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Unique Tips And Tricks

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Joethemechanic

Joethemechanic

Senior Member
Location
Hazleton Pa
Occupation
Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Sberry said:
I thought about a load bank for burning up old fuel in the winter when the demand for heat was hi.
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I have 2 of these. One like the picture, and one older one with the round door. The stoker part will burn anthracite coal, wood pellets, and dried corn. The burner have in one will burn oil or propane. The older round door one I have is only set up to burn solid fuel.

EFM DF520.jpg


Coal Stoker Boiler DF520

Visit efmheating.com to find top quality heating equipment, like the right oil-fired or gas-fired water boiler for your home, electric and coal stoked boilers.
efmheating.com
 
Sberry

Sberry

Senior Member
Location
Brethren, MI
Occupation
farmer electrician
Tuning a well for the work at hand can be worth it. I am at 30 to 55 psi. Its deep and not real effecient but not drought sensitive. I can run 7 sprinks at 48 or so # and 6 right before shut off. I irrigate or pond fill before cut off and to leave enough service for incidental living. I should put down shallower bigger well.
 
R

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Strathead said:
When you need to use a hole saw to say, drill a 1 3/8" conduit hole in a box where it already has a 7/8" hole in it. screw a 4S cover to the box. Use it to center the pilot and the hole saw won't walk on you. A common sense thing to me, but I have seen people struggle with this more than once.
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I use a piece of scrap 2 by 4 and an Irwin clamp.

The nested hole saws is a good idea, but doesn’t work if the new hole location isn’t concentric with the old one.
 
T

Todd0x1

Senior Member
Location
CA
Sea Nile said:
If the threads on a panel are stripped due to years of people taking the panel cover off and on, or over tightening the panel cover screws, I have a fix.

I put a thin wrap of Teflon tape (for plumbing) around the panel cover screw. Take my thumb nail and push the Teflon into the threads while spinning the screw with my other hand.

I then screw it in to the worn out hole on the panel with the cover off and coat around the screw and hole on the inside with JB weld.

Once it hardens, you can unscrew it, due to the Teflon tape not allowing the JB weld to adhere to the screw and the problem is fixed.

If you do one hole at a time, you can secure the cover with the other screws until it cures.

Time consuming, but if you have the time, it's a great trick

To my knowledge, I invented this trick, never seen anyone else do it

One thing I left out, best to scratch up the inside around the hole w sand paper to get a good bond
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I've used clip on nuts for this in the past

Clip-on nut - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Sea Nile

Sea Nile

Senior Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Electrician
jim dungar said:
(y)

I fixed plastic trim on my microwave this way several years ago, except I used Vaseline on the threads.
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You mean you used JB weld but Vaseline instead of Teflon tape? Can't imagine needing Vaseline for clip-on nut.
Lots of ways to skin a cat. Never tried Vaseline, but the Teflon works great. Some of the Teflon stayed in the new threads and made it easy and smooth to take the screw in and out.
 
J

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
Sea Nile said:
You mean you used JB weld but Vaseline instead of Teflon tape? Can't imagine needing Vaseline for clip-on nut.
Lots of ways to skin a cat. Never tried Vaseline, but the Teflon works great. Some of the Teflon stayed in the new threads and made it easy and smooth to take the screw in and out.
Click to expand...
Oops replied to the wrong post.:mad:
JBweld with grease.
 
Little Bill

Little Bill

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
Occupation
Semi-Retired Electrician
Jraef said:
I just put up sone Sheetrock and did this. My wife doesn’t wear lipstick, so I got some at the Dollar store. The clerk there told me it wasn’t my color…
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Better than what I did. I forgot to put the lipstick back. Don't think she bought my explanation! :)
 
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Strathead said:
If you need to push a fish tape in to a live panel, get a rigid coupling of the pipe size. Put a bell pug in the end and screw it on the conduit threads inside the panel. When you push, the fish tape will stop at the bell plug. Take the coupling off and you have 2" of fish tape to pull in. Of course, none of us here would EVER open a panel that is hot, let alone pull wire in to one... but...

This was an idea I got from E C and M mag years ago. Credit where credit is due.
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I heard JWST (James Web Space telescope) discovered a galaxy where people often pull conductors into live panels. Crazy place that must be.
 
Joethemechanic

Joethemechanic

Senior Member
Location
Hazleton Pa
Occupation
Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
electrofelon said:
I heard JWST (James Web Space telescope) discovered a galaxy where people often pull conductors into live panels. Crazy place that must be.
Click to expand...
I once pulled live conductors into a dead panel 🤣

Actually it was a fused disco that served as a main. 240/120 high leg to make it worse. Needed to cut the conduit a bit to make the new (actually used) disco fit, so I pulled the live conductors back up the conduit so I wouldn't cut into them. I don't even want to say how old I was or what I used for protection. I didn't know anything about available fault current, or arc flash, but I knew there were no fuses between what I was working on and the transformer, and figured if I F ed up it wouldn't be pretty
 
drcampbell

drcampbell

Senior Member
Location
The Motor City, Michigan USA
Occupation
Registered Professional Engineer
Stone wool insulation is a lot easier to work with than fiberglass, yields better results in irregular spaces, and insulates better.
The best tool for cutting either one is an electric carving knife, routinely available at Salivation Army or other fine thrift sores.
 
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