cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/12359577

> There are a few youtube videos where someone suggests using sulfuric acid to clean a secondary plate-style heat exchanger (for example). Yet I’ve heard sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive to metal, so something seems off about that advice. I certainly would not want an internal leak to cause radiator fluid to enter the tap water. I saw a drop of sulfuric acid land on a galvanized steel pipe once and within minutes it was rusted on the spot. > > This guy also says sulfuric acid is an option but also says there is a safer alternative acid -- yet he did not mention what it is! Does anyone know? > > This guy says he uses an ultrasonic bath but he does not say what chemicals he uses. Would distilled white vinegar be good for this? > > Note these questions are very loosely related to this thread which describes a problem I am having, but really it’s a separate discussion. Secondary exchangers need periodic maintenance regardless of whether this is my current problem. I saved my previously clogged heat exchanger from a few years ago so I could work on cleaning it. I have a quite small ultrasonic I could try, but I cannot submerge the whole exchanger. I would have to stand it on end and only clean a few centimeters deep.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/10839711

> A top-floor room that’s not currently used has mold from excessive dampness. For a month I have been running a dehumidifier as it’s too cold to open the window. > > Is this a good idea? > > My concern: I heard about running a dehumidifier long-term in a damp basement is a bad idea because making the air more dry than the wall causes moisture to continuously flow from the outside in. That flow supposedly has the effect of washing the masonry through the capillaries and causing it to break down and weaken. In my case it’s not a basement, but similar because the exterior wall is non-stop wet from the frequent rains (possibly even leaky.. i think water seeps in). > > I have the humidity set to 55%. I wonder if there is an optimum setting that would inhibit mold without overly causing water to flow through the wall (which is very old brick+mortar and rendered over on both sides, no insulation). > > BTW, the water collected in the dehumidifier looks clean. Is it good for drinking?

The manual for an ultrasonic cleaner says:

> * “Cold, clean tap water is generally best suited as cleaning fluid. The cleaning effect can be enhanced by the addition of approximately 3 drops of washing-up liquid. Do not use caustic cleaners, ammonia, bleach or heavily perfumed detergents.” (emphasis mine)

I know a professional jeweler with decades experience who cleans jewelry (mostly gold) using “Mr. Clean”¹ and ammonia, diluted, in an ultrasonic tub. The cheap ultrasonic I bought for myself is not for pros - but jewelry cleaning is the advertised purpose and it has a stainless steel tub just like the pro models have.

So the question is, what’s the purpose of the ammonia avoidance guidance, and is the pro jeweler I know making a mistake by using ammonia?

UPDATE: I also have to question why the manual says to use cold water. Pro ultrasonics have built-in heating elements. The pro jeweler waits until the solution is hot before using it.

footnote:

① out of curiosity, is there a brand-neutral name for “Mr. Clean” (aka “Mr. Propre” in French regions)?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/8959162

> I had a rod that was threaded on one half and smooth on the other half. I needed the smooth half to be installed into brick. > > method 1: chemical anchor > > The normal way to do this (I think) would be to cut some grooves into the rod using an angle grinder, drill a hole that has a diameter that’s ~2mm bigger than the rod, and use chemical anchoring. But that stuff is pricey and only lasts ~1 year on the shelf. Thus cost ineffective for 1 use. > > method 2: ad hoc chemical anchor substitute > > Similar to the above, I wonder if general 2-component household epoxy would work as a substitute in the above method since people are more likely to have that on-hand. I suspect the issue is that it’s too thin and gravity would do its thing and the topmost area would not get filled with epoxy. Hence why I did not attempt it. > > method 3: (What I did) > > The rod measured at ø=8.8mm. I had no 9mm drill bit for masonry (and that would be too loose anyway). So I used a nominal 8mm masonry bit on a hammer drill. I’m not sure what the actual diameter of that resulting hole was, but it was too tight to push in the 8.8mm rod in by hand. So I tapped it in, dry (no oil or glues). It worked! It feels really solid. Feels like I got away with murder. > > Questions > > (method 2) Is there something could be mixed with common 2-component household epoxy to thicken it so it acts more like chemical anchor epoxy? > > (method 3) Did I take bad risk with fracturing the brick? Is there perhaps a guide somewhere that safely maps brick hole diameter to metal rod diameter? Or is this something is never done and should never be done?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/8959162

> I had a rod that was threaded on one half and smooth on the other half. I needed the smooth half to be installed into brick. > > method 1: chemical anchor > > The normal way to do this (I think) would be to cut some grooves into the rod using an angle grinder, drill a hole that has a diameter that’s ~2mm bigger than the rod, and use chemical anchoring. But that stuff is pricey and only lasts ~1 year on the shelf. Thus cost ineffective for 1 use. > > method 2: ad hoc chemical anchor substitute > > Similar to the above, I wonder if general 2-component household epoxy would work as a substitute in the above method since people are more likely to have that on-hand. I suspect the issue is that it’s too thin and gravity would do its thing and the topmost area would not get filled with epoxy. Hence why I did not attempt it. > > method 3: (What I did) > > The rod measured at ø=8.8mm. I had no 9mm drill bit for masonry (and that would be too loose anyway). So I used a nominal 8mm masonry bit on a hammer drill. I’m not sure what the actual diameter of that hole was, but it was too tight to push in the 8.8mm rod in by hand. So I tapped it in, dry (no oil or glues). It worked! It feels really solid. Feels like I got away with murder. > > Questions > > (method 2) Is there something could be mixed with common 2-component household epoxy to thicken it so it acts more like chemical anchor epoxy? > > (method 3) Did I take bad risk with fracturing the brick? Is there perhaps a guide somewhere that safely maps brick hole diameter to metal rod diameter? Or is this something is never done and should never be done?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/8721869

> Parts like sprockets, chains, hubs, BBs, etc are quite useful for projects to build tools, furniture, art. I get them at no cost by dumpster diving. Cleaning them is quite a pain though. These are some of the options I’ve considered: > > * dishwashing machine— if normal dishwasher detergent is used, I would expect it to corrode aluminum parts (correct? Can someone confirm or deny that?) Chains and /some/ sprockets are steel, right? Would they do well in the dishwasher? I wonder if there is some kind of alternative detergent that won’t harm aluminum since I always have to hand-wash an aluminum pot cover. > > * ultrasonic bath— this method strikes me as the most convenient and what I would expect someone who needs to clean lots parts to use. But there is a risk of de-anodization if you use degreaser. Some jewelers use ultrasonic cleaners with a cocktail of Mr. Clean and ammonia. Would that work well on bicycle parts, non-destructively? > > * Enzyme-based oven cleaner— I tested this on sprockets and it seemed to work quite well but doesn’t get into the nooks and crannies and dissolve any of the mud. > > * Enzyme-based drain cleaner— instructions say wait 6 hours, so i did not test it. Is that time perhaps just because it takes that long to spread down the drain and munch on large volumes of gunk? Perhaps it would work in less time on bicycle parts. > > * boiling water with dish soap— I hoped it would melt the greasy grime. The water was quite dirty afterwards but did not make much noticeable progress. > > * degreaser spray— did not test this. I just have degreaser for kitchen surfaces so maybe not the right stuff. > > * bicycle cleaning spray— kind of strange that this exists. Bicycles have many different materials and different kinds of grime. It did not do too well on greasy sprockets as far as I could tell. > > Question on the enzyme-based cleaners: enzymes are a bit pricey by volume compared to other cleaners. Is there a way to store and reuse them? Ideally I would like to pour a bottle of enzyme-based drain cleaner into a bucket and just always soak parts in that same bucket. Do those little guys multiply when you feed them? If the water is always dirty, will the enzymes always be too full to chow down on parts being added?

When clicking the cross-post icon, a search box appears where you can select the community to cross-post to. It shows announcement communities that disallow posting. It allowed me to select !lemmyverse@lemmyverse.org. But then when I clicked “create” it just goes to lunch and gives an endless spinner. That’s a really shitty behavior. The user has no idea why it’s hanging when in fact there should be no hangup at all.

I did not know !lemmyverse@lemmyverse.org had restricted posting until I went there to see if I could post directly. The search dialog in the cross-posting form should print a prohibited icon or warning icon (⚠) next to communities where posts are impossible. This would show users there will be a problem but in a way that does not ignore the existence of those communities. And if they select such communities anyway, they should get a hard and fast proper error msg.

LemmyWorld is a terrible place for communities to exist. Rationale:

• Lemmy World is centralized by disproportionately high user count
• Lemmy World is centralized by #Cloudflare
• Lemmy World is exclusive because Cloudflare is exclusive

It’s antithetical to the #decentralized #fediverse for one node to be positioned so centrally and revolting that it all happens on the network of a privacy-offender (CF). If #Lemmy World were to go down, a huge number of communities would go with it.

So what’s the solution?

Individual action protocol:

1. Never post an original thread to #LemmyWorld. Find a free world non-Cloudflare decentralized instance to start new threads. Create a new community if needed. (there are no search tools advanced enough to have a general Cloudflare filter, but #lemmyverse.net is useful because it supports manually filtering out select nodes like LW)
2. Wait for some engagement, ideally responses.
3. Cross-post to the relevant Lemmy World community (if user poaching is needed).

This gets some exposure to the content while also tipping off readers of the LW community of alternative venues. LW readers are lazy pragmatists so they will naturally reply in the LW thread rather than the original thread. Hence step 2. If an LW user wants to interact with another responder they must do so on the more free venue. Step 3 can be omitted in situations where the free-world community is populated well enough. If /everything/ gets cross-posted to LW then there is no incentive for people to leave LW.

Better ideas? Would this work as a collective movement?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/6251091

> I have this: > > https://www.aquaplan.com/product/easy-band/ > > I need to attach it vertically to some thick hard rubber roofing. There is a small section of roof which should probably normally have a parapit but instead the roofing rubber is not backed by anything. Then below it is a wood panel. So when it rains sideways the water runs down the roofing rubber and behind the wood panel. > > I just need a piece of shingle to divert water to the exterior side of the panel. Roofing glues are made to never cure. Probably rightfully so, but that probably wouldn’t work to attach a shingle vertically as gravity would over power that tar-like never fully dry stuff. I tried construction adhesive & it didn’t hold.

The entire !homeimprovement@lemmy.world community vanished overnight. Is all that data lost? Are there archives anywhere? Please restore the backups.

Fair enough if the community is made read-only. We can use !homeimprovement@disflux.org going forward.

My façade is highly absorbent of water. I think the water even passes through the wall (effectively a leak). I plan to render some lime on top of it. It’s the kind of lime that turns to chalk if it oxidizes over the span of a year. The stuff I have is about a year old, so I have to use it up anyway.

Should I “paint” a layer of PVA (wood glue) on the façade first to help bind the lime? Then should I mix some PVA in with the lime? Or would that choke off the breathability?

The whole !homeimprovement@lemmy.world community is gone… out of the pure blue, all content and history vanished. WTF happened? Anyone know? This is seriously a grave weakness of #Lemmy.

That said, disflux.org has to be a better place. Smaller and free from Cloudflare.

Apart from Cloudflare being an access restricted walled garden that harms interoperability, I really do not want my content on CF & I do not want CF content reaching me. This bug is one of many issues likely caused by Cloudflare:

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/4806490

I would like to flip a switch that has the effect of making my whole UX Cloudflare-free. Cloudflare is antithetical to decentralization and it has clearly broken the #Lemmy network.

I tried to post in a zerobytes.monster community from a normal (non-Cloudflared) instance using Tor Browser. When I clicked the button to submit the post, it just became an endlessly spinning icon.

Then I posted on a non-Cloudflare instance instead, which worked fine. Then I tried to cross-post it to zerobytes.monster. Again, non-stop spinner.

I suspect the problem is that even though I’m actually on node A, when I direct the content to post on node B there is perhaps a direct connection being made to node B. When node B is tor-hostile (e.g. Cloudflare) it’s blocking the packets. But the software is not smart about this.. just leaves the user hanging.

Now I wonder if the other endless spinner I encountered when trying to create an account somewhere is a Cloudflare-induced issue as well:

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/4525532

Filled out the reg. form, filled out the CAPTCHA, and hit the “sign up” button which then turns into a spinner. The spinner never stops. Confirmation email never arrives.

Lemmy devs: please give output rather than just spinners. We have no way to know what is going on or how long it takes to process a registration form. We should receive error messages rather than a forever loop.

I click LOGIN, enter my username, tab over to the password field and as I’m entering the password the username clears. So then i have to go back to the username field and re-enter it.

It’s as if the page is still loading but as a final action in the loading process it clears the form. I’m not a javascript expert but it feels like excessive use of js for something that should simply be html.

#LemmyBug

lemm.ee is a restricted access walled garden and I am in the excluded group. When I try to access lemm.ee directly, I hit the #Cloudflare blockade (see the attached image). This is not a good venue to discuss #egalitarianism.

Lately I’m running into more and more situations where I am forced to patronize a private company in the course of doing a transaction with my government. For example, a government office stops accepting cash payment for something (e.g. a public parking permit). Residents cannot pay for the permit unless they enter the marketplace and do business with a private bank. From there, the bank might force you to have a mobile phone (yes, this is common in Europe for example).

Example 2:

Some gov offices require the general public to call them or email them because they no longer have an open office that can be visited in person. Of course calling means subscribing to phone service (payphones no longer exist). To send an email, I can theoretically connect a laptop to a library network and use my own mail server to send it, but most gov offices block email that comes from IP that Google/SpamHaus/whoever does not approve, thus forcing you to subscribe to a private sector service in order to do a public transaction. At the same time, snail-mail is increasingly under threat & fax is already ½ dead.

Example 3:

A public university in Denmark refuses access to some parts of the school’s information systems unless you provide a GSM number so they can do a 2FA SMS. If a student opposes connecting to GSM networks due to the huge attack surface and privacy risks, they are simply excluded from systems with that limitation & their right to a public education is hindered. The school library e-books are being bogarted by Cloudflare’s walled garden, where a private company restricts access to the books based on factors like your IP address & browser.

Example 4:

Twitter decides who may microblog to their public representatives.

So where are my people?

So, I’m bothered by this because most private companies demonstrate untrustworthyness & incompetence. I think I should be able to disconnect and access all public services with minimal reliance on the private sector. IMO the lack of that option is injustice. There is an immeasurably huge amount of garbage tech on the web subjecting people to CAPTCHAs, intrusive ads, dysfunctional javascript, dark patterns, etc. Society has proven inability to counter that and it will keep getting worse. I think the ONLY real fix is to have a right to be offline. The power to say:

“the gov wants to push this broken reCAPTCHA that forces me to feed a surveillance capitalist --- no thanks. Give me an offline private-sector-free way to do this transaction”

There is substantial chatter in the #fedi about all the shit tech being pushed on us & countless little tricks and hacks to try to sidestep it. But there is almost no chatter about the real high-level solution which would encompass two rights:

1. a right to be free from the private sector marketplace; and
2. the right to be offline

Of course there could only be very recent philosophers who would think of the right to be offline. But I wonder if any philosophers in history have published anything influential as far as the right to not be forced into the private sector marketplace. By that, I don’t mean anti-capitalism (of course that’s well covered).. but I mean given the premise is that you’re trapped inside a capitalist system, there would likely be bodies of philosophy aligned with rights/powers to boycott.

(update) The famous Leary quote “Turn on, tune in, drop out” seems to be kind of consistent in an abstract way. Not necessarily as far as the ideology but in inspiring action.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/1865979

> Subject says all. Wondering if it can only be purchased online or if it’s sold in shops anywhere.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/1702086

> So Bob replies to Alice, who then reads the msg and marks it as read. Then Bob makes some significant changes to the msg like adding lots of useful information that further answers Alice’s question. Alice gets no notification that the reply was updated.