MMI Enterprises

A friend sent me this calculator that even works for self employed folk. I just love collecting all the charts and tools that help us do business..Enjoy!! RetirementCalculator(1).xls

Finished this pita job today.... Does anyone enjoy doing pergolas or arbours? My arms are way sore from monkeying all over it. :) . Takes longer then doing a deck...maybe as long as a raised deck. Likely should have been priced that of a deck that for sure but I gave the guy a break.

opps I got so busy forgot to vote... Looks like Carolina Pro Wash took both contest quite handily and so a big congrats to both Roger and Celeste!! Thank you Scott and Jake for your work in putting on these contests :) I really enjoyed oggling over all the pics..

Sounds like everyones nightmare job... I would have advised a deeper/stronger/boosted/more suitable stripper mix during washing before proceding onward to any drum sanding or defurring procedure. . Now you've sanded it and if ya rewet and strip you'll be back to square one on defurring or smoothing er out. Good reason to always try and have enough chem on hand for worst case scenarios. If a good 15-20 minute dwell isn't working then it's time for more concentration and boosting of chems with more caustic,solvents/surfactants. If it drying on ya then mist on more chem or just water or you can take alternative method of laying plastic over the areas giving you the most problems to acheive better dwell time. Never start rinsing until you can scratch through the gunk with a wood stir stick or such. If areas left to do are just spot areas then you could paint on epoxy paint remover type gel and hand scrape it off after few minute with putty knife or rag and then run yer sander in order to avoid rewetting or renting the drum sander again. Showing some pics of situation may help others in suggesting best route to take...

Beautiful prep pic there Rick!!

That's coincidence..is about the color of the one I bid today:) Plan to freshen'er up with AC mahogany over top. Think it about 3x bigger though at approx. 900' footprint. Hey Rick you ever see one where the sun shade boards are angle cut/ripped to increase the shade? Strangest thing I ever saw..

WTG!!. Perhaps pessimistic but it should be said, there is nothing greater you will ever acheive than to make such bundle of joy!!

Scott gonna have lots of work with all the late entries..

New Consumer Reports article is out for exterior paints and stains. California Paints Tops Exterior Paint Ratings : PaintSquare News What's yer imput on the brands mentioned?

40 some odd views and hardly a thought to air? ... Seriousley what's with this California Paints getting this CR attention? We missing out on something good out here or what?

Old thread and all but for those that use search function and end up here may find a conversion factor of .76 from weight to volume suitable when using straight caustic in a mix for replacement of HD80. Weight to Volume conversion online. 8 oz by weight is 6.1 oz by volume

then poopoo on it then Dan..lol ..and yes 8oz per is good, I like it..I like it alot :) PS- Oh and it should be said that much of the figuring goes to hell in a hand basket depending on streamer setup and end thickness of product, etc. etc.. For instance your counting on a 10x factor diluting but I do just fine usually at 6x. Changing ratios of the other chem items in there besides the caustic makes big difference, Is one reason to lean towards using floor stripper..It never makes a thick batch if toning down the PG. Btw don't quote me on the weight to volume factor I use. I read it somewhere from good source but that stuff has plenty involved with temps and solution % and such. I remember I said somewhere about Russell having such factor listed on their site but going by the info I used it was a tad off. No scale here for dealing with bulk and no desire to figure it as it not rocket science. When I hear someone using weight I just automatically lower by .25 to get close in volume. PPS- I was wrong by a percentage point as it is closer to 76% when converting to volumetric measure.. : http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/weight2volume Put in your weight under US weight section and watch the fluid ounce under the US Volume section . Enjoy! :)

Dan why ya say that about HD80? I've only used once so can't say much about it myself but thought it's been said by others that they DS it. Perhaps problem could be that other stuff in it (buffers, fillers, or surfactants) may require too much fair share of the water taking it all beyond the saturation point/no dissolve. On standard caustic I know we've shared some recipe so you know full well how to mix it to gain DS strength but for others here is a decent standard starting mix: tot quantity- 2.5 gal (enough for several large decks) 1 gal Sierra (96% PG) (about 6.4% ttw after DS diluting factor of 6x) 72 oz NaOH (measured by volume, 96 oz by weight- conversion factor is approx .75) (ttw=about 6.4 oz per gal like a non DS mix) approx. 1/2 gal Purple Power (2-butoxy aka butyl cellosolve, and KOH?), or a floor stripper, or a lesser amount of straight cellosolve Mix outdoors in heavy fiver bucket while wearing proper protection (eye protection, gloves, long sleeve). Gets hot so mix products together partially allowing time to cool. Personally I've never melted through a bucket doing it all in a matter of minutes but let's urge safety here for them non pro's Beth is refering to. When I do it I pour in gal of antifreeze, then a half gal of water, then the caustic. At this point the caustic is beyond saturation point. Pouring in the Purple Power will kick it on over. Any old polymers or stain residues that may have been coating bucket interior or stir stick tends to break down and either float to top or sink to bottom..Last batch I got a 1" ball of some 2 part poly urethane used on a deco concrete job and some red color from the bucket itself..lol But anyways, adjusting with more or less caustic and purple power will see you finding balance between easy jobs and tuff ones. Substituting floor stripper(they usually low foam) for Purple Power makes for less rinsing and better results on acrylic strips. The best floor strippers I refuring to will usually contain three chems- Potassium Hydroxide(KOH), Monoethanolamine (MEA), 2-butoxyethanol (EB).

oh and I was saying.. -the number one way to eliminate risk of damaging things when spraying caustic, besides proper tipping & shielding, is: Use a pump up sprayer..lol ...not to spray the caustic with but rather to spray rinse the chem off something should you get inaccurate. Have it right there sitting all pumped up before streaming..Duh. Get the water faucet hose if ya get way serious on being inaccurate. Now take that to da bank baby and cash in,..better yet send over an Andrew Jackson or a c note to my Paypal if this has helped ya or saves yer arse, yonk yonk. :)

Sold!!. Me thinks me needs it on a new keychain right between rustic, sequoia, or woodland.. ..now if we can just track down Jake..umm Bueller, Bueller, where's Bueller?

Being a verticle mount I would say it was a good choice to reweld that baffle. When they or pieces thereof fall they can block or divert the fire and just about burn a hole right through the side. In some cases such can cause sporadic sparking/fire and cause an actual fire from unburnt fuel even if it's all wired proper to only have solinoid power while electroid fires (daisy chain/series wired versus parallel wired). That's what mine did anyways. Great reason for mounting washers in open trailor or all metal trailer if ya ask me.. Oh and I converted mine to run via pressure switch/pressure unloader as the old setup was unreliable and not condusive to other mods of dual machining, etc.

Coincidence perhaps, but I also not too pleased with mildewcide situation on a job with ProVT. Yes job environment was prone to regrowth but still.. regrowing stuff within the same year or so does not please me. I'd like to say the OVT maybe their better option but have not revisited locations with that version and it also not recommended as being compatable with just about anything such that the ProVT was billed as being.

Then again, you'll find at least one exception here on DSing. I DS caustic plenty and would say I use that method way more percentage of the time than any other method. Just like many other things such as paint, stain, bleach, etc., it takes precaution and prep to spray many things so there is no sound reason to think it can't be done effectively. Ok I will let the cat out of the bag and offer some secrets how to do it proper. I been reading way too long of people being in fear of DSing... -When applying do not have painted objects like walls taped up with plastic..on off chance caustic gets behind it you'll effectively gain a deep long dwell time suitable to remove said paint. - Do not apply with any tip that mists or atomizes...chem/soap tips may not be all equal. Tip must be very custom to your rig and flow out without abandon. It also must be a fan tip of course in order to cut an edge. I can't tell you what size tip it will take as all setups are different. Realize that the easier the flow out the more you loose atomization that burns your face or messes up surfaces. It also makes max use of your DS ability to suck chem... Many streamers are 20% streamers which is 5:1 and so use a factor of approx. 6x when converting a standard mix or better yet do a test. -Consider using 4'x4' cardboard shields against wall when applying chem. -And the number one way to eliminate the risk of damaging surfaces not meant to be sprayed, besides having proper tip, is to.. ( to be continued..dinner is sitting on my belly)..lol -

That's alot of moola Ron! Fair to add that such flooring contractors are surely running rather large company's taking care of many employee and have so much stress in their life that they gray haired before 40? I work year round but same time don't work myself to death and have no major aspirations for large growth or running big company...Cool one in hand and floatin is nice!! :)

Different strokes for different folks... people pay good money for either look really. Personally I would have to agree there was mistakes surrounding this job in that either the home owner made poor product choice for their own tastes or a contractor didn't understand what customer wanted. Which is the case here? I mean it looked liek whoever was workign on it was getting somewhere and but got fired off job midstream..lol :)

Oh the mystery and drama of it all... Like why do people crack out on crack or drivel out when drunk? Or why does Beth even entertain it and is nice to someone obviousley meaning to rock a boat or cause grief directly upon another member . Never been able to digest such about these sites and the lack of firmness involved. Big difference between freedomn of speach and personal harrasment. Just get a grip and kill threads like these before they get out of hand or before weirdos can contrive them into being something redeeming, or something for the masses to think about or consider as lie or truth, or something to damand evidentiery preservation of due to what ends up always being said. Nothing about this thread and nothing of value in terms of information or pertinent to the business section or any other for that matter. ... ok done with spew :)

stain product choice was?

Make sure the undone section dries good and well before staining. If not you may get some evaporative pressure come up that'll separate the pigment to the side of small quarter sized area here or there. Seen one spot as such on a deck that had one day dry... two days is better. Not much of an issue really other than having to come back to touch up.

3 year back in the scrap book section http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/scrap-book/11370-my-high-capacity-diy-hvlp-sprayer.html

2-butoxyethanol 2-Butoxyethanol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia may be what your after.. aka butyl cellosolve. Is a solvent found in most major cleaners, degreasers, floor stripper etc.. Since it breaks down fairly quik in environment some market the products containing it as biodegradable. For use in wood restoration/stripping mixes some forego buying it in bulk form and just buy Purple Power or a floor stripper. Pour some in that finicky fiver of undisolved heat and watch it disolve in about a blink of an eye. Far as surfacting or wetting goes such werks fine.. :) If your looking to get an acid to wet better I know that 2 butoxy is used with many acids such as phosphoric, citric, and glycolic as metal cleaners or rust removers. Use this Dow formula tool to see how the various chems can be utilized: http://www.dow.com/surfactants/applications/formula.htm Here is Dow's info on 2-butoxy http://www.dow.com/productsafety/finder/egbe.htm ps- Remeber there is more concern for enviroment with the NP stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonylphenol "Nonylphenol has been detected widely in waste water streams across the globe, which is a concern since it is toxic to many aquatic organisms. For example, nonylphenol has been detected both in the Great Lakes and in the region of New York City.[6] In 1984, the formation of 4-nonylphenols from nonylphenol ethoxylates in wastewater treatment plants was first discovered.[7] Nonylphenol is persistent in the environment,[8] therefore lingers around to potentially negatively effect organisms it comes in contact with. Nonylphenol also bioaccumulates, which is dangerous to animals and humans who eat meat. Nonylphenol and nonyphenol ethoxylates have been banned in the European Union as a hazard to human and environmental safety.[9] For freshwater ecosystems, the Environmental Protection Agency has set two types of standards: the first which is considered acute criteria is one-hour average concentration of nonylphenol does not exceed 28 μg/L more than once every three years on the average.[10] For saltwater ecosystems, the standard is considered to be chronic criteria and is set to four-day average concentration of nonylphenol that does not exceed 6.6 μg/l more than once every three years on the average." --------------------------------------------------------------- If wanting to stick with tergitol surfactant for sake of pure surfactance properties try this: http://www.dow.com/surfactants/products/second.htm Is safer more common version of their Tergitol. Again you can try the formula tool linked above to get ideas or their surfactant tool below. Note that the Tergitol15 is usually mentioned. http://www.dow.com/surfactants/applications/finder.htm