Recent content by Diesel Benz

The Klein strippers have good cutters. My Klein pair is about 15 years old and still going strong despite the notch I made in the cutter chopping through a hot piece of 14/2. If you're looking for a great cutting only tool, the Klein 63050 cutter is great for anything up to and including /0...

I got a pair of JBL LX22's at Goodwill for $13. Really nice sounding for the size and most definitely price. Also picked up a 15 or so year old Sony receiver there for about $20.

If you do go the generator route, keep maintenance intervals in mind. My Honda EU2000i's require a 100 hour oil change interval. Running all night, eight hours per night you'd need an oil change about every 12 days.

You got it right the second time. In the previous situation the heater was only getting 120V line to neutral. Black and red to L1 and L2, ground to the ground screw and the unused neutral should be capped. Not sure of the code implications of wiring a cable/plug assembly to a heater designed...

$0.0769/kWh + $5.50 per month service charge from Tacoma Power. Gas rates around here are also reasonable at $0.98472/therm total from Puget Sound Energy.

Pacific Welding Supply in Nalley Valley has been pretty good. A company I work for gets MIG gas there on an infrequent basis and they seem to be reasonable. It looks like they got bought up a few years ago by a regional supply company but at least it's not a huge national company and I haven't...

A friend of mine in Pacific was in the same boat. At least my part of T-town had no interruption. I built a homebrew version of that Reliance panel for my gas furnace and gas tankless water heater. Mine moves the inlet to a box outside. A little 1kW Yamaha is enough to start the furnace...

Aluminum smelters run about six volts and a few hundred thousand amps. You should see the buss bars feeding the pot lines...