Best Of
Re: What Am I Working On? An abbreviated photo dump of the month's activities.
This. And when you visit, see if you can get @JohnNY to show you over the steam system.
Re: Best Material to Use for Drainpipes in Residential Homes.
Those don't use kerosene, they use white gas/unleaded gasoline. It even has the hook for the iron.
mattmia2
Re: Mystery tool
Leave it to the guy on the west coast to solve a Boston issue. Good job @Larry Weingarten
Re: Weil McLain PEG Boiler Not Firing
There is usually a "blocked vent switch" under the vent damper, it would have 2 wires going to it. That is usually a very small manual reset red button that pops out to open the safety circuit if for some reason the exhaust gases are not going up the chimney.
There is another safety called the "flame rollout switch", it looks to be connected by yellow wires to the lower left of the gas valve. These are usually one time thermal fused and non resettable. Ohm meter should show closed with wires removed or voltmeter show 0 volts if closed with power applied. Show 24 volts if open with power applied.
JUGHNE
Re: Best Material to Use for Drainpipes in Residential Homes.
I think Grainger is just about the highest price anywhere. However, I agree, copper ain't cheap.
Re: Common issues (low hanging fruit)
I would say pipe size and pump selection requires no more experience than the things you mentioned. less in my opinion because its fairly intuitive to someone who knows nothing about hydronics that pipe size and pump selection must matter because there are different pumps and different size pipes so a novice who knows nothing might think to check these things. Quick rule of thumb references are available freely and easily with a google search and will serve most jobs adequately. 20 minutes or so reading about it and you are able to crunch the numbers yourself. For simple residential jobs this stuff is very basic level stuff, the most basic really.
GGross
Re: What was the best MacGuyver moment you actually saw on a job site?
Needed to crimp a pex pipe in a ceiling. The pipe was so close to the subfloor that the crimper handles wouldn't fit between the joists. I didn't have my block crimper with me. So I took the handles off and used a C-clamp to close the jaws.
Checked it with the Go/NoGo gauge.
Re: Short Cycling and High Pressure after a few weeks of warm weather?
if you heat it to just boiling you have heated it enough to drive the dissolved air out, you don't really need to heat it to a full cycle. if you put some water on the stove to boil, you will see little bubbles forming in the pot a while before it boils. those bubbles are the dissolved air. It mostly comes out of solution before it reaches boiling.
mattmia2
Re: Mystery tool
Some fun (and confusion) here:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-firemans-bed-key-wrench-al-506714707
Yours, Larry
