8,480 reputation
53268
bio website twitter.com/doresoom
location Huntsville, AL
age 26
visits member for 2 years, 10 months
seen 10 hours ago
stats profile views 437

Mechanical Engineer from Huntsville, AL.

New homeowner since 3/5/10


10h
revised What's the most common cause of AC coolant lines freezing?
added final explanation
1d
awarded  Notable Question
May
18
awarded  Announcer
May
10
comment How much will a board-on-board (shadow board) fence reduce the wind load?
15 feet is a pretty long post spacing. My privacy fence has posts at 8 ft intervals.
May
10
comment Is it safe to mount a medium-sized air compressor to the floor to stop or limit vibrations?
Yes, you want to damp the vibrations with an isolator such as rubber feet. Otherwise, you're still putting a large vibratory force on the mounting points, which will wear them out over time. For a dramatic example of an underdamped system, here's a Chinook destroying itself via ground resonance. Now with a compressor you're not going to get vibratory loads of nearly that magnitude, but you'll still place unnecessary wear on your compressor.
Apr
28
comment How can I safely get rid of fire ant mounds in my backyard?
After looking at the active ingredient in the Spectracide, I only plan on using it for my yard, and not my garden, since there are quite a few vegetables that can't be eaten if the active ingredient is present in the soil the plants grow in. So digging up the mound provided to be a fairly good way to get a few small ant mounds out of my garden this year. Instead of flinging the shovels full of ants, I dumped them into my wheelbarrow, and then filled it with water with a tiny bit of dish soap. After letting it sit for a day, I dumped it out elsewhere, and no more ants.
Apr
27
awarded  Famous Question
Apr
9
comment Which steel is stronger: Cold rolled, hot rolled, or stainless?
I see you beat me to the engineering answer. To supplement, here's an easy plug-in the numbers calculator to get an answer for beam deflection under different loading conditions.
Apr
9
awarded  Nice Answer
Apr
6
awarded  Nice Question
Mar
9
comment Can I backfeed a portable generator into my house's electrical system?
Good to know, but my main question was backfeeding a generator, which I ultimately decided against.
Mar
1
comment What might be causing our cistern to fill very slowly?
I had the exact same symptoms with my toilet. A $3 seal had broken - replaced it and it's working perfectly now. The instructions for replacing it were even on the back of the packaging!
Feb
27
awarded  Nice Question
Feb
26
comment How can I remove a stuck screw that will still turn?
What about a magnetic screwdriver bit?
Feb
20
comment What's the most common cause of AC coolant lines freezing?
I forgot to follow up with this question. You were right about the low coolant levels. The AC repair guy I ended up calling just refilled the coolant and that fixed everything.
Feb
20
awarded  Popular Question
Feb
10
awarded  Famous Question
Jan
14
awarded  Popular Question
Jan
7
awarded  Popular Question
Dec
7
comment How do I keep my Christmas tree from falling over?
@shirlockhomes Huh, definitely didn't have you pegged as a cat person.