u/Mtrbrth

Hello all. Today I noticed some rust rings on the mantel of my mom’s woodburning fireplace insert. I opened it up to the ugly sight of quite a bit of surface rust. We’ve had an insane amount of rain lately, and I guess that some water entered the chimney (another problem I’ll be solving ASAP). I’ve inspected the metal with some serious prods of a poker, and it’s still very sound, so I’d like to clean it up. I’ve started with a bit of vinegar spray/wiping with cloths, but I’m not getting anywhere with just this. I fear it may take a bit more than just elbow grease, but I realize that wire wheeling/steel brushes would also bring about the need to repaint the areas affected. Painting wouldn’t be such a hassle if I could easily move the insert to the garage where I could position myself around the work, but this beast must weigh a few hundred pounds and moving it seems like a real chore. Has anyone else been down this road? Really hoping this is salvageable. Thanks for any insight here.

Edit: SOLVED! Thanks for the help. I’ll leave the pist up in case another idiot can’t figure it out. Wll I had to do was 180 the trap and extend the wall tube (pic added in a comment)

I had to replace my mom’s vanity and a couple of old stop valves that were leaking. In the process, I also sheared off the very rusted threaded end of the iron pipe connection to the main drain. I tried to remove that pipe altogether and replace it with a shorter one, but after a few soaks with PB blaster and all the torque I felt comfortable applying on a pipe wrench, I decided to cut a few inches off the collector pipe and put a Fernco adapter and a pvc trap adapter on it. This has left the final end of that pipe just a couple inches too far out, and my P-trap won’t land right. The most obvious answer (to me) would be to cut another two inches off the iron pipe, but that might be a huge battle now that I’ve put the vanity top on, which blocks the screw holding the vanity to a stud in the wall. The second (unappealing) answer is a flexible p-trap, which I’ve heard plenty of bad things about. What other options might I have that I’ve overlooked?

Hello out there. I was doing some cleaning today in one of the upstairs rooms in our house, and noticed what looked like moisture near the edge of the area rug. I lifted it, and found a pretty ghastly sight.

The dark areas you see here are wet hardwood. The bleached/faded areas have always been this way from a water damage incident decades ago that left the floor ugly in this room. We don’t know what that incident was, but I always assumed it was a sink/pipe bursting. Now, I’m not so sure. I’ve currently got it airing out with multiple fans moving air through the room.

It’s entirely contained underneath the perimeter of where the rug was, but the rug was not wet except the underside from touching this flooring, and there was no recent incident where ant water was spilled etc. There is no evidence of an outside leak, nor is there any evidence of moisture on the ceiling in the kitchen below. The house doesn’t have central air, and we very recently upgraded this room’s AC unit. With the recent heat wave, I’m sure humidity levels have been high across the board here. If anyone has ever seen such a thing, I’m very curious to know.

The silver lining here is that I have long been wanting to refinish the floors here. But I certainly need to know why this happened before that process is in the cards.

Hi guys. Just sold my Kona Hei Hei, looking to get another bike pretty quick. Saw this near me, and I can’t quite figure out what year it is. Google Lens isn’t giving me a very concrete answer. He is asking $1500 and it’s been sitting on Marketplace since May. Thanks in advance.

A local shop is selling this for a price that seems wildly low. I’m not versed at all in this era of Gibson. It looks the part in age, but has no serial to be seen. My guess is that, if it is legit, at least the Bigsby is not original (or even authentic). There are also two extra holes below the tune-o-matic. I plan to return tomorrow to look more at it. Thanks!

I still feel like he looks more Shepherd than Malinois most of the time, and he can’t even jump to get on the bed, but he was the runt of a litter who all looked very much more typical of the breed and tested majority Mal on a DNA test. Whatever he is, he’s an incredibly silly little guy, and I couldn’t love him more.

EDIT: SOLVED. To anyone in the same boat, do not listen to anyone who tells you the metal disconnect tool is a good substitute for the plastic rings. I went back to another parts store and bought the plastic set, and the cooler line was disconnected within 30 seconds of walking into the garage.

Spent the past 30 minutes trying to disconnect this transmission cooler line so I can swap my radiator, and it is just not budging. I have no idea what I could be doing wrong, and I know I’m using the correct size tool for the job (3/8”). Any insight here?

I picked this jacket up from a guy who said he’s had it at least 25 years. It’s still got a tag on it. I tried to understand the date code, but I’m a little confused. Here is the care tag. Thanks in advance for any help.