Garage hacks, adjustments and annoyances.........

[stuckmotor]

Never heard of a pump house before, my guess is, it's a house for a water pump.
Next problem will be, how am I going to lift those bags in the round thing when I'm 80...........

What do you call the little building that covers the pump in Maine?

 

[dragoneggs]

What do you call the little building that covers the pump in Maine?

We call it a pump house here in my neck of the woods.

 

[aczlan]

Yeah, didn't know how common pumphouse was? Mine's just a 8x8 plastic home depot shed in the yard with the holding tank and water softener stuff in it... the water softener stuff (two tank system) is all shot and the purge vales leak constantly instead of just when they're "regenerating" so they probably need replaced... They were put in in 2004...

Not too common up here in NY, too likely to freeze in the winter.

Aaron Z

 

[stuckmotor]

We call it a pump house here in my neck of the woods.

We call it a pump house, too. Not sure about the fake rocks for sale at Lowes. Maybe they're pump rocks?

 

[GeneV]

We get these 40lb bags for around 7-$8.00 so I'd say your doing good, nearest Culligan man for me is 70mi so not sure if I'd get the same bargain, but something to look into.

Robot or human?

www.walmart.com

That's kinda pricy. I pay around $6 per bag of morton's solar salt.

 

[Citydude]

Never heard of a pump house before, my guess is, it's a house for a water pump.
Next problem will be, how am I going to lift those bags in the round thing when I'm 80...........

Use an engine hoist from HF. Hook the handles on the bag to the hoist. Position it over the round thingy and cut the bag open.

 

[Reb954]

Never heard of a pump house before, my guess is, it's a house for a water pump.
Next problem will be, how am I going to lift those bags in the round thing when I'm 80...........

Around this part of Wyoming a pump house is used for irrigation pumps which are above ground pumps but they are shut off and drained each fall so they don't freeze. A well house would be for a well pump which is in the ground but the pressure tank is above ground. Around here it is pretty rare to see a well house due to the low temperatures we get. Instead the pressure tanks are put in the house, usually in the basement.

At a property I owned for 35 years but sold about 5 years ago I put in a well house after living there for about 20 years. The local community put in a water system that I wanted to hook up to but I wanted to also keep my well active. I buried a 6 foot diameter tank around the well casing with the casing lined up to the access hole in the top of the tank so I could pull the pump if needed. I moved the pressure tank from my basement to the well house and plumbed a hydrant to the well for watering the lawn during the summer so the well stayed active. Once the community system was in I plumbed both the well and community system so I could service the house from either one but they were kept separate from each other so I didn't get cross contamination. With the tank in the ground I didn't have to heat it and I didn't remove the snow over top of it so the snow acted as an insulator, 3 to 5 feet of snow provides a lot of insulation.

As far as your "Next problem", maybe your wife could handle the heavy and/or difficult tasks for you.

 

[Oldpath05]

Around this part of Wyoming a pump house is used for irrigation pumps which are above ground pumps but they are shut off and drained each fall so they don't freeze. A well house would be for a well pump which is in the ground but the pressure tank is above ground. Around here it is pretty rare to see a well house due to the low temperatures we get. Instead the pressure tanks are put in the house, usually in the basement.

At a property I owned for 35 years but sold about 5 years ago I put in a well house after living there for about 20 years. The local community put in a water system that I wanted to hook up to but I wanted to also keep my well active. I buried a 6 foot diameter tank around the well casing with the casing lined up to the access hole in the top of the tank so I could pull the pump if needed. I moved the pressure tank from my basement to the well house and plumbed a hydrant to the well for watering the lawn during the summer so the well stayed active. Once the community system was in I plumbed both the well and community system so I could service the house from either one but they were kept separate from each other so I didn't get cross contamination. With the tank in the ground I didn't have to heat it and I didn't remove the snow over top of it so the snow acted as an insulator, 3 to 5 feet of snow provides a lot of insulation.

As far as your "Next problem", maybe your wife could handle the heavy and/or difficult tasks for you.

Interesting water set up, probably been around 50 years since I seen 3-5' of snow, I'm 20 mi from coast so big snow is rare probably been 10 years sense I seen 2-3', right now I have bout 10-12" of hard snow.

We dont want the wife in the next problem, thats the chief cook and bottle washer, dont want to break that she didn't come with a life time guaranty....

 

[Oldpath05]

Use an engine hoist from HF. Hook the handles on the bag to the hoist. Position it over the round thingy and cut the bag open.

Now your talking my language, I'm thinking 6' jib crane........

 

[LouNY]

Smaller bags, 40# or 25#.
Or get a five gallon bucket and fill it only as full as you want to lift.
Or pay a kid 5-$10 to fill the salt hopper when it gets low.

 

[Oldpath05]

That's kinda pricy. I pay around $6 per bag of morton's solar salt.

I bet everything is cheaper out your way, ME is expensive state to live in.
Must of been 25 years with this water softener, my water was so rusty white tee shirts would turn red, then had about two days of red water after the softener was put in, guess rusty water is common.

 

[Oldpath05]

Smaller bags, 40# or 25#.
Or get a five gallon bucket and fill it only as full as you want to lift.
Or pay a kid 5-$10 to fill the salt hopper when it gets low.

Now we have the get salt to the bucket problem, but to fix that I should be able to lift a hand shovel when 80...

 

[GeneV]

I bet everything is cheaper out your way, ME is expensive state to live in.
Must of been 25 years with this water softener, my water was so rusty white tee shirts would turn red, then had about two days of red water after the softener was put in, guess rusty water is common.

Well I tell you what this is my second house with well water, and this one came with a water softener called sanitizer plus by water right. The other house had something else, this one is a lot better.

 

[stuckmotor]

In at least one of the textile mills here the restroom was called the "WATER HOUSE".

 

[PILOON]

On subject of pump houses.
I insulated and installed a heater in one for a client many years ago.
Used a small watt heater and added a muffin fan for maximum circulation as I had set the thermostat at lowest setting.
Problem is that being in a humid setting the wood structure had a rather short life and had to be replaced recently.

 

[LouNY]

Around here they were popular with the mobile home folks as they had no basement to put the pressure tank and controls in.
Many of them were cinder block structures often 3/4 or more buried so as to have some freeze protection.
Set it 6 or 8' in the ground they did pretty good, many of them had a light bulb for some extra heat.

 

[jjeff]

I use a mixture of old drained antifreeze, water soluble cutting oil, and pinesol in my 7x12 bandsaw. Blade life is just about same as straight cutting fluid plus never had a frozen pump or algae growth. I'm a northerner and don't heat my shop unless I'm working in it.

 

[jjeff]

I like learning garage/shop hacks and useful contraptions. I'm a diy hacker so revived this older post, Oil funnels, and containers, my wife likes kitchen gadgets, I like tools, I repurposed some of her pitchers and measuring cups as oil dispensers, a old turkey baster as battery electrolyte filler. I also repurpose the lids of 5 gal pails to catch residual oil on oil containers, funnels I store upside down.
I cut a small hole in a cutdown 55 gal drum for oil draining can drain all hydro oil at once instead of trying to put the plug back in mid drain, place it on an ATV jack which has castors, can be raised and lowered
installed a old gate valve in bottom
side of cut barrel which I can then control transfer into smaller containers to transport to the transfer station.
Putting funnels upside down keeps a lot of debris and dust out of them. Using kitchen pitchers and measuring cups is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying dedicated oil dispensary devices. Any one has a inexpensive safe hack for a 2 post lift I'm all ears lol.

 

[jjeff]

Handy saw horses/ table Wood shop hack, So I had a bunch of cheap wooden barstools that were found on side of road, me being me I picked them up, started placing junk on them. Eventually needed another set of sawhorses Lumber prices were high at the time so looking over at my pile of junk precariously balanced on the free barstools thought they would work. They are surprisingly sturdy and balance 2xs, plywood, and my projects a lot better than expected, they also work very well for painting stuff. And cost nothing to make.

 

[jjeff]

Starting a wood stove fire hack, with instant homemade fire starter (in keeping with thread title, might have a wood stove in in your shop)? My dad taught me this one I'm sure a few know of this, anyways old 12 pack boxes filled with newspapers, kindling and or yard sticks. Light the box instant fire with coals, I prepackage my homemade instant fire starters so I always have at least one ready to go.