there is more than a 3 foot wide stripe of it done.

I hate plumbing

Kevin — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:00:47 +0000

I used to think that the worst thing in the world was working on existing plumbing. It’s always so stinky, disgusting, and difficult. Now that I have set up the new bathroom in the shop I think I can expand that to include ALL plumbing.

Hiring a plumber is certainly expensive, from what I hear, I never hired one, but for all the bullshit and headaches it’s probably worth it. I had all sorts of special circumstances with this latest build. There was the “on-demand” water heater, inaccessible blow-off drain, faucet inlet lines and ridiculous installation points…you name it.

I finally got everything I needed, took back what I didn’t, etc. by the fourth trip to Home Depot. And that was after I felt I had made a meticulous plan.

I started on Saturday somewhere around noon. There was nothing in the bath area except paint. Sunday around 6pm this was the result:

Here’s a final glamour-shot of the baby hot water heater:

Building Log #4.7e

Kevin — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:55 +0000

Not a huge progress report, but things still are proceeding to move forward. Got the two main rooms completely paneled and cleaned out. Hung the french door between the two rooms also.

The only major hurdles left are to lay the recycled gym floor, and to paint and finish the bathroom.

Some gratuitous imagery:

Swanky Paneling

Kevin — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:05:08 +0000

I was able to get several of the painted panels installed yesterday afternoon. It is a huge pain in the ass to cut around all of the notches and outlets but it will be worth it.

The large room is most of the way done, I have about 10 feet of one wall to do, and a few offcuts. I will save the offcuts until I have the other room done as well in case I use some of the scrap. No sense using good stuff until you have to.

Panel Painting

Kevin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:04:38 +0000

In our current workspace we have OSB wood sheeting on the walls. It provides a nice aesthetic but, more importantly, allows us to attach anything, anywhere to the walls. This is important because of all the tooling and shelves we use needing to be wall mounted in somewhat odd configurations.

This was a concern for the new space as well, obviously, but we decided to do it a little fancier than the last time. We cut about 80 pieces of particle board down to 2′ x 4′ segments. The idea was to panel the bottom half of the wall with these arranged in a brick-like pattern.

We wanted to stain them so we could get a bit of color from them but still retain that mottled appearance. It didn’t really turn out that great. We stained about 30 of them before deciding to scrap it. Jen went and bought a gallon of paint in similar colors and we spent the next few hours painting instead.

Now that they are all painted I can start laying them out and applying them to the existing walls.

Of course, I do have to case and trim the windows first…