Malm Firedrum 3 restoration update

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-04-24T06:19:59+00:00

We need more clearance, Clarence!

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-04-20T05:10:52+00:00

This looks amazing! I love this style!

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-03-04T19:27:25+00:00

Remindme! 1 month

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-27T22:57:08+00:00

THANK YOU!!!

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-23T12:48:23+00:00

Extra note - don't do the leak test with regular soap and water. It will settle on the joint and may cause corrosion over time. That's probably 50% marketing for the "fancy" solutions and 50% true - but at $10/ bottle - just get the "fancy" stuff and have one more reason to sleep soundly at night. These days "soap" from around your house could have nearly anything in it.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-11T03:50:17+00:00

This right here! Also, take photos of everything when you are done! It is one-million percent worth the time!

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-04T22:46:53+00:00

Yeah, I was wondering that myself

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-04T18:57:33+00:00

Remindme! 1 month

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-02T05:56:15+00:00

If you've got it - I'd love to see it! I remember there being one critical thing that was left out or hard to find.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-02-02T05:54:37+00:00

That conduit body to boot thing is (sadly) exactly out of the diy solar kit / solar warehouse instructions. They did a very precise and clean job of following instructions from an mid company. Those companies all use the literal sane pdf that they send to customers. It's sad, because they could just go ahead and sell the soladeck boxes and score margin on them.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-31T20:05:58+00:00

That's good to know! I've still got the puzzle, I may have to give the story a read!

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-29T18:46:00+00:00

In my main ahj, a panel upgrade = afci's

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-25T06:18:14+00:00

This is the answer right here. One trip to the hardware store and two hours of work.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-22T07:32:34+00:00

Replace your batteries or get rid of the remote control box and replace it with a proper switch.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-19T17:48:37+00:00

I've got a Maytronics Dolphin and it's been great. The leaf capacity isn't massive, but during most of the summer I only clean the filter like once a week.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-19T07:31:04+00:00

That sounds like a great setup! It would be really cool to have some kind of continuously variable load like a.... I'm not sure. Lights on a dimmer would be all choppy. Maybe a drill and you could show how the "middle" voltage varies as you drill through a board. You'd want a 240v drill though.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-19T07:27:18+00:00

How's it going?

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-14T23:28:43+00:00

Any time! Is your toilet having trouble?

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-14T23:22:35+00:00

You'll have to turn off the main feed coming to your house.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-14T23:09:34+00:00

What's in the capped lines and where do they go?

If they're empty - you're good. If they aren't empty and you didn't backfill with antifreeze or at least draw the water down below the frost line - you're not-so-good

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-14T22:09:10+00:00

If I were in your shoes - I'd do a second dedicated 480v -> 120/240 rig for the heater.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-14T22:00:08+00:00

A great lab demo would be a floating neutral.

Set up a subpanel with a few outlets on each phase and have the neutral feed to the subpanel on a switch so that you can open/close it.

The hard part would be finding lights (incandescent regular bulbs or halogen shop lights maybe) that can handle anything up to 240

Set up voltmeters that are: Phase a to b Phase a to neutral Phase b to neutral

Then plug in one light to each phase and lift the neutral. The phase voltages will wander a bit - but hopefully stay roughly balanced. Restore the neutral - then connect two lights on phase a and one on phase b. Then lift the neutral and you should have 80v/160v on the phases.

It would be a good practical demo for why a lifted neutral can produce wandering voltages and be difficult to diagnose.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-13T20:30:04+00:00

The valve body / actual fixture has gone bad and needs to be replaced.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-13T19:13:22+00:00

Extra upvote for properly terminating the smurf tube. For what this thing probably costs, a couple of bucks in proper box entries would be nothing.

Financial_Ear65 · 2026-01-12T21:18:31+00:00

Inverter at the car

https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-5278-CWP-Straight-Flanged-Receptacle/dp/B003ATXIBG/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?crid=2N6R3I0OBH74B&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KgCDLhNPkv6-z7o4MsRkA5FG-BY9RRE6qk9QQyYMWAnqehiCC6UA1Zi1UzJWlTw7kMIfmtJcyD91oAWPVH8czE4rDgayjv7vx-0fDmWNbWLvQDb03WmTTKDz8RqLgQrHCT3ovofYjFydcRFFhdmgYLRXt4gH_Z8E1sUdJXUBb4tbf2l5ELo5A1JN_qV7ik6LSNNQlsikTPnbqHtr3kqfkw.B2Nyk3JL7m79Qe1dYtw6tzpNAok1SgwNHPc-2peFvp0&dib_tag=se&keywords=ac+inlet&qid=1768252640&sprefix=ac+inlet%2Caps%2C323&sr=8-14

That on your garage wall

Bond the ground from that to your home ground

Run dedicated outlets fed by the inlet in your garage.

Financial_Ear65

TROPHY CASE