u/Pastaron

Considering bolting my 6-post PR5000 down. It’s on rubber flooring on top of an epoxied concrete basement floor. Has weight horns on the back too.

Anyone here bolt their rack down? Did you notice it gave significant increased stability? Or was it inconsequential?

Well pump that was only 4 years old shit the bed the other day. Guy replacing it says it looks like it got hit by lightning and we should file an insurance claim. Cost $4k to replace and our deductible is $2500, so we’d be getting $1500, assuming the claim is granted.

Do small claims typically cause notable increases in insurance premiums? I’m generally of the mindset that insurance is there to be used, and $1500 is worth filing a claim over, but I could see there’s an argument to be made that even a moderate increase in premiums extrapolated to 40+ years of homeownership could be much more than $1500.

2.2k sqft home, New England, moved in last August. Last summer we got by on a single head mini split unit (in a suboptimal location) and a couple of window units, all left from the previous owners. That single head mini split unit is no longer getting cold (yes I cleaned the filters). It’s 15+ years old so I doubt it is worth it to get professionally repaired.

House is on oil baseboard heat, which honestly wasn’t terribly expensive even with this past brutal winter, but oil certainly isn’t $3.10/gal anymore.

Currently debating whether or not to replace that unit with a 3 or 4 head mini split with a pro install (something like a Mitsubishi hyper heat), or just adding a couple extra window units. I assume I’m looking at $15k+ for a 4-head unit install vs a few hundred bucks on a couple extra window units.

Is the added energy efficiency enough to justify the expense? The fed tax credit is gone, I’d maybe be getting $2k back from my state incentives but it’s still a considerable expense. And at the end of the day I’d still probably need to supplement the 4 heads with window units/oil heat as well, as they’re not going to hit every room. No duct work in the home and I assume that route is significantly more expensive.

Recently got a DCF892. For torqueing bolts that call for ~80 ft lbs (mower blades, car tires) presumably I’d use the 1st speed setting (capped at 100 ft lbs), correct? And do you sit on it a bit? I assume it’s better to slightly over torque than under torque?

So I’ve noticed in the summer our hot water in the shower is sometimes (but not all the time) not quite as hot as it should be. Setup is an indirect hot water heater with an oil boiler. Hot water heater is set to 135 F and when the water is hot, it’s plenty hot.

Well, I see that our boiler is getting down to as low as 110 F, since our heat isn’t on. It has a minimum temp setting; the previous owners set it as low as possible and I haven’t touched it. Even still, we spent a solid $400 or so last summer on oil hot water alone.

Should I bump this minimum temp up to 140 or so? Concerned about how much oil consumption that’d add, but it’s pretty annoying to have a lukewarm shower- wife is not happy with it

Factory installed blades, going at them from the bottom with a tool to hold the blade in place and a 12" breaker bar, full force and the bolt will not budge. Is this supposed to be doable by hand or is it time to just buy an impact wrench?

Planning to build a deadlift platform with spare plywood. 3'x8' (or 4'x6') is simple with TSC stall mats: 1 4x6 3/4" stall mat for the bottom (cut in half and rotated to fit 3'x8'), 2 sheets plywood, then 2 x 3x4 1/2" for the top. But if I want to go to the more standard 4'x8', then I need to buy extra $85 in mats to cut. I feel like 3' would be enough depth unless I'm bouncing all over the place; hopefully not with this setup and with rubber-coated iron

So I went to pickup horse stall mats from my local tractor supply, and unfortunately they all have that horrid texturing on the top (despite the picture showing flat), so that is a no-go for me. At the moment, I only need to cover a 12'x8' space, so either something like 2 x 4'x12' rolls or 12 2'x2' interlocking tiles. Going on my concrete basement floor, which is epoxied. Planning to tape it down. I will be deadlifting on it.

Is 3/4" worth the extra cost, or is 1/2" already plenty? I see American flooring is recommended here. Their prices seem reasonable but their shipping is quite expensive (>$200) on rolled rubber and mats. Their tiles ship free but are pricey. All options are >$500 shipped; up to $750 if volcanized 3/4" rolled.

Gluck recommended Freedom Fitness as well. They only have 8mm rolls in stock, their matts are also expensive to ship, but their 3/4" interlocking tiles are actually pretty cheap- $270 shipped for 12. So that is a good bit more affordable than what I'm seeing for rolled rubber or shipped mats.

How are interlocking rubber tiles? I'm just a bit worried about the look of the connection and how it might look a bit cheap compared to rolled rubber.

https://preview.redd.it/krqep3i4dk1h1.jpg?width=1658&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b6d3946ccd367c1afc7872a1088da5c78ba0f59

Just ordered a rack, barbell, and bench; now I just need to order weight. Planning to do a lot of SBD work, so I want plates that are easy to handle and are relatively thin. For some reason I had $1/lb in mind, but that doesn't seem possible even secondhand near me. I'm generally of the buy once cry once philosophy. I really do not want to have mix and matched plates in my gym, so I'd like to commit to one vendor.

Any other reputable rubber-coated plates out there at a better price point? I've seen Giant recommended as well, though they're only slightly cheaper. Looking at a crisp $1100 in weight from Rep...