Hammer Drill Rental

... daily and monthly rental 🔻 ◽ Excavator with bucket and hammer drill ▪ Professional...

How about using (renting) a hammer drill and boring a 5/8" ... grander approach: Use a core drill (again, rental is your friend) to bore...

... I bought my first battery drill 26 years ago and still... totalling 6000 sq feet, rehabbed rental property, finished two basements, multiple... I bought my first battery drill 26 years ago and still... totalling 6000 sq feet, rehabbed rental property, finished two basements, multiple... grinder sawzall skillsaw right angle drill hammer drill multi-tool/cutoff tool brad/trim...

... daily and monthly rental 🔻 ◽ Excavator with bucket and hammer drill ▪ Professional...

....  Most construction outfits and equipment rental companies will have the tools... mined with a hilti rotary drill and a 5/8" bit... in some rock a percussion hammer might be faster. Whenever I've... concrete) I've used a pneumatic hammer rather than a portable electric... signals in rock with a hammer and chisel and possibly a...

We have lived here for 2 years now and the upstairs neighbours have been the same the whole time. They're a family of 4 or 5, some weeks they have their siblings or parents there too making them 6+ in a 3 room apartment which the rental agreement states maximum 6 people per apartment Edit: I'm not mad about this and I don't care just wanna know if there's something I should do/ be worried for like could there be possible abuse? What should I do if so? And so on My problem is: They're extremely loud talkers, we constantly hear them talking especially at 1-3 am They run around like crazy banging and screaming in what sounds like pain They keep hammering and drilling (which the latter isn't allowed) every other day They at random times just decide to dump out a lot of water on their balcony and when confronted they blame their upstairs neighbours when we have literally seen it's them Their kids constantly throw down toys onto our balcony submitted by /u/Seaki01 to r/Apartmentliving [link] [comments]

I'm trying to put a hose bib in and I need a 1 1/4" hole through brick. I have a hammer drill with a standard chuck, but apparently you can't get larger masonry bits that aren't made for SDS chucks. Many years ago I drilled a hole through bedford stone with a star drill/chisel and a small sledge hammer. It was slow, but worked very well. Unfortunately, these seem to be a thing of the past. So it looks like my options are: Buy a SDS hammer drill (don't really want to do this as I very rarely need large holes in masonry). Rent a setup from my local rental place - likely almost as expensive as buying. Get an SDS bit and use an angle grinder to remove the SDS part. Any suggestions? I've seen some relative cheap diamond tipped hole saws meant for ceramic tile and counter tops. Will these work on brick? EDIT: Thanks for all the input! I think I like the idea of drilling a bunch of smaller holes around the circumference of the hole I need ( I have a bunch of some small tapcon bits) and chiseling out the center. The hole will be covered by the faceplate of a Woodford frost-free bib, so no worries about a jagged edge. submitted by /u/kcornet to r/HomeImprovement [link] [comments]

I mean I understand the mechanics of the rotary hammer and I have a 5/8 masonry bit, but it's the straight down part that I'm having trouble with. I'm putting in some post bases and the screw anchors are 5/8 of an inch and about 6 inches long. The concrete slab is slightly sloped, about 2°. I have a portable drill press jig for my regular drill, but there's no way it's going to work for a rotary hammer. I did try this with my hand drill and there's just no way. It would take me an hour for each hole. The concrete has a lot of little pebbles in it and I think that's really slowing things down. My only guess here is to attach an electronic level with an alarm-on-level to the side of the rotary hammer but there's no way it's going to stay on, I would need to duct tape it. And I would need to assume that the rotary hammer has a perfectly flat spot that is also parallel to the path of the drill. edit: I'm going to rent a roto hammer (I get free rentals on some tools) -- also saw this, which is definitely cool https://www.tiktok.com/@bullseyebore/video/7569009055302208823?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc -- costs about $70, maybe it would work on a roto? But $70 for just one project, oof. Edit: I can rent a roto hammer for free because I have a hookup for this. But I can only keep it for a day. Which made the drill a potential attractive option that I had to try at least. But there's no way. submitted by /u/ryhaltswhiskey to r/HomeImprovement [link] [comments]

I am thinking about starting a handyman business on the side, at least as a weekend business for now, and I would really like honest advice from people who actually do this. For background, I am a veteran. I am also a landlord, and I have always serviced and repaired my own properties. I currently work as a software engineer, but I do not know how long that will last. The white-collar job market feels shaky, big businesses keep firing people, and I am getting more and more uncomfortable relying on one income path that feels outside of my control (rentals do not cashflow very much more of a retirement strategy). Part of why I am thinking about this is that I want to hedge myself. I want another way to make money that is skill-based, practical, and in my own hands if the job market keeps getting worse. I also previously helped start and grow a moving company. In the beginning, we were doing about $10,000 a month in revenue, and within about four years we got it to around $85,000 a month. So I am not totally new to building a business. I learned a lot from that experience. The problem is that it was a partnership, and it eventually went south because of major disagreements. At the point where things were starting to go wrong, I was pushing for us to stabilize, lower expenses, and start making smarter decisions. I wanted us to look into financing for trucks and turn some of our variable expenses into fixed expenses so that the volume we were doing would actually start flowing into our pockets instead of constantly going to Penske. I was trying to think more long term and make the business more profitable instead of just bigger. My partner was not having any of that. He had a little more ownership than I did, so his say won. Instead, he poured a ton of money into more marketing, and it really did not do much for us because I was not allowed to manage the budget properly. It turned into a complete mess. Even though that was a bad ending, I learned a lot about how to grow a business, and I do think I am better prepared now than I was back then. So on the business side, I feel fairly confident. My concern is more about the actual work. I already have almost all the tools I would need to start. The only thing I do not really have is a truck. As far as tools go, I already have a multi-tool, a circular saw, a regular power drill, a hammer drill, a router, a shop vac, plumbing wrenches, clamps, hammers, bolt cutters, and basically all of the common drywall tools. Drywall is something I do fairly often on my own properties. I even have hole saws for cutting door lock and knob holes so I can replace doors myself, although I will admit doors are still one of the things I am not that good at yet because I have not done them nearly as often. Doors are kind of a pain in the butt. Of course, there are more tools I could buy over time that would make certain jobs easier, especially hard-to-reach work, but for the most part I am set up well enough to begin. I also do have experience fixing things. I am not coming into this with zero hands-on ability. When I work on my own properties, I usually take longer than I technically have to because I care more about doing it right than just getting it done fast. I do not own slumlord properties. My properties are in B and A class areas, they are well taken care of, and I want them to stay that way because those are my customers too in a sense, and I want to keep them happy. So my mindset is very quality-focused. But that is also where my fear comes in. Even though I know how to do a lot, and even though I am good at self-learning, I have this constant concern that my trade skills are not good enough yet for customer work at the standard I would want. I am worried that I will screw up a customer’s property or take on something that I should not be touching yet. I do not know if that fear is realistic or if it is more of an imposter syndrome thing, but it is there, and it is a serious concern for me. The hard part is that my engineering job pays too much for me to just quit and go work for a handyman company full time to train for a few years. That is not really realistic for me financially. So I am trying to figure out the smartest way to approach this as a side business while I keep my day job. What I have been thinking is this: Maybe I should start with simpler jobs only and stay very strictly inside my comfort zone at first. Maybe anything more advanced I should refer out to local guys I know who do good work, both to protect the customer and to keep those relationships strong. Maybe I should offer flat-rate pricing, get the job done right no matter how long it takes, use the early phase to learn, and then use that information to adjust my rates later once I am skilled enough and efficient enough to really justify them. Or maybe that is the wrong approach entirely. Basically, I do not know how to best handle the fact that I have above-average hands-on ability compared to a normal person, real experience repairing my own properties, strong business experience, and a real willingness to learn and care about quality, but I do not have years and years of formal trade experience under somebody else. So I am asking the people here: How would you approach this if you were in my position? Would you only accept simpler jobs at first? Would you refer out anything outside your comfort zone? Would you take jobs at a flat rate, do them carefully even if it takes longer, and treat that early phase as part learning curve? Would you try to shadow people on weekends? Would you avoid this idea completely unless you had more formal trade experience? I am not afraid of hard work, and I am not afraid of taking time to do things right. What I am afraid of is building something the wrong way, damaging a customer’s property, or hurting my reputation early by taking on work I should not be doing yet. Any honest advice would be appreciated. submitted by /u/WestAssociation666 to r/handyman [link] [comments]

We just got back from a great trip to Japan with our kids (2 adults 2 kids ages 5 and 9) and would like to share our trip report, and hopefully provide inspiration for other families looking for a less hectic destination than the usual Tokyo/Kyoto itinerary. Our aim was to explore the above areas at a slower pace with less crowds. I had originally planned to train and bus it but in the end decided to rent a car for more flexibility. Day 0 We flew into Komatsu airport, picked up our rental car and drove it 45min to our hotel in Kanazawa: Onyado Nono Kanazawa. Great modern Japanese chain hotel, attached car park, shoes off from reception onwards, public onsen, little perks like free ice lollies after onsen and late night free soba noodles. Location is super, just a couple minutes walk from Omicho market. The market itself was closed by the time we got into town, but we managed to walk into a nearby izakaya for dinner, great food and super value. Day 1 Prebooked kimono rental and photoshoot at Kokoyui. This was pretty expensive and maybe I could have found a better deal if I rented the kimono and found a photog separately. But the overall experience was super, the kids loved dressing up and my daughter and I got our hair done up too. They cabbed us to Kenryokuen where we met our photographer and we strolled around taking a ton of photos for the next hour or so. The garden is beautiful and full of sakura and ancient pines, it was quite busy but it was still possible to get landscape shots without any people in it. And the kids felt like little celebs with a lot of Japanese people calling them kawaii :-) We finally called it when our stomachs were growling (the photog was happy to continue actually, there wasn’t a hard time limit), returned our kimono and explored Omicho market. Omicho market is huge and lots of yum food and snacks. A basket of local strawberries was 400yen which is way cheaper than my hometown. Day 2 Explored Higashi Chaya along the river with a ton of sakura Had ramen in a random ramen shop Made hammered jewellery in a random jewellery workshop (walked in after lunch) Checked out the ninja weapon museum and dolls museum - great staff, very kind and talked us through all the exhibits and even let us handle some of the artefacts Had izakaya dinner (fuwari) and walked to Kanazawa castle park for the night illumination event. Rained HARD but I guess that helped thin the crowds and the sakura were even prettier in the evening rain. Well earned onsen after that walk. Day 3 Set off earlyish to Ainokura. I was hesitant about visiting Shirakawa-go as I didn’t want to go shoulder to shoulder with bus tours, so we went to Ainokura which is more remote. Tiny gassho village with a museum and a washi paper making workshop, but despite there only being 10 other tourists, the workshop was already booked out until after lunch (and each session is only about 10 min). We went to another village for lunch and decided to pop into shirakawa-go. Much livelier, larger village and a lot of little shops and temples and paths to wander around. Really enjoyable and although there were more tourists for sure, people were more spread out so it didn’t feel overly crowded. I’d love to go back during winter. We drove on to Takayama where we had rented a house (Machiya Ichika) for 1 night. We had okonomiyaki for dinner which the kids loved. Day 4 Strolled around the morning market by the river (kids loved feeding the fish) and went to the ninja cafe for lunch. I probably wouldn’t go there for the food (shiruken toast, anyone?) but the ninja experience for the kids was great, they got to dress up and learn to throw shiruken, use blowdarts, swing a katana, and generally cause mayhem under the guidance of the cafe sensei. There were some grown ups doing the experience too and looks like everyone had fun. After lunch we wandered around the old town where the kids found yukata and haori from a secondhand store. We ended at the retro museum and the Showa-kan which are two very similar places (can get combined ticket). The kids and husb loved all the old random toys but both places were piled full of things so dust was inevitable and my allergies went nuts. This night we stayed at ryokan Oyado Koto No Yume, a pretty upscale onsen hotel with a large family room and lovely staff. Day 5 We went to the Takayama traditional culture and Crafts square where artisans demonstrate traditional crafts such as weaving and wood carving. Our kids did a bamboo light making workshop and they were delighted that they were allowed to use power drills to make their designs (yes, even the 5 year old- under supervision of course). They both made beautiful lamps that now have pride of place in their rooms. After another ramen lunch, we drove to Kamioka about 1 hour north for GATTAN GO, a rail biking experience. I had booked in advance, but as the weather looked terrible I was able to cancel the day before and rebook for a later slot hoping the rain would stop in time. Basically this is a cycling activity where the bikes are fixed to an abandoned train track. You can do a town course or canyon course, we did the town course which was about 50min total. Everyone had fun even though it was COLD (like 5degC). The route goes through a couple of tunnels which are super dark and exciting, then the view of the town and sakura emerges and it’s really lovely. There are bus tours available from takayama for this activity, for those without cars. After this, a long drive to Nagoya Station where we dropped off the car and checked into the Marriott associa hotel. Day 6 Morning: Higashi Betsuin temple market, held every day with an 8 in it (so 3x per mth). Really cool relaxed atmosphere, lots of food trucks and independent makers. Afternoon: Nagoya science museum, with a detour to an amazing kimono shop about 1 block away that does ceremonial gowns for those turning 20 years old. Lovely staff that let us admire all their beautiful fabrics. Evening shopping marathon in uniqlo at Nagoya stn We used our ICOCA cards and got the kids discount one day subway passes which is only available on the 8th of each month. Day 7 Legoland- great place, not much queues, kids loved all the rides, highly recommend for ages up to 10 yrs (I did notice a couple of bored tweens) Day 8 Big rain, explored Osu shopping district- didn’t really enjoy it, our kids aren’t into thrift shops. Did check out Osu Kannon temple and another random 500yr old temple next to the arcade. Evening chilled in hotel with pizza and Godzilla movie Day 9 Last minute power shop at tokyu hands and takashimaya at Nagoya stn before taking an afternoon flight out of Chubu airport (which btw terminal 2 is tiny, not much to do after you pass immigration). Summary Kanazawa: lovely town, quite walkable, but taxis are abundant too. Lively but not horrifically crowded. Kenruoku-en gardens were amazing, the bit near Higashi Chaya by the river is lovely Shirakawa-go: definitely recommend, although I don’t know if it would be even busier in the morning when there are more tour buses. After lunch it felt fine. Takayama: really nice village, even more walkable than Kanazawa, very touristy but didn’t feel like a tourist trap, if that makes sense! Gattan Go rail bike was a highlight, so fun. Nagoya: Nagoya station was so convenient for food and shopping. Highly recommend Legoland and the science museum for kids. Yes, I know we didn’t do Nagoya castle, maglev museum, the float museum, higashiyama walking course, samurai district, ninja temple (admission is 8+ only), etc etc etc.. it’s fine. We had time to wander and experience and make core memories. We will be back. :-) submitted by /u/Standard-Eyes88 to r/JapanTravel [link] [comments]

Hello all! My downstairs neighbor/neighbors have been hammering, drilling, making all sorts of construction noises EVERY SINGLE DAY since the day I moved into my rental apartment. It starts at 8AM and they keep doing it on and off until 8PM, but some days they start earlier and some days they keep going until midnight. At first I thought that maybe they also recently moved in and are trying to make their space more personal, but now this is just concerning. I wake up from them drilling and hammering their ceiling/my floor every single day and it’s so loud that I cannot go back to sleep. If the apartments in the complex had been actually “owned” apartments it’s one thing, but why are these people drilling and hammering every square inch of their RENTAL apartment? I’ve tried contacting the landlords but since I can’t fully tell which one it is of my downstairs neighbors are making the noise we are a bit at loss of what to do. I’m not sure if this is more of a rant or me asking for help on what to do, but it’s just all so strange to me. submitted by /u/Tomiesbf to r/neighborsfromhell [link] [comments]

I’m a “serious” DIYer but haven’t had much need to drill into concrete. I will be replacing a deck post soon and need to drill holes in the concrete footer for a post bracket. I also might be installing a stainless steel chimney cap cover. Most corded options are over $100, rentals aren’t much cheaper, is this a good deal or a worthwhile tool for someone like me to own? For additional context I have an 805 hammer drill. submitted by /u/sizable_data to r/Dewalt [link] [comments]

https://preview.redd.it/jb8026en17eg1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c118e94859c3c11afc78be24515b147eec1d4eca https://preview.redd.it/j18kqbwzy6eg1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0148b08d9389dcd421acaa3d0c4ee2c9e87df49 https://preview.redd.it/9xxftbwzy6eg1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a7cf89769f9ae1a05485451873b024553d6ca25f Gridboss, 12kPV, and the battery cabinet Hi all, I just got PTO for my home solar project a few weeks ago. This sub was super useful to me so I thought I'd write up what I did. Disclaimer: I am not an electrician nor am I a solar expert. I likely made several mistakes which you may be able to spot below. I put things that I thought would be the most useful in bold. Summary The entire process took about 6 months end-to-end. Right now, we have an EG4 GridBoss and 12kPV, 3 EG4 LiFePower4 V2 batteries in a server rack cabinet, and 10 405W (500W with bifacial gain) Hyperion by Runergy solar panels, but we plan to add 20 more once the ground thaws. I'm in Northern Indiana so it's pretty cloudy out here with very little sun in the winter, so we're only generating 5-15kWh a day. The power maxed out at 4.5kW on a recent sunny day, so I do think everything is working properly. One principle you will notice: I often sacrificed cost in favor of electrical simplicity. I am not an electrician by any means; I just learned how to do lights and outlets a year ago. I preferred to keep the system as simple as possible for me, at the cost of spending some extra money. Some examples of this include getting a pre-built battery rack, using a GridBoss, and buying a pre-designed ground mount from Sinclair. Another valid approach probably would have been to have a complicated but cheaper setup, and pay an electrician to do most of it. But this way I got to understand every component - and learn a lot, too! And electricians are crazy expensive right now anyway. High-level system design So first, I needed to size the system, starting by figuring out how much energy my house uses. From my monthly bill, I was at about 1200kWh/month; much lower in the spring/fall, about average in the winter, and much higher in the summer. This makes sense given that we have a gas furnace and electric AC. Using this, NIPSCO's published rates (which have since been raised >:( ), and these insolation tables, I made this conservative panel estimate spreadsheet, which I can share if anyone wants, but many exist online already: Very simple panel estimates So, to save ~$100/month, I'd need 15 395W panels, or a 6kW array. I decided to build the initial system at 4kW but size everything to 12kW so I can expand if I want to. OK, so with that many panels, how many strings do I use? There's lots of ways to do this. The simplest for me was to get an inverter that can handle 2 strings up to 500 or 600V each. Then I can put ~14 panels in series on each string and not worry about combiner boxes. EG4 has a nice string size calculator. Make sure you look up the record low temperature in your area and use it to compute your maximum Voc with temperature adjustment, since voltage will go up as it gets colder! Another decision: do I add battery storage or not? On one hand, it's one of the most expensive parts of the system. On the other, NIPSCO has such poor incentives for selling back to the grid (Excess Distributed Generation, not Net Metering), I don't think it makes sense to not have battery storage. We do lose power from time to time out here, so having batteries also provides a little bit of extra insurance to help keep stuff like the pumps and fridge running. So then, which batteries do I get? Well, I planned on having them inside my basement, so I wanted it to be as safe as possible. Lithium Ion Phosphate seems to be the safest option out there (apparently you can hit them with a pickax and they still may not catch fire). I went with an undersized battery array of 3 LiFePowerV2 batteries, which I can easily add on to later if I want. I put them in an EG4 6-slot Server Rack Cabinet to save me the trouble of building one. With that in mind, next I decided what type of inverter to get: hybrid or off-grid. Quick terminology note: Off-grid confusingly can still use the grid as input, it just can't export to the grid. Again, I don't care about grid export, but I didn't find any off-grid inverters with 200A pass-through capacity (the EG4 12000xp and Victron Quattro 48, for example, both have 100A AC breakers). This means I wouldn't be able to use it as the input to my 200A main panel. I could use it to power an 100A sub-panel, but this would have meant a lot of rewiring and replacing panels for me. So, I went with Hybrid, which keeps the system simple and allows me to power my whole home at times. As you'll see later, my utility wouldn't allow me to use an EG4 FlexBoss or 18kPV, so I went with the EG4 12kPV. Now that I know which inverter, I needed to know how it would be wired up. Based off this post it seems like it would be a lot simpler to make things NEC-compliant with a GridBoss. It's $1,800 and replaces the supply-side tap and manual transfer switch which in parts could cost $1,000 anyway. To be honest, I was a bit scared of doing the supply-side tap myself, so the GridBoss seemed like a good deal. OK, how about ground-mounted vs roof-mounted? We actually had a great south-facing roof on a barn that I could have put the panels on, but I wanted them to be available cleaning and inspection. I also didn't want to haul them or work on wiring up there, since it's a fairly tall barn. Most people do roof-mounted due to space concerns, we're in the middle of nowhere where space isn't an issue, so I went with ground-mounted. If we're ground-mounting, we need to decide where to put it. We chose a south-facing location with lots of sun and calculated the voltage drop with this calculator. I also decided to get the adjustable rack since I'm so far north. When I adjusted the rack recently, I found that it can make a difference of about 10%. Utility Approval Because I'm using a hybrid inverter, I needed to get approval from my utility about the system. I think even if you're off-grid, you will sometimes need to tell the utility - check your local rules and regulations! Importantly, "Zero Export" with a hybrid inverter doesn't count as off grid, because the inverter could still theoretically send some power up the line, which you really don't want to do. I've read that linemen have died from situations like this - I didn't verify this claim, but IMO better safe than sorry. The first thing I had to do was get utility pre-approval for the system. You should expect this to take at least 3 months. Our utility, NIPSCO, did give us the run-around on this. They took at least 2 weeks to respond to anything, were difficult to get ahold of, and in the end our agreed-upon system was frustratingly similar to my initial proposal. To be fair, whenever I did get ahold of someone, they were very kind and genuinely willing to help, but also lamented that they were sorely understaffed and the department was very disorganized. Anyway, the only sort of difficult part of the application was a single-line diagram (SLD), but actually this is very simple. They accepted the following diagram, which I put together myself using draw.io and copying some bits using EG4's online documentation. In my opinion, if you are DIYing solar you should absolutely understand the system at this level anyway, so there's no reason to pay someone to make this diagram for you, unless of course you're using them as a solar/electrical consultant. Single-Line Diagram that NIPSCO accepted, although it's slightly wrong!* (*EDIT: u/More_Than_I_Can_Chew pointed out that this diagram is incorrect! The switch in the middle is supposed to be this 60A Safety Switch, fed with 6AWG wire. Thanks!) Really the only change that was needed from my original SLD was that I was planning to use a FlexBoss inverter, but this could theoretically output more than 10kW and my house's transformer is only 10kVA. Even though my solar array was much smaller than 10kW and I would limit via the GridBoss how much I output, they insisted I downsize the inverter. So I went with the 12kPV instead, which was a bit smaller than I wanted, but not a huge deal. I elected to keep the inverter, MID (GridBoss), and batteries inside. It gets very cold, windy, and snowy here. I didn't want to build and heat a small structure outside to keep the inverter and batteries warm. The GridBoss is technically rated for outside use, and having just it outside would have kept my wiring simpler (see next paragraph). But it didn't feel right to have it exposed to the elements, and a few forum users seemed to agree that keeping it inside would help with longevity. One thing you may notice in the above diagram is the utility-generator AC disconnect switch. This was required by NIPSCO so they can turn off the inverter if needed. It's a bit overkill IMO and it meant that I had to run the wires from PV (outside) to the inverter (inside) back to near the meter (outside) and finally back to the GridBoss (inside). This really wasn't that hard though. Once the application was approved, everything else from the utility side was pretty smooth. Next up, I had to get some permits. City/County Permits This was a step that I thought would be annoying but is actually pretty easy (albeit slow) in a small town. I needed to get an electrical permit for PV and "accessory building" permit for the ground mount. The former required mostly the same stuff that the utility wanted. The latter did require an engineered design that can withstand something like 120mph winds. We do get tornadoes here and having a 40lb metal sail flying around could do some damage. Instead of trying to make my own design (I would have no idea how to do this), I went with the Sinclair Sky Rack 2.0 Ground Mount. Their customer service and the rack itself were great, although later on I did discover one gotcha: the panels I chose didn't quite fit their system so they had me attach it to the mount using clamps. This was kind of sad because I hoped they would put holes in the purlins at the right spots, which apparently is the case with some panels but not ours. In the end it doesn't really matter, the clamps are perfectly secure and rated for any wind we'll get here. There was a bit of a back-and-forth because I couldn't fully order the system from Sinclair until the city had approved it, which was slow. Sinclair was very understanding about this though, giving me the designs quickly and then patiently waiting for me to actually purchase the system, while I waited on the permits. In the end, I did get the permits after about a month. Building the system! Finally, the fun part! Once the equipment arrived, we mounted the inverter and GridBoss in the basement on top of some cementboard (for fire resistance and later to secure the conduit), on top of bare wooden studs using Lag screws. Not much to report here. Next, we set up the battery rack. This is mostly just sliding the batteries in and connecting them to the bus bar (which requires a torque wrench), except for one big hurdle: adding a fuse. There is no room in the EG4 battery cabinet for an inline fuse on the bus bar. NEC definitely requires some overcurrent protection, and for good reason - if the batteries short, they could dump thousands of amps into the cable, definitely melting it and potentially causing a fire. Even though the 12kPV has a battery breaker, the cable to that breaker is still considered unprotected, since the surge of power can still cause problems before the breaker trips. So, we need another way to fuse it. David Poz has a really cool video showing one way to do it here. I did basically the same thing, except instead of adding a shrink-wrapped copper bar as an extension of the busbar, I just used a short length of 4/0 copper cable. I know this means that part of the cable isn't protected, but it's much better than before. Also, in that video, he uses rivnuts to secure the fuse box to the cabinet, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why he didn't just use regular bolts and nuts, which is what I did. If someone can explain that to a noob like me, please do! I used a 250A Class T BlueSea fuse and fuse block. I didn't skimp on the fuse here because you need something high quality that can handle huge amounts of DC current, which are known to have larger arcs than AC. BlueSea seems to be the gold standard here. To get to 250A, I saw that the 12kPV has a maximum battery discharge current of 167A. Multiple by the safety factor of 1.25 to get 208.75A. I think 225A would have also worked. Finally, I grounded the cabinet to the grounding bar in the 12kPV with a 6AWG copper cable. Why 6AWG? Because I miscalculated... I think NEC 250.122 would specify that according to the 250A breaker I should have used 4AWG. I'll probably fix this in the future. The batteries are already bonded to the cabinet via the metal frame they slide into, secured with screws. Connecting the battery to the inverter was done with 4/0 copper wire from Signature Solar, run in 2" flexible metal conduit with a plastic bushing on the ends. I had to add a lug to the cable to connect to the fuse, so I used this awesome TEMCO hammer crimper. Unfortunately, although the 12kPV manual claims to accept 250 kcmil battery cables, a 4/0 cable does not actually fit! I also did not have a crimper that can do 4/0 ferrules, as these are pretty expensive. So I had to delicately shove the wire strands in with a small screwdriver. If I were to do this again I would have used 2/0 AWG cable. Or, even better, two sets of 2/0 AWG cable with a Flexboss or 18kPV :P I also recommend using NO-OX for these connections for some extra protection against oxidation. After this, it was time to work outside. We rented a trencher to dig from the outside wall where the inverter and MID were over to where we were going to put the panels. By code, you cannot have more than 360 degrees of turns and you must be at least 24" deep. You're also supposed to put some warning tape over the underground conduit, but I didn't find this out until after filling it in. We put 1.5" schedule 40 rigid conduit in the trench, which was more than big enough to pull through the 5 10AWG THHN wires - 2 for each string and 1 ground. 10 AWG is more than sufficient for the 13A Isc of the solar panels. However, I think I again undersized the ground wires here, and they should be minimum 8AWG according to NEC 250.166(B). (Also note that adding an additional ground rod at the array is not necessary). I used THHN because there is no need to use the more expensive PV wire if we are in conduit, it's only required for direct burial, which I was advised against doing in the constantly-shifting/freezing/thawing Indiana ground. The Sinclair posts needed to be dug 5 feet deep with half a ton of concrete, for which we used a bunch of Quikrete bags. To save the cost of renting an auger, we tried to use the trencher to try and dig most of the holes. This was a huge PITA and I ended up spending hours with a shovel, post-hole digger, and dig bar getting them to depth. While putting in the concrete, we also added some 90 degree conduit bends going into some Schedule 80 (required by NEC because a lawnmower could theoretically chop up Schedule 40) coming up out of the ground and into a small PVC electrical box attached to the mount post. The only purpose of this box is to split the 1.5" conduit into two 3/4" flex conduits, which is the largest knockout size in the disconnect switch I used. A PV disconnect at the array is not required by code, but is a good idea if e.g. firefighters need to turn off power at the array. I also used this disconnect to transition from PV wire at the top to THHN wire at the bottom going into the conduit. It all looks something like this guy's setup, but without the unistrut, everything is attached straight to the post. On the other end, going into the house, I did the same Schedule 80 to PVC electrical box to another IMO disconnect switch - this one is required by code. From the top of the switch into the house, I ran more THHN wire in LiquidTight Flexible Metal Conduit to an LB that is drilled into the basement's rim joist and secured with some waterproof sealant. Now we're back inside. I continued LFMC for the short run from there to the inverter since I had it, although I could have used regular FMC or EMT. Then I had to go back outside to the A/C disconnect switch, and back inside in the same manner, this time going to the GridBoss. These runs used 6AWG THHN wire, since the 12kPV can output up to 38A (and it connects to a 40A on the GridBoss port). One note here: It was not obvious to me that the AC disconnect switch only disconnects the hots, not the neutral; here is a nice explanation of why. For all connections, I used ferrules from ferrulesdirect.com and used this crimper from Amazon, which AFAICT worked great. Lastly, for NEC compliance, you need to label the crap out of everything. https://pvlabels.com does a pretty good job of walking you through this. The only difficult/expensive part is that you need an engraved directory placard showing the location of all the equipment on your property. pvlabels.com will do this for you, too; I sent them a Google Drawing and they engraved it into a placard beautifully for about $40. Inspections IME inspections can vary massively based on which inspector you get, but mine were extremely easy. I scheduled an appointment with the city/county inspectors. The electrical inspector came, asked maybe one question, looked at stuff, and signed off. I was relieved but also slightly disappointed; I knew I had done some things wrong and I was hoping he could point it out to make my system safer. I know, I probably shouldn't complain. Somehow, the structural inspector was even easier. I explained the ground mount system over the phone, he understood it was massively overkill for what I had, and I'm not sure he even made it all the way down our driveway to look at it before he turned around and I got the approval via email. Again, YMMV, I've heard of jurisdictions where they do things like ensure the post holes are big enough before you can pour concrete, so always check with your AHJ! At this point, I told NIPSCO everything was ready to go. After like 6 weeks, they had someone come out to put in a new smart meter (it will measure import and export), but I actually did this slightly out of order as they had expected the grid to already be hooked up to the GridBoss. So, if you're reading this, I would do that first. Luckily the NIPSCO guy was super chill and installed the meter anyway. Final Build Step: Utility Hookups Now, the final major step was to hook up the GridBoss between my main panel and the utility. In theory, this is only a few connections, but for such a crucial part of the system I preferred to have a professional electrician do it. They also have connections inside NIPSCO to get them to shut off the power, which I figured would be harder for me to do (I think I'd have to sign a notarized affidavit or something). And finally, they would have liability if anything goes wrong in the future. So, I called a local electrical company, who quoted a ludicrous price of about $5,000 for materials + one day of work. To be fair, this included separating the grounds and neutrals in the main panel (since it would become a sub panel, and ground/neutral would be bonded at the GridBoss), and a guarantee that the price wouldn't change if anything went wrong, which turned out to be quite useful. The electricians were.... Meh. Primarily because they decided not the read the GridBoss manual. If they would have read this, they would have seen how to install the 200A breaker - they claimed it was impossible but it was OK because they put in an additional AC disconnect right next to the meter, and I didn't argue because I knew it meant I could just return the 200A, $200 breaker. They would have also seen that the v1 GridBoss cannot accept the Aluminum wires they used, it only takes Copper! They also didn't secure a ground wire correctly and it popped out... I had to point all this out to them, and they came back a few days later and re-did all the work with Copper wire. I did learn a valuable lesson here: Just because someone is a professional, doesn't mean they will do good work. It is wise to try to deeply understand the work anyone is doing on your house and to check it thoroughly! After this, I emailed NIPSCO one last time, who kindly gave me the PTO confirmation via email just before the new year, ensuring I would have no problem getting the 30% tax credit! Commissioning Commissioning EG4 equipment is kind of a pain. You have to update the Gridboss, inverter, inverter LCD, and battery firmwares, which all follow a different process. Do not skip the firmware updating step. For me, it was the difference between a buggy system and one that works beautifully. There are several videos for how to do this online. You will also have to take the time to understand the EG4 monitoring website and app, and the myriad of settings available. This post is already super long so I won't go into detail here. Costs and Payback Time $2,400 - EG4 GridBoss MID with breakers $2,500 - EG4 12kPV $1,296 - 10 Hyperion by Runergy 405W Bifacial Solar Panels $3,821 - 2 EG4 LiFePower4 V2 Batteries $2,387.00 - Sinclair SkyRack v2 Ground Mount $180 - 2 IMO Disconnect switches $221 - 4/0 Battery Cables $1,049 - EG4 6-slot battery rack $123.02 - Accessory building permit $40.00 - Mechanical electric permit $180.10 - PVC Conduit and Cementboard $192.00 - Copper cable $19.00 - Electrical boxes $217 - Trencher rental $226.49 - Moar and wire conduit $517.27 - Wire, dig bar $100 - Various tools $67.39 - Couplings $200 - LiquidTight FMC $300 - 6 AWG copper wire $61.35 - Sealant and connectors $115.63 - Blue Sea fuse and fuse block $73.75 - Labels and Placards $52.06 - Ferrules and Lugs $5,000 - Electrician Total cost: $21,339.06 Minus 30% tax credit: $14,937.34 As stated before, we started with only 10 panels, but everything is set up to go to 30. We just need to add panels and ground mount extension, which should cost another $5,000, bringing out total cost to $20,000. In the last week (middle of the winter, not much sun), I've gotten about 10kWh / day of energy. Assuming we double that to 20kWh/day in the summer, that's a year-round average of 15kWh/day, or $3/day. With the addition 20 panels, we should get triple this: 45kWh/day == $9/day == $270/month. We don't use that much energy year-round, so let's round down to $200/month == $2,400 / year. This gives a payoff time of about 8 years - assuming NIPSCO doesn't announce any more rate hikes. Final Thoughts - Is it feasible to DIY solar? Absolutely. If you are prepared to do a lot of research, read through forums, ask questions, read diagrams, manuals, and the NEC, then it's within reach. I may get flamed for this, but I did make use of LLMs several times. AFAICT it gave me great answers - just make sure to cross-reference these with the citations it provides and other research you do! I also talked to several electricians during this process. To be honest, I got a wide variety of answers on the same questions. That being said, having a real electrician as a resource is very valuable; even if they answers aren't consistent, they're going to be good, practical answers that will work. - Would I have done anything differently? EG4 has been working great for me, despite the configuration difficulties. I probably would have looked deeper into other brands, but so far I'm happy with our setup. I definitely would have gone with a solar panel that properly fits our ground mounts! And depending on your level of experience, there are other ways to get this done cheaper. But for me, I don't have any major gripes yet. - Was it worth it? Because I was so inexperienced, it was a ton of work, more than I expected. An experienced electrician or even an experienced DIYer could probably have done it all in a week as opposed to 6 months. By the end I was pretty ready for it to be over. That being said, it will give us payoff after ~8 years, and then any more we generate is profit. It's probably good for the home value. And I learned so much about electric work during this process, I'm now way more confident when dealing with electricity. But more than anything, it's just cool. I love looking at the monitor app to see how much energy my home is using and how much we're generating (1.5kW right now!). Even though it's not all the time, whenever I see that powering our entire house using the sun, it just feels good. So yes, for me, I'm glad I did it :) Thanks for reading, feel free to point out anything that I messed up or should have done differently! submitted by /u/KevinVillela to r/SolarDIY [link] [comments]

I'm a homeowner whose house and property is directly on basalt rock (mountain in the pnw) I want to start removing rock in a bunch of locations to make more usable space (along with terracing) my plan is to use dexpan to crack out chunks of rock but this will require 1 inch holes drilled about 12 inches down. I also want to put up fencing along my property so will be drilling holes for steel fence post bases. I feel like by the time I'm done everything, it will be cheaper to buy the tool as opposed to renting (rental is about $100 a day) I'm going with an SDS max because it's hard rock, fairly deep, and a lot of holes need to be drilled. But am looking for reccomendations for what people like. I can afford to buy once cry once, but want to make sure I'm getting good value for the money. submitted by /u/bleddyn13 to r/Tools [link] [comments]

Project started out fairly straight forward. Removing wooden deck to install privacy fence on concrete patio. Purchased Hoft privacy fence system. Discovered steps were under deck and edge of steps are flush with property line (live in a duplex and the privacy fence would also act as a divider with neighbor) so now we need to remove the stairs (or shave off a side) to have space to install first Hoft fence post footing 1” from wall. Stairs are concrete with rebar and brick on the outer edge. Rented a heavy Bosh Brute Turbo hammer but I think my partner used the wrong technique. He was trying to chip off right on the edge and the chisel kept slipping so he wasn’t making any progress. It was super heavy and cumbersome and he decided it wasn’t working and retuned the rental after an hour. From what I see online, we need to create spaced-out indents to crack the concrete and should be drilling a few inches from the edge to create cracks, and then can use a sledgehammer to break things up. Could we use a hammer drill that’s easier to maneuver to make cracks and then sledgehammer? I’ve heard of Dexpan, but it makes me a little nervous since it would be used so close to the house, and since it seems the smallest quantity is an 11lb bucket and I don’t think we’d need that much, and don’t want to deal with the headache of disposing a hazardous material. I guess what I’m ultimately asking is if this is something novice DIYers can reasonably accomplish with the right rental tools and grit, or should we call in a professional to remove? TYIA submitted by /u/stroobly to r/DIY [link] [comments]

TL;DR is it worth it to buy a demolition hammer when I already have a hammer drill Hey all, I am a restoration contractor and I am working with a plumber and GC to rebuild and upgrade a shower for a customer. We need to demo the existing shower pan so the plumber can move the drain and the GA can put in the new pan. I have a cordless hammer drill that we use frequently to remove tile. I know I can buy a bit for demoing cement and masonry. But I've never done it. Is it worth it to buy a dedicated demolition hammer? (We don't demo cement often but it does come up a few times a year) submitted by /u/magnum_pi771 to r/Plumbing [link] [comments]

I have ~15 holes to make in concrete, most of them are 1/8 but I might need ~6 bigger ones (1/4 - 1/2 max). My current drill is from a bosch kit (the drill is a DDB180) and I have 2 batteries. I also have a few Worx batteries. Unfortunately my drill has no hammering function and drilling 4x 1/8 holes took forever. SDS won't work given I need something for 1/8. I won't use it much but I want it to work and not just die on me on the next "job". WX370L.9 is cheap, not sure if it will cut it. Bosch GSB18V-490N is nearly 2x the price (assuming my 18v batteries fit) Bosch GSB18V-535CN is ~3x the price Bosch 1191VSRK is corded and ~70% more expensive than the Worx. Otherwise there are very cheap options on Amazon like a corded Hammerhead HAHD075 for nearly half the price of the Worx. submitted by /u/ldiamond2 to r/powertools [link] [comments]

Do you know of any places where I could ren-t a very powerful hammer drill ? The one I have (800V) is not powerful enough. Thanks ! submitted by /u/Late_Candle8531 to r/Luxembourg [link] [comments]

Question in title. I have a very small apartment (NYC life!) and was advised by my building super not to mount track shelving on drywall because the apartment has baseboard radiators whose pipes are in the walls. My original plan was to drill the hang track and vertical standards using 2" cabinet screws into studs. Super seemed to think there is a non-zero chance that I would hit something, and while I trust my Franklin ProSensor 710 stud-finder to show me the studs, it can't really tell me what's a pipe. So instead he advised I use my exposed brick wall instead. Which means: I need a hammer drill. (And different screws than the ones I bought, alas.) I am tbh not likely to use the hammer drill for anything else, and the nearest Home Depot that does tool rentals is pretty far away in another borough (i.e. not really worth an Uber over there), so it looks like I need to buy one for (most likely) one-time use. So: What's the cheapest hammer drill I can get that will still reliably do the job? I'm a bit staggered by the huge price range (everything from $30 on Amazon into the hundreds at HD). Don't want to spend a ton if I don't have to, but the shelves are also going to hold quite a bit of weight (in books) so I don't want to cheap out too much. Thanks! submitted by /u/rescuelullaby to r/Tools [link] [comments]

Tioga lies in the center of the Bakken oil formation, about 50 miles from the Canadian border. We were building a new crude oil storage tank, 220 feet in diameter. That’s where I would spend most of my waking hours over the next eleven months. I had dropped out of college a few years earlier, much to the surprise of my parents. They met in a masters program at Utah State. I learned to weld at a community college. Building storage tanks for crude oil was hard work. These are the large cylindrical steel tanks you’ll see if you bother to look at a refinery. They’re wider than they are tall, built like an oversized tuna can, and usually painted white. The Bakken oil formation holds a large volume of oil that is expensive to extract. Before the oil boom the economy was mostly agricultural. Around 2009, the price of oil spiked, and suddenly the oil underneath North Dakota was profitable. These new wells needed to be fracked, which is an expensive and labor intensive process. Water, sand, and a mix of chemicals (which are proprietary and closely guarded) are pumped into the ground to fracture the earth, and allow room for crude oil escape. Directional drilling allowed drill pipe to change course underground and find pockets of oil. If you saw a well site on the ground– and they were everywhere– an observer couldn’t be sure where the oil was coming from exactly, it could be a mile or more away, and several miles underground. Of course, that’s where the water table is. Fracking is a monument to human brilliance, but if we were any smarter, we wouldn’t do it. When crude oil comes out of the ground, you need to put it somewhere. That’s why we were building this tank, one of hundreds of others in the region. These wells produce crude oil, and trucks take it to storage tanks, and then trucks take it downstream to be refined, and then trucks take it to the gas station, or the power plant, or your natural gas distributor. This tank, and others like it, lie within the engine that powers industrial society. The tank was a cog, and I was a cog in the machine that built the tank. If you’re curious (I was, anyway) filling a tank this size with a garden hose would take almost two years. I lived in a man camp in Tioga. A man camp is what you need when thousands of men move to your town to work. It’s essentially a trailer park, in this one, two men slept in each trailer. There was no wifi and Tioga had no data, so for a year I lived with no internet at all. They had cable. Like I said, building tanks is hard work. We worked an honest 6 ten hour days a week. There are harder jobs but many of them involve getting shot at. The joke in the trade is, you build a tank square and beat them round. It’s not literally true but it may as well be. They’re made of steel plate, 6 feet tall and 20 feet long. When the tank is painted white, any buckles or dents stand out from a quarter mile away. It’s more art than science, and more exercise than art when you’re working steel that’s an inch thick. If shit is going sideways it’s time to get a bigger hammer. This is a job that needs to be done on site and no one on the crew was from North Dakota.It was about a 50/50 split between white guys from poor families, and first and second generation latinos. I hesitate to generalize my coworkers, because it sounds unkind. It's true that many of them were dim, and some were felons. Most had demons that they were running from, or were lone wolves with no home they were sorry to miss out on. Almost all of them worked hard enough to command respect. One trait, that is not a generalization but universal, is that none of them were provided the opportunities I had. My roommate in the man camp was from Oklahaoma, and came from a poor family, led by an abusive alcoholic. In high school, he and his friends would load up into a car, get blasted and go pick fights for fun. By the time 2015 had rolled around, my roommate had collected ten DUIs. He’ll never drive again, and obviously he wasn’t allowed to drive the forklift. He would drink an 18 pack of bud light for dinner every night, and puke every morning before work. And then he would spend the next eleven hours working his ass off. He was one of the hardest working sons of bitches I’ve ever met. One night, when we were both drinking, he told me he had been an accessory to murder. My roommate used to smoke a lot of meth, and his dealer said he wanted to go tune up some punk that had ripped him off. My roommate thought they were just going to go and beat this kid up to teach him a lesson, but everyone was spun out of their minds, and his dealer ends up stabbing the thief to death. He helped the dealer bury the body, and they never got caught. If he had told me this story boastfully, I wouldn’t have believed him, but he clearly found this memory haunting. Didn’t seem like something he would lie about. The craziest people do this job. We had a guy work for us that wouldn’t shower. He slept in his work boots and his trailer was full of garbage, which was astonishing, considering it was a rental paid for by our employer. He said he had seven step kids, but the oldest one was only a year younger than him. There was another guy who insisted oil changes were a scam, and said that he never drank water, only dr pepper– two opinions which in retrospect have a satisfying symmetry. There was a Mexican guy who was 60 years old, left school in the second grade and literally couldn’t read. I’ve never seen anyone work harder in my life. Every day we would race to see who could weld more footage. I was 25, in pretty good shape, and never beat him. There was another guy who had face tattoos along his chin that said, ‘Live by the sword, die by the sword.’ He was 6 foot 5 inches tall and 340 pounds. He swung an 8 pound hammer with one hand. He said he used to be in a biker gang, and he robbed banks, which sounded like bullshit but I googled the guy and sure enough he had been arrested for bank robbery and home invasion. About two years later I looked him up again and he had died in jail in Montana. That job was a revolving door of maladjusted men. The winter was about as cold I can imagine. We were each a thousand miles away from anyone who loved us. The work was unpleasant and dangerous. But none of us could make 2500 dollars a week doing anything else. submitted by /u/SWAG__KING to r/redscarepod [link] [comments]

Have a masonry house (3 side block, 1 side 2x brick), had old vermiculite removed, can save $$$$ installing the strapping/drywall/insulation myself. I own a ridgid brushless hammer dril. Expect to use tapcons (though the in-store flyer recommended masonry nails+washers). I know, or believe I know these things: a regular hammer drill is not the same as an SDS hammer drill, the holes made by an SDS drill are 'more exact' than a hammer drill, that with masonry the 'more exact' the hole the better. I don't know when it comes to installing a dozen tapcons in a piece of strapping if the better-fit benefits of an SDS will outweigh the cost (in storage/etc.). For me corded new is $125, cordless $200; daily/weekly rental is 40/200. I think the answer is clear, except if I don't need it. submitted by /u/LordOfTheTires to r/Tools [link] [comments]

So I live in a former senior apartment. My former neighbour recently passed away due to underlying health issues and the apartment has been vacant ever since. New people just moved in, at least I asume. For the past 2/3 days, they have been drilling and hammering into the walls on a daily basis from early morning to late evening. Legally, they are allowed to make as much noise as you want during the revamp of the apartment between 10AM and 10PM. They use this time frame in full. It genuinely drives me nuts that they are drilling 12 hours a day. I am a musician, currently working on a project and I have not been able to record anything never mind concentrate because every time I hit the red button they start drilling into the fucking walls again! I want to underline, this is a rental apartment. That means that while they are allowed to hang up a painting they can't make large changes to the living space without permission of the owner unless the change is easily and seemlessly reversible (like installing a wooden frame and drywall to add a wall to split up the living room is fine, making it out of brick and concrete ISN'T). Whatever they are doing in that flat, I cannot fathom what it would be within those guidelines that would cause them to repeatedly drill into a wall all day. submitted by /u/CheesybisquitFTW to r/neighborsfromhell [link] [comments]

I recently had a pool installed in my back yard and have purchased a cover for it. In order to install the cover, I have to get a 3/4" drill bit and drill holes into the pool deck for the anchors. This requires a hammer drill, which I do not have. Other than looking at prices, I have no idea what constitutes a good versus a cheap hammer drill. If someone can point me in the right direction of what to purchase for this job, it would be greatly appreciated. I live in Sacramento, CA so I have easy access to stores like Home Depot and Lowes. I live really close to a Harbor Freight, but I know the tools they sell are not considered to be as good quality. Thanks in advance! submitted by /u/PowerWindows85 to r/Tools [link] [comments]

We called it snuff in my day, but I figured I'd update my language for the internet crowd. Most people are familiar with the acronym NSFW. It stands for Not Safe For Work. That one is usually stamped over vanilla porn, nudes, etc., to keep you from clicking on something you're not supposed to. NSFL is one step up from that -- Not Safe For Life. From what I understand, it's usually tagged over images or videos of a highly upsetting nature. Take an execution video for example -- some unlucky schmuck getting flayed alive...or chainsawed apart while he's still screaming...or machete-hacked limb for limb by guys in black masks. You'll see the NSFL tag before you click the video, so you know to stay away if you want to hold onto your lunch. Ever wondered who those videos are made for? Of course you have -- and the answer probably sends your meat running cold, and a flash goosebumps sprouting up over your skin. They're made for teachers, parents, friends, bus drivers, politicians, bankers -- they're made for people who get off on it. People who feel a warm tingle down south at the sight of a serrated knife running through an unprotected neck. The great rush of blood around the blade. The gurgle of the dying. It gets 'em hot and bothered. People love it. Now a days you can find most of it on the internet. Animals being thrown off roofs, torched alive, drowned; all of that stuff is just a few clicks away. But back in the 90s and early 2000s it was harder to come by. Rare shit. Like a foreign movie you'd been itching to see that hadn't gotten an American release. These were foreign films to some. Exotic is maybe a better word. Either way, I didn't realize there was such a market for the depraved until I took a job at Video Kingdom, a local video store on the outskirts of Seattle. I'm hesitant to tell you exactly where; it closed down right around the time the economy imploded, but I'm fairly certain some of our old stock might be hidden away in The Dungeon. That's what we called our back room. The Dungeon. Some guy would come in -- usually some white collar sap with a Ned Flanders haircut and three kids at home. He'd trundle up to the counter -- looking around like there might be FBI crouched behind the VHS racks -- and he'd say, "I'm here to rent a rare film. The Dungeon by Carl Hinton." There would be an exchanging of glances. I'd look him up and down, pretend like I was sizing the fella up, you know? He'd scan the place nervously. Look back at me with an almost apologetic expression that said, I swear I'm not fucked up. I'd shrug and lead him through a velvet curtain into the back room. We'd navigate boxes of VHS rentals. I'd pull aside an industrial shelf that concealed a hidden doorway. Lead him down a flight of stairs. Neon lights from a kitschy "The Dungeon" sign guiding the way. We'd hit a subterranean level...and the fella's eyes would turn to saucers, a hard-on tenting his pants as he wandered into our sicko's paradise. Welcome to The Dungeon. I bet you're picturing some some dimly lit hellhole stashed with black, unmarked video tapes. Not this place. This was a classy establishment. Carpeted. Paneled walls. Lounge chairs. Dimly lit, sure -- but like a cigar lounge is dimly lit. We had back rooms with TV's so the clients could taste whatever they had chosen from our vast array of tapes. There were dozens of categories -- like any regular video store -- featuring everything under the sun. We had a whole section dedicated exclusively to people being run over by steamrollers. They were sourced from all over the world, I was told. Mostly Eastern Europe, Asia. I took it as gospel; I hadn't watched any of the stuff. It should be noted that anything relating to kids was forbidden. That was where we drew the line. And if some guy came asking for that, we'd send a few heavies to his house with knuckle-busters and orders to maim. We were scrupulous. A morally inclined organization. But everything else? Fair game. I know you're probably thinking I'm some mentally-warped scumbag drifting through life one slaughter video after the next. You'd be wrong. I never watched the tapes. Never joined up to sell 'em, either. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I was 22 the summer I started working at Video Kingdom, and by the time Halloween rolled around the owner of the place had me roped into his sick scheme. By that point, I was in too deep to get out. He had me by the scruff with an ugly knife tucked up against my jugular. Metaphorically speaking. I'm going to spare you the story of how I got involved. It's long and boring, and surrounds me seeing something I shouldn't have while smoking weed in the storage room after work. The story of how I quit is much more interesting. "I'm here to rent a rare film," he said. "The Dungeon by Carl Hinton." I could tell this guy was bad news. He looked like he was grown somewhere dark and moist. A basement dwelling freakazoid -- crusty, slightly overweight, enough grease in his hair to keep the McDonald's fryer running for a year. Big Van Helsing-style leather overcoat. Combat boots. Unlike most folks, he wasn't nervous either. He was confident. Smug, even. I could tell he was a veteran. That gave me pause. I was sharing air with no run-of-the-mill freak. This guy was one step away from making his own tapes. If only I'd known. I would've said, "Sorry sir, we don't carry that." That's what we fed to unscrupulous figures. It was at the clerk's discretion; we had carte blanche to turn away anyone we wanted. But I didn't. I gave him the up down. He never broke eye contact. His eyes were bright, amused -- they were alive. Like two black pools of oil, just waiting for a spark. I swallowed. "Right this way," I said. He knew his way around the dungeon. That was odd. I'd never seen this fucker before, and if he'd been a regular I'd've known. There were a few other people browsing. One guy who looked like a wet muskrat. Another who was at least 400lbs. There was a woman too, a real dominatrix type -- over six-feet, hard features, prim hairdo. My guy didn't spare a glance at any of them. He hurried to the vault. That was what we called this old-school vault door tucked into the back corner of the dungeon. It had a wheel handle with a combination dial in the center. All that remained of the bank that used to live here. I had never been through the vault door, didn't even know what was on the other side. I honestly thought it was just there for decoration. For atmosphere. In my six months as an employee of Video Kingdom, this was the first time I'd ever seen it open. The guy spun the combination. Hiding his activity behind a cupped arm, like that annoying kid in class who won't let you copy off his test. I heard a heavy click. He cranked the handle, and the vault door wheezed open. The skeevy guy slipped inside, slamming it shut before I got a good look at what stood beyond. It nagged the hell out of me. Like that itch you can't scratch. I had to know what was beyond that door, but I knew better than to ask questions in a place like this. I was the highest paid video store clerk in the world for a reason. I could've gone to Carl. Carl as in, "The Dungeon by Carl Hinton." Fake name, obviously. But a real enough guy. He was short. Big personality. Like a Danny DeVito type. I had only met him a few times, but he always treated me like a son. Slaps on the back. Mussing my hair. Hell, he even called me son. But I didn't go to Carl. Because asking questions meant I was curious, and you don't get curious unless you're interested in the merchandise. So I decided to check it out on my own. Christmas Eve. Slowest night of the year. I was clerking The Dungeon while my colleague ran the upstairs. It had been empty for a while. So I decided to take a peek. Had I known the guy from a few months ago would be showing up -- the one I first saw enter the vault -- I'd have kept my ass glued to the chair. I wouldn't have gotten curious. What was the fucking combination? I tried a few random spins. 11/22/63 -- JFK's assassination. 04/20/1889 -- Hitler's birthday. No dice. The vault was locked up like a nun's underwear. I thought. Wracked my brain. Then it hit me like a freight train. The Kissinger Tape. That was one of our videos I had seen. Carl made all the newcomers watch it. It was the first known snuff film. It was like the Santa Clause of the forbidden VHS community. A white whale. Rare and iconic. Anyone who's familiar with it and worth their scruff, can tell you what day it was filmed on. That was easy -- Thanksgiving 1929. I remember watching it for the first time. A sepia-toned nightmare. A galaxy of grain shooting across each gory frame. I won't tell you what's on it. Well, what the hell -- it stars a family of depression-era farmers tied up in their field. Ma, Pa, Grandma, Grandpa, and two gangly teenage boys on the wrong end of their horse-pulled plow. Story goes, they had some beef with one of the big corporations who owned their land. That was how The Man got you back then -- you sold some of your land for loans to buy seed or whatever, and once you took the loans there was no getting out from under 'em. The corporations would twist and squeeze until you owned nothing but the clothes on your back. Pa was clever, figured it out. Started corralling up all the farmers in a union to expose the banks. Banks didn't like that. So they hired some outside hands to make an example. And it was made at 24 frames per second. Now here I was, some 50 years later spinning their death-date on a dial. I spun to 29 and heard a satisfying click. It had fucking worked. My hand was shaking. Trembling a little. Shot with adrenaline. I gripped the vault's handle. Spun the wheel. THUNK! The vault door wheezed open. Stale air and darkness spilled out. There was a bucket of flashlights on the floor. I grabbed one and clicked it on. A cone of light shot ahead, illuminating a bank vault. Metal walls crushed in. Pegs drilled into the walls held various weapons -- it was like a fucked up toy box. Guns. Knives. Razor wire. Chainsaws. Hacksaws. Pliers. Scalpels. Everything that cuts and scrapes and plays with nerve endings was hanging from the walls. There was a pit in my stomach. Not just at the collection of tools, but at the gaping hole eating through the back wall of the vault. It had been tunneled through the flowered steel -- a narrow, rocky corridor snaking off into the earth. I inched towards it. Hesitant. My heart beating its fist against my eardrums. I grabbed a scalpel off the wall. Tucked it into my pocket as I moved into the corridor, figuring I might need a weapon for what loomed ahead. I left the vault door cracked, listening for movement beyond. I didn't hear any. Didn't hear the Basement Dwelling guy from before enter the dungeon. Didn't hear him follow me into the vault. I had already found my way into the studio by then. The passageway was rocky and claustrophobic -- just tall enough so that I didn't have to stoop. After twenty minutes of barking my shins and elbows on the narrow, craggy walls, I hit a dead end. I exhaled. Irritated and relieved -- a horserace of thoughts had been galloping through my head as to what I might find. I was glad my worst nightmares weren't about to materialize. Then I looked closer and saw a false panel blocking off the egress. I moved the panel aside and stepped forward, finding myself in a crowded basement space. There was furniture. Beds. Set pieces stacked high. It was like a prop house that a movie studio might employ for set design. There was a concrete ramp at one end. I hesitated. Not sure I wanted to see what it led to. But of course I did. I negotiated the crowded room, up the concrete ramp. It fed me into a soundstage. That was a wide, warehouse-like space with soundproofed walls and a network of dead, overhead lights, surrounding a number of different movie sets. There was a pink bedroom. An executive-type office. An outdoor-style scene in a mock forest. There were a few others I couldn't quite decipher from my vantage. It was quiet. And then it wasn't. There was a delicate sound, like an animal caught in a snare -- a slight whimpering laced into the silence. My whole body felt heavy. Like it was encased in drying concrete. It was hard to move. Breathe. I inched toward the noise. Hyper-aware of every movement. Every crash-thud of my heart. Each breath sawing through my lungs. I nosed toward the whimpers... and saw cages resolve out of the gloom. Lots of them. A dozen, maybe two. Inside -- like tired, broken animals -- were men and women. Naked. Cuffed. Ball-gagged. Curled up in a soup of their own filth. Most were limp, unconscious. A few were bleary, nodding in and out of consciousness as whatever drugs they were on wore out. An icy bolt of dread shot through me. We weren't just a supplier of rare tapes. Weren't just a distributor. We were a producer. Carl Hinton made our videos. Most of them, at least. I heard footsteps behind me. Started to turn -- -- THUD! Something hard and blunt cracked across my skull. A lightbulb popped behind my eyes. I crashed down into darkness. I knew my hands and legs were restrained, even before I opened my eyes. I could feel the cuffs digging into my flesh. My eyes eased open. Blinding light hammered my pupils. A violent, white light from overhead. Hurt my eyes. Stung them. Slowly, a movie set resolved around me. It was a beige office, crowded with paperwork and boxes of VHS tapes. I recognized it immediately. A facsimile of Carl's office. An exact, detail-for-detail replica. A camera locked-off in one corner, trained on me. I looked down at myself. I was still in my work uniform. Hands and legs fettered to a bolted-down chair. I struggled. Groaned. Heard hushed voices. My back was to the door, so I had to fight in my seat for enough leverage to look around. The door opened. Carl Hinton entered. For an instant, I saw past him into the area beyond the set. I saw the greasy basement dweller with a suit who was handing over a pregnant duffle bag. Then the door swung shut and Carl took his place behind his desk. "Sorry it had to be like this son," he said sadly. "But it would've ended here either way. We don't do severance or 401K at Video Kingdom." He smiled at his little joke. Like it was the funniest thing in the world. I tried to ask him what the fuck was going on. But I couldn't. I was gagged. Muted syllables escaped. Carl frowned. "Don't bother, kid. You're fired. That's a segment we do from time to time, when employees of the dungeon hit expiration. You're fired. We don't stock it at Video Kingdom for obvious reasons, but I hear it's a big hit in Japan." I struggled against my binds. Fought. Screamed into my gag. Carl just watched, slightly amused. "Go on, keep it up. They love it. You know they do. You're giving 'em what they want." I fought harder. Rattling my binds until my wrists bled. Carl sighed. "The guy who's gonna fix you is a regular. Real vanilla Joe, but he pays well. He'll saw open your throat, one and done. You won't suffer." I screamed something into my gag. He smiled, piecing together my question. "Nobody'll come looking, son. We're processing your paperwork so it'll look like you got fired two weeks ago. I liked you, kid. I really did. Sorry it had to be like this." He got up and left. I struggled for a while. Not sure how long. At some point, the guy in the suit passed through the room like a cold draft. A real plain guy. Might sell insurance, maybe real-estate. Probably has a wife and a few pups back at home. Maybe a pool. He fingered the camera. The red recording light blinked on. With a sigh that said, sheesh, this is NOT the position I wanna be in, he claimed the spot behind the desk -- pretending to be my boss. He was practically vibrating with excitement as he started through a poorly written script about how my employment was being terminated. I didn't hear any of it. I was focused on something else -- the scalpel I'd tucked into my back pocket. My hands grazed the handle. Just out of reach. I strained harder. Vaguely aware that the guy was done talking. He was rising now. Producing a big bowie knife with a serrated blade. He was walking over to me. I could smell his aftershave. Something minty. I got the scalpel between the tips of my fingers. He yanked my head back, exposing my neck. Getting ready to slice through the big net of veins pumping blood to my brain. The bowie knife went up. The scalpel slid out, slipped, fell -- -- I reached out and caught it just in time. The bowie knife came down -- I saw a wink of light off it's polished blade. I gripped the scalpel and stabbed. It was a blind stab, inhibited by my lack of wrist movement. But he was right behind me, and standing crotch-level within the arc of my swing. The scalpel sunk through hot flesh. I felt it burrow through skin and gristle. I felt something pop as it sunk in further. When he screamed and the bowie knife went tumbling, I knew I had caught him in the testicle. I fumbled the scalpel, nearly dropped it -- it was greasy with blood and seminal fluid. I got my grip on it. Plunged it into the handcuff lock. Worked it around. CLICK! The handcuffs sprung, fell away. The suit was rolling around, groping his groin. Blood roared through his fingers. He was howling. Agony. I bent down for my leg fetters as the door flew open. Carl and Basement Dweller tried to rush in at the same time. They got stuck in the doorway. It was a bit of slapstick which would've been comical, had I not been on the wrong end of a snuff movie. My leg fetters fell free. By now, Carl and Basement Dwelling Van Helsing had stormed the room. My scalpel flew up. Caught Van Helsing in the jugular. He flopped back, a great spray of arterial blood shooting from his neck. Carl grabbed me. Shoved me back. We hit a wall. Framed pictures of the ocean hit the floor and shattered. Carl throttled my neck, his knuckles digging in and sealing off my windpipe. I stabbed blindly. The scalpel went through his cheek with sickening ease. I ripped up. A mist of blood sneezed out, as I opened his face like a zipper. He grunted, howled, lost his grip on my neck -- his hands went up to his face, trying to wrench free the scalpel embedded there. I planted my foot in Carl's stomach and kicked with everything I could muster. He flew back, toppling ass-over-teakettle over his desk. I heard bones break. The room was a mess of screams and blood. I popped the VHS tape out of the camera and bolted for freedom. I was about to stuff it into my pocket, when my gaze caught the duffle bag I'd seen the suit hand over. I ripped it open and was met with cash. Lots of it. Enough to run away on. Enough to start anew. I shoved in the VHS and grabbed the duffle, never looking back. I don't know if any of them survived, but I do know Video Kingdom remained open. It held its spot in the Seattle yellow pages until it closed. I would send for the book each year, have them mail it to my little corner of America -- along with the newspaper which I would pore over for articles about my old boss. I never saw any. Since then, I've lived like the Unabomber. My world is limited to a quiet cabin in the woods, and my weekly trips to town for essentials. Otherwise I keep to myself. Always looking over my shoulder. Always carrying the guilt over those men and women I left behind. Guilt over the things I haven't done about what I've seen. You probably think I would've gone to the police. I didn't. I took the tape and ran. Had I forfeited the footage, I would've lost all leverage against the people who want me dead. That VHS is my bargaining chip. All I have left. After I escaped The Dungeon, I mailed an anonymous letter to Video Kingdom telling them I'd made copies which would be screening in every police precinct in Seattle if I were ever harmed. This was a lie. There was only one copy of the tape and it was hiding in a shoebox under my bed, along with the little cash I had left. I started this transcript because I've been seeing strange things lately. Fresh faces in town. SUVs with tinted windows. I can't help but feel they're following me. Watching. And sometimes if I stare at those tinted windows long enough, I can see the eye of a video camera on the other side. **** submitted by /u/TheCrookedBoy to r/nosleep [link] [comments]

Recently got a Bosch bulldog SDS hammer drill to remove a patch of concrete, but just found out that some people say you need to use grease with the bits. Checked around online, and it seems pretty split between people who use grease, and those that have never used it. What have your experiences been? submitted by /u/MiniatureGlove to r/DIY [link] [comments]

Our rental contract, as is normal here, stipulates a "quiet period" between 10pm and 7am every night, where we're not supposed to be loud. We moved in on a Saturday and were of course unpacking on Sunday. So our new neighbour below us knocked on our door and screamed at us around midday, and told us to read the part of our contract about the "quiet period." So I did, and Sundays aren't mentioned. 10pm to 7am every day of the week. Nowhere does it state that Sundays are any different. So we carried on. He has called the police on us several times for just doing normal things such as rearranging furniture. Each time, he would lie to the police that he had come to speak to us about it first, which he had not. The reasons included things like "dropping things too often" to "using the stairs at night." These reasons are of course ridiculous, but each time I have just shown them the contract which all residents sign. If he has signed the contract, he consents to me making noise during these periods. We complained to the letting agency that he was harassing us for simply making the normal amount of noise people make from living in an apartment. However, nothing changed. I checked with our other neighbours to see if they had any complaints about our noise level, and they all said no. After he called the police several times, I decided to begin malicious compliance. I went down to the neighbour with a copy of the house rules, which we have all signed, and told him to please read them, specifically, the exact times which are the "quiet period." Then for the next week or so, any hammering, drilling or other loud things I had to do, I saved for 9:50pm. Even if I didn't have anything I needed to do, I made sure to make noise right up until 10pm. After I did this for about a week, we stopped hearing from him, and haven't had any noise complaints since, and it's been several months now. Now, a couple of heavy metal fans have moved into the apartment next to him and I couldn't be happier. EDIT: To clear up confusion: The neighbor appeared to believe that the whole of Sunday was "quiet time." I checked, and there is no extra provision in the house rules about Sundays. The quiet times just apply "daily." I was unpacking on a Sunday and the neighbor apparently believed this was against the house rules. It is not. The big metal fans are big fans of metal music. They are, unfortunately, human. I do not have animate ventilators as neighbors. submitted by /u/pleasureboat to r/MaliciousCompliance [link] [comments]

Hi everyone...I want to mount a TV to my cinder block wall and I'm trying not to spend an arm and a leg renting from Home Depot. I don't live in SE anymore and their tool library doesn't have one. I'll buy you your favorite six pack in exchange for the rental of your hammer drill. submitted by /u/ptcg to r/Portland [link] [comments]