Other Projects I'm Working On

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've gone off topic on my thread in Networking on my Ethernet network revamp so I'm moving the off topic posts to this thread and will post any current and new projects unrelated to networking here.

The follow has been imported from the other thread:

I've been working on other projects, such as tracking down a light flickering problem. It turned out to be a breaker in the trailer court's pedestal, which the trailer court quickly had replaced. It turned out both breakers in the pedestal had to be replaced (the one for the house was already failing and the one for the A/C unit was not far behind). While trouble shooting, I found out the jacket on the cable running from the pedestal, under the trailer, and to the A/C unit was cracking (pretty bad in some previously hidden places) so I had to replace it.

The hardest part of replacing the A/C cable was finding one at a reasonable price. I wanted one that had a molded on plug like the house cable has (better weather protection and almost no chance of a strain relief clamp failing) but no dice, even online, so I got a 25' 50A RV extension cable, cut the outlet end off with a recip saw, then stripped the end of the jacket back to expose the conductors. I had to order it online since the ones I could find locally would cost almost $100 more .

Instead of trying to go blindly kitty corner from where the cable goes under the skirting, under the trailer, and back out at the A/C unit around the corner, I cheated and opened up the skirting where the cable goes under and opened up the short four foot stretch at the back of the trailer where the A/C is, then used my 12' fish rod set to pull the cable between the inside of the skirting and the A/C return air duct that was in the way to the back, laid it on the ground inside of the removed stretch of skirting around the corner to the A/C unit, pulled it back out under the skirting ground channel, then replace the skirting panels I had removed.

I was going to connect the cable to the disconnect box on the side of the trailer then but I was feeling a bit off so decided to wait a couple of days (I also was a bit pooped by then--old age sucks!). It's a good thing I did since an hour or so later, I was riding the porcelain bus off and on for much of the rest of the day and evening. I had tried a sugar free version of plain M&Ms earlier in the day and, even though they advertised that it was sweetened with Splenda, they still had a large portion of Malitol, a well named sugar alcohol that lives up to the "mal" in the name due to its laxative properties. . I trashed the rest of the bag I had.

A couple of days later, I shut off the pedestal breaker for the A/C, unplugged the cord, then opened opened up the A/C disconnect box (being the coward I am, I also used my contact-less voltage checker to make darned certain the circuit was indeed dead). I was concerned about the #6 stranded wire in the new cable fitting in the box connectors since the ratings for them are for #8 cable so, after determining the length needed for the pigtails on the new A/C cord, trimming them to the length needed, and stripping the ends, I disconnected one of the #8 wires going to the A/C from the box and checked the fit with one of the pigtail cutoffs; it "slud" in slick as snot on a broom handle.

Assured that the new cable would fit, I disconnected the old cables wires, then removed the cable and its box strain relief connector. I opened up the knockout the old cable had gone through to accommodate the new, larger strain relief connector (I had one hell of a time finding that locally ), then poking everything in and connecting them. It all went far, far easier than I had expected (I love it when a plan comes together!).

The old cable had only three wires--two hots and a ground--since the A/C needs only 240v but the RV extension cord also had a neutral (white). I didn't need it but I was loath to cut it off on the very odd chance I might need it someday (better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it) so I just left it the length of the other pig tails and sealed the unstripped end off with a couple of layers of some mastic lined heat shrink sleeve I had.

I was expecting to have a hard time pulling out the old cable. I first cut off as much at the A/C end as I could reach, then started pulling at the other end. It resisted at first and I was starting to entertain notions of tying a rope to it and my truck and letting my truck pull it out when it finally broke free and pulled out fairly easily. Job done (did a little happy dance)!

Part of the old cable had sunk into the ground (it was old when I bought the trailer 27 years ago) and was covered with moist dirt, making it harder to pull out. Apparently, ants had built a nest there and I disturbed it when I yanked the cable out. They swarmed out from under the trailer and headed west in a four foot wide path for about eight feet. It looked like a moving carpet! I have an arrangement with ants. As long as they don't invade my home (and they very rarely do anymore), I'll leave them alone but that swarm was rather scary so I broke out the bug spray and showered the entire swarm. I've seen agitated ants before but never to that scale .

___________________________________________________________________________________________

You amaze me. This has been a "PROJECT"! and deserves the all caps.

Part of the old cable had sunk into the ground (it was old when I bought the trailer 27 years ago) and was covered with moist dirt, making it harder to pull out. Apparently, ants had built a nest there and I disturbed it when I yanked the cable out. They swarmed out from under the trailer and headed west in a four foot wide path for about eight feet. It looked like a moving carpet! I have an arrangement with ants. As long as they don't invade my home (and they very rarely do anymore), I'll leave them alone but that swarm was rather scary so I broke out the bug spray and showered the entire swarm. I've seen agitated ants before but never to that scale .

You have to wonder what their food supply was to have made that big a nest. I suggest a complete "bug-be-gone" under the trailer (watch for scorpions), before final assembly.

The final assembly has been long completed. I did add what I'm affectionately calling bomb bay doors (little plastic plumbing access doors painted to match) to the skirting, three on the two long sides, and one on the back, for easily inserting bug bombs (insect fogging cans) under the mobile home to keep insects and other creepy crawlers at bay. All I'll have to do is pop open each door, set an activated bomb inside, then disappear for a day or more to avoid the fumes that seep up into my home.

I've done this in the past by temporarily removing a section of skirting for each bomb but that was a royal PITA and, now that I'm older and more decrepit, more of my body experiences that pain. Since the new skirting is sturdier and harder to remove and replace, the bomb bay doors will make life much better (for me, not the creepy crawlies). The next bombing mission will occur when its safe to travel again. Despite what most people think, I seriously doubt this *&^%$#@! pandemic is over yet. I've successfully predicted every surge so far and I'm expecting another one this summer (I really hope I'm wrong though).

Right now, I've got toothpicks holding my eyes open (more or less) because of leg cramps waking me up overnight after a day of working on the nightmare that has become the project from Hell. I needed to replace my water heater door and, right now, they are impossible to find with no way of knowing when they will come in. I wanted to get this done before it got too much warmer (AZ hot summer is just 'round the corner) so I got a regular fiberglass exterior mobile home door, thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to modify and modify the framing to make it fit. It has the advantage over a regular water heater door in that it''s ten inches higher, which will making replacing the water heater easier in the future and make working on the plumbing at the top of the water heater much easier. The exterior closet the water heater is in will also vent better.

Adding vents to the top and bottom of the door was easy. I just laid out cut lines for the screened soffit vents at the top and bottom of the new door, cut the openings by making plunge cuts with one of my 5/12" 18v circular saw from both sides, then making the final cuts on the foam interior with a jab saw. Easy peasy, slick and sleazy. After drilling mounting holes in the door and laying a bead of adhesive caulk around each vent opening, I blind riveted the soffit vents to the door.

The next day, I tackled removing the old door and installing the new one. That's when everything plummeted south. If there was anything that could go wrong, it did . I'll spare you the details but the real killer came when I cut through an electrical line, killing power to half my home (fortunately, I had added GFCI protection a while back and I was using my new double insulated one-handed recip saw). Fixing that little "boo-boo" (forum rules will not allow a far more accurate name for it) turned into an exhausting nightmare because of the idiotic way my mobile home was framed and wired (it was built in '74, a year before HUD regulations went into effect for mobile homes). Properly replacing the cable with a new Romex run would have taken a couple of days of even more exhausting work so I cheated and spliced in a short run of Romex (totally against code but, if you look up code violation in the dictionary, you will find a picture of my humble hovel). I used crimped butt splices on the conductors (and double crimped them, not staked them), staggered the splices to avoid making a lump, insulated the crimps on the insulated conductors with a double layer of mastic lined heat shrink, wrapped the entire area with electrical tape for added protection, then put a mastic lined heat shrink sleeve over the tape to make sure it never comes loose and is sealed from moisture.

Fixing and rerouting the cut cable added a good three hours to an already seemingly never ending job and I'm still not done. Once the Alleve kicks in, I still need to finish modifying and reframing inside the wall and installing the *&^%$#@! door. It's going to be another long, exhausting, and painful day.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm currently taking a break after not getting much done after a late start and having to make a Home Depot waddle (I'm too decrepit to run). I need to cut a 3/4" wide by 1-1/2" deep rabbet on the right side stud of the door opening and deepen the existing 3/4" x 3/4" rabbet on the stud on the left side of the door opening to 1-1/2". Right now, I'm just too wasted from yesterday and the overnight leg cramps so I'm waiting for the sun to move a little further west so I can at least work in the shade.

I had to get longer screws (3 1/8") to hold the new door in because of the insane framing on this dump...er...my humble hovel. I also found out that my 5 1/2" circular saws can't cut the rabbet deep enough by the tiniest bit (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). A 6" blade will fit my saws but I can't find any in this miserable, misbegotten, fleabag, piddle squat, Podunk, one-horse megalopolis so, when I went to Home Depot, I also grabbed a 6 1/2 inch Ryobi 18v circular saw (I've been lusting for one for some time but couldn't justify the expense before now) and a Diablo framing/demolition blade (I'm expecting to hit some nails and a demo blade can handle it).

Well, I better head outside and see what I can get done before I poop out again.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I managed to get the rabbets cut. Where I could get the saw to fit went like a breeze despite some of the awkward positions I had to put my old carcass in and frequently having to depend on a notch in the shoe to guide the saw since I couldn't always see the blade. The blade I used went through any nails that were in the way like they weren't even there.

I finished off the parts where the saw couldn't reach with a Ridgid JobMax tool head on my older style Ryobi multitool body (the company that makes Ridgind and Ryobi was nutz to discontinue those ). I killed two wood blades; one on unexpected nails and the other by carelessly overheating it (solved the overheating problem by pouring a little bit of water on the last blade every so often to cool it down). The framing I was cutting the rabbets into is almost 50 years old and, even though it looks like Doug Fir, it's gotten almost as hard as oak.

I recently saw a BoobTube video by Project Farm on which of a selection of multitool blade brands were tested and the one that gave the best bang for the buck was EZARC. After the demise of two blades (they were from a set from Dewalt, aka Duhwalt), I ordered a few from Amazon to give them a shot.

After getting the rabbets cut (it was a chore but I took frequent breaks so I wouldn't destroy myself Like I did yesterday), I shoved the new door into the opening to see if it fit and it seemed to do so (did a little happy dance). At that point, I knocked off and hauled my tools into the house.

I ran into another snag. A fitting on one of the water lines developed a slow leak; I probably disturbed it a bit while working in the area. There wasn't enough room to get one wrench, let alone two, in there so I tried stopping the leak with self-fusing rubber taped stretched tight over the area of the leack, then covered with a mastic lined sealing tape. it slowed the leak down quite a bit but it's still seeping a bit. If it's still leaking tomorrow, I'm going to put a can under it to catch the drips and watch it for a few days. Since our water is hard as rocks, it's possible the seep may calcify up. If not, I'll have to come up with something else, such as epoxy putty. I'm eventually going to have the house completely replumbed to replace the old galvanized with PEX so I don't mind a Michael Mouse repair for now.

I still needed to get rid of the old door so, since we aren't allowed to put construction materials in the dumpsters, I leaned the old door against the end of my trailer nearest the street and used blue painters' tape to spell out free on it. I'll be surprised if it isn't gone before the weekend.

I still need to redneck engineer a replacement header for the door's rough opening. I was just going to jam a 2 x 6 into the opening between the studs but that misbegotten power cable that I had to repair and reroute has put a crimp in that plan so I don't know how I'm going to pull that off yet. I'll cross that bridge later.

While I'm not in serious pain like I was yesterday and I haven't had any muscle cramps yet, I'm considering taking tomorrow off. It's supposed to get into the high 80s tomorrow, which is a bit warmer than I like to do heavy work (for me) in but Wednesday isn't going to be much better. Added to that, I have an aluminum steps and platform combo coming in Thursday for the front door that I'll have to pick up from Home Depot and put together after I get it home. I have five days in which to pick it up and the weather will cool back down for a couple, threes days starting Sunday so I may wait to until Fridays or Saturday to pick it up (I'm going to have them unpack the parts at the store under the guise of wanting to make sure everything arrived in good shape but the real reason is so I'll be able to lift the parts out of my truck piecemeal. I would like to have the door from hell done and over with before then. I'll just wait until tomorrow morning to see how I feel. Right now, as my Daddy used to always say sometimes, my tired hurts.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Little to nothing happening today. I've had only two hours of sleep due to my shins and calves itching like the dickens (and not responding to anything I had to put on them) and my allergies flaring up big time so I had to pop a couple of Benadryl a little while ago (at least, I didn't have any leg cramps). That stuff can make me loopy to unconscious so I'm going to be out of it for quite a while; no working with tools with sharp edges, no driving, etc. I might go out for a short while this afternoon to take some measurements, check on the leak, and get one or more 2x4s for the header (I roughed out a potential design last night) plus a couple of nail plates to protect that misbegotten cable where it passes through the studs.

I found a scorpion in my bathroom during a night time pit stop. It was quickly dispatched and flushed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I finally caught some breaks today. The big one, make that the huge one, was the water leak had stopped! Woohoo! Forget the little happy dance, that rated a full blown Irish jig (badly done ). Another one was about the time it was starting to get warmer than I care for, a stiff breeze came up. It was a bit annoying on the windward side of the trailer where I have my work table set up under the carport awning but it was a real blessing on the leeward side where the water heater door is.

I was completely wasted yesterday, thanks to the Benadryl, so I was able get a fairly decent night sleep last night and a slightly earlier start today. I first made a Home Depot waddle to pick up some lumber, nail plates, clear caulking, and screws (and stock up on more 20 oz. Powerade Zero; they only sell the large bottles in the grocery stores here). Due to the weird way the door opening was framed, the screw holes for the new door would have to go though open air to get to something solid to bite into so I had to shim that up by ripping a 2x4 down to 1-7/8" on the right side of the door and 1-1/8" on the left side of the door. I secured them to the outside of the door studs and the sideways stud behind the door studs with Titebond II slathered on then clamped them in place for around half an hour or so. The door screws (3-1/8" long) will have to pass through these shims and into the sideways studs behind them to have adequate "meat" to secure the door. I'll drill clearance holes through the shims to reduce the chance of torquing off the screw heads. The shims were also needed so the siding is supported and not flex in when the putty tape that will seal the door frame gets sandwiched between the siding and the flanges.

After that, I fabricated the new header. It was a simple, horizontal 2x4 cut to fit horizontally between the studs that I glued and screwed a 2x6 onto the 2x4 vertically. The 2x6 was to replace some of the structure that supported the aluminum siding and a place to anchor the eyebrow (drip deflector) over the door. I beveled the ends of the 2x6 so the cable I had cut and repaired could snake around it. I screwed three 9" long nail plates across the face of the 2x6 to protect the cable behind it from possible future screws or nails, leaving 1-1/2" overhanging each end to protect the cable where it goes through holes in the side studs. Inelegant but effective. I drilled snug clearance holes at roughly a 45° angle so I could secure the header to the side studs with 2-1/2" screws, similar to toe nailing (the clearance holes were to avoid splitting the ends of the header. The screws are GRK with self drilling tips and flat heads that are self countersinking. I love those kinds of screws. The heads are Torx drive making them easy to drive with an impact driver; you can even bury the heads.

After encouraging the header into place with a hammer, I shot the screws home with my impact driver, then tested the fit of the door assembly. It fit like a dream. While the door was in the frame, I marked the location where I needed to make a mortise for the door latch, then took the door out. I cheated and started the mortise with a 1" Forstner bit, then, after after checking the fit and location the the mortise by putting the door back in place again and feeling through the striker hole with my finger, I pulled the door back out and squared up the hole with a hammer and chisel.

I still need to trim off the old paneling hanging down that was on the inside of the wall above the old door opening but it needed to be fastened to the header so the recip saw wouldn't just flop it around. There was no easy was to nail or screw it to the header from inside the water heater closet so I donned some disposable gloves and smeared Titebond II with my fingers between the back of the header and the paneling. Hopefully, after it dries overnight, it will hold well enough to let me trim it with the recip saw. Also, my tired hurt and I was losing daylight.

Once I trim off that paneling tomorrow (hopefully), the next step will be to put temporarily put the door in the opening and, while holding it in with a shoulder, drill a clearance hole through a shim on one side and shoot a screw into it, then repeat for the other side. With the door secured by two screws, I can drill the rest of the clearance holes through the shims on both sides. After removing the door, I'll apply putty tape to all the door flanges, caulk a few bad fits the morons who built my home left me, then put the door back and screw it down. After installing the door latch, the eyebrow can get some putty tape and also get screwed into place above the door.

I haven't taken any pictures because I've been wanting to get this miserable misbegotten job done; it's already taken three times longer than I expected. I'll try to remember to take a picture of the finished project.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I finally caught some breaks today. The big one, make that the huge one, was the water leak had stopped! Woohoo! Forget the little happy dance, that rated a full blown Irish jig (badly done ). Another one was about the time it was starting to get warmer than I care for, a stiff breeze came up. It was a bit annoying on the windward side of the trailer where I have my work table set up under the carport awning but it was a real blessing on the leeward side where the water heater door is...

I forgot to mention that the old water heater door was gone when I first went out yesterday morning. There's one less thing for me to worry about.

I got an email this morning from Home Depot saying my steps/front stoop is in. I don't have to pick it immediately so I'm going to wait until Saturday or Sunday to pick it up.

I had a rough morning after as rough night (I'll spare you the unpleasant details) so I got a late start today. So far, I've cut out the remaining paneling and temporarily installed the door so I could predrill the clearance holes for the screws, took the door back down, then I suddenly felt tired all over so I'm taking a brief break.

Next is to caulk some holes while I can get at them easily, install the putty tape, then put the door in for keeps. After that, I'll install the eyebrow and the door latch.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's done!

Today was the usual run of stupid problems but I finally got it all done! Right now, I'm finally getting to eat my supper and the one TV show worth watching today is coming on. I'll write more later.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, got the holes that needed caulking caulked, the putty tape stuck to the door flanges (that was a bit tricky but I got it on), and the door screwed into place. That was actually pretty easy.

Next was putting on the door knob. The door knob set they sold me when I bought the door had the wrong backset; it was 2-3/8" when it should have been 2-3/4". Adding to the problem, the door was designed to have a drive in latch instead of the more usual mortised latch. Nowhere near me had either a door knob set or just a 1-3/4" drive in latch so I had to drive 40 miles round trip to get one in heavy afternoon traffic (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble).

Once I got the elusive little bugger home, it took all of five minutes to install the door knob set. I wasted an hour and a half for what should have been a five minute job.

On to the eyebrow. That turned out to also be a stinker. The outside screw holes didn't have any structure behind the siding for the screws to go into. I didn't want sheet metal screws sticking through since there is an electrical cable in the area. There wasn't any danger of me hitting the cable when driving the screw but the cable could sag over time and I'm a coward. I tried putting #8 plastic wall anchors in the siding so I could screw some matching 1" screws (had to buy a box of 100 just to get two lousy screws ) into the anchors so the plastic of the anchor would completely encase the screws.

After putting putty tape on the eyebrow and trimming off the excess, I started installing the eyebrow over the door. The anchor on one side popped through the sheet aluminum siding and didn't really hold anything and the other anchor spun before the screw was completely snugged up. The other screw holes were over structure so they held just fine. The eyebrow is stiff enough, the ends will be fine. I put a tiny bit of the putty I had trimmed off under the head of the screw that was in the anchor that had popped through so it would stay stuck to the eyebrow instead of sticking out. I also put bits of the extra putty into any gaps that the putty tape hadn't fully filled. At least the outer screws are encased in plastic so I don't have to worry about them. If it hadn't been for those two outer holes, This would have been an easy installation.

After some minor adjustments to the strike plate to make sure the door closed and sealed up properly and a quick spritz of some silicone spray on the latch, I declared the door done. I also was done...as in done in. I'm spending the next day or two in bed to try to get the swelling in my lower extremities down to an acceptable level.

Here is the picture I promised. Sorry for the quality. It was getting dark but not dark enough to trigger the flash.

It looks innocent enough now. I've installed many door in mobile homes (including eyebrows) and regular homes but this one was truly the Door from Hell!

The next project, once I recover from this one, will be to assemble and modify the aluminum steps/stoop for the front door of my mobile home that's currently setting at Home Depot waiting for me to pick it up. This what it looks like assembled:

steps.jpg (9.47 KiB) Viewed 3875 times

It's rather...ah...industrial looking but it's much lighter than the usual wooden steps normally seen for mobile homes, making it much easier to move around. The old steps that came with my mobile home when I got it were made of wood (I swear they had lead in that wood), was ugly and rickety, and almost impossible for me to move by myself without blowing out my old back (I had the crew that releveled my home demolish them and cart them away). Once I have the new steps/stoop assembled, I'm going to get some aluminum angle and some more skirting ground channel and panels to enclose the open area below the steps and stoop. That way, they would still be light enough for me to move myself, look much better, and match the new skirting on my mobile home.

[Petermint]

one TV show worth watching

I found Dune on DVD today. Might be my first time watching TV after watching Annihilation in a previous decade.

Do you have battery backup for your computer and refrigerator? They are two projects I would put at the top of the list for any major work. I have the refrigerator on a separate circuit so it can run from a small battery without running the whole house. Just waiting for battery prices to drop.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

one TV show worth watching

I found Dune on DVD today. Might be my first time watching TV after watching Annihilation in a previous decade...

I never saw the movie Dune. I read the first book in the series not too long after the movie came out but I couldn't get past the first few chapters of the second book. I don't go to theaters anymore (and that started well before Covid) becasue the movies kept getting longer and my bladder kept getting smaller as I aged, and because more and more people couldn't keep their mouths shut and or make their children behave during the movie.

I only have Over The Air (OTA) TV. I can't justify the cost of cable TV, especially since you now have to pay extra for multiple premium channels to get any really good programming. I'm not watching as much TV anymore because OTA TV programming has been dropping in quality. The last 30 minute sitcoms I watched was was Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon (the latter only because it ran in the half hour after BBT). The current 30 minute sitcoms just aren't as good as the many of the old ones (most are pretty bad). OTA TV hour long programming has become dominated with the so called reality shows which are unbelievably stupid. With a couple of exceptions, even the game shows have become absurd. Also, the number of episodes in a season has dropped dramatically and repeats within a season have increased.

Fortunately, I have a huge collection of movies, including some of the old TV series from back when they were still good. I find most of them in bargain bins and racks. I'm also a voracious reader and have a huge collection of unread ebooks to keep me entertained. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies and doing a lot of reading over the next couple of days so I can stay in bed, trying to get the swelling in my lower extremities to go down.

one TV show worth watching

...Do you have battery backup for your computer and refrigerator? They are two projects I would put at the top of the list for any major work. I have the refrigerator on a separate circuit so it can run from a small battery without running the whole house. Just waiting for battery prices to drop.

I have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) that will provide battery backup for my desktop computer whenever I finish building it. My laptop is currently my daily driver and it has its own battery that will give me time to safely shut down in a power outage (the laptop's battery is good only for up to an hour). I have another UPS that provides power for my cellular telephone modem and the base station for the cordless phones in my house. There is no point for battery backup for the internet modem and router since the ISP's circuitry relies on the same power mains as the mobile home court I live in.

A refrigerator draws far too much power for a battery backup to be cost effective. A backup generator makes far more sense. I have considered getting a natural gas powered emergency backup generator for my home but I'm not sure if the gas line coming to my home is large enough plus the trailer court may not permit it. It also would be very expensive; upwards of $7k. It would be far cheaper to just replace any lost groceries due to thawing. Refrigerators are well enough insulated they can go for hours, sometimes even days (depending on weather, of course), without food spoiling as long as you keep the door shut. In a pinch, one can always get some dry ice to put in a fridge to extend the amount of time the fridge can go without power.

In the almost 28 years I've lived here, I've never lost groceries due to a power outage. Around a decade ago, I was out of State when there was a three day power outage (power outages more than a handful of hours are pretty rare). When I got back home, I hadn't lost any groceries.

My fridge is a ancient, small 27 cubic foot model that I plan on replacing eventually with a larger one. It will get its own circuit (I've already partially run it but I won't be able to finish it until I install a new wall between the kitchen and the living room where I'm going to relocate the fridge to). I have more urgent projects to work on in the meantime.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I picked up the steps/stoop combo from Home Depot yesterday afternoon (up to then, I had been laid up in bed most of every day since since finishing the Door from Hell to get the swelling down in my lower extremities). I had to wait an hour for them to dig it out from behind other shipments.

It was shipped fastened down to a pallet which wouldn't fit in the bed of my truck, which has a shell on it. I had thought the legs would have to be assembled to the platform by me, which meant all the parts would easily fit in the bed of my truck but the legs were actually welded to the platform. No matter what angle we tried, we could not get it to fit inside the bed. Finally, we put all the other parts inside the bed and perched the platform upside down on the tailgate which I then tied down.

Driving home was a bit nerve wracking but, fortunately, I had only a mile and a half or so to go and the speed limits were only 40 mph so I drove home at a rip snorting 35 mph without any problems. This is what it looked like in the back of my little F150 Screw:

I backed up to my front patio so all I had to do was untie the platform and tip it off the tailgate onto the patio.

The rest was easy to get out.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Assembling the combo was fairly easy but adjusting it so all the steps had the same rise was quite a chore. I had to use percussive persuasion (aka a big hammer) to get the handrails installed onto the platform since the legs on the long length weren't spread quite wide enough. Once on, getting them back off would be an even bigger chore. If I had room, it would have been simpler to tip the platform over to further adjust the legs but, with the rails installed, there just wasn't enough room. I fiddled with it for a while (until I got pooped and was starting to lose daylight) and got it close.

I hadn't fully recovered from the Door from Hell, I worked harder than I thought, or it just wasn't one of my better days (I'm legally handicapped and I have good and bad days), but I was so sore, I didn't sleep well last night, even after a couple of Aleve (my allergies also flared up), so I'm going to take it easy today.

Probably tomorrow, I'm going to finish adjusting everything, take some measurements, then head out to Lowes for some 3/4" aluminum angle and to a Mobile Home supply outfit to get some matching skirting ground channel and panels to use to enclose the open underside of the steps and platform, hopefully making it look a bit less industrial looking.

After that, the next few days are going to be heating up more than I (and my old carcass) care for with Saturday approaching 100°. Monday will be much cooler (only 72°then) so I'll chillax until then before starting to install the skirting.

The hand rails look pretty industrial so I may replace them someday with something a bit more elegant.

In case you're wondering (or not), that sliding glass door is going to be history someday. I despise that abomination and plan on eventually getting it replaced with a double door to fill the hole removing the abomination will leave.

[MurphCID]

Utterly impressive. WOW.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Utterly impressive. WOW.

Thanks, Murph! I didn't get out yesterday to do anything (my get up and go got up and went) but I'm going to try to get my ample asset out today to make some more adjustments, then get the parts I need to wrap some matching skirting around the base of the platform and, hopefully, the steps.

[RollyShed]

The hand rails look pretty industrial so I may replace them someday with something a bit more elegant.

Would wooden capping do the job?
Nicely oiled?
Otherwise, full marks for everything.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The hand rails look pretty industrial so I may replace them someday with something a bit more elegant.

Would wooden capping do the job?
Nicely oiled?...

That thought has crossed my mind. I've also considered replacing the aluminum railing with an ornamental iron railing.

...Otherwise, full marks for everything.

Thanks!

I didn't get anything done today. Despite getting what should have been a good night's sleep last night, my got up and gone get up and go was still AWOL this morning so I've been mostly making a small dent in my reading list today. Even though it's going to get pretty warm tomorrow, I might fool around with adjustments tomorrow morning (assuming I can get my rear in gear), then spend the rest of the day using my nice, cool truck to waddle errands.

[Petermint]

Escalator stairs next.

With a smartphone app to choose up or down.

A big screen like a Pelaton.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Escalator stairs next.

With a smartphone app to choose up or down.

A big screen like a Pelaton.

Ixnay on the Smartphone app! The other two ideas...hmmm...

[HaveaMint]

I strongly suggest anchoring it to the concrete once you have it like you want. It would be bad for a strong wind to come along.
Also some paint would be easy to do for off setting the looks, One color for rail posts and other colors for whatever. Don't paint the walked on area. Also get some 3m anti slip on your butt stick on for steps and walkway.

Primer first then whatever color. Dry warm day.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I strongly suggest anchoring it to the concrete once you have it like you want. It would be bad for a strong wind to come along.
Also some paint would be easy to do for off setting the looks, One color for rail posts and other colors for whatever. Don't paint the walked on area. Also get some 3m anti slip on your butt stick on for steps and walkway.

Thanks for the tips! This thing weighs just under 100 lb. so it's doubtful a wind will move it any. Also, when I add the skirting to it, it will make it even harder for the wind to get under it (and add a bit more weight). I also need to be able to move the combo for possible maintenance under the trailer.

The steps and the platform surfaces are ribbed, making them anti-skid already. In fact, the ribbing would make it pretty much impossible to stick anti-skid tape on the walking surfaces.

The skirting I'm going to add will add color to the base and legs of the combo that will be an exact match to the trailer's skirting. Aluminum can be a bear to get paint to stick to. You have to use a self-etching primer (which isn't cheap), then use either a conventional primer over the self-etching primer followed by the color coats or use self-priming color coats. It wouldn't cost much more to just replace the aluminum railing with decorative railing that has a baked on finish plus it would look better than the plain, straight, square rails.

I'm not a big fan of Rust-Oleum; I've had too many problems with it in the past, such the spray being too coarse and, after the first use, thickened bits of paint will come out leaving what looks like little worms on the surface. I've had better luck using SEM but it isn't cheap. Curiously, I've recently used Rust-Oleum's 2x self-priming paint on plastic and it has worked well.