PLD

Not no, but HELL NO! Do not suspend your life on anything you can get at a big box store. A 750# SWL rope from home depot can get you killed. I recommend that everyone doing roofs do some research on climbing gear and the basic safety precautions involved in high angle work. The forces involved are MANY times more than what you might think them to be. A rule of thumb we used when teaching high-angle rescue was: Multiply the distance you plan to fall by the total weight suspended to get your dynamic load. Use 10ft as a typical fall distance. So if you, your clothes/gear, and the rope itself weighs 225 lbs your safety rope's and all attachment points need to have a safe working load of 2250lbs or better. Typical rappelling rope is 4500-9000 lbs. Caribiners are 4500#+. There is a reason they are rated so high, and there is a reason they are so expensive. And even with the margin of safety provided by good equipment, you must take care of your ropes if they are to take care of you. - use only a kernmantle rope. Twisted rope is not intended for high angle work. Yes, I know the army uses it but they also use a cost vs.expendibility scale on a human life. You only have one soldier to send out and if the rope breaks, you loose the whole battle. - Keep your rope in a protective bag when not in use. - Put a pad under the rope when it crosses a hard edge like a roof peak or edge. - Don't ever step on your rope or allow it to get stomped into the mud. The sand grains act like little scissors as the rope flexes. - Periodically wash your rope with mild detergent in water to remove dirt. Note: Wash only in a front load washer with no spindle unless you want to buy a new rope and washer. - Don't allow you rope to come into contact with chemicals or oils. I know this is impossible in roof work, but avoid it whenever possible as we do not know the long term effects of bleach on kernmantle rope. - Do not wrap you rope around your arm to spool it. That creates an internal twist that weakens the rope. Spool it onto a loop on the ground, around a buddies extended arms, or sit bent kneed and spool it around your knees. Last, but not least: Give your rope a "breast exam" every few weeks or so. I know the monicker sounds pig'ish, but it was one of our girls that coined it so I claim safe haven. Anyway, the name stuck because the idea is exactly the same. You are regularly, carefully, and attentively feeling the entire object for changes in consistency. If you practice it regularly, you will become attuned to normal/baseline, and changes will stand out clearly to you. Anyway, to examine your rope start at one end and slowly feel, squeeze, and massage your way over every inch until you reach the other end. If you feel internal kinking, knotting, or changes in diameter or consistenct *retire the rope*. If the mantle is excessily worn or you can see the rope core, *retire the rope*. If you have ever used the rope to handle an excessive load such as a fall, or used the rope in a mechanical pull (towing, tree felling), *retire the rope* Anyway, here's some links I googled that you may fine useful. http://www.aspiring.co.nz/inspectn.htm http://www.fortunebaycompany.com/Education/Ropework/caremaintinspection.htm http://experts.about.com/q/2259/3423315.htm

Yep. Small world 'eh. I was in Stone Mountain. I have a pick of the rack somewhere. I spent a not-so-small fortune keeping that thing up and I think I collected a total of $2-300 in memberships.

If I am wrong you may call me at home at gloat be it a week or a century from now. The fair tax/flat tax plan and social security reform will not happen. EVER. That would remove far too much power from the state and return it to the people. If I could make either them happen tomorrow with a snap of my fingers, I would gladly give away every possession I have and start again on Saturday homeless and broke.

I'd rather have straw men. At least they would provide a shred of defense w/o trampling all over the constitution. There is no freedom the republicans would not gladly bury in exchange for "homeland security". And if you disagree with the complete desecration of the constitution you are quickly branded un-American, unpatriotic, etc. and villified. I'm certainly not implying that the republicans set up the 09/11 attacks, but is is enlightening to take a moment and compare their responses to the 9/11 attacks and those taken by the nazi's immediately after the reichstag was burned. BinLaden may be a viscous SOB, but he's not a fool. He was quite confident that our response the the attacks would be exactly as they have been. He's forced us to become trade freedom for security and entrust obscene amounts of control over our personal liberty in the state. That provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption, abuse of power, etc. All of which weaken America and work to his advantage. And that doesn't even begin to address the economic burden imposed on the engine of capitalism to comply with new post-9/11 security regulations. You may not like him, but I personally thing UBL is a tactical genius. We are busy fighting the war on terror sumo-style while UBL employs ju-jitsu style and forces us to use our own weight to his advantage. The dems on the other hand just want to resurrect the soviet state here and then have us crumble under the weight of socialism... Liberty and capitalism. It's the only socio-economic system that can maintain an empire as large at the USofA. And our politicians on both sides of the isle are out to destroy them. They just disagree which one to tackle first.

where is 3gpm?

I etched a window like that with butyl caustic and had to buff it out with rubbing compound...

I actually got the idea from Alan in an earlier thread. All my guns have a 1/4" female QC (a tip socket) immediately post trigger. So, the gun it just a trigger with a 3/8 F-QC on the input side and a 1/4" F-QC on the output side. All my wands, etc (after trigger stuff) are outfitted with 1/4" male QC's facing upstream and 1/4" F-QC's facing downstream. This includes the surface cleaner. When I want to switch to the surf cleaner I just let off the trigger, drop the wand and plug into the surf cleaner. This gives all the functionality of a ball valve without the weight, stiff action, and lack of manuverability it adds (w/o a whip). As an added bonus, it allows for extended reach with less wands on truck. I carry a single 3ft, 6ft, and 12ft. In just a minute, I can stack them for 21ft of wand. Realistically, I only use ever 3', 6', 3' & 6', 12', or 3' & 12'. For those who don't feel the added "weight" of the ball valve, I would offer either you are using a whip or you haven't tried it both ways in a short period of time. I never did a whip before I canned my ball valve and IMHO it wears on you after a long day. I think the weight has less to do with it than the extra torque on the base of the gun by the 8-12" lever arm created by the ball valve. I also hated that after a few weeks, the ball valve required two hands and a good 15 minute rest to toggle. Here's the link to the prev thread with a pic of Alans setup. Mine only differs in that my 3/8 is a female. I always run male upstream pre-gun and male downstream post gun. Like this: PUMP-> >----hose---> >--gun--< <--lance--< <-tip

You'd be better off plubming your SC to fit your gun. Much faster and lighter. Call me. You know the #.

I disagree. Our represenatives no longer make decisions based on what's good for the country, they make decisions based on which groups they can pander to in order to maintain their office. And now that the net tax payers are outnumbered by the net tax consumers (and losing ground), the tax payers are in fact unrepresented in spite of the fact that they actually do get a vote. That is precisely why it is so difficult to distinguish republicans from democrats anymore. They are both pandering to the same crowd. And both spending far more than we take in each year.

In my experience percarbonate outgasses alot when mixed and will give you a good deal of "air" in the line resulting in a lost prime. I x-jet or pump spray mine.

Claude, You are showing your age by using BBS and lurker in the same post. Philip - Former SysOp, Chaos Inc. BBS 1988-1996 Just for fun: Phone: 770-498-9646 I had 4 lines and a MASSIVE 6.1Gb online. (ever seen a 600Mb 5.25in full height drive? About as large and heavy as a PW pump) 3 machines 32mb of obscenely expensive RAM/each 10 "doorway" games linked to FidoNET for mail relay (inc'l internet mail) Looking for an old favorite? Look here: http://bbslist.textfiles.com/usbbs.html

I do. And I wouldn't feel like a cheat either. As long as no deception is involved, if they agree to X and I will work for X, it's fair for both. That said, could I get that for a housewash? No way! I sell $165-185 all day long and upsell gutter exteriors for 50% of the house price. About 33% of my customers take the gutters for ~$240 house. FWIW, I'm doing a house today. All exterior surfaces (house, concrete, walks, decks, fencing, etc) for $620 and it'll take about 9 hours labor. I consider that a top dollar (total, not per hour) sale.

Let us also not forget that the Boston Tea Party was over a (IIRC) 5% tax. Also, the original opponents to the income tax cited as their main point of opposition that they believed that proposd 3% tax rate may one day rise to as high as 5%. Taxation levels in this country are obscene, immoral, and wrong. And before someone posts it: I don't really give a damn what other developed countries pay. It's thievery Robin Hood style. Take from the haves and give to the have nots because it makes everyone feel good.

Anyone know of a good washer in Fayetteville Ga that needs work? My perfect employee gave me 2 weeks notice today that he's going back to college. :( If they have a truck, w/hitch that's even better. Pay is $10/hr (paid 1099 weekly) + mileage. Also, I'm about a week from closing a deal on an apartment complex in Stone Mountain, Ga. About 1 mile OTP near 285/Memorial drive. It's a good bid, but I really don't want to make that haul or invest in the equipment to handle fighting on two fronts. Would consider a joint venture, sub-contract, or finders fee. One caveat: The management company likes me and manages 300+ properties. :) Whoever gets the work, the mgmt company must be satisfied and I get the last word on when it's "good enough"

So far, I am 1 for 10 in bids over the past 7 days. On one of the bids I lost, I managed to get the homeowner to share some information. My bid: 2.5 story brick and vinyl house - $185 clean 300sq.ft deck 12' elev/16 steps - $240 400sq.ft concrete patio - $ 30 300sq.ft walkway - $20 The winning bid: - $100 back side of 2.5 story house clean 300sq.ft deck 12' elev/16 steps 400sq.ft concrete patio 300sq.ft walkway A hundred bucks?!? The back side of the house and walkways alone were worth more than that. And throw in the deck for free? The steps alone will take as long as the flats. And this wasn't a friend of a friend job. This is a FT washer that advertises side by side with me in the local paper... I hate to say it, but unless things change for the better this may be my last year PW'ing. I just cannot compete with the hordes of "Any house $90.00, and driveway $50.00" that have descended upon sunny Fayetteville. Just today, I was told that $125 for green (was beige) two story stucco was "way outside my price range". I thought $145 was fair, $165 would be good. I bid $125 in an attempt to book some work. Don't get me wrong, I can find decent paying customers and leave them happy. I just can't find them in sufficient quantities to run this as a FT operation. At present circumstances, I'd need to expand my marketing to ~2500/month just to gross $3k/week. Back out labor and expenses, and I'm down to $1000-1500/week. That may sound ok, but spread it across 12 months and that's about 40k. And I'm working WAY too hard to make 40K. FWIW, last saturday at northern tool you would have thought they were giving away pressure washers for free. They were carrying them out one after another. And not just the $399 homeowner units. These are next weeks batch of lowballers...

You may borrow mine if you like.

I do know that GPM flow through a given orifice is non-linear with changes in pressure. Here is more info: http://home.mchsi.com/~gweidner/Spray-Nozzle-Formulas.pdf

Unless someone has a different means, I think everyone is referring to like pressure since pressure in the line = pressure AT the orifice for (^X=0). Obviously from there (X >0) it drops off exponentially. This link: http://www.martwash.com/html/seminars_articles/pumptech.htm has some good info. Most notably: "It is also important to note that the impact pressure doubles for a given spray angle with a doubling of flow, whereas a doubling of pressure only increases impact pressure by 1.414 times (square root of 2). "

If I'm getting wet at all, I don't have enough help :)

Was the pool that color BEFORE you started?

I shouldk now by Friday and I've got some potential subs already lined up!

In my experience, that market is ripe with rentals and renters could care less. If you get an largely owner-occ neighborhood 1-160's are often good money. I have a 145-160 neighborhood that's generates steady biz. The owners wash, the renters are green. You can drive through and spot the rentals by the mildew.

Give 'em a big bid and divide into a per unit price. They will compare the whole bid, but mgmt companies often take it to a homeowners assoc and they like to know per-unit charges for assessments. And give a line item breakdown of buildings, concrete, gutters, etc. They will often pick and choose to make if fit their budget.

I had a customer pay me good money to PW a deck and stain it with grey Olympic. They were after the weathered grey look. And we did a great job. It looked almost the same when I left as when I arrived. The only plus is that the wood will be in better shape long term. Go figure...

Ditto for me. But I'm making about 2k/week before I pay him. Expenses run about 35% before taxes. Anyway, he's been getting faster/better and I could see $5-600/day on the radar. That is, until he gave notice today... :( I'll definitely hire again. I'm making almost exactly what I was alone and not working as hard. Hard physically that is, I'm doing 10hr days with quotes and biz mgmt.