Underground Lair of the Squankum

[Squankum]

Some more catching up on photos from the very recent past:


I took out those sad little cleats and used... 2x3's for cleats. Because that was the wood I had handy at this point. And it sure guaranteed I never missed with a nail from above.


I tried to do the "small bit of overlap edge-on-edge" trick like the last person had done, but better, and better was only slightly better, and then the 30 watt bulb fizzled over my head and I added a scrap of 2x2 vertically, running to the shelf and cleat below.


Pine board shelves reinstalled.

 

[Squankum]

And now to reconstruct the previously flimiest shelving, with proper pine boards for vertical pieces. I used 1x3 cleats on these, screwed and glued, and am proud to say that none of my shelf holder-downer nails from above missed.





Original pine scrap boards mostly retained. Did sand them with my fancy shop vac attachment on the sander to remove a layer of ancient mildew.

Small notch required for that little preexisting 2x4.




After this comes a new door for the closet. Still working on that, almost done.

 

[Squankum]

I think I've described how dumb the inward-swinging door was on this closet. It was hitting the concrete and needed clearancing. But that only allowed it to swing further in and hit where the new deep shelves were being built. No matter how I sliced it, it was going to have to be an "open door, step in, step aside, close door, step forward" to get to the big deep shelves. And it had been installed backwards so the striker latch (bolt with 45 degree angle on it) would not close but bang, but after you twisted the knob to get it to close, once you released that knob, that chamfer allowed the door to be pushed open. Backwards door striker bolt is bad coming and going!

So I decided this needed a bifold door!

But first, some silliness.

Occasional pieces of cardboard between the joists. My best guess is that this was to keep dust out of the closet where clothing was being hung. Why only some gaps? Maybe they fell out or I yanked them early in the move-in process.





And of course, odd random nails and things that I find. They were useful for somebody for something once.



Dismantling trim around the door before installing the bifold, I found this price tag on some of them. Of course, I had to google to see who was selling wood under that store name in this fair city. Just a few minutes of googling and I found out there used to be a hardware store/lumberyard in my part of town... long ago... when that strip of road was the new, fancy, clean suburban thing. (Yeah, you know what's happened since. Don't make me tap the R. Crumb painting again.)

And then I realized, from people's descriptions of where that place used to be, aha! I think I raced in that parking lot in 1994! Ha! We autoxers feast on the bones of your failed businesses! By that point, there was a little mall there that was sliding into irrelevance, and we rented some of their parking lot. I need to look into that mall to see if annnything is going on in there now.

 

[Squankum]

Could have sworn I had a few nice new paintbrushes but wasn't sure where they were hiding. Had a brand new cheap **** brush from Wal-Mart and, well, with patience, which I can do, it wasn't so hard.



The next day I went to Ace and bought a nice brush.



After coat #2, which went on much faster with a wider brush. Color is moose brown, from Home Depot. I forget the brand. Paint lady was concerned about how dark I was going but she didn't know what oddness I was installing this door into.



I'm not going to knock myself out chasing perfection -- the back side of the door will stay primer white -- but sure, why not do the inside edges that will show as you open the door? An easy job, 7 feet of masking tape and some paint-sucking wood product.



The door came with its own knob. A sad little wooden thing, with a sad long screw to come in from the back side of the door, barely engaging with the sad little wooden knob. So after drilling that hole and seeing how lamely that screw engaged, I said, screw this (so to speak), I'm getting a real grab handle. Went to get my tube of wood putty and after poking the dried putty in the tube's little spout, it farted a cloud of fine dust at me. Curse of the DAP mummy! OK, that other brand we grew up with. I ordered a new tube of DAP from Amazon and the next day, filled the hole.



I had test installed this door several times before today, and somehow today I noticed the track wheel on one panel was falling out of the track, so the track needed lowering. I used washers today (three passes, undo screw, redo with washer + 1 more washer), up to three washers... and tomorrow I think I'll redo it with a scrap of wood of the thickness needed. Maybe paint stirring paddles. But I will say the door moves perfectly now.



Brushed... stainless? Nickel? Cabinet handle from Ace Hardware. Putty spot and repaint aren't perfect but are only visible to a guy with an LED work light and digital camera looking for it. Nobody will ever notice it in real life.

 

[Squankum]

What sounds better than a V-12 engine? TWO V-12 engines!

This is how the De Haviland Mosquito do. Airshow 10+ years ago in the Virginia Beach area.

 

[Squankum]

Now, at the end of the 5th installation of the same door the other night I looked at those washers I used as shims, and I thought, "You've spent this project mocking the hacks that came before you. Then you stacked washers as shims, a car guy hack, in the middle of a carpentry zone. Think of a wooden shim, dummy."

Stacked washers:


I thought I might drive to my not-close-enough-but-friendly-and-nice Ace Hardware to buy a modern, wimpy yardstick. Assuming yardsticks are still a thing. But I stopped at Wal-Mart for a few things and found some very long paint stirring paddles. Huzzah! Trimmed two to fit.



Drilled holes so the pre-existing screw holes could be found (holes dictated by the holes in the steel track that goes up here), some glue and some small nails tacked it in place.



As I reinstalled the door for the 6th time, it wound up being a major tussle that made me doubt myself. Went and grabbed a remaining scrap of one of the new paint stirrers, put it next to three stacked washers, and they were a perfect match. So I looked for other causes of the frustrations and figured it out and now it's back together again, smooth as silk again, with a wood shim now.

It's almost done! Some painting and... well, there are a bunch of tiny shelves I want to add, but that's not an emergency.

 

[Squankum]

Some paint today, very close to done for a while. Some of the trim around the door had been left raw long ago, some had been painted a very dark brown. I'm not going to fight the dark brown, but I'm putting my chocolatey moose brown on the raw wood.








And you can see, the wall was made in the past by somebody out of thin, cheap paneling, and that's okay. We're not expecting incoming rounds. What is deceptive in these pictures is they don't show dark this wall is in practice. I've got lots of light going on because I'm workin' heah.

 

[Etchase]

I thought I'd brought this up before here or elsewhere on GJ, but maybe not. Can openers. I was thrilled a couple of years ago to find that the sturdy, better-than-the-usual-cheap-**** can openers of the early 80's were still in production, and in the USA!

Bought one in November of 2021. Life in this house with a minor herd of creatures requires opening at least one tuna can per day. And at one point I started grumbling, "Daggum, what's wrong with the tolerances on these cans? Why can't my can opener punch through properly and make the roundy round? I've heard they've got slaves in the tuna fishing industry, have they expanded that labor practice to the canneries, too?" But then I bought a new, good can opener and it was a joy.

Fast forward to early spring 2026 and I'm starting to slowly lose my mind with getting the can opener cutter to punch through and cut properly. And I intended to buy another opener but availability on Amazon was ebbing and flowing. So I finally got a new one, and like the last time I did this comparison, yes, the digital calipers show the problem.




That much loss of cutting wheel diameter from wear, definitely from salty tuna water, makes a big difference. The new one is perfect and easy to use. Now that I've written all of this, I realize that I did not measure the spur wheel's diameter, that may have eroded, too.

Various colors are available. Or, sometimes available. Are they good? They're sure great when they're new!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098LY7G2M?tag=atomicindus08-20

You can buy rebuild kits for your old ones. The kits aren’t a whole lot cheaper than a whole opener, but I’m now still opening cans with the opener of my childhood. Oddly satisfying and much cheaper than rebuilding a ‘60’s muscle car.

 

[Squankum]

You can buy rebuild kits for your old ones. The kits aren’t a whole lot cheaper than a whole opener, but I’m now still opening cans with the opener of my childhood. Oddly satisfying and much cheaper than rebuilding a ‘60’s muscle car.

Thanks, it had never crossed my mind as a possibility. For future reference purposes, I found the seller of these kits. $12 with free shipping.

EZ DUZ IT CAN OPENER REPAIR KIT -EZSVTC-1

www.sierravalleytrading.com

Over on Reddit, there is a subreddit titled "Buy It For Life", where people discuss products that work well and last a long time. This morning I learned there that Zyliss is a known durable can opener brand. Swiss company, but now Chinese production. Stainless steel rotating bits.

 

[Squankum]

The closet project...it's over! Well, the initial idea. New shelves, redo old shelves, and hey, a door that doesn't ****.

This pic shows what trim painting has been going on. The outside moulding on this door frame was painted a very dark brown by unknown people of yore. The moulding closest to the door, was there for the previous door, but had been raw wood. I painted it with my Behr Ultra Scuff Defense (acrylic), Moose Trail brown. The metal track that the upper corners of the door pivots from or slides in, I painted its white, visible side, too. Happy it accepted the paint. I hadn't scuffed it, just gave it a cleaning with mineral spirits.



Some battle damage to the old, very dark brown that I tried to cover up with Moose Trail brown, and, well, now it seems bright. At some point I'll drag a tiny paint brush across it with some small amount of black paint and it will be camouflaged.



Huzzah! I chose a door that works for the job, and painted it a color that works with an otherwise funky color setup I otherwise wouldn't have chosen.




Door open, but not all the way:



The big shelving unit. Loaded up with new shock absorbers that need installing, gear oil, antifreeze, distilled water, washer fluid, motor oil. Bottom row is a Rubbermaid tote on HF dolly, and biggest shop vac.

Top shelf has a very large cardboard box on it (radiator inside) and on top of that box, incoming small parts for the upcoming Great Econoline Freakout of 2026.



My weekend's plans have opened up, so in addition to sorting through **** that came out of this closet for keep/away wi' ye*, I feel some small shelf ideas coming on, for dead space inside this closet.

 

[Squankum]

_______
*

 

[Squankum]

Union Pacific railroad painting its tracks white in some regions to keep heat out of them, preventing track problems from expansion.

 

[Squankum]

Mennonite forklift operator:

 

[Squankum]

Just dropping this here for posterior. It's a WWII public health propaganda poster that I used to be able to find with ease on the googletons, but not so much lately.

 

[zanyad]

Union Pacific railroad painting its tracks white in some regions to keep heat out of them, preventing track problems from expansion.

All that and not even a bit of them painting the track?

 

[Squankum]

All that and not even a bit of them painting the track?

Yeah. It's a shame when something on TV or YouTube could have been from a radio news show. Although in this case it's not hard to imagine a machine spraying white paint.

Aha! I'll google! Reddit's got a picture!



OK, that's paint-ed, not paint-ing. Here's a picture from Britain:




OK, that's a good picture for your layman audience but that's at a switch, you don't have those two guys with little swabs doing the entire rail system!


I found this dark, murky video. Is that small rail cart being towed by a sasquatch? I'll need to blow it up and slow it down and change the contrast:

 

[Squankum]

O'Reilly auto parts has made a bid to buy NAPA.

O'Reilly Automotive Offers $10 Billion To Buy Napa, And There May Be A New Monopoly In Town - Jalopnik

This bid is just that, a bid. Technically speaking, Genuine Parts Co. hasn't offered Napa up for sale as of just yet.

www.jalopnik.com

 

[Lassen Forge]

So begats the end of the auto parts business...

NAPA was where we had fun as kids - everything from the penny gumball machine to the infamous Lucas Oil Demonstrator and tail/marker light displays.... You needed a part for your '62 Corvair Monza Spyder, odds were Napa would have it or get it for you in a few days.

O'Reilly's - you go in to get a set of plugs for your Ford Triton motor, and they'd sell you plugs for a Triumph Trident. "Well, that's what the computer says". Or "I need the VIN number" of your 1968 Volkswagen to get you the correct fan belt, is that the V-8 or the straight 6?". And STILL get it wrong.

These are truly dark and dismal times, oh, this modern age of woe...

 

[Squankum]

So begats the end of the auto parts business...

NAPA was where we had fun as kids - everything from the penny gumball machine to the infamous Lucas Oil Demonstrator and tail/marker light displays.... You needed a part for your '62 Corvair Monza Spyder, odds were Napa would have it or get it for you in a few days.

O'Reilly's - you go in to get a set of plugs for your Ford Triton motor, and they'd sell you plugs for a Triumph Trident. "Well, that's what the computer says". Or "I need the VIN number" of your 1968 Volkswagen to get you the correct fan belt. And STILL get it wrong.

These are truly dark and dismal times, oh, this modern age of woe...

I was shocked -- I recently went to buy a spark plug for a lawnmower, knew the brand of plug and its number -- and they just went and got it! I think this was at O'R, not Advance. One of my nearby NAPA's got moved a mile up the road but moved to computers and young people forced to think in software (year, make, model) but then a few years later, a NAPA mothership was opened nearer my place and it was a proper NAPA -- older clerks who knew things.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule - I went into the old school been there forever Napa store in Redding, because they were older, been around forever, etc... and bigger than the closer one. Hell, they even have a back room machine shop. Anyway, needed a set of half moon keepers from, IIRC, a 327 Chevy... the guy behind the counter (a) said they don't make those anymore, because they haven't made the motor in decades (yea, like, no **** sherlock), and (b) said they couldn't get them, besides (c) no one works on cars any more..... I asked him what the (deleted) was I supposed to do, his response - "Not my problem" and walks away, leaving me standing there, jaw dropped., This wasn't some pimple faced kid but someone about our age...

Left totally pissed off... but then I decided "WTH" and stopped by the NAPA in Palo Cedro, asked the younger (half my age-ish) woman behind the counter, she comes back with a box of them, quarter a piece, how many you want? I told her I'd take them all but I didn't want to clean her out, she said no problem, I can have more this time next week... I asked what else could she get, she walked me in back and they had a set of the "Holy Scriptures of Parts" - all the cool parts catalogs in one of those old school racks (and yeah, I could occupy myself for hours looking through them)... "You name it, we can get it or source it somewhere..."

My other backup was another old school Napa in Dusnmuir, Ca... been there since the 20's (pre-NAPA) and they had the wall of belts - racks of parts - half an aisle of spark plugs - brake shoes and pucks and - gasp - rolls of lining and RIVETS. BTW - they ALSO had a back room machine shop, but they had hours posted and jobs on benches.

 

[Squankum]

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule - I went into the old school been there forever Napa store in Redding, because they were older, been around forever, etc... and bigger than the closer one. Hell, they even have a back room machine shop. Anyway, needed a set of half moon keepers from, IIRC, a 327 Chevy... the guy behind the counter (a) said they don't make those anymore, because they haven't made the motor in decades (yea, like, no **** sherlock), and (b) said they couldn't get them, besides (c) no one works on cars any more..... I asked him what the (deleted) was I supposed to do, his response - "Not my problem" and walks away, leaving me standing there, jaw dropped., This wasn't some pimple faced kid but someone about our age...

Left totally pissed off... but then I decided "WTH" and stopped by the NAPA in Palo Cedro, asked the younger (half my age-ish) woman behind the counter, she comes back with a box of them, quarter a piece, how many you want? I told her I'd take them all but I didn't want to clean her out, she said no problem, I can have more this time next week... I asked what else could she get, she walked me in back and they had a set of the "Holy Scriptures of Parts" - all the cool parts catalogs in one of those old school racks (and yeah, I could occupy myself for hours looking through them)... "You name it, we can get it or source it somewhere..."

My other backup was another old school Napa in Dusnmuir, Ca... been there since the 20's (pre-NAPA) and they had the wall of belts - racks of parts - half an aisle of spark plugs - brake shoes and pucks and - gasp - rolls of lining and RIVETS. BTW - they ALSO had a back room machine shop, but they had hours posted and jobs on benches.

a) That first guy has a ****** attitude. If nobody works on cars anymore, why the F is this building standing here?

2) What's a half moon keeper?

iii) I swooned at the sight of a counter full of paper catalogs in the back of an O'Reilly's about 5 years ago. Had no idea it was still possible.

Four: I have no qualms about counter girls at the auto parts store. The first one I ever had was terrible, just terrible, it was the 21st century and she didn't understand tie rods as I knew them. I later learned enough bout Ye Old Timey Detroite cars to realize what was inside her head that day. But she also had a sour attitude about it all, too. Since then, every one I've dealt with has had a good attitude and knew enough to do her job, too. And since I know some men show up and treat her like ****, I make sure to not be shy about walking to the gal behind the counter.

I bet that Dunsmuir NAPA could also re-arc brake shoes, too! Jay Leno says there's nobody around to do some things, shoe re-lining and re-arcing is one example, and that worries me, because a) he knows everybody and who to ask, in all vintages of cars 2) he's in SoCal, where things didn't rust and car culture is huge.

A friend of mine who is both industrious and thrifty, needed a serpentine belt idler pulley. More specifically, he needed the bearing, the steel pulley was fine. He pressed out the old one, looked up the part number, found it in stock at his local O'Reilly's according to The Big Computer, and drove over there. He had to basically fight with the counter dope because there was no way to "year.. make... model... engine" his way through the computer to get to that bearing... that they had on their shelves. You trying to sell auto parts or aren't ya? I'm sure what drives this is trying to keep daffy customers and daffy counter guys from selling wrong parts, leading to dirty/dinged up returns.


When I first discovered O'Reilly's 20 years ago in my midwest travels, I was enthused. It seemed like almost-NAPA employees at AutoZone prices. But still, I hope the merger doesn't happen, NAPA is still the gold standard for knowledgeable adult employees.

 

[Craptain]

"NAPA is still the gold standard for knowledgeable adult employees."

Absolutely. And not just for auto parts.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Answering #2 first -
The half moon (2 per valve stem) fits in the notch machined into the valve stem to hold the spring retainer (disc) in place, so the spring closes the valve. This one is off a Guzzi, but they al work the same way... 2 per valve stem, and it wedges the stem to the bottom disc supporting the spring.

First Second - I agree, sell the machines and knock that thing to the ground.

Third third - I swear, it was those parts catalogs that gave me an early reading education. And it always made me wonder HOW THE F*** someone who works in a parts house CAN'T read or x-ref parts. But yeah - I would sit there, mesmerized not onlyby the cool stuff, but my mind working how it ALL fit together.

Fifth fourth - Yes, they could. I think the YOUNGEST guy there was my age, the oldest was this graybeard of a grizzled mountain man looking dude of 80-ish, and he was moving short blocks around the back of the place the day I met him. BTW - you showed up as they were opening, you were EXPECTED to grab a coffee cup and shoot the ****.

And fourth finally - thank you. I was both a parts runner and worked behind the counter - fortunately, I was raised with 30 weight in my hair and grease under the fingernails, but for every guy who treated me like I knew what I was doing, 2 or 3 would tell me "Nah, I wanna talk to a MAN because they know what they're saying." (or worse)

Thing is - we;re god with details, we had a team of 5 of us rebuilding an Iron Duke, the boys were all chuckling until it fired off. Damn, we were good! (And BTW I can also re-arc brake shoes - comes from doing that on Model T transmission bands when I was a kitten. They ain;t round, you're in trouble, For me - it was just, well, fun. (And I was in NorCal, the auto thing was almost as big there....)

I wasn't happy unless I was up to my armpits in grease stained fun. ;-)

BTW - this is the valve train on a 327... the 2 little half round pieces engage the valve stem, and wedges the flat spring keeper (shown here embedded in the spring) to the valve stem....

 

[Squankum]

Answering #2 first -
The half moon (2 per valve stem) fits in the notch machined into the valve stem to hold the spring retainer (disc) in place, so the spring closes the valve. This one is off a Guzzi, but they al work the same way... 2 per valve stem, and it wedges the stem to the bottom disc supporting the spring.

First Second - I agree, sell the machines and knock that thing to the ground.

Third third - I swear, it was those parts catalogs that gave me an early reading education. And it always made me wonder HOW THE F*** someone who works in a parts house CAN'T read or x-ref parts. But yeah - I would sit there, mesmerized not onlyby the cool stuff, but my mind working how it ALL fit together.

Fifth fourth - Yes, they could. I think the YOUNGEST guy there was my age, the oldest was this graybeard of a grizzled mountain man looking dude of 80-ish, and he was moving short blocks around the back of the place the day I met him. BTW - you showed up as they were opening, you were EXPECTED to grab a coffee cup and shoot the ****.

And fourth finally - thank you. I was both a parts runner and worked behind the counter - fortunately, I was raised with 30 weight in my hair and grease under the fingernails, but for every guy who treated me like I knew what I was doing, 2 or 3 would tell me "Nah, I wanna talk to a MAN because they know what they're saying." (or worse)

Thing is - we;re god with details, we had a team of 5 of us rebuilding an Iron Duke, the boys were all chuckling until it fired off. Damn, we were good! (And BTW I can also re-arc brake shoes - comes from doing that on Model T transmission bands when I was a kitten. They ain;t round, you're in trouble, For me - it was just, well, fun. (And I was in NorCal, the auto thing was almost as big there....)

I wasn't happy unless I was up to my armpits in grease stained fun. ;-)

BTW - this is the valve train on a 327... the 2 little half round pieces engage the valve stem, and wedges the flat spring keeper (shown here embedded in the spring) to the valve stem....

Ahhhh... I just know them as "keepers." And as something you do not want flying away!

 

[Craptain]

Ahhhh... I just know them as "keepers." And as something you do not want flying away!

And growing up back in UK we called them colletts. But I've been in US long enough to recognize them by any name.

 

[Squankum]

And growing up back in UK we called them colletts. But I've been in US long enough to recognize them by any name.

Oh yes, I know that one, too!