PatrickM

TJ I think the portable you are looking at is the same one I have. At 300 lbs. it is not as "portable" as you would think. Certainly getting it up a trailer ramp can be a challenge (or am I just getting old?). Mine stays on the trailer all the time now. Nice to know I can take it off if I need to though. Patrick

Thanks for your replies. I've always found Ready Seal to be very forgiving and am optomistic that I won't find any thing too shocking. John - 2 reasons for waiting a day between coats. First of all the wood is in terrible condition. It's my understanding that the longer drying time between coats helps with badly weathered wood. Second these folks are putting the house on the market this weekend so they are in a big hurry. I'm squeezing them into an already busy schedule at the end of the day. Patrick

I got taken by surprise by a shower yesterday while applying a second coat of Ready Seal to a deck. The first coat had 24 hours to dry but the 2nd was still wet when the rains came. What can I expect to find when I go back tomorrow? This is the first time my weather forecasting skills have let me down. Patrick

I have my first acrylic stain scheduled for stripping tomorrow. Plan A is for HD-80 mixed strong with longer dwell time. Any suggestions for plan B if that does not go as well as expected? Patrick

Years ago my brother got into home brewing. When he grew tired of it he passed his equipment on to me. Since I was not that interested it went into the attic. Since you can never have too many plastic pails in this business I recently put the 6 gallon fermenting pail into service doing house washes. The lid for this pail had a hole with a rubber grommit for the air lock to go into. I removed the gromit and found the hole a perfect fit for the 3/8" hose on my x-jet. I now have a tightly sealed, spill proof x-jet container. Since home brewing was so big back in the day I'll bet some of you have these hidden away in your attics too. Patrick

My wife is diabetic and Scott hit the most common symptoms. Add to the list bruses that won't go away and every diabetic I have ever known drinks a LOT of soda. They think before they get checked that they just love soda. But diabetics are most comfortable with a consistant bloodsugar level, high or low as long as it doesn't flucuate much. Drinking soda all day is the easiest way to do that. Of course keeping your blood sugar high all the time makes the diabetes even worse. My wife has been able to control hers with diet and exercise. It's hard at the start but once you settle into a routine it becomes pretty easy. Patrick

I was very nervous about using oxalic on vinyl windows but I knew Richard and Jeff wouldn't steer me wrong. It worked great and the homeowner was thrilled. Thanks Guys! Patrick

Oxalic would be my choice too for anything else but won't that be too hard on the vinyl?

I have a house wash to do where the A/C unit in the attack was leaking for a very long time and rusted out the pan. Rusty water ran down the side of the house leaving the vinyl clad window casings underneath stained with rust. Does anyone have ideas on how to remove this without harming the vinyl? All the rust remedies I know would be too harsh for vinyl. Many Thanks Patrick

I can relate to Mr. Incredible best. The scene where he is crowded into his cubical at the insurance company shows my day, every day at my FT job. Patrick

Michael My wife was just as worried as yours when I started down this road. I have moved very slowly to help her comfort level. But watching me do my research and get things together for start up she became curious about what it would take to turn her cake decorating hobby into a business. She dove in head first and blew right past me. Simply Cakes is off to a great start and she is now pushing me to do more for my business. I can't tell you how much of a turn around this is for her. So my advice is to get her involved in some way that will match her interests. Patrick

James - thank you for your timely post. Lost a nozzel and o-ring today and just sat down here to see why. Glad to see I have lots of company. Patrick

Matt If Celeste goes ahead with the NC Roundtable in April be sure to attend. Last time Russell Cissell and Pete Marentay from the list above attended. And some guy named Rod (he and his wife run a bbs or something) stripped and sealed a miniture deck. You should read all you can and every new thing you read gives you another piece of the puzzle. But the pieces don't fit together untill you see it done or try it yourself. Patrick

Kevin Cabots SPF looks like walking through a mine field to me. If applied to dry wood it peels. If applied to wet wood it traps mosture and rots the wood from the inside out. Requires special prep products and can only be stripped with a very expensive product. Overspray has to removed immediately or it's there forever. Russell - your tinting kit doesn't look so bad by comparison.

Rick Cabots makes 2 strippers called simply "Wood stripper for latex products" and "Wood stripper for oil products." Retail is about $32 / gal. I've asked the rep to join this thread. The peeling problems could come from not doing a wet application. This is not a product that "can" be applied wet, it is a product that "must" be applied wet and I don't think Cabot has done a very good job of getting that point out to their customers.