Washing Machine DIYS Fail

Today, the focus was to setup a washing machine. The

DIYS project was straight forward as the instruction manual. This washing machine operated on cold waster only so it has just one hose.

Here are the steps

The first step would be to remove the card board base and set the washing machine to your desired level. In the tub were the instruction manual, hoses for inflow and outflow of water.

Secondly we connect the hose for the outflow of waster, using a pliers to open the clamp and fit it over the hose. When this is done, put the end of the outflow hose into the run off pipe

Third step, this is where this project becomes a fail.

Estimating .

It is imperative that a “Do it yourselfer” learns how to estimate. All the essentials to Estimating will not be covered in this blog, as a lot of it is based on the individual’s experience.  However, I am going to provide you with a few good tips on how to approach estimates that are only applicable to the “do it yourselfer.”

Estimation begins with good planning - It impossible to accurately cater to your DIY project if you have not sat down and planned the scope of work in which you intend to achieve. Setting one’s focus on the target or goal to be accomplished, will force the “Do it youselfer” to examine all the materials, tools and how they would go about accomplishing the task at hand. For the beginner, they should write down exactly how they plan to approach the work on a piece of paper. Through this, a clear sense of purpose is highlighted and as a result, a plan of action is developed.

Mail Box Part 2

So finally I was able to plant the mail box.

To do this, I had to dig down into the ground about 1 and ½ feet, and square the hole so that the crabs were able to fit into the hole.

The critical part was to make sure the post was level. It’s imperative that the post be plumb level. This was done through the use of a spirit level and secured before casting the hole with concrete.

The worst thing to do is to have a mail box that leans like “Michael Jackson” so time must be taken to secure the post in an upright position. 

TOOL Check

You Pick the one right tool “ Anton Chigurh"

Hey guys, our first edition of tool check we look at the Dewalt cordless DEWALT DCK296M2 20V XR Lithium Ion Brushless Premium Hammer drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit

Cordless Drill combo

Technical Details

Item Weight - 11.6 pounds

Batteries  - Lithium Ion Batteries

Voltage - 20 Volts

Contains both Hammer drill and impact driver.

 I bought this drill set roughly 9 months ago and I must say they are truly amazing to you.

Cordless Drill Combo

The drill has three modes, hammer, drill and screw.  And has three variations for drill speeds located at the top.

Flash back Tuesday. The tool bin.

The company I work for was in need of a tool bin to store electronic  devices. such a bin had to be strong water resistant, yet aesthetically pleasing to the eye
for this project I used
Angle iron of dimensions 1x1/4  inch
1 inch flat steel
Aluminium Sheet metal (10 gauge)  - gauge represents the thickness of the sheet metal.

The frame was constructed first and the sheet metal was cut to fit the shape of the bin.

The mail box

Cutting the galvanize pipe

My mother has been begging me to put up a mail box for her.

The original mailbox was rusted at the base ad fell over.

So it’s go time gain on the mailbox DIYS project

I used a piece of galvanize pipe 2 inched in diameter and cut it 4 ft in length.

Then I placed crabs at the base of the pipe. My intention is to plant the pipe 1 foot in the ground which leaves 3 ft remaining.

Welding crabs

After that I used a piece of angle iron and welded it to the top of the pipe. This was don’t for two reasons.

1 – The angle iron will be the base where the mail box will be fixed upon

2- The angle iron is approximately 2 inches in diameter. This is to prevent water from easily getting inside of the galvanize pipe and overtime cause corrosion

Wiring of pressure switch and adjusting psi/cut off rate.
 

To follow up on my previous post, I will give a overview of how the pressure switch is wired

There are 4 terminals and are numbered from left to right from 1-4

I have wired my pressure switch where by the left of the pressure switch allow the entrance of the wires that send electricity to the motor. The right had side represents electricity coming into the pressure switch, on both ends of cable, it is important to identify the ground wire.

The ground wire is placed at the bottom of the pressure switch on both ends.

Terminals 1 and 3 represent wires from one conduit (motor)

Terminals 2 and 4 represent wires from another  (power)

Water worries..............again

Maybe I should change the concept of my blog  to "plumbing works"  because it always seems that I have water issues. Now I bought this water pump about two months ago, I installed it and initially it seemed to work fine. About 2 days after it would make a weird start stop sound. A continuous clicking; (short cycling) and I didn’t understand why. I figured that it would “work itself out” and  I attributed the  short cycle  to an open pipe. Did my checks; found no leaks on the line and was completely clueless. I assumed “ brand new pump, that's probably how it works.”

The only concern that I had was that the lights would dim and flicker when the pump switched on.

My complacency allowed this to continue for a little while, then I realised that the pump was not coming on at all. (sometimes we create our own problems)

So I got my tools and decided to take a look at the pump.

My process was as follows

• Turn off all water valves coming from the water tank and heading to the household.
• Unscrew unions on the pump and allow water in pump to run off.
• Find clear clean table that close to an electrical outlet and place water pump on table to work. 

The first step I took is to open the pressure switch on the pump. The pressure switch is the little grey box on the side of the pump. When I opened this box, upon closer inspection I noticed that the contacts of the switch had been burnt out. Research lead me to discover the crucial mistake that was made. The failure to properly set the pressure switch on my initial installation caused the pressure switch to burn out. 

Pump with Pressure Switch (grey box)

contacts on right burnt.

  Having realised this, I bought a pressure switch (these switched comes in two types male and female) and installed it.

Finally, once I wired it properly I plugged the pump and VOILA! It began to work.

This time, I was able to set the pressure switch properly so that it wouldn’t happen again. (details I will post in a follow up post.)

The Right tools

I don’t know if anyone has seen the movie “ No Country for Old Men.” It’s directed by Ethan and Joel Coen about a drug deal gone bad and the assassin (Anton Chigurh) hired to  retrieve the money  played by Javier Bardem.  There is a scene in the movie that really stood out for me and I believe that its important and applicable to the life of any “do it your selfer”

[Anton has just shot the Man who hires Wells in the throat, and is standing over his body]

[to Nervous Accountant]

Anton Chigurh: Who are you?

Nervous Accountant: Me?

Anton Chigurh: Yes.

Nervous Accountant: Nobody... accounting.

Anton Chigurh: He gave the Mexicans a receiver. [Anton sighs]

Nervous Accountant: He feels... he felt that the more people looking[cut-off by Anton]

Anton Chigurh: That's foolish. You pick the one right tool.

Lock changing 

Today were going to  change a door lock set.

Apparently, the  existing lock that is here began to show signs of wear and tear and as a result the knob was not turning properly. So what were going to do is to disassemble the old lock and replace it with a new one.

What is good about this is that if your able to disassemble one lock your pretty much able to put it back together easily one time is taken to do so.

The diagram  above, shows the basic lock set. The ordered steps of the removal are as follows.

Old lock set

1) Put flat blade screw driver into the slot of the inner knob and at the same time pull the knob to release.

   Remove the rose, and the unscrew the mounting plate. 

Curiosity and the water pump.

My sister in-law purchased a small water pump for her nursery. The model is a Pentax, (Italian make I believe) in which she said she paid 1200.00 for it. About 2 weeks ago she told me it stopped working.  In my inquisitiveness, I disassembled the pump in its not specifically to fix the problem but to see how the pump worked.

The check list went as follow.

1. Check for power
2. A visual check to see what error reading the smart head of the pump gave.
3.  Opened the smart head to see if any wires were burnt.

I figured that the motor was seized due to the fact that the fan was not spinning freely. The fan is located at the back of the pump which is used to cool the unit. The failure of the unit could have been attributed to corrosion however I had to disassemble the water pump ( picture bellow) for further investigation.

Pump guts, a bloody murder

It was truly amazing to see the inner mechanics of how these water pumps work and the time i took examining the parts observing its makeup truly motivates me to do additional research on the mechanics of these devices. Eventually I was able to make the motor on the pump turn freely. In cases like these WD40 is your friend.  The application of WD 40 to the inner motor of the pump eventually caused it to move freely eventually. Having done this the pump was reassembled and put it back into service.

I thought to myself that I could have made an easy $250 to repair that pump which took me less than two hours of simple troubleshooting. Imagine if I had the time to perfect and shape skills into a craft?  The feeling of solving problems and challenging tasks is indeed addictive.

Good as new.

Future posts will give light to another water pump that I fixed. 

Buy one? Or the entire set?

I decided to change the shower stem in my bathroom. The hot water stem went bad, as it was not allowing the hot water to turn off completely when turned. So I figured that I would have just changed the hot water stem however I did take note that the other washers were going but not as bad the hot water stem and didn't desire immediate attention. As I began to work on it I realized that the shower knob would have to be changed as well.

At the hardware store and I asked the price of the stem and the knob. The stem was priced at $40.00 and the knob was priced at $45.00.The attendant also brought a complete set that was priced at $345.00 dollars. So I did the math, if I were to change all the fittings I would need

3 stems – left and right each priced at $40.00 and the shower mixer at $45.00

3 bathroom knobs at $45.00 each

A grand total of $260.00

The entire set consists of all the associated parts including the chrome finishes that go with the parts that would give the bathroom a nice finish. Therefore the difference would be 85 dollars.

So I decided to purchase the entire set.

Even though the cost was higher than just purchasing the parts that I needed, sometimes you never know. The great thing is that sometimes the extra parts may come in handy. And to purchase the finishing’s separately may have cost more than the $85.00 dollars or they may not be sold separately.

I give this example to say this… if your budget allows you to only fix one problem, work according to your budget. However, if you can purchase the entire set and you are into the aesthetics of your work, by the entire set.

 On the upside, I was able to get a discount of $20.00 thus only spending $325.00.

Winning.

Clogged drains

So lets say you have a kitchen sink, and you realise that water is taking a little longer to run off than normally, you may hear a bubbling sound when the water is running off or even you may have the need to use the plunger to relieve the excess blockage in the system, these are signs of possibly the drainage sink or the entire system being clogged.

This is a do it yourself blog therefore I am going to list preventative measures that can be taken to alleviate such problems.

The following are an outline of tips that can be used to assist in maintaining effect run off flow within your home

1. DO NOT PUT FOOD HUMAN HAIR OR LARGE OBJECTS INTO YOUR DRAIN PIPE.  This can be seen as the number one cause of blockages experienced in homes. It may be a case where you may have finished eating and the few grains of rice are washed into the drain pipe. However, when such items organically break down deposits form around the circumference of the drain pipe that gradually reduces the passage available for water to flow out of the system. Eventually the drainage systems take longer to dispose of water and eventually a blockage forms.
2. Preventative maintenance – this would entail the application of degreasing fluid into the system in an attempt to allow free flow of refuse. Examples degreasers are Drano and Drain Opener that can be bought at any hardware store. I personally use Muriatic Acid however, please take precaution in the application of these chemicals. Wear masks to cover your face and protective gloves. There are however other alternative methods that can be used that are of an organic nature that can be found online. This process will work well if a conscious effort is place to apply these degreasers into your system either every 4 to 6 months.  Its aim is to prevent likely hood of plumbing arteries being completely clogged.
3. In the event that the drainage system becomes clogged where by water runs off slowly, usually the application of a degreaser and a plunger is used to relieve the clogged system.

Worst case scenario.

The worst case scenario would be whereby instead of water running out of the drain, you may be experiencing a total back up in the system whereby the water does not run off at all. It means that the system is completely blocked. This is a terrible position to be in. This requires one of two things

1. If you are familiar on how the plumbing system is designed you can use a water hose with water on and flush the system until the blockage is removed. This is terrible because of the dirt and smell you will encounter and the amount of hassle that will be encountered leaves you tired and disgusted.
2. Call a plumber. The plumber will be equipped with a device called a plumber’s snake that will be used to de-clog the system. This is terrible because your going to have to take your hard earned money and pay someone to fix a problem that could have been prevented. This is a DIYS project thus the last thing you want to do is pay someone that you can do for your own.

in conclusion a lot of simple problems can mitigated through the use of preventative maintenance. So unless you want to be unclogging waste water pipe at instead of enjoying a cool relaxing evening, take my stupid advice.

I am going to bathe.  Goodnight.

Who sells a dryer without the cord?????

I believe that if a product or service is being provided to a customer, all attempts must be made to ensure that the customer has all the essentials to successfully operate said product or service once they have it in their possession.

So I was asked to help setup a dryer, a sweet piece of machinery, as their original machine that was in use suddenly died. The dryer was opened, and I was armed with my instruction manual, it seemed to be straight forward.

I looked to the back of the machine only to discover there is no cord to connect the machine to the 220 volt wall plug. Having searched the inside of the dryer,  and the entire box we called the store in which  the dryer was purchased only to discover that the cord is sold separate. I mean really?

Really? Even if you included the cost of the electrical cord in the cost price of the dryer, customers would still purchase the machine or even if upon purchase if the customer was informed about the separate purchase of the cord, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

As a result, what to me should have been a simple plug and use turned into a easy DIYS challenge

For this challenge all that is needed is a crescent wrench, and a Phillip head screw driver.

Instead of purchasing a brand new cord, I decided that I would use the cord from the old machine.

Electrical outlets for a three (3) prong 220 volt outlets for dryers resemble the following  

The 3 pronged electrical cord looks like the following

Once the cord was removed, I began to install it unto the new dryer.

 The first step would be to open the access panel; this is located at the back of the dryer. 

There is a screw that holding the cover, that can be removed using a crescent wrench or a socket set.

Secondly pass the cord through the opening once the access panel has been removed.

There should be three brass coloured contacts that have screws on them, these must be removed to successfully place the cord in its correct positions.

The third step would be to attach the new cord. In most instances the cord will be colour coded, however, if not, the centre cord is identified as the neutral line this we will match the centre contact with the electrical cord. Having done this, we will follow by screwing on the two remaining lines on each side.

 Fourthly we must cover the access panel and screw the bracket firmly.

The moment of truth would be to plug it in and test the dryer. 

Start the dryer and observe if the dryer is spinning, heat being generated or if the electrical breaker trips or anything out of the ordinary.

I woke up this morning to find my water tank empty.

Upon further investigation I discovered that the cause of the problem. Apparently an avocado fruit that located nearby the water tank fell and broke the ½ inch pipe heading to the water tank. Never one to shy away from a challenge I assessed the extent of the damage and went to work

Light work

So, I am outside doing yard work, and as I am just about to finish I hear “crick.” This is strange; I see water coming from the ground. My curiosity told me to dig down to see what was happening. To my surprise I see a pipe that has been broken and to my amazement, it’s the pipe that feeds water to my home. I was able to bring the pipe in full view with a little digging and assess the extent of the damage.

“Light work” I said to myself prefect for a quick DIYS project.

Leaky Face Basin

Hey guys.

We are going to check out a face basin that running water..
the Scenario  is as follows, any time water is run within the face basin it runs out to the floor and is pretty much dangerous and inconvenient. So for today's DIYS project we are going to find out whats going on and fix it.

The tools we are going to need are as follows

1. crescent wrench
2. Pipe wrench
3. vise grip
4. thread seal

Removing the  face basin

Step 1) first turn off the tap for the face basin and the 1/2 inch stop valve located at the bottom of the face basin

                                                  Turn off .

Step 2) Having completed this we are going to turn the top part of the P trap in an anti clockwise direction.

Step 3) unscrew the hose connecting the face basin tap to the 1/2 inch valve bellow the the face basin.

 Once this is completed we can successfully lift the entire face basin off.

Upon inspection I discovered 2 things
1) the drainage outlet was badly corroded
2) the tailpiece for the drainage outlet seemed to be broken hence the reason for the excessive water.

The nature of the problem is the damaged tailpiece  but for this DIYS we are going to change both the the drainage outlets and the tailpiece.


Step 3) Using our pipe wrench on the tail piece and placing a vise grip on the old drainage outlet, we will hold the vise in a stationary position while turning the pipe wrench in a anticlockwise direction.
Once the tail piece is removed we will then remove the old drainage outlet.

Installing new Drainage Outlet and Tailpiece.

Please note, the position in which the outlet is faces is very important. The top hole serves as a run off access to prevent face basins from overflowing with water. It is best to line up the lower exit access of the drainage pipe with the access of that on the face basin

Ensure that the brass nut on the drainage outlet has a rubber separating the it from the ceramic part of the face basin as well as the top drainage outlet. once this is fitted on the face basin proceed to tighten until the drainage outlet is secure.

Next take the new tailpiece  and screw it unto the drainage outlet and when this is completed, reassemble the face basin.

There should be no leaks in the system if done correctly please take time to carefully uses thread seal on the drainage outlet after is has been secured on the face basin so to prevent leakages at the inlet tailpiece.


Remember all DIYS projects take time, practice and most of all patience. There is no need to rush.

I hope this DIYS helped you in some way. Feel free to ask questions and if there is any DIYS topic you would like me to address please let me know.

Blessings and Love.

Hey guys.

For this blog post, I was asked to change a shower head for someone and I decided it would be great to give a step by step run down on how to do it.

The old stem and the shower head will be replaced by a new stem and shower head.

These two parts are all that would be needed. This  is for shower mixers that are in wall and are commonly used in homes in T&T.

Wooden Plaque

I was asked to hang a wooden plaque on a wall.
There are many options that I could have used to complete this task.
Initially I wanted to drill a whole into the wall and place a nail so that I can hang up the plaque but I opted to find an alternative solution as I did not want to drill any unnecessary holes.
I however stumbled across these Oval hooks  at the hardware.

                                             Welcome to Christophe's DIYS.

 DIYS simply means "Do It Your Self." This blog is meant to inspire, and motivate the anyone who is desirous of embarking on a project or an idea but may be unsure of how to go about doing so.

I myself am no professional in any building or construction field, (doer of many master of none) however, I am willing to experiment and try new things and activities.

In my free time I occupy myself with small home activities and repairs in which I will document and post on this blog.

Throughout this journey, I encourage, constructive thoughts and ideas that would not only benefit myself, but anyone that views this site.

The journey has just begun....

Welcome.