Recent content by TRX

I have this sneaking suspicion that concrete *makes* dust... When I put a couple of layers of "porch and driveway paint" down it made sweeping up way easier. And it lasted more than 20 years. I never had any problem with parked cars lifting spots of paint up, though a couple of friends did...

Swinging gates that wide, if made out of wood, will have problems with warping or sagging. You can control it by adding tension wires and turnbuckles, but sometimes weather changes will twist them anyway. Mine are wood and eight feet wide; I didn't know any better at the time. If I was doing...

That tandem rig, with one bottle in front of the other - do you have any tipping problems with that, or is it okay as long as you're careful? I have a space I'd love to put my bottles in, except the cart is too wide. I thought about a tandem setup like that, but I wondered if they might be...

So, returning to the thread, I bought a big DeWalt "rotary hammer drill" and a bit rated to go through rebar and drilled holes in a 3x3 foot grid across the 20x35 floor. That's a lot of holes. WIN: the rotary hammer drill is awesome. It has a spring-loaded handle; you put about five pounds of...

I didn't hear anything different, but unless it rang like a gong, I wouldn't. Lots of gunfire, loud motorcycles, and louder rock-and-roll in years gone by...

What would be an economical way to cut some 3 or 4 inch holes in the slab? For that matter, it would be nice if I could cut some holes big enough to reach through with a post hole digger. I've dug enough post holes near the shop I know what the soil *ought* to look like.

Thanks for mentioning that... I just got a crash course on the difference between a "hammer drill" and a "rotary hammer drill."

I think that suggestion is a winner. And it gives me an excuse to buy a hammer drill...

I took out a gigondomundous tree when I built shop 30-odd years ago. The spot where the tree was is more or less smack in the middle of the concrete slab. Now I'd like to put a lift in... right about... there. We've had termite troubles off and on for years; I have a suspicion that where the...

My local power company no longer even has an office in my town, which is one of the larger ones in my state. There's just an 800 number to an answering machine. They'll return your call at their convenience. Maybe. As far as rolling a truck... if you get them out the same week, you're lucky.

Sure, except the only wires that aren't the armored cable to the lathe or inside the electrical box are the pigtails to the motor, which are both under the electrical box and behind the headstock, not visible from any position where I would be cranking on the tailstock handwheel. Yeah, I would...

Then what's neutral for? Okay, power is (usually) generated in three phase. It comes out with three wires (legs), each carrying one phase, 120 degrees apart. It gets to town, the business district gets three phase to the breaker box; out here in the residential wasteland we only get two legs...

Work-hardening material. If you can't meet the minimum feedrate, the drill goes in a bit and then just squeals and smokes.

Well, this question turned out like putting a dollar in the coke machine and getting a rabid ferret instead of a Dr. Pepper. I'll just buy the freakin' meter and see what it reads when I stall the motor again. I figure the answer is worth five bucks.

So, if my 220v motor is pulling its full rated 8.5 amps, the meter, being on only one leg, will show 4.25 amps?