Random stuff you made.

[CarterKraft]

**** me and PTO

 

[BDK]

No NO NO

You gut someone with a "dagger" & a jury will fry your ass. However, if you defend yourself with a common tool anyone can get at Home Depot . . . there's no intent . I only mentioned the duct knife because it looks a lot like the dagger M92PV4U said he liked, certainly not because because anyone would ever use one as such (clutches pearls).

but seriously, a duct knife is handy for cutting rubber, foam, plastic, thin sheet metal, cardboard, 1/8" plywood . . . hell, prob'ly even duct board & flexible ducting

He's 100% correct about the knife's "purpose" when it's used in a defensive situation. That's why I carry a Kershaw folder with a half serrated blade. It's for cutting seat belts, a utility knife, man.

 

[[486]]

'duct board'
is that like that 1/4" thick asbestos fiberboard or what?

 

[Gumbybronco]

'duct board'
is that like that 1/4" thick asbestos fiberboard or what?

I had to look it up.
Hardboard insulation

 

[ExWrench]

He's 100% correct about the knife's "purpose" when it's used in a defensive situation.

 

[BDK]

When I was working in Ventura County in the early 90's, a PD officer was fighting over his gun. He used his "utility" knife to cut the dudes throat. That's how the report read. My department and most others, had policies prohibiting defensive knives so we all carried "utility knives". Cold Steel was right down the street from the Ventura office and gave us wholesale discounts. I still have one of their "utility" mini-tantos.

 

[ExWrench]

Hmmm . . . add front camera for nine hundred bucks?

I'm more interested in a budget of one hundred bucks

No room to drill^. That was "fun".

I really stepped up on the camera - ****er was almost 40 bucks

Small 4.3" (shown) or 5" monitor will live atop dash, small enough to not block any view except the hood. 25-ish bucks.

It only looks off-center because of where I held the phone camera^ . I assure you, it's OCD centered <.020"

Put the grille on & hooked up a motorcycle battery - it sees the ground about 15" ahead of the bumper

Follow-up: got the 5" monitor last night; better image quality than that other monitor, $25 well spent.

Phone pic of 5" screen propped on rad support & hooked to MC battery:

Nearest foot is 15" from front bumper, skinny black rectangle is top of lic. plate mount.

IMHO, this cheap setup is slam-dunk win

Hoping to finish installation this weekend along w/ the winch.
. . . then stop screwing with the brand new truck for awhile

 

[ScottRS]

Two things I made. Well, one my wife made with a little help from me, one I made with a little help from her.

 

[ScottRS]

The whole patio "set".
The round pile of rocks, in case it's not obvious, is a propane fire "pit".

 

[Alexis700]

It works, pressure tested with nitrogen at 300 psi. No bubbles at connections, pressure was same a day later.

Vacuum pump wasnt pulling for ****, got a quart of vacuum pump oil at napa, changed oil out in the pump and it pulled to 25 micron with the gauge hooked direct to it. Have a 3/4 hp 2 stage 9 cfm pump, its strong but the oil is what it pulls against. The china oil shipped with the pump was no bueno apparently.

Pulled vac on the system, got it down pretty low. I need a legit 1/2" hose for the pump and a brass fitting to eliminate the rubber hose from micron gauge to core removal tool. The rubber hose is permissable enough that you cant do a decay test, microns rise fast just from the hose. So ideally you would have a brass fitting with a valve to connect the micron gauge to the core removal tool.

So you hook up vacuum pump to system through the core removal tool with valve core out. The micron gauge connected to side port on core tool. When it is vacuumed down, you close valve on core tool to vacuum pump. But the port the micron gauge is connected to is still open, so you need a valve for micron gauge becaus they get all ******ed when they get any oil in them.

So I used that yellow hose because I didnt have a brass ball valve for the micron gauge. It worked but couldnt do decay test because the hose is permissable to deep vacuum. That is just leave micron gauge reading with valve shut off to pump, and make sure the reading is steady.

But got it done and was sitting below 400 microns when refrigerant was released. So once you have valve shut to vacuum pump and shut to micron gauge , open up valves on condensor and release refrigerant to break vacuum. Then the fun part, put the valve core back in with refrigerant in there, the little tool lets you install the valve core with almost no refrigerant loss. Valve core gets trapped in end , and then passes through the ball valve and screws back in the service port.

Didnt pick up foam yet, so temporarily taped filter box to it. Cant tell a difference in air flow with or without filters, it doesnt seem to mind.

 

[Pony_Driver]

More details on the valve core pulling and replacement please.

 

[CarterKraft]

More details on the valve core pulling and replacement please.

 

[billybob_81067]

Why do you have to pull the valve core?

 

[Java230]

I'm no pro, but I didn't? Vac down lie sets remove Vac pump, open valves on the outdoor unit to release refrigerant

 

[Alexis700]

So it is supposed to make pulling the system down to a deep vacuum much faster. Probably doesnt make much difference until you are doing a evac on a system that was running and has refrigerant and oil all through it which takes much longer to get all the moisture out.

I installed 2 mini splits 6 months ago, did not use a core tool or micron gauge. They are working fine, and most likely wont have a problem because of it.

I am looking to be able to charge customers for HVAC service, and the pro way is to use a core tool for doing evac. I just figure if I want to be able to charge for it, I should learn to do things correctly. Although I am sure there is no shortage of hvac techs out there who dont do things the right way.

 

[zlathim]

I am looking to be able to charge customers for HVAC service, and the pro way is to use a core tool for doing evac. I just figure if I want to be able to charge for it, I should learn to do things correctly. Although I am sure there is no shortage of hvac techs out there who dont do things the right way.

I was wondering why you were getting so technical with this install. I have the same brand, just a smaller size and I didn't mess around with micron gauges and core tools when I set mine up. Only regret is not getting the 24k BTU unit like you got.

 

[[486]]

Why do you have to pull the valve core?

why pull the valve core when airing up/down a tire?

 

[[486]]

Probably doesnt make much difference until you are doing a evac on a system that was running and has refrigerant and oil all through it which takes much longer to get all the moisture out.

not really all that often any moisture especially in a running system
just a bunch of fridgerant dissolved in the oil
it'll foam out for a long time

 

[dnsfailure]

My wife made a UV cover for our new outside air hose reel. We're eventually going to have a vehicle lift behind the house, and I've already started working on vehicles back there because I don't have room in the carport all the time... and she likes using air for some of her projects, it was always a pain to drag a hose to the back of the house, so now we have one :)

I wanted it to be a light weight hose, so that she can use it and not get frustrated, so we went with a Flexzilla 1/2" hose, it's really light. BUT, I'm not sure how well it will fair in direct sunlight all the time. So, my wife made a cover for it out of some sort of marine fabric (we had it left over from another project). It's waterproof, and UV resistant, so hopefully that should do well. And to help it out even fartherm we sprayed a few light coats of fabric guard on it, which is supposed to keep water, and mold from happening. She is a little embarrassed by how it looks, she banged it out real quick. I told her it didn't matter, it just needs to cover the reel up.

I also put a shutoff valve right next to the reel, so that it can be easily cut off from the main pressure, so it doesn't stay pressurized all the time (I leave my entire system pressurized all the time). I figure the lighter weight flexible hose wouldn't like staying pressurized all the time.

 

[Alexis700]

I was wondering why you were getting so technical with this install. I have the same brand, just a smaller size and I didn't mess around with micron gauges and core tools when I set mine up. Only regret is not getting the 24k BTU unit like you got.

The shop is 30x40 1200 sq ft, with 10 ft ceilings. So a decent size area to heat and cool. From what I could tell this past winter the shop doesnt take much to keep warm, walls are 2x6 and insulated, ceiling has 8 inch thick fiberglass, and inside is all drywalled.

The heat pumps really like a tight building, they kinda depend on just maintaing a temperature more so than brute force of a gas or oil furnace. I think the 24k unit will do a good job of holding the garage at 50-55 in winter without burning up a ton of electric. This particular model is a cold climate one, has a chassis base pan heating element to prevent ice build up and is rated to -4F.

I have 2 Piomeer quantum ultra mini splits doing heating and cooling for my old single wide trailer, they are rated to -13F. And they performed well this winter with temps down to 0. Below about 15-20 degrees I did burn a little heating oil in the morning to warm things up. Those units do not have base pan heaters, and when it snows 2 feet in 24 hours the condensor base pans were full of ice from defrosts. So I think little roofs over them would help out a lot for them to work better during snow storms.

For the shop when its really cold and I want to do some work I will just get a fire going in the wood burner. I had the wood burner going 24/7 for a good bit of last winter, **** that it is too much work. I have an oil furnace in there, and because price of heating oil is insane I tried to use as little as possible. The 2 mini splits in the trailer took the heating oil use down to almost nothing.

As far as install, the costway is a pretty cheap low quality mini split. So this was more for me to learn how to install by the book but also to try to give it best chance of a long life. Also the micron gauge was very nice just to know what is happening when vacuuming. For example, my pump with junk oil would pull the manfold gauge all the way to 29 so it seemed fine going off an analog gauge.

Hooked micron gauge direct to pump and it stalled at like 12000 microns. Changed pump oil and it pulled down to 200 microns fast. Let it run a while and it got down to 25, which is what a 2 stage pump is supposed to do.

The nitrogen test was also for peace of mind. I had a flare connection develop a small leak on one unit in my trailer after a couple weeks, and only when it ramped way up on heat and put some high pressures in the line. I seen the oil trail on the wall , and tightened the fitting up and it has been good since. Was kinda doing a test with that one where I put temp up to 88 and let it go for a bit. That will put 400+ psi in the big line running like that, and that made the connection at the indoor head leak.

So seeing the Costway hold 300 psi for 24 hours with no change tells me the connections should hold tight. Its less stressful for me to pressure test **** with nitrogen than refrigerant.

 

[Mr.Ratbastard]

Here's my mini split install in our class A. We won't be traveling in it anytime soon but when/if we do the outside unit can store the refrigerant and the hose can be stored away. I used a flexible line set from Pioneer that helped a lot.
The goal was 1. Less noise and 2. More efficient. 3. Not too janky looking inside. It has only been in a few days but so far it is awesome. A massive improvement over the R/V air. We will see how it does in the heat of the summer etc.

 

[arse_sidewards]

The heat pumps really like a tight building, they kinda depend on just maintaing a temperature more so than brute force of a gas or oil furnace. I think the 24k unit will do a good job of holding the garage at 50-55 in winter without burning up a ton of electric. This particular model is a cold climate one, has a chassis base pan heating element to prevent ice build up and is rated to -4F.

Figure out how much opening the garage door will cost when it's 20deg out. I bet some vinyl flaps will pay for themselves in not too long.

 

[Alexis700]

Figure out how much opening the garage door will cost when it's 20deg out. I bet some vinyl flaps will pay for themselves in not too long.

I have a 170k btu torpedo heater if I need fast heat. But the majority of thermal energy in a structure is stored in all the physical items/material inside not the air. So I would think it would recover the air temp no problem from pulling something in or out.

The big heat draw will be from a cold vehicle being pulled in, and how much energy it takes to bring the vehicle up to temp.

 

[billybob_81067]

why pull the valve core when airing up/down a tire?

Only time I do that is to seat a bead. Pulling a vacuum on a refrigerant system isn't really a time sensitive rushed thing, so why not just hook up the pump and work on something else for a while and not fiddle with the valves?

 

[[486]]

Only time I do that is to seat a bead. Pulling a vacuum on a refrigerant system isn't really a time sensitive rushed thing, so why not just hook up the pump and work on something else for a while and not fiddle with the valves?

Thing is with high vacuum your flowrates get kind of obscene.

Just as with compressed air, 20scfm takes a pretty substantial compressor to make but fits through a sixteenth inch hole pretty easily, go the other direction and you're seeing big pressure drops across even the flow restriction of an empty service valve. Recall that 0 psi gauge is 14.7ish absolute so when approaching 0psi absolute you get a bit of that 'exponential curve' sorta **** going on through dealing with extremely small pressure differentials and gasses that are very expanded.


Either you take the cores out, and the tabs in your hoses with them or you run your vacuum pump for days at a time.

I'm of the ilk that halfasses things terribly; never even used a proper manometer and vacuum for a half hour at most, so I do live on your side of the fence.

 

[Roc Doc]

I have a 170k btu torpedo heater if I need fast heat. But the majority of thermal energy in a structure is stored in all the physical items/material inside not the air. So I would think it would recover the air temp no problem from pulling something in or out.

The big heat draw will be from a cold vehicle being pulled in, and how much energy it takes to bring the vehicle up to temp.

I have the exact opposite problem, vehicles sit out over night and get pulled in before sunrise

 

[gunracer1]

I did ac workforce 30 plus years. I only removed cores on big systems, as in 5 tons plus.

 

[1Sinner]

Building a tow dolly for behind the RV.

Last picture shows the concept. It a dolly with a deck in the front for motorcycles or a golf cart.

I was trying to find one to buy, but new, they're 10 to 12k and used they go for about 5 to úk if you can find one at all.

So far I'm in it about 300 in parts plus material and an axle I had in the yard. I managed to get most of the frame built, the deck frame built, the drop axle sections gusseted and the neck reinforced.

Still need to build the pivot plate for the car tires, but not bad for 2 days worth of work and starting from scratch.

 

[CarterKraft]

Here's my mini split install in our class A. We won't be traveling in it anytime soon but when/if we do the outside unit can store the refrigerant and the hose can be stored away. I used a flexible line set from Pioneer that helped a lot.
The goal was 1. Less noise and 2. More efficient. 3. Not too janky looking inside. It has only been in a few days but so far it is awesome. A massive improvement over the R/V air. We will see how it does in the heat of the summer etc.

Brilliant idea going with that console unit.

 

[Alexis700]

I am happy, finished up injector install in my truck last night. Got home around 4 30, was 88 degrees outside and sunny outside. The shop mini split was putting along fan barely spinning, and inside the garage was 69 degrees and no humidity. Life changing for working in the shop in the summer.

I had rented half a 20x40 steel quanset hut for a couple years, inside temps in there would hit 110 pretty easily. Just a uninsulated steel hotbox, and impossible to keep warm in the winter. Better than being outside, but marginally.