Kitchen Faucet

Im not a professional plumber nor do I play one on TV. This is just what I did.

Our kitchen faucet was having problems with flow, the spray hose no longer worked, and it was not as tall as we wanted it. Time to change it.

We went to HomeDepot an picked one out we liked. You should double check the number of holes your sink had for a replacement faucet before going to HomeDepot. My sink has 4 holes. 3 are for the water faucet and 1 for the spray nozzle. HomeDepot gives a 10% veterans discount with valid ID. Lowes gives a discount, but you have to fill out some paperwork and associate it with your phone number.

Removal

First always check for leaks, make sure there are no old leaks even before you start.
Put a towel or bucket under the valves, shut off both the hot and cold water valves, and unhook the water hoses that go to the faucet. If you need to run the hose to a bucket because the faucet leaks you can, because the hose is still attached.
Check to make sure the valve is not leaking before going off to do something else, unless your interested in setting up a Slip-N-Slide in your kitchen. The old valve probably has not been shut off in a long time, so it may leak.

The faucet should have some nuts underneath that you need to take off. Mine was one of those single valve faucets where both hot and cold water go into it. Out of the 3 holes for the faucet the 2 outside holes just had plastic nuts, the center hole had a threaded rod that came down with a metal nut and half-moon looking washer.
once all the lines are disconnected and the nuts are removed the old faucet should come up. If it had been there for years it might take a little coaxing. Maybe a pudy knife around it to get any sealer someone my have used.

Installation

Follow the instructions for the faucet you bought. Mine might be different than yours.

Clean the area well before installing the new faucet while it is easy to get to.
Put the new faucet in the holes and tighten the nuts provided with your faucet set.





The instructions said to put the spray hose in first, so that's what I did. I could have put the spray hose in last so that the hose wouldn't be in my way while working on the faucet connections.


Make sure your faucet is centered like you want it, and tighten those nuts.
Hook up the water lines, turn the water valves back on, and test for leaks. If no leaks your Done!












I was not so lucky, my cold water hose started leaking.
No big deal I shut the valve off. Drove up to the store, picked up another hose and came home. Pulled the old hose off, and tried to put the new hose on. It did not fit the valve. My valve has a flare fitting, but the new hose is for a compression fitting.
Ran back up to the store to look for a different hose. They do not sell a hose with flare fitting on one end. So I started looking for an adapter. They did not sell an adapter. drove to another store. They did not have the hose or adapter either.
Went back home to see if I missed something or to see if I could get it to work.
NOPE, still leaked after trying a few things.
Took a break
The next day realized I just needed to suck it up and replace the valve to what would work with the new hose.
Ran up to the store bought a valve ($7.29), wishing I had done that to begin with.
I already have a torch, flux, and lead free solder. So I did not need to buy that.

Sweating Pipe

Turned the water off at the street.
If you are working on a cold water valve like I was; open all the cold water faucets in the house to try and get as much water out of the lines as you can.
Hot water - be careful if you have a hot water tank. You do not want to drain the water out of that tank if it is still on. You may need to turn it off. Same with tankless hot water heater, you will need to turn it off. In fact if you are not comfortable ask someone and tell them what you're doing, or just turn off the hot water heater and continue.
Under my kitchen sink my water hose was already removed, I opened the valve all the way.
Heated up the part of the valve that is around the copper pipe.
Use gloves - I pulled the valve off as soon as it would let me.
Let the pipe cool.
Cleaned the end of the pipe with sand paper. Cleaned the inside of the valve with sand paper. Make sure your new valve is all the way open, so the rubber seals are not next to the metal that you are going to heat up with the torch. It also helps it vent if needed while soldering.
Applied flux to both the pipe and new valve. Pushed the valve onto the pipe.
Heated the valve, and applied the solder to the opposite side. When it got hot enough the solder is wicked into the joint.
look all around the pipe to make sure you see solder all the way around.
Let the valve cool before turning the valve closed. You still do not want to damage the rubber seal inside the valve.
Close the valve, and have someone watch it while you turn the water back on at the street. If it leaks they can let you know so you can shut the water off right quick. Save you some running.
Hook your faucet hose up, and turn the valve on. Check for leaks. Let the water run to get any junk out of the line.


No leaks your good.


I spent way more time on that than I wanted too, but it is what it is. $12 in parts (new hose, and valve) and I installed our new kitchen faucet.

Florescent Shop Lights

The lighting in my garage has never been great, and I have been doing more stuff in there.

YEARS ago I collected some florescent lights and light fixtures. They really never worked out as far as putting them up in my garage like I thought they would. Most of them are the 4 bulb recessed lighting fixtures you see in a false ceiling.

We have one small hanging fixture that I decieded to hang under the newly made train track rack. If you want to read about the train track rack click here.

The outside width of the bracket is 35", but the hooks on the florescent lights are 37 or 38" apart. Found some hooks, that I was able to bend out to make up the extra length. So I predrilled and screwed them into the side of the brackets.

Hung the light.

This light actually has a 110v plug on the end of it. I figured I will put an outlet by the light and run it to a light switch in the near future. For now I can just plug it into an extension cord when I want to use it.

Well it doesn't work. I tried a few bulbs I had to see if it was the bulbs. None of the bulbs I had worked. Im thinking it is the ballast, but not sure.

I wired in one of the big 4 bulb florescent fixtures I have and tested the bulbs. The bulbs work. So this told me the ballast gave up the ghost.

I went ahead and removed one of the ballasts from the bigger fixture that worked and replaced the bad ballast in the small light fixture.

Works like a champ!

Did I mention I like to recycle? Those light fixtures were on the way to a dumpster.

I didn't think to take pictures of replacing the ballast when I did it. Once apon a time I was a maintenance man; I have replaced hundreds of florescent bulbs and ballasts.

It's very simple to replace the ballast. Most of them are accessed by opening a panel in the center of the fixture. Most Ballasts these days have the same wire colors. The Black wire is power, the white wire is the neutral wire. There are also 2 yellow, 2 blue, and 2 red wires which goes to the lights.

If the ballast has been changed before most likely there are wire nuts connecting the ballast to the corresponding wires. If the ballast has never been replaced than you will need to cut the wires, and match the color wires. Just use wire nuts to connect them.

I put all the fixtures back up, meaning they are back in a corner behind a 4 bolt main 350 chevy engine, a canoe, and a bunch of other stuff.
I will drag them back out in a few days and take some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

Leave a note about what your working on. I would like o read about it.