Incremental misery

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Greg_Lewis
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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:44 pm
Location: Fresno, CA

Incremental misery

Post by Greg_Lewis »

So we’ve all had those simple projects that should take perhaps 20 minutes but end up taking a day and a half. You know the kind. It’s where every single thing you try to do either goes wrong or proves to be more complicated than it should be. And if not that, then you are missing one — just one — fastener of some common thread that you used to have in a box of 100 but now you have to make a special trip to the hardware store in order to finish.

It’s the kind of thing that you get into and there is just one little extra issue that should only take a few minutes to resolve. But then when you resolve that, another one pops up. And an other. And another. The shop version of whack-a-mole. And after a certain point you are in too deep to just scrap the whole idea and try something else. Because there is just one more little issue to resolve and you’ll be done. Almost.

Take a look at this photo of a simple support for the window mount air conditioner I added to my shop. These little coolers are made for vertical sash windows and if you want to put them into a horizontal slider, you are on your own to figure out how.
IMG_0338.JPG
Now this should be simple, right. Just chop up some scrap 1x3 and screw it together with drywall screws. Wham, bam, done.

Bwahahahaha.

You see, according to the instructions, the a/c unit needs to be at a 3 degree angle to the outside. No biggie. I’ll just make the platform level and then shim up the inside end to tilt it.

Wrong. Since I failed high school geometry I didn’t realize that three degrees times the length of the unit would require about three inches of lift at the inside end. But I didn’t discover this until I put the unit on the support.

OK. So I’ll just trim the angled legs a bit to get the three degrees. Legs trimmed and reassembled. Heavy unit placed. Checked with protractor level thingy.

But then the support strips under the unit, that attach inside the window sill don’t sit flat. So they have to be shimmed. How much needs to be figured out, but got it, and done.

Wrong. Investigation reveals that the feet on the inside end of the unit are shorter than the back edge, resulting in the unit tilting in the opposite direction from what is needed. Which means the support needs more than a three degree slope.

Which means the part of the bracket that sits inside the window needs to be remade. Which means I have to get out the planer and plane down a piece of 2x4 to get what I need. And it has to be cut to an unknown angle that is a combination of the three degrees tilt plus the opposite tilt of the unit, the latter being difficult to determine due to the fact that there is a protrusion on the bottom of the unit that keeps it from sitting level on any surface.

So after much struggle that angle was determined and the wood cut.

But wait! There’s more! I forgot that the unit has that underside protrusion and it won’t sit flat onto the bracket. So once again the unit has to be pulled and the support has to be notched out to clear the protrusion.

And after the first hour the Navy language was in full bloom for the remaining day-and-a-half. Fortunately my grandkids live 12 miles away and my honey wisely avoided the shop. (As Mark Twain once wrote, "Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.")

But hey, the whole project gave me an opportunity to use tools I haven’t used in several years. Here’s a list of everything I used on this simple, 20-minute, day-and-a-half project:

Lathe
Table saw
Chop saw
Bandsaw
Planer
Drill press
24-inch rule
Tape measure
Combination square
Protractor level thingy
Angle gauge
Drill driver
3 drill bits
Headband magnifier
Double-stick tape
Ear protectors
3 screwdrivers
Clip-on eye loupe
2 levels
Trammel points
Tweezers
CAD software
2 old bath towels
Shop vac
1/2 bundle door shims
2 drops Starrett tool oil
Pencil
Framing square
Sheep nose pliers
Utility knife
3 sizes of drywall screws
One band-aid

And I’m out of beer.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Harold_V
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Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by Harold_V »

Heavy, heavy sigh!
In my world, I can turn any 15 minute project into a three day time killer. Sounds to me like you're pretty much average, my good friend! :wink:

Looks like you finally got 'er done.

Congrats :!:

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
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10KPete
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Location: Nordland, WA, USA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by 10KPete »

Oh my, yes. That sounds very typical around here some days!! My wife called it "sequences".

Pete
Just tryin'
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liveaboard
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Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:40 pm
Location: southern Portugal
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Re: Incremental misery

Post by liveaboard »

Preaching to the quire.
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Bill Shields
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Re: Incremental misery

Post by Bill Shields »

Is that anything like a choir?
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by Greg_Lewis »

What I didn't put in my original post is all the little detail things that impeded progress. Like the multitude of trips between the house and the shop as I struggled with the geometry, trying to use my CAD software to solve the problem. Or like the multitude of times I placed and then removed the unit, which must weigh at least as much as a 100-lb sack of potatoes, from the bracket, and carried the [Navy Language] thing back into the shop. Or the struggle with the permanently attached line cord that dangles down and tries to trip you every time you pick it up. Or the chunk of meat I took out of my finger. Or the.........

And I didn't tell you that for $50 plus $7.50 worth of diesel fuel and an hour's worth of my time I could have gone to Lowes and bought a ready-made, adjustable bracket that would have solved the problem. But hey, I had the wood and it would only take 20 minutes to make — 1/3 of the time it would take to drive to Lowes — and I'd save $50 and a gallon and a half of diesel fuel. In 20 minutes that works out to be $150 per hour plus a $7.50 tip.

Do you know how many trips I could make to Lowes in a day and a half?
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
RickBarb
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Joined: Sun Jan 05, 2003 2:12 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by RickBarb »

You said: Since I failed high school geometry I didn’t realize that three degrees times the length of the unit would require about three inches of lift at the inside end. But I didn’t discover this until I put the unit on the support.

3" ?, Assuming your air conditioner was 24" deep, a 3 degree lift would only be 1-1/4". A 3% lift over 24" would be 3/4". Rick
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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Well, Rick, that's why I failed geometry! :lol:
But also remember I wrote that the bottom of the unit is not parallel to the top and the total lift is more like 5.4 degrees.

What really bugs me is that the manufacturer could have designed this so the required angle, which is for condensate to drain toward the outside, could have been built inside the unit, so when it hangs from the window it looks straight. As it is, it looks like it has been hung by someone with a drinking problem.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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liveaboard
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Re: Incremental misery

Post by liveaboard »

I also made my own AC bracket, a pressed metal thing cost something silly, I can't remember the number.
I had steel at home, and paint too.
AC bracket.jpg
earlgo
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Location: NE Ohio

Re: Incremental misery

Post by earlgo »

Around here we call that "Washington's Principle". (Yes, a distant relative of George.)
"Before you do anything, you must do something else first."
--earlgo
Before you do anything, you must do something else first. - Washington's principle.
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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Re: Incremental misery

Post by Greg_Lewis »

liveaboard wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:18 pm ...and paint too.

This one will have to wait to get painted. I need it now. We've already had days over 103, including one that hit 107, and more are in the future. The reason I put this up is that the swamp cooler that helps the larger shop area behind the 10 x 12 machine room doesn't work well when the temp is much over 100 and the humidity goes much over 20 percent. At that point it's a question of hot and dry vs. somewhat cooler and humid. Both suck.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Bill Shields
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Re: Incremental misery

Post by Bill Shields »

isn't much of this what cardboard and a magic marker were created to overcome?

i occasionally use an old 'fold up stick rule' to lay things like this out..

you can put it at an angle and it will stay there...yet allow you to have a long leg that is...well...as long as you need it..
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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