Well I will go ahead and embrass myself.
Screenshot_20230812_161256_Speedtest by bjohnson388, on Flickr
Screenshot_20230813_071359_Speedtest by bjohnson388, on Flickr
, and somehow bent or dropped or disassembled the pad shims.My last house had very heavy tree coverage. Even living in a suburb just outside the freeway ring gave me basically zero cell coverage in that house. This was before Verizon finally incorporated Wifi Calling. At that time I picked up one of Verizon's ( Samsung unit) pico cell towers that you put in your home. It hard wired to my home internet and worked great. Now that wifi calling is a thing on verizon you probably don't need one of those units but you do have that as an option for your garage if you are finding your wifi isn't enough out there.
. I think you'll be very happy if you do reorg the back wall. Also, having an old TV in the garage that I use as a second monitor for my computer has been great. It also allows me to also stream TV (or any source) to it. Having the game on while 'tinkering', or watching a 'how to' right there in the shop has also been great.
)Mazda Repairs
They told me one of the brake pad backing plates was "bent and rubbing on the rotor". I'm not sure how this is even possible. They did give me a service report measuring the pads and stuff — obviously not needed to take apart for the work I wanted done with the ball joints and control arms. They just took apart my brake job to tell me the pads were brand new
This is turning into a rant, but it makes you wonder what else they screwed up. And doing the brake job myself at least I knew what I did... now I'm left wondering if they touched anything else they shouldn't have.
But... it's all back together and running great now. No squeaks, no clunks. It's at 116k miles, so I figure once I get the brake fluid flushed, and possibly spark plugs done, it should hopefully be refreshed for the next chunk of miles other than standard maintenance stuff!
turned a rejected warranty claim for one bearing into two new wheel bearings covered under warranty! Saved me 4 hours and like $300 in parts, or $1800 at the dealer
Our property is going to feel so empty without it. Not to mention the price to remove is hefty.
My shop is in a constant state of evolution; not at a constant pace though... more like slow and slower
Sometimes the best tool for the job, is a credit card. Been there, done that, it's OK!! Don't sweat it.
Also FYI, they measure your pad thickness without removing the pads. Usually using a tool like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OJG327E/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Also also, if I had to guess, perhaps it was your rotor backing plate that was rubbing, and not necessarily the brake pad backing plate. I can see how they could accidentally bend that pretty easily while replacing the control arm. They're so thin, and right in the area where they would be working. One little tap is all it takes (been there done that
Nick,
Over here if you had a tree that large that close to a house you’d struggle to get a mortgage, any tree closer than 5mtrs/16ft is deemed too close and will have to be looked at.
Root damage to the foundations is a big worry,
we’ve had three taken down, two were ruining the drive and the largest was starting to cause problems with the house.
I do think you’ll appreciate the light though.
Steve
You could rent a small boom lift from HD to do that job more safely. Better than a ladder.
You could rent a small boom lift from HD to do that job more safely. Better than a ladder.
YMMV
Thanks guys, this actually makes me feel a bit better that it's the right choice.
It might be hollow. One arborist said that out of the group.
I've long thought I would save some wood from it, I'm just not sure how. I know I don't want (and my wife doesn't want) a huge log laying around in our yard for a year or more. Hauling away everything is part of the removal service. I could ask them to leave a piece, but I don't even know how to select the right chunk, or have a plan of what I would use it for.
I've also read that people don't like to mill urban trees because of high likelihood of metal fragments that could ruin their blade.
There's a place called Wood From The Hood that reclaims urban trees in Minneapolis, but I haven't contact them to see how it works. I wish I'd had more time to consider this possibility, but they are supposed to be scheduling the crane now, and the tree is coming down sooner than later.
So yes, I've thought about it, but don't really have my act together on how to make it happen other then just asking them to leave a giant log in my backyard.
Thanks guys. I try not to think about the root structure or it would keep me up at night.
As far as light, I actually really enjoy the shade it provides, and the dappled light through the back windows in the mornings. The canopy is so high, it provides great shade for the high noon sun, but still lets the morning low angle sun through.
The kitchen (in the back of our house) was an addition, so the tree was not originally that close to the house. And of course it's gotten huge over 80 years or so.
I can't wait to be done with the mess every spring and fall. I can't easily reach the gutters on our upper roof safely. They do have leaf guards but I'm sure they are all clogged and need a major clean out. That's something I intend to get down once the beast is gone.
Nice catch on the air bag light! It's nice when things are simple.
Like your Mazda, our Highlander was riding like a bag of hammers. I ended up doing the lower control arms and ball joints in my shop, but spent a solid $800 CAD on OEM parts. The issue you had with a brake rotor shield rubbing (and making a nasty racket) is a common one as it's light metal and easy to bend when you're working in that area. On the plus side, it takes about 30 seconds to fix by just bending it back
Nice job. I've modeled some lineloc style fittings.Drill Press Dust Collection
A little 3D printed project I've been working on in the background. I've had this Loc Line tubing in my Amazon wishlist for ages. For whatever reason I never pulled the trigger, and then recently came across this flexible tubing model on Printables. As well as this adapter for a drill press column.
I started printing the components.
I hadn't used the printer for a bit, but everything surprisingly went fine.
Side note, I used Cura's tree supports for the first time, and they were awesome!
Me being the dummy I am sometimes, I totally overlooked that the adapter piece might not be the same diameter as my drill press column. And it indeed was not. So, 10 hours of printing and plastic wasted.
And now I had to modify it to work with my drill press. Fortunately the uploader provided STEP files. This lets me get the model into Fusion 360 easily, but doesn't have any "model history" or parametric design. Meaning it just imports as a single object.
I am not a CAD person. For those who are, I'm sure this is laughably easy, but for me it is not. I needed to figure out how to widen the adapter for my larger drill press diameter. Complicating it, the two sides of the adapter have different diameter "inputs", one for the flexible tubing, and the other side is a tapered 35mm input for a vac hose. To top it off, the original model was 40.8mm ID for the flexible tubing side, even though the flexible tubing model was 40mm OD. Which meant a lose fit I needed to fix.
I won't detail everything, but fortunately the model "origin" was in the middle of the model. It must have been mirrored when created or something. So I set up a construction plane based on that, and extruded and moved each half outwards by 10mm. And then drew a new circle for my drill press column diameter, cut that through the existing model, and fixed up the chamfers.
And then reprint.
I was pretty excited to see it came out the right size, and fit my drill press.
Now to do the second piece, the other half of the ring that clamps it on the column. (If you look at the Printables link at the beginning of the post this will make more sense).
I had a STEP file for this, but I felt like it would be easier to model from scratch to match the new size of the other part. I took some measurements of the existing model, and the bolt hole spacing of my new model, and went to town.
Yeah, I know, it's not super complicated. But I was still pretty pleased with myself for figuring it out.
Parts lined up:
And attached with some M6 bolts and nuts.
I printed 12 of the flexible joints. They were a really tight fit at first, but have since loosened up a lot, maybe even too much.
My 35mm Festool hose fits in the back side of the adapter nice and snug.
Using the CT vac, I can plug the drill press into that, and it will auto turn on the suction when the drill press is turned on.
Doing a few tests, it collected 99% of dust with the 3/8" brad point bit pictured above.
With a 1" Forstner... about 50%. So still lots of chips. But better than nothing. A little disappointed in that, but for smaller holes it should work nicely.
And can sort of be moved out of the way when not needed.
While it is somewhat effective, I'd say this project was mostly for fun. And for what it's worth it took me about 40 hrs including printing time and time futzing around with Fusion 360 and fitments.
It has a clean out, and removable cover so it could overflow / release water if the underground line froze, but obviously it would dump it right at my foundation.
Hi Nick ,
I’m surprised that your rain water from the roof just empties out onto the garden. I would like to see the down pipes enter into something like Trapps suggested , which in turn is the start of 4” soil pipe that is trenched away from the house say 20’ and into a 3ftx3ft x 3ft hole (soak away) with crushed concrete at the bottom with gravel on top and finished with the lawn put back over the top, it’ll also help to drain the garden.
My dad used to make me dig these when we used to build extensions many years ago, whatever mess you made it’ll soon return to as it was, and as has been said, just get the water as far away from the foundations as possible.
Good luck , I know you’ll sort it.
Steve
Another idea.
You don't have to tear up the whole garden, just enough to connect to the edge. It would be a small cement pad, sloped to keep water flowing to drive and new trench drain. Drain from garden connects to new trench drain. Trench drain also helps protect garage and gives clear path to alley.
Nick, how about this for a wacky idea for the pipe under the concrete?