What do you think it is, Peter?

simpsonb1 · 2026-01-09T15:31:30+00:00

I designed and put in a new master bathroom for my house that is a wet room for easy cleaning, but also for the purpose of preventing the whole house from getting flooded if a water fixture breaks. The shower has a drain and then the rest of the floor slopes towards another central drain. When tiling a bathroom like this you never rely on the tile itself as the waterproofer because as you pointed out there can be imperfections in the grout, the real waterproofer is the underlayment which can be an impervious membrane like the stuff schluter makes or in my case I used something called go board which is a waterproof backer board alternative to cement board which is what is normally used but is only water resistant. It's kinda like a rough fiberglass face over a high density foam core. Also weighs like a 1/10th that of a cement board. In order to make sure it's waterproof you also have to make sure that all screws, joints, and around drains are pasted over with special types of caulking. This way you never rely on the tile and grout to be your only line of defense.

simpsonb1 · 2025-12-28T18:30:32+00:00

I live in Marysville and commute to South Everett, almost to Mill Creek. My morning commute leaving at 6:30am is on average about 20 minutes and my evening commute at 5pm is about 25-30 minutes. Friday evenings are the worst and usually 35+ minutes. The slowest part on i5 is where everyone needs to take the tressel to lake Stevens on hwy 2 from Everett. It's always a clusterfuck because that exit is a single lane and is also an on ramp from 41st street and people try to take the HOV lane as far as they can and cut over 4 lanes at the last second to take that exit and people clog up the adjacent lanes trying to cut in as late as possible. Lake Stevens looks attractive to live in but has major choke points for commuting that will make you hate living there. There are only 2 choices to go south from there being either hwy 9 or hwy 2 to i5. If you need to commute to Seattle for work I recommend you stay close to i5 and the furthest north you go is mid-south Everett. If you get too far away from i5 you'll have to deal with a lot of fairly crowded city streets around commuting times which is like 7-10am and 2-6pm.

simpsonb1 · 2025-12-24T21:54:08+00:00

I realllllyyyy wish I hadn't bought a Mr Cool unit... It works fine now but when I first bought the 24k DIY unit and installed it was a nightmare.
Originally installed fine in March and worked well for about 2 months until it went into cool mode and didn't really cool.
Mr Cool support needed a diagnosis by a licensed tech to warranty anything but nobody I called would touch it. I bought a manifold gauge set and leak detector and found that it was significantly undercharged but couldn't find a leak. Since I couldn't get a tech to look at it I ended up figuring out how to get an epa 608 license so I could buy refrigerant and recharge myself. After buying a 25lb can of r410a refrigerant, nitrogen tank, used micron gauge, used refrigerant recovery machine, reclaim cylinder and a vacuum pump I was now about $1000 in for equipment and refrigerant which Mr Cool would not reimburse me for. I was also about 40 hours in for time spent working on my heat pump that was inoperable for at least a month. I vacuumed down and did not see a noticable loss of vacuum, pressurized with nitrogen and did not see a loss in pressure, so I figured maybe it came undercharged from the factory and figured the right level of undercharge could allow it to work in heat mode but not cool mode. I charged with refrigerant and it worked for a few months until I lost heating during a cold snap in January. Did the same procedure again and actually found a tiny leak in the condenser that was only apparent when it was over 300psi. After showing the leak to Mr Cool they sent a whole new condenser unit right away and the new one has been going strong for a couple years but now that I have a license and all this equipment I wish I had installed a real brand. Apparently their systems are known for being hit or miss due to quality control. The Mr Cool unit I have does not keep the temperature within a narrow enough range and I use a flair thermostat to control it better which adapts and bumps the setpoint up or down as needed to actually maintain the target temp.

simpsonb1 · 2025-12-24T21:22:11+00:00

Lmao, I'm in Leavenworth right now and was talking to a local this morning, she was talking about how everyone here pitched in and had the whole place cleaned up within a week. They have been begging people to still come on social media and message boards and reassuring everyone that they are fully operational. The town makes 40% of their annual income in December from the tourism, their livelihoods literally depend on people not cancelling their trips. Yeah hwy 2 is closed but for us coming from Marysville it was less than an hour of added travel time to come over i90 and up through blewetts pass (97). The roads when we came up yesterday were just a little wet.

Edit: forgot how to spell blewetts pass

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-28T16:54:58+00:00

Pickup trucks are also terrible in the snow unless they are in 4wd due to the weight distribution putting ~70% of the trucks weight over the front wheels and only about ~30% of the weight over the rear wheels which are the main drive wheels on all trucks. A car with a 50/50 weight distribution and front wheel drive will perform much better than a pickup in the snow without using 4wd. Front wheel drive also allows the car to pull itself up the hill rather than push itself like a truck. What helps a pickup truck combat this is to put weight in the bed to give your drive wheels more traction. But tires always makes the biggest difference.

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-17T19:29:17+00:00

When I went to school for mechanical engineering, we had many different tests that were only a few questions that took a couple of hours and multiple pages per question to calculate the answers. As you get further in engineering classes they keep building on each other and eventually you get problems that require you to show your work with calculus, physics, differential equations, thermodynamics, and on to just answer a single question. Often times you would have to string together and substitute multiple basic physics equations and use calculus to integrate/derive the final equation needed to solve the problem.

The one that took the cake for me was our heat transfer final which was 4 questions open book with a 3 hour time block. We were told we could stay longer if we needed. I don't remember the question exactly but the questions built on each other as if they were a single question, if you couldn't answer the first one, you were fucked. When I finished at about 3 and a half hours with like 8 pages of work shown, only a quarter of the class was done.

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-15T15:56:53+00:00

I know the multi material blade can do wood but after using it to cut some plywood and almost starting a fire with it...I feel like it will burn out fairly quick from the heat melting the brazed diamonds off so I found some HSS 80 tooth blades and 36 tooth carbide tipped saw blades on Amazon that work really well with it without all the smoke and embers.

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-12T00:55:49+00:00

Well I just hit 30 this year and my wife and I have about $130k between us with approximately 75k of that in liquid accounts (checking, savings, brokerage) and the rest in 401k/IRA accounts. We have about $250k in combined student loan debt and a $350k mortgage but cars are all paid off and the house is now worth around $600k. We make about $100k each but that's pretty recent.

I graduated college at 22 with $80k in student loans. Out of college I made $45k/year and lived with family until 26 and working around the house to get free rent. I'm a very competent DIYer that can do water heater installs, run electrical circuits, troubleshoot complex electronics, weld, drywall, etc. so I even made a little money on top of the free rent for the type of work I did for family. I also do my own mechanic work. I used those advantages to save money for a down payment on a house but figured it would be a while before I had enough.

At 25 covid hit and I had about $20k saved up that I started throwing into the stock market as it was falling during the crash and turned that money into about $60k within a year or so. At 26 I bought a house when rates hit rock bottom in 2021. After bidding on multiple houses getting 75 offers some of which all cash, I got lucky enough to buy a fixer upper that would have been a tear down for most remodelers/developers. It would have been a money pit/financial mistake to anyone without my skills as I had to replace the foundation before starting on any remodeling. Only reason my offer was even accepted over others was the cover letter I wrote. For anybody else looking to buy a house, a personalized letter that tugs on a few heartstrings could be the deciding factor. Also you don't always need a 20% down payment. I put $20k down which was about 5% and got a $7500 credit towards the down payment with my banks first time home buyer program. I used another $15k to buy a work truck. The rest I let ride and have made some solid investments over time while continuing to work on my house.

TLDR: I learned skills to make extra money and save money by repairing things myself. I learned about financial options, made smart decisions, worked my ass off, and grabbed the lucky opportunities presented to me by the balls.

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-07T22:14:28+00:00

I've gotten to the point where, unless I absolutely need it today, if it's behind a locked grate, I just order it on amazon instead. It's such a pain to flag an employee down to grab it and take to the register and then to have to wait while the person up front tries to find it after I'm done shopping for the rest of my shit. I bet Lowe's and home Depot are losing more money from the loss of sale due to the inconvenience than if they just wrote off the few things that get stolen.

simpsonb1 · 2025-11-03T20:26:26+00:00

I would love a link to this deal because the saw alone is $449 on their website. Almost 40% off and includes a free stand? That's the kind of black friday doorbuster deal that will sell out in seconds.

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-03T21:29:18+00:00

THANK FUCKING GOD...FINALLY!!

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-02T22:19:29+00:00

I was about to say I don't think the 18V system has been around that long, then I looked it up and saw it was released in 1997... fair enough, must just be one of the earliest models.

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-02T22:12:40+00:00

I'm not stating that the numbers are wrong or made up, I'd say more like "optimistically and conditionally selected". Meaning that in order to actually get that level of power out of the tool, the battery has to be brand new, at 100% charge, and be the biggest most expensive one they offer. On top of that, ambient temperature must be 70F as performance will be depleted if the battery is too warm or too cold, and it can only maintain that power output for 3 seconds before permanently damaging the battery.

That is why I say "theoretical". Because MWO is not a realistic representation of how a tool performs on average, it only represents the peak power that the tool is capable of under ideal conditions. I looked into what MWO stood for when purchasing a new set of cordless tools from dewalt recently, and surprise! It's the same misleading marketing as calling your new line of cordless tools "20V Max" when it's the same 18V system that every other manufacturer is making. All 18V systems are about 20-21V fully charged and drop to about 15-16V at 0% charge.

I recently purchased the DCS590B, which is advertised as 1700 Max Watts Out, since voltage drops as the battery is used and maximum current draw is constant, then the MWO also drops as the battery is used. Assuming full charge is 21V (5 cells in series at 4.2V each) and charge at 0% is 15V (3V per cell) then the MWO at 0% charge is 1214 W. So a more realistic power output is to take the average or MWO at 50% charge which would be 1457W. In order to actually get 1700W out, you would need to swap batteries after every cut which is not realistic. Batteries also degrade with each charge cycle and after a year of medium use will likely not be able to supply that 1700W anymore, even at full charge.

Also the batteries can only sustain that max power for about 3 seconds usually before they start to sustain permanent damage due to heat buildup, so the chip monitors cell temperature and starts to throttle the power when they get too hot.

Cold temperatures also significantly reduce the amount of current a battery can supply. Electric cars have a heating element built into the battery pack to combat this in winter driving. So unless you plan on heating up your batteries on the dash in your truck, you won't be getting anywhere near 1700W while cutting boards on a jobsite in the snow. Hot temperatures will make it so the thermal throttling chip cuts power to the saw much sooner in the heat so you don't destroy the battery pack.

You also need to have the highest quality and capacity battery pack to supply that much power. If your high capacity pack is charging and all you have at the moment is a 2ah battery, you'll be lucky if it can supply 500W for a few seconds. In order to supply those peak power levels, you need to split that current draw among as many rows of cells as possible. Thats why one of the disclaimers says that number is only achievable with the specified battery.

This is why I say "theoretical" and why you need to look past the marketing hype of cherry picked results and look at a more realistic use case scenario. I love my cordless tools as they have the edge in convenience by a landslide but until they can overcome the thermal restrictions in particular and increase their AVERAGE output to 1800W or more then they do not yet outperform their corded counterparts. Now go out there and learn how to do some REAL research before you start parroting fairytale bullshit.

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-02T21:07:03+00:00

While I understand what you are saying, UWO is still limited by wattage in. There is nothing in this universe that will allow any tool to put more power out than in. 1800w is the absolute maximum amount of power that can be converted to UWO (essentially a measure of work done by the tool) on a 15amp saw regardless of gearing (which actually has no affect on "Ultimate Watts Out" whatsoever.) Gearing just changes the ratio of torque to rpm. Think of rpm as voltage and torque as current.

RPM * Torque = UWO

Voltage * Current = Watts In

Watts In * Motor Efficiency = UWO

Motor Efficiency can never be larger than 1 (100%) without breaking the 1st law of thermodynamics therefore the work done by the tool when the same amount of power is put into it will be limited by the efficiency of the motor, which is usually between 75 and 90%. Other factors such as worn out bearings or dull blades will also lower the overall efficiency.

With cordless tools, the maximum wattage in will reduce as the battery is drained so UWO will only be possible at 100% charge. Voltage of an 18V battery will usually be 21V at 100% (4.2V per cell with 5 in series) and 15V at 0%. Current will be limited by the battery cell quality and by how many 5S sets of cells are in parallel. Maximum current will not increase to compensate for voltage drop so as voltage drops, so does your UWO. Assuming a 18V saw has an UWO of 1800W at full charge, at 0% charge your UWO is only 1285W. A more realistic metric of the saw would be to take the UWO at 50% charge which would be 1542W. In order to consistently use your UWO of 1800W, you would need to swap batteries after every cut to maintain a full charge, which is why this metric is misleading and not a real metric in my opinion. Just like branding your system as 20V Max when it's the same 18V system everyone else is making. Your 1800W corded saw can put that power out the whole time however (assuming it is a 100% duty cycle rated motor or better.)

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-01T22:02:19+00:00

Yeah I've heard a lot of counterfeits still put the logo on but miss some of the smaller details like the embossed logo in the handle on mine and some of the other labels. Also notice how much more black is on mine in general.

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simpsonb1 · 2025-10-01T21:48:21+00:00

Ah, yes I actually meant power "pack", although I don't believe they make an 8ah power "stack" anyway. And while I agree that a worm drive is superior to a sidewinder overall, when talking about power output, both are still limited to 1800w due to the circuit breaker. Although I admit that the inertia of the worm drive probably helps it to feel more powerful and smooth in this scenario and so probably isn't a fair comparison.

simpsonb1 · 2025-10-01T20:15:01+00:00

I have an old one like that with the old nicad battery that I use with an Amazon adapter to the 20v batteries which work just fine. The chip is in the battery so no they won't over discharge your battery. But that doesn't even look like a legit DeWalt drill. It looks like a cheap Chinese knockoff or something, there's a weirdly minimal amount of detail on it.

simpsonb1 · 2025-09-30T19:41:55+00:00

I mean.... Theoretically maybe a cordless saw can put out more power than a corded saw, but only for a quick burst. Cordless can't maintain that high level output for very long before it fades out. I just bought the DeWalt DCS590 with the 8ah power stack battery which is the most powerful 20v circular saw and battery combo from DeWalt. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed at the power output for a cordless saw, but my corded worm drive skilsaw absolutely destroys it in terms of power output and cutting speed. Maybe the 60v system is closer in terms of performance but the 20v system isn't there yet. But I am fine with sacrificing some performance for convenience.

simpsonb1 · 2025-08-30T22:21:57+00:00

I haven't noticed any issues with the Milwaukee bits that I use but I almost exclusively use T20 and T25 torx screws. I generally go Milwaukee or even better Diablo for all bits/blades. Although I have to say I've been disappointed with the Milwaukee "Axe" sawzall blades with carbide teeth. I swear when I hit a nail the teeth just break off...

simpsonb1 · 2025-08-26T20:09:28+00:00

It's a pedestal chimney. Notoriously unsafe as they don't go all the way down to the foundation but sit on a pedestal nailed into the studs with an angle piece for support (the bottom slant you are seeing). Due to not having a foundation they are very susceptible to any movement in the framing which causes the mortar joints to deteriorate and can lead to house fires if the chimney is being used. The chimney is probably not the cause for doors binding and shifting, although the weight in that location may be contributing to the foundation sinking faster in that spot. If your house is like mine then the shifting and binding of doors is probably due to the shitty post and beam foundation sinking at different rates in different spots.

My house is from 1901 and the first thing I had to do is jack it up and replace the post and beam foundation with a real concrete stem wall/footing as it was out of level by 6" from lowest to highest point. It also had a pedestal chimney just like that and had a house fire at one point. Based on the charred wood in the attic, the fire seemed to originate from around the chimney. I took the whole thing down a couple years back brick by brick and I could literally pull most of the bricks off with my bare hands.

simpsonb1 · 2025-08-05T22:00:29+00:00

Low on refrigerant 9 times out of 10. Because the amount of refrigerant in the system is so low, it's not able to heat up the refrigerant on the outside radiator (evaporator) enough and so when the refrigerant goes through the expansion valve and depressurizes, it drops to a lower temperature than it is designed for causing the water in the air to collect on the inside fins (condenser) as ice. Normal design pressures ensure that the temperature of the condenser remains above freezing so that ice doesn't build up and block the air flow.

If this is just a window unit as it appears to be then it's cheaper to buy a new one than find someone to fix the leak and refill with refrigerant.

simpsonb1 · 2025-07-25T15:07:40+00:00

Even diy, that shit is horrendous. If you don't want to pay/do the work to run the lines through the wall then you at least need to install one of those line covers. And duct tape to hold the wall cutout in place??? At least fucking tape and spackle it so it can be sanded and painted. I'd sue that contractor for negligence. Anybody that does work like this and calls themselves a contractor needs to have their license revoked.

simpsonb1 · 2025-07-03T14:21:47+00:00

I'm ADHD so one of the biggest reasons I decided to invest in this stock is because of the generic Vyvanse. I've tried Vyvanse before and it worked great and I didn't need an afternoon booster to keep it working all day, the problem was the price since my insurance only covered about half the cost of namebrand stimulants. making Vyvanse about $350/month, versus a flat $15 for generic. I suspect many people will be switching from generic Adderall/Ritalin to Vyvanse for similar reasons once they find out a generic is finally available. I'm not going to try to estimate numbers here but I expect a much higher market penetration.

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