Most of the tools we buy today are all manufactured in China, and just imported, assembled, local logo slapped, and marked up for 3 x's the price. What are some tools or gadgets you've bought from Chinese websites that turned out better than expected for your DIY projects and hobbies?Post pics or screenshots of the item you bought and the price and whether it was good or a ripoff.Optional: What else were you able to afford for your DIY because of the money you saved by buying from China? Can be more Chinese tools or something western made.Previous: >>2860719
>>2891037/diy/ it yourself, couple pieces of angle iron and threated rod and nut and two plates for top and bottom.
>>2891037look for book press in alipicrel is literally the first result https://aliexpress.com/item/1005006925632136.html
>>2891037There was a press like those at an auction I recently went to that brought basically nothing. I probably should have bought it, but didn't want to drag it home and find a place to keep it.
>>2890610precise enough for 40 bucks.
>>2869276Bought this last week.12VDC1080WDigital pre-set controlshttps://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HF102-320L-Tractor-Compressor-with-Big_1601020932907.htmlWas given a US$20 discount on shipping
itt we discuss killing moles
>>2888887QA won
>>2888890>>2888888Sharty won
ground frozen hard to kill them rn
>>2884386I live there, 90% of people do not mow their lawns or water them and they are not "overgrown pest filled jungles". Not only that there are water limitation advisories every damn summer. You're the larping redditor here mate
>>2883609I love moles; great to have around. Wishing you many moles
Help my furnace is making these awful noises like some combination of someone snoring or a blown out subwoofer. I saw some people online reference a fog horn sound due to running to lean. I tried changing the throttle a bit to add more gas but it didn't change.wtf would cause this? https://files.catbox.moe/6jfjup.mp4This is the "combustion blower" which seems to be the source of noise. Notice the piece of dust resonating like it's getting blown out like a subwoofer. It goes away almost completely when I set the max fire to below 80%
>blown bearing>broken blade>blown sealOne of those probably. Just replace the entire fan unit.
>>2889186You have angered the fire elemental living inside.May god have mercy on your soul.
>>2889186compressor fan is rubbing on something. take off the top of the fan and spin it a round to see if it spins freely.ideally just replace the fan.
I want some potted plants. The plan is to go to the woods and get some dirt into pots. I'm not paying for a shovel since this will be the last time I need one, I just need some dirt this one time. How do I DIY a shovel out of common stuff you find yourself in a house or the woods? It doesn't need to be good, just better than digging with my hands.Edit our system thinks this post is spam
Just ask a neighbor or coworker to borrow their shovel or buy a cheap garden spade.
>>2891430Just buy a shovel, it’s like $10 anon. Not something you can DIY and save money on
>>2891509>$10 shovelor just buy a $7 sack of potting soil
>>2891514>$7 for 2-3 pots worth of (((soil)))>$10 for infinite woods soil
just use the pots as shovels
I think it's time we finally stop building what are essentially glorified shacks and update our building codes.
>>2891349>Fire foamPFASReeeeee!
>>2887973>Every home 10K gallon of water storageEnvironmentalists will shriek. Senior water rights holders will shriek.Every gallon of water you store is a gallon not returned to the watershed. Or diverted from a pistachio grower.
>>2890401>looters ransacking homes in one of the wealthiest places in the worldYou telling me you wouldn't want like 25 rolex watches?
>>2891467That explains the rash of “we buy gold” commercials I’ve been seeing.
No point when corruption and greed is so rife nobody will give a shit about building codes.Might as well just burn it all to the ground and start again.Oh... right.
>buy tv wall mount>no studs where I want to mount it>“oh well I’ll just buy some toggle bolts to anchor it into the drywall”>1.5 years later tv is still mounted with toggle bolts and no issues>stumble across multiple reddit threads today where every comment says to NEVER EVER mount a tv without anchoring it into studs>some comments go so far as to advise people to put up plywood behind the drywall rather than just mount the tv using togglesDid i get lucky or is reddit just full of retards who don’t know what they’re talking about?
>>2891189Good job!The insulated one was a couple random ass blocks of wood and I wanted to see how wood filler works on a scrap project, plus I bought the cherry stain on clearance and wanted to see how it looksDrill the holes close enough and pretty long and do a chamfer at the top with w countersink and it works pretty well.The hex and torx keys were more scrap wood, a floating shelf I never hung. The old plywood box thing they were sticking in before was taking up too much space. But I had to do a lot of meauring as the T-handles are all different sizes and I wanted it to look neat and compact. Hit the shaft of each with the caliper and went a size drill bit above. Annoying part with that was for the smaller keys, the smaller drill bits weren’t long enough to go all the way through, so I ended up routing out like 3/4”’on the center of the bottom side.
>>2891189>insulated screwdriverskind of a scam desu. Just wear latex gloves or the ones women wear to wash dishes and normal (and cheaper) screw drivers do the trick just fine. I've done this on countless live 15 and 30 amp circuits for years just fine.places like snap on and harborfright try to trick you into paying more for stuff that you really don't need
>>2891365>places like snap on and harborfright try to trick you into paying more for stuff that you really don't needBut those screwdrivers aren’t even made in Germany! Are you really safe?
>>2891248Thanks mate, I used some hard as shit, some kind of brazilian redwood that I had left from an 80s bedframe.Could have done a better job with spacing and actually take the time to measure instead of going by eye spacing but it's function wise is 10/10. I direct mounted it from the face side and just used some wood filler to hide the screw.>>2891365>snap on and harborfrightNigga I paid a whole 9€ for a 6 screwdriver phillips/flat parkside set.
>>2886457this and also angles. You could probably get away with screwing a 60+ inch to drywall with enough screws and if it stayed hard against the wall. anything like OP's pic and you need it anchored to a stud.
I'm trying to make a clock, and for the escapement I need a large spur gear. I would like this to be made out of metal. Hand filing the teeth is one thing, but how the hell do I actually make a gear blank that large? Just getting a gigantic plate would be prohibitively expensive.I have all the tools that a regular blacksmith would have available.My first idea is to forge a groove into a length of stock, then forge weld it together to form a loop. Then I'd be able to fit a cross beam type deal into the groove. But I'm not sure if this is a good idea.
If you don't know how to set up a tooth cutter in a mill, this project is above your skill grade.
>>2891395How large are you talking?
>>2891395>forge weldlarp detected
Use a servo for the inverted pendulum and play physical modeling synthesized ticktocking in a speaker. It'll be best if they aren't quite synchronized.
>>2891395I would 3d print a pattern and then sand cast in aluminum or zamac
bro the whole house smells like burnt plastic
>>2891435What were you doing, holding a blowtorch to it?
>>2891619My microwave won't turn off by itself and I forgot about it when watching a show.
>>2891628That's a lie. You didn't put any water in it.
>>2891629Bingo. If there had been water in it, and it microwaved long enough for all that water to boil off, those noodles would be a pile of mush, certainly not retaining their original brick noodle form.
>>2891628>>2891629Can't both of these be true?
>a pallet of rocks costs $200fucking absurdI need some limestone rocks, they don't have to be anywhere near perfectly-shaped, they are going to be used as a facade for an interior wall. Whenever I drive down the highway I see massive limestone walls where the hillside was blasted away to get a road through there - why can't I just go to one of these sites and pick up some blocks that have fallen?
>>2884144> it costs virtually nothing to transport itThe post office charges me $6 to ship a pebble parcel across the street but Temu can dropship a pallet of them to me for $5.
>>2884042What is labor and transport cost? Sounds like a deal to me.
>>2884243I can attest, the upkeep cost on heavy/industrial equipment that is in use constantly is insanely high.
>>2884254You're not looking at how all of the factors come together.Mining & delivering the stone yourself:$5 - hammer$50 - fuel$80 - labor (8 hours x $10, if you consider your time this cheap)$135 - total expenditure to get it yourselfHaving someone source and deliver the material to you:$200 - cost for someone else to deliver the material to you-$80 - value gained by having those 8 hours of your time to put towards something else$120 - total expenditure for having someone else do it for you
>>2884254If you think whacking on a rock all day with a $5 hammer is the best practice to save a couple hundred dollars, then I think that's a great pursuit for you. It's best you do that instead of try and do something harmful with yourself.
ITT useful hacks, secret methods, forbidden knowledge, etc.
>>2890626It doesn't work.
>>2890681>1 gbit speedsOkay bro
>>2890686I suppose I should have said 100mbit tho. Never getting 1 gig if you remove a pair
>>2880316>>2882166>>2885856Why are there so many butthurt faggots ITT? These sort of hacks are for when you're in a bind. Not everyone can snake 50ft of cable through walls and terminate each end on a dime. Especially if it happens in the middle of the night or some other inconvenient time when you have work to do. Especially if we're talking about laymen. And the soldering iron trick isn't meant to replace whatever it is you have at your workshop or in the tool bag that's obviously not with you in the moment that you'd need to do this.
>>2872147how to make cock cola
Can this hardwood be salvaged? Old fridge started leaking and ruined it. There used to be sticky contact paper over it that I just removed. Believe it or not this is a dramatic improvement :/
Sand and restain. Hopefully superficial. Worse case scenario you'll be replacing some boards. Hit up local flooring guys, probably have some stuff leftover they would be willing to part with.
>>2891580Yeah I bought some handheld sanding sponges and what a waste of money that turned out to be. Guess I really do have to rent a power sander, was trying to avoid having to go that route but I don’t think it can be avoided.
Hey /diy/, so I had my boiler shut off for a little bit because the return pipe for the boiler blew a hole in a rotted out portion of it, and had that portion replaced as well had the low water cutoff circuit board replaced (which was faulty and may have increased the pressure in the return pipe causing it to burst).A boiler guy replaced the circuit board and turned the boiler back on, and told me to periodically open up a drain spigot behind the boiler (which I have hooked up a garden hose leading to the basement drain) and drain excess water from the boiler if I see the site tube completely full (pictured).So far there's been a slow current of dirty water flowing from it, and the site tube will dip occasionally below the safety line until a supply water pipe turns on and raises the site tube level past the safety line.Should I just leave the spigot on? Could that lead to a dangerous dry boil situation? Sorry if all my terminology isn't correct, I'm trying to learn a little bit and I don't want to sit in front of the boiler all night turning on and off the spigot
>>2891178*dry fire situationAlso, it's going to take hours for each radiator in the house to start giving off heat, if we just experienced a cold nap over the last 48 hours, correct?
>>2891178This would be something to ask the guy who did the job, we don't know how shit's piped and what safety systems are running and how. >>2891180If you have any large buffers then it can take longer, if not, you should see some heating within an hour or so. Gas boilers are usually massively oversized.
How do I buy a home? I never learned in school. Do my chances of getting a good home loan increase if I'm married? I'm engaged but I need a home as a top priority, I'm sick of renting. Do I just pick a good one out on Zillow and tell them I'm interested, and do what they ask me to do? I'm not going to /adv/ it's full of zoomers and I need actual experienced advice. Also can I pretend to be j*wish to get interest-free loans?
>>2891471I got sick of rent increases. I bought because I figured even if the mortgage isn’t great right now, either Bidenomics inflated the currency 100% and my house is worth near $1mil or Trump slashes rates and I refi to a lower mortgage. I pay increases on homeowner’s insurance which is whatever, and then property tax is capped at like 1.5% increase per year. It was amazing seeing what the previous owner was paying since she signed that mortgage 20 years ago, and she walked away with a nice stack of cash when she sold and had enough to ourtright buy a nice retiree condo somewhere.Also I watched rents on 3/2 houses in this area go from $1500-$2000/mo up to like $3500/mo in 10 years since I moved down here. I’m tired of that game. If I have to move, I’ll keep this place and rent it out like my next door neighbor just did, he’s getting $3500/mo for his place and he bought a new house with a larger lot one city north. Previous next door neighbor had a similar strategy, he’s a boomer on the edge of retirement and has 2 or 3 rentals because every 10 years he upgrades and starts renting the previous house.
>>2891100>HEY GRANDMA!
>>2891128real estate agents are a parasitic cancer and half the reason young men have been priced out of familyhood. theres no reason two men shouldnt be able to make a house sale with anymore than a firm handsake and a title company. inserting a couple roasties with no incentive to keep prices fair because it would eat into their commissions is pants on head retarded
>>2891415>>2891482Yeah well obviously it has to be something you can affordI meant more dont buy a house you dont want to live in just so you can say you own a houseI cant imagine anything worse than spending house money on a place i dont want to live in
>>2891555I don’t even think it’s the realtors. It’s the lawyers.Have you ever bought a house? There’s so much goddamn paperwork to sign. I had carpal tunnel by the time we finished closing. It’s all a ton of legal bullshit.Now the one who I don’t quite understand is the closing agent. I met the lady once. I dropped off a ton of escrow money with the person at the front desk of her office, and then she shows up at closing with a giant stack of paperwork and a notary stamp and was dressed nicer than any of the realtors for sure.Anyway I’m with you on the high class roasties like those Manhattan bitches with dog purses on the Netflix show working for that guy Ryan who totally isn’t gag. But depending where you live, these realtors are selling $100k-$500k homes. What’s the breakdown, 6% for the realtor? So 3% for the buyer’s realtor, 3% for the seller? $7500 on a $250k house. A buyer might see a dozen houses, that’s going to be like 3-4 half days of work between phone calls and scheduling and some miles on the car. Then every offer the buyer puts in has to be a couple hours in paperwork. And then one of the sellers accepts the offer, my realtor did tons of communication with the mortgage people, she showed up for some of the lesser inspection stuff that I didn’t care about enough to take a day off work, hell she even scheduled a bunch of that stuff and I didn’t have to do shit. And she got me bids from homeowner’s insurance companies and estimates on some of the stuff that came up in the inspection. Akd I actually bought the house. For every serious buyer, they must have a bunch of people who are looking around or who have problems with closing and the realtor wastes at least 40hrs worth of labor for no payout at all. Lots of them earn their money.>>2891569You can always rent the place out if you decide you want to move to another place 5 years down the line. Especially if you’re a DIY type and still live nearby
So I'm in the process of converting a small brick "shed" into a secondary dwelling where I will stay at some of the time. It is a single room meaning it will have a kitchenette, a bed and a desk in the same space. The toilet is in a outhouse close by but I want to have a shower inside in the main structure. I have access to running water and the plan is to have a camping propane water heater(outside). Once you get past the weird factor, the main issue with having a shower in the living space instead of being confined to the bathroom is the fact that it steams up the entire room so humidity would be crazy.That's why I'm looking for ways to have a shower cabinet that is completely contained, most importantly the top would need to be covered and the side that is against the wall would have a window(and maybe some vents) that I would always open while showering so that all the steam is directed that way to the outside. How would you guys recommend I go about building something like this? Like materials and such?
>>2890319I dont know much about the topic, but instincts tell me to just partition, waterproof and air out as soon as you end showering.Plaster board sounds like a terrible idea, but you MAY be able to use it if you maybe also glue plastic foil to it or maybe paint with waterproof paint of some kind?Wooden boards have same issue of absorbing water, but to less extent, so they may serve you alright for some time before you would need to replace them, serve more if you waterproof them well.Either option will work for keeping steam out of the rest of area, but it may be ugly, make showering difficult or need maintenance.
>>2890319transparent polycarbonate?
>>2890319Schluter system, I guess. Just build more of it.
>>2890319If your only concern is steam why not just cold showers? I live in a relatively cold place and still just cold shower every day.
A place for anything to do with Welding.Post your welds, ask questions and discuss sticking metals together.IDK I just want a place to talk about welding.
>>2889509>>2889538Cheers lads, to be fair the vendor has discounted it pretty heavily because of the damage and I can always do a chargeback if the item isn't what they said it was. I think it's more their supplier may be bullshitting them than them attempting to bullshit me.Thanks for the bathtub/magnet idea. I hadn't thought of that but it's a good call.
>>2849067gonna try one of these bong style ground clamps from chinkexpress. looks ok for $13. seems to me like inverter welders kinda pulse when you strike the arc and its enough to occasionally break the ground contact with the regular spring clamps. hopefully this eliminates that
>>2849067If i learn to weld can i get a gf like this?
>>2891498Theres gotta be more than 13 dollars worth of copper in that cable. looks solid though.
>>2891709the lead was recycled from a dead tig rig. 25ft of #4 flexaprene is quite a bit more than the clamp costs
