Saturday, we went to see the Avengers: Age of Ultron. Fun movie, and close to 2 1/2 hours - over that in the theater seat. But it really used up Saturday, when we added a half hour visit to a friend in the hospital on the way. The movie, BTW, is a lot of fun, as those movies tend to be. There's a bit more quiet character development than the first one, with less wholesale CGI destruction. Perhaps. You may have heard that some feminist groups complained about something involving Scarlett Johansson's character, Black Widow. It suddenly occurred to me while watching the movie that the scene we were watching was The Scene that got them upset ... and I still don't get it. Throughout the movie there's a developing closeness between Black Widow and Bruce Banner (the Hulk). It involves their relationship.
Yesterday, we moved into an upgraded gun safe and I went to drill holes into the floor to put in concrete anchors. My 30 year old AC-powered drill wouldn't drill through the ceramic tile. After a couple of minutes, all I had done was heat up the motor and the drill bit. The "hole", if you want to call it that, was really just a dimple, probably less than 1/16" deep. After a bit of time figuring out what the next step was, it was off to the Big Orange Borg to pick up a hammer drill. This one cut through the tile in a few seconds, and then drilled into the concrete so fast you could feel the drill sinking into it.
But that took all day - from about 11 until almost 6! Putting in four concrete anchors shouldn't take a over four hours, even with a one hour drive to get the drill added in. And an hour fixing one concrete anchor. Sitting or kneeling on the floor isn't exactly my strongest point, and I spent too much time working around that.
I need to spend more hours in activity and fewer hours sitting in front of a screen.
I spent the afternoon doing the reverse. Getting ready to move, and had to end up cutting a safe hold down bolt off with a Dremel tool. Loosening the bolt caused the anchor to spin. No way to hold the anchor to get the bolt to back out. Easy peasey just to cut the bolt off. Once cut off, used a 3 lb hammer to drive the anchor and bolt stub down below the concrete. Problem solved. Only took 3 hours. Had to buy reinforced cutoff wheel at the local orange Borg store, first.
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of thing that tempts you to sell the safe with the house.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the time sink was the trip to the store.
ReplyDeleteAround here, takes ten minutes to find a parking spot; more if you try to find one where somebody is less likely to hit your vehicle.
Faced with a similar problem, I opted for a 3/4 inch diamond-impregnated hole saw from the Blue Borg (the Orange Borg doesn't trifle with such delicate implements) to go through the tile. Required a temporary water dam from painter's tape, then took about 90 seconds to cut a tile plug down to concrete, where I switched to my rotary hammer. The RH would easily have gone through the tile, but this was in a visible location and I was worried about chipping and cracking the ceramic.
ReplyDeletePro tip: after the first hole, I discovered that continuing into the concrete about 1/2 inch with the hole saw and stepping from a 9/32, then a 1/2 hammer drill bit before switching to the 3/4 prevents chipping the finished edge of the tile (the alternative was using a 5/16 cold chisel to chip out the concrete "plug"). Seems the HD bit wanders a bit on starting and getting the carbide edges below the tile prevents chipping same. Also saves a trip to the model airplane store for little bottles of paint to hide the chip.....
I'm jealous. My wife is retiring this year after 30 years of guberment work. Me...I stills gots 10+ years to go.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to consider some barbell training as you get older. It cures many ills for old-timers.
ReplyDeleteStart with this:
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/07/08/strength-training-for-people-my-age/
Every DIY project requires at least three trips to the Home depot.
ReplyDeleteI was griping about the amount of time it took at work and one of the guys said, "you got the job done and you got a new drill; how was that a bad day?"
ReplyDeleteGood perspective.