Jump to content

ERADicator

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    55

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by ERADicator

  1. Posted · Report reply

    More good detective work, Daniel.

    I had to look twice at the photo credit for Frank Cousins; I thought it was your county sheriff until I saw the date of the photo. I guess it was somewhat before his time. ;)

    BTW, I work with a guy who is a descendant of Susannah Martin.

    I don't think Cotton Mather and those other ministers and "judges" were too swift. That story reads like a deadly serious version of a certain scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

    Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?

    Peasant 3: Well, she turned me into a newt!

    Sir Bedevere: A newt?

    Peasant 3: [meekly after a long pause] ... I got better.

    Crowd: [shouts] Burn her anyway!

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Certain spaces and environments would be more prone to mold (or mould, as our Canadian brethren call it) growth. I don't know if a visual inspection is enough to confirm the presence or absence of mold, or if it requires some kind of test to make sure. Once the little buggers get airborne, they're trouble.

    If any of your cleaning work involves (or could involve) dislodging mold spores, you should either be certified and equipped for such, or pass up the job. If you liberate mold spores into a customer's living/working space, you could be looking at a lawsuit.

    A HEPA mask would be a good idea, but that only protects you. You need technical stuff like negative pressure, etc., to do it right.

    That said, once you're certified for mold remediation and can properly do the containment, etc., it can be a pretty lucrative specialty field.

    Disclaimer: I am not an expert in the field. I just know to "not go there." ;)

  6. Posted · Report reply

    There are firemen posting here. They probably have some numbers which might help also.
    I'm math-impaired, so this morning I punched the formula for friction loss FL = CQ²L into Micro$oft Excel, and let the program do the calculations as I filled in the values for each variable. The closest hose diameter I could find a coefficient of friction © for was ¾" booster hose, and the figure for 9 GPM through 1000' of hose was around 0.89 PSI per foot.

    Pretty close to John T.'s answer, and his figure is really closer when you consider that pwasher hose is usually no larger than ⅜". I didn't chime in with that until now because the algebraic stuff was way too complicated when somebody had already posted a good answer. ;)

  9. Posted · Report reply

    What a great thread. I hope I can remember all the things I just learned in a few minutes of reading this. ;)

    Okay, Greg says 36" and shorter, and gives some "whys and wherefores." Joe says he likes a 48" wand. Joe, would you enlighten this noob on why you prefer the 48" wand?

    After reading about those "Busters" company names, I'd be tempted to get an old ambulance, but I'm in the market for a truck with Hy-Rail gear. Having worked in Cadillac and Pontiac ambies back in the Seventies, I don't think I could stuff enough equipment into one, much as I might enjoy owning one.

    GraffBusters! :cool:

  10. Posted · Report reply

    Whew! Sometimes a "hot refuel" turns into a HOT refuel. :eek:

    Thanks for making my day seem tame by comparison. A lady backed into my car on a job site this morning. I told her if it was the worst thing that happened to me all day, I'd be okay with that. What you went through makes my "paint exchange" seem like pretty small 'taters.

    You get my vote for first place in the "Why I should have stayed home and in bed on the 13th" contest. I'm glad it wasn't any worse than it was.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Either way, guys shouldn't be so disturbed by the fact that other people want to start a business.
    I don't think it's so much that anyone was disturbed by someone wanting to start, as it was wanting to make sure they started right.
    Everybody has to start somewhere and obviously he is at the right place to learn. And I think we can all agree that knowledge should precede everything else in business.
    Definitely. Supposedly someone can learn to swim by being pushed into deep water, but I'm glad I learned through a different method. :D Jake16 already had an idea of what to ask, and he sure knew the right place to ask it.

    I'm a new guy too, and I've gotten tons of good info from the folks on this site, even if it sometimes seemed like the advice wasn't being delivered in the most patient "tone."

    While reading the thread, I was listening to a couple of Eric Clapton songs. ("Pretending" and "No Alibis." Kind of appropriate when hacks are mentioned, eh? ;) ) Clapton is kind of an example of what others have said (okay, heavy paraphrasing here): It ain't just in the player's fingers, it's in their head and their heart, too.

    Can I play guitar? Well, yeah, sorta. Can I play like E.C.? No way! Got the guitar, got the tube amp, got the effects pedals, and it's still "no way." (Some people say I sing like him, though. :D ) But the day I stop trying to learn more than what I already have learned . . .

    (Larry) KING: Do you still play as good, guitar?

    CLAPTON: Well, if I didn't feel I was improving I would definitely quit.

    KING: Improve?

    CLAPTON: I think that's an axiom that I would have to hold for myself.

    KING: Not as good, better?

    CLAPTON: Not even 'as good'. I need to know that I am actually getting a little bit better all the time. And what proves that is for me to go see someone like B.B., because I know it can be done. I see him do it so I know it can be done.

    Something tells me Jake16 will do alright as a washin' guy, and do even better once he upgrades his equipment. Go get 'em, Jake.

    [Note to self: Nothing less than 4.0 GPM. ;) ]

  14. Posted · Report reply

    "Satch" is one heck of a guitarist. I've always liked that old instrumental, "Sleepwalk," and besides the original, I've got Jeff Beck's version and Satriani's version in my music files. Good stuff.

    I'm not a big fan of Sammy, but the two VH songs I got from Napster are from the "Van Hagar" days: "Dreams" and "Love Walks In."

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Just about every day, I learn something good from this forum. :cool:

    So while we're on the subject of tanks, can ya stand a coupl'a noob questions?

    I'm guessing a belt-drive washer would be just fine from a tank, assuming no obstructions in the supply hose, etc. Is that correct?

    Something I found from Hotsy when Googling around said that direct-drive washers are better off when fed from a pressurized source because the pump is constantly spinning at 1725 or 3450 RPM, or whatever the motor's revolutions are.

    When I worked at the local rental center a few years ago, customers often returned electric pwashers with complaints that "it won't work." When the manager drove out to see if he could figure out their problem, some of the time it was because of a bad electrical hookup (GFCI vs. GFCI, or too small an extension cord). The rest of the time, it was because their well pump/pressure tank wouldn't keep up with the water demand.

    And I'll bet the pump would cavitate long before it started to collapse a tank, but would it be a good idea to take the cover off an "IBC" before starting the washer? I don't know if/how those are vented, but I figure that letting air get in unobstructed might not be a bad idea. Sound right?

    I just bought a 250-gallon IBC, plumbed with a 2" ball valve. That should feed a washer pretty well, eh?

    Thanks for input.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    I am now scrapping this idea!!

    They don't look to be compatible.

    Good call. Asking first, rather than just mixing a little of each "to see what happens" was good, too.

    Plainpainter's right, chlorine is an oxidizer, one of the things that can react with propylene glycol. From the Material Safety Data Sheet:

    Special Remarks on Reactivity:

    Hygroscopic; keep container tightly closed. Incompatible with chloroformates, strong acids (nitric acid, hydrofluloric acid), caustics, aliphatic amines, isocyanates, strong oxidizers, acid anhydrides, silver nitrate, reducing agents.

    Thanks for asking that, 'cause I now have a copy of that MSDS in my collection. I know I'll want that information again some day, and that'll save me the time of having to look it up on-line. :cool:

  22. Posted · Report reply

    I've been looking into getting a used/refurbed gas or diesel compressor for soda blasting. The blaster I'm thinking of starting out with requires 6-25 CFM at 65-125 PSI. The compressor might just stay on the truck most of the time, so a stationary unit is okay. Some of the places I'd be working, a trailerized unit won't be able to go.

    I will probably be using filter masks rather than a supplied-air respirator (hood), so what horsepower range should I be looking for to reliably keep up that max flow if it's ever needed? If I eventually get into dry ice blasting, I'll need something that will do 185 CFM, but for now I think a smaller one will be adequate. (And less expensive.)

    From what I've seen so far, 13 HP is about right for the power, but I'm still figuring out tank size, stages, etc. I did some window-shopping on eBay, but it's a pain sorting out all the categories, etc. Google isn't much better, maybe worse, because it comes up with NexTag and all the others that mostly point to eBay. :banghead:

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Hi, Nate--

    My Name is Nate and I am just getting started in business. I should be washing by April 1st.
    You just inspired me to set a target date, something I haven't had up until now.

    I think I'm going to shoot for 04/01 also. The weather is improving, but if it's still cold by then, I think a coating of ice on something isn't really a bad thing: the next time it gets dirty, you just knock the ice off, and the dirt goes with it.

    No, I don't really think customers will buy that, either. :D

    Good luck to you and all the members here.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Okay, I've got to be careful about saying anything that could tip my present employer off that I'm looking into going into business for myself, even though I won't be a competitor for them in any way. They might even be a customer of my new biz some day. (And I'm not planning on giving up my "real" job, at least not until I really get things rolling on the new idea.)

    My background is largely in law enforcement and security. I'm a Vietnam-era veteran of the Air Force Security Police,and while I don't consider myself "disabled," my VA rating may come in handy when it comes time to hand in applications to the SBA. ;)

    I've been working for a railroad for several years now, doing lots of other things, but still see a lot of trespassing and vandalism going on, including graffiti. I am a great believer in the "broken windows theory," which basically says that if an area looks like a dump, some people will be more likely to treat it like a dump. I'm a member of the Nograf Network Inc., and to me graffiti is a symptom of other problems as well as being a disease all on its own. I'm gonna get on a rant here if I don't change direction pretty quick. :rant:

    Getting the "tagging" out of an area is one step toward cleaning up "urban blight," and making the area attractive to people who will enjoy it without having to leave surreptitious evidence that they were there.

    With that in mind, I'm looking into doing power washing and dry ice blasting, specializing in graffiti abatement, but also taking on other jobs suited to either of those methods.

    Another part of my plan is to offer something else nobody in my area seems to have even heard of: motion-detecting cameras for apprehending those involved in "antisocial behavior" like tagging. There are several companies making cameras that not only start taking pictures of an intruder, but send an alert to the camera owner's cell phone, with images.

    Somebody with some technical know-how needs to show potential customers how that can work for catching the offenders in the act, and making them pay restitution for their damage. I think I'm that "somebody."

    I've only been a member here for a couple of days, but I've already gotten a ton of good information. I'm looking forward to learning even more, and I hope some day I can help somebody else out.

×