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12:09 PM
Nice answer @BMitch!
5
A: Do I have to remove the old thinset before installing new tile?

BMitchLike Greebo says, you want to get back down to the concrete, but I'd suggest that more to have a flat surface to build on top of. To make the job go faster, you can use a power tool. Several would get the job done: Power Chisel (best fit for the job): Air Hammer (you'd need a high capacity ai...

 
@Tester101 I couldn't figure out how to work a beaver into that answer
I could have gone for the easy way out and made a Chuck Norris joke.
 
mornin
 
12:27 PM
@ChrisCudmore Excellent blog post!
 
12:40 PM
Great job on the floor!
 
1:05 PM
@Tester101 ??
latest blog i see is brick oven
 
@TheEvilGreebo You'll see it tomorrow. I'm looking into my crystal ball.
 
oh its in the drafts
one of these days I need to re-connect to that...
so freaking busy at work :(
 
1:47 PM
@Tester101 Thank you.
 
 
3 hours later…
4:55 PM
Both the cut-off wheel on the rotary tool and the metal/wood blade for the oscillating tool worked fine for cutting the hanging track
 
Is this offtopic:
0
Q: How can I build an insert on a desk that adjusts the height of a sewing machine?

user7381I'd like to take my executive desk ( now sewing table) and cut out a piece of it to use as a support for my sewing machine. I want the sewing machine support able to lower the machine to table height, which would enable me to have everything level and I'd be able to sew faster. I'd like it to be ...

 
@BMitch Its more carpentry than diy
was looking at it myself
 
agreed, from our faq it seems to fit the hobby or small appliance categories
 
small appliance?
 
I'll refrain from pulling out my mod hammer until a few others from the community chime in
the sewing machine is the small appliance
 
4:59 PM
but the question isn't about the sewing machine
its about modifying furniture
 
@TheEvilGreebo probably no more off topic than the standup desk question
 
As Hannibal Lecter would say, "No that is incidental" ;)
 
@waxeagle hmm, good point. I'll take out the stand up desk question while I'm at it :)
 
35
Q: How do I make a height adjustable desk?

EvanHas anyone made their own height adjustable desk? I'm interested in making a computer desk that can easily be adjusted for either standing or sitting. The lift mechanism could be electric or mechanical, as long as it is not too hard or time-consuming to adjust. (There are commercial options aro...

Lots of votes/views/answers.
 
@Tester101 featured on lifehacker too IIRC
 
5:02 PM
My $.02 is that fledgling stack exchanges need to be a bit more flexible on what is considered "on topic" particularly when there is no other thriving SE to which it would be better suited.
 
yeah we dont have any kind of specialty carpentry site
not even in area51
there's a furniture site in definition
never happen
 
Consider, for example, quant.stackexchange.com, a tremendously interesting SE to me, but they have narrowed their base quite far such as to push out enthusiasts
 
or maybe we should make carpentry explicitly on topic
 
and up-and-coming enthusiasts (rather than professionals) are the lifeblood of SE
 
@MatthewPK um DIY is graduated, that's far from fledgling
 
5:04 PM
@wax maybe it's not fair for me to contrast DIY with SO
 
But I see the same primary members answering nearly every question (and their answers are great, quite helpful) but imho what makes the SE model excel is when a great number of people answer questions.
 
@Tester101 I was thinking of the FAQ
 
3
Q: How do I build a headboard for a bed?

cbrulakI need to build a headboard in the next couple of days. My requirements: can be attached to the wall, I read something somewhere about French cleat needs to be attached to the bed, to stop the bed from sliding on the hardwood floor (its very old and needs to be refinished so I'm not worried a...

 
so furniture construction squarely on topic? what about modification?
 
5:11 PM
@waxeagle seems like "home improvement" to me, still....
 
I think one of the problems we face, is that when we said "DIY" we meant "DIY home improvement". Though some take it as "DIY" and/or "Home Improvement".
Do we really cover both?
 
@Tester101 pretty clearly no.
there is a subset of non home improvement/home repair/remodel that fits within the same skillset, but there is a ton of other DIY stuff that is off topic by design
(crafting, sewing, electronics for the most part, car repair etc etc etc)
 
Is it possible to get rid of the DIY (which seems to mostly be gone since we graduated, but is still prominent in our URL).
 
Had I question about installing or modifying my cabinetry, DIY.SE would be my first stop. Do we change the rules on furniture modification depending on whether or not it happens to be attached to a wall?
 
@MatthewPK until we build up a large enough user base for that to occur, its the primaries answering that will build up the hit results on google
 
5:18 PM
Until there is a carpentry site, we should probably allow most carpentry questions.
We handled lawn care/landscaping, until there was a site specific to that.
 
yeah
well in that case
maybe we can draw more carpenters in
let that ? age and bounty it
4
Q: How can I prevent water from collecting near the blower fan blades of a portable air conditioner?

techie007I have a GE portable Air Conditioner (APH10AA). It's about 10 years old (I guess; we got it used). It works good (blows cold air), but in the last year or two it's regularly been getting water built-up in the blower fan area, so it sounds like a small waterfall and spits water (into the room). ...

@tester101 - when you exhale and see your breath, that's not condensation - that's mist
or fog
condensation happens on something :)
 
@MatthewPK actually yes, cabinets are part of the job of a home contract, your headboard wouldn't be.
But I'm open to explicitly allowing carpentry in the faq
 
A lot of DIY work is carpentry
 
@TheEvilGreebo Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. From Wikipedia.
 
framing and finish carpentry
@Tester101 look up fog
you breathing out into cold air = fog - which is condensate but its so finely particulated that it stays in the air
 
5:28 PM
0
Q: Should carpentry be made on-topic in our FAQ?

BMitchI've seen a lot of questions that are less based on home improvement that you would ask a building contractor, and more about carpentry (building a desk, supporting a fish tank, etc). Should these be made explicitly on topic in our FAQ?

 
@TheEvilGreebo I guess I'll give you fog. This might be a good question for the folks at English.SE
 
@Tester101 The things you have to learn about as a private pilot --- one includes the multiple types of fog :/
 
I'll let you guys get some meta cred and make sure others get a chance to chime in.
 
I'd be open to explicitly allowing carpentry, with the proviso that we state that we would migrate those questions when a more appropriate SE is out of Beta.
 
looking at that taban's answer though - more likely the cool air is cooling the surface around it then warmer air hits taht cool surface and bam condensate
 
5:30 PM
@TheEvilGreebo That's what I said.
 
I think someone should write a blog post reviewing the diy.stackexchange.com carpenter's pencil. -- It would be a good way of encouraging more blog posts.
 
@TheEvilGreebo The simple answer to that question, is to drill a f***ing hole and let the water drain.
@ChrisCudmore I'd do it, but I never got any pencils.
 
@ChrisCudmore Genius, pure genius
 
5
Q: How can you reverse a sliding glass door?

Alex FeinmanWe have a sliding glass door to our patio. The opening side is jammed up against a wall, meaning you have to scrape against that wall unless you throw the door all the way open. On the other side there's plenty of room. I had the thought to reverse the door so that the left side slid, instead of...

@TheEvilGreebo Turn the door upside-down, or inside-out.
 
@BMitch Perhaps you could edit your "Tales of the Tape" post to include the plug?
 
5:36 PM
Surely reversing a sliding door will be different depending on the make/model.
 
@ChrisCudmore Oh no, this deserves a blog post all to itself. we can describe how easy it is to carve, proper procedures to avoid having it stolen on the job site, ...
how nicely it fits in a tool belt, and cautions against poking your eye out
 
This was my plug in the laminate flooring blog (tools listing): "4 x diy.stackexchange.com Carpenter’s Pencils. You’ll need one at each saw, one behind your ear, and one left on the floor near the end of the run. Beware of inferior pencils. Only the official diy pencil will work."
 
@BMitch You'd have to compare to other carpenter pencils. Is a DIY pencil better than say a Home Depot pencil? What about Lowes?
 
it says diy.se, why would you bother using anything else?
 
Well, if I run into a problem, and need advice, which pencil would point you to the best source for assistance?
 
5:40 PM
@ChrisCudmore A Bob Vila pencil.
 
I also prefer the slightly nutty flavour of the DIY pencil over the bitterness of the big box pencils.
 
I complain a lot...
 
I don't understand that sliding glass door problem without a picture
 
Telephone solicitation?
 
@TheEvilGreebo how many hours do you have?
 
5:44 PM
@ChrisCudmore yup, I report them all
 
I'm on our national Do Not Call list, and it seems to work quite well, except for Duct Cleaning Companies.
 
I'm told that I can reduce my credit card interest rates about once per week
and I also report the robo calls that hang up without saying anything
 
I get those on the batphone at work all the time.
 
Those hangup calls are likely foiled by my "thank you for calling ..." company answer that I do on my home phone. They think it's an answering machine because I go on for more than 2 seconds.
but their broken software gets me another report
But the FCC seems to process these in batches, so after a month or two of complains, my in box gets flooded. And today is the day, 5 more emails since I posted that screenshot.
 
@Aaron They have a sliding door, where the sliding door is right next to a wall, whereas the stationary panel in the door is out away from the wall. They want to switch it around, so the sliding panel is away from the wall.
===---___= =is wall, ---is stationary panel, ___is sliding section. they want to change it to ===___---=.
 
5:58 PM
I think that changing the sliding door direction, re-doing the lockset and aligning the wheels on the other side (if there even are wheels on the other side) is more laborious and difficult than installing a new sliding door.
Both methods require removing the door and frame.
 
I guess, but I don't understand the scraping against the wall unless it's all the way open comment
 
@Aaron The door must be in a corner, so there is a wall perpendicular to the door right next to it.
===---___|
 
I don't think it's the door. It' probably his hand that's rubbing against the wall when he goes for the handle.
 
@Tester101 Shhht. I'm incentivizing!
 
And maybe his shoulder, if he only opens the door a crack.
 
6:02 PM
@Aaron flying? Under 200 - I stopped flying in 2008 for insurance purposes
 
Oh, yeah... he is scraping against the wall, not the door.
 
@TheEvilGreebo and you're inspiring me to get off my duff and award a bounty, it was about time I did that
 
@BMitch I'm a role model, I am!
i dont want to bountify a question for a user who hasn't been back in months though
 
6:21 PM
@Tester101, ah... scraping the person, not the door
now I can put it together
Clearly he needs to have some left handed people around so open the door properly
 
 
1 hour later…
7:28 PM
I think someone's upset about our beaver :-/ ...
0
Q: Answers that are google search results

dbraceyThere are often answers which resemble search results. By this I mean they are not a single answer, they are multiple answers with a "pick one" approach. These answers also often have an image with each answer - for example, one that has appeared several times is "Here are all the tools you cou...

 
I thought everybody loved @SteveJacksons beaver!?
 
Considering that the answer got 47 upvotes, it seems a lot of people like @SteveJackson's beaver
 
How did this answer get to the top?
6
A: How can I prevent water from pooling in the street in front of my house?

dbraceyGo to Home Depot and buy a hammock. Go the the supermarket and get frozen limeade mix and tequila and triple sec. Drink margaritas in the hammock and don't worry about a little puddle along the road, behind the plantings where you can't even see it.

 
upvoting
 
@TheEvilGreebo Thanks.
 
7:41 PM
@TheEvilGreebo I learn something new every day
 
@Tester101 I aim to serve.
 
Is this really the best answer? I'm all for having fun, but this to me is basically telling the OP that his problem doesn't matter.
 
Well now that's a different question altogether! ;)
 
"Ohh, your house is on fire? Grab some marshmallows and enjoy."
 
did I miss something? the beaver?
oh nm i remember now
 
7:49 PM
Yes, the beaver, meta got popular today
14
Q: What is the best tool for cutting up scrap wood?

AidanOI have some wood left over from building a patio, mainly some planks. Normally when I'm creating firewood, I just use an axe a split the wood, but these are too long for that. I really don't want to try and cut them with a wood saw or an Axe. The only tools I can think that make sense are a Ji...

 
In the end the multi-tool worked better than the rotary tool for cutting that hanging track
 
how did we NOT get chuck norris in that answer? ;)
tester - there are good answers to that question posted. the questioner doesn't have to accept the highest voted one, and its entertaining. What's it harm? it keeps the sense of the sight light hearted, easy going :)
 
@TheEvilGreebo Chuck Norris didn't want to cut the OP's wood, so he removed is name from the list.
 
@Tester101 Ah, well, Whatever Mr. Norris thinks is best! :D
 
@TheEvilGreebo It should be a comment. That's where snarky entertaining things go.
 
7:56 PM
@Tester101 so flag it as not constructive
 
@TheEvilGreebo Our flags have a habit of doing things, instead of asking a mod to do things, but user flags give us CYA to do things on your behalf
 
@BMitch "doing things " such as?
 
If we flag it as off topic, it gets closed or migrated, instead of asking a mod to review it, since we are the mods
I consider it a bad UI, the same interface does different things depending on your role on the site
 
that's a question flag right? what about an answer flag?
i agree, that's bad design
 
@TheEvilGreebo it completely varies by what the flag is, and it's not clear until after I do it
 
8:05 PM
@BMitch flags on answers won't kill the answer even from a mod, we use them pretty regularly on Christianity to communicate and note things
 
I don't flag, vote to close, etc. anymore. If I see a problem; that's not an obvious issue, I bring it up in chat or on meta and see how the community wants to handle it.
 
@waxeagle Thanks for the tip
 
@BMitch exception of course for spam/offensive, which will kill post and deduct 100 repz
 
@BMitch That is totally awesome.
tester: I flagged the answer as not an answer. (I also upvoted it - talk about mixed messages)
 
@TheEvilGreebo I saw that.
 
8:09 PM
lol on that question we're talking about, doesn't the strip of land adjacent to the road usually belong to the city/county/subdivision/etc?
 
@waxeagle it depends.
 
not necessarily
consider sidewalks - you own the land but the city requires you to maintain the sidewalk as public space
 
It only belongs to the city/town if it benefits them in some way.
 
I'd just like to point out that this answer was made by the same person asking this question on meta.
 
@Tester101 lol
@BMitch yeah I noted that
 
8:12 PM
@waxeagle If you found oil on the land, the city would own it. If you want a dead tree removed, you own it.
In rural/suburb areas, you might actually own right to the edge of the street.
 
@Tester101 makes sense
 
@BMitch I'm such a bad person...
3
 
@TheEvilGreebo oh damn, +1 to that
 
2
A: Answers that are google search results

The Evil GreeboGo to Home Depot and buy a hammock. Go the the supermarket and get frozen limeade mix and tequila and triple sec. Drink margaritas in the hammock and don't worry about a little multiple choice along the way.

 
lmao
 
8:17 PM
Let's not drive off users with the snark.
 
In my area I own the sewer line up to the middle of the street, where it connects to the city line. I'm looking in to suing the city for repairs, because their tree damaged my sewer line, so I have to dig up their street to repair it.
 
@Tester101 wow
 
@Tester101 Where was the tree?
 
Letter to the city: "Dear city, Would you kindly remove your tree that has damaged my sewer line? Could you also move your street, so I can repair the sewer line damaged by your tree?"
@TheEvilGreebo On city land.
In my area they own the small strip of land between the sidewalk and the street.
 
but you own the sewer line that runs through it?
 
8:20 PM
Obviously, I have to maintain this land, however.
 
their plant did damage to your property - does sound like their responsibility to me
 
I think the roots belong to me now though, because they grew into my sewer.
 
@ChrisCudmore I think a certain user is meriting a certain amount of snark. Review the other activity of said user.
 
Other than the hammock answer, I don't see anything out of line. Am I missing something obvious?
 
@ChrisCudmore On meta
@bmitch Sorry for the VTC, but I do think it's a duplicate. However, if we're tweaking the FAQ there are a couple of other things I think we should put in there.
 
8:32 PM
@NiallC. no worries, I searched for carpentry and should have also tried wood working
 
Like shopping, and expanding the scope of "rental agreements" to cover more legal stuff
 
only reason I'm not finishing it off with my own VTC is that the linked question is almost 2 years old and we've grown a fair bit since then
 
He's raising legitimate questions. To Whit: Are these the type of answers we want?
If the answer is yes, then fine.
Although he seems to have his own opinion already formed, and is asking questions in a slightly argumentative way.
 
@bmitch @Tester101 Are these Ahmeds the same person?
 
@NiallC. I just assumed it was.
 
8:38 PM
@NiallC. probably, but the OP was from EE, lemme check over there
Same pic on EE, but the account is unregistered so I don't think there's anything to merge: electronics.stackexchange.com/users/12196/ahmed
 
9:09 PM
We need something in the faq to encourage people to put their location (at least country) in their profile.
 
@ChrisCudmore I'm writing these down (I had already started a short list). I'll probably close my existing meta and reopen a new one for changes I'd like to make to the faq
I was also going to exclude pricing, product brands, and ranting (not sure of a good way to word the last one)
The ranting would be in reference to questions like this:
-3
Q: Contractor needs to move my water heater & he did it 3 times

emelitaContractor needs to move my water heater & he did it 3 times, in and out of the house now.... My water heater is leaking and I do not even know where it is coming from. MY contractor said he did not break it and it is fine when they finish. Even thou they got finish i have not seen that ther...

 
 
2 hours later…
11:11 PM
@BMitch Ranting is already covered in the standard text, but it's in one of the collapsed sections: diy.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask.
 

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